A Continental force from Virginia of four hundred men, under Col.

Beaufort,* had been dispatched to the relief of Charleston.

Beaufort had reached Camden before he was apprised of the surrender of that city.

This event properly determined him to retreat.

Earl Cornwallis, meanwhile, had taken the field with a force of twenty-five hundred men, and was then in rapid progress for the Santee.
Hearing of the advance of Beaufort, he dispatched Tarleton in quest of him, with a select body of infantry and cavalry, in all, seven hundred men.