Emboldened by the brief encounter at Cedar Springs and determined to show once again that British forces were vulnerable, Clarke and Shelby began to seek another engagement. Within a few days they received word that a force of about two hundred Tories were at Musgrove’s Mill, to protect a ford over the Enoree River, and decided to attack with two hundred handpicked militiamen on horseback. Unfortunately, their scouts were detected and the British were aroused. At almost the same time, a local partisan informed them that three hundred additional mounted troops under Colonel Alexander Innes had arrived to strengthen the British forces. Clarke and Shelby knew that their troops could not confront a force almost three times as large, with two hundred of them well-trained British regulars. With their horses exhausted, neither could the two commanders retreat.

In desperation, they settled on a classical ruse: to entice the British to their defensive position. The rebels hurriedly erected breastworks of logs and brush in an arc of about two hundred yards along slightly elevated ground, and deployed Shelby’s troops on the right and Clarke’s on the left, with eighty men placed in reserve behind the front line. One of the Georgia veterans, Captain Shadrach Inman, took two dozen men and crossed the river, appearing to have stumbled on the British camp, and then retreated in stages to draw the enemy into the trap. The British were exulting as the rebels yielded before their muskets and bayonets, and never knew of the main force until the Georgians and Over Mountain men opened fire at a range of seventy yards. The British regulars held despite heavy losses and attacked with bayonets while the militiamen were struggling to reload their rifles.

Shelby’s line started to yield, but Clarke ordered forty reserve horsemen to support his position, and the mountain men and Georgians gave their Indian war cry and charged. Although Clarke’s horse was killed and he was severely wounded by sword slashes to his shoulders and neck, he never fell to his knees.

Of the five hundred Tories, sixty-three were dead, ninety wounded, and seventy were taken prisoner. Only four rebels were killed and seven wounded. The militiamen grieved when they found the body of Shadrach Inman pierced by seven bullets. Shelby said later that he was amazed at the wild and screaming charge of Clarke and his troops, which forced the remaining British to fall back.

•  •  •