is corps, for a short time, in a very compact
body, lest the Americans should gain any advantage over patrols or
detachments. But as soon as he found that the account of numbers was
exaggerated, and that the enemy declined an engagement, he divided his
corps into several small parties, publishing intelligence that each
was on patrol, and that the main body of the King's troops had
countermarched to Camden. Notwithstanding the divisions scattered
throughout the country, to impose upon the enemy, Lt.-Col. Tarleton took
care that no detachment should be out of the reach of assistance; and
that the whole formed after dark every evening a solid and vigilant
corps during the night. This stratagem had not been employed more
than three days, before General Marion was on the point of falling a
sacrifice to it. He advanced on the 10th before day, with five hundred
militia, to attack Lt.-Col. Tarleton (who had notice of his approach),
and arrived within two miles of his post, when a person of the name of
Richardson discovered to him his misconception of the British force."

But, as we have seen, Marion's advance upon Tarleton was only the
continuation of the pursuit which he began under the impression that
the latter was still forcing his way to Camden with the small force
with which he had crossed the Santee. Of the descent of the legion from
above, he knew nothing, and the three days' strategy of Tarleton were
wasted upon him. The caution of the British Colonel in all this time
might have been spared. It influenced the course of Marion in no
respect. We have seen that, when the latter discovered his enemy, it was
before day had closed, and not just before day. We have also seen that
Tarleton's own bonfires had already revealed the secret of his presence,
in strength, to his wary antagonist. If Col. Richardson had never
entered the camp of Marion, the blazing dwellings of the Richardson
family would have led to such precautions, on the side of the partisan,
as must have effectually baffled the objects of the British Colonel.
This indulgence in the usual British passion for burning the homesteads
of women and children, which Tarleton could not resist, even though
his immediate aim required the utmost watchfulness and secrecy, at once
revealed to Marion not only that his enemy was there, but that he
was there, with a force, in the strength of which he had the utmost
confidence. It is not to be supposed that a small detachment, a sco