Battle Of Camden Essay

Battle of Camden

The Battle of Camden was fought on the morning of August 16, 1780. It was a battle between the British and the Americans. Major General Horatio Gates was the American Commander and Major General Charles Cornwallis was the British Commander. The Americans had 3,052 troops versus the British who had 2,240 troops. With the difference in troops one would assume the British were slaughtered however, the British won the Battle of Camden. The “Southern Strategy” helped promote man power, support, and knowledge of area for the British. The British defeated the Continental Army purely based upon poor leadership, poor strategy and inexperience.

To begin with, the Continental Army had, to this point, been victorious in both New York

Cavalry units from each side stumbled upon each other and decided to retreat to wait for daylight. This is where Gates’s poor strategy came into play. He discovered that he would be fighting an experienced British Army under the command of Cornwallis. Instead of retreating, or regrouping, Gates decided that he would fight the British there. The terrain was horrible. It was cut into a narrow field by the swamps of Gum Creek. This left little to no maneuver room for Gates. He also decided that he would put his most inexperienced soldiers, 900 Maryland and Delaware infantrymen on his left flank. These militiamen would be facing off against Cornwallis’s most experienced under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Webster. General Gates had his artillery spread out instead of concentrating in the center and had his cavalry directly behind the inexperienced Maryland and Delaware militia. Cornwallis, on the other hand, had all his artillery grouped in the center of his line with his extremely aggressive and experienced cavalry in reserve. When the British attacked, they struck with their right flank against the Colonial left. The militiamen on that side, seeing a well-disciplined, aggressive force coming toward them, threw down their arms and retreated without firing a shot. Seeing this, the panic spread to the Virginian militia and then to the North Carolina militia. By this time, the

Had General Gates been more experienced, he would have known to listen to the officers in his command and picked a better route to Camden. This would have kept his soldiers healthy and built their confidence in him. They would have been more willing to fight under a commander who took care of them. He also would have known that the British usually placed their most experienced units on their right flank and would not have placed his unreliable, inexperienced militia on his left. Also, with more experience, he would not have spread his artillery. He would have centralized it, hoping to punch a hole through the British line and pushed his soldiers through. Finally, knowing that he placed his inexperienced troops to his left, he would have tried to rally them, instead of running away like them at the first sign of British forces. Instead of running from their charge, he would have just had his soldiers on the left fire into them and hope to stop their assault that way. All in all, he should have never left his subordinates to fight the battle for him. His actions were questioned by the Continental Congress and was relieved by Major General Nathanael Greene. He was cleared of any wrongdoing but would not hold another command. Eventually, he would end up on General Washington’s staff, just in time for the end of the war. The outcome of the battle and Gates’s cowardice struck a