Immediately after the engagement at the Waxhaws, reports spread that many were stabbed and killed as they tried to surrender. Many wounded were taken to a local Presbyterian church, where local residents cared for them, including a young Andrew Jackson and his mother. Banastre Tarleton was denounced and over time became known as "Bloody Ban the Butcher" for his actions on the battlefield. In his report to the Virginia Assembly, Colonel Buford confirmed that "Our loss is very great … many of which (were) killed after they had laid down their arms." Tarleton acknowledged that an erroneous report that he had been slain "stimulated the soldiers to a vindictive asperity not easily restrained." Although historians continue to debate what occurred at the Waxhaws, Tarleton's actions there and elsewhere stirred and angered backcountry settlers into action. After the surrender of Charleston in May 1780, all organized Patriot resistance in the South was nearly extinguished, but the British followed their victory with heavy-handed treatment of the rural population. General Clinton proclaimed that those who did not take an oath to the King would be treated as "rebels and enemies to their country," leaving none neutral. Throughout the Carolinas, the conflict disintegrated into terrible civil war as Loyalists sought vengeance on beaten Patriot neighbors and Patriot militia answered in kind. As the British Legion burned and pillaged the countryside, stories of the slaughter at the Waxhaws were told and retold, and "Tarleton's Quarter" became synonymous with cruel treatment and the execution of prisoners.