prospects. But how uncertain are human affairs! I should be extremely happy, if the war had an honorable close, and I were on a farm with my little family about me. God grant that the day may not be far distant, when Peace, with all her train of blessings, shall diffuse universal joy through America." But many and bitter were the trials through which he was yet to pass, before that happy hour arrived; and with it, instead of that quiet and domestic tranquillity, which he coveted so ardently, came new cares and anxieties yet more painful, to imbitter his repose and darken his early grave.

No sooner had the army reached its encampment at the Iron Works, than Greene despatched a flag to the camp of Cornwallis with surgeons and supplies for that part of his wounded, which he had been compelled to leave upon the field of battle. He then directed his attention to the state of his army.

The first returns exhibited a loss of two hundred and sixty-one Continentals; but, as many, who had been set down as missing, rejoined their corps in the course of the next two days, this number was soon reduced to one hundred and eighty-eight. The loss of the rifle corps and militia was still smaller, being a little more than eighty, both killed and wounded. But the militia seemed to look upon a battle as a

signal for dispersion, and the greater part of them, whether conquerors or conquered, were in the habit of marching straight home from the field. Thus it was impossible ever to ascertain the real amount of their loss; for most of those, who had been marked as missing, were generally found to have been quietly seated by their own firesides. In this manner their number had diminished to one thousand five hundred and seventy-seven; and on the 19th, four days after the battle, when all the stragglers had been collected, the whole army was found to consist of three thousand one hundred and fifteen men, of all arms.

But what at this moment was of vastly more importance, men and officers of every class were in the highest spirits, and expressed the strongest desire to be led immediately against the enemy. Those who had faltered in the trial hardly dared to look their comrades in the face, and were burning for an opportunity of wiping out the stain. The Virginia militia, proud of the bold stand they had made against troops so much their superiors, looked upon themselves as equal to any effort; while the first regiment of Maryland, exulting in its triumph, were eager to confirm the brilliant reputation which they had won by some new exploit.

Under such circumstances, Greene would have instantly advanced to attack Lord Cornwallis in his camp, but for the hope that the British General might once more give him the advantage of fighting upon ground of his own choice. He was anxious, also, to obtain a supply of ammunition, of which his stock had been very much reduced, and was perhaps not unwilling to avail himself of this occasion in order to give a brief repose to his wearied troops, before he called upon them to engage in the hazardous and fatiguing enterprise, which he was then meditating. He continued, therefore, in his camp at the Iron Works, until the movements of his adversary recalled him to the field.

CHAPTER XIII.

The British Army retreats, pursued by the Americans. Greene advances to Camden in South Carolina, and encamps at that Place.

SOON after the Americans had retired from the field, Cornwallis returned from his unsuccessful pursuit, and gave orders for collecting

the wounded. The field of battle extended over a large tract of plantations and woodland, nearly every part of which had been the scene of some desperate conflict. In the open grounds around the court-house, where the combat had raged with peculiar violence, the dead and wounded were scattered in promiscuous heaps. You might have traced the passage of Washington's cavalry by the fatal marks of the sabre, and told, by the deeper hue of the ensanguined ground, where the Marylanders and the guards had met in the fierce contest of hand to hand. The protracted struggle in the woods had left its traces throughout the whole extent of the long tract over which it had passed; here were the marks of the bayonet, there of the rifle; and anon the broken branches and uprooted saplings showed where the massive balls of the artillery had forced their resistless way. Friend and foe lay mingled together; and the hands, that a short hour before had been raised against each other in mortal strife, were now stretched powerless and lifeless side by side.

Not a moment was lost in collecting the wounded; and in that dreadful extremity the generous nature of Cornwallis allowed of no distinction between friend and foe. But night came on before half the pious task was accomplished, and with it cold and rain. Imagina

tion shrinks from the horrors of such a scene; the darkness of night rendered still more appalling by the gloom of the forest, the shrieks of the wounded, the groans of the dying, and the chill rain of March falling in torrents upon the living and the dead. The baggage had not come up from New Garden, so that the men had no tents; the few houses in the neighborhood were quickly filled, and hundreds remained exposed, without any protection but their clothes, to all the rigor of that inclement night. Not less than fifty had perished before morning.

The night of the 15th of March was one of anxiety and keen mental anguish to the British commander. Morning brought no alleviation. The returns of his army showed a loss of nearly six hundred men, a fourth of his whole strength. Among the wounded and slain were many of his best officers; and Webster, the commander of his own regiment, to whom he had been long bound by the ties of the warmest friendship, had received a wound, which in a few days proved mortal. Greene's expectations had been more than realized. He had not only encumbered his enemy with wounded men, but deprived him of the services of those upon whom he relied for counsel and aid. The barren honors of a field, that he was unable to retain possession of, were the sole reward of so much blood.