Battle of Eutaw Springs The Battle of Eutaw Springs was a battle of the American Revolutionary War , and was the last major engagement of the war in the Carolinas . Background . In early 1781 Major General Nathanael Greene of the Continental Army began a campaign to end British control over the South Carolina backcountry . His first major objective was the capture of the British controlled village of Ninety Six . On May 22 , 1781 , Greene laid siege to the fortified village . After nearly a month Greene became aware that reinforcements under Lord Rawdon were approaching from Charleston . Forces under Greene ' s command assaulted Ninety - Six on June 18 , but were repelled . To avoid facing the force commanded by Rawdon , Greene retreated toward Charlotte , North Carolina . Rawdon pursued Greene for several days , but was compelled to abandon the pursuit because his men were exhausted by days of forced marching and he lacked sufficient supplies to continue . Despite the fact Ninety Six was the only remaining inland British outpost after the fall of Augusta , Georgia , Rawdon decided to burn and abandon it , and withdrew the garrison to Charleston . In poor health , Rawdon sailed for England in late August , leaving Charleston under the command of Colonel Alexander Stewart . After Rawdon ' s departure , Greene turned his army around and headed toward Charleston . His men were also exhausted by many days of marching and combat , so he set up camp above the Santee River to allow his main force to rest , while several detachments continued to harass the British as they withdrew toward Charleston . On August 22 , his force prepared to face the remaining British forces garrisoned in Charleston . Colonel Stewart led a force of 2 , 000 men from Charleston ' s British garrison in search of Greene ' s army . The force camped at Eutaw Springs , about 10 kilometers east of present - day Eutawville , then in Charleston District ( but both now in Orangeburg County ) . Organization . At 4 : 00 AM on 8 September 1781 , Greene ' s army began marching from Burdall ' s Plantation in the direction of Eutaw Springs , which was distant . In the van were Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee ' s Legion plus 73 infantry and 72 cavalry of South Carolina State troops under Lieutenant Colonel John Henderson and Captain Wade Hampton , respectively . Next in the marching column came 40 cavalry and 200 infantry under Brigadier General Francis Marion , followed by 150 North Carolina militia under Colonel Francis marquis de Malmedy and 307 South Carolina militia led by Colonel Andrew Pickens . Continental Army troops formed the center and rear of Greene ' s column . These were led by three green North Carolina battalions under Brigadier General Jethro Sumner . Major John Armstrong led a mounted contingent while Lieutenant Colonel John Baptista Ashe and Major Reading Blount directed the foot soldiers . Ashe and Blount served with the 1st North Carolina Regiment , while Armstrong belonged to the 4th North Carolina Regiment . Two Virginia battalions under Lieutenant Colonel Richard Campbell and Major Smith Snead were trailed by Colonel Otho Holland Williams ' two Maryland battalions under Lieutenant Colonel John Eager Howard and Major Henry Hardman . Lieutenant Colonel William Washington ' s mounted men and Captain Robert Kirkwood ' s Delaware infantry companies formed the tail of the column . Greene ' s force had two 3 - pound grasshopper guns under Captain - Lieutenant William Gaines and two 6 - pound cannons directed by Captain William Brown . All told , Greene had 1 , 256 Continental infantry and 300 cavalry , the horsemen mostly divided between Lee and Washington . Lee ' s cavalry were led by Major Joseph Egleston and his infantry by Captain Rudolph . Greene ' s army numbered 2 , 400 men of whom 200 were left behind to guard the baggage train . Stewart had between 1 , 800 and 2 , 000 troops on hand . His British regulars were the 3rd Foot , 63rd Foot , 64th Foot , and John Marjoribanks ' 300 - man flank battalion . The last - named unit was made up of the converged flank companies of the 3rd , 19th , and 30th Foot . The regulars were supported by two American loyalist contingents . These units were John Harris Cruger ' s regular battalion of DeLancey ' s Brigade and John Coffin ' s South Carolina Tories , which consisted of about 150 regular infantry and 50 militia cavalry . Stewart ' s artillery consisted of two 6 - pound , one 4 - pound , and one 3 - pound cannons plus a swivel gun . Battle . In order to make up for a shortage of bread in his supplies , Stewart had been sending out foraging parties each morning to dig up yams , unarmed except for a small guard detail . At around 8 a . m . on September 8 , Captain John Coffin and a detachment of his South Carolina Loyalist cavalry were reconnoitring ahead of Stewart ’ s main force when he encountered a mounted American scouting party under Major John Armstrong . Coffin pursued Armstrong , who led him into an ambush . Attacked by Henry Lee ’ s 2nd Partisan Corps , Coffin escaped but left 4 or 5 of his men killed and 40 more captured . The Americans then came across Stewart ’ s foragers and captured about 400 of them . Greene ' s force , with around 2 , 200 men , now approached Stewart ' s camp while Stewart , warned by Coffin , deployed his force . When the Americans realized they were approaching the British force , they formed two lines , with the militia in the front line and the North Carolina , Maryland and Virginia regulars in the second line . The British charged the American position and broke the center of the American forces ' first line . The North Carolina Continentals in the second line reinforced the first , and were temporarily successful until they too were broken by a British charge . The Virginia and Maryland regulars then came to the aid of their comrades . This attack stopped the British advance and the British began to retreat in disorder . The Americans pursued the retreating British soldiers into the British camp , where a majority of the Americans stopped to plunder the British supplies . The tables now turned again . At the north - east corner of the camp was a strong brick house defended by a British battalion commanded by Major John Majoribanks . This battalion had driven off an earlier American cavalry attack before falling back to the house . An American assault on the house failed , and Majoribanks was able to restore order to the rest of the British force . The British forces launched a counterattack and drove the American forces from the British camp . One American battalion was able to delay the British advance sufficiently to allow the American army to retreat in good order . Casualties . The British casualty return stated the loss as 85 killed , 351 wounded and 257 missing . However , Greene reported that he had captured 500 prisoners , including 70 wounded . When Stewart moved camp on September 9 , he left 54 of his wounded behind with a surgeon to attend them . These men were included in Stewart ’ s casualty report under the category “ wounded ” but the remaining 16 wounded captured by Greene would have been returned as “ missing ” . The disparity between Stewart ’ s report of 257 missing and Greene ’ s figure of 500 prisoners may be due to Stewart regarding the capture of his foraging party as a separate engagement and not including their losses in his casualty return for the battle . Including the loss of the foraging party , and counting the 54 wounded men whom Stewart decided to leave behind on September 9 in the " wounded prisoners " category instead of as " wounded " , this gives total British casualties of 85 killed , 297 wounded , 70 wounded prisoners and 430 other prisoners . There were three successive versions of the American casualty return . The first , compiled soon after the battle , gave 251 killed , 367 wounded and 74 missing . The second , compiled somewhat later and published by the Continental Congress , reduced the losses to 138 killed , 375 wounded and 41 missing . The third and final revision , compiled on September 25 , 1781 , arrived at figures of 119 killed , 382 wounded and 78 missing . The British took 60 prisoners , including the wounded Colonel William Washington , and two artillery guns . Aftermath . The claim of several historians that the British won the battle is challenged by Christine Swager in her book " The Valiant Died : The Battle of Eutaw Springs September 8 , 1781 " . The book argues that , first , at the end of the battle , the British held the majority , but not the entirety , of the field where the main battle took place . Greene held part of the field where the initial skirmish spilled out of the woods into the clearings . Swager also argues that Greene meant to re - engage the enemy on the following day , but was prevented from doing so because the excessively wet weather conditions negated much of his firepower . Both armies did not leave the vicinity for at least a full day following the battle . When Greene withdrew , he left a strong picket to oppose a possible British advance , while Stewart withdrew the remnants of his force towards Charleston . His rear was apparently under constant fire at least until meeting with reinforcements near Moncks Corner . Despite winning a tactical victory , the British lost strategically . Their inability to stop Greene ' s continuing operations forced them to abandon most of their conquests in the South , leaving them in control of a small number of isolated enclaves at Wilmington , Charleston , and Savannah . The British attempt to pacify the South with Loyalist support had failed even before Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown . Lord Edward Fitzgerald , later to become famous as a United Irish rebel , served as a British officer at the battle and was badly wounded . The State Song of South Carolina contains the line " Point to Eutaw ' s Battle Bed " in reference to this battle .