Complex sentence: Moore's Creek Bridge stopped the British plan for the conquest of North Carolina, and was celebrated by Patriots throughout the colonies, but at the time, the British press downplayed the victory as a defeat of Loyalist forces rather than of regular British Army units.
Split into simpler sentences: Moore's Creek Bridge stopped the British plan for the conquest of North Carolina, and was celebrated by Patriots throughout the colonies. The British press of the time downplayed the victory as a defeat of Loyalist forces rather than of regular British Army units.