USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina, from its first European discovery to its erection into a republic: with a supplementary chronicle of events to the present time > Part 16
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On the 16th of June, Sumter having collected the greater portion of his detachment, advanced to support Mayhem in his attempt upon the bridge. Re-inforcing his troop with a detachment under colonel Peter Horry, the command devolved upon the latter officer, who at once proceeded to the destruction of the bridge. The cavalry of the enemy advanced boldly to defeat his purpose, but were received by the mounted American riflemen, who broke entirely through them, killing some, and taking a number of prisoners. This defeat drew
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out the British in such force, that the party engaged in destroying the bridge were compelled to fall back upon the main body. Sumter, believing that the British had marched out to give him battle, retired behind a defile, at a little distance in the rear, and prepared to receive the attack in the most advantageous position.
But the British colonel had no such purpose. In pro- portion as the confidence of the Americans rose in the conflict, that of the invaders invariably fell. The pur- pose of Coates was simply to wear out the day. With the approach of night, he accumulated the stores of the garrison within the church, and having set fire to them, moved off on his flight to the eastward, by Wadboo and Quinby. The flames bursting through the roof of the sacred edifice, first informed Sumter of the flight of the enemy. The pursuit was immediately commen- ced ; but, unfortunately, lieutenant Singleton, with a piece of artillery, was ordered to remain upon the ground, that he might not delay the movements of the infantry. Lee and Hampton led the pursuit, until, having passed the Wadboo, they discovered that the cavalry of the enemy had separated from the infantry, and had taken the route to the right. Hampton diverged in this direction, urging his panting horses to the utmost, in the hope to overtake them before they could effect their passage of the river. In this he was unsuccessful, and he returned only to wit- ness the equally fortunate escape of the enemy's infantry, the only remaining object of pursuit. Marion's cavalry had joined the legion cavalry of Lee, and about a mile to the north of Quinby creek, they overtook the rear guard of the retreating army, consisting of one hundred men.
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The furious onset of the cavalry deprived them almost of the power of resistance. They threw down their arms without firing a gun. Colonel Coates having pass- ed Quinby bridge, had already commenced its demoli- tion, and only awaited the passage of the rear guard and his baggage, to complete its destruction. The planks which covered the bridge were already loosened from their sleepers, and a howitzer, at its opposite extremity, was so placed as to protect the party engaged in throwing them off. As the rear guard had been overcome without any fight, no alarm gun had been fired, no express had been sent to apprise the British commander of his dan- ger, and he was almost wholly unprepared for his defence. The panic, by which he had lost one important part of his force, had nearly involved the annihilation of the re- mainder. He happened, however, fortunately for him- self, to be at the bridge when the American cavalry came rushing into view. His main body was, at this moment, partly on the causeway, on the south side of the bridge, and partly pressed into a lane beyond it. Thus crowded, they were wholly disabled from immediate action. Coates, nevertheless, coolly prepared himself as well as he might, to remedy the difficulties of his situation, and make his re- sistance as effectual as possible. Orders were dispatched to his troops on the advance, to halt, form, and march up, while the artillerists were called to the howitzer, and the fatigue party to the renewal of their labors for the destruc- tion of the bridge.
If the situation of the British was thus perilous, that of the pursuing Americans, for a time, became scarcely less so. The planks sliding into the water, and the open jaws
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of the howitzer, ready to send destruction into their crowded ranks, left them little time for deliberation. Pressing upon each other, a dense mass upon a narrow causeway, they felt that the withdrawal of the enemy's fatigue party from the destruction of the bridge, would be the signal for applying the lighted port-fire to the howit- zer. A moment longer, and the iron hail would have mowed down their columns.
The front section of the American force was led by captain Armstrong, of Lee's legion. He saw the danger, and availed himself of the single moment that was left him. Dashing over the bridge, he drove the artillerists from the gun. Lieutenant Carrington followed ; the third section advanced, but faltered. Mayhem, at the head of Marion's men, feeling the halt, charged by the legionary cavalry ; but the death of his horse arrested his progress. Captain McCauley, who led his front section, pressed on, passed the bridge, and joined in the fierce melee, hand to hand, that was going on upon the causeway beyond.
This narrow passage was now crowded, and a conflict, no less confused than desperate, followed their encounter. Some of the working party, snatching up their guns, delivered a single fire and then fled. Two of Lee's dragoons fell dead at the mouth of the howitzer, and several were badly wounded. Still the others remained unhurt. Coates, with his officers, covered by a wagon, opposed them with their swords, while the British in- fantry hurried forward to find an opening in which they might display. Lee, meanwhile, had arrived, and was engaged with Mayhem and Dr. Irving, his surgeon, in repairing the bridge, so as to enable the rest of his force
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to cross to the relief of the few brave men who had effected the passage, while yet the planks remained upon the sleepers.
At this moment, Armstrong and McCauley discovered themselves to be alone. Their men had failed to cross the bridge while the passage was available, and, of the few by whom they had been followed, but a single soldier remained. Coates and his officers occupied the causeway, protected by a wagon in front, and until the plank which he had succeeded in casting from the sleepers could be restored, they could hope for no assistance from their countrymen. Had they been promptly followed, the enemy might have been cut in pieces. Now, they beheld nothing but the seeming certainty of their own fate. The resolution of these brave men, in this predicament, was equally prompt and decided with that which had involved them in it. They knew that they should be safe from the fire of the enemy in front, as long as Coates and his officers were in the rear; and boldly urging their way through the confused bodies still flying along the cause- way, they rapidly passed over it, gained the woods, and wheeling to the left, escaped without hurt, within the shelter of the forest.
Colonel Coates having succeeded in throwing the plank from the bridge, and thus briefly delaying the advance of the cavalry, retired to the Shubrick plantation, adjoining, and took post under cover of its numerous buildings. At three o'clock, the detachment of Sumter reached the ground. He found the enemy drawn up and ready to receive him. As the American force consisted chiefly of riflemen and cavalry, and very few had bayonets, it
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would have been madness to advance directly to the attack. The precedent of King's mountain furnished the partisan with his order of battle. His own brigade, led by colonels Middleton, Polk, Taylor and Lacey, were ordered to reach and occupy a line of negro houses.
Marion's brigade, at that time very much reduced, was thrown into two divisions, and ordered to advance on the right of the enemy, having no shelter but fences, and these within short gun shot of the house which the British occupied. The several parties moved to the attack with alacrity. Sumter's brigade soon gained the negro houses in their front, and from these directed their rifles with great effect. Colonel Thomas Taylor, with a small command of forty-five men, pressed forward to the fences of the enemy's left, from whence he delivered his fire. This drew upon him the British bayonet, which compelled his retreat. Marion's men, as they beheld this, with the coolness and intrepidity of veterans, rush- ing through a galling fire, extricated Taylor, and from the imperfect covering of the fences, continued the fight until not a charge of ammunition remained among them. All who fell in the action were of Marion's command.
The British maintained their defence from within the houses, and from a picketed garden, till the sun was down. The Americans were then drawn off, after a conflict of three hours, in which they lost forty men killed and wounded. 'The British loss was seventy killed ; their force nearly doubled that of the Americans, and were chiefly composed of Irish troops, but for whose inexperience in the use of fire-arms, the loss of Marion's men must have been infinitely greater than it was. Sum-
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ter was compelled to forego any farther attempts upon his foe ; as, at the close of the engagement, there was not a single charge of powder among his men.
The British lost in the several engagements, apart from the slain and wounded, the numbers of whom could never be accurately known, nearly two hundred prisoners, in- cluding nine commissioned officers, a large quantity of valuable stores, wagons and horses, and-a prize no less rare than valuable in the eyes of the starving Americans- seven hundred and twenty guineas, taken in the pay- master's chest, with the baggage at Quinby bridge.
The expedition of Sumter, though not as successful as it might have been-for Coates' whole force might have been captured-was of the highest service, as it inspired the country with a wholesome confidence in its native valor. The troops actually engaged in the attack on colonel Coates, were almost exclusively South Carolina militia, and they displayed, with the vivacious audacity of the partisan, the firm, collected resolution of the drilled veteran.
Marion's men amply demonstrated, when they brought off Taylor's division from the British bayonet, under the heaviest fire from their pickets, that nothing was wanting but military constancy, and the weapons of soldiers, to meet the best appointed troops of Europe.
CHAPTER XXIII.
These events, while they led to the concentration of the British forces, allowed a breathing spell to the Ameri- cans. Greene retired to the High Hills of Santee, where the condition of his army, two-thirds of the men of which were sick, rendered repose absolutely necessary. But this repose did not imply idleness. To discipline his troops, no less than to restore the sick, was a leading object of the commander. His mind was occupied with the necessity of grappling, on better terms of equality, with the two able British generals with whom he had already tried his strength.
To drive Rawdon to Charlestown, and confine him within the limits of that city, under the control of a respec- table force, would enable him to turn his arms against Cornwallis, and secure, or at least contribute to the se- curing, of that formidable commander in Virginia. Such was his desire; but the business on his hands proved too various, and his resources too few, for its perform- ance ; and, fortunately for the cause of American liberty, Cornwallis found other foes, too numerous for his safety or escape, in the state which he had invaded.
While Greene lay at the Hills, Marion, with his brigade, traversed the Santee with a success and an ac- tivity that did not suffer diminution because of the intense heats of August. He was still the same cautious but en- terprising, bold yet vigilant captain ;- always in motion,
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and always successful, that he had ever shown himself from the first. His contemporary, Sumter, at the same time, with no less activity, returned to the Ninety-Six district, where the sanguinary war of whig and tory had been renewed among the inhabitants, with a ferocity commensurate to the forbearance which they had so long shown of necessity, and to that hatred which was not naturally the consequence of their adverse principles.
With the lawlessness of professed banditti, the several parties ravaged the possessions of their opponents, sparing no plunder and hesitating at no crime. To sup- press these parties, overawe discontents, and capture the ring-loaders, gave full employment, for some time, to the arms of this active partisan. The wretches thus captured, would have been subjected to vindictive and summary jus- tice, by the arm of martial law, but for the re-establish- ment of civil power in the state, from which it had been withdrawn during the presence everywhere of the British forces.
The return of governor Rutledge to the state, and the restoration of the regular authority, together with the arri- val of a re-inforcement of troops from North Carolina, contributed to strengthen Greene's army, and encourage him in the hope that he should be able to pursue his objects, and press the British downward to their sole strong hold in the city. The only enemy of force before him, was colonel Stewart, who had been left by lord Rawdon in command at Orangeburg. Sumter's incursion into the low country, had drawn his lordship with some precipitation down to Charlestown, where he only remain-
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ed long enough to sully his military honors by numberless acts, equally sanguinary and shameful.
The reverses of the British arms had embittered the temper of their leaders, and they seemed to think, that in deeds of cruelty alone could they lessen the mortification of defeat. One of these deeds, as it has already received the general reprobation of the American world, and as it indicates the temper in which the invaders of Carolina treated and beheld her sons, should receive particular attention. This was the wanton execution, without trial and against law, of a noble Carolinian, taken in arms against the enemy, and hung by the joint command of lord Rawdon and lieutenant colonel Balfour, who held the post of commandant of the city.
Colonel Isaac Hayne was a planter of South Carolina, of good nurture and family, and highly esteemed among his countrymen for his amiable manners and unblemished character. During the siege of Charlestown, he com- manded a troop of horse, and served his country at the same time as a senator in the state legislature. His corps of cavalry, which operated in the rear of the British army, and not within the city, did not share in the general cap- tivity of the citizens in the fall of Charlestown. After that event, opposition being overawed throughout the state, this little corps, like nearly every other of the same kind, was disbanded, and Hayne returned with his family to the privacy of his plantation. The British traversed the state, which was at length declared to be conquered ; and the complete defeat of Gates at Camden, almost made it so. A military government had been established over it imme- diately after the reduction of Charlestown, and successive
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commandants were appointed for the administration of its affairs, whose powers were left undefined, and were, indeed, dictatorial.
Among these commandants, the most conspicuous was lieutenant colonel Balfour. He was a vain man, proud of his authority, and solicitous of its exercise. By the subversion of every trace of the popular government, without any proper civil establishment in its stead, he contrived, with the aid of a few coadjutors, to concentrate in his own person all powers, whether legislative, judi- cial, or executive, and exercised over the citizens a like authority with that which he possessed over the military. For the slightest offences, and on pretexts the most idle and insufficient, they were imprisoned in places the most loathsome. Some were incarcerated in the vaults beneath the Exchange, then termed the provost ; some were hur- ried on board the prison ships, denied to see their friends and families, and deprived, not only of their accustomed comforts, but. of those necessaries which health and decency equally demanded.
The fortune of war had thrown nearly five thousand of the Carolina troops into the hands of the British, and these were made to endure all the evils and hardships which it was in the power of vain insolence, malignant hostility, blind prejudice, or the accustomed arrogance of British officers towards their colonial dependents, to display. Under a policy no less short-sighted than inhuman, which so generally marked the proceedings of the British com- manders in America, they determined to break the spirit of the people to the will of their sovereign, and enforce, at the point of the sword, submission to their exactions.
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Instead of seeking, by measures of judicious indul- gence, to beguile the Carolinians from those principles which had produced their disaffection to the royal author- ity-a course which might have had the desired effect, when we regard the closer sympathies which had dis- tinguished the Americans of the southern colonies, and particularly South Carolina, with the mother country, and the absence of any of those rival interests which lay at the foundation of the quarrel between England and the northern colonies-the unwise representatives of British dominion in Carolina, clothed in a little brief authority, to which their conduct proves them to have been unaccus- tomed, exasperated the people by their insolence, and provoked them to desperation by their unnecessary an- noyances and injuries. Considering the whole state as subdued, and freed from the wholesome fear of retribution, which might have induced them to pause in their progress of injustice, they, soon after the reduction of Charlestown, began to act toward the inhabitants, as rebels out of the pale of all indulgence, and only to be brought back to their duty by the scourge and sabre. Nor did they content themselves with administering to the supposed offenders the penalties of treason with their own hands. The bloody conflicts between the whigs and tories, which had begun in 1775, were renewed; and, under British sanc- tion and encouragement, the monstrous cruelties and crimes which distinguished that fratricidal warfare from 1775 to 1780, had become faint impressions to those which followed that period. No language can do justice to, and visit with proper execration, the doings of that dis- mal civil war, which desolated the fair fields of Carolina,
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and deluged her dwellings with the tears and blood of her children. The ties of nature, of society, of neighborhood, were torn apart and trampled. Friendships and fellow- ships were sundered with the sword. Father and son stood with confronting weapons in opposite ranks, and brothers grappled in the gladiatorial embrace of the sav- age, goaded to constant strife by the shouts and rewards of the British conqueror. Under their favoring countenance, people of the worst character emerged from their hiding places in the swamp ; men of all sorts of crime ; thieves and murderers ; blood-painted and gallows-branded wretches, who needed but the halloo of the savage hunts- man, to spring upon the track of the unhappy fugitive. These drove the patriots from their hiding places and country, ravaged their possessions, burnt their dwellings, abused their women, slew their children, and converted the sweetest homes of happiness into places of sorrow or the most savage solitude. In the single district of Ninety- Six, there were no less than fourteen hundred widows and orphans made by this savage warfare.
There was but one mode left for safety to those unhappy Carolinians, who, still devoted to their country's liberties, were yet , liable to be torn and tortured through the bosom of their exposed and suffering families. This was to accept of the protection of British power against the aggravated excesses of their own infatuated country- men. This protection was granted only to those who claimed it as British subjects. To this wretched neces- sity, colonel Hayne was soon reduced. A mean artifice of a British officer seduced him from his plantation to the city, where he was closely imprisoned, and obtained his
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release from this duress, only by subscribing a declaration of allegiance to the British crown. This he did, though not without expressly excepting to that clause which required him with his arms to support the royal govern- ment. His exception was replied to in language which might have soothed most minds, though, perhaps, it should not, strictly speaking, have satisfied any. He was verbally assured that such services would never be required at his hands. " When the regular forces of his majesty," were the words of the British officers, "need the aid of the inhabitants for the defence of the province, it will be high time for them to leave it.". But they re- quired this aid much sooner than they imagined.
The approach of Greene with his continentals ; the sudden uprising, almost at the same moment, of Marion, Sumter, Hampton, Davie, Harden, and a hundred other fearless partisans ; their strange successes; their rapid movements, whether in assault or retreat; the partial defeat of Cornwallis; his flight to Virginia, and those crowding necessities which drove his successor, lord Rawdon, from Camden to the sea board ;- exasperated the passions of the British as much as they alarmed their fears. Hayne, having made his peace with the British government on the only terms which they would admit, had scarcely returned to his plantation, where he received the last breath of a dying wife, when he was peremptorily required to join the British standard. His resolution was that of the patriot. Forced to draw the sword, he drew it in behalf of his country. He repaired to the American camp, recruited his troop, and commenced a career which was destined to be as short as it was spirited. By a
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sudden dash which he made upon the outpost of the enemy in the immediate neighborhood of Charlestown, he succeeded in making general Williamson a prisoner. This man was a traitor to the state, and his life was for- feited to the gallows. To rescue him from this probable fate, the British commandant in Charlestown ordered out his whole cavalry, which succeeded in overtaking the party of Hayne, dispersed it, and rescued Wil- liamson. Colonel Hayne, unfortunately, fell also into their hands. He was carried to Charlestown and kept in close custody, until Rawdon, leaving Stewart at Orange- burg, arrived in the city. He was then brought before a court of inquiry. The members of the court upon this examination were not sworn, nor were the witnesses ; yet, in consequence of this examination, " Lord Rawdon and the commandant, lieutenant colonel Nesbitt Balfour, resolved upon his execution, for having been found under arms, and employed in raising a regiment to oppose the British government, though he had become a subject, and accepted the protection of that government after the re- duction of Charlestown."
Such were the terms and reasons for this sentence, which was ordered to be carried into effect two days af- ter. This sudden, unlooked-for, and unjust sentence, was equally unexpected by the prisoner himself and by the citizens. It was not supposed that a mere court of inquiry could be resolved into one of final trial and condemnation. The men of the city pleaded in his behalf, the women petitioned in person, and implored on bended knees for remission of the sentence ; but Rawdon and Balfour were inexorable.
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The hurts of vanity, the disappointments of ambition, the defeat of all their plans of conquest, and the constant ad- vance and frequent successes of the victorious Americans, made them vindictive and merciless. Perhaps, too,- though this is not suffered to appear in the proceedings -Hayne was only a chosen sacrifice to the manes of major Andre. The unhappy man was less moved than his fellow citizens and friends. He saw and conversed with them with Christian cheerfulness, and the resolute bearing of the soldier. To a friend, the evening before his death, he declared himself to be " no more alarmed at the thoughts of death, than at any other occurrence which was necessary and unavoidable." He requested the ex- isting authorities to accommodate the mode of his execu- tion to a soldier's feelings ; but this was denied him. The proceedings in his case were obviously parallel to those of Andre. Attended by thousands of spectators, gloomy and sad as by an impending calamity to them- selves, he walked to the place of doom. His carriage was firm, manly and unostentatious. To his eldest son, a boy about thirteen years of age, on the morning of the fatal day, he delivered all the papers which were con- nected with his fate, and gave his final instructions as to the disposition of his remains. Ascending the fatal eminence of death, he parted from his friends with the simple assurance that he would endeavor to show them " how an American should die ;" and with that unshaken resolution which had distinguished his deportment throughout the painful scene, he himself gave the signal which hurried him into eternity. He died in a manner becoming the martyr to his country's freedom. His he-
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