rm which threatened the former was overblown, and
he was in season to avert that by which the latter was threatened. His
force was scarcely equal to that of the enemy. He nevertheless resolved
upon attacking them. In order to keep them in play, while he advanced
with his main body, Cols. Richardson and Scriven, with a part of
Mayham's horse, were dispatched with orders to throw themselves in front
of the British, and engage them until he could come up. This order
was gallantly executed. They encountered the enemy's advance near the
muster-house of St. Thomas, charged them vigorously, and succeeded in
putting them to flight, with some slaughter. Capt. Campbell, of the
British, and several others, were killed. But the pursuit was urged too
far. The cavalry of Mayham, by which this success had been obtained, was
of new organization. Their training had been partial only. It was seen
that, though they drove the British horse before them, their own charge
was marked by disorder. Hurried forward by success, they rushed into the
jaws of danger, and were only brought to their senses by an encounter
with the whole of the British infantry. A volley from this body drove
them back in confusion, while the cavalry, which had been flying before
them, encouraged by the presence of the infantry, rallied upon the steps
of the pursuers, and drove them in turn. They suffered severely, wedged
upon a narrow causeway, which gave them as little room for escape as
evolution. Twenty-two fell upon the spot, by the fire of the infantry.
The rest were rallied when sufficiently far from the more formidable
enemy, and, turning upon the British cavalry, once more put them to
flight. But the event left Marion too weak to press the encounter. He
contented himself with watching the motions of the British, and they
were sufficiently respectful not to press him to any less pacific
performance. They were satisfied to pursue their march, and, gathering
a few head of cattle, to retire to Haddrell's, foregoing the more
important object of their incursion. The field clear, Marion left his
brigade in charge of Horry, and repaired to Jacksonborough, to attend
the Assembly, to which he had been elected a member from St. John,
Berkeley, the same parish which he represented in the Provincial
Congress at the beginning of the war. This was early in the year 1782.
The Legislature met at Jacksonborough, a little village on the Edisto or
Pon-Pon river, on the 18th January o