On April 14, 1780, at 3 AM, Banastre Tarleton’s Partisan Legion, a loyalist mixture of dragoons and mounted infantry, thundered out of the dead of the night in a terrifying charge. Sabers slashed downward on startled Americans torn from their sleep. The surprise attack on mainly patriot light dragoons, both Continental troopers and South Carolina …
At the Battle of Waxhaws, May 29, 1780, also labeled Buford’s Massacre, Colonel Abraham Buford’s troops were defeated by Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s saber welding mounted Partisan Legion forces. A victory by Loyalist and British regulars, this action resulted in a brutal slaughter and horrendous injuries to most of the Continental soldiers; wounds that later …
More a major skirmish, the Battle of Black Mingo, just prior to midnight, September 28, 1780, [some accounts incorrectly give the date as September 14th] helped propagate the legend of one who would be termed the ‘Swamp Fox.’ Lt. Colonel Francis Marion was a militia leader and obstinate patriot who preferred to fight his war …
To call the fight there a battle would lend it a formality it did not possess. It was a clash of two armed mobs. Toward the end the fighting resembled an old-fashioned Pier 6 brawl between longshoremen and strikebreakers. Historian/Author John Buchanan The Battle of Ramsour’s Mill, also spelt Ramseur, and Ramsaur, for Derick Ramsaur, …
Battle of Tearcoat Swamp (also known as Tarcote and Tarcot), fought Oct. 25, 1780, was one of a string of battles that highlighted the military ingenuity of what legend has labeled, the Swamp Fox. By the fall of 1780, it became apparent that the new American Congress had blown it in selection of commanders of …
The Battle of Beaufort, also known as the Battle of Port Royal Island, February 3, 1779, near Beaufort, South Carolina, was considered an American victory that, along with the Battle of Kettle Creek, Georgia, exactly one month later, on March 3, 1779, was a shot in the arm for American forces in the south. As …
The Battle of Kettle Creek, February 14, 1779, was a partisan clash of arms between Loyalists and Patriot militias; approximately sixty-five miles northwest of Augusta and eight miles west of present-day Washington, Georgia. By 1778, the southern colonies of the American Revolution had become a battleground of partisan warfare. A bloody civil war had erupted …
Steno Ferry was fought on June 20, 1779 just southwest of Charleston, South Carolina, between the British and a slightly larger American force. It was a battle ill-conceived and did nothing to alter the situation of the two opposing armies. England’s troops were completing their retreat from ‘rebel’ defenses outside Charleston, South Carolina, when American …
An escape artist who slipped free of Patriot shackles a total of fourteen times, Loyalist Colonel David Fanning was a master of partisan warfare who became one of the most feared champions of the British cause. His dominance over North Carolina in 1781 led to the capture of the state capitol. This included Governor Butler …
February 24, 1781. Lt. Col. Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, Virginia patriot leader of cavalry and light infantry, rode before four hundred North Carolina loyalists. The militia, eager to join British Lt. General Charles Cornwallis’ army, had lined up for review. With Lee’s cavalry by his side, the Continental Army commander was enthusiastically greeted by …