This request we have already laid before Congress who are willing to grant it, provided they shall have your approbation. Hoping therefore, that you have no particular intention to distress us more than others whom you have treated with Indulgence, we flatter ourselves that your determinations will prove no obstruction to our Enlargement on the above terms; and have transmitted to you the enclosed Copy of the Resolve of Congress in our favor, which if you countenance; it will meet with the warmest acknowledgement of Gentn. Your most obedt. humble Servts., Alexander Morison, Ferqd. Campbell, Alexr. Macleod, Alexr. McKay, James Macdonald, John McDonald, Murdoch Macleod, John Murchison, John Bethune, Neill McArthur, John Smith, Murdo MacCaskill, John McLeod, Alexr. McDonald, Angus McDonald, John Ligett."[71] It was fully apparent to the Americans that so long as the leaders were prisoners there was no danger of another uprising among the Highlanders. This was fully tested by earl Cornwallis, who, after the battle of Guilford Courthouse, retreated towards the seaboard, stopping on the way at Cross Creek[72] hoping then to gain recruits from the Highlanders, but very few of whom responded to his call. In a letter addressed to Sir Henry Clinton, dated from his camp near Wilmington, April 10, 1781, he says: "On my arrival there (Cross Creek), I found, to my great mortification, and contrary to all former accounts, that it was impossible to procure any considerable quantity of provisions, and that there was not four days' forage within twenty miles. The navigation of Cape Fear, with the hopes of which I had been flattered was totally impracticable, the distance from Wilmington by water being one hundred and fifty miles, the breadth of the river seldom exceeding one hundred yards, the banks generally high, and the inhabitants on each side almost universally hostile. Under these circumstances I determined to move immediately to Wilmington. By this measure the Highlanders have not had so much time as the people of the upper country, to prove the sincerity of their former professions of friendship. But, though appearances are rather more favorable among them, I confess they are not equal to my expectations."[73] The Americans did not rest matters simply by confining the officers, but every precaution was taken to overawe them, not only by their parole, which nearly all implicitly obeyed, but also by armed force, for some militia was at once stationed at Cross Creek, which remained there until the Provincial Congress, on November 21, 1776, ordered it discharged.[74] General Charles Lee, who had taken charge of the Southern Department, on June 6, 1776, ordered Brigadier-General Lewis to take "as large a body of the regulars as can possibly be spared to march to Cross Creek, in North Carolina."[75]