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The Battle: Arraying the Troops

Both Maj. General Horatio Gates and Lt. General Charles Cornwallis, having been surprised by the encounter, withdrew to plan and wait for dawn. Following the early morning skirmish, the element of surprise was now gone. It was learned from prisoners taken that the British force was 3,000 strong and commanded by General Cornwallis himself. General Gates immediately called a council of war with his officers to discuss what action to take. Although Maj. General Baron de Kalb had privately advised retreat, he said nothing at the council of war.

After a few moments of silence, militia Brig. General Edward Stevens declared that it was too late to do anything but fight. General Gates wanted to prove his worth as a skilled commander, so when no other advice was offered, he insisted on facing the British on open ground. Although both Gates and the British estimated the American forces to be nearly 7,000 men, the actual number was only about 3,000, nearly 2,000 of whom were inexperienced militia.

Before dawn broke, General Gates formed his men. The core of his force, 900 Maryland and Delaware regulars under General de Kalb, were arrayed to the right of the Waxhaws road. To the left the road, were placed 1,800 North Carolina militia. On their left were 700 Virginia militia. Colonel Charles Armand's cavalry was held in reserve behind the Virginians. Gates himself was stationed with the reserves some 200 yards behind the battleline.

Lt. Colonel Tarleton

When the British appeared on the field, Lord Rawdon commanded his own Volunteers of Ireland, as well as Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton's British Legion cavalry on the British left wing opposite of General de Kalb. Following European military custom, both General Gates and General Cornwallis had placed their most experienced troops on the right wing. As a result, Lt. Colonel James Webster commanded the most seasoned British regiments on the right wing opposite Gates' inexperienced militia. In hindsight it looks to be a recipe for disaster for Gates.

The Battle: Fighting Commences

The British opened the battle by attacking with their right wing on the American left wing at the heart of the militia. Brig. General Edward Stevens ordered his men to fix bayonets, which as militia they had never done before. In the face of an aggressive bayonet charge from the British, first the Virginians and then the North Carolina militia fled before the British regulars could even reach them. Many dropped their muskets without having fired a shot.

While the rout was taking place on the American left wing, the right wing under Maj. General Baron de Kalb was attacking after receiving the order from Maj. General Horatio Gates. They had no idea how bad things were on the left wing, because the dawn's dead calm had left the smoke from gunfire lingering in a haze on the field. The Maryland and Delaware Continental regulars twice repulsed Lord Rawdon's Volunteers of Ireland and then launched a counterattack.

The Continental counterattack was successful with prisoners taken and the Volunteers' line nearly broken. Lt. General Charles Cornwallis saw the action, rode up and rallied his men. Meanwhile, Lt. Colonel James Webster controlled his men on the British right wing. Instead of pursuing the fleeing militia, he wheeled to the left and continued his charge as a flanking movement against General de Kalb.

Maj. General Baron De Kalb

Only one militia regiment held its ground. It was a North Carolina regiment that had been stationed the closest to the Delware Continental regulars. Their steadfastest was rewarded by being the first to be hit by Lt. Colonel Webster's flank attack. The militia unit fought well and was joined by Maryland regulars that had been called up from reserve by General de Kalb. The Maryland regulars fought off Webster's attack, but now only about 800 Continentals were facing at least 2,000 British regulars.

The small force continued to fight bravely. The final blow came when General Cornwallis ordered Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton and his British Legion to attack the American rear. Under the cavalry charge the ranks finally broke. Some Continentals managed to escape through a nearby swamp. General de Kalb himself had taken eleven wounds before falling. The field was taken after an hour. Tarleton pursued the fleeing Americans for over twenty miles before finally turning back.

Aftermath

What become of Maj. General Horatio Gates himself? After the militia broke and fled, Gates soon followed. Some reported that he did attempt to rally the retreating militia, but to no avail. What can be said is that Gates was in Charlotte, North Carolina, sixty miles away by the evening of August 16 only hours after the battle. He was in Hillsborough, North Carolina, 180 miles away, by August 19.

Battle of Camden, Death of De Kalb." August 1780. Copy of engraving after Alonzo Chappel.

General Gates' actions were almost immediately questioned. After Maj. General Nathanael Greene replaced him in December, he returned home to Virginia to await a inquiry into his conduct at Camden. He would not hold another command for the rest of the war. He did return to active duty before the end to official hostilities, serving in General Washington's command staff, as he had at the start of the war.

It was estimated that of the 3,000 men that made up the American force, 2,000 fled without firing a shot. Somewhere around 800 men were captured or killed and the army's munitions were also taken, while the British only sustained about 350 casualties. This loss left Patriot morale in the South at a low and the region firmly under British control until General Geene built the Continental forces back up in early 1781. Even with the care of Lt. General Charles Cornwallis' personal physician, Maj. General Baron de Kalb died at Camden three days after the battle.

The battle of Camden, South Carolina was a stunning defeat for the American Army. However the battle of Camden did effectively remove the politically appointed General Hortio Gates, and place the new General Nathaniel Greene, a man Washington had hoped would replace him should anything befall the Commander in Chief.

Horatio Gates, had assumed command of the Army in the South, and things were going poorly. Gates a political appointee had little appreciation for the depravity and poor condition of the troops in the south. In addition, Gates also had a false sense of confidence when meeting the enemy.

Memorial Erected in 1909 by the Hobkirk Hill Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution Marking the Spot Where Baron Johann DeKalb Fell Mortally Wounded in the Battle of Camden.

Additional Sources:

teachpol.tcnj.edu
www.afn.org
jrshelby.com
www.dnr.state.sc.us
www.pro.gov.uk
www.sar.org
digital.library.upenn.edu
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~johnrobertson
www.boxoff.com
xenophongroup.com

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on September 23:
484 -BC Euripides Greek playwright (Trojan Women)
63 -BC (BC) Octavian (Augustus Caesar), first Roman emperor (27 BC-14 AD)
1713 Ferdinand VI king of Spain (1746-59)
1745 John Sevier Tennessee, indian fighter (Gov/Rep-Tn)
1800 William H McGuffey educator (McGuffey Readers)
1805 Matthew Adams Stickney Rowley Mass, numismatist
1838 Victoria Chaflin Woodhull Ohio, feminist/reformer/free love/1st female presidential candidate
1852 William Stewart Halsted established 1st US surgical school
1869 Edgar Lee Masters poet/novelist (Spoon River Anthology)
1869 Mary Church Terrell famous African
1870 John Lomax Miss, folk song collector/ethnomusicologist
1880 John Boyd Orr nutritionist, UN's FAO (Nobel 1949)
1889 Walter Lippmann NYC, journalist/political writer (Men of Destany)
1900 Louise Nevelson US, sculptor (Sky Cathedral)
1910 Elliot Roosevelt son of FDR
1910 Soulima Stravinsky Lausanne Switz, Russian pianist (Igor's son)
1917 Imry Nemeth Hungary, hammer thrower (Olympic-gold-1948)
1920 Mickey Rooney Bkln NY, actor (Bill, Andy Hardy, Sugar Babies)
1926 John Coltrane saxophonist (Round Midnight)
1930 Ray Charles Albany Ga, singer/pianist (Georgia)
1936 Sylvain Saudan skiier (60ø descent)
1938 Romy Schneider Vienna Austria, actress (Bloodline, Death Watch)
1943 Julio Iglesias singer (Of All the Girls I Loved Before)
1944 Loren J Shriver Iowa, Col USAF/astronaut (STS 51-C, STS-31, sk:46)
1945 Paul Petersen Glendale Calif, actor (Jeff Stone-Donna Reed Show)
1947 Mary Kay Place Tulsa Okla, actress/country singer (Mary Hartman!)
1949 Bruce Springsteen [Boss], Asbury NJ, rock musician (Born in the USA)
1955 Patti Weaver WV, actress (Days of our Life, Gina-Young & Restless)
1956 Maren Jensen Arcadia Calif, actress (Athena-Battlestar Galactica)
1957 Sylvie Garant Montmagny Quebec, playmate (Nov, 1979)
1961 Elizabeth Pe¤a Havana Cuba, actress (La Bamba, Jacob's Ladder)
1967 Harry Connick Jr singer (We Are in Love)

Deaths which occurred on September 23:
1877 Urbain JJ Leverrier codiscoverer of Neptune, dies
1939 Sigmund Freud created psychoanalysis, dies at 83
1956 Earl Godwin newscaster (Meet the Veep), dies at 75
1972 Carl Frank actor (Uncle Gunnar-Mama), dies at 63
1974 Cliff Arquette comedian "Charlie Weaver", dies at 68
1981 Chief Dan George, actor (Harry & Tonto, Little Big Man), dies at 82
1982 Jimmy Wakely country western singer, dies of heart failure at 68
1985 Mickey Simpson actor, dies of a heart attack at 72
1987 Bob Fosse, choreographer (All the Jazz), dies at 62

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1968 CALLAHAN DAVID F. JR. WINDSOR VT.
1968 OSBORNE DALE H. SALT LAKE CITY UT.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED, ALIVE AND WELL 98]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0951 Otto I the Great becomes king of Italy
1553 The Sadians defeat the last of their enemies and establish themselves as rulers of Morocco.
1642 Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass, 1st commencement
1667 Slaves in Virginia are banned from obtaining their freedom by converting to Christianity.
1719 Liechtenstein declares independence from German empire
1779 John Paul Jones' "Bon Homme Richard" defeats 'HMS Serepis'
1780 British MAJ John Andre was apprehended as a Spy, near Tarrytown, NY
1803 Battle of Assaye-British-Indian forces beat Maratha Army
1805 Lieutenant Zebulon Pike pays $2,000 to buy from the Sioux a 9-square-mile tract at the mouth of the Minnesota River that will be used to establish a military post, Fort Snelling.
1806 Lewis & Clark return to St Louis from the Pacific Northwest
1845 1st baseball team, NY Knickerbockers organize, adopt rule code
1846 Johann Gottfried Galle & Heinrich d'Arrest find Neptune
1862 Lincoln's Emancipation is published in Northern Newspapers
1863 Confederate siege of Chattanooga begins
1868 Grito de Lares proclaims Puerto Rico's independence (crushed by Spain)
1873 Tom Allen beats Mike McCale for Heavyweight Boxing title
1879 Baldwin steam motors tram 1st tried in Sydney Australia
1890 Ed Cartwright bats in 7 RBIs in 1 inning
1897 1st frontier days rodeo celebration (Cheyene Wyoming)
1908 Giant Fred (Bonehead) Merkle fails to touch 2nd, causes 3rd out in 9th disallows winning run (game ends tied, Cubs win replay & pennant)
1908 University of Alberta opens
1912 1st Mack Sennett "Keystone Comedy" movie released
1926 Gene Tunney defeats Jack Dempsey for world heavyweight boxing title
1932 Kingdom of Hejaz & Nejd renamed Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
1933 Yanks commit 7 errors in 1 game but beat Boston 16-12
1938 British premier Neville Chamberlain flies to Munich
1938 Time capsule, to be opened in 6939, buried at World's Fair in NYC (capsule contained a woman's hat, man's pipe & 1,100' of microfilm)
1939 Cookie Lavagetto goes 6 for 6-Dodgers get 27 hits & beat Phillies 22-4
1949 Truman announces evidence of USSR's 1st nuclear device detonation
1950 Phila A's Joe Astroth is 4th to get 6 RBIs in an inning (6th)
1952 1st closed circuit pay-TV telecast of a sports event
1952 Richard Nixon makes his "Checker's" speech
1952 Rocky Marciano KOs heavyweight champ Jersey Joe Walcott in 13 for heavyweight boxing title
1957 White mob forces 9 black students who had entered a Little Rock high school in Arkansas to withdraw
1961 1st movie to become a TV series-How to Marry a Millionaire
1962 ABC's 1st color TV series-The Jetsons
1962 LA Dodger Maury Wills steals record setting #97 on his way to 104
1962 NY's Philharmonic Hall (since renamed Avery Fisher Hall) opens as 1st unit of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
1967 Radio Malta stops testing
1969 Northern Star starts rumor that Paul McCartney is dead
1973 Former Argentine President Juan Peron returns to power
1973 Largest known prime, 2 ^ 132,049-1, is discovered
1976 Ford-Carter TV debate
1976 Soyuz 22 returns to Earth
1977 3rd test of Space Shuttle Enterprise
1977 Cheryl Ladd replaces Farrah Fawcett on Charlie's Angels
1978 100,000 cheering Egyptians welcome Sadat home from Camp David summit
1979 Jane Fonda & 200,000 attend anti-nuke rally in Battery Park, NYC
1979 Lou Brock steals record 935th base
1980 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opens
1983 Columbia moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating in preparation of STS-9
1983 Phillies Steve Carlton wins his 300th game (beating St Louis Cards)
1984 SF 49er Joe Montana misses his 1st start in 49 games
1984 Sparky Anderson is 1st manager to win 100 games in both leagues
1986 Houston Astro Jim Deshales sets record of striking out 1st 8 men starting a ball game, beating the LA Dodgers 4-0
1987 The British government lost its appeal to prevent the Australian publication of "Spycatcher:
1988 Jose Canseco becomes baseball's 1st to steal 40 bases & hit 40 HRs
1990 PBS begins an 11 hour miniseries on The Civil War
1990 Saddam says he will destroy Israel
1991 NY Islanders Mike Bossy & Denis Potvin inducted into NHL Hall of Fame

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Puerto Rico : Grito de Lares Day (1868)
Saudi Arabia : Unification Day (1932)
Wyoming : Frontier Day
US : Good Neighbor Day (4th Sunday in September)(Sunday)
US : Press Sunday (Sunday)
US : American Indian Day (4th Friday in September) (1916) (Friday)
Japan : Autumnal Equinox Day
National Multiple Wives Day
National Laundry Workers Week (Day 3)
Bourbon Month
National Bed Check Month

Religious Observances
RC : Commemoration of St Linus, 2nd pope (c 67-c 76), martyr

Religious History
1122 The Concordat of Worms was reached between Pope Callistus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. It settled the Investiture Controversy over who had the right -- bishop or emperor -- to choose replacement clergy for vacant positions.
1595 Spain launched an intensive missionary campaign in the American Southeast. During the next two years, about 1,500 American Indians were converted to the Catholic faith.
1667 In Williamsburg, Virginia, a law was passed, barring slaves from obtaining their freedom by converting to Christianity.
1888 Birth of Gerhard Kittel, German Lutheran Bible scholar. He was first editor of a 10-volume Greek lexicon which took 43 years to complete (1933-76). In its English edition (1964-76), the work is entitled, "Theological Dictionary of the New Testament" -- or "TDNT" for short.
1960 While mourning the recent death of his wife Joy Davidman, English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'My great recent discovery is that when I mourn Joy least I feel nearest to her. Passionate sorrow cuts us off from the dead.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.

You might be a dog person if...
You shovel a zig-zag path in the back yard snow so your dog can reach all her favorite spots.

Murphys Law of the day...(Featherkile's Rule)
Whatever you did, that's what you planned.

It's a little known fact that...
The 1st kiss in a movie was between May Irwin and John Rice in "The Widow Jones," in 1896.