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LIEUTENANT COLONEL COMMANDANT OF THE PARTISAN LEGION
DURING THE AMERICAN WAR.

Quæque ipse miserrima vidi

Et quorum pars fui.

VIRGIL.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA:

PUBLISHED BY BRADFORD AND INSKEEP;

AND

INSKEEP AND BRADFORD, NEW YORK.
Fry and Kammerer, Printers.

1812.

S.G

Checked
May 1913

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L. S.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the fifth day of September, in the thirty-sixth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D 1812, Bradford and Inskeep, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors in the words following, to wit:

"Memoirs of the war in the Southern Department of the United States. By Henry Lee, lieutenant colonel commandant of the Partisan Legion during the American war.

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In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, intituled "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act, entitled, “An act supplementary to an act, entitled, An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL,

Clerk of the district of Pennsylvania.

MEMOIRS OF THE WAR

IN THE

SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER I.

THE determination of the mind, to relinquish the soft scenes of tranquil life for the rough adventures of war, is generally attended with the conviction that the act is laudable; and with a wish, that its honorable exertions should be faithfully transmitted to posterity. These sentiments lead to the cultivation of virtue; and the effect of the one is magnified by the accomplishment of the other. In usefulness to society, the degree is inconsiderable between the conduct of him who performs great achievements, and of him whorecords them; for short must be the remembrance, circumscribed the influence, of patriotic exertions and heroic exploits, unless the patient historian retrieves them from oblivion, and holds them up conspicuously to future ages. "Sæpè audivi, says Sallust, Q. Maximum, P. Scipionem, præterea civitatis nostræ præclaros vi. VOL. I.

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ros, solitos ita dicere, cùm majorum imagines intuerentur, vehementissimè sibi animum ad virtutem accendi. Scilicet non ceram illam, neque figuram tantam vim in sese habere; sed memoriâ rerum gestarum eam flammam egregiis viris in pectore crescere, neque priùs sedari, quàm virtus eorum famam atque gloriam adæquaverit."*-Sall. Bell. Jugur.

Regretting, as we all do, that not one of the chief actors in our camp or cabinet, and indeed very few of our fellow citizens, have attempted to unfold the rise, or to illustrate the progress and termination of our revolution, I have been led to this my undertaking with a hope of contributing, in some degree, to repair the effects of this much lamented indifference. With this view, I am about to write memoirs of the southern campaigns, being that part of the war with which I am best acquainted, and which in its progress and issue materially contributed to our final success, and to the enlargement of our military fame. Desirous of investing the reader with a full and clear understanding of the operations to be described, I shall commence these memoirs at the beginning. of the third year of

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* "Often have I heard," says Sallust, that Quintus Maximus, Publius Scipio, and other renowned men of our commonwealth, used to say that whenever they beheld the images of their ancestors, they felt their minds vehemently excited to virtue. It could not be the wax or the marble which possessed this power; but the recollection of their great actions kindled a generous flame in their breasts, not to be quelled, till they also by virtue had acquired equal fame and glory."

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