Returning to Port's Ferry, he threw up a redoubt on the east bank of the Pedee, upon which he mounted them.

He seldom troubled himself with such heavy baggage, and probably disposed of them in this way, quite as much to disencumber himself of them, as with any such motive, as was alleged, when placing them in battery, of overawing the Tories by their presence.
Movements of so rapid a kind, and so frequently made as his, requiring equal dispatch and secrecy, forbade the use of artillery; and he very well knew, that, to employ men for the maintenance of isolated posts--such posts as he could establish,--would have no other effect than to expose his brigade to the chances of being cut up in detail.
On the 17th August, the day following the defeat of Gates,--of which event he was as yet wholly ignorant--he dispatched Col.

Peter Horry, with orders to take command of four companies, Bonneau's, Mitchell's, Benson's and Lenud's, near Georgetown, on the Santee; to destroy all the boats and canoes on the river from the lower ferry to Lenud's--to break up and stop all communications with Charleston, and to procure, if possible, supplies of gunpowder, flints and bullets.

"Twenty-five weight of gunpowder, ball or buckshot," is the language of his orders.

This will show how scanty were the supplies which were to be procured of the material upon which everything depended.