USA > South Carolina > Documentary history of the American revolution: consisting of letters and papers relating to the contest for liberty, chiefly in South Carolina, from originals in the possession of the editor, and other sources, V.3 > Part 13
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The superiority of his enemy in Cavalry, made it necessary that Col. Stewart should cast his eye to the Eutaw house for re- treat and support. To that, therefore, he directed the attention of Major Sheridan, with orders, upon the first symptoms of misfor- tune, to throw himself into it, and cover the army from the upper windows. On his right also, he had made a similar provision against
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the possibility of his lines being compelled to give ground. In the thickets which border the creek, Major Majoribanks, with three hundred of his best troops, was posted, with instructions to watch the flank of the enemy, if ever it should be open to attack. This command had assumed a position having some obliquity to the main line, forming with an obtuse angle.
The Artillery of the enemy was also posted in the main road.
As soon as the skirmishing parties were cleared away from be- tween the two armies, a steady and desperate conflict ensued. That between the Artillery of the first line, and that of the enemy, was bloody and obstinate in the extreme; nor did the American Artil- lery relax for a moment from firing or advancing, until both pieces were dismounted and disabled. One of the enemy's four pounders had shared the same fate, and the carnage on both sides had been equal and severe.
Nor had the militia been wanting in gallantry and perseverance. It was with equal astonishment, that both the second line and the enemy, contemplated these men, steadily, and without faltering, advance with shouts and exhortations into the hottest of the ene- my's fire, unaffected by the continual fall of their comrades around them. Gen. Greene, to express his admiration of the firmness ex- hibited on this occasion by the militia, says of them, in a letter to Steuben, " such conduct would have graced the veterans of the great king of Prussia." But it was impossible that this could en- dure long, for these men were, all this time, receiving the fire of double their number; their Artillery was demolished, and that of the enemy still vomiting destruction on their ranks. They at length began to hesitate.
Governor Rutledge, who was anxiously attending the event of this battle, a few miles in the rear, wrote to the South Carolina del- egates, that the militia fired seventeen rounds before they retired. That distrust of their own immediate commanders, which militia are too apt to be affected with, never produced an emotion where Marion and Pickens commanded.
Gen. Sumner was then ordered to support them. This was done with the utmost promptness, and the battle again raged with re- doubled fury. In speaking of General Sumner's command, Gen.
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Greene observes, " that he was at a loss which most to admire, the gallantry of the officers or the good conduct of the men."
On the advance of Gen. Sumner's command, Col. Stewart had brought up the Infantry of his reserve into line on his left, and the struggle was obstinately maintained between fresh troops on both sides.
From the first commencement of the action, the Infantry of the American covering parties, on the right and left, had been steadily engaged. The Cavalry of the Legion, by being on the American right, had been enabled to withdraw into the woods and attend on its Infantry, without being at all exposed to the enemy's fire. But the State Troops under Henderson had been in the most exposed situation on the field. The American right, with the addition of the Legion Infantry, had extended beyond the British left. But the American left fell far short of the British right; and the conse- quence was that the State Troops were exposed to the oblique fire of a large proportion of the British right, and particularly of the Battalion commanded by Majoribanks. Never was the constancy of a party of men more severely tried. Henderson solicited per- mission to charge them, and extricate himself from their galling fire, but his protection could not be spared from the Artillery or the militia. At length he received a wound which disabled him from keeping his horse, and a momentary hesitation in his troops was produced by the shock. The exertions of Col. Wade Hamp- ton, who succeeded to the command, aided by those of Col. Polk and Middleton, proved successful in restoring them to confidence and order, and they resumed their station in perfect tranquility.
In the mean time things were assuming important changes along the front line. Sumner's Brigade, after sustaining for some time, a fire superior to their own in the ratio of the greater numbers op- posed to them, at length yielded, and fell back. The British left. elated at the prospect, sprang forward as to certain conquest, and their line became deranged. This was exactly the incident for which the American commander was anxiously watching, and the next moment produced the movement for availing himself of it. Col Williams now remained in command of the second line. "Let Williams advance and sweep the field with his bayonets," was the
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order delivered to a gentleman of medical staff, who acted the sur- geon, the aid, and the soldier, indifferently, as occasion required.
Never was order obeyed with more alacrity ; the two Brigades received it with a shout; emulous to wipe away the recollections of Hobkirk's Hill, they advanced with a spirit expressive of the impatience with which they had hitherto been passive spectators of' the action. When approached within forty yards of the enemy, the Virginians delivered a destructive fire, and the whole second line, with trailed arms, and an animated pace, advanced to the charge. Until this period their progress had been in the midst of showers of grape, and under a stream of fire from the line opposed to them. But eye-witnesses have asserted, that the roll of the drum, and the shouts which followed it, drew every eye upon them alone; and a momentary pause in the action, a suspension by mutual con- sent, appeared to withdraw both arinies from a sense of personal danger, to fix their attention upon this impending conflict. It may well be supposed with what breathless expectation the Southern commander hung upon a movement on which all his hopes de- pended. Had it failed, he must have retired under cover of his Cavalry.
Under the approach of the second line, the advanced left of the British army had commenced a retrograde movement, in some dis- order. This was confirmed by the good conduct of Col. Lee. The Legion Infantry had steadily maintained its order in its posi- tion on the extreme right : and the advance of the British left hav- ing exposed its flank, the Legion Infantry were promptly wheeled; and poured in upon them a destructive enfilading fire; then joining in the charge, the British left wing was thrown into irretrievable disorder. But their centre and right still remained ; greatly out- numbering the assailing party, and awaiting the impending charge with unshaken constancy.
If the two lines on this occasion, did not actually come to the mu- tual thrust of the bayonet, it must be acknowledged, that no troops ever came nearer. They are said to have been so near, that their bayonets clashed and the officers sprang at each other with their swords, before the enemy actually broke away.
But, the scales of victory, fortunately for man, ure never long in equipoise on these occasions.
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In this instance, the left of the British centre appear to have been pressed upon, and forced back by their own fugitives, and began to give way from left to right. At that moment, the Marylanders de- livered their fire, and along their whole front the enemy yielded.
The shouts of victory resounded through the American line, af- fording a gleam of consolation to many a brave man, bleeding and expiring on the field. Among these was the gallant Campbell, who received a ball in the breast during this onset.
The victory was now deemed certain; but, many joined in the shouts of victory who were still destined to bleed. The carnage among the Americans had but commenced; it was in the effort to prevent the enemy from rallying, and to cut him off from the brick house, which was all that remained to compel the army to surrender, that their great loss was sustained.
A pursuing army is always impeded by the effort that is neces- sary to maintain its own order; while, whether from terror, for safety, or for rallying the speed of the fugitive, is unrestrained. Hence, Cavalry are the military means for rendering disorder irre- trievable. It is obvious, that at this point of time, the Legion Cav- alry might have been turned upon the British left with very great effect. Their position was highly favorable to such a movement, and their Infantry was close up with the enemy to afford support. Why this was was not done, has never been explained ; we can only conjecture, that it was prevented by one or both of two cau- ses known to have existed on that day. Col. Lee was generally absent from it during the action, and bestowing his attention upon the progress of his Infantry ; and Captain Coffin was in that quar- ter, attending on the retreat of the British left. Coffin's force was, probably, superior to that of Lee in Cavalry ; whether so superior as to justify the latter's not attempting the charge in the presence of the British Cavalry, although supported by that of his own In- fantry, could only have been decided by the attempt.
At this stage of the battle, Majoribanks still stood firm in the thickets that covered him ; and, as the British line extended consid- erably beyond the American left, their extreme right still manifested a reluctance to retire ; and as their left had first given way, and yield- ud now without resistance, the two armies performed together a
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half wheel, which brought them into the open ground towards the front of the house.
Gen. Greene now saw that Majoribanks must be dislodged, or the Maryland flank would soon be exposed to his fire, and the con- flict in that quarter renewed under his protection. Therefore, or- ders were dispatched to Washington, to pass the American left and charge the enemy's right. The order was promptly obeyed, and galloping through the woods, Washington was soon in action. - Had he had the good fortune to have taken on Kirkwood's Infantry be- hind his men, all would have gone well; to have been detained by their march, would have been inconsistent with his general feel- ing.
Col. Hampton, at the same time, received orders to co-operate with Col. Washington ; and the rapid movement which he made to the creek, in order to fall in upon Washington's left, probably hastened the forward movement of the latter. On reaching the front of Majoribanks, and before Ham ton had joined him, Wash- ington attempted a charge, but it was impossible for his Cavalry to penetrate the thicket. He then discovered that there was an inter- val between the British right and the creek, by which he was in hopes to succeed in gaining their rear. With this view, he ordered his troop to wheel by sections to the left, and thus, brought nearly all his officers next to the enemy, while he attempted to pass their front. A deadly and well directed fire, delivered at that instant, wounded or brought to the ground many of his men and horses, and every officer except two.
The field of battle was, at this instant, rich in the dreadful sce- nery which disfigures such a picture. On the left, Washington's Cavalry, routed and fying, horses plunging as they died, or cour- sing the field without their riders, while the enemy with poised bayo- net, issued from the thicket, upon the wounded or unhorsed rider. In the fore-ground, Hampton covering and collecting the scattered Cavalry, while Kirkwood, with his bayonets, rushed furiously to revenge their fall, and a road strewed with the bodies of men and horses, and the fragments of dismounted Artillery. Beyond these, a scene of indescribable confusion, viewed over the whole Ameri- can line advancing rapidly, and in order : And, on the right, Hen- derson borne off in the arms of his soldiers, and Campbell sustain-
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ed in his saddle by a brave son, who had sought glory at his fath- er's side.
Nothing could exceed the consternation spread at this time through the British ground of encampment. Every thing was given up for lost, the commissaries destroyed their stores, the nu- merous retainers of the army, mostly loyalists and deserters, who dreaded falling into the hands of the Americans, leaping on the first horse they could command, crowded the roads and spread. alarm to the very gates of Charleston. The stores on the road were set fire to, and the road itself obstructed by the felling of trees, for miles, across it.
Lieut. Gordon, and Cornet Simmons, werethe only two of Wash- ington's officers who could return into action. The Colonel him- self had his horse shot under him, and his life saved by the inter- position of a British officer. The melancholy group of wounded men and officers, who soon presented themselves to the General's view, convinced him of the severity of his misfortune; but, he had not yet been made acquainted with the full extent of it.
The survivors of Washington's command being rallied, united themselves to Hampton's, and were again led up to the charge upon Majoribanks, but without success. That officer was then retiring before Kirkwood, still holding to the thickets, and making for a new position, with his rear to the creek, and his left resting on the pali- sadoed garden. By this time Sheridan had thrown himself into the house, and some of the routed companies from the left had made good their retreat into the picketted garden ; from the intervals of which, they could direct their fire with security and effect. The whole British line was now flying before the American bayonet. The latter pressed closely upon their heels, made many prisoners, and might have cut off the retreat of the rest, or entered pell-mell with them into the house, but for one of these occurrences, which have often snatched victory from the grasp of a pursuing enemy.
The retreat of the British army lay directly through their en- campment, where the tents were all standing, and presented many objects to tempt a thirsty, naked and fatigued soldiery to acts of in- subordination. Nor was the concealment afforded by the tents at this time a trivial conisderation, for the fire from the windows of the house was galling and destructive, and no cover from it was
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anywhere to be found except among the tents, or behind the build- ing to the left of the front of the house.
Here it was that the American line got into irretrievable confu- sion. When their officers had proceeded beyond the encampment, they found themselves nearly abandoned by their soldiers, and the sole marks for the party who now poured their fire from the win- dows of the house.
From the baneful effects of passing through the encampment, only a few corps escaped. Of this number, the Legion Infantry appears to have been one. Being far on the American right, it di- rected its movements with a view to securing the advantage of be- ing covered by the barn ; and the narrow escape of the British ar- my, is sufficiently attested by the fact, that this corps was very near entering the house pell-mell with the fugitives. It was only by closing the door in the face of some of their own officers and men, that it was prevented ; and in retiring from the fire of the house, the pri- soners taken at the door, were interposed as a shield to the life of their captors.
Everything now combined to blast the prospects of the Ameri- can Commander. The fire from the house showered down destruc- tion upon the American officers; and the men, unconscious or cn- mindful of consequences, perhaps thinking the victory secure, and bent on the immediate fruition of its advantages, dispersing among the tents, fastened upon the liquors and refreshments they afforded, and became utterly unmanageable.
Majoribanks and Coffin, watchful of every advantage, now made simultaneous movements ; the former from his thicket on the left, and the latter from the wood on the right of the American line. Gen. Greene soon perceived the evil that threatened him, and not doubting but his Infantry, whose disorderly conduct he was not yet made ac- quainted with, would immediately dispose of Majoribanks, dispatched Capt. Pendleton with orders for the Legion Cavalry to fall upon Coffin and repulse him.
We will give the result in Captain Pendleton's own language : " When Coffin's Cavalry came out, Gen. Greene sent me to Col. Lee, with orders to attack him. When I went to the corps Lec was not there, and the order was delivered to Major Egleston, the next in command, who made the attack without success," " " The
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truth is, Col. Lee was very little, if at all, with his own corps after the enemy fled. He took some dragoons with him, as I was in- formed, and rode about the field, giving orders and directions, in a manner the General did not approve of. Gen. Greene was, appa- rently, disappointed when I informed him Col. Lee was not with his Cavalry, and that I had delivered the order to Major Eg- leston."
By this time Gen. Greene, being made acquainted with the ex- tent of his misfortune, ordered a retreat.
Coffin, who certainly proved himself a brave and active officer on this day, had no sooner repulsed the Legion Cavalry, than he hastened on to charge the rear of the Americans, now dispersed among the tents. Col. Hampton had been ordered up to the road to cover the retreat, at the same time the order was issued to effect it, and now charged upon Coffin with a vigour that was not to be resisted. Coffin met him with firmness, and a sharp conflict, hand to hand, was for a while maintained. But Coffin was obliged to re- tire, and in the ardour of pursuit, the American Cavalry approach- ed so near Maioribanks, and the picketted garden, as to receive from them a fatally destructive fire. Col. Polk, who commanded Hamp- ton's left, and was, of consequence, directly under its influence, de- scribes it by declaring " that he thought every man killed but him- self." Col. Hampton then rallied his scattered Cavalry, and re- sumed his station in the border of the wood. But before this could be effected, Majoribanks had taken advantage of the opening made by his fire, to perform another gallant action, which was decisive of the fortune of the day.
The Artillery of the second line had followed on, as rapidly as it could, upon the track of the pursuit, and, together with two -six - pounders abandoned by the enemy in their flight, had been brought up to batter the house. Unfortunately, in the ardour to discharge a pressing duty, the pieces had been run into the openfield, so near as to be commanded by the fire from the house. The pieces had scarcely opened their fire, when the pressing danger which threat- ened the party in the house, and, consequently the whole army, drew all the fire from the wirdows upon the Artillerists, and it very soon killed or disabled nearly the whole of them. And Majori- banks who no sooner disembarrassed of Hampton's Cavalry, than he
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sallied into the field, seized the pieces, and hurried them under the co- ver of the house. Then being re-inforced by parties from the gar- den and the house, he charged among the Americans, now disper- sed among the tents, and drove them before him. The American army, however, soon rallied, after reaching the cover of the wood, and their enemy was too much crippled to venture beyond the co- ver of the house.
Gen. Greene halted on the ground only long enough to collect his wounded ; all of whom, except those who had fallen under cover of the fire from the house, he brought off; and having made arrangements for burying the dead, and left a strong picket, under Col. Hampton, on the field, he withdrew his army to Burdell's, se- ven miles distant. At no nearer point could water be found ade- quate to the comforts of the army.
Both parties claimed, on this occasion a complete victory ; but there is no difficulty in deciding the question between them, upon the plainest principles. The British army was chased from the field at the point of the bayonet, and took refuge in a fortress ; the Americans were repulsed from that fortress. And, but for the de- moralizing effect of possessing themselves of the British tents, the cover of the barn presented the means of forcing or firing the house with certainty, and reducing the whole to submission.
But if further evidence of victory than driving the enemy from the field, occupying his position, and plundering his camp, be re- quired, it is found in the events of the succeeding day.
M'Arthur was called up from Fairlawn to cover Gen. Stewart's retreat ; and leaving seventy of his wounded to his enemy, and many of his dead unburied; breaking the stocks of one thousand stand of arms, and casting them into the spring; destroying his stores, and then moving off precipitately, he fell back, and retreated to Fairlawn. The possession of the American Artillery, was the strong ground on which the British founded their claim to victory. But in this the trophies were divided, for one of the enemy's pieces, the four pounder that was disabled on the field, was carried off by the Americans, and the two others were fairly in their hands, and would have been secured, had they not been brought up, through the officious zeal of some of the staff of the army, to attack their prior owners.
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On the other hand, the enemy took no prisoners, except about forty wounded, whilst the Americans made five hundred prison- ers, including the seventy who were abandoned when the enemy retreated.
But the best criterion of victory is to be found in consequences ; and here the evidence is altogether on the American side. For the enemy abandoned his position, relinquished the country it com- manded, and although largely re-enforced, still retired, when the Americans advanced within five miles of him, to Ferguson's Swamp, where he had first halted.
It was Gen. Greene's intention to have renewed the action the next day ; and in hopes to prevent a junction with M'Arthur, Lee and Marion had been detached to watch the line of communication between the Eutaws and Fairlawn. By the simultaneous move- ments of the two corps, so as to meet at mid-distance and out num- ber Marion, their junction and retreat was effectually secured. This was the evening of the day after the battle. Gen. Greene pressed the pursuit on the road to Charleston, during the whole of one day ; but, finding that Col. Stewart still retired before him, and being now left at liberty to watch the movements of Lord Cornwallis, and his wounded and prisoners requiring attention, he resolved to retire again to the High Hills af Santee.
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Names of the continental commissioned officers killed and wounded in the action of Eutaw, the 8th of September, 1781.
Maryland Brigade .- Captains Dobson and Edgerly, Lieutenants Dewall and Gould, killed. Lieut. Col. Howard, Captain Gibson. Capt. Lieut. Hugon, Lieutenants Ewing, Woolford and Lynn, En- sign Moore, wounded.
Virginia Brigade .- Lieut. Col. Campbell, Capt. Oldham, Lieut. Wilson, killed. Captains Edmonds and Morgan, Lieutenants Mil- ler and Jonitt, wounded.
North Carolina Brigade .- Captains Goodman, Goodwin and Potterfield, Lient. Dillon, killed. Capt. Hadley, Lieutenants Dix- on, Andrews and Dudley, Ensigns Lamb aud Moore, wounded.
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South Carolina line .- Lieut. Col. Henderson, wounded. Cav- alry : Licut. Col. Washington, wounded and prisoner of war; Capt. Watts, Lieutenants Gordon, Sinons, King and Steward, Mr. Carlisle, volunteer, killed. Artillery : Capt. Lieut. Finn, wound- ed; Lieut, Carson, wounded mortally; Lieut. Drew, wounded ; Lieut. M'Gurrie, wounded and prisoner of war. Legion Infantry : Lieut. Manning, wounded; Mr. Carrington, volunteer, wounded. O. H. Williams, D. A. G.
South Carolina State Officers .- Major Rutherford, Lieut. Polk, Adjutant Lush, killed. Lieut. Col. Henderson, commanding Brig- ade, Lieut. Col. Middleton, Captains Moore, Giles, N. Martin and Cowan, Lieutenants Erskine, Culpeper, Hammond and Spra- gins, wounded.
South Carolina Militia .- Brig. Gen. Pickens, Lieut. Col. Horry, Captains Gee and Pegee, Lieutenant Boon, wounded. Lieutenants Holmes and Simons, killed.
[No. 161.] Capt. William Richardson to Gen. Marion.
MEXICO PLANTATION, Sept. 12, 1781.
Dear Sir :
The Governor sent me on the business of purchasing all the In- digo in the State, and to obtain an account of all the provisions on the rivers, with directions to apply to you for a party to go on this business, and to escort two wagons down to Strawberry to fetch up some things from thence. Capt. Lesesne, with a small party, on my application to him, assisted me three days in getting Indigo, but his anxiety to be with you and fears of a rebuke, induced him to leave me, which puts a stop to my progress ; for without a party I apprehend great difficulties may arise ; people are not inclined to part with Indigo on the public security, so that I fear I shall be re- duced to the necessity of impressing ; in that case a party will be absolutely necessary, therefore request you will be so obliging as to let Capt. Lesesne, with a small party, assist me in this business, and your advice whether it will be safe to send the wagon down to Strawberry for the Governor's things at this critical juncture ; they
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