You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution. This week episode

259 the Battle of Camden. The last time we left our story at the end of July 1780,

with General Horatio Gates having taken command

of the Southern Army in North Carolina

and almost immediately beginning to march south toward the British

outpost at Camden in South Carolina. Gates had taken a particularly dangerous route to Camden through an area that was full of

Tories and short on supplies. He did so in hopes of reaching the outpost at Camden just over

the South Carolina border as quickly as possible.

British General Cornwallis had established a series of outposts throughout

South Carolina in order to pacify the population and to raise loyalist

militia. Cornwallis had remained in Charleston hoping to reestablish civilian

rule as a way of winning back the hearts and minds of the people of South Carolina

by returning things to normal as soon as possible. He established a loyalist newspaper in

Charleston and called on the royal governor to step up and lead the royal colony once again.

Governor Josiah Martin joined Cornwallis in Charleston, but he was really of little help.

After writing a proclamation for Cornwallis,

Governor Martin wrote the general a letter saying he was not a particularly competent leader.

Quote, your lordship knows, however, that provincial governors have not always been chosen in our country

for fitness and competence of their talents, and therefore will not be surprised to find me as ignorant as many of my

brethren in an office or more so. Cornwallis was a military officer and had little experience

as a civilian leader. He was growing

frustrated with the pressures of trying to run a colony. So when he got word

...