brigade, suggested a mode of overawing the garrison which was
immediately adopted. At a short distance from the fort there grew
a small wood, a number of the trees of which were hewn down, and
transported upon the shoulders of the men within a proper distance of
the mound. Here, during the night, all hands were actively employed
in piling the wood thus brought, in massive and alternate layers,
crosswise, until the work had reached a sufficient elevation. At dawn,
the garrison were confounded to find themselves, at wakening, under
a shower of rifle bullets. Thus overlooked, the fort was no longer
tenable; and a party of volunteers from the militia, headed by Ensign
Baker, and another of Continentals, from the legion, led by Mr. Lee,
a volunteer, ascended the mound with great intrepidity, and gained the
abbatis, which they proceeded to destroy. This movement brought the
garrison to terms, and a capitulation immediately followed. But the
leaguer had consumed eight days, the progress of which had been watched
with equal anxiety by both parties. The Americans apprehended, and the
garrison anticipated, the approach of Watson with an overwhelming force
for the relief of the besieged. But Watson did not appear. He no longer
had an overwhelming force. His flight to Georgetown was marked by loss
and desertion. It appears that his panic, or his sense of duty, led him
rather to avoid Marion and to reach Camden without interruption. He
very prudently, therefore, after crossing the Santee, on the route from
Georgetown, moved down by Monk's Corner, added to his force the garrison
of that place, and then cautiously advanced to the Santee. He resolved
rather to leave Fort Watson to its fate, than risk a force which might
be necessary to the exigencies of Rawdon. Watson was considered by the
British one of their best partisans, yet never had poor warrior been so
worried and harassed, as, with a superior force, he had been by Marion.
Yet, in his second expedition in pursuit of the latter, had he been able
to cooperate with Doyle, with the Tories of Harrison and Gainey, all
preparing for the same object, the escape of our partisan would have
been miraculous. At no time, during their pursuit of him, was his force
equal to the smallest one of theirs. He must have been expelled the
country, as he himself seemed to apprehend, or he must have fallen in
the conflict.

We have so little at the hands of Marion, in the shape of
correspondence, that