Residents of the Upcountry were initially slow to take sides in the American Revolutionary War, content to remain neutral as long as left unmolested; the conflict was initially viewed as one between the British Crown and Charleston plutocrats. The New Acquisition entered into vocal opposition to Royal authority in 1780 only after three "invasions" of the region: the first by Banastre Tarleton and his "Green Dragoons", and two more by Lord Cornwallis. Most of the state had capitulated to the British after their capture of Charleston, but after the Waxhaw Massacre in nearby Lancaster County in May 1780, residents of the New Acquisition took part in a regional resistance. Led by men such as William "Billy" Hill, William Bratton, and Samuel Watson, both the battles of Huck's Defeat and Kings Mountain, were fought in the New Acquisition. These defeats forced Cornwallis northward, and led to his ultimate surrender at Yorktown.