Rawdon, not meeting with Stuart, and ignorant of the cause of his delay, was baffled, and turning southward, pushed on toward Orangeburg, unwilling now to encounter the Americans, for he had only a thousand men with him. In the mean while, Stuart had again marched from Charleston; and Marion and Lieutenant-colonel Washington being engaged in retarding his progress, did not join Lee until the morning of the tenth of July, when that officer and his corps were upon Beaver Creek, in the present Lexington District.
Rawdon halted at Orangeburg, with the intention of establishing a post there, and awaiting the arrival of Cruger and his Loyalists. Greene, advancing rapidly, approached that place with a force now augmented to almost two thousand men, before the British general had time properly to arrange his camp and cast up defenses. Rawdon's force, though inferior to Greene's, was so strongly posted and furnished with artillery, that the latter was unwilling to hazard an assault, particularly as Cruger was hourly expected at Orangeburg. As the heat of the season was oppressive, provisions scarce, and sickness increasing among his troops, he crossed the Congaree, and encamped upon the high hills of Santee, where salubrious air and excellent water soon restored the vigor of his army. Sumter, Marion, and Lee were ordered to make rapid marches toward Charleston, beat up the British quarters at Dorchester and Monk's Corner, cut off convoys between Rawdon and the capital, and then join the main army upon the Santee Hills. Here we will leave the belligerents for the present.
I left Columbia at seven o'clock on Monday morning,Jan. 23, 1849 and was at Orangeburg, fifty-one miles distant, at half past nine. The weather was delightful. A dreamy haziness was in the atmosphere, and the air was as mild as early June. Leaving my baggage at the rail-way station, I strolled over that village and vicinity, for an hour, with a gentleman from Columbia, who was familiar with its historical localities. The village (which
Orangeburg.—Old Court house.—Orangeburg taken by Sumter.—Sumter and Lee.—Rawdon's Departure
The Old Court-house. was settled as early as 1735) is beautifully situated upon a gently-rolling plain, near the banks of the Edisto (which is here skirted with swamps), and contains about four hundred inhabitants. There are several elegant dwellings standing upon each side of the broad street extending from the rail-way to the heart of the village, all shaded by lofty trees. It is about eighty miles west of Charleston, and being the seat of justice, is the largest town in Orange District.
