met Two months earlier….
Two months earlier, Colonel McDowell was accused of panicking during the action at Earle’s Ford on July 15, 1780. Interesting, Captain Dunlop had also led loyalist partisans at Earl’s Ford.
While the rebels regrouped, Ferguson wrote to Cornwallis that he quickly ordered part of his force to “turn their right flank, where there was an easy ascent, and the few bayonets…advanced upon their center.”
According to Lt. Chesney, the patriots opened with scattered shots at the charging horsemen before breaking to take flight. Captain Dunlop’s dragoons followed the fleeing rebels for a short distance before halting the pursuit. After the dragoons rejoined Ferguson’s men, the detachment returned to Gilbert Town.
Among the wounded at Cane Creek was Capt. Dunlap, who received two slight wounds. His wounds to his hips were serious and kept him out of action for some months.
Captain Dunlap, now Major, recovered from his wounds and once more assumed command of dragoons. While Lord Cornwallis’ main army chased after General Nathaniel Greene and the Southern Continental Army in North Carolina, Dunlap was stationed at Ninety-Six to help subdue the district rebels. He was often accused of riding far from his post in haste after reported rebel bands. At the Battle of Beattie’s Hill on March 23, 1781, his luck ran out. He was surrounded by a superior force in which half his command was killed, with all but a dozen others wounded. Survivors were taken captive to Gilbert Town where a week later, Dunlop was murdered in custody by an Over Mountain Man.