Final Clashes

As Greene withdrew his main force, fighting continued between British forces and scattered groups of North Carolina and Virginia detachments supported by Colonel Lee’s dragoons. The wooded terrain allowed the Patriot militiamen and Lee’s troopers to swarm the British flanks and cause heavy casualties. The British force avoided destruction by forming a hollow square with bayonets pointed in all directions, which held the American attackers at bay. When the British infantry reformed and advanced on the Patriot cavalry, Lee withdrew his small force of dragoons before musket fire mowed down his horses and soldiers. This left the Patriot militia unsupported just as Tarleton led a troop of his dragoons into the fighting with drawn sabers. The Loyalist dragoons cut down several militiamen while the remainder scattered into the trees to escape, though not before one Patriot fired a shot that maimed Tarleton’s right hand.