river.

The intense heat of this sultry season demanded some relaxation from
the unremitting toils which the southern army had encountered. From
the month of January, it had been engaged in one course of incessant
fatigue, and of hardy enterprise. All its powers had been strained,
nor had any interval been allowed to refresh and recruit the almost
exhausted strength and spirits of the troops.

The continued labours and exertions of all were highly meritorious;
but the successful activity of one corps will attract particular
attention. The legion, from its structure, was peculiarly adapted to
the partisan war of the southern states; and, by being detached
against the weaker posts of the enemy, had opportunities for
displaying with advantage all the energies it possessed. In that
extensive sweep which it made from the Santee to Augusta, which
employed from the 15th of April to the 5th of June, this corps, acting
in conjunction, first with Marion, afterwards with Pickens, and
sometimes alone, had constituted an essential part of the force which
carried five British posts, and made upwards of eleven hundred
prisoners. Its leader, in the performance of these services, displayed
a mind of so much fertility of invention and military resource, as to
add greatly to his previous reputation as a partisan.

The whole army had exhibited a degree of activity, courage, and
patient suffering, surpassing any expectation that could have been
formed of troops composed chiefly of new levies; and its general had
manifested great firmness, enterprise, prudence, and skill.

The suffering sustained in this ardent struggle for the southern
states was not confined to the armies. The inhabitants of the country
felt all the miseries which are inflicted by war in its most savage
form. Being almost equally divided between the two contending parties,
reciprocal injuries had gradually sharpened their resentments against
each other, and had armed neighbour against neighbour, until it became
a war of extermination. As the parties alternately triumphed,
opportunities were alternately given for the exercise of their
vindictive passions. They derived additional virulence from the
examples occasionally afforded by the commanders of the British
forces. After overrunning Georgia and South Carolina, they seem to
have considered those states as completely reannexed to the British
empire; and they manifested a disposition to treat those as rebels,
who had