The War in the Northwest 353 



Sumter and Marion, often embodied in their own 

 ranks some of their prisoners, and these were of 

 course regarded as deserters by their former com- 

 rades. Cornwallis, seconded by Rawdon, had set 

 the example of ordering all men found in the rebel 

 ranks after having sworn allegiance to the king, to 

 be hanged ; his under-officers executed the command 

 with zeal, and the Americans, of course, retaliated. 

 Ferguson's troops themselves had hanged some of 

 their prisoners. 82 



All this was fresh in the minds of the Americans 

 who had just won so decisive a victory. They were 

 accustomed to give full vent to the unbridled fury of 

 their passions ; they with difficulty brooked control ; 

 they brooded long over their own wrongs, which 

 were many and real, and they were but little im- 

 pressed by the misdeeds committed in return. by their 

 friends. Inflamed by hatred and the thirst for ven- 

 geance, they would probably have put to death some 

 of their prisoners in any event ; but all doubt was at 

 an end when on their return march they were joined 

 by an officer who had escaped from before Augusta, 

 and who brought word that Cruger's victorious loy- 

 alists had hanged a dozen of the captured patriots. 83 

 This news settled the doom of some of the tory pris- 

 oners. A week after the battle a number of them 

 were tried. Thirty were condemned to death. Nine, 



82 Allaire's diary, entry for Aug. aoth; also see Aug. 2d. 

 He chronicles these hangings with much complacency, but 

 is, of course, shocked at the "infamous" conduct of the 

 Americans when they do likewise. 



83 Shelby MS. 



