and that the loss on either side was nearly equal.  About one hundred were wounded, and fifty Tories made prisoners.  The men had no uniform, and it could not be told to which party many of the dead belonged.  Most of the Whigs wore a white piece of paper on their hats in front, which served as a mark at which the Tories frequently aimed, and consequently, several of the Whigs, after the battle, were found to be shot in the head.  In this battle, neighbors, near relatives and personal friends were engaged in hostile array against each other.  After the action commenced, scarcely any orders were given by the commanding officers.  They all fought like common soldiers, and animated each other by their example, as in the battle of King’s Mountain, a little over three months after.  In no battle of the Revolution, where a band of patriots, less than four hundred in number, engaged against an enemy, at least twelve hundred strong, was there an equal loss of officers, showing the leading part they performed, and the severity of the conflict.  They were all

    “Patriots, who perished for their country’s right,
    Or nobly triumphed on the field of fight.”

Of the Whig officers, Captains Falls, Knox, Dobson, Smith, Bowman, Sloan, and Armstrong were killed.  Captain William Falls, who commanded one of the cavalry companies, was shot in the breast in the first spirited charge, as previously stated, and riding a short distance in the rear, fell dead from his horse.  His body, after the battle was over, was wrapped in a blanket procured from Mrs. Reinhardt and conveyed to Iredell (then a part of Rowan) for burial.  Captain Falls lived in Iredell county, not far from Sherrill’s Ford, on the Catawba.  There is a reliable tradition which states that when Captain Falls was killed a Tory ran up to rob the body, and had taken his watch, when a young son of Falls, though only fourteen years old, ran up suddenly behind the Tory, drew his father’s sword and killed him.  Captain Falls was the maternal grandfather of the late Robert Falls Simonton, who had the sword in his possession at the time of his death, in February, 1876.

Captain Patrick Knox was mortally wounded in the thigh; an artery being severed, he very soon died from the resulting hemorrhage.  Captain James Houston was severely wounded in the thigh, from the effects of which he never fully recovered.  Captain Daniel McKissick was also severely wounded, but recovered, and represented Lincoln county in the Commons from 1783 to 1787.  Captains Hugh Torrence, David Caldwell, John Reid, all of Rowan county, and Captain Smith, of Mecklenburg, came out of the conflict unhurt.  William Wilson had a horse shot down under him, and was wounded in the second fire.  Several of the inferior officers were killed.  Thirteen men from the vicinity of Fourth Creek [Statesville] lay dead on the ground after the battle, and many of the wounded died a few days afterward.  Joseph Wasson, from Snow Creek, received five balls, one of which it is said he carried forty years to a day, when it came out of itself.  Being unable to stand up he lay on the ground, loaded his musket, and fired several times.