This Day in History: May 31

On the western side of the Catawba River, Capt. John McClure collected a party of thirty-two volunteers and on May 31 attacked a group of Loyalists gathering to take British protection at Alexander's Old Field, in present Chester County. 

Although the Loyalists, led by a Colonel Houseman, numbered about two hundred, they were defeated and dispersed by the small Patriot force. This was the first Patriot victory after the fall of Charleston, and the beginning of a great wave of backcountry resistance to the British and their Loyalist allies. [More]