Battle of Waxhaws

Battle of Waxhaws
Part of the American Revolutionary War
19th-century sketch of the battle
Date May 29, 1780 Location Lancaster County, South Carolina 34°44′31.03″N 80°37′32.85″W / 34.7419528°N 80.6257917°W / 34.7419528; -80.6257917 Result British victory Strengthened Loyalist control in South Carolina
Belligerents
Great Britain	United States
Commanders and leaders
Banastre Tarleton	Abraham Buford
Strength
150 infantry and cavalry	380 infantry 40 cavalry[1]
Casualties and losses
5 killed 12 wounded	113 killed 150 wounded 53 captured

The Battle of Waxhaws (also known as the Waxhaws Massacre and Buford's Massacre) was a military engagement which took place on May 29, 1780, during the American Revolutionary War between a Patriot force led by Abraham Buford and a British force led by Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton near Lancaster, South Carolina. Buford's men consisted of Continental Army soldiers, while Tarleton's force was mostly made up of Loyalist troops. After the two forces sighted each other, Buford rejected an offer of surrender terms, and Tarleton's cavalry charged. An unknown number of Buford's men then attempted to surrender at the same time as Tarleton's horse was shot, pinning him underneath. An unknown number of Loyalists, angered by this apparent perfidy, continued their attack, killing several Patriots until order was restored.^[2][3]

Of the 420 soldiers serving under Buford during the battle 104 escaped, 113 were killed, 150 were injured and 53 were captured. The British suffered 5 men killed and 12 wounded. Patriots called their lopsided defeat a "massacre". The battle became the subject of an intensive propaganda campaign by Patriots to bolster recruitment and incite resentment against the British. Patriots subsequently coined the term "Tarleton's quarter" to refer to the practice of giving no quarter during battles, though he had not ordered his men to attack the surrendering Patriots. In subsequent engagements in the Carolinas, it became rare for either side to take significant prisoners.