But This [Hobkirk's Hill] Was Perhaps
Vol. 3 No. 4.0 _______ ______________________________ ______ _ _ __April 2006 "But this [Hobkirk’s Hill] was perhaps the most important victory of the whole war, for defeat would have occasioned the loss of Charleston (in the then open state of the works of that capitol), the Carolinas, and Georgia." Sir Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion, page 295. Excerpt of British Capt. Charles Vallancey’s sketch map of the April 25, 1781 “Battle of Hobkirks Hill”, undated in the cartouche, but as published in Charles Stedman’s The History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War and noted “engraved February 6, 1794”. This map shows the initial deployments of both sides, the cavalry action on the east flanks, and the Patriot cannon being removed to the springs. Vallancey, a captain in the Volunteers of Ireland provincial regiment, was a likely eyewitness, but published this sketch 13 years after the battle; Charles Stedman, was a Loyalist commissary officer with Lord Cornwallis in Yorktown and was not an eyewitness to this battle. North is up and the road through the center of the map is the Great Waxhaw Trail, modern North Broad Street in Camden. The British front line from west to east: Kings American Regiment, 63d Regiment, Volunteers of Ireland and Light Infantry; the second line includes “Convalescents”, NY Volunteers, South Carolina Regiment, and the New York Dragoons. “When I say that our commander has behaved himself as heretofore, I only barely do him justice. Look back into our proceedings, with so little means; where have you read of so much being done! Let this man be unfortunate, or let him be successful; in either case he will be a great man.
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