It was supposed they would enable Colonel Armand to resist the shock; and his orders were positive to maintain his ground against the cavalry, whatever their numbers might be.[32] [Footnote 32: Journal of Colonel Williams.] At the time of communicating these orders to Colonel Otho H.Williams, the Deputy Adjutant General, Gates, showed him a rough estimate of the army, making it upwards of seven thousand.

Convinced that this estimate was exaggerated, Colonel Williams availed himself of his means of information to make an abstract of the whole, which he presented to the general, and which exhibited exactly three thousand and fifty-two in the column of present fit for duty, of whom more than two-thirds were militia.

Gates expressed some surprise at the numbers, but said, "there are enough for our purpose," and directed the orders to be issued to the army.

About ten at night, the line of march was taken up, and the army had advanced about half way to Camden, when a firing commenced in front.[33] [Footnote 33: Journal of Colonel Williams.] Intelligence of the approach of the American army, and of the defection of the country between Pedee and the Black River, had been communicated to Lord Cornwallis, and had induced him to hasten in person to Camden, which place he reached the day Gates arrived at Clermont.
The British army did not much exceed two thousand men, of whom about nineteen hundred were regulars; but, as the whole country was rising, Lord Cornwallis apprehended that every day would strengthen his enemy, and therefore determined to attack him in his camp; hoping, by a prompt execution of this resolution, to surprise him.

By one of those caprices of fortune on which great events often depend, he marched from Camden to attack Gates in Clermont, at the very hour that Gates moved from that place towards Camden.[34] [Footnote 34: Journal of Colonel Williams.] [Sidenote: August 16.] About half past two in the morning, the advanced parties of the hostile armies, to their mutual surprise, met in the woods, and began to skirmish with each other.