The American Revolution . hey were straightening their lines,Colonel Webster came down ujoon them in a furi-ous charge. The shock of the British column wasresistless. The Virginia militia threw down theirguns and fled without firing a shot. The NorthCarolina militia did likewise, and within fifteenminutes the whole American left became a mob ofstruggling men, smitten with mortal panic, andhuddling like sheep in their wild flight, while Tarle-tons cavalry gave chase and cut them down byscores. Leaving Tarleton to deal with them, Web-ster turned upon the first Maryland brigade, andslowly pushed
The American Revolution . hey were straightening their lines,Colonel Webster came down ujoon them in a furi-ous charge. The shock of the British column wasresistless. The Virginia militia threw down theirguns and fled without firing a shot. The NorthCarolina militia did likewise, and within fifteenminutes the whole American left became a mob ofstruggling men, smitten with mortal panic, andhuddling like sheep in their wild flight, while Tarle-tons cavalry gave chase and cut them down byscores. Leaving Tarleton to deal with them, Web-ster turned upon the first Maryland brigade, andslowly pushed it off the field, after an obstinateresistance. The second Maryland brigade, on theother hand, after twice repelling the assault ofLord Rawdon, broke througb his left with a spir-ited bayonet charge, and remained victorious uponthat part of the field, until the rest of the fight wasended; when being attacked in flank by Webster,these stalwart troops retreated westerly by a nar-row road between swamp and hillside, and made. lATTLE OF CAMDENAugust i6, 1780 A YEAR OF DISASTERS. 193 their escape in good order. Long after the battlewas lost in every other quarter, the gigantic formof Kalb, unhorsed and fighting on foot, was seendirecting the movements of his brave Marylandand Delaware troops, till he fell dying from elevenwounds. Gates, caught in the throng of fugitivesat the beginning of the action, was borne in head-long flight as far as Clermont, where, taking afresh horse, he made the distance of nearly twohundred miles to Hillsborough in less than fourdays. The laurels of Saratoga had in- ^ , ,. «^ ° Total and ig- deed chano^ed into willows. It was the nominious de- o _ ^ feat of Gates. most disastrous defeat ever inflicted uponan American army, and ignominious withal, sinceit was incurred through a series of the grossestblunders. The Maryland troops lost half theirnumber, the Delaware regiment was almost entirelydestroyed, and all the rest of the army was dis-persed. The num
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