Cornet Thomas Patterson of the regiment was killed on this occasion[4], and Lieutenant Henry Nettles wounded; several private soldiers and troop horses were also killed and wounded.
When Earl Cornwallis advanced into North Carolina, the SEVENTEENTH were left in South Carolina, under the command of Lord Rawdon, and had to perform duties which called forth the intelligence, activity, and bravery of the officers and soldiers. The occupation of posts distant from each other gave the light cavalry left in the province full employment in keeping up the communications. Many of the inhabitants were hostile to the royal cause; they performed their duties of allegiance with reluctance, and broke their engagements at the first opportunity: the troops of the Congress also made incursions into the province. These circumstances occasioned the duties of the detachment to be particularly harassing; the men and horses were exhausted by constant motion along bad roads, and reduced in numbers by continual skirmishes. While employed in these duties instances of individual gallantry and devotion to the interests of the service were numerous. On one occasion, when Private MCMULLINS was carrying a despatch to the Commander-in-Chief, he was beset by four militia men; he shot one, disabled another with his sword, and brought the other two prisoners to head-quarters[5].
On another occasion a despatch of great importance had to be forwarded to Lord Rawdon, through a country infested by the enemy, and Corporal O'LAVERY, of the SEVENTEENTH, being a man of known courage and experience, was selected to accompany the bearer of the despatch. They had not proceeded far before they were attacked and both severely wounded. The bearer of the despatch died on the road; the corporal snatched the paper from the dying man, and rode on until he fell from loss of blood, when, to conceal the important secret from the Americans, should he fall into their hands, he thrust the paper into his wound. He was found, on the following day, with sufficient life to point to the fatal depository of the secret. The surgeon declared the wound itself not to be mortal, but rendered so by the insertion of the despatch. Corporal O'LAVERY was a native of the county of Down, where a _monument_, the gratitude of his countryman and commander, LORD RAWDON, records his fame.