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OF

GEORGE WASHINGTON,

COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE

AMERICAN FORCES,

JURING THE WAR WHICH ESTABLISHED THE INDEPENDENCE OF HIS COUNTRY,

AND FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE

UNITED STATES.

COMPILED UNDER THE INSPECTION OF

THE HONOURABLE BUSHROD WASHINGTON,

From Original Papers

BEQUEATHED TO HIM BY HIS DECEASED RELATIVE.

BY JOHN MARSHALL

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

PHILADELPHIA:

PUBLISHED BY CRISSY & MARKLEY,

AND THOMAS, COWPERTH WAIT AND CO

1848.

40872A

Entered according to act of congress, in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-one, by Carey & Lea, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

STEREOTYPED BY J. CRISSY AND G. GOODMAN.

Printed by T K. & P. G. Collins.

THE LIFE

OF

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

CHAPTER I.

Greene invests Camden.-Battle of Hobkirk's Hill.-Progress of Marion and Lee.Lord Rawdon retires into the lower country.-Greene invests Ninety Six.-Is repulsed.-Retires from that place.-Active movements of the two armies.-After a short repose they resume active operations.-Battle of Eutaw.-The British army retires towards Charleston.

IN South Carolina and Georgia, the campaign of 1781 was uncommonly active. The importance of the object, the perseverance with which it was pursued, the talents of the generals, the courage, activity, and sufferings of the armies, and the accumulated miseries of the inhabitants, gave to the contest for these states, a degree of interest seldom bestowed on military transactions, in which greater numbers have not been employed.

When Lord Cornwallis entered North Carolina, the military operations in the more southern states were committed to Lord Rawdon. For the preservation of his power, a line of posts slightly fortified had been continued from Charleston, by the way of Camden and Ninety Six, to Augusta, in Georgia. The spirit of resistance was still kept up in the north-western and north-eastern parts of the state, by Generals Sumpter and Marion, who respectively commanded a corps of militia. Their exertions, though great, seem not to have been successful; and they excited no alarm, because no addition to their strength was apprehended.

Such was the situation of the country when General Greene formed the bold resolution of endeavouring to reannex it to the American union. His army consisted of about eighteen hundred men. The prospect of procuring subsistence was unpromising, and the chance of reinforcements precarious. He was apprized of the dangers to be encountered, but be lieved it to be for the public interest to meet them. "I shall take every measure," said this gallant officer, in a letter communicating his plan of operations to General Washington, "to avoid a misfortune. But neces

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