ecoil from carrying his own threat into execution. In answer to one of
Marion's reproaches, we are told by Col. Watson, that "the burning of
houses and the property of the inhabitants, who are our enemies,
is customary in all civilized nations." The code of civilisation is
certainly susceptible of liberal constructions. Its elasticity is not
the least of its many merits.

Cornwallis pursued Greene into North Carolina, and after much
manoeuvering between the armies, they met at Guilford on the 15th of
March, 1781. The honors of the victory, small as it was, lay with the
British. Their loss, however, was such, that the advantages of the field
enured to the Americans. From this field, Cornwallis took his way to
Virginia, and his career as a commander in America was finally arrested
at the siege of York. During the absence of Greene from South Carolina,
Marion's was the only force in active operation against the British.
An opportunity so favorable for harassing and distressing the enemy, as
that afforded by the absence of their main army in North Carolina, was
not neglected; and, calling in his detachments, he once more carried
dismay into the heart of the Tory settlements, on both sides of the
Santee. His incursions, and those of his officers, were extended as far
as the confluence of the Congaree and Wateree, and as low down as Monk's
Corner,--thus breaking up the line of communication between Charleston
and the grand army, and intercepting detachments and supplies, sent from
that place to the line of posts established through the country. This
sort of warfare, which seldom reaches events such as those which mark
epochs in the progress of great bodies of men, is yet one which calls
for constant activity. We have details of but few of the numerous
conflicts which took place between our partisan and the Tory leaders.
These were scattered over the country, living by plunder, and indulging
in every species of ferocity. Greene writes, "The Whigs and Tories
are continually out in small parties, and all the middle country is so
disaffected, that you cannot lay in the most trifling magazine or send
a wagon through the country with the least article of stores without
a guard." In addressing himself to this sort of warfare, Marion was
pursuing a course of the largest benefit to the country. In overawing
these plunderers, subduing the savage spirit, and confining the British
to their strong places, he was acquiring an importance, wh