Conflict: American Revolution
Combatants: Americans vs. British
Location: North Carolina (USA)
Outcome: British victory
On this day in 1780, the army of British General Charles Cornwallis invested the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. A contingent of cavalry charged into town and was fired upon by American militia. Mistaking American troops movements for a retreat, the brash cavalry charged again and again received fire. The militia, however, withdrew shortly thereafter. After battle reports are conflicting, but both sides likely suffered a few dozen casualties in killed and wounded.
Points of Interest:
During the course of the British Southern Campaign, the Americans inflicted so many causalities and applied such constant pressure that, by September of 1781, Cornwallis had retreated from every garrison into Charleston.
Despite the failure of his Southern Campaign and defeat at Yorktown, Cornwallis avoided most of the blame in both the press and public eye. He was appointed to many important positions throughout the rest of his life and was serving as governor-general of India when he died in 1805.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sources:
Dupuy, R. Ernest & Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History. New York: HarperCollins.
Eggenberger, David (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
Leckie, Robert (1992). George Washington's War. New York: HarperCollins.
McDowell, Bart (1967). The Revolutionary War. Washington D.C., National Geographic Society.
Comments