Southern Campaign
After the unsuccessful attempt to capture Savannah, Georgia, under the command of General Benjamin Lincoln, the Southern Department of the Continental Army retreated to Charleston, South Carolina. General Sir Henry Clinton moved his forces, surrounded the city where Lincoln's army was located and cut off any chance of relief for the Continental Army. Prior to his surrender, Lincoln had been able to get messages to General Washington and Congress requesting aid. At the end of April 1780, Washington dispatched General Johann de Kalb with 1,400 Maryland and Delaware troops. The Maryland Line made up a large portion of this force, with Williams serving in the post of Adjutant general to General De Kalb.
General de Kalb's forces took almost a month to descend the Chesapeake Bay and did not arrive in Petersburg, Virginia until the middle of June, almost a month after Lincoln had surrendered his army. The Continental Congress appointed Horatio Gates to command the Southern Department. He assumed command on July 25, 1780 and immediately marched into South Carolina with the intent of engaging the British Army, now under the command of Charles Cornwallis. Williams served as Deputy Adjutant-General under Gates.
Read more about this topic: Otho Holland Williams
Famous quotes containing the words southern and/or campaign:
“My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white;”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“The fact that a man is to vote forces him to think. You may preach to a congregation by the year and not affect its thought because it is not called upon for definite action. But throw your subject into a campaign and it becomes a challenge.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)