As you know, Charleston was surrendered on terms which to some seemed honorable, while others declared them to be humiliating, and then came that proclamation from Sir Henry Clinton which aroused the ire of every person, young or old, male or female, in South Carolina. Following closely upon it, as if it were but the natural sequel, came the arrest of Lieutenant-Governor Gadsen and seventy-seven of the most influential men, thus giving all our people to understand how little of faith we could put in any declaration of those who had invaded our land. After that August morning, when we saw the chief men of the city marched away to the loathsome prison-ships in the harbor, there was but one desire in the hearts of those who hoped to see their State rid of the oppressive yoke which the king had put upon it, and that was to flee to some place where they might act the part they had sworn to act, and each do his full share toward making reprisals, for the victory of the king’s forces had well-nigh crushed out from our breasts the belief that we might make of the States so lately declared free and independent, a nation of freemen. I am not minded to go into detail concerning the flight of this family or that from the stricken city, as there is in the story so much of sorrow, or pain, ay, of shame, that it is not well to let the mind rest upon it. Rather should we think of what has been accomplished since, of how we wiped out the disgrace, if disgrace it can be called when our people were whipped through sheer strength of numbers rather than superior bravery or better knowledge of warfare. Suffice it to say that among those who did steal secretly out of the city, or tried to do so, vowing to avenge the wrongs that had been perpetrated, were Gabriel Marion and I. My mother and invalid father had set off for General Marion’s home on the very day after the capitulation, and I was left to follow my own inclinations so that they had the bent of my father’s advice, which was that, although not a man in years, it was my duty to do a man’s full work in striking off the shackles which the king’s misrule had fastened upon us. It was not as easy for two stout lads like Gabriel and myself to leave the city as it was for the women, the sick, or the helpless, and before we found an opportunity to give the redcoats the slip, word was brought by a negro, who had contrived to make his way through the British lines with a message of mouth, that General Marion, his broken leg having been healed and he made brigadier-general, had fled to Snow’s Island, where he awaited the coming of those who were eager to continue in arms against the victorious foe.