300 The Winning of the West 



the British side, and exerted a great influence over 

 the tories; they gathered eagerly to his standard, 

 and he drilled them with patient perseverance. 



After the taking of Charleston Ferguson's volun- 

 teers and Tarleton's legion acting separately or to- 

 gether speedily destroyed the different bodies of pa- 

 triot soldiers. Their activity and energy was such 

 that the opposing commanders seemed for the time 

 being quite unable to cope with them, and the Amer- 

 ican detachments were routed and scattered in quick 

 succession. 4 On one of these occasions, the sur- 

 prise at Monk's Corners, where the American com- 

 mander, Huger, was slain, Ferguson's troops again 

 had a chance to show their skill in the use of the 

 bayonet. 



Tarleton did his work with brutal ruthlessness ; 

 his men plundered and ravaged, maltreated prison- 

 ers, outraged women, and hanged without mercy all 

 who were suspected of turning from the loyalist 

 to the whig side. His victories were almost always 

 followed by massacres ; in particular, when he routed 

 with small loss a certain Captain Buford, his sol- 

 diers refused to grant quarter, and mercilessly butch- 

 ered the beaten Americans. 5 



Ferguson, on the contrary, while quite as valiant 



4 "History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781," Lt.-Col. 

 Tarleton, London (1787). See also the "Strictures" thereon, 

 by Roderick Mackenzie, London, same date. 



5 It is worth while remembering that it was not merely the 

 tories who were guilty of gross crimes ; the British regulars, 

 including even some of their officers, often behaved with ab- 

 horrent brutality. 



