Troy-bilt Horse with electrical problems

Hey, team.
I got this Troy-bilt Horse, about 2 1/2 years old now. I had noticed that from time to time the battery would need a charge to get the engine started. Now today...well....
Dead battery. Hooked up the charger and it was drawing about 3-4 amps so I waited but later on still can't start the mower. the starter barely spins and the solenoid part doesn't come out to engage with the engine.
Bring on the car. Jumped it successfully with the car. Yay.
Ran for about 15 minutes and it started sputtering, then recovered, brushed it off as something in the gas tank.
Turned it off later and immediately I tried to restart it and it wouldn't restart at all.
Hooked up the charger. No current draw. It was then I figure a terminal broke inside the battery if I can't start the mower nor charge the battery.
Brought the car our again. Started up but I noticed that the car lost some RPM when it did.
Here's where it gets weird. I disconnect the jumper cable from the car and the mower sputters. Hook it back up real quick and it oddly recovered. I tried it a few times because I couldn't believe it.

Does anyone with any experience at all know what's going on with my mower? I removed the battery from the mower and hooked it up to the charger and it draws just a slight bit of current.
I am assuming that there is a short in the electrical system and if that's the case I would need guidance to identify the likely suspects.

Thanks team.

likely suspects are battery, voltage regulator, and the stator. Take the battery out and have it tested as it is the most likely suspect. Also clean the battery wire ground. On the battery and where it connects to the mower.

Hey, thanks fore your reply. I really appreciate that.

I got me a meter.

Disconnected battery = 10V.
Disconnected battery with charger = 15V.

Charger won't engage solenoid when battery is disconnected (probably obvious).

Jumped the tractor with the car. It started but the engine was really hard to turn. Harder than I thought it would be.

I am going to try replacing the battery first, see what happens. I couldn't locate any short circuits, although when the switch is in RUN position, I get 32 ohms. Seems low to me.
In start it goes down to about 3 ohms. Probably possible, but I don't know these starters.