(May 29, 1780). The Battle of the Waxhaws, also known as Buford\u2019s Massacre, was one of several incidents in the backcountry that helped turn the Revolutionary War in the South into a bloody civil war. Most of Georgia and South Carolina fell under British and Loyalist control after the fall of Savannah in late 1779 and the surrender of Charleston, along with 5,500 Continentals and militiamen, on May 12, 1780.<\/p>\n
In late May, Colonel Abraham Buford\u2019s patriot force of 350 to 400 Virginians, primarily infantry and the only significant body of Continentals remaining in the South, retreated toward North Carolina intending to join militia units there and help rebuild the American army in the Carolinas. Colonel Banastre Tarleton pursued him with a force of about 250 to 300 British regulars and Loyalists made up of cavalry, mounted infantry, and dragoons. He overtook Buford on May 29 just south of the North Carolina\u2013South Carolina border (in present-day Lancaster County) and demanded his immediate surrender. Buford refused, and Tarleton charged the Americans, routing them. Though some Americans tried to surrender, others kept fighting, and the British and Loyalists shot or bayoneted many of them, with more than 250 killed or wounded and more than 50 taken prisoner. Tarleton later boasted, \u201cI have cut 170 Off [ice]rs and Men to pieces.\u201d American accounts claimed that the British and Loyalists \u201ckilled at least 200 men in a most Cruel & Inhumane manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most Americans considered Buford\u2019s defeat a massacre rather than a battle, and a British history of the Revolution published a few years after the war commented, \u201cthe virtue of humanity was totally forgot.\u201d This bloody action inspired many in South Carolina and elsewhere to continue, or in some cases to join, the fight against the British and Loyalists in spite of the immense odds against them. \u201cTarleton\u2019s Quarter!\u201d and \u201cRemember Buford!\u201d became watchwords among the patriots in the southern backcountry for the rest of the war.<\/p>\n
Edgar, Walter. Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution. <\/em>New York: Morrow, 2001.<\/p>\n Lumpkin, Henry. From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South. <\/em>Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1981.<\/p>\n Power, J. Tracy. \u201c\u2018The Virtue of Humanity Was Totally Forgot\u2019: Buford\u2019s Massacre, May 29, 1780.\u201d South Carolina Historical Magazine <\/em>93 (January 1992): 5\u201314.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (May 29, 1780). The Battle of the Waxhaws, also known as Buford\u2019s Massacre, was one of several incidents in the backcountry that helped turn the Revolutionary War in the South into a bloody civil war. Most of Georgia and South Carolina fell under British and Loyalist control after the fall of Savannah in late 1779 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","class_list":["post-12216","entry","type-entry","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ecms-a-z","ecms-colonial-unrest-american-revolution-and-new-republic-1765-1789","ecms-encyclopedia","ecms-lancaster-county","ecms-midlands","ecms-military","ecms-w"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n