in their detached
parties, and thus circumscribe their influence, within the State, to the
places where they still remained in force. To effect these objects, the
Fabian maxims of warfare should have been those of the American General.
Few of his militia had ever seen an enemy. He had but recently joined
his troops, knew nothing of them, and they as little of him. Their
march had been a fatiguing one. Time and training were necessary
pre-requisites for their improvement and his success. Unhappily, these
were the very agents with which the vanity of the unfortunate commander
made him most willing to dispense. The victory at Saratoga had spoiled
him for ever, and thinking too much of himself, he committed the next
great error of a military man, of thinking too lightly of his foe. It
would be idle and perhaps impertinent, to suggest that if Marion had
been suffered to remain with him, the issue of this march might have
been more fortunate. Gates was quite too vain-glorious to listen and
Marion quite too moderate to obtrude his opinions; and yet Marion was a
man of equal prudence and adroitness. He could insinuate advice, so
that it would appear to self-conceit the very creature of its own
conceptions. Had Marion remained, could Gates have listened, we are very
sure there would have been no such final, fatal disaster as suddenly
stopped the misdirected progress of the Continental army. There would
have been some redeeming circumstances to qualify the catastrophe. All
would not have been lost. At all events, with Marion at their head, the
militia would have fought awhile,--would have discharged their pieces,
once, twice, thrice, before they fled. They would have done for the
born-leader of militia, what they refused to do for a commander who
neither knew how to esteem, nor how to conduct them.

It was while Marion was in the camp of Gates, that a messenger from
the Whigs of Williamsburg, then newly risen in arms, summoned him to be
their leader. It was in consequence of this invitation, and not
because of the awkwardness of his position there, that he determined to
penetrate into South Carolina, in advance of the American army. Such an
invitation was not to be neglected. Marion well knew its importance, and
at once accepted the commission conferred upon him by Governor Rutledge.
He took leave of Gates accordingly, having received, as is reported,
certain instructions from that unhappy commander, to employ his men in
the des