Gates had superior numbers and could probably
have taken Camden by a rapid movement; but the man had no real
stomach for fighting. He delayed until, on the 14th of August,
Cornwallis arrived at Camden with reinforcements and with the
fixed resolve to attack Gates before Gates attacked him. On the
early morning of the 16th of August, Cornwallis with two thousand
men marching northward between swamps on both flanks, met Gates
with three thousand marching southward, each of them intending to
surprise the other. A fierce struggle followed. Gates was
completely routed with a thousand casualties, a thousand
prisoners, and the loss of nearly the whole of his guns and
transport. The fleeing army was pursued for twenty miles by the
relentless Tarleton. General Kalb, who had done much to organize
the American army, was killed. The enemies of Gates jeered at his
riding away with the fugitives and hardly drawing rein until
after four days he was at Hillsborough, two hundred miles away.
His defense was that he "proceeded with all possible despatch,"
which he certainly did, to the nearest point where he could
reorganize his forces. His career was, however, ended. He was
deprived of his command, and Washington appointed to succeed him
General Nathanael Greene.
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