This was done in order that we might move more secretly, and also that those who were needed at home should be enabled to give to their loved ones at least the last words which might be spoken on earth.
Within an hour our force was reduced to sixty men, and yet there remained among us every member of the James family—a fact which went far toward cheering Percy and I in this retreat.
Five were there, John, William, Gavin, Robert and James, and each had a family; yet none would desert the leader in whom they had every confidence—none would desert the Cause, although it was come so low. Yet for the honor of those who dropped out, it must be said that they were ready at the first signal to rejoin the brigade.
Gavin Witherspoon had a wife and five children, the youngest eight years old. To him I said, when, man after man, raising his hat in adieu, departed with an expression on his face which told of the sadness in his heart:
"It is for you to go also, Gavin. Such as Percy and I can well be spared, even though we leave behind a mother whom we love; but she has kinsfolk who will comfort her."
"My family are alone in the district, Robert Sumter, and yet they will be comforted, knowing that I am doing my duty as a man."
"Yet every one should care for his own, and you can well be spared when this movement is no more than a retreat."
"Ay, so I may be," the old man replied emphatically, and in such a tone as caused me to grip him heartily by the hand. "So I may be, and yet it would shame me to go, because now has come the hour of our adversity—the time when all hope seems to have fled; but my desire to free the colonies from the yoke of the king is as strong as when I first set out, nigh on to four years ago. I shall remain in the saddle, Robert Sumter, until we have won that toward which we set our faces, or a British bullet has brought me low, and in the doing find happiness for myself as well as give comfort to those who look upon me for an example."
It was a brave man who spoke those words, and I said then in my heart that never again would I allow another to utter aught against Gavin Witherspoon—never again would I allow Percy or myself to laugh at his oddities or his whimsical fancies.
Freshly mounted were we who left Lynch's Creek at sunset on the day when we were arrived at the old camp, after those who went insisted on bringing to us their best horses and the major part of all their store of ammunition, because, in so doing, it seemed as if they were contributing in some slight degree to sustaining the Cause which they had long since despaired of seeing successful.