MY LORD,--I have been here near a week, establishing a post. I wrote to you to Charleston, and by another messenger, by land. I cannot hear, for a certainty, where you are: I wait your orders. The bearer is to be handsomely rewarded, if he brings me any note or mark from your Lordship. A. L. [95] [Probably addressed to General Gates.] [96] [After the battle of Camden--August 16th, 1780--Congress removed General Gates from the command of the Southern army, and placed General Green at its head. In December, 1780, he assumed the command.] [97] [One of the Convention prisoners, in Albemarle.] [98] [This letter has no address, but it was probably to General Muhlenburg.] [99] [Governor of North Carolina.] [100] [General Greene, after taking command of the Southern army, divided his force, and sent one division of it, under General Morgan, to the western part of South Carolina. Cornwallis, who was now nearly prepared to invade North Carolina, unwilling to leave Morgan in his rear, sent Tarleton in pursuit of him. The two detachments met on the 17th of January, 1781, when the battle of Cowpens was fought, and Tarleton defeated. Cornwallis, after the defeat of Tarleton, abandoned the invasion of North Carolina for the present, and started in pursuit of Morgan. Greene, suspecting his intention, hastened to join Morgan, and, after a fatiguing march, effected a junction at Guilford Court House. During this march he was closely pursued by Cornwallis, who, as stated in the above letter, "burnt his own wagons in order to enable himself to move with greater facility." After this junction at Guilford Court House, Greene crossed the Dan, into Virginia--again narrowly escaping the pursuit of Cornwallis, who now retired to Hillsborough, where, erecting the royal standard, he issued his proclamation, inviting the loyalists to join him, and sent Tarleton with a detachment to support a body of them collected between the Havre and Deep Rivers. Greene, having despatched Generals Pickens and Lee to watch the movements of Tarleton, and having been reinforced in Virginia, now returned into North Carolina, and fought the battle of Guilford Court House on the 8th of March, 1781.--ED.] [101] [M. de Marbois was attached to the French Legation in Philadelphia.--ED.] [102] [On the 15th of June, 1781, Mr. Jefferson was appointed, with Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, and Mr. Laurens, Minister Plenipotentiary for negotiating peace, then expected to be effected through the mediation of the Empress of Russia--ED.]