It was said that the butcher had arisen from a bed of sickness brought about by his own excesses, with a vow that he would capture "the scurvy Swamp Fox," and that his Legion, which was before Camden, had orders to meet him on the Wateree River, from which place he would set out to make a prisoner of our general.
This information came to us at a time when we were not only ready, but willing, to meet the infamous Tarleton, although in his Legion were two men, where there was one of ours, and, as my uncle said with a grim smile, when speaking to Gavin Witherspoon after orders had been given us to prepare for the march, "we would make Colonel Tarleton's mission as easy of accomplishment as was possible, so far as showing him the whereabouts of the Swamp Fox was concerned."
Our horses were in good condition; every man among us eager to measure strength with this human brute who had devastated the Carolinas wherever he marched, and we hardly drew rein until arriving once more at Nelson's Ferry, on the Santee River.
This was the second time we had crossed the entire district of Williamsburg with a swiftness such as astounded the British horsemen, and it is little wonder that our general received from them the name in which we of his brigade gloried.
Exactly how strong the Britishers were there was no means of knowing, although one might guess that Tarleton would not come out with less than his full legion, which numbered upwards of eleven hundred men; but yet we pressed forward even after having come upon their trail, and knowing how much greater their force was than ours—pressed forward close upon their heels until the hour came when it would have been folly to continue on, because the horses were winded.
Then we made camp in the woods, Gabriel Marion complaining bitterly because his uncle had called a halt, although the steed the lad bestrode could not have advanced five miles more at an ordinary pace.
Near the enemy, as we knew ourselves to be, it was necessary to take every precaution at this encampment, and we were yet hard at work while our steeds were feeding, throwing up such rude shelters as would suffice for the use of the sharp-shooters, when Colonel Richardson, who served under General Sumter until wounded and had then retired to his plantation for a time, came into camp.
Percy and I were acting as sentinels when he first arrived, and, fearing some treachery, for he was a stranger to us, would have prevented him from even speaking with one of our officers, had he not referred to his services under our father's brother with such minuteness of detail that we could not longer remain incredulous.
I conducted him to where General Marion and Major James sat upon the ground amid a clump of bushes discussing plans for the next day's work, and had hardly more than saluted when a great light flashed up on the western sky.
"It is the flames of my dwelling," Colonel Richardson exclaimed bitterly, even before the general and the major had time to welcome him. "Tarleton's Legion is within five miles, bent now as ever upon their work of devastation!"