em. Wheeling
them under the walls of the house, he took a contiguous position,
his own being almost the only portion of the British army still in a
condition to renew the action. The Americans yielded the ground about
the house, but were promptly rallied in the skirts of the wood. The
British were too much crippled to pursue; and the respite was gladly
seized upon by the Americans to plunge headlong into the neighboring
ponds, to cool the heat and satisfy the intense thirst occasioned by
such efforts under the burning sun of a Carolina September. Both sides
claimed the victory, and with equal reason. In the first part of the day
it was clearly with the Americans. They had driven the enemy from the
field, in panic and with great loss. They were in possession of five
hundred prisoners, nearly all of whom they retained. They had taken two
out of the five pieces of artillery which the British had brought into
the action; and, something more to boast, considering the proverbial
renown of the British with this weapon, it was at the point of the
bayonet that they had swept the enemy from the ground. The British took
shelter in a fortress from which the Americans were repulsed. It is
of no consequence to assert that the latter might have taken it. They
might--it was in their power to have done so,--but they did not; and the
promptitude with which the British availed themselves of this security,
entitles them to the merit which they claim. We are constrained to think
that the business of the field was strangely blundered by the Americans
at the sequel. This may have arisen from the carnage made at this period
among their officers, particularly in their persevering, but futile
endeavors, to extricate the soldiers from their tents. Under cover of
a contiguous barn, the artillery presented the means of forcing the
building and reducing the garrison to submission. The attempts made at
this object, by this arm of the Americans, were rash, badly counselled,
and exposed to danger without adequate protection. The British were
saved by this error, by the luxuries contained within their tents,
by the spirited behavior of Coffin, and the cool and steady valor of
Marjoribanks.

Chapter 17.

Retreat of the British from Eutaw--Pursuit of them by
Marion and Lee--Close of the Year.

That the results of victory lay with the Americans, was shown by the
events of the ensuing day. Leaving his dead unburied, seventy of
his woun