On the morning of September 8, 1781, General Nathanael Greene's American army attacked Colonel Alexander Stewart's British force camped at a plantation near Eutaw Springs in the last major Revolutionary War battle in South Carolina. The two nearly evenly matched armies, each about 2000 men and composed mostly of veterans, fought for more than three hours in brutal close combat as regulars, militia, British regulars, and Loyalists traded short-range musket volleys and bayonet charges, supported by small cannons in the front lines and small cavalry reserves armed mostly with heavy sabers. Greene's troops drove the British back into their camp, but the British regrouped and forced the Americans from the battlefield. The Americans suffered more than 500 casualties, while the British lost nearly 700. Crippled by the loss of almost a third of his command, Stewart retreated toward Charleston the following day, leaving most of the South Carolina countryside in American control.