two o'clock
The second division , consisting of provincial troops and two battalions of the Seventy-first Regiment , followed as a reserve . The dragoons of the legion formed the rear guard . The force marched at ten o'clock on the night of August 16 , intending to attack at daybreak the next morning , but it happened that at the very same hour in which the British set out , General Gates , with his force , was starting from Rugeley 's Mills with the intention of attacking Camden in the morning . At two o'clock in the night the advanced guards of the two armies met and fired into each other . In the confusion some prisoners were taken on both sides , and the generals , finding that the two armies were face to face , halted and waited till morning . Lord Cornwallis placed Webster 's division on the right ; the second division , which was under the command of Lord Rawdon , on the left ; the battalion known as the Volunteers of Ireland were on the right of Lord Rawdon 's division and communicated with the Thirty-third Regiment on the left of Webster . In the front line were two six-pounders and two three-pounders under the command of Lieutenant Macleod , R. A .