Greene, in the meanwhile, had marched toward Ninety-Six, where he arrived on the twenty-second of May. The military events at these several places will be noticed presently, in the order in which I visited them.
It was almost dark when I rode into Camden and alighted at Boyd's Hotel. Here was the end of my tedious but interesting journey of almost fourteen hundred miles with my own conveyance; for, learning that I could reach other chief points of interest at the South easier and speedier by public conveyance, I resolved to sell my traveling establishment. Accordingly, after passing the forenoon of the next dayJan 18, 1849 in visiting the battle-ground on Hobkirk's Hill, sketching the scenery at the Spring, and the monument erected to the memory of De Kalb, on the green in front of the Presbyterian church in Camden, ** I went into the market as a trafficker. A stranger both to the people and to the business, I was not successful. I confess there was a wide difference between my "asking" and my "taking" price. My wagon was again broken, and, anxious to get home, I did not "dicker" long when I got an offer, and Charley and I parted, I presume, with mutual regrets. He was a docile, faithful animal, and I had become much attached to him. A roll of Camden bank-notes soothed my feelings, and I left the place of separation at dawn the next morning in the cars for Fort Motte and Columbia, quite light-hearted.
* There is now a fine bridge across the Wateree at this place, which cost twenty thousand dollars.
** Many of these, who had occupied their farms near Camden, were reduced to the most abject poverty. Outside of the lines at Charleston, men, women, and children were crowded into a collection of miserable huts, which received the name of Rawdontown.—Simms's History of South Carolina. 223.
*** I was informed, after I left Camden, that the house in which Cornwallis was quartered, while there, was yet standing, and very little altered since the Revolution. It was one of the few saved when Rawdon left the place. I was not aware of this fact while I was in Camden.
Departure from Camden.—The High Hills of Santee.—Passage of the Wateree Swamp.