A mass grave within a ring of white stones holds the bodies of 84 Continentals buried where they fell on May 29, 1780. Jacob Carnes, a 17 year old working in a nearby field, was forced by the victorious British, along with other local residents, to dig the grave, and years later his recollection provided one of the best accounts of the battle's carnage. Local citizens began an effort in 1845 to create a memorial, realized in June 1860 with the installation and dedication of a marble obelisk designed and cut by Charleston stone cutter William T. White. By the mid-20th century, weathering and damage from souvenir seekers made its inscription difficult to read, so a new monument was erected in 1955 by the Waxhaws Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution and the Lancaster County Historical Commission, with the original 1860 words inscribed on its backside, and a fence was added in November 2000 to further protect and preserve the gravesite and obelisk. Flying above the grave is a reproduction of Buford's battle flag, captured at the battle by Lt. Col. Tarleton; the original gold-yellow silk flag bore a painted beaver felling a palmetto tree, a design suggested by Benjamin Franklin and also used on the Continental $6 bill, with the motto "PERSEVERANDO," meaning "To Persevere" until British tyranny was overthrown. Strips cut from the flag's right side were used by the British as awards for individuals who distinguished themselves during the battle, and Tarleton sent the captured flag to his family in Hampshire, England, where it remained for 226 years until a descendant, Captain Christopher Tarleton Fagan, chose to sell it at auction in 2006. After pre-sale display in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, it was sold on June 14, 2006, in New York City to an anonymous private buyer, and The Friends of the Buford Massacre Battlefield later reproduced the flag to fly above the grave in honor of the 84 Continental soldiers buried there. Emily Carnes Franklin, a local resident and direct descendant of Jacob Carnes, worked to maintain and publicize the battleground and inspired the formation of The Friends of the Buford Massacre Battlefield in 2012.