Victory in Defeat
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A Close and Deadly Clash of Veteran Troops

Victory in Defeat, also, A Close and Deadly Clash of Veteran Troops. Battle of Eutaw Springs. , On the morning of September 8, 1781, General Nathanael Greene's American army attacked Colonel Alexander Stewart's British Force camped at a plantation near Eutaw Springs. Here two almost evenly matched armies slugged it out in the last major Revolutionary War battle in South Carolina., In over three hours of brutal combat, American and British forces traded musket volleys and bayonet charges. Greene's troops drove the British back into their camp, but the British regrouped and forced Greene from the battlefield., The Americans suffered more than 500 casualties, but the British lost nearly 700. Crippled by the loss of almost a third of his command, Stewart retreated toward Charleston the following day, leaving most of the South Carolina countryside in American control., A Close and Deadly Clash of Veteran Troops , Greene's army at Eutaw Springs consisted of regular soldiers and militia, or part-time citizen soldiers. Stewart's force was composed of British regulars and Loyalists, Americans fighting to preserve British rule. Each army mustered about 2000 men, most of them veterans., Infantry-foot soldiers carrying single-shot, muzzle loading-muskets formed the bulk of both forces. Maneuvering in close ranks, they fired their muskets in short-ranged volleys and then charged with bayonets. Several small cannons supported both armies in the front lines. Small reserves of cavalry forces waited to exploit breakthroughs or cover retreats. While mounted, the cavalrymen fought mostly with heavy sabers. These tactics and weapons ensured that the opposing forces at Eutaw Springs would clash at close, deadly range.