Preface.
During the siege of Charleston, in May, 1780, the grammar school at
Salem, on Black river, where I had been placed by my father, Major JOHN
JAMES, broke up; and I was compelled to abandon my school boy studies,
and become a militia man, at the age of fifteen. At that time of life it was a
great loss; but still I was so fortunate as to have General MARION as my
commander, and my much honoured father, who was a sincere christian,
as my adviser and protector. I do not intend to write a history of my own
life; but it was thus, that I became in a great measure an eye witness of the
scenes hereafter described; and what I did not see, I often heard from
others in whom confidence could be placed. I felt an early inclination to
record these events; but Major WEMYSS burnt all my stock of paper, and
my little classical library, in my father\'s house; and, for two years and a
half afterwards, I had not the common implements of writing or of reading.
This may appear strange at present; but it is a fact, that even our general,
when sending out a patrole, would request the officer to try to get him a
quire of paper. After the war, other active pursuits prevented me from
indulging my inclination; and the public attention, being long fixed upon
the bloody wars and great battles in Europe, had lost all relish for our
revolutionary history, and its comparatively little conflicts. However,
when Dr. RAMSAY announced that he was about to publish his history of
South Carolina, I hastily sketched out from memory a short history of
MARION\'S brigade, for him; which he inserted in fifteen pages of his first
volume. This brings it down no lower than the arrival of General
GREENE in South Carolina. Fortunately the events of the late war revived
the national spirit, and with that a taste for our own history; by it too, my
inclination was renewed to communicate that of MARION\'S brigade.
However, I still wanted materials to confide in more certain than memory.