running among his men with his sword pointed to the ground, called on them for God’s sake to cease firing; and turning to the prisoners he bade the officers rank by themselves, and the men to take off their hats and sit down.  He then ordered De Peyster to dismount; which the latter did, and handed his sword to Campbell. [Footnote:  Campbell MSS.  Letter of General George Rutledge (who was in the battle, an eye-witness of what he describes), May 27, 1813.  But there is an irreconcilable conflict of testimony as to whether Campbell or Evan Shelby received De Peyster’s sword.] The various British officers likewise surrendered their swords, to different Americans; many of the militia commanders who had hitherto only possessed a tomahawk or scalping-knife thus for the first time getting possession of one of the coveted weapons.

Almost the entire British and tory force was killed or captured; the only men who escaped were the few who got through the American lines by adopting the whig badges.  About three hundred of the loyalists were killed or disabled; the slightly wounded do not seem to have been counted. [Footnote:  For the loyalist losses, see ante, note discussing their numbers.  The “South Carolina Loyalist” says they lost about a third of their number.  It is worthy of note that the actual fighting at King’s Mountain bore much resemblance to that at Majuba Hill a century later; a backwoods levy was much like a Boer commando.] The colonel-commandant was among the slain; of the four militia colonels present, two were killed, one wounded, [Footnote:  In some accounts this officer is represented as a major, in some as a colonel; at any rate he was in command of a small regiment, or fragment of a regiment.] and the other captured—­a sufficient proof of the obstinacy of the resistance.  The American loss in killed and wounded amounted to less than half, perhaps only a third, that of their foes. [Footnote:  The official report as published gave the American loss as twenty-eight killed and sixty wounded.  The original document (in the Gates MSS., N. Y. Hist.  Soc.) gives the loss in tabulated form in an appendix, which has not heretofore been published.  It is as follows: 

RETURN OF KILLED AND WOUNDED.

KILLED        |              WOUNDED     |
Col.                   |   Col.                   |
|  Major.              |   |  Major.              |
|  |  Capt.            |   |  |  Capt.            |
|  |  |  Lieut.        |   |  |  |  Lieut.        |
|  |  |  |  Ensign.    |   |  |  |  |  Ensign.    |
|  |  |  |  |  Sergt.  |   |  |  |  |  |  Sergt.  |
|  |  |  |  |  |  Private. |  |  |  |  |  |  Private. 
REGIMENTS.    |  |  |  |  |  |  |  Total.|  |  |  |  |  |  |  Total.
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |Grand
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  Total. 
Campbell’s..        1  2  4     5 12 |         1  3       17 21 33
McDowell’s..                    4  4 |                     4  4  8