General Gates had been sent by Washington, with a strong force from the North, for the relief of the southern provinces. The season was unhealthy; they marched through a barren and disaffected country, were greatly in want of food, and eating unripe peaches and green corn which soon produced disease, their numbers were sadly weakened and thinned. In the meantime De Kalb, with the Delaware and Maryland regiments, marching south with the same object, suffered equally, collecting their own supplies on the march—lean cattle from the canebrakes and Indian corn, the only grain of those regions.[32] The approach of Gates raised the hopes of the patriots of South Carolina, and Colonel Sumter, who had fled with his partisan-band to North Carolina, on the late triumphs of the British, returned with his fearless followers and made successful attacks on the British posts; while Marion, another bold leader, issuing from the swamps of the Lower Pedee with a number of only half-clad men, began to attack their outposts with equal success. These partisan-bands having joined Gates, he advanced from Clermont, about thirteen miles distant from Camden, on the 5th of August, with the intention of surprising the British camp; while Cornwallis, who had, on his junction with Rawdon, assumed the command, was advancing from Camden with the design of surprising the Americans. The next morning by break of day the two armies encountered each other. Although the Americans greatly outnumbered the British, Gates’ militia, which were new to the field, on the first charge of the British bayonets threw down their arms and fled, General Gates and Governor Casswell being fairly carried off the field by the fugitives, whom they could not rally. In vain did the better disciplined and more experienced regiments of Maryland and Delaware sustain their ground with firmness, and even compel the enemy to retire; they too, being attacked in flank and De Kalb their leader mortally wounded, were broken and fled. The pursuit lasted for twenty-eight miles; every corps, says Hildreth, was scattered; men and officers, separated from each other, fled singly or in small parties through the woods. The road was strewn with killed and wounded. Arms, knapsacks, broken-down wagons and dead horses scattered the road for many miles. Of the Americans, 900 were killed, and about the same number taken prisoners, many of whom were wounded. The British lost only between 300 and 400 men.