After Eutaw Springs, the British retreated to their post at Fair Lawn Plantation. In November 1781, Brig. Gen. Francis Marion sent Col. Hezekiah Maham with 180 horsemen and Col. Isaac Shelby with 200 mountain riflemen to eliminate British foraging parties in the area. When the Whigs moved against the hospital and armory at Colleton House, the outnumbered garrison at nearby Fort Fairlawn did not interfere. Maham and Shelby’s forces captured about 150 British soldiers, officers, and doctors without a fight. Those who were well enough to travel were taken as prisoners of war, and the rest were sent to the fort. Then the house, containing a substantial store of guns and supplies, was destroyed by fire. The incident sparked controversy over the proper rules of warfare. The British blamed Maham, Shelby, and Francis Marion for attacking sick and helpless soldiers in a hospital and burning the building. Gen. Nathaniel Greene, the senior Continental officer in South Carolina, replied that the military supplies stored there made it a legitimate target. Shelby wrote that the British, not he and Maham, had burned Colleton House, while Louisa Carolina Colleton, the property’s owner, accused the British of burning all of the plantation buildings, including the mansion, barns, granaries, mills, and the entire slave village.