Sanders's Creek, battle of.
In 1780, before
Washington heard of the surrender of
Charleston (q. v.), he sent a detachment of
Delaware and
Maryland regiments, under the
Baron de Kalb, for service in the
South.
They marched from
Petersburg, Pa., for the Carolinas.
After leaving the southern borders of
Virginia, they made their way slowly through a poor, thinly inhabited country, without provision for a supply of food, the commissaries without credit, and compelled to get their supplies from day to day by impressment.
With
De Kalb's forces were two North Carolina regiments, under the respective commands of
Colonels Rutherford and
Caswell, who were chiefly employed in repressing the
North Carolina Tories.
The governor of that State (
Nash) had recently been authorized by the legislature to send 8,000 men to the relief of
South Carolina.
To raise and equip them was not easy at that gloomy juncture.
The Virginia regiment of
Porterfield was at
Salisbury.
It rallied to the standard of
De Kalb, whose slow march became a halt at
Deep River, a tributary of the
Cape Fear.
There
De Kalb was overtaken by
General Gates (July 25), who had been appointed to the command of the Southern Department.
Gates pressed forward towards
Camden, through a barren and generally disaffected country.
The approach of “the conqueror of
Burgoyne” greatly inspired the patriots of
South Carolina, and such active partisans as
Sumter,
Marion,
Pickens, and
Clarke immediately summoned their followers in
South Carolina and
Georgia to the field, and they seemed to have prepared the way for
Gates to make a complete conquest of the
State.
Clinton had left the command of the forces in the
South to Cornwallis, and he had intrusted the leadership of the troops on the
Santee and its upper waters to Lord Rawdon, an active officer.
The latter was at
Camden when
Gates approached.
Cornwallis, seeing the peril of the troops under him, because of the uprising of the patriots in all directions, hastened to the assistance of
Rawdon, and reached that village on the same day (Aug. 14) that
Gates arrived at
Clermont, north of
Camden, and was joined by 700 more
Virginia militia, under
General Stevens.
Then, in his pride,
Gates committed the fatal blunder of not preparing for a retreat or rendezvous, being confident of victory.
He also weakened his army by sending a detachment to
Sumter, to aid him in intercepting a convoy of supplies for
Rawdon.
On the evening of the 15th
Gates marched to attack
Rawdon with little more than
[
47]
3,000 men. Spurning the advice of his officers, he marched before he had made any disposition of his baggage in the rear.
Cornwallis had left
Camden to meet
Gates at about the same time.
Foot-falls could not be heard in the sandy road.
As the vanguard of the
British were ascending a gentle slope after crossing Sanders's Creek, that traversed a swamp, nearly 8 miles from
Camden, they met the vanguard of the
Americans, at a little after 2 A. M., on Aug. 16.
It was a mutual surprise, and both began firing at the same time.
Colonel Armand's troops, who led the van, fell back upon the 1st Maryland Brigade, and broke its line.
The whole army, filled with consternation, would have fled but for the wisdom and skill of
Porterfield, who, in rallying them, was mortally wounded.
The
British had the advantage, having crossed the creek, and were protected on flank and rear by an impenetrable swamp.
Both parties halted, and waited anxiously for the dawn.
The right of the
British line was commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel Webster, and the left by Lord Rawdon.
De Kalb commanded the
American right, and
General Stevens the left, and the centre was composed of North Carolinians, under
Colonel Caswell.
A second line was formed by the 1st Maryland Brigade, led by
General Smallwood.
The American artillery opened the battle.
This cannonade was followed by an attack by volunteers, under
Col. Otho H. Williams, and
Stevens's militia.
The latter were mostly raw recruits, to whom bayonets had been given only the day before, and they did not know how to use them.
The veterans, led by
Webster, fell upon these raw troops with crushing force, and they threw down their muskets and fled to the woods for shelter.
Then
Webster attacked the
Maryland Continentals, who fought gallantly until they were outflanked, when they also gave way. They were twice rallied, but finally retreated, when the brunt of the battle fell upon the
Maryland and
Delaware troops, led by
De Kalb, assisted by
General Gist,
Colonel Howard, and
Captain Kirkwood.
They had almost won the victory, when Cornwallis sent some fresh troops that turned the tide.
In this
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View at Sanders's Creek. |
sharp battle
De Kalb was mortally wounded.
Gates's whole army was utterly routed and dispersed.
For many miles the roads were strewed with dead militia, killed in their flight by Tories; and, having made no provision for retreat,
Gates was the most expert fugitive in running away.
He abandoned his army, and, in an ignoble flight to
Hillsboro he rode about 200 miles in three days and a half. He had lost about 1,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners; the loss of the
British was less than 500.
The
Americans lost all their artillery and ammunition, and a greater part of their baggage and stores.
