intended operations.[2]

[Footnote 2: This account of the battle of Hobkirk's Hill
varies in several particulars from that contained in the
first edition. In making the alteration the author has
followed the letter of General Davie, published in Mr.
Johnson's biography of General Greene. General Davie was
known to the author to be a gentleman in whose
representations great confidence is to be placed on every
account, and his situation in the army enabled him to obtain
the best information.]

The artillery, however, played on the enemy with considerable effect;
and the regiments of Gunby and Hawes advanced on the British front
with resolution. Some companies on the right of the Maryland regiment
returned the fire of the enemy, and their example was followed by the
others. Notwithstanding this departure from orders, they continued to
advance with intrepidity, and Greene entertained sanguine hopes of
victory. His prospects were blasted by one of those incidents against
which military prudence can make no provision.

Captain Beaty, who commanded on the right of Gunby's regiment, was
killed, upon which his company with that adjoining it got into
confusion and dropped out of the line. Gunby ordered the other
companies, which were still advancing, to fall back, and form, with
the two companies, behind the hill which the British were ascending.
This retrograde movement was mistaken for a retreat, and the regiment
gave way. Encouraged by this circumstance, the British pressed forward
with increased ardour, and all the efforts of Colonel Williams, and of
Gunby and Howard, to rally the regiment were, for a time, ineffectual.