USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783 > Part 37
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2 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 218.
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CHAPTER XIX
1781
JOHNSON observes that it is not true, as some authors assert, that General Greene delayed his advance, awaiting Marion's arrival upon his return from Edisto. He says that, until Greene had reached Fort Motte, it had been his intention to attack Stuart without the aid of Marion; that Greene indeed believed that the British commander was desirous to avoid a combat ; and that it was not until he learned that the detachment from Fair Lawn had marched to reinforce Stuart, and that the garrison from Orangeburgh was taking position to support him, that he became convinced that Colonel Stuart meant to measure swords with him. That then Greene deemed it necessary to order Marion to his support. But, however that may be, Greene in his official report states that he began his march on the 5th of September, and advanced by small marches as well to disguise his intention as to give time to General Marion, who had been detached to join him.1 The order to Marion was dated the 4th. It found Marion already returned, and on the next day Marion was quietly awaiting Greene at Henry Laurens's plantation, seventeen miles above the enemy. Here Greene found him on hand, and ordering up General Pickens with his men from Ninety Six, and who had now also taken command of Sumter's State troops, then under Henderson, the 6th was devoted
1 Appendix to Tarleton's Campaigns, 513, 514.
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to rest and preparation for battle. On the 7th, the army marched to Burdell's Tavern on the Congaree road, seven miles from Eutaw. Baggage, tents, and everything that could embarrass or detain had been left under guard at Motte's.
The number of men taken into action at Eutaw, on either side, has never been definitely ascertained. Johnson gives the following as the nearest estimate of that of the Americans: the rank and file of the Continentals or regulars, 1256 ; the cavalry of the South Carolina State Troops in action, 72, and the infantry, 73; the militia of North Carolina, about 150; those of Sumter's and Pickens's brigades then in the field, 307. The number of Marion's troops could not have exceeded 40 cavalry and 200 infan- try. Allowing 200 for the camp guard, then forty miles in the rear, Greene's whole force could not have much ex- ceeded 2000 combatants.1 This is the estimate also of Ramsay.2 Lee places the numbers a little higher, 2300, but gives no details.3 The Continentals were composed of those brought by Greene on his return to South Carolina, with the addition of those from North Carolina who had joined him under Major Eaton, 220, and 200 levies,4 but both of which detachments were now greatly reduced. Johnson had previously stated that almost 500 North Caro- lina militia had joined Greene on the High Hills of Santee, but that many of these were destitute of arms, and all of the levies for the North Carolina regulars had to be furnished with the arms he intended for the troops he had proposed to raise in South Carolina. In giving the disposition of the
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 219.
2 Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 257.
3 Memoirs of the War of 1776, 467. Gordon says, " 2600 does not seem an exaggerated estimate of Greene's total force." -Gordon's Am. War, vol. IV, 168.
4 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 208.
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troops in line of battle the same author describes the second line as composed of Continental troops, to wit: the North Carolina line 350, the Virginians 250, the Marylanders 250. This would leave Kirkwood's Dela- wares, Washington's Cavalry, and Lee's Legion together to count but 406, in order to make up 1256, the number at which he puts the American regulars. Classified by States, Greene's army was thus composed: --
South Carolina Volunteers or Militia, Sumter and Pickens, 307, Marion, 240 . 547
South Carolina State Troops, Cavalry 72, Infantry 73 145 692 North Carolina Continentals (Sumner) 350
North Carolina Militia (Malmedy) . 150 500
Virginia Continentals, Infantry (Campbell) . . 250
Virginia Continentals, Cavalry (Washington) 80 330
Maryland Continentals (Howard). 250
Delaware Continentals (Kirkwood), Lee's Legion . 320
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The exact number of the British force under Colonel Stuart is not known. In his report of the action to Lord Cornwallis he states that he knew the enemy were much superior to him in numbers,2 but as he had just stated that
1 General de Peyster in his account of the battle of Eutaw Springs, in The United Service Magazine, September, 1881, p. 321 n., observes : " It is just as much a perversion of language to style the Southern levies or drafts which served under Greene in the Carolinas militia in the sense that the term is applied to the phantasm organizations recognized as such at the North within the memory of the present generation as to make any difference between the Loyal organizations in the service of the Crown and the British Regulars which were sent out from the mother country. The fact is, the fire, individually and collectively, of the Loyal Battalion was much more fatal than that of the Regulars, as man for man the rank and file were physically and intellectually superior." There is much truth in these remarks ; but it must be borne in mind that there were no levies or drafts of militia in South Carolina, for the reason that there was no civil government in the State. There was, in fact, no militia.
2 Appendix to Tarleton's Campaigns, 510.
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the rebel army consisted of near four thousand men, it is clear that no value can be placed upon his estimate of their relative strength. The British regular force at the time in South Carolina was estimated at 4000, besides 1000 Loyalists under arms and 400 cavalry. The garrison of Charlestown was composed of Loyalists and 500 reg- ulars, and Johnson estimates that, after allowing for the garrisons at Orangeburgh and Dorchester, and for the sick and detached, it is not probable that the force under Colonel Stuart could have been less than 2300, which agrees also with Lee's estimate.1 His force appears to have consisted of his own regiment, the 3d or Buffs; the Flank Battalion, as it was called, that is, the six flank companies of the three regiments lately arrived, which marched with Lord Rawdon in June for the relief of Ninety Six under the command of Major Majoribanks of the Nineteenth Regiment, which officer commanded them in this action ; the remains of the Sixty-third and Sixty- fourth regiments which had served the whole of the war; the troops who had formed the garrison of Ninety Six, that is, Lieutenant-Colonel Cruger's Battalion of De Lancey's Brigade of New York, and Lieutenant-Colonel Allen's Bat- talion of New Jersey Loyalists ; and the New York Volun- teers under Major Sheridan. In addition to these he had the cavalry raised by the Loyalists in Charlestown, under Major Coffin, a body which, though commanded by an able officer, was numerically and individually greatly inferior to the American cavalry. In artillery the armies were about equal. The troops on both sides, with probably only the exception of the North Carolina new levies and militia, had all seen service, and most of them were well-disciplined troops. It is a curious circumstance, however, that the
1 See also General de Peyster, " Battle of Eutaw Springs," The United Service Magazine, September, 1881, 325.
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military experiences of the troops in this action had not all been upon the side on which they fought. A large portion of the old provincial regiments of the British in these days consisted of American deserters from the Continental line, and it was said they added to the British discipline the pre- cision of American marksmen; and so also many of the Continental troops on the American side had been recruited from the discharged soldiers and deserters from the British lines. To such an extent was this the case that it is reported General Greene was often heard to say, as we have quoted in a former volume, "that at the close of the war we fought the enemy with British soldiers ; and they fought us with those of America." 1 It is to be observed also, that while the Continental troops are properly credited to the dif- ferent States as classified in the foregoing table, it does not follow that they were recruited in the respective States to which they are so credited. The officers of the Continental regiments were generally of the State to which the regi- ment belonged, though this even was not, without excep- tion, true; but the men were simply hired soldiers, as regulars usually are, taken wherever they could be found. During the year the Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia troops had been in South Carolina, the composition of their ranks had been greatly changed by casualties, dis- charges and desertions, on the one hand, and recruiting from discharged British soldiers and deserters on the other. It is claimed that the newly raised State troops of South Carolina, whose pay was in negroes, salt, and supplies, salvage as it was called, was largely recruited in the counties of Mecklenburg and Rowan, North Carolina.2 Such a claim may readily be admitted on the part of South
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 220 ; Hist. of So. Ca. in the Revolu- tion, 1775-80 (McCrady), 302.
2 No. Ca., 1780-81 (Schenck), 441.
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Carolina, for men who would fight only for a share of plunder were not particularly an honor to either the States in which they were recruited or to that under whose name they served. North Carolina has honor enough in the patriots who voluntarily served under Davie, Davidson, McDowell, Graham, and Rutherford, without reference to these State regulars who enlisted for pay in plunder.
At four o'clock in the morning of the 8th of September, the American army moved in four columns from its bivouac in the following order. The State troops of South Carolina and Lee's Legion formed the advance under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson, whose commission in the Continental service was senior to that of Lieutenant- Colonel Lee. The militia of North Carolina under Colonel Malmedy, who held a commission under that State, and the militia of South Carolina under Marion and Pickens, the whole under the command of Marion, moved next. Then followed the Continentals or regulars under General Sumner of North Carolina. The rear was closed by Washington's Cavalry and Kirkwood's Delawares under Colonel Wash- ington. The artillery moved between the columns. The troops were thus arranged in reference to the order of battle in which they were to be formed in the field.
Colonel Stuart's movement to Eutaw, upon receiving intelligence that Greene was on his march to attack him, had been for the purpose of meeting a convoy of provisions then on the road from Charlestown, rather than weaken the army before this expected attack by sending off so strong an escort as would have been necessary for securing its safe arrival. Arrived at Eutaw, Stuart rested there quietly, believing that Greene would be delayed in his attack awaiting Marion's coming. He had no idea that that officer had already returned, and was himself but seventeen miles away, waiting Greene's coming up to him.
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So it was that when, at six o'clock in the morning of the 8th, two deserters from the North Carolina levies came in with the intelligence that Greene was approaching, he neither credited their tale nor made inquiries of them, but sent them to prison. Indeed, so little attention did he give to the warning, that he sent out a party without arms with a small guard up the river for the purpose of collecting sweet potatoes. This party, commonly called "a rooting party," consisting of about 100, after proceeding about three miles, had pursued a road to their right which led to a plantation on the Santee.1 In the meanwhile Stuart received information by Major Coffin, whom he had pre- viously detached with 140 infantry and 50 cavalry, to gain intelligence of the enemy, that they had appeared in force in his front, then about four miles from his camp.2 The American advance had already passed the road pursued by the rooting party when they were encountered by Coffin, who immediately charged with a confidence which betrayed his ignorance of its strength and of the near approach of the main army. It required little effort to meet and repulse the British cavalry, but the probability that their main army was near at hand to support the detachment, forbade a protracted pursuit. The firing at this point drew the rooting party out of the woods, and the whole fell into the hands of the Americans. A few straggling horsemen of Coffin's that escaped apprised the British commander of the enemy's approach, and infused a panic into all with whom they communicated.3
In the meantime Colonel Stuart had pushed forward a
1 Stedman's Am. War, vol. II, 378, says 400 ; Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 222, says 100; Otho H. Williams's account of the battle, Gibbes's Documentary Hist. (1781-82), 144, says 100.
2 Stuart's Report, Appendix to Tarleton's Campaigns, 509.
3 Stedman's Am. War, vol. II, 378.
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detachment of infantry to a mile's distance from the Eutaws, with orders to engage and detain the American troops while he formed his men and prepared for battle. But Greene, persuaded by the audacity of Coffin that the enemy was at hand, and wishing to have time to form his lines with coolness, halted his columns, and then, after distribut- ing the contents of his rum casks, proceeded with the for- mation of his order of battle.
The first line was formed of the State volunteers, usually spoken of as militia, the South Carolinians in equal divisions on the right and left, and the North Carolinians in the centre. General Marion commanded the right, General Pickens the left, and Colonel Malmedy the centre. Colonel Henderson with the State troops covered the left of this line, and Colonel Lee with his Legion the right.
The Continentals composed the second line. The North Carolinians under General Sumner occupied the right, and were divided into three battalions, commanded by Colonel Ashe and Majors Armstrong and Blount. The Mary- landers under Colonel Williams were on the left, divided into two battalions, commanded by Colonel Howard and Major Hardman. The Virginians were in the centre, under Colonel Campbell, divided into two battalions, com- manded by Major Sneed and Captain Edmunds. Two three-pounders under Captain Gaines moved in the road with the first line equally distant to the right and left. Two six-pounders under Captain Browne attended the second line in the same order. Colonel Washington still moved in the rear, with orders to keep under cover of the woods and hold himself in reserve.1
In this order the troops moved forward. The country on both sides of the road being in woods, the army could
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 223 ; Otho H. Williams's account of the battle, Gibbes's Documentary Hist. (1781-82), 146.
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move but slowly while preserving their order. The woods however were not thick nor the face of the country irregu- lar; it undulated gently, presenting no obstacle to the march more than an occasional derangement in the alignments. As the American line moved on, it encountered Stuart's advanced parties and drove them in.
Colonel Stuart had drawn up his troops in but one line, across the Congaree or River road, on ground somewhat elevated in front of his encampment, which was not far from the Eutaw Springs. On his right was Major Majoribanks with the flank battalion, a hundred paces from Eutaw Creek, which in that direction effectually covered the British position. Cruger's corps was in the centre, and the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth on the left.1 The British left was, in the military language of the time, "in air," that is, without topographical cover. It was supported by Major Coffin with his cavalry and a detach- ment of infantry, which were concealed by a very thick hedge.2
The ground on which the British army was drawn up was altogether in wood ; but at a small distance in the rear of the line was a cleared field extending west, south, and east from the dwelling-house, and bounded north by the creek formed by the Eutaw Springs, which was bold and had a high bank thickly bordered with brush and low wood. From the house to this bank extended a garden enclosed with pali- sades. The windows of the house, which was two stories high with garret rooms, commanded the whole circumja- cent fields. The house was of brick and abundantly strong to resist small arms, and with various offices or outhouses of wood; one particularly, a barn of some size, lay to the southeast, a small distance from the principal building. In the open ground to the south and west of
1 James's Life of Marion, 134. VOL. IV. - 2 G
2 Stedman's Am. War, vol. II, 378.
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the house was the British encampment, the tents of which were left standing.1
The American approach was from the west; and a short distance from the house in that direction the road forks, the right hand leading to Charlestown by the way of Monck's Corner, the left running along the front of the house by the plantation then of Mr. Patrick Roche, and therefore called by the British officers Roche's woods, being that which leads down the river and through the parishes of St. John's and St. Stephen's.
As soon as the skirmishing parties were cleared away from between the two armies, a steady and desperate con- flict ensued. The Americans attacked with impetuosity. The conflict between the artillery of the opposing armies was bloody and obstinate in the extreme. Both of the American pieces in the first line were dismounted and disabled. One of the enemy's, a four-pounder, shared the same fate. The militia of North and South Carolina attacked with alacrity the British regulars in their front. It was with equal astonishment, we are told, that both the second lines, i.e. the Continental and the British, contem- plated these men, steadily and without faltering, advance with shouts into the hottest of the enemy's fire, unaffected by the continual fall of their comrades around them. It appears that General Greene even expressed his admira- tion of the firmness exhibited on this occasion by these men, writing to Steuben, "such conduct would have graced the veterans of the great King of Prussia."2 Why there should have been astonishment because Marion's men, who had just returned from a series of signal successes won by themselves without the aid of Continentals, or Sumter's
1 Otho H. Williams's account of the battle, Gibbes's Documentary Hist. (1781-82), 147 ; Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 221.
2 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 225.
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men, now led by Pickens, who had never yet been in defeat, behaved like veterans, it is difficult to understand. There was no room for distrust of such leaders, nor was there occasion for such leaders to distrust men who were fighting now, as they had been for more than a year, with- out pay or reward, and who had followed them on more battle-fields than fortune had permitted their Continental brethren-in-arms to enter. For the South Carolina militia, as they were called, there could have been no apprehension because of inexperience ; but this was not the case with the North Carolinians. These had been just raised, and were not now commanded by one of their own leaders, but by a foreign officer whose conduct during the siege of Charlestown had not been so fortunate as to win approba- tion, but who, on the contrary, had been allowed to leave the garrison because of the ill feeling he had aroused by abandoning a post.1 It is not surprising, therefore, that when the veterans of the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth regi- ments of the British line rushed with their bayonets upon them, this part of the militia in the centre should at last have yielded and been pushed back,2 and thus compelled the retreat of those of Marion and Pickens on the flanks.
From the commencement of the action, the American covering parties on the right and left had been steadily engaged. The cavalry of the Legion had not been exposed to the enemy's fire, but the State troops under Hender- son had been in the most exposed situation in the field. The American right with the additions of the Legion in- fantry had extended beyond the British left, while the American left fell far short of the British right; the con- sequence of which was that the State troops were exposed
1 Hist. of So. Ca. in the Revolution (McCrady), 489.
2 Memoirs of the War of 1776 (Lee), 468; Stedman's Am. War, vol. II, 379.
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to the oblique fire of a large portion of the British right, and particularly of the battalion commanded by Major Majoribanks. Their endurance was most severely tried. Henderson solicited permission to charge his opponents, and extricate himself from their galling fire; but Greene would not run the risk of exposure of the artillery and the militia, whose flanks would have been uncovered, had the charge been made and defeated. While thus impatiently waiting opportunity for action, Henderson was severely wounded and his troops momentarily demoralized. Con- fidence and order was soon, however, successfully restored by Colonel Wade Hampton, who succeeded to the com- mand, aided by Colonel Polk and Colonel Mydelton.
Upon the retirement of the militia, after having ex- hausted their ammunition, the brunt of the battle fell upon the Continentals of the second line, and Sumner's North Carolina brigade on the right, after sustaining a fire superior to their own, at length yielded and fell back. The British left, elated at the prospect, sprang forward as to certain conquest, but their lines soon became deranged. Availing himself of this, General Greene sent word to Colonel Williams, who upon the retirement of General Sumner was in command of what remained of the second line, to advance and sweep the field with the bayonet. Never, it is said, was order obeyed with more alacrity. Emulous to wipe away the recollection of Hobkirk's Hill, the Virginia and Maryland Continentals advanced with a spirit expressive of the impatience with which they had hitherto been passive spectators of the action. When within forty yards of the enemy the Virginians delivered a destructive fire, and the whole second line of Continen- tals advanced to the charge.
Upon the approach of the second line, the left of the British army fell back in some disorder. Colonel Lee
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immediately took advantage of this, and wheeled his infan- try upon the exposed and broken flank, the disorder of which was thereby greatly increased. But the British centre, the Third, or Buffs, the Sixty-third and Sixty- fourth regiments, and De Lancey's corps, all apparently under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Cruger, and the Flank Battalion on the right, under the command of Major Majoribanks, stood firmly awaiting the onset of the Continentals, whom they considerably outnumbered. The Continentals rushed on with great gallantry, and were met with equal bravery by the British regulars. Bayonets are said to have clashed and officers to have had occasion to use their swords. The disorder of the British left began now to affect the centre; and as they gave way, left the flank of their comrades exposed, who, thus disconcerted, were pressed back by the fugitives. At that moment the Marylanders delivered a most destructive fire, and the British line, all but the right under Majoribanks, yielded. Shouts now resounded along the American line, and vic- tory was deemed certain; but the carnage among the Americans had but commenced.
Upon the breaking of his line Stuart withdrew from the wood to the open field in front of the house, under cover of a well-directed fire from a detachment of the New York volunteers under Major Sheridan, whom he had previously stationed in the building to check the Americans should they attempt to pass it. The cavalry of Lee's legion had now an opportunity of striking an effective blow upon the disordered ranks of the British line as it retreated, but it did not move. This was accounted for by the absence of Lee, who was with his infantry, and not with the cavalry, as expected by Greene; and also by the presence of Major Coffin, who stood ready to interfere should a move be made. But from whatever cause occasioned, an excellent
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