ad, consulted with his officers, and did little or
nothing farther, either for flight or conflict. While thus halting and
hesitating he was attacked by the impetuous Tarleton, offered a feeble
resistance, unmarked by conduct or spirit, suffered the enemy to gain
his rear, and finally grounded his arms. He either did this too soon or
too late. His flag was disregarded in the flush of battle, the bearer
of it cut down by the hand of Tarleton, and the British infantry, with
fixed bayonets, rushed upon the inactive Americans. Some of Beaufort's
men, seeing that their application for quarter was disregarded, resolved
to die like men, and resumed their arms. Their renewed fire provoked the
massacre of the unresisting. A terrible butchery followed. The British
gave no quarter. From that day, "Tarleton's Quarters", implying the
merciless cutting down of the suppliant, grew into a proverbial phrase,
which, in the hour of victory, seemed to embitter the hostility with
which the American strove to avenge his slaughtered comrades.

* Generally given as Buford in other documents. Simms also
states "the Warsaw settlements" in the original text, but
Waxhaw is correct. According to local tradition, the mother
of Andrew Jackson, the future president, was one of those
who aided the survivors. Jackson himself later served, at
the age of 13, in Davie's cavalry, as a messenger, and was
the only member of his family to survive the war.
--A. L., 1996.--

The defeat of Beaufort, with the only regular force remaining in the
State, following so close upon the fall of Charleston, paralyzed
the hopes of the patriots. The country seemed everywhere subdued. An
unnatural and painful apathy dispirited opposition. The presence of a
British force, sufficient to overawe the neighborhood, at conspicuous
points, and the awakened activity of the Tories in all quarters, no
longer restrained by the presence in arms of their more patriotic
countrymen, seemed to settle the question of supremacy. There was not
only no head against the enemy, but the State, on a sudden, appeared to
have been deprived of all her distinguished men. Moultrie and others who
might have led, were prisoners of war. Governor Rutledge, a noble spirit
and famous orator--the Patrick Henry of Carolina,--had withdrawn to the
North State, to stimulate the energies of the people in that quarter and
gain recruits. His example was followed by Sumter, Horr