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Through this point in the season the Farmers had played decently, amassing a 1-1-2 record, but the injuries were adding up. Numerous starters had been injured over the course of the year, and the day before halfback Pascall had been injured enough to be removed from the game. The Daily Free Press, of Kinston, North Carolina, described the Farmers' pre-game condition as follows: "The A. & M. boys were badly crippled from preceding games, especially a game on Friday [against Davidson]." As the injuries gained momentum, the Red and White lost theirs. Additionally, the spirits of A&M were down; as the Yorkville Enquirer explained, though the North Carolina boys were the heavier team, the team was "jaded from its game yesterday with Davidson college." Another factor going against the Farmers was that Clemson team manager, J. F. Sullivan, had traveled to Charlotte to see the previous day's game, "to be forewarned and therefore forearmed for the enemy" (The Daily Free Press, November 20th, 1899, p. 1; Charlotte Daily Observer, November 18th, 1899, p. 6).

Clemson's team this year was not a bad one, having earlier in the season defeated Davidson 10-0 and South Carolina 34-0, but also having lost 0-11 to Georgia and 0-34 to Auburn. Clemson explained their loss to Georgia as partially due to the fact that it was played in a heavy rain "with mud inches deep" which prevented "scientific football" from being played, also writing that "it was simply a matter of weight as to who would win." The Tigers' loss against Auburn was much larger and curiously not reported in their student paper, the Clemson Chronicle, but the 1899 Auburn team was very good, losing by only 1 point to the powerful Sewanee team of that year. The 1899 Clemson team was coached by Walter Riggs, who had coached the 1896 Clemson team but left at the request of the football team so he could devote more time to his teaching of engineering. Riggs returned at the request of the Clemson team, who could not afford to pay a coach that season. Clemson was just the fourth out-of-state team ever played by A&M, and the first game every played in South Carolina. It was also the team's first out-of-state game played since reinstating football in 1897; one of the conditions for the re-introduction of the game was that all games be played "within the State under the direction of the Faculty."

Clemson's team captain, Walker, won the toss "as usual" and selected the south goal, A&M kicking off to Clemson's 20 yard line, where it was caught by Forsythe and returned 25 yards. Fortunately for the Farmers, Clemson was "too eager to get in the game" and lost the ball as a result of an offsides foul. A&M drove the ball 13 yards but then lost the ball on downs. From there, Clemson drove the ball another 11 yards before losing the ball again for holding. Despite giving the Farmers the ball a second time, A&M was unable to advance the ball a second time, and gave the ball back to the Tigers on the Clemson 30 yard line. From there, Clemson mounted a long drive, bringing the ball all the way to 10 yards from the goal line. After gaining about 8 yards, the Tigers fumbled the ball; from there, the description of the game is a little unclear, reading "N. C. falls on the ball when it is six inches of their goal. N. C. jumps to centre of field." The next play is then a run by Forsythe of Clemson. Because of this, I believe A&M recovered the ball in their own endzone; this allowed the Red and White to kick the ball off from anywhere inside their own 25 yard line. The Farmers did that, and the kick was returned 15 yards by Forsythe. After another 10 yard run by Shealy, "it remains only for Kaigler to carry it over, which he does by a back through the left side line." After a "difficult" kick by Lewis**, Clemson was up 6-0, with between 1-1/2 minutes and 50 seconds left in the first half. As the Clemson College Chronicle wrote, "The teams line up for a kick off but it is scarcely done before the first half is up."

The Tigers kicked off 30 yards to the A&M 20 yard line, where it was returned 10 yards by Person. After a few short gains, the Red and White lost the ball on downs, giving Clemson the ball at the center of the field. Clemson made around 23 yards of gains, but lost the ball a second time on an offsides infraction. "N. C. is hard pressed and she resorts to a punt." After the punt came "the prettiest play of the whole game," a long run by Douthit of Clemson for a touchdown. The run included a charge that sent "two or three men sprawling to the ground" and a jump out of a fullback's arms. After a second goal by Lewis**, Clemson was up 12-0.

The Red and White kicked off to Clemson, who advanced the ball well down the field, going at least 26 yards before an A&M player was injured badly enough to earn mention in the Chronicle. Post-game papers wrote that 6-8 of the Farmer players were "badly hurt, including the substitutes," with one A&M player never even seeing the field that game due to injury. "N. C. is calling for time every few minutes," complained the Chronicle, "on account of injured men." With the ball 30-35 yards from the Farmer goal line, Kaigler made a "puzzling fake play," a "slick steal away, running straight down the right side line with a clear field for 35 yards." The Chronicle described the Farmer team by writing "N. C. is dumbfounded." The play, called "one of the features of the game," set up a third successful goal kick by Lewis**, making the score 18-0 in favor of the Tigers (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 19th, 1899, p. 1; Charlotte Daily Observer, November 19th, 1899, p. 8; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 22nd, 1899, p. 2).

Forsythe caught and returned A&M's kickoff, dashing "through a number of N. C. players who are unable to catch him" for 15 yards. After that Sullivan, of Clemson, got injured and was replaced by J. B. Lewis**; from there, Clemson lost the ball for unspecified reasons. Once the Red and White had the ball, they made no gain and then fumbled the ball. A&M's quarterback landed on the ball, but was injured after Duckworth, of Clemson, made "a ferocious swipe at him." That injury was likely Morson, "the Agricultural and Mechanical's star quarterback." The Charlotte Daily Observer wrote that Morson was "painfully but not seriously hurt," but Morson was the last blow a crippled Farmer team could take. "After that," wrote the Yorkville Enquirer, "Clemson had things its own way." Douthit advanced the ball to the Farmer 25-yard line, and after a series of smaller gains by Shealy and Forsythe, Walker ran the ball back for Clemson's fourth touchdown, and Lewis** scored the final points of the game with his fourth successful kick, making the score 24-0.

At that point, "so many of N. C's [sic] men are injured that she requests that the game be called which was accordingly done." The half was reportedly just 15 minutes long, as opposed to the 23 minutes (probably actually 25) the Chronicle wrote the half should have been. Though things looked "squally" the whole first half for the Tigers, they turned the game in to a convincing victory in the end. At some unmentioned point in the game, Bunn, "one of their [A&M's] best players, was held back and ruled off for slugging." As the News and Observer synically wrote, "If the A. and M. boys can't play foot-ball better than they did against Clemson yesterday, Dr. Winston would do well to let them try Clemson at a game of plowing." The crowd that witnessed the game was reportedly small. As the Rock Hill Herald wrote, "[The] football contest at this place [on Sa]turday did not draw a large [crowd] mainly on account of the fact [that many*] people do not understand [the gam]e." (Yorkville Enquirer, November 22nd, 1899, p. 3; The Clemson College Chronicle, Vol. III, No. 3 (December, 1899), pp. 136-138; News and Observer, November 19th, 1899, p. 12; Rock Hill Herald, November 22nd, 1899, p. 3).

* The copy of the Rock Hill Herald in my possession is fairly damaged; the words in brackets are my best guess, though the phrase "that many" is particularly questionable

** There were two Lewises on Clemson's team this season, Gus P. and J. Baxter Lewis. The latter Lewis was typically the starting left end for the 1899 Tigers, while the former saw action as a quarterback, but started the season as a reserveman. In this case, none of the instances of Lewis getting named include attribution, except the substitution, where the paper clearly reads that J. B. Lewis subbed in. Because a starting lineup for this game has not been found, I've assumed Gus made all the kicks, as their other starting quarterback, Riggs (probably Arthur F. Riggs, brother of head coach Walter Riggs, though Arthur was not listed in the 1899 team's starting lineup [Clemsonian 1901, p. 192]) was not mentioned in the game description.