Each American colony had militia units of men trained to fight in times of emergency, and mounted militiamen, or rangers, formed the backbone of both Patriot and Loyalist militia regiments in the Carolinas. At the time of Huck's Defeat, General Thomas Sumter, the Gamecock, commanded the backcountry Patriot militia, whose men were equipped to fight on horseback and on foot. During the Revolution, the British army also recruited men in the American colonies for service to the Crown as Provincials, uniformed professional soldiers trained and equipped to fight like the British regular army. At Williamson's Plantation, two northern Provincial units fought, the New York Volunteers infantry and the British Legion cavalry, and both units also included men from the Carolinas and Georgia. African Americans, both free and enslaved, served in the American and British armies as armed troops and as laborers known as pioneers; Colonel William Bratton's slave, Watt, accompanied his master at the Battle of Huck's Defeat, as did several slaves of Loyalist militia officers, including Miller Sam, the African slave of Loyalist Colonel Matthew Floyd.