Battle of Monck ' s Corner The Battle of Monck ' s Corner was fought on April 14 , 1780 , outside the city of Charleston , South Carolina , which was under siege by British forces under the command of General Sir Henry Clinton in the American Revolutionary War . The British Legion , under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton , surprised an American force stationed at Monck ' s Corner , and drove them away . The action cut off an avenue of escape for Benjamin Lincoln ' s besieged army . Background . General Sir Henry Clinton arrived before Charleston , South Carolina in late March 1780 , and began siege preparations as the opening move in British plan to gain control over North and South Carolina . The city was defended by Continental Army troops under the command of General Benjamin Lincoln . Even after the British operations were underway , troops continued to arrive in the city to assist in its defense . On April 7 , after the British had begun establishing siege lines around part of the city , a regiment of Virginia Continentals arrived in the city . Clinton learned that a supply train , which was actually the baggage train of this company , was nearing the city , and decided it was time to cut the supply route . He detached 1 , 400 men under Lieutenant Colonel James Webster to go inland about to Biggin ' s Bridge on the Cooper River to intercept the supply train . In order to protect their own lines , the British needed to face General Isaac Huger and his detachment that Lincoln had stationed at Monck ' s Corner . Huger ' s force included a company of local militia and elements of Pulaski ' s Legion . Webster sent Tarleton ahead of his column with the British Legion and a company of marksmen . On April 12 , still more than from Monck ' s Corner , Tarleton stopped a slave carrying a letter from Huger to Lincoln , and learned from the letter and questioning its carrier the nature and disposition of Huger ' s force . His troops then marched the next day in order to plan an early morning attack for the following day . Battle . The British attacked at 3 am on April 14 , quickly pushing the sentries back into the main camp . What followed quickly became a rout . In the end the British lost only two men , the Americans lost five officers and fifteen privates killed or wounded , seven officers and sixty men were captured . The biggest prize was 184 horses , of which 82 were trained cavalry mounts , which Tarleton desperately needed . Aftermath . Following the battle , some of Tarleton ' s Loyalists committed some " irregularities " , allegedly including " attempts to ravish several ladies " who lived in the area . A number of the British officers present were offended by these acts , and the perpetrators were sent back to the British camp outside Charleston , where they were eventually whipped for their transgressions . Some of the scattered remnants of Huger ' s force made their way north and east . They eventually regrouped under Colonel Anthony Walton White , but were again scattered by Tarleton at Lenud ' s Ferry on May 6 . Lincoln was forced to surrender Charleston and more than 5 , 000 Continental Army troops on May 12 . It was the worst American loss of the war . The United States Army did not suffer a loss of similar size until the First Philippines Campaign of World War II .