which has been followed by Moultrie, and substantially by Ramsay.
The faults committed by Buford, he says, were his sending his baggage ahead,
and not firing till the cavalry were within ten steps. -- But Buford,
notwithstanding all the odium excited against him by his ill fortune,
was tried by a court martial, and acquitted. Tarleton excuses his cruelty,
by stating, that his horse was knocked down, at the first fire:
and his men, thinking him killed, to avenge his death,
were more sanguinary than usual, and he was unable, from that circumstance,
for a while to restrain them. But Lord Cornwallis approved the whole,
and praised and caressed Tarleton, while he was fortunate.
--

Buford's regiment was entirely broken by the charge, no quarters were given
by the British; 113 men were killed of the Americans, and 151 so badly wounded
as to be left on the ground. This was nearly two thirds of the whole
American force, according to Tarleton's own account; and the manner in which
those left on the ground were mangled, is told, by others, as horrible.
No habitation was near, but the lone cabin of a poor widow woman;
and the situation of the dead, was fortunate, when compared with
that of the living. Tarleton says, he lost but two officers,
and three privates killed, and one officer and thirteen privates wounded.
The massacre took place at the spot where the road from
Lancaster to Chesterfield now crosses the Salisbury road.
The news of these two events, the surrender of the town,
and the defeat of Buford, were spread through the country about the same time,
and the spirit of the whigs, sunk into despondency. The American cause
appeared to be lost; but, on this expedition, Tarleton burnt
the house of Gen. Sumter, near Stateburgh,* and roused the spirit of the lion;
at Camden, a party of his men cut to pieces Samuel Wiley,
whom they mistook for his brother, John Wiley, then sheriff of the district,