USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 > Part 4
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Barnard Elliott, George Gabriel Powell, William Tennent, Arthur Middleton, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, William Gibbes, John Huger, Edward Weyman, Thomas Lynch, Jr., and Thomas Bee.1 This committee, it will be ob- served, was but an enlargement of the Secret Committee just mentioned.
4. On the 14th of June a Council of Safety was called into existence. This council was vested with supreme power over the army, the militia, and all military affairs; in fact, they were the executive government of the colony, though the powers of the General Committee do not appear to have been abridged. To this council was delegated authority to grant commissions, suspend officers, order court mar- tials, direct, regulate, maintain, and order the army and all military establishments, and of drawing on the Treasury for all purposes of public service.2 The Council of Safety consisted of the following gentlemen: Henry Laurens, Charles Pinckney, Rawlins Lowndes, Thomas Ferguson, Miles Brewton, Arthur Middleton, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Bee, John Huger, James Parsons, William Henry Drayton, Benjamin Elliott, and William Williamson.
The powers and jurisdiction of these various commit- tees were very indefinite, and in some instances conflicting. But they were composed of the same set of men, several of whom were on more than one ; William Henry Drayton and Arthur Middleton were upon all of them.
Vigorous measures were now taken to enforce the government thus set up, to the exclusion of that of his Majesty's, which now, though having a full complement of officers, civil and military, was stripped of all but the
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 231.
2 Ibid., 255. William Henry Drayton claimed that this was the origin of Councils of Safety in the colonies. Ibid., Introduction, xviii, xix.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
mere semblance of power. All non-subscribers to the Association, - that is, all who would not join in the new order - were made amenable to the General Committee, and by them punishable according to "sound policy." Those who violated or refused obedience to the authority of the Congress were made amenable before the parochial and district committees, and upon their being found guilty, and proving contumacious, were to be declared inimicable to the liberties of America, and objects for the public resentment. All absentees holding estates in this colony, except those who were abroad on account of their health, and those under sixty years of age and above twenty- one, were called upon forthwith to return, and no persons holding estates in the colony were permitted to withdraw from its service without giving good and sufficient rea- sons for doing so.1
On the 18th of June, 1775, his Excellency, Lord Will- iam Campbell, the newly appointed Royal Governor, landed in Charlestown. With the tacit permission of the Council of Safety the militia were drawn up to receive him ; but there was no feu de joie as had been usual on such an occasion ; neither was there any loud and hearty acclaim of citizens when his commission as Governor was publicly read before him from the portico of the Exchange. The citizens, for the most part, pre- served a sullen silence. Notwithstanding his connection with the colony, no private gentlemen awaited his Excel- lency's landing, nor attended his parade along the streets, as was customary. He was received only by the colonel of the militia, and the placemen counsellors, including the chief justice and associate judges, the collector of the port and clerks of council and of the courts, and some officers of his Majesty's ship, the Scorpion, then in the harbor.
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 236.
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The whole of the escort did not exceed fifteen persons. Lieutenant Governor Bull had not even come down from Ashley Hall to receive his Excellency, though they were, no doubt, well acquainted personally. Lady Campbell was part owner with her sister of one of the finest resi- dences in the town, which still stands in Meeting Street, nearly opposite Ladson Street, which his Excellency was to occupy ; but as it was not then ready for their recep- tion, his Excellency and his lady accepted the hospitality of Miles Brewton,1 their connection, and took up their temporary residence in his mansion on King Street, the same in which Josiah Quincy had been entertained by Brewton two years before.2 Miles Brewton had, as we have seen, just been appointed one of the Council of Safety of the revolutionary party.
Three days after his arrival, that is, on the 21st of June, a deputation from the Provincial Congress, headed by William Henry Drayton, and of which the Governor's host, Miles Brewton, was one, waited on his Excellency and presented to him an address. This address is impor- tant as indicating the temper and purpose which still ani- mated the people generally, even those who were active in resisting the government. It opens with a description of the representatives of the people of the colony in Con- gress assembled as "his Majesty's loyal subjects," and begs leave to disclose to his Excellency the true causes of their present proceedings, that upon his arrival among them he might receive no unfavorable impressions of their conduct.
" We declare," the address proceeds, " that no love of innovation - no desire of altering the constitution of Government-no lust of
1 Miles Brewton had married Mary, daughter of Joseph Izard, who was a first cousin of Lady Campbell.
2 Hist. of So. Ca. under Roy. Gov. (McCrady), 706.
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independence, has had the least influence upon our counsels; but alarmed and roused by a long succession of arbitrary proceedings, by wicked administrations - impressed with the greatest danger of instigated insurrections, and deeply affected by the commencement of hostilities by the British troops against this continent - solely for the preservation and in defence of our lives, liberties, and properties, we have been impelled to associate and to take up arms."
By this address the Congress declared that the people wished for nothing more ardently than a speedy recon- ciliation with their mother country upon constitutional principles. They again professed their loyal attachment to their sovereign, his crown and dignity ; and thought it their duty to declare these things that his Excellency, and through his Excellency their august sovereign, their fel- low-subjects, and the whole world might clearly under- stand that their taking up arms was the result of a dire necessity. They entreated his Excellency to assure his Majesty that in the midst of all their complicated dis- tresses he had no subjects who more sincerely desired to testify their loyalty and affections or who would be more willing to devote their lives and fortunes in his real service.
His Excellency had had twenty-four hours' notice that this address would be presented to him, and he received it. In his reply he said he knew of no representatives of the people of the province except those constitutionally convened in the General Assembly ; that he was incom- petent to judge of the disputes which, unhappily, existed between Great Britain and the American colonies; that it was impossible during the short interval since his arrival that he should have acquired such a knowledge of the state of the province as to enable him to make any representation thereupon to his Majesty ; but that no rep- resentation should ever be made by him inconsistent with
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truth and an earnest endeavor to promote the real happi- ness and prosperity of the province.
Lord William Campbell was, indeed, in a most embarrass- ing position. His wife's relations were all more or less embarked in the American cause. Her brothers, Ralph and Walter Izard, were committed to it, and their cousin Ralph Izard, Jr., then in Europe, had been one of those living in London who had gotten up the petition to the King the year before against the passage of the Boston Port bill, and was now actively assisting the cause and only remaining abroad at the instance of the leaders here who thought he might be more useful in Europe. His Lordship had received the address from this revolutionary body, and had respectfully replied to it, though fully aware of its contents a day before it was presented. He had hardly done so, however, before he began to repent. The words " and take up arms " and " our taking up arms" now struck him with great alarm, and he began to fear he had made a mistake in receiving the paper at all. He was much disturbed, and long discussed it with his host Mr. Brewton, who, though one of the Council of Safety, was himself in great doubt as to the course which events were taking. Lord William could not sleep for anxiety, and in the night called up Mr. Brewton, who had retired, to express his apprehension that these words would cause troops to be immediately sent to the colony. He entreated Mr. Brewton to use his best endeavor to cause these obnoxious words to be erased from the proceedings of the Provincial Congress and from the address which had been delivered to him, and to substitute some less objectionable phrases. He was, he said, willing to be sworn to secrecy, if the words were changed. Impressed alike by the Governor's fears and his own, Mr. Brewton approached three or four members of the Congress ; but as
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
objection was at once made, it was thought better to drop the matter rather than allow the Governor's doubtful con- duct to become the subject of public discussion.1
The Provincial Congress had, as we have seen, deter- mined to organize a military force of three regiments. It will be useful as well as interesting to glance at the mili- tary organization at the time. The province was then divided into twelve military districts, to wit : -
1. Charlestown.
2. Berkeley County.
3. Granville County, i.e. the present counties of Beau- fort and Hampton.
4. Craven County, the country generally north of the Santee, and east of the Camden District.
5. Colleton County, the country between Charlestown and Granville County.
6. Orangeburgh, the present counties of Orangeburg, Barnwell, Lexington, and Aiken.
7. The Cheraws, the country east of Lynch's Creek adjoining Craven County, the Pee Dee Section, the present counties of Chesterfield, Marlboro, Darlington, and Marion.
8. Ninety-Six, the country between the Saluda and Savannah rivers, the present counties of Edgefield, Abbe- ville, and Anderson.
9. Camden, the country between Lynch's Creek and the Congaree, the present counties of Richland, Kershaw, Sumter, Fairfield, and Chester.
10. The Forks of Saluda, the lower part of the country between the Saluda and Broad, that is, the present counties of Newberry, Laurens, and Union.
11. Upper Saluda, the present counties of Spartanburg, Laurens, and Union.
1 Memoirs of the Am. Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 262, 263.
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12. The New District, or New Acquisition, the present county of York. In each of these districts the militia was organized into a Regiment of Infantry.
Besides which there was a Regiment of Horse in the lower part of the province, but we have no definition of its territorial limits. The different regiments varied in number according to the population. In 1770 Lieutenant Governor Bull reports the militia at ten thousand, Wells's Register and Almanac for 1774 gives the number in 1773 as thirteen thousand. Dr. George Milligan, Chief Sur- geon of the forces, estimated them at fourteen thousand.1 There was a small garrison or guard at Fort Johnson of six men under a commander, or governor as he was called ; there was a commander of each of the two bastions in the town, Broughton's and Lyttleton's, but there is no mention of any guard to them ; the appointment was probably merely nominal. For several years the militia of the town were drilled at these batteries and at Fort Johnson.2 An independent company or guard was stationed at Fort Charlotte on the Savannah, near New Bordeaux in Ninety-Six, and probably also at Fort Moore, near the present site of the city of Augusta.3
1 A Chapter on the Colonial History of the Carolinas (W. J. Rivers), 67.
2 Government of the Colony of So. Ca. (Militia), Johns Hopkins Uni- versity Studies, 13 Series, I, II (Whitney), 92-93.
3 In Wells's Register and Almanac for 1775 we find the following roster of the militia and military posts : -
Provincial Militia, consisting of Thirteen Regiments, viz .: - One Regiment of Horse.
Colonel : William Moultrie ; Lieutenant Colonel :. -; Major : -
Twelve Regiments of Foot.
Charlestown. Colonel : Charles Pinckney; Lieutenant Colonel : James Parsons ; Major : William Savage; Captains : Paul Townsend, Maurice Simons, John McCall, Jun., Edward Simons, Peter Leger, MacCartan Campbell, Roger Smith, Philotheos Chiffelle, Charles Motte ; Lieuten- ants : Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Samuel Legare, John Brewton,
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
In the divided condition of popular opinion, even upon the coast, and the great opposition to the revolutionary
Robert Ladson, Thomas Inglis, Alexander Moultrie, John McQueen, John Smyth, James Peronneau, William Glen, Thomas Phepoe, Benja- min Legare ; Ensigns : Benjamin Dickinson, John Mathews, John Blake, Keating Simons, Peter Smith, James Wakefield, John Baddely; Adju- tant : John Smith; Surgeon General : Dr. John Haly ; Surgeon to Grena- dier Company : Dr. Thomas Tudor Tucker ; Surgeon to the Light Infantry Company : Dr. Tucker Harris.
Artillery Company. Owen Roberts, Captain; Barnard Beekman, Captain Lieutenant ; Barnard Elliott, Thomas Grimball, Jr., Lieuten- ants ; Benjamin Huger, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Edward Rutledge, Lieu- tenant Fireworkers ; Rev. Robert Smith, Chaplain.
Berkeley County. Richard Singleton, Colonel ; George Padon Bond, Lieutenant Colonel ; Stephen Miller, Major.
Granville County. Stephen Bull of Sheldon, Colonel; Benjamin Garden, Lieutenant Colonel ; John Lewis Bourquin, Major.
Craven County. Job Rothmahler, Colonel ; Daniel Horry, Lieuten- ant Colonel ; - Major.
Colleton County. Joseph Glover, Colonel ; Samuel Elliott, Lieutenant Colonel ; James La Roche, Major.
Orangeburgh. William Thomson, Colonel ; Christopher Rowe, Lieu- tenant Colonel ; Lewis Golson, Major.
Cheraws. George Gabriel Powell, Colonel; Charles Augustus Stew- ard, Lieutenant Colonel ; Abraham Buckholts, Major.
Ninety-Six. John Savage, Colonel ; James Mayson, Lieutenant Colo- nel ; Andrew Williamson, Major.
Camden. Richard Richardson, Colonel ; James McGirth, Lieutenant Colonel; Samuel Cantey, Major.
Forks of Saluda. Robert Starke, Colonel ; Moses Kirkland, Lieuten- ant Colonel ; - Tyrrel,a Major.
Upper Saluda. Thomas Fletchall, Colonel; John Lisle, Lieutenant Colonel ; John Caldwell, Major.
New District. Thomas Neel, Colonel ; Ezekiel Polk, Lieutenant Colo- nel ; Joseph Robinson, Major.
Forts and Garrisons, etc.
Colonel Probart Howarth, Governor of Fort Johnson.
George Milligan, Esq., Chief Surgeon to all the garrisons for his Majesty's forces in the province ; John Mackie, John Cleiland, Surgeon Mates.
& Jeremiah Terry.
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movement in the upper country, it was manifest to the Provincial Congress that no reliance could be placed upon the regularly organized militia to carry out their purposes, as the militia would necessarily embrace men of all shades of political opinion. It was determined, therefore, to organize a force independent of that body. According to our present ideas, it would be supposed that volunteers would have been called for, and organized into regiments to take the field - a force in which the best men of all classes would serve in the ranks if necessary from motives of patriotism. Five years later we shall see a purely volunteer system springing into existence in South Carolina after the fall of Charlestown and the loss of the Continental army, and we shall see the redemption of the State begun by volunteers serving without pay under Sumter, Marion, and Pickens ; but the Provincial Congress had no idea of such a system. Their plan was the organ- ization of a regular force officered by gentlemen, the rank and file of which was to be formed of men enlisted for hire, such as the regular armies of Europe, the ranks of which later we shall see filled up by vagrants and offenders against the law, sentenced thereto by the courts. Gentlemen of fortune and family at once offered them- selves as candidates for commissions, and the Congress proceeded to choose these by ballot. Two of the regi- ments now raised were to be of the line, and designed for service principally on the coast. The Third Regiment
Hon. William Henry Drayton, Esq., Commander of Broughton's bas- tion, Charlestown.
Edward Savage, Esq., Commander of Lyttleton's bastion, Charlestown. George Whitefield, Esq., Captain, and John Louis du Mesnil de St. Pierre, Lieutenant, of Fort Charlotte.
John Poaug, Esq., Keeper of all his Majesty's ordnance, stores, etc., and Barrack Master of Charlestown.
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to be recruited in the upper country was to be a regiment of Rangers, or mounted infantry, and designed for ser- vice in that region.1 Christopher Gadsden was chosen
1 The roster of officers chosen for these regiments was as follows : -
First Regiment. Colonel : Christopher Gadsden ; Lieutenant Colonel, Isaac Huger ; Major : Owen Roberts.
Second Regiment. Colonel : William Moultrie; Lieutenant Colonel : Isaac Motte ; Major : Alexander McIntosh.
Third Regiment. Lieutenant Colonel : William Thomson ; Major : James Mayson.
Company Officers of First and Second Regiments. Captains : 1, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney ; 2, Barnard Elliott ; 3, Francis Marion; 4, Will- iam Cattell ; 5, Peter Horry ; 6, Daniel Horry; 7, Adam McDonald ; 8, Thomas Lynch, Jr. ; 9, William Scott; 10, John Barnwell ; 11, Nicholas Eveleigh ; 12, James McDonald; 13, Isaac Harleston ; 14, Thomas Pinckney ; 15, Francis Huger ; 16, William Mason ; 17, Ed- mund Hyrne; 18, Roger P. Sanders ; 19, Benjamin Cattell ; 20, Charles Motte. First Lieutenants : 1, Anthony Ashby ; 2, James Ladson ; 3, John Vanderhorst ; 4, John Mouat ; 5, Thomas Elliott ; 6, William Oliphant ; 7, Glen Drayton ; 8, Joseph Ioor; 9, Robert Armstrong; 10, John Blake ; 11, Alexander McQueen ; 12, James Peronneau; 13, Richard Shubrick ; 14, Richard Fuller ; 15, Richard Singleton ; 16, John Allen Walter; 17, Benjamin Dickinson; 18, William Charnock; 19, Thomas Lesesne ; 20, Thomas Moultrie. Second Lieutenants : 21, Daniel Mazyck ; 22, George Turner ; 23, Ephraim Mitchell ; 24, Henry Hughes ; 25, Jacob Shubrick ; 26, Simeon Theus ; 27, John Farr; 28, Thomas Dunbar ; 29, Press Smith ; 30, -; 31, George Eveleigh ; 32, William Moultrie ; 33, Philip Neyle ; 34, Thomas Hall ; 35, Henry Gray ; 36, Isaac Du Bose ; 37, Joseph Elliott ; 38, Joseph Jenkins; 39, William Hext ; 40, -.
Regiment of Rangers. Captains : 1, Samuel Wise ; 2, Ezekiel Polk ; 3, John Caldwell ; 4, Ely Kershaw ; 5, Robert Goodwyn ; 6, Moses Kirk- land ; 7, Edward Richardson ; 8, Thomas Woodward ; 9, John Purves. First Lieutenants : 1, John Lewis Peyer Imhoff ; 2, Charles Heatley ; 3, Alan Cameron ; 4, Richard Winn ; 5, John Donaldson ; 6, Hugh Mid- dleton ; 7, Lewis Dutarque ; 8, Francis Boykin ; 9, Samuel Watson. The Council of Safety issued nine blank commissions for second lieutenants in the regiment, which were filled up by Colonel Thomson as follows: Felix Warley, Richard Brown, Samuel Taylor, William Martin, David Hopkins, Joseph Pledger, Thomas Charlton, John Woodward, and William Mitchell.
Ramsay's Revolution, vol. I. 35-37 ; Coll. Hist. of Soc. So. Ca., vol. II, 26-27 ; Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 1775.
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Colonel of the First, William Moultrie of the Second, and William Thomson Lieutenant Colonel of the Third Regiment. But although these regiments were to be raised for hire, and the Provincial Congress undertook to provide pay, clothing, and maintenance to the amount of £140,000 sterling, that body prudently avoided laying any tax or designating any particular fund for sinking the currency to be issued for the purpose. To defray the expenses bills of credit were issued which, though not a legal tender in law, and founded on nothing but the consent and zeal of the people, retained their credit for eighteen months, and answered every purpose of a circulating medium. The raising of troops to resist the government would seem to have been as treasonable a measure as could be conceived. And yet the Provincial Congress not only hesitated to commit itself by levying taxes to support the troops it had determined to raise, but stood also upon another curious point. We are told that when it was proposed to issue commissions under seal for the officers they had chosen, a great majority of the Council would not hear of anything looking so independent, for which reason they only issued certificates expressing that " In pursuance of the resolution of the Provincial Con- gress A- B -- is colonel, &c., of such a regiment, &c." These certificates were signed by members of the Council of Safety present.1
This force was said by William Henry Drayton to have been the first regular forces raised on the Continent. Ibid., Introduction, xviii.
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 265. This fear of the use of a seal was probably a survival of the regard, and almost supersti- tion, with which the Great Seal of England was regarded, as exhibited by the Parliamentarian, when Littleton, the Lord Keeper, following his royal master Charles I, carried off the Great Seal, and thus for a time puzzled and hampered the Commons, who could scarcely conceive that anything could be done unless that emblem of authority lay upon the Lord Keeper's desk.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
But while raising this body of regular troops the militia organization was not abandoned. The militia colonels throughout the colony were ordered to cause the several companies in their respective regiments to be divided into three divisions, one-third of whom, drawn by lot, should hold themselves in readiness to march on twelve hours' notice, another third when called upon, and the other to remain for the protection of their respective districts.1 The working of this system in practice appears to have been the formation of companies of volunteers to respond to calls as above, instead of the selection by lot, and under this arrangement volunteer companies were formed very generally through the low country, and to some extent in the upper. As these companies were, however, only to be called upon for special services, they formed no such body of troops as the volunteers upon either side of the war between the States in 1861-65, or in the late Span- ish war; nor indeed did they practically take any con- siderable part in the Revolution.
One of the first measures of General Washington upon his arrival at Boston and assuming command of the colo- nial forces there was to call for a report of the ammunition on hand, and the report had stated 303 barrels in store. A few days after, however, the alarming discovery was made that there was in reality on hand only 9940 pounds, not more than sufficient to furnish each man with nine cartridges. The mistake had been made in reporting the whole which had been originally furnished by the province of Massachusetts, and not estimating what had already been expended in the skirmishes around Boston. All the colo- nial governments and committees, as well as the Conti- nental Congress, were at once earnestly appealed to to send to Washington every pound of powder or lead which
1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 59.
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IN THE REVOLUTION
could be spared. "No quantity, however small," they were assured, " was beneath notice." 1
South Carolina was called upon to assist. A vessel arrived from Philadelphia laden with Indian corn, as a device by which a letter was brought from the delegates of the province in Congress dated the 1st of July, 1775, addressed to William Henry Drayton, Arthur Middleton, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, members of the Secret Committee, stating that the vessel was sent by direction of the Continental Congress for gunpowder, and entreat- ing the committee to purchase all the powder that could be bought, and to dispatch back the vessel with all pos- sible speed. But how could the committee comply with the requisition? The folly of the non-importation plan had prevented any powder from coming in from abroad in exchange for rice - for even the exportation of this article, which, as we have seen, had been excepted from the general prohibition, had been since prohibited by the Provincial Congress.2 How could the committee obtain gunpowder when they could export nothing to exchange for it? The opportunity of doing so was, however, singu- larly afforded - an opportunity which was at once seized upon, and the object most skilfully and gallantly accom- plished.
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