The only action of this retreat that deserves special mention is the very gallant charge of the Guards at Cowan's Ford over the Catawba. It was especially creditable to the Grenadiers, and has received far less attention at the hands of American writers than it deserves. A good account is in Hamilton's Grenadier Guards, ii. 243,[1159] and Stedman has devoted considerable space to it. On the other hand, it should be said that the description in Tarleton cannot be reconciled with known facts, and deserves no credit.
The Guilford Campaign.—Lee's description of the overthrow of Pyle and his companions has been generally followed by historians. It is not entirely satisfactory (Memoirs, i. 306).[1160] Lee says that the action was begun by the Tories, and that he acted merely on the defensive. General Joseph Graham, who was on the field as a captain of militia, asserts the contrary.[1161]
GUILDFORD, March 15, 1781.
Sketched from Faden's map (March 1, 1787), which is the same as the map in Tarleton (p. 108), with the same date, and in Stedman, ii. 342, with slight changes, dated Jan. 20, 1794. It is followed in the maps in Mag. of Amer. Hist. (1881), p. 44; in R. E. Lee's Lee's Memoir, etc., p. 276; in Caruthers' Incidents (Philadelphia, 1808), p. 108; in Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 608. There are among the Faden maps (nos. 52, 53) in the library of Congress two MS. drafts of the battle,—one showing the changes in the position of the forces. Johnson (Greene, ii. 5) gives five different stages of the fight, and G. W. Greene (iii. 176) copies them. His lines vary from the descriptions of Cornwallis. Cf. Carrington's Battles, p. 565; Hamilton's Grenadier Guards (ii. 245); Harper's Monthly, xv. 162, etc.—Ed.
As to the other operations leading up to the final action at Guilford Court-House, and as to that combat itself, the reports and other letters of the opposing commanders, Greene[1162] and Cornwallis,[1163] are all that can he desired.
The narratives of Lee (Memoirs, i. 338-376) and Tarleton (Campaigns, 269) are interesting, though neither saw much of the battle,—Tarleton being in reserve, and Lee's attention being fully occupied by the regiment of Bose. Wounds received at the Cowpens unfortunately prevented Mackenzie from speaking with authority of Tarleton's account of this battle.[1164]
The best account by a later writer is that in Caruthers (Incidents, 2d series, pp. 103-180); but, like all North Carolinians, he endeavors to excuse the early flight of the militia of that State, and his narrative is too largely founded on tradition.[1165]
Hobkirk's Hill.—The official reports serve us first: Greene's, full and precise,[1166] on the American side; and on the British, Rawdon's and those of the intermediate officers, till the accounts reached Germain.[1167]