The victory once gained, the bonds of discipline over the troops were forthwith loosened; they had been lax at the best, and only the strain of the imminent battle with the British had kept them tense for the fortnight the mountaineers had been away from their homes.  All the men of the different commands were bragging as to their respective merits in the battle, and the feats performed by the different commanders. [Footnote:  Certificate of Matthew Willoughby, in Richmond Enquirer, as quoted.] The general break up of authority, of course, allowed full play to the vicious and criminal characters.  Even before the mountaineers came down the unfortunate Carolinas had suffered from the misdeeds of different bodies of ill-disciplined patriot troops, [Footnote:  Gates MSS., Deposition of John Satty, and others, Sept. 7, 1780; of Wm. Hamilton, Sept. 12th, etc., etc., etc.] almost as much as from the British and tories.  The case was worse now.  Many men deserted from the returning army for the especial purpose of plundering the people of the neighborhood, paying small heed which cause the victims had espoused; and parties continually left camp avowedly with this object.  Campbell’s control was of the slightest; he was forced to entreat rather than command the troops, complaining that they left their friends in “almost a worse situation than the enemy would have done,” and expressing what was certainly a moderate “wish,” that the soldiers would commit no “unnecessary injury” on the inhabitants of the county. [Footnote:  Campbell’s General Orders, Oct. 14th, and Oct. 26th.] Naturally such very mild measures produced little effect in stopping the plundering.

However, Campbell spoke in stronger terms of an even worse set of outrages.  The backwoodsmen had little notion of mercy to beaten enemies, and many of them treated the captured loyalists with great brutality, even on the march, [Footnote:  “Our captors ... cutting and striking us in a most savage manner,”—­“South Carolina Loyalist.”] Col.  Cleavland himself being one of the offenders. [Footnote:  Allaire’s diary, entry of Nov. 1st.] Those of their friends and relatives who had fallen into the hands of the tories, or of Cornwallis’ regulars, had fared even worse; yet this cannot palliate their conduct.  Campbell himself, when in a fit of gusty anger, often did things he must have regretted afterwards; but he was essentially manly, and his soul revolted at the continued persecution of helpless enemies.  He issued a sharp manifesto in reference to the way the prisoners were “slaughtered and disturbed,” assuring the troops that if it could not be prevented by moderate measures, he would put a stop to it by taking summary vengeance on the offenders. [Footnote:  Campbell’s General Orders, Oct. 11th.] After this the prisoners were, on the whole, well treated.  When they met a couple of Continental officers, the latter were very polite, expressing their sympathy for their fate in falling into such hands; for from Washington and Greene down, the Continental troops disliked and distrusted the militia almost as much as the British regulars did the tories.