poem · by a contemporary
Poems relating to the American revolution
Philip Morin Freneau (1752–1832), 1865
Named on the page for Battle of Camden.
machine-read Machine-read (OCR) from a scanned book at the Internet Archive: expect misread words and names. The scan itself is at the library.
draft Matched to the battle automatically; not yet reviewed.
Passages that name the battle; the whole collection is at Internet Archive.
16 August 1780
Battle of Camden
TO LORD CORNWALLIS,
Like his, to freedom was your deadly hate,
Like his your bafcnefs, and be his your fate :
To you, like him, no profpeft Nature yields
But ruin'd waftes and defolated fields —
In vain you raife the interpofmg wall,
And hoift thofe ftandards that, like you, muft fall,* Charles, M.irquis of Cornwallis, came to New York with his regiment in
1776. After ferving for a whilr as Major-General in the campaigns in the
Jerfeys, he was engaged in the expedition to the Chefapeake, and fubfequently,
in 1780, in the fiege of Charleston, S. C., which ended in its furrcnder. Left in
command in the State, he fought the battles of Camden and Guilford, making
his way northerly, with his army, through the Carolinas to Virginia, where he
maintained himfelf in a fortified pofition, at Yorktown, till he was compelled to
furrendcr to Washington, in October, 1781. Cornwallis was at this time at the
age of forty-three. His fubfequcnt career, in India, was diftinguiftied. He was
in 1798 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In 1805 he was lent to India, as Gov
ernor-General, and died Shortly after his arrival at Calcutta.TO LORD CORNWALLIS. 121
BRITISH FROM CHARLESTON. 245
BRITISH FROM CHARLESTON. 245
Like the bold eagle, from the Ikies
That ftoops, to feize his trembling prize,
He darted on the {laves of kings
At Camden heights and Eutaw Springs.Ah ! had our friends that led the fray
Surviv'd the ruins of that day,
We mould not damp our joy with pain,
Nor, fympathifing, now complain.
Public domain. Text from Internet Archive.