Battle of Camden

On August 16, 1780, British forces under General Charles Cornwallis crushed the American army under General Horatio Gates near Camden, South Carolina. Gates's army collapsed after militia on the American left broke under British pressure, while Maryland and Delaware Continentals fought hard before retreating. The defeat left the southern department in crisis and made Camden one of the worst American battlefield losses of the war.

Camden intensified the political and military problem created by Britain's southern strategy after the fall of Charleston in 1780. Congress had hoped Gates could rally the Carolinas, but the battle instead showed how fragile militia-heavy armies remained against experienced British regulars. The loss also discredited Gates and forced American leaders to reconsider how the southern war would be fought.

After Camden, Congress replaced Gates with Nathanael Greene in October 1780 and reorganized the southern army. Greene's later campaigns at Cowpens and Guilford Court House grew directly out of the disaster at Camden and helped wear down Cornwallis before Yorktown.