USA > South Carolina > Spartanburg County > A history of Spartanburg county > Part 2
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Companies of Virginia Baptists, angered by the religious intoler- ance of which they were victims, and imbued with the doctrines of Thomas Jefferson, streamed along with the immigrant tide into South Carolina. Some of them settled in the Fairforest basin and built a log meeting house, tradition says in 1765, which became Friendship Church. This meeting house was an "arm" of Fairforest Baptist Church (in the Union County area), which was the first church of its denomination in the Up Country. This church seems to have had other arms, as mission stations were called. The most historic Bap- tist church in Spartanburg County is Bethel at Woodruff, which has been traced back to its origin in 1771 as an arm of Fairforest. This arm withered during the Revolution, and was reorganized before 1787 as "the Church of Christ on Jamey's Creek." Later this church was moved and became known, first as Woodruff's Meeting House, and finally as Bethel Church. In the settlement about Boiling Springs, it is believed, Fairforest had an arm in 1772.
The militia organization of South Carolina at the outbreak of the Revolution included twelve regiments. The men from the total area between the Broad and Saluda rivers were in the Upper Saluda Regi- ment, which was under the command of Colonel Thomas Fletchall. Many of the officers and men in his regiment had fought in the French and Indian War and in the Indian Wars on the Carolina frontier in 1760 and 1761. Numbers of them, no doubt, had helped to erect the string of forts along the Indian Line: Earle's Fort, the Block House,
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BLOCKHOUSES AND SETTLEMENTS
Gowan's Fort, Prince's Fort, Jamison's Fort, Wood's Fort, Nicholls' Fort, Blackstock's Fort.
There is reason to believe that the strongest of these blockhouses was Fort Prince. Records of grants show that the region about it was well settled before the Revolution. The account book kept in Fort Prince shows how all of these forts were operated in periods of Indian warfare. It is the only such book locally preserved, and it proves that the country was pretty well settled and that there was already much agricultural development by 1775; for the inhabitants were selling to the fort commissary, James Jordan, flour, tobacco, wheat, steers, tallow, butter, and Indian corn, in considerable quan- tities. The following names of persons who made sales to the fort appear in Jordan's account : Alexander Rea, Francis Dods, Samuel Brice, James Miller, Alexander Vernon, Nathaniel Miller, John Timons, George Salmon, John McElkey (McElhenny), Thomas Prince, Francis Prince, John Lander, Moses Lander, William Feals, Thomas Barnett, the widow Barnett, Mrs. McCarter, Mrs. Samons, John McCarter, Robert Lusk, James Rytchey, William Readman. Only four of these people made their marks instead of signing their names and all those signing thus traded for small amounts. This may be taken to indicate that the people of these communities had educa- tion.
One entry in the accounts of James Jordan shows him as having received from "Captain John Gowins, Three Bills Cons. to discharge a debt to Heart Due in Charles Town." The amount was one hundred six pounds, fifteen shillings. Possibly this John Gowins commanded at the fort a few miles distant from Fort Prince, on the Indian Line, mentioned often in Revolutionary stories as Gowan's Fort, which was the nucleus of what was to become the flourishing Gowansville com- munity. This old Gowan's Fort, local tradition says, was put in repair and used as a stronghold by deserters during the Civil War. When the World War soldiers were in training, the range for their artillery practice included the site of Gowan's Fort.
Development Men were busy, from their arrival, in carrying on and Expansion trade. They raised cattle and sold them on the hoof in Charles Town or Augusta or Philadelphia. They grew tobacco, and packed it into hogsheads to protect it from the weather on its way to market. To these hogsheads shafts were attached, and horses then rolled them to market over the wretched roads. Wagons were used
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
to a document by which they solemnly bound themselves "to associate in the defense of South Carolina against every foe and to hold all those persons inimical to the liberties of the colonies who shall refuse to subscribe this association." The Congress, June 14, 1775, appointed a Council of Safety "with power to do whatever the safety of the State demanded," and in July this Council sent its representatives into the Up Country to explain the revolutionary movement to the people and appeal to them to set their signatures to the "Association." The response of the population to this appeal drew the inhabitants of the back country into a common struggle with the rest of the State and marked an epoch in their history.
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CHAPTER TWO
Spartans in the Revolutionary Struggle
Formation of the The commissioners sent into the Upper District by Spartan Regiment the Council of Safety were William Henry Dray- ton and William Tennent ; and, at first, they met with little encourage- ment. Many of the back-country settlers spoke out boldly, saying they preferred the rule of the King to that of the "Charles Town gentlemen" who had been reluctant to grant them courts and offices in their own section. Colonel Fletchall, in command, under the Royal government, of the Upper Saluda regiment, which comprised the area of the present counties of Spartanburg, Cherokee, Union, and parts of Newberry and Laurens, was firm in refusing to sign the document pressed on him by Drayton and Tennent, declaring that he "would never take up arms against the King or his countrymen, and that the proceedings of the Congress at Philadelphia were impolitic, dis- respectful, and irritating to the King." Fletchall and some of his officers, to counteract the "Association," drew up a paper pledging loyalty to the King, and to this document fifteen hundred signatures were affixed.
Although most of the men of Fletchall's regiment refused to sign the association, there were some who did sign it. Of these signers the Spartan Regiment was formed within Fletchall's territory, with Colonel John Thomas, Sr., at its head. The origin of the regiment may probably be traced to the meeting held by Drayton at Wofford's Iron Works on August 21, 1775; for on that date he reported to the Council of Safety that he had advised such a step. He mentioned that he had on this occasion barbecued a beef. This was doubtless the first, but by no means the last political barbecue held in Spartanburg County.
Meetings were held at several other places in the Upper District. On August 23, at "an old Indian field" on the Enoree River, a regular muster ground which later was to be the scene of the Battle of Mus- grove's Mill, Drayton and Tennent held an important meeting. In August and September the Spartan Regiment was being organized and was then reported as ready for service. Though many men had to be left at home to protect the frontier, two hundred were ready to march.
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
The Regiment The first service rendered by the Spartan Regiment in Action was its participation under Colonel Richard Richard- son in his campaign against the Loyalist forces. Colonel Thomas and his two hundred Spartans reported to Richardson at the Congarees, December 2, 1775. They bore their share in the campaign that ended December 24 with the engagement at the Great Cane Brake beyond the Indian Line, in what is now Greenville County.
The Battle of the Great Cane Brake was fought by men who had not a tent or a wagon, or other shelter than their saddle blankets. Its object was to capture the King's men, who had retreated beyond the Indian Line and were trying to induce the Cherokees to join them. The Americans had their enemy surrounded almost before their own approach was discovered. About twenty-five of the King's men escaped, five or six were killed, and a hundred captured. During this struggle snow began to fall and continued thirty hours, covering the ground to a depth of two feet. On Christmas Day the Americans made their way from this scene to rejoin Colonel Williamson. They called this expedition "The Snow Campaign," and many a Revo- lutionary soldier proudly included in his record a statement that he was "at the Snow Camps."
From the beginning of the factional disputes, the Indians on the border had been a problem. Each side accused the other of seeking the Cherokee alliance in the quarrel; and each side professed abhor- rence of the idea of white men's encouraging Indians to attack the settlements. The Indian agents, Captain John Stuart and his deputy, Alexander Cameron, were suspected by the Council of Safety of at- tempting to arouse the Indians against the liberty men, but the agents disclaimed the charges. The Council sent a party among the Chero- kees to seize Captain Stuart. This party was attacked by the Indians, its leader barely escaping with his life.
On July 1, 1776, the Cherokees heard that a British fleet was in Charles Town harbor. Immediately they swept over the frontier, burning homes and massacring the inhabitants. Spartans suffered severely all along the Indian Line. The Hites, Hamptons, Fords, Hannons, Bishops, Thompsons, Andersons, and Millers were among the families attacked. People crowded into the forts. Several hun- dred men, women, and children along the entire Indian frontier were slaughtered before Major Andrew Williamson was able to get together a force strong enough to attempt punishment. From the middle of
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SPARTANS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
July until about the middle of October he swept through the Cherokee towns, in cooperation with militia from North Carolina and Virginia.
Some of the Spartans were with Williamson on this campaign against the Cherokees, and in its course the Spartan Regiment was ordered by Williamson to destroy the stronghold of Richard Pearis, because it was an Indian and Tory base. This stockade was where the city of Greenville now stands, and Pearis's lands included Paris Mountain-which, in corrupted form, preserves his name.
Even though the Cherokees were subdued, the frontiers were not considered safe. There were some avowed Tories; and many non- combatants were suspected of being Tories at heart. The Revolu- tionists, therefore, manned the frontier forts and stockades and kept rangers and scouts in active service along the Indian Line.
In the spring of 1778 the Spartan Regiment was
The Second Spartan Regiment divided. The part known as the Spartan Regi- ment continued under the command of Colonel John Thomas; Major Brandon was raised to the rank of colonel and given command of the newly-formed Second Spartan Regiment. The indications are that Thomas and his men remained in the home area, presumably manning the forts and doing scout duty ; and Brandon's regiment, made up largely of men from the less exposed areas, vounteered for service in the campaigns elsewhere. In 1778 Major Andrew Williamson, who had commanded the expedition against the Cherokees, was appointed brigadier general of the newly-formed Upper Brigade of South Caro- lina Militia. Colonel Brandon and the Second Spartan Regiment went with Williamson that year on an expedition against the Florida Loyalists. In the winter of 1779-1780, Colonels James Steen and Thomas Brandon were both participants in the defense of Charles Town, each in command of men from the Upper District.
Collapse The fall of Charles Town, May 1780, and the consequent in 1780 movement of the British to occupy the entire State, brought about a complete change in local conditions. The Upper District had not been touched by actual warfare since the Indian massacre of 1776; but it was now to become one of the principal arenas of the struggle.
Upon the fall of Charles Town, Colonel John Thomas accepted final defeat as inevitable and made a submission to the conquerors, hoping thus to insure protection of the families and property of his men and himself. In following this course he did only what many
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
of his fellow-officers, including Sumter and Pickens, did. The officer at Ninety-Six, in charge of receiving submissions from Americans, was the very Richard Pearis whose property had been destroyed by the Spartan Regiment under Colonel Thomas, and it was probably to Pearis that Thomas made his "submission."
The Dark Summer
When these Americans surrendered, they were assured the status of prisoners of war on parole. But, June 3, 1780, Sir Henry Clinton, the British conqueror of Charles Town, issued a proclamation that all those inhabitants who refused active allegiance to the British should, after June 20, be treated as enemies and rebels. Confident that the State was conquered, Clinton then sailed away to New York to fight Washington. The ensuing summer has been well named "The Dark Summer."
Clinton, before leaving Charles Town, sent three forces inland to occupy Augusta, Ninety-Six, and Camden. Lieutenant Colonel Tarle- ton was dispatched in pursuit of Lieutenant Colonel Buford's Virginia troops, which had been on the way to Charles Town and had turned back toward home upon hearing of the surrender. Overtaking Buford at Waxhaws, May 29, Tarleton's troops savagely butchered the Vir- ginians after they had thrown down their arms. The news of this occurrence sent a wave of anger through the Southern area, and had much influence in bringing on the renewal of conflict.
Another procedure of the British that inflamed the inhabitants to fury was the burning of homes and the appropriating of property. But, most insulting of all, and in direct violation of the terms of sur- render, was the British demand that those revolutionists who had sur- rendered and "taken protection" now serve in the British forces which were attempting to conquer any Americans still in arms. Many Americans, saying that this violation of the terms released them from their paroles, resumed arms. Colonel John Thomas did this, and was captured and imprisoned at Ninety-Six. Before seizing him, a band of Tories, led by Patrick Moore, plundered his place and drove off his slaves and cattle.
Sir Henry Clinton wrote, June 4: "There are few men in South Carolina who are not either our prisoners or in arms with us." But things were not to be as easy for the British as Clinton anticipated, for, on that same June 4, Colonels Thomas Brandon, John Thomas, Jr., and James Lyles held a conference and agreed to assemble their troops and form a recruiting camp near Fairforest Creek in the Upper
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SPARTANS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
or Spartan District. The Spartans still held, hidden safely, some of the powder furnished Colonel Thomas, Sr., by Drayton and Rutledge in 1776. Brandon's first step, June 8, 1780, was to secure and secrete this powder.
Meanwhile the Loyalists were flocking to the British allegiance. Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ferguson, who had been appointed by Colonel Balfour to enroll and train Loyalist troops and to act against the revolutionists who refused to swear allegiance to the British, was very active and successful. Early in June a group of Ferguson's Tories surprised Brandon's men and defeated them, securing, how- ever, only a small part of the powder.
The Spartan Regi- The Whigs held a gathering at Bullock's Creek ment Reorganized Church in York, June 12, 1780, rallying here after Brandon's defeat. To these bewildered men-who were as sheep without a shepherd-John Thomas, Jr., made an inspiring ap- peal, whereupon all agreed to continue resistance. The Colonel of the Spartan Regiment, John Thomas, had capitulated in May ; his son, John Thomas, Jr., was now made Colonel by the men who were de- termined not to stop fighting. Therefore, they made their way to Sumter's camp and placed themselves under his command, taking to him the powder they had saved. This ammunition was used in the engagements which soon followed-Huck's defeat, July 12; Rocky Mount, July 30; and Hanging Rock, August 7. These fights some- what turned the tables on Ferguson, for after them, in Tarleton's own words, men "flocked from all parts of South Carolina" to join Sum- ter. The British realized that the war was not ended, and that much more had to be done by them than reorganizing a British government in a conquered Up Country, and setting up camps in which to receive pledges of allegiance.
Early in July the British, under Ferguson's direction, had seized the plantation of Colonel James Williams of the Little River Regi- ment, and, moving into the Upper District, had formed a camp near the present-day Union. They marched and counter-marched through the surrounding country, plundering the Whig inhabitants and exact- ing submissions from waverers who hastened to prove their zeal as they saw the British apparently in power.
The weeks that followed were incredibly troubled ones in the Upper District. During the years from 1777 to 1780, life there had gone on peacefully enough. New settlers had moved in; lands had
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
been bought and sold; fields had been cleared and planted ; houses and mills had been erected. Wagon trade with Charles Town had been brisk. Soldiers had come and gone between their homes and the frontier forts, or had done what they called "tours of duty" with the forces about Augusta, Savannah, or Charles Town.
The Upper District a Battleground The resolution made by Thomas, Brandon, and Lyles, June 4, was the precursor of local skirm- ishing. From that time on the Upper District was a battleground. The state of affairs was almost that of civil war; neighbor arrayed against neighbor. Within the area occurred many small engagements, all designed to check and, if possible, destroy Colonel Patrick Fer- guson. Lord Cornwallis, August 20, 1780, reported to the home gov- ernment that Ferguson, as inspector general of the militia for the District of Ninety-Six, had organized "seven battalions of militia of about 4,000 men, well affected to the British government, which were so regulated that they could with ease furnish fifteen hundred men at a short notice for the defense of the frontier or any other service." On both sides the frontiersmen had organized themselves into three groups-one for active fighting, one for patrolling and manning the forts, and one to plant crops and serve as home guards.
There were no Continental troops in the State to oppose Ferguson, but the partisans and volunteer militia were equal to the occasion. Their activities in one week of July have thus been summed up : "They had risen and attacked the British outposts along the whole line in what are now the counties of Chester, York, and Spartanburg. There had been engagements upon four successive nights, in each of which the Whigs had been victorious. At Williamson's and Bratton's plantations in York they had attacked and destroyed Huck and his party on the 12th of July. Colonel John Thomas, Jr., had defeated the attack made upon his camp at Cedar Spring in Spartanburg on the night of the 13th. Then Colonel Jones had surprised the Loyalists at Gowen's Old Fort near the South Pacolet in the same county on the night of the 14th ; and finally the attack of Dunlap on McDowell's camp on the night of the 15th had been avenged by Hampton on the morning of the 16th. Of these engagements, it is true, none could be described as a great battle, but the British had, in less than a week, lost more than a hundred men in killed and wounded, while the loss of the Americans had not mounted to half that number."
Fort Thicketty, in what is now Cherokee County, had been built
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SPARTANS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
by Patrick Moore and made a Tory stronghold from which bands sallied forth to plunder the surrounding country. It was captured by the Whigs, July 30, 1780-a victory of especial value for two reasons : it brought relief to a harassed population, and the capture of the fort threw into the hands of the Americans valuable supplies of arms and ammunition. All of these small but important engagements occurred in July 1780.
Cedar Spring August was to bring larger activities. The first and Wofford's Iron Works clash between the main forces under Colonel Charles McDowell and Colonel Patrick Ferguson came in what has been sometimes called the Second Battle of Cedar Spring, and sometimes the Battle of Wofford's Iron Works. It was fought August 8, both sides claiming the victory. The moral victory was all on the American side, however, because the Americans were able by retiring to a new position to check the attack of Ferguson's men.
Battle of The victory of the Americans at Musgrove's Mill,
Musgrove's Mill August 19, marked a definite turn of the tide-even though on the preceding day the Continental Army under General Horatio Gates had been disgracefully routed near Camden. The de- feat of Gates did not impair the determination of the partisans to drive the British and the Loyalists from their State. Few battles of the Revolution surpassed in strategic importance the small battle of Mus- grove's Mill. It was participated in by Carolinians, Georgians, and Tennesseans on the American side, opposed by British Regulars and American Loyalists from both Carolinas, New York, and New Jersey. This engagement was one of the turning points of the war, being fought by about two hundred Americans against a British force of between four and five hundred. The American loss was thirteen, that of the British was seventy captured and one hundred fifty-three wounded or killed.
The Americans, led by Colonels James Williams, Elijah Clarke, and Isaac Shelby, left Smith's Ford on Broad River in the afternoon of August 18, and rode all night across country-mostly through the woods and by-paths, because they knew Ferguson was near. They reached the muster ground near Musgrove's Mill about dawn and made brilliant plans for battle. Hastily throwing up breastworks of logs and brush, they drew the British into an ambush and before eight o'clock in the morning, had won their fight. Then, while they debated whether to proceed at once against Ninety-Six, they had
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
news of Gate's disastrous defeat and of the approach of fresh British troops.
The Ride to At once they distributed the prisoners and started
Hillsboro toward North Carolina, under the command of Colonel James Williams. They rode the rest of the day, all night, and part of the next day, stopping only to feed or water their horses, sleep- ing in the saddle, and eating only the peaches and raw corn they gathered from the wayside fields or orchards. In all, within forty- eight hours, they traveled in the August heat more than one hundred miles over rough, wild country, fought a battle, and for sixty miles of their ride escorted seventy prisoners. These prisoners they de- livered to Governor John Rutledge at Hillsboro, N. C. So swollen were their faces from the strain that many of the men were not recognized by their friends at Hillsboro. Governor Rutledge, de- lighted with Williams' report of the battle at Musgrove's Mill, and with the seventy prisoners, mostly British, he delivered, gave Williams a commission as brigadier general. Thus he expressed the delight of a refugee governor, the guest of Governor Nash of North Carolina.
Dissensions Among the Americans By the men who flocked to him in July, Sumter had been chosen general, and for a time Williams had served with him ; but when Sumter planned to go to North Caro- lina, Williams and a large body of men who agreed with him that they should attack the British at Ninety-Six, turned in that direction and formed a camp at Smith's Ford in the Upper District, on Broad River. With Williams went Brandon and many of the Spartans, but John Thomas, Jr., and his regiment seem to have stuck to Sumter. Williams, learning of the concerted movement to check Ferguson, and that men from over the mountain would cooperate, rejoined the Americans then encamped at Cowpens, the place agreed upon as a rendezvous, and presented his commission. He demanded that Sum- ter and his men yield him their obedience, but they refused. A group of five of Sumter's officers-one of them Colonel John Thomas, Jr.,- went to Governor Rutledge to protest Williams' commission. It makes a sad story, this quarrel between Sumter and Williams. There were Spartans on each side in it; but after the death of Williams at Kings Mountain, all of them united in following Sumter. The regi- ment commanded by John Thomas, Jr., retained the name Spartan Regiment. At this period Brandon's Regiment was often called the Fairforest Regiment, from the fact that most of its men lived in the
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SPARTANS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
Fairforest basin. Both regiments were active at Kings Mountain, October 7, 1780.
Fighting in the During all of this time, Ferguson's men had been Fairforest Region here and there in the Upper District, or just over the North Carolina border from it, and there had been numerous skirmishes. Chesney recorded in his Journal that "scarcely a day passed without some fighting" during the summer of 1780. The region about Fairforest Shoals, in the lower part of the Upper District, was for nearly a year the scene of frequent skirmishes and encamp- ments. Colonel Brandon and Major McJunkin and their men played an important part in the battle at Blackstock's Ford, November 20, 1780. This battle was fought just where the Blackstock Road crossed Tyger River. The tobacco barn and forted house of an Indian trader named Blackstock served as headquarters for the Americans under Sumter, who were attacked here by Tarleton with a strong force. Sumter repulsed Tarleton, but during the night he slipped away, severely wounded. He stopped for a day or two of rest at Wofford's Iron Works, and then proceeded to a more secure refuge near the North Carolina line.
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