The sounds of battle and the sight of running North Carolinians gave warning to the Virginia militia, commanded by Brig. Gen. Robert Lawson and Brig. Gen. Edward Stevens, who held a second line farther back in a wooded area. The Virginian militia and Colonel Washington’s and Colonel Lee’s flanking dragoons inflicted heavy losses on the British as they advanced, breaking the solid line of redcoats into fragmented segments that had to periodically stop and reform. As the British closed the gap, however, the militia made a hasty retreat rather than face the wall of glinting bayonets.
"A cannonade of half an hour ushered in the battle...Skipworth was posted in the express direction of the shot, and...maintained his post during a most tremendous fire with a firmness that does him much honor. Col. Holcombe's regiment was on the right of him and on my left, so that I was in perfect security...When the cannonade ceased, orders were given for Holcombe and [Randolph] to advance...when we were advancing to execute this order, the British had advanced...and we discovered them in our rear. This threw the militia into such confusion, that, without attending in the least to their officers...dispersed like a flock of sheep frightened by dogs. With infinite labor, Beverly and myself rallied about sixty or seventy of our men...sustained an irregular kind of skirmishing with the British, and were once successful enough to drive a party for a very small distance."
Maj. St. George Tucker“The Southern Campaign as Narrated by St. George Tucker.” Magazine of American History, 8, 1881: 40.