Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

PHILADELPHIA.

July 15. During the siege of Charleston, fourteen hundred continental troops, consisting of the Delaware and Maryland line commanded by Major General Baron de Kalb, were by Congress ordered to the southward. They marched from head-quarters at Morristown, in New Jersey, on the 16th of April, 1780, embarked at the head of Elk in May, and landed soon after at Petersburg, Virginia, and from thence proceeded by land through the country towards South-Carolina. Virginia made great and effectual exertions to expedite the movements of this little army, but in North-Carolina little or no preparations were made for supporting the troops or transporting their baggage. The commissaries and quarter-masters complained that the want of cash and of credit were insuperable obstacles to the discharge of their duty. The American general found it necessary to make large detachments for impressing provisions. They misapplied violence in many cases; distressed the inhabitants, and greatly injured the service. The country was but thinly inhabited, and poorly cultivated. The last year's crop was nearly expended, and the present one was not sufficiently ripe. The troops subsisted principally on lean cattle collected in the woods. The officers were so distressed for flour, that they made use of hair-powder to thicken their soup, but soon found a savory substitute in green corn. Peaches were also used, and became a seasonable supply. The whole army was sometimes supplied for twenty-four hours in this way without either meat or flour. The sufferings and virtue of the American troops on this occasion are stated in a letter of Aug. 14, 1780, from Major-General Baron de Kalb to Chevalier de la Luzerne, the minister plenipotentiary from his most Christian Majesty to the United States, in the following words: "You here may judge of the virtues of our small army from the following fact: we have for several days lived on nothing but peaches, and I have not heard a complaint. There has been no desertion."