AUGUST 16, 1780 — THE BATTLE OF CAMDEN After General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered his army at Charleston in May 1780, a handful of American forces remained in the Southern Theater. One, led by Colonel Abraham Buford, was crushed by British forces at the Battle of Waxhaws. Another, led by General Johann de Kalb, was marching to Charleston and stopped its advance outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. Meanwhile, General Charles Cornwallis extended British control over the Southern Colonies by establishing a series of outposts in the Carolina Backcountry and carrying out raids on plantations owned by Patriots. After they burned the home of Thomas Sumter, he gathered volunteers into a militia force and carried out his own raids against the British outposts. Congress responded to the defeat at Charleston by placing General Horatio Gates in command of the Southern Department. He traveled to North Carolina, took command of the Southern Army from de Kalb, and decided to attack the British outpost at Camden, South Carolina. Gates made this decision against the wishes of many of his officers, who believed the men were not prepared for a major engagement. He also chose a route to Camden that would take his army through unfriendly Loyalist territory. While Gates marched to Camden with his “Grand Army,” Sumter harassed the British, which put them on alert. When he learned that Gates was on his way, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Rawdon-Hastings gathered troops from the outposts and went to engage him, while General Cornwallis marched from Charleston to Camden with reinforcements. After a brief engagement at Lynches Creek between Gates and Rawdon-Hastings, the British withdrew to Camden, and the Americans prepared to carry out the attack there. Cornwallis was determined to protect Camden and marched to attack Gates at his camp. On the night of August 15, 1780, both armies were marching toward each other, with the intention of attacking the following morning, when their advance forces came into contact. After a small skirmish, both forces withdrew and prepared for battle the next morning. At daybreak on August 16, Gates and Cornwallis deployed their armies to form lines, while artillery batteries opened fire. During this deployment, Gates made critical errors by relying heavily on untrained militia forces and deploying some of them to his left, where they were opposed by veteran British regulars. Gates ordered his army to advance, and the militia on his left wing fled in the face of a bayonet charge. When the left collapsed, Gates apparently fled from his headquarters and rode his horse to Rugeley’s Mill and then to Hillsborough. The right wing of the American Army, under the command of de Kalb, was vulnerable to an attack on its left flank. With help from Colonel Otho Holland Williams, de Kalb pushed the British back until his troops were nearly surrounded and forced to flee. De Kalb was mortally wounded at this point and captured by the British. The British swept the Americans from the field and sent them fleeing in various directions. The American Army was almost completely eliminated for the second time in three months. In the aftermath, Cornwallis prepared to invade North Carolina, while Congress allowed General George Washington to name a new commander for the Southern Department. Washington chose one of his most trusted officers, General Nathanael Greene. 1. Battle of Camden, Death of de Kalb by Alonzo Chappel. Source: Google Arts & Culture. 2. General Horatio Gates (USA). Source: The Met.