Smith David - Camden 1780: the annihilation of Gates grand army

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Osprey Publishing,

PO Box 883, Oxford, OX1 9PL, UK

PO Box 3985, New York, NY 10185-3985, USA

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This electronic edition published in 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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2016 Osprey Publishing Ltd

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You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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ISBN: 978-1-4728-1285-8

PDF e-book ISBN: 978-1-4728-1286-5

e-Pub ISBN: 978-1-4728-1287-2

Editorial by Ilios Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK (www.iliospublishing.com)

Maps by Bounford.com

3D birds-eye views by The Black Spot

Battlescene illustrations by Graham Turner

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my family Shirley, Harry and Josh.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank various people for their help in the preparation of this book: Stuart Morgan for his excellent battlefield photography, David Reuwer for his expertise and guidance, Werner Willis and Don Troiani for their magnificent artwork, Chris Mlynarczyk of the 1st Delaware Regiment organization, Peter Harrington of the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Mary Jo Fairchild from the Addlestone Library, Joanna Craig from the Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site, Tracie Logan from the United States Naval Academy Museum and Marcus Cowper of Ilios Publishing.

ARTISTS NOTE

Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the color plates in this book were prepared are available for private sale. The Publishers retain all reproduction copyright whatsoever. All enquiries should be addressed to:

Graham Turner

PO Box 568

Aylesbury

Buckinghamshire

HP17 8ZX

UK

www.studio88.co.uk

The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence upon this matter.

THE WOODLAND TRUST

Osprey Publishing are supporting the Woodland Trust, the UKs leading woodland conservation charity, by funding the dedication of trees.

CONTENTS

1.27 February 1776: battle of Moores Creek Bridge.

2.1 June21 July 1776: Clintons failed assault on Sullivans Island.

3.29 December 1778: British take Savannah.

4.5 May24 May 1779: first Tobacco Raid in Virginia.

5.16 September9 October 1779: British resist Franco-American siege and assault at Savannah.

ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN

The campaign of 1780 had a long gestation period. The surrender of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, in October 1777, had fundamentally altered the landscape of the War of Independence, and it was upon this new landscape that British planning now had to operate. The loss of an entire army was a shocking blow and underlined the fact that the previous strategy had not worked.

A period of soul searching followed, as ministers and generals considered a new approach to the war. The major issue at hand was the increasing likelihood that the French would openly enter the war on the side of the colonists. French support had been important from the commencement of hostilities, but the arrival of French ground and (especially) sea forces in North America would drastically change the nature of the war. The American victory at Saratoga was just the sort of thing that might tempt the French to commit themselves openly to the rebel cause.

If, or more likely when, that happened, Britain would find itself painfully stretched. The rebels had proved resilient enough on their own during the first two campaigns of the war, but naval supremacy had remained one of the major cards in Britains hand. A French fleet in North American waters would be a frightening prospect and could threaten any of the British garrisons scattered through the colonies.

Of even more concern was the potential threat to British possessions in the West Indies. These were far more important, economically, than the North American colonies, and British forces, already spread thinly, would need to be relocated to protect Jamaica and a clutch of smaller islands in the Lesser Antilles: Barbuda, Antigua, St Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Barbados, St Vincent, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Dominica. Given the near certainty of French intervention in the war, it is remarkable that British planning initially took the hopeful view that it might not happen. Plans were initially made on the assumption that French forces would not arrive to complicate matters.