George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[471] ford, and the united army encamped about five miles

Chap. XXIII.} 1781. Feb. 2. 3.

from the river on the road to Salisbury. ‘I waited that night,’ writes Greene, ‘at the place appointed for the militia to collect at till past midnight, and not a man appeared.’ On the second and third of February the American light infantry, continuing their march, with the British at their heels, crossed the Yadkin at the Trading ford,¹ partly on flats and partly by fording, during the latter part of the time in a heavy rain. After the Americans were safe beyond the river and Morgan had secured all water craft on its south side, it rose too high to be forded. To the Americans it seemed that Providence was their ally.

Cornwallis was forced to lose two days in ascending the Yadkin to the so-called Shallow ford, where he

7. 9.

crossed on the seventh. On the night of the ninth he encamped near the Moravian settlement of Salem, where, upon the very border of the wilderness, gentle and humble and hospitable emigrants, bound by their faith never to take up arms, had chosen their abodes, and for their sole defence had raised the symbol of the triumphant Lamb. Among them equality reigned. No one, then or thereafter, was held in bondage. There were no poor, and none marked from others by their apparel or their dwellings. Everywhere appeared the same simplicity and neatness. The elders watched over the members of the congregation, and incurable wrong-doers were punished by expulsion. After their hours of toil came the hour of prayer, exhortations, and the singing of psalms and hymns. Under their well-directed labor on a bountiful soil, in