PART IIISTRENGTH AND LOSSES OF THE TWO ARMIESBRITISH STRENGTH AND LOSSESThe field return of the troops under command of Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis on the night of the 15th of August, 1780, and the return of the killed, wounded, and missing in the Battle of Camden give the following figures.
It will be noted that the heaviest losses occurred in the Thirty-third Regiment and the Volunteers of Ireland, owing to the well-directed fire of the Continentals and the execution done by the Artillery. Among the 20 officers killed or wounded were Lieutenant Colonel Webster, of the British Army, and Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton, of the North Carolina regiment, both wounded.
| Organization |
Number engaged |
Killed |
Wounded |
Missing |
Total |
| Royal Artillery |
19
|
|
3
|
|
3
|
| Light companies |
148
|
7
|
6
|
|
13
|
| Twenty-third Regiment |
292
|
6
|
18
|
|
24
|
| Thirty-third Regiment |
238
|
18
|
81
|
1
|
100
|
| First Battalion, Seventy-first Regiment |
144
|
5
|
25
|
|
30
|
| Second Battalion, Seventy-first Regiment |
110
|
5
|
9
|
|
14
|
| Volunteers of Ireland |
303
|
17
|
70
|
|
87
|
| British Legion cavalry |
182
|
4
|
4
|
2
|
10
|
| British Legion infantry |
126
|
1
|
12
|
5
|
18
|
| North Carolina Regiment |
267
|
3
|
14
|
|
17
|
| Pioneers |
28
|
2
|
1
|
|
3
|
| Volunteer militia |
322
|
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
| Total |
2,179
|
68
|
245
|
11
|
324
|
The return of ordnance and military Stores taken on the battle field and abandoned in camp showed that eight brass field pieces
[61]were captured on the battle field. Twenty-two ammunition wagons, a large supply of fixed ammunition, 2,000 stand of arms, many musket cartridges, and a number of colors fell into the hands of the British.
AMERICAN LOSSESThe American losses in this battle are not known. In a communication from Cornwallis to Lord Germain he reported 800 to 900 Americans killed and about 1,000 made prisoners, many of whom were wounded. These numbers are so far from correct that they are valueless as a guide. The militia broke early in the day and scattered in so many directions upon their retreat that very few were made prisoners. The losses among the Regulars from all causes can only be estimated at about 300. By the 27th of August there had assembled at Hillsboro 234 of the Continentals. Two days later there were 700 noncommissioned officers and soldiers of the Maryland division alone who had rejoined the Army. In Colonel Williams’s narrative he said that of 832 of the Maryland troops killed, captured, and missing since the Last muster—
at least a very great majority of these, and all of them for aught I know, fell in the field, or into the hands of the enemy, on the fatal 16th of August. This estimate of losses can not be reconciled with any other data bearing on the matter.
[62]
