This Day in History: August 21

Extract. -- From Earl Cornwallis to Lord George Germain, dated Camden, August 21, 1780.

On the morning of the 17th I dispatched proper people into North Carolina, with directions to our friends there to take arms and assemble immediately, and to seize the most violent people and all military stores and magazines belonging to the rebels, and to intercept all stragglers from the routed army; and I have promised to march without loss of time to their support. Some necessary supplies for the army are now on their way from Charles town, and I hope that their arrival will enable me to move in a few days. [More]