The other is Major McGill's letter to his father, written within eight miles of the scene of action.[1121]
McGill carried Gates's despatches to Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, and gave him an account of the battle, which formed part of a statement "of this unlucky affair, taken from letters from General Gates, General Stevens, and Governor Nash, and, as to some circumstances, from an officer [McGill] who was in the action."[1122]
Still another excellent narrative of the campaign is in A Journal of the Southern Expedition, 1780-83. By William Seymour (Penna. Mag. of Hist., vii. 286, 377), who was sergeant-major of the Delaware regiment. The journal begins at Petersburg, May 26, 1780, thus describing the whole movement.
CAMDEN, August 16, 1780.
Faden's map, dated March 1, 1787,—the same used in Tarleton (p. 108) and in Stedman (ii. 210) and in the latter dated Jan. 20, 1794. Key: 1. Three companies light infantry. 2. Twenty-third regiment. 3. Thirty-third regiment. 4. Volunteers of Ireland. 5. Infantry of the British Legion. 6. Hamilton's corps. 7. Bryan's corps. 8, 8. Two battalions, seventy-first regiment. 9. Dragoons, British Legion.
This same plan is re-engraved in the Mag. of Amer. Hist., v. 275, and in R. E. Lee's ed. of Henry Lee's Memoir of the War, etc., p. 182. The original MS. of the plan is among the Faden maps (no. 51) in the library of Congress. There is an eclectic plan in Carrington's Battles, p. 533; but the best of the modern maps is that by H. P. Johnston in Mag. of Amer. Hist., viii. 496. Cf. Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 466. The Political Mag., i. 731, has a map of the roads about Camden.—Ed.
There are numerous descriptions by persons who, though not actually present at the disaster, yet enjoyed exceptionally good advantages for obtaining correct information.[1123]
Of the earlier historians, Gordon (History, iii. 391 and 429) enjoyed the best advantages. He visited Gates in 1781 and used his papers. These MSS. had disappeared until a few years ago, when Dr. T. A. Emmet, whose grandfather was Gates's counsellor, found them in a garret. (Cf. Mag. Amer. Hist., v. 241.) A portion of this collection was printed in Ibid. v. 281; as to the value of those reserved I have been able to learn nothing. A large part of the papers printed consists merely of the orders issued during the campaign. The most important of these—technically termed "after-orders", giving the order for the movement which brought on the action—have been printed over and over again.[1124]