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

[493] at sea, but his rights as a prisoner of war were

Chap. XXIV.} 1781. Aug.

respected.

After a short rest, Greene moved his army from the hills of Santee in a roundabout way to attack the British at their post near the junction of the Wateree and Congaree. They retreated before him and halted at Eutaw springs. He continued the pursuit with so much skill that the British remained ignorant of his advance. At four o'clock on the morning of the eighth of September, his army was in motion to

Sept. 8.

attack them. The centre of the front line was composed of two small battalions from North Carolina, and of one from South Carolina on each wing, commanded respectively by Marion and Pickens. The second line was formed of three hundred and fifty continentals of North Carolina, led by General Sumner; of an equal number of Virginians, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell; and of two hundred and fifty Marylanders, under Otho Williams. Long and gallantly did the militia maintain the action, those with Marion and Pickens proving themselves equal to the best veterans. As they began to be overpowered by numbers, they were sustained by the North Carolina brigade under Sumner; and the Virginians under Campbell, and the Marylanders under Williams, charged with the bayonet. The British were routed. On a party that prepared to rally, Washington bore down with his cavalry and a small body of infantry, and drove them from the field. The victory was complete. Great numbers of the British had fallen, or were made prisoners.

Many of the Americans who joined in the shouts of triumph were doomed to bleed. A brick house