in the process wounded Tarleton on his right hand with a sabre blow, while Tarleton creased Washington's knee with a pistol shot that also wounded his horse. It was now 8:00 a.m., and the battle had lasted approximately one hour. Washington pursued Tarleton for sixteen miles, but gave up the chase when he came to the plantation of local planter Adam Goudylock near Thicketty Creek. Tarleton was able to escape capture by forcing Goudylock to serve as guide. Aftermath Morgan's army took 712 prisoners, which included 200 wounded. Even worse for the British, the forces lost (especially the British Legion and the dragoons) constituted the cream of Cornwallis's army. Additionally, 110 British soldiers were killed in action, and every artilleryman was either killed or incapacitated by wounds. Tarleton suffered an 86 percent casualty rate, and his brigade had been wiped out as a fighting force. John Eager Howard quoted Major McArthur of the 71st Highlanders, now a prisoner of the Americans, as saying that "he was an officer before Tarleton was born; that the best troops in the service were put under 'that boy' to be sacrificed." An American prisoner later recounted that when Tarleton reached Cornwallis and reported the disaster, Cornwallis placed his sword tip on the ground and leaned on it until the blade snapped. Historian Lawrence E. Babits has demonstrated that Morgan's official report of 73 casualties appears to have only included his Continental troops. From surviving records, he has been able to identify by name 128 Colonial soldiers who were either killed or wounded at Cowpens. He also presents an entry in the North Carolina State Records that shows 68 Continental and 80 militia casualties. It would appear that both the number of Morgan's casualties and the total strength of his force were about double what he officially reported. Tarleton's apparent recklessness in pushing his command so hard in pursuit of Morgan may be explained by the fact that, up until Cowpens, every battle that he and his British Legion had fought in the South had been a relatively easy victory. He appears to have been so concerned with pursuing Morgan that he quite forgot that it was necessary for his men to be in a fit condition to fight once they caught him, though Cornwallis himself did press Tarleton to take aggressive action. Coming in the wake of the American debacle at Camden, Cowpens was