their labours.

On the 14th of March 1781, Lord Cornwallis received intelligence that
General Green, with a force five times greater as to numbers than the
British, was within ten miles. His lordship determined to attack them
the day following, and put his little corps in motion at daybreak of the
15th of March. About noon, he fell in with the enemy most advantageously
posted, and formed in three lines; the first, which was behind rails,
kept up a most incessant fire, from four six-pounders and musquetry,
upon the British troops as they advanced upon a ploughed field, which
was very muddy from rain that fell the day before. Notwithstanding all
these disadvantages, they marched coolly to the Americans without firing
a musket until within a few yards, when they halted to fire a
well-directed volley and charged. Upon this, they had to encounter the
enemy's second and third lines, which were attacked in the same manner
and totally dispersed, leaving their four six-pounders, the only guns
they had, in the field, which were bravely taken by the brigade of
guards: these four six-pounders were soon after retaken by a charge from
Colonel Washington's cavalry, and two of these guns were ultimately
taken by Captain Saumarez, who had the command of the left wing of the
regiment from the commencement of the action, after Captain Pater, who
commanded the royal Welsh Fusiliers, was wounded in the early part of
the engagement, and the left wing had been separated from the right wing
when in pursuit of the first line of the Americans. The other two
six-pounders were also taken by Colonel Tarleton's cavalry: these four
guns were all the Americans brought into the field.

The enemy's loss in killed and wounded was very considerable. The Welsh
Fusiliers and most of the other corps of Lord Cornwallis's army had
about one third of the officers and soldiers in the field killed and
wounded, and most unhappily, during the action, the lighted paper of the
cartridges set fire to the dried leaves, so that many of the unfortunate
wounded, which could not be removed, belonging to the British and
Americans, were burnt to death. Earl Cornwallis mentioned in his
despatches, "that the conduct and actions of the officers and soldiers
that compose this little army, will do more justice to their merit than
I can by words. Their persevering intrepidity in action, their
invincible patience in the hardships and fatigues of a march of many
hundred miles, in