Twenty minutes had not elapsed from the time we made our report, until the encampment with all its wealth of British stores was our own, and here and there came some scurvy Tory crawling and cringing before our officers as he begged to be allowed the privilege of enlisting.
It was not warfare; but simply a foraging expedition among people who were the same as unarmed.
Colonel Tynes, two of his captains, and fifty-four British regulars were taken prisoners. We hardly troubled ourselves about the Tories, save that Gavin, Percy, Gabriel and I rode here and there searching eagerly for Sam Lee, but finding him not.
When day broke our men overhauled the equipments and the provisions which were intended for those who should take up arms against us, and before we gave heed to breaking our fast the old and patched saddles were replaced by new ones of English make; our powder-horns and shot-pouches were filled; we wore breeches and boots that had been brought for the benefit of our enemies, and, to a man, were as well equipped as any force the butcher Tarleton ever headed.
The prisoners were sent to Kingstree, which town we now believed ourselves capable of holding, and in the fourth encampment that had been wrested from the Britishers or their allies, we feasted and made merry, Gabriel declaring that he was "disappointed in having thus joined a band of foragers when he expected to see somewhat of warfare."
And the poor lad did see warfare in its most bitter phase before many days passed.
Now that I am come to the closing acts in this life which we knew for so short a time and loved so well, I must hasten over them because of the bitterness which comes to me with the memory that has never faded.
We three comrades—meaning Gavin, Percy and myself—had seen the darkest days of the struggle, and then suddenly participated in the joy which came to us when, seemingly without good reason, we were once more triumphant.
Gabriel had come at the moment when we were flushed with the excitement of unexpected success, and he saw but little of it, poor lad!
While we lay at Salem receiving every day new recruits from those who had been lukewarm to the Cause, and from the cowards who believed safety lay only in friendship with the "rebels," word was brought that Lord Cornwallis had begged Colonel Tarleton to "get at" General Marion.