Daniel Morgan's Masterpiece, Part Ii

...The sharp-shooters opened on him first, Cutting down fifteen of his dragoons, Tartleton ordered a grand charged, with his infantry now on the move. The sharp-shooters fired and fell back, were absorbed in the second line, who had been ordered to fire twice, then get out of there double-time. They targeted British officers, took them down with accurate shots, then retreated back as ordered giving much more then they got. But Tarleton saw them running, and assumed that his men had won, then ran into the Continentals, three-hundred-fifty men with guns. The militia moved behind them, tnd out came a thunderous roar, Swathes of British fell to the ground, their ‘victory’ now nevermore. Then that same militia regrouped, swung right to hit Britain's left flank, then came colonial cavalry from the right into Tarleton’s ranks. Fire poured from three directions, the British now in an enfilade, caught in a double envelopment, like the Romans trapped at Cumae. To add to it the British hadn’t slept in forty-eight hours, the will to fight went out of them, to keep on wasnot in their power. Without getting word from above most threw up their arms and they quit, six-hundred thirty were captured, one hundred ten dead before this. Tarlteton himself road back to his remaining cavalry troops, tried to get them to charge again, but this order they just refused. Knowing what would be done to him if by the rebels he was captured, Tarleton fled with three hundred men, all of his force that had endured. Cornwallis’s army remained, but had lost the cream of the crop, he marched from South Carolina, his efforts to pacify dropped. Instead he headed up northwards, to chase General Nathaniel Greene down, leading to a chain of events that would bring about doom at Yorktown. For the hard-pressed Americans it was a huge moral victory, bringing back hope of success thanks to Daniel Morgan’s masterpiece.