The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876Loubat, J. F. (Joseph Florimond)
History
The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876
Loubat, J. F. (Joseph Florimond)
Medals -- United States; United States -- History
the woods, not thinking it advisable to push our advantages
further, being persuaded the enemy could not hold the post many
hours, and that our chance to attack them on the retreat was
better than a second attempt to dislodge them, in which, if we
succeeded, it must be attended with considerable loss.
We collected all our wounded, except such as were under the
command of the fire of the house, and retired to the ground from
which we marched in the morning, there being no water nearer, (p. 055)
and the troops ready to faint with the heat and want of
refreshment, the action having continued near four hours. I left
on the field of action a strong picquet, and early in the morning
detached General Marion and Lieutenant-Colonel Lee, with the
legion of horse between Eutaw and Charleston, to prevent any
reinforcements from coming to the relief of the enemy; and also
to retard their march, should they attempt to retire, and give
time to the army to fall upon their rear and put a finishing
stroke to our success. We left two pieces of our artillery in the
hands of the enemy, and brought off one of theirs. On the evening
of the 9th the enemy retired, leaving upward of seventy of their
wounded behind them, and not less than one thousand stand of arms
that were picked up on the field, and found broke and concealed
in the Eutaw Springs. They stove between twenty and thirty
puncheons of rum, and destroyed a great variety of other stores,
which they had not carriages to carry off. We pursued them the
moment we got intelligence of their retiring; but they formed a
junction with Major McArthur at this place, General Marion and
Lieutenant-Colonel Lee not having a force sufficient to prevent
it; but on our approach they retired to the neighbourhood of
Charleston. We have taken five hundred prisoners, including the
wounded the enemy left behind; and I think they cannot have
suffered less than six hundred more in killed and wounded. The
fugitives that fled from the field of battle spread such an alarm
that the enemy burnt their stores at Dorchester, and abandoned
their post at Fair Lawn; and a great number of negroes and others
were employed in felling trees across the roads for some miles
without the gates at Charleston. Nothing but the brick house, and
the peculiar strength of the position at Eutaw, saved the remains
of the British army from being all made prisoners.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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