The battle was decisive in its effect--shattering the plans of Cornwallis, which till then appeared certain of success. The victory put a full stop to the invasion of North Carolina, which was then well under way. Cornwallis abandoned his carefully prepared campaign and immediately left the state. After ruthlessly hanging nine prisoners, an action which had an effectively deterrent effect upon future Tory murders and depredations, the patriot force quietly disbanded. The brilliant initiative of the buckskin-clad borderers, the strenuous energy of their pursuit, the perfection of their surprise--all reinforced by the employment of ideal tactics for meeting the given situation--were the controlling factors in this overwhelming victory of the Revolution. The pioneers of the Old Southwest--the independent and aggressive yeomanry of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina--had risen in their might. Without the aid or authority of blundering state governments, they had created an army of frontiersmen, Indian-fighters, and big-game hunters which had found no parallel or equal on the continent since the Battle of the Great Kanawha. CHAPTER XIX. The State of Franklin Designs of a more dangerous nature and deeper die seem to glare in the western revolt.... I have thought proper to issue this manifesto, hereby warning all persons concerned in the said revolt ... that the honour of this State has been particularly wounded, by seizing that by violence which, in time, no doubt, would have been obtained by consent, when the terms of separation would have been explained or stipulated, to the mutual satisfaction of the mother and new State.... Let your proposals be consistent with the honour of the State to accede to, which, by your allegiance as good citizens, you cannot violate and I make no doubt but her generosity, in time, will meet your wishes. --Governor Alexander Martin: Manifesto against the State of Franklin, April 25, 1785.