It will be remembered that Baron De Kalb left Morristown on the sixteenth of the previous April with reënforcements for the Southern army. On the sixth of July, he reached Buffalo Ford and Deep River, N.C. On the twenty-fifth, Gates, who had been assigned to command of the Southern Department, joined him. “Away from Washington,” Baron De Kalb experienced deeply the sentiment of unreasonable, but perhaps natural jealousy of foreign officers which pervaded portions of the American army; and General Caswell, in defiance of positive orders to report to Baron De Kalb, marched directly to Camden and reported to General Gates. It had been De Kalb’s purpose, as an experienced soldier, to advance by Charlotte and Salisbury, where supplies could be readily obtained. “General Gates,” says Irving, “on the twenty-seventh, put what he called the ‘Grand Army’ on its march through a barren country which could offer no food but lean cattle, fruit, and unripe maize.” The Battle of Camden, or “Sanders’ Creek,” which followed, was a complete rout. Baron De Kalb fought with the utmost confidence and bravery, but fell upon the field, after having been eleven times wounded. Any support whatever, on the part of Gates, would have secured victory, or a well-balanced action. Gates overestimated his own force; refused to examine his Adjutant-General’s statement, or to consider the advice of his officers, who understood exactly the true condition of the crude material which he styled his “Grand Army,” and fled from the battlefield at full speed. He did not halt until reaching Charlotte, sixty miles away; and by the twentieth reached Hillsborough, one hundred and eighty miles distant, without gathering a sufficient force to form an escort. He said that he was “carried away from the field by a torrent of flying soldiers.” His self-conceit and presumption, like that of Lee, on account of having once served in the British army, and his utter want of every soldierly quality, except the negative sense of pride in having a personal command, were exposed to the American people without delay. He claimed to have made an attempt to rally his troops; but he had no influence whatever. During the Burgoyne campaign, he was never under fire; and Lee’s unheeded warning did indeed secure to his memory the wreath of “Southern willow, in place of that of laurel” which Congress had placed upon his brow, when the laurel had been earned by the brave and patriotic Schuyler. The troops of Delaware and Maryland alone would have saved the battle, if properly supported by Gates. The gallant Delaware Battalion which fought with De Kalb, was almost destroyed. The Maryland troops lost in killed, wounded and prisoners nearly four hundred, out of a total of fourteen hundred; but to their perpetual honor it is to be recorded, that of the number swept away in the final retreat of the whole army, seven hundred non-commissioned officers and privates reported for duty by the twenty-ninth of the month.