Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/27

Rh Carolina with five regiments of regulars and ten provincial corps. Communications with the main army were fairly secure until the middle of March, when all trace of it was lost and Rawdon had to act for himself. Cornwallis did not disguise from himself that he left the troops in the south in great danger, and exposed to attack from Greene who was free to operate against them. He had good cause for extreme anxiety, for Rawdon's position was most critical; the British forces were weak, the country to be held was large, and the detachments necessarily far apart, a hostile column was in front, irregular detachments were threatening the flanks, and the population was rising in the rear. A few points only of the interesting operations which followed can be noted here, but sufficient, it is hoped, to show the temper and the quality of the man (who was in the future to govern the Indian Empire), when pitted against the general considered by the Americans to be second only to Washington himself.

Rawdon's first care was to concentrate, and he resolved to do so at Camden; but before he could accomplish this operation, Greene appeared in the neighbourhood with 1,800 men. Fearing lest he should soon be reinforced, and seizing a favourable opportunity, the British commander advanced with only 800 men, and surprised him at Hobkirk's Hill, where he was strongly posted (25th April). The British troops took a circuitous route through thick woods, and were obliged to move on a narrow front; the