[1115] Good accounts of this affair are in Marshall's Washington, iv. 208, and Lossing, Field-Book, ii. 458.
[1116] It was reprinted by Wheeler in his North Carolina, ii. 227, and in an abbreviated form in Hunter's Sketches of Western North Carolina, p. 206. It forms the basis of the account in Dawson, Battles, i. 592. See also Historical Magazine, xii. 24.
[1117] They can also be found in full in the Ninth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS., Appendix, iii. p. 103; Cornwallis Correspondence, i. 488 and 492; Tarleton, 128; Annual Register (1780), under Principal Occurrences, p. 72; and Political Magazine, i. 675, 678. The second one is in the Remembrancer, x. 267; Tarleton, 128; Gentleman's Magazine for Oct., 1780; and in many other places. Not long before the battle, Gates supposed himself to be at the head of 7,000 men,—Williams in Johnson's Greene, i. 493,—while an estimate found in De Kalb's pocket (Remembrancer, x. 279) gives the size of the American army at some day before the battle at 6,000, less 500 deserters. In this estimate the Virginians were reckoned at 1,400,—twice their real number. Jefferson in "Memoranda" (Giradin, iv. 400) gives the total at 2,800,—the North Carolina militia being rated at 1,000, far below their real strength. Williams (Narrative, in Johnson's Greene) gives the "rank and file present and fit for duty" as 3,052. Gordon gives the total, including officers, as 3,663. If we add to this number the light infantry and cavalry we get a total of 4,033 men of all arms. This is probably as correct an estimate as can be made. Cf. J. A. Stevens in Mag. Am. Hist. (v. 267), where the subject is fully discussed.
Cornwallis had in the engagement itself 2,239 men, of whom 500 were militia. Cf. Field Return of the troops under the command of Lieutenant-general Earl Cornwallis, on the night of the 15th of August, 1780, in Remembrancer, x. 271, etc. This is given by Beatson, Memoirs, vi. 211, as Return of troops ... at the Battle of Camden.
As to the American loss, it appears that Cornwallis, without taking much pains to inquire, wrote to Germain that between 800 and 900 of the enemy were killed and wounded, about 1,000 being prisoners. Even supposing the wounded to have been counted twice, this is too high. Only three Virginia and sixty-three North Carolina militiamen are anywhere reported as wounded, while none were killed. In fact, from their speedy dispersal the militia loss must have been very slight. In any correct return they would have appeared as missing. But no attempt at such a return was made. The nearest approach to it is A List of Continental Officers, killed, captivated, wounded, and missing in the actions of the 16 and 18 August, 1780. This is signed by Otho H. Williams, and is in Remembrancer, x. 338; Ramsay, Rev. in S. C., ii. 454. It is erroneously printed in the N. E. Hist. Geneal. Reg., xxvii. 376, as a Return of the Killed, wounded, captured, and missing at the Battle of Camden, which it certainly is not. There were between ten and twelve hundred Continentals present. They bore the brunt of the action and suffered nearly all the loss. Yet Gates wrote on the 29th of August that "seven hundred non-commissioned officers and men of the Maryland division have rejoined the army." See, also, Williams in Johnson's Greene, i. 505. In view of this it seems that even Gordon's estimate of 730 is too high, while Cornwallis's figures are simply ridiculous. He certainly did not overstate his own loss when he gave it as 68 killed, 245 wounded, and 11 missing, or 324 in all. Cf. return usually annexed to his report, and printed separately by Beatson in his Memoirs, vi. 211.
[1118] A mystery surrounds the life of De Kalb. But he died as became a man of worth and honor. The fullest account of his career is The Life of John Kalb, Major-general in the Revolutionary Army, by Friedrich Kapp, "privately printed" in New York in 1870. In 1884 there seemed to be a revival of interest in the hero of Camden, and the volume was published. It is a translation of Kapp's Leben des Amerikanischen Generals Johann Kalb, Stuttgart, 1862. An earlier notice was the Memoir of the Baron de Kalb read at the meeting of the Maryland Historical Society 7 January, 1858, by J. Spear Smith. Both Kapp and Smith, from whom Kapp quotes, are unwarrantably severe on Gates, as, too, is G. W. Greene in his German Element in the War of American Independence, N. Y., 1876, pp. 89-167. See, also, Thomas Wilson, The Biography of the Principal American Military and Naval Heroes, N. Y., 1817; Headley, Generals, ii. 318; Lee, Memoirs, i. 378, etc. For an account of the monument to De Kalb, see H. P. Johnston in Mag. Amer. Hist., ix. 183.
[1119] The whole letter is interesting,—Third Report of Hist. MSS. Com., Appendix, p. 430; a portion was reprinted in Mag. Amer. Hist., vii. 496, and copied thence by Kapp in his Life of John Kalb, p. 322.
[1120] Printed under the title of Gates's Southern Campaign in Hist. Mag., x. 244-253.
[1121] There is an extract in the Mag. Amer. Hist., v. 258. The whole is copied in the Sparks MSS., xx., from the Gates Papers.
[1122] The editors of Jefferson's Works (q. v. i. 249) omitted this on the ground that the "circumstances of the defeat of General Gates's army near Camden" are of "historical notoriety." Cf. Giradin's Continuation, iv. 398, where an account probably identical with this is given. It is one of the best descriptions.