wo large rivers intervening secured each from sudden
attack, and their toils were confined to operating in small detachments,
for foraging or convoy. In this service, on the American side,
Col. Washington was detached--as soon as the course of Stewart was
ascertained--down the country across the Santee; Lee was sent upward,
along the north bank of the Congaree; the latter to operate with Col.
Henderson, then in command of Sumter's brigade, at Fridig's ferry,
and the former to strike at the communication between the enemy and
Charleston, and to cooperate with Marion and Mayham, in covering the
lower Santee. Col. Harden, at the same time, with a body of mounted
militia, had it in charge to straiten the enemy upon the Edisto.

The activity of these several parties and their frequent successes, were
such that Stewart was compelled to look for his supplies to the country
below him. This necessity caused him to re-establish and strengthen the
post at Dorchester, in order to cover the communication by Orangeburg;
and to place a force at Fairlawn, near the head of the navigation of
Cooper river, from which supplies from Charleston were transported to
headquarters over land. As this route was watched by Marion, Washington
and Mayham, the British commander was compelled, in order to secure the
means of communication with the opposite bank of the Congaree and to
draw supplies from thence, to transport boats adapted to the purpose, on
wagon-wheels, from Fairlawn to the Congaree.

Such were the relative positions of the two armies until the 22d of
August, when Greene, calling in all his detachments except those under
Marion, Mayham and Harden, broke up his camp at the High Hills and
proceeded to Howell's ferry, on the Congaree, with the intention
immediately to cross it and advance upon Stewart. That officer,
on hearing of the movement of the Americans, fell back upon his
reinforcements and convoys, and took up a strong position at the Eutaw
Springs.

Meanwhile, Marion disappeared from the Santee on one of those secret
expeditions in which his wonderful celerity and adroit management
conducted his men so frequently to success. His present aim was the
Pon-Pon. Col. Harden was at this time in that quarter, and closely
pressed by a superior British force of five hundred men. Detaching a
party of mounted militia to the neighborhood of Dorchester and Monk's
Corner, as much to divert the enemy from his own movements as with any
other o