Thus South Carolina was cleared of the enemy's troops, and, in a few days after this exploit, the detachment joined Earl Cornwallis at Camden, a town situate on the east side of the Wateree river.

In the mean time General Sir Henry Clinton had returned to New York, and had left orders for the Seventeenth to follow; the detachment, accordingly, embarked from South Carolina, leaving the sick and a few men attached to Tarleton's legion behind, and joined the regiment at New York, where it had remained under General Knyphausen.

The Americans made great efforts to regain possession of South Carolina; but their army of six thousand men, under General Gates, was routed at Camden by two thousand British, under Earl Cornwallis, on the 16th of August. The men of the Seventeenth attached to Tarleton's legion shared in the conflict. "The cavalry completed the route with their usual promptitude and gallantry, and after great exertions during the action, continued the pursuit to Hanginrock, twenty-two miles from the place where the action commenced, during which many of the enemy were slain, and many prisoners taken, with one hundred and fifty waggons, and all the baggage and camp equipage. On the morning of the 17th Colonel Tarleton was again despatched in pursuit, and on the 18th surprised seven hundred men, killing one hundred and fifty on the spot, and taking three hundred prisoners, three cannon, and forty-four waggons[3]."

1781

During the winter reinforcements were sent from New York to South Carolina, including a detachment of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons, which landed in December, and joined Earl Cornwallis's camp on the 6th of January, 1781.

The Seventeenth were afterwards attached to the troops under Colonel Tarleton, who was directed to force the Americans under General Morgan to pass the Broad river. The British overtook their opponents on the 17th of January, at a place called Cowpens; the Seventh Royal Fusiliers, the infantry of the legion, and a corps of light infantry, with a troop of cavalry on each flank, commenced the action, and soon forced the enemy to give way; but being too eager in the pursuit to preserve sufficient order, Morgan's corps faced about and gave them a heavy fire; this produced great confusion and serious loss, including two guns. The cavalry of the legion quitted the field, excepting about fourteen men, who joined forty of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons, and, at the head of this little band of heroes, Colonel Tarleton made a desperate charge on the whole of the American cavalry, and drove them back on their infantry, recapturing his baggage, and cutting to pieces the detachment of the enemy which had taken possession of it. He afterwards retired to Hamilton's ford.

Cornet Thomas Patterson of the regiment was killed on this occasion[4], and Lieutenant Henry Nettles wounded; several private soldiers and troop horses were also killed and wounded.

When Earl Cornwallis advanced into North Carolina, the Seventeenth were left in South Carolina, under the command of Lord Rawdon, and had to perform duties which called forth the intelligence, activity, and bravery of the officers and soldiers. The occupation of posts distant from each other gave the light cavalry left in the province full employment in keeping up the communications. Many of the inhabitants were hostile to the royal cause; they performed their duties of allegiance with reluctance, and broke their engagements at the first opportunity: the troops of the Congress also made incursions into the province. These circumstances occasioned the duties of the detachment to be particularly harassing; the men and horses were exhausted by constant motion along bad roads, and reduced in numbers by continual skirmishes. While employed in these duties instances of individual gallantry and devotion to the interests of the service were numerous. On one occasion, when Private McMullins was carrying a despatch to the Commander-in-Chief, he was beset by four militia men; he shot one, disabled another with his sword, and brought the other two prisoners to head-quarters[5].

On another occasion a despatch of great importance had to be forwarded to Lord Rawdon, through a country infested by the enemy, and Corporal O'Lavery, of the Seventeenth, being a man of known courage and experience, was selected to accompany the bearer of the despatch. They had not proceeded far before they were attacked and both severely wounded. The bearer of the despatch died on the road; the corporal snatched the paper from the dying man, and rode on until he fell from loss of blood, when, to conceal the important secret from the Americans, should he fall into their hands, he thrust the paper into his wound. He was found, on the following day, with sufficient life to point to the fatal depository of the secret. The surgeon declared the wound itself not to be mortal, but rendered so by the insertion of the despatch. Corporal O'Lavery was a native of the county of Down, where a monument, the gratitude of his countryman and commander, Lord Rawdon, records his fame.

The services of the British troops in the Carolinas, are spoken of in the 'Annual Register' of 1781, in the following terms:—"It is impossible to do justice to the spirit, prudence, and invincible fortitude displayed by the commanders, officers, and soldiers during these dreadful campaigns in the Carolinas. They had not only to contend with men, and those by no means deficient in bravery or enterprise, but they encountered and surmounted difficulties and fatigues from climate and country that would appear insuperable in theory, and incredible in relation. During renewed successions of forced marches, under a burning sun, and in seasons inimical to man, they were frequently, when sinking under excessive fatigue, not only destitute of comforts, but even of necessaries that seemed essential to existence. During the greatest part of the time they were destitute of bread, and the country afforded no vegetables; salt failed; and their only resource was water and the cattle found in the woods. It is a melancholy consideration, that such talent, bravery, and military virtue should have been exercised in vain."