Sumter placed Colonel Henry Hampton and his South Carolina
riflemen in the farm outbuildings. Some units he stationed
behind stout fences and others he screened in the surrounding
woods. Tarleton came up late in the fall afternoon and chose to
make a frontal attack against a numerically superior force, not
waiting for his infantry and artillery to catch up. At first he
was successful. The Patriot militia fired at too great a
distance, and before they could reload Major John Money,
commanding the 63d Regiment, hit them with the bayonet.
Nevertheless, in doing so, the 63d advanced too close to the
farm buildings and came under fire from Hampton's men inside, as
usual aiming "at the epaulets and stripes." Money and two of his
lieutenants were killed, and according to an officer of Fraser's
Highlanders, a third of the privates as well. Meanwhile, other
partisans worked their way around their right flank and attacked
Tarleton's dragoons who were in their saddles but only watching
the action. Realizing that the bat