USA > South Carolina > Williamsburg County > History of Williamsburg; something about the people of Williamsburg County, South Carolina, from the first settlement by Europeans about 1705 until 1923. > Part 8
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Prince Frederick's Parish, or Williamsburg, elected these men to the Provincial Congress of August, 1775: Thomas Gilliard, Jr., Thomas Port, Anthony White, Ben- jamin Screven, Archibald McDonald, John James. This Provincial Congress, on March 26, 1776, resolved itself into the first General Assembly of the State of South Carolina. This general assembly appointed the following as Justices of the Quorum for this Parish: Anthony Bonneau, John Brockinton, Sr., Francis Britton, Ben- jamin Gause, Peter Simons, William Wilson, John James, Thomas Lynch, James McDonald, William Snow, Anthony White, Gavin Witherspoon, William Michau, Samuel Nesmith, John Plowden, Benjamin Screven, and John Witherspoon.
The legal holidays in South Carolina for many years prior to the Revolution were as follows: All Sundays; Circumcision Day, January 1, Martyrdom of Charles I, January 30; Good Friday ; Monday in Easter Week ; Tues- day in Easter Week ; King George's birthday, June 4; Mon- day in Whitsuntide; Tuesday in Whitsuntide; Nativity of Our Lord, or Christmas, December 25; St. Stephen's Day, December 26; St. John Evangelist's Day, December 27. These were all fast or feast days of the Established Church and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of Williamsburg scorned to recognize them or even to know their names.
It must not be understood, however, that Williamsburg observed no holidays. The fact is the making of a living was then, is now, and ever will be an easy matter in Wil- liamsburg, and its people were then inclined to holidays. Once every two months, the militia companies mustered. Twice a year, the militia battalions were assembled. Once
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a year, the Craven County Regiment of Militia was called together. All of these days were holidays in ascending de- gree of intensity. Every man essayed his utmost to make a "perfect day" on the regimental muster ground.
Besides these muster occasion holidays, there were the midsummer and midwinter racing seasons. Sometimes, these lasted for many days before all were satisfied. At that time a horse provided the most rapid means of transit available. No colony knew more the value of good horses than did Williamsburg, nor anywhere was the racing spirit more rampant. These old pioneers introduced the best breed of horses they could find and developed some fast racers. All the section gathered to witness these biennial races, and no winners ever more appreciated a victory. Owners trained and rode their own horses and the keen- est possible rivalry existed.
These races were not Sunday School picnics, nor were they religious communion occasions. The distillers of North Carolina knew well the dates of these races and always kept the gentlemen of Williamsburg well supplied with old, ropy corn whiskey, and rich, ripe apple brandy.
Sometimes a Puritan minister would preach about these ungodly races and say all manner of evil things about them. Who can say that such a one was declaring the way of God to man? Grant it that John James always parti- cipated in these races, sometimes swore a combination of Scotch and Welsh oaths, and occasionally drank himself into dreamland before the night came-was it not he who rode from Georgetown to the King's Tree on "Thunder" and called all Williamsburg to "Liberty or Death?" And could Mouzon and Macaulay and McCottry and McDonald and Witherspoon and Scott and their Selim and Saladdin and Mecca and Medina and Bucephalus and Buddha have come out of other times and things than these?
CHAPTER X.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
I hear the drums of War's alarum beat,
I see them seize their arms, rise to their feet, Their enemies-and Liberty's-to meet !
Roselle Mercier Montgomery.
Williamsburg was peaceful and happy in 1775. Its doors were never locked and its windows were never barred. Its cornfields produced abundantly and its mead- ows were overflowing with cattle. Indigo ran riot so that cleared acres could not contain it. Tobacco and flax flourished wherever their seeds were sown. Roses bloomed and geraniums grew about the doorways. Morn- ing suns came fresh out of the sea and evening showers brought peace to the troubled sands.
Williamsburg had not been disturbed by outsiders for half a century. It had been left alone to work out its own political and social and religious salvation. And it had accomplished that for which it had come. It had builded its foundation on the Rock of Ages and its dreams were continuously coming true.
The "Mother Country" had been good to Williamsburg. It required in theory that this Township comform to the Established Church, but in fact it permitted Presbyteri- anism to rule this little realm. No meddling colonial officers came this way and the Stamp Act was but a name. Williamsburg produced its own tea and a surplus. It had no use for commercial papers that were taxed. The only people who came not to stay were traders from North Carolina and from Georgetown and Charleston. These traders bought Williamsburg cattle and indigo and sold tape and buttons. Williamsburg fixed the prices. Traders are the practical diplomats of the ages-the promoters of good feeling-the unifiers of peoples.
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The people of Williamsburg heard about the Edenton Tea Party, where fifty-two colonial dames had gathered in the home of Mrs. Thomas Barker and signed a solomn agreement to use no more tea so long as it was taxed by London authority. They knew something of the Boston Tea Party where a number of men, disguised as Indians, boarded a ship in the harbor and threw all of its cargo of stamped tea into the depths of the sea. Charleston and Georgetown business men had told these planters how burdensome the stamp taxes were and how the Tory party in England had the ascendency and was trying to force upon the American colonies such a policy as Spain had practiced. Williamsburg knew that Lord North and others had swung the pendulum as far as possible from William Pitt.
These things made Williamsburg think seriously. It was happy. Reason revolted from breaking the longest and most beautiful peace that these Scotch-Irish had known. One summer day in 1776, young Thomas Lynch came from Philadelphia to his plantation home on Lynch's River, and told Williamsburg that he had, with some other South Carolinians, signed the Declaration of Inde- pendence on July Fourth, and that the thirteen colonies were at war with Great Britain.
A youth in whose veins there runs the blood of a hun- dred generations of men of war and into whose ears a thousand times have been poured tales of the valor and the heroism of his fathers does not hesitate when he hears the war drums. No wonder the Montgomerys and Nesmiths, Gordons and Gambles, McDonalds and McCottrys, Scotts and James, the Witherspoons and Wilsons sniffed the noise of battle from afar and volunteered for service in the first South Carolina troops. From these young men, Williamsburg sent as many in the beginning as the colony desired from the district. These men showed the fighting force of their fathers. Captain John James was cited for
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valor and conspicuous ability in the skirmish of Tulifinny Bridge.
After Charleston had fallen on May 12, 1780, the citi- zens of Williamsburg, many of whose sons had served in the seige of that city, decided that "something must be done." That was the darkest day of the Revolution in South Carolina. One who knows and understands the Williamsburg people of 1780 can see these Scotch-Irish discussing the situation. There were no mass meetings held at the King's Tree, no brass bands playing martial music, no eloquent orators sounding striking climaxes, no rais- ing of liberty poles, and nothing of the spectacular. No fiery cross summoned the clans to council, but somehow every Scotchman determined on "liberty or death."
John James just before that time had been sent from Charleston to Williamsburg to organize the district into a fighting force. He knew the people of Williamsburg and the people of Williamsburg knew him. Quietly and without the waving of banners, he went to the several clan leaders in Williamsburg and told them in low tones that "something must be done," and every clan leader repeated the state- ment John James had made to every member of his clan personally and individually, and every member of every clan repeated the statement, "something must be done." For some time, men and women of Williamsburg looked seriously into each others' faces and said but little. They decided to send Captain John James to interview the Brit- ish commander at Georgetown, and to ascertain just what would be expected of the people of Williamsburg. Their sons had been paroled after the fall of Charleston and their status was not clearly understood.
When Captain James referred to the people "whom I represent," the British Commander shouted, "I shall re- quire unqualified submission from them; and, as for you, I shall have you hanged." The Britisher drew his sword, which Captain James parried with a chair. In a moment,
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Captain James had escaped and mounted "Thunder," and that celebrated war horse was moving towards Wil- liamsburg. Here is where the historian calls the poet. But even the historian must see that coal black charger, outside the house of that interview, unhitched, the reins falling separate to the ground, there standing alert and understanding his master; the strained nervousness and assembling strength of that thoroughbred as he saw his master hurriedly approaching; the furious power he felt with his master's mounting; and his haughty scorn of dis- tance. Here were a man and a horse that Williamsburg had produced. They were both necessary.
Captain John James reached the King's Tree that night. He told his story to John and Joseph Scott and William Frierson and David Witherspoon. John Scott saddled his horse and went to Pudding Swamp and told the story to Henry Mouzon ; Joseph Scott, to Cedar Swamp and advised Robert McCottry; William Frierson, to Thorntree Swamp and informed John Macauley; and David Witherspoon to Lynch's Lake and notified John James, Jr. Captain John James remained at the King's Tree and rested the following day.
The third day the Ervins, Scotts, Burgess', Dickeys, Friersons, Nelsons, McClarys, Montgomerys, and Camp- bells came with Henry Mouzon and elected him Captain of the King's Tree Company ; from South of Black River, the Gambles, McGills, Friersons, Watsons, Boyds, Gordons, and Witherspoons chose John Macauley Captain; from Lynch's Lake, the James', McBrides, McCallisters, Mat- thews', Haseldons, McFaddens, and Rodgers called John James, Jr., to command them; and from Cedar Swamp and Black Mingo, the McCants', McConnells, Mcculloughs, McKnights, McCreas, McCutchens, and Nesmiths, made Robert McCottry Captain. These four companies assem- bled at the King's Tree, formed a battalion, and elected
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John James Major. This battalion became the nucleus of Marion's Brigade.
Williamsburg began again the War of the Revolution when it organized James' battalion. This district dedi- cated all its strength to the cause of Liberty. There were only three hundred men in James' battalion. There were a thousand between the ages of sixteen and and sixty who were alert and strong and who begged for service. And there were a thousand women in Williamsburg who had the capacity and the will to sustain these thousand men in the field. Everybody saw the possibility for the future Brigade. There were hundreds outside of Williams- burg who would join the Brigade. The leader was the thing for which they looked.
Major James and Captain Mouzon knew Lieutenant Colonel Francis Marion. They had been close to him under fire. Many others of James' battalion knew him. He did not talk very much. He did things. Williams- burg called Francis Marion to command and he came. He was a French Huguenot by descent. So was Captain Mou- zon.
Scotch clan leaders have an uncanny control over their clansmen. A McDonald will follow a McDonald to the ends of the earth; a Campbell will help a Campbell swim a lake of fire. But, place the McDonalds and the Campbells under either a Campbell or a McDonald, and soon they forget the common enemy and fight each other. Nobody knew this better than Major James. His knowledge of Scotch character made him suggest Francis Marion to Williamsburg. No man ever commanded several Scotch companies with greater success than did this "silent man."
General Marion took command of this Williamsburg Battalion on Lynch's Creek. There was nothing of the spectacular in his assuming command. When it is real- ized that he was of Latin blood and was a trained soldier accustomed to command, it may seem strange that no
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formalities were observed,-no roll of drums, no present- ing of arms. These four companies were resting under some oaks on the side of a swamp close by the river when he came.
William James, then fifteen years old and a soldier, who afterwards became Judge James, the Historian, was an eyewitness. He says, "The officers and men flocked about General Marion to obtain a sight of their future commander, who was rather of bold and middle stature, lean and swarthy. His body was well set, but his knees and ankles were badly formed, and he still limped upon one leg. He had a countenance remarkably steady; his nose was aquiline, his chin projecting; his forehead, large and high; he was then forty-eight years old, with a frame capable of enduring fatigue and every privation. He was dressed in a close round-bodied crimson jacket of a coarse texture and wore a leather cap, part of the uniform of the Second Regiment, with a silver crescent in front inscribed with the words, 'Liberty or Death'." General Marion knew the minds of the men before him, was in perfect harmony with their purposes, took the position which they had assigned to him; and, from that moment until the end in view had been accomplished, commanded their high- est respect, enjoyed their supreme confidence, and directed them to utmost endeavor.
Weems says that when Marion took command he formed the men into a circle and swore them upon their swords never to yield until the liberty of their country had been accomplished, but neither James nor Horry describes the event in such a manner, nor would Marion have instigated such a spectacle in the presence of those Scotch-Irish whom he knew. Marion secured and held the faith of his com- mand by simple, prudent, and severe action and conduct. While he was exceedingly daring in the exercise of many of his activities, the security of his forces seemed always his first consideration. His ability to strike the enemy
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a hard blow with the minimum loss to himself soon gave his command a wondrous faith in him.
Marion had from the beginning a remarkable faculty for securing information. Probably his spy system has never been improved. The women of the district were his dependable aids in all things but especially in furnish- ing him information. Many of the women of the dis- trict at this time could ride horses as well as their brothers. They looked to Marion for protection and they gave him all they could. General Marion made his headquarters on Snow's Island. From that point, he conducted his cam- paigns throughout eastern Carolina. It has been said of him that he was never beaten, never surprised, and it does not appear that he ever made a serious military mis- take.
After Charleston had fallen into the hands of the British, Lord Cornwallis marched with about twenty-five hundred men and five pieces of artillery from Charleston by way of Lenud's Ferry to Camden. At Lenud's Ferry, his army was met by the American troops under Colonels White, Washington, and Jamison, and engaged in a severe battle. The Americans lost five officers and thirty-six men, killed; and seven officers and sixty men, all the horses, arms, and accoutrements, captured. The three American colonels escaped by swimming. The British lost two dra- goons and twenty-four horses. This was a complete vic- tory for the British.
Cornwallis led his army westward along the Santee River road by Murray's Ferry and St. Mark's Church toward Camden. Tarleton separated from the main army at Lenud's Ferry and went to Georgetown, taking with him the Legion and a detachment of the Seventeenth Dragoons, "to take prisoners of all violent enemies of the British Government and to receive the allegiance of others." Corn- wallis encountered no resistance on this journey along the Santee.
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Tarleton remained in Georgetown about six weeks, dur- ing which time he suffered a severe attack of fever. On August 1, he led a cavalry command from Georgetown to Lenud's Ferry and thence to Black River where he crossed at the Lower Bridge. His command reached the King's Tree on August 6, and pitched camp on the parade ground where the County Court House now stands. Major James, who was then at Witherspoon's Ferry on Lynch's Creek with his command, learned of Tarleton's progress in the district and advanced to meet him. That afternoon Tarleton learned that Major James' Battalion, with McCottry's riflemen as advance guard, was approaching the King's Tree, whereupon Tarleton immedi- ately decamped and proceeded toward Camden. Mc- Cottry's men arrived a few hours later.
Tarleton took with him on that evening as prisoners of was several men from the King's Tree, among whom was Samuel McGill. That night he burned the mansion house and fourteen buildings of the messuage of Captain Henry Mouzon, about eight miles from the King's Tree. This was the first dwelling house burned by the British in Williamsburg. When Tarleton reached Salem, he dis- guised himself as an American officer and went to the home of James Bradley, a former citizen of Williamsburg, and passed himself off as Colonel Washington. Mr. Brad- ley was expecting Colonel Washington and was deceived by Tarleton. Tarleton persuaded him to lead him across the swamps of Black River, when he threw off his disguise and made his aged guide a prisoner.
Colonel Tarleton was sent on this campaign through Williamsburg, as he admits, "to punish the inhabitants in that quarter for their late breaches of parole and per- fidious revolt." The breaches of parole to which he refers came about in this way. There were some of the soldiers of Williamsburg taken by the British at the fall of Charles- ton. Among them were John James, Jr., John Watson,
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HISTORY OF WILLIAMSBURG
and Isaac Matthews. These Williamsburg soldiers taken at Charleston were paroled on condition that they would no longer carry arms against the British Government. Afterwards, all Williamsburg was ordered by the British to enlist in the British army for the suppression of the American cause. This order, emanating from British au- thorities to the men of Williamsburg, who had been pa- roled, they rightly regarded as relieving them from their parole; and, after Major James' interview with Captain Ardesoif at Georgetown, practically all of Williamsburg enlisted in the American cause. The names of only three Tories of Williamsburg are now known. They were Captain John Brockinton, Major John Hamilton, and Major Wil- liam Sabb, all three of them merchants.
Colonel Tarleton was a typical English Cavalier of his time. He was a game fighter, chivalrous in his treat- ment of women, and apologetic in the severities which orders required him to practice upon the people of this section. The fact is the only house which he burned in Williamsburg County was that of Captain Henry Mouzon. Tarleton knew Captain Mouzon was one of the leading spirits and the ablest exponents of the American idea in Williamsburg and was, at that very time, engaged in severe warfare against the British. Furthermore, Colonel Tarleton had an abiding hatred for France, growing out of the series of wars between England and France that had recently ended and from the French aid then being given the American colonies by Lafayette and others. Colonel Tarleton knew Captain Mouzon was of French descent, spoke the French language, and hated the English as earn- estly as he himself hated the French.
Colonel Tarleton took Samuel McGill as a prisoner of war from Kingstree to Camden, and held him there in irons for some time. It is possible that the only way that Tarleton could have held Samuel McGill was to have put him in irons. For, Samuel McGill was about forty years
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old at that time and was a real man. He had in him all the daring of his wild Welsh, the craftiness of his Scotch, the magnetism of the Irish, and the perseverance of his English ancestors.
While Colonel Tarleton was encamped on the Wither- spoon plantation below the King's Tree, there were a num- ber of the Williamsburg young women within his lines. Record and tradition indicate that Tarleton and his officers accepted with becoming grace the frequent sallies of sharp- ness coming from the tongues of their fair, spirited cap- tives, and were as gracious to them as conditions permitted.
The war path of the British from Camden to Charleston at that time was by way of Nelson's Ferry on the Santee River. Unconquered Williamsburg lay dangerously near to this warpath, less than ten miles in many places, and it was very important from a military standpoint to the British that they should crush this Williamsburg spirit. The British first sent Tarleton through Williamsburg, but Tarleton was too chivalrous a foe to do the destructive work the British authorities deemed necessary, so, a few days later, Lord Cornwallis sent Major Wemyss through Williamsburg to do the work that Tarleton had left un- done.
Major Wemyss crossed Black River on the west side at Benbow's Ferry on the western boundary of Williamsburg August 20, 1780, and destroyed all the dwelling houses, cattle, and sheep in that community. He burned the homes of John Gamble, Major James Conyers, James Davis, Cap- tain John Nelson, Robert Frierson, John Frierson, Robert Gamble, and others. The Reverend James A. Wallace says that, "Wemyss laid waste a tract of country between Black River and the Pee Dee, seventy miles in length and in some places fifteen miles wide."
Major Wemyss proceeded without hindrance on his way of destruction from Benbow's Ferry to the King's Tree. Just about the time he arrived at the King's Tree on
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August 27, 1780, Major James met him and killed fifteen of his men and took a number of prisoners. Major James lost thirty men in this action. It was a sharp, severe con- flict for a few minutes, after which Wemyss withdrew and hurried on the Indiantown road to Georgetown. Major James' forces were constantly attacking him from the rear. It was on this campaign through Williamsburg that Wemyss burned the Indiantown Church and the home of Major James.
In August, 1780, Marion's Brigade was the only body of American troops in South Carolina. The Continental forces had all been dispersed or captured; the Virginia and North Carolina Militia in this State had been scat- tered and disorganized, and Sumter's Legion had been destroyed by Tarleton. The British had a strong garri- son at Georgetown and one at Camden. Williamsburg and Francis Marion alone and unconquered stood in the way of complete domination in South Carolina. The Georgetown and Camden road by way of Black Mingo to Kingstree ran through the heart of Williamsburg. The British planned to establish a chain of strongholds along this way from Georgetown to Camden, to fortify these points, and to keep them strongly garrisoned with men and full of supplies and munitions of war.
The first one of these strongholds along this road, which the British strategists had planned, was about twenty miles on the way from Georgetown to Kingstree on Black Mingo Creek. The British under Colonel Elias Ball pro- ceeded up Black River and a short distance up the Black Mingo to Patrick Dollard's Inn, known as the Red House, just South of Shepherd's Ferry. The British made this Red House headquarters, and from this point they dug communicating trenches to the Black Mingo, along the banks of which they entrenched for about a mile so as to command this navigable stream for such distance. From the point at the Red House, the two trenches com-
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municating with the stream formed an angle of about sixty degrees. These trenches are yet discernible along the banks of the River and were visible to the point where they converged at the Red House until about thirty years ago, when they were filled for the purpose of making the land available for corn fields. The British expected to complete this chain of fortifications through Williamsburg. They did considerable work on this stronghold at Black Mingo and placed a large body of troops there.
Marion knew all about this British plan and this fort on Black Mingo. He was then at his headquarters on Snow's Island. On the 14th of September, 1780, he col- lected his troops and proceeded in the night southwestward from Snow's Island to Willtown, the only place he could cross Black Mingo in that vicinity, except at Shepherd's Ferry, too near the British stronghold. Marion crossed the bridge over Black Mingo at Willtown in the night, and the noise his cavalry made in crossing warned the British at the Red House and they came out to meet him. A sharp engagement ensued in which seventy-one patriots under Marion were killed and seventy-four of the British, including Colonel Ball, the commander of the garrison. Half of the soldiers under Marion and half of the British were probably wounded within a few hours. At daybreak, the British retreated into their stronghold and there re- mained. General Marion held his ground and kept up almost a continuous firing on the entrenched British for two days, when they embarked in their boats and proceeded to Georgetown, taking away their wounded but leaving their dead.
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