While all this was going on Daniel Morgan had galloped to the rear to help Andrew Pickens and his officers rally the militia, many of whom if left to their own devices would have mounted their horses and scattered. It is said that some did slip away and swim their mounts across the Broad. But if Tarleton thought that the despised irregulars had abandoned their regular comrades as the Virginians and North Carolinians had done at Camden, he was about to get a very rude surprise. After Washington’s horse had driven off the British dragoons, James Collins wrote that “we being relieved from the pursuit of the enemy began to rally and prepare to redeem our credit, when Morgan rode up in front, and waving his sword, cried out, “Form, form, my brave fellows! Give them one more fire and the day is ours. Old Morgan was never beaten.” The bulk of the militia, led by Pickens assisted by Jackson, Cunningham, McDowell, and others, gathered and followed their gallant leaders in a wide circuit behind the steadfast Continentals toward the right flank of Howard’s main line of resistance.
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Give them one more fire and the day is ours.
From The Road to Guilford Courthouse by John Buchanan. Page 323.
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