A few days afterwards disastrous news reached Gates, and about 200 men, the collected fragments of his late considerable force, now assembled in the Valley of Wateree in North Carolina, about eighty miles from the scene of their terrible defeat. This was, that Sumter, having fled with his followers to the same district, had been pursued by the rapid and merciless Tarleton, in whose furious career more than half his cavalry had broken down. Coming with the remainder in hot speed upon the camp of the partisan leader, who, believing himself safe, had relaxed his guard, he had been surprised, his prisoners released, 300 of his own men captured, and 150 killed, while he himself narrowly escaped with his life. The Carolinas might now be considered subdued, for no organised American forces remained within them. To make the subjection more complete, and to awe the spirit of insurrection which had shown itself on Gates’ approach, Lord Cornwallis adopted measures of extreme severity. Orders were issued to hang every man now found in arms, who had formerly taken British protection, and several such persons having been discovered among Sumter’s followers, they were accordingly hanged on the spot. The property of all such as had left the province to avoid the British rule, and of all that held commissions under congress, was declared to be sequestrated, and Gadsden and forty other of the principal inhabitants of Charleston, suspected of having corresponded with their friends in arms, were put under arrest and sent prisoners to St. Augustine. These extreme measures, however, failed of their intended purpose. A reaction, as was sure to be the case, followed. The people, who had been awed into subjection, were now exasperated to revolt. Marion again had a ragged but formidable band under his control among the swamps of the Pedee, and Sumter presently collected a new force with which he harassed the north-western districts, and in which he was aided by volunteers from the mountains. Both were now commissioned as generals, and a guerilla warfare was kept up by them.[33]