There would have been some redeeming circumstances to qualify the catastrophe.

All would not have been lost.

At all events, with Marion at their head, the militia would have fought awhile,--would have discharged their pieces, once, twice, thrice, before they fled.

They would have done for the born-leader of militia, what they refused to do for a commander who neither knew how to esteem, nor how to conduct them.
It was while Marion was in the camp of Gates, that a messenger from the Whigs of Williamsburg, then newly risen in arms, summoned him to be their leader.

It was in consequence of this invitation, and not because of the awkwardness of his position there, that he determined to penetrate into South Carolina, in advance of the American army.