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