Great Britain 1781 1782 1783 The Battle of Blackstock's Farm, a military engagement of the American Revolutionary War, took place in what today is Union County, South Carolina, a few miles from Cross Anchor, on November 20, 1780.

[5] After the defeat of Major Patrick Ferguson and the destruction or capture of his entire military force of 900 men at the Battle of Kings Mountain the previous month, the sparsely settled Carolina Backcountry had come increasingly under the control of the Patriots.

[9][10] On November 18, Tarleton's British Legion dragoons and the mounted infantry of the 63d Regiment were bathing and watering their horses on the Broad River when some of Sumter's raiders fired at them from the opposite bank.

Colonel Thomas Brandon, who knew the area, suggested the nearby farm of William Blackstock, a homestead on the hills above the Tyger River.

[13] Tarleton came up late in the fall afternoon and chose to make a frontal attack against a numerically superior force, not waiting for his infantry and artillery to catch up.

The Patriot militia fired at too great a distance, and before they could reload Major John Money, commanding the 63d Regiment, hit them with the bayonet.

[21] In fact, Tarleton, one of the most hated and feared commanders in the backcountry, had been beaten for the first time, and his British regulars had been bested by militia — although from behind cover and not in the open field.

Even the wounding of the prickly Sumter proved to be an advantage to the Patriots because it allowed George Washington to appoint Nathanael Greene to command the Southern department.