The authority of the commandant over the other officers, and of the various colonels over their troops, resembled rather the control exercised by Indian chiefs over their warriors than the discipline obtaining in a regular army.

But the men were splendid individual fighters, who liked and trusted their leaders; and the latter were bold, resolute, energetic, and intelligent.
Cornwallis feared that the mountain men would push on and attack his flank; but there was no such danger.

By themselves they were as little likely to assail him in force in the open as Andreas Hofer's Tyrolese--with whom they had many points in common--were to threaten Napoleon on the Danubian plains.

Had they been Continental troops, the British would have had to deal with a permanent army.

But they were only militia [Footnote: The striking nature of the victory and its important consequences must not blind us to the manifold shortcomings of the Revolutionary militia.