tly long and able constructions of militia
laws, now obsolete. About this time he issued a proclamation suspending
the acts of assembly, and making paper money* a tender in law, which,
although strong, was certainly a just proceeding.

* For an example of its present depreciation, see p. 152.
[Detached Narratives for 1781, Paragraph 6--list of
prices.--A. L.]

Col. Maham having now raised and equipped part of his cavalry, passed
the Santee, burnt some British stores in the house of Sir John Colleton,
at Fairlawn, and took some prisoners. On the 16th of October, Gen.
Greene writes to Marion, "Col. Maham's success is highly honourable to
himself and corps, and I hope will be followed by future strokes of good
fortune." This hope was not realized. A letter from Col. Doyle, of the
British, shows strongly what different views, men engaged on opposite
sides, will take of the same transaction. It is to Gen. Marion: "Sir,
I am directed by Brigadier Gen. Stewart, to represent to you an outrage
that has been committed by a party of your corps, under the command of
Col. Maham, upon a parcel of sick, helpless soldiers in an hospital
at Colleton house, on the morning of the 17th inst. The burning an
hospital, and dragging away a number of dying people to expire in
swamps, is a species of barbarity hitherto unknown in civilized
warfare. The general expects that those unhappy sufferers will be sent
immediately as prisoners upon parole. Attacks on hospitals are, among
your own continental army, unprecedented. The hospital at Camden was by
Gen. Greene's order protected, although it had an armed guard for
its internal police." Gen. Greene, who ere this, the reader must have
perceived, was polite to his friends, and humane to his enemies, for
even they are obliged to confess it, immediately instituted an inquiry
into this complaint;* but how it was accommodated cannot now be
ascertained.

* Greene's letter, 24th Nov.

On the 9th October, 1781,* Gen. Marion received the most agreeable news
of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and the next evening gave a fete
to the ladies of Santee, at the house of Mr. John Cantey. The general's
heart was not very susceptible of the gentler emotions; he had his
friend, and was kind to his inferiors, but his mind was principally
absorbed by the love of country; and as the capture of Lord Cornwallis
was intimately connected with this passion there is no doubt he felt joy
on t