USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
583
IN THE REVOLUTION
General Rutherford of this determination, and late in the evening the march was commenced from Mountain Creek. Passing down the south side of the mountain, the party halted at the west end of it for an hour in the night, where the officers met to determine the plan of attack. The only arrangements made for it, however, were that the companies commanded by Captains Falls, McDowell, and Brandon should act on horseback and march in front ; all else was left to the officers to be governed by circum- stances after they should come up with the enemy. The march was resumed, and the party arrived within a mile of the enemy's camp at daylight.
The Tories were encamped on a hill three hundred yards east of Ramsour's Mill and a half mile north of the present town of Lincolnton. They occupied an excellent position on the summit of a ridge, stretching nearly to the east on the south side of the millpond. The road leading to the Tuckaseege Ford by the mill crosses the point of the ridge in a northwestern direction. The ridge had a very gentle slope, and was then interspersed with only a few trees, giving the Tories a fire with full effect in front for more than two hundred yards. Their picket guard, twelve in number, were stationed in the road six hundred yards from the encampment, but when the horsemen, under Captains Falls, McDowell, and Brandon, came within sight, it was evident that their approach had not been anticipated.
The pickets fired and fled to their camp, and then en- sued a desultory and confused engagement which can scarce be dignified as a battle, as there was little organiza- tion on either side and scarcely a plan of operation. It was an affair in which neighbors and personal friends fought, and, as the smoke from time to time would blow off, they would recognize each other. In some places the
584
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Tories were crowded together in each other's way, and in others there were none. The gaps were, however, filled by those coming up from the rear, and the line of battle was gradually extended. The action became general and obstinate on both sides. The Tories, at length finding the left of their position in possession of the Whigs and their centre closely pressed, retreated down the ridge toward the pond. The Whigs pursued until they got entire possession of the ridge, when they discovered to their astonishment that the Tories had collected a force on the other side of the creek beyond the mill. Expecting the fight to be renewed, the Whigs attempted to form a new line, but only eighty-six men could be found to do so. Some had been scattered during the action, and others were attending to their wounded friends. After repeated efforts not more than one hundred and ten men could be collected.
In this situation messengers were sent to General Ruther- ford to urge him to press forward to their assistance. Rutherford had marched early in the morning, and at a distance of six or seven miles from Ramsour's was met by the officers who had gone to hasten his advance. Major Davie's cavalry was started at a gallop, and Colonel David- son's infantry was ordered to hasten on with all possible speed. At the end of two miles they were met by others from the battle, who informed them that the Tories had retreated. Rutherford's troops arrived on the ground two hours after the battle had closed. The dead and most of the wounded were still lying where they fell.
The Tories, not aware of the disorder in the Whig ranks and considering themselves completely beaten, to cover their retreat, about the time the Whigs were sending to hasten General Rutherford's march, sent a flag proposing a suspension of hostilities to care for the wounded and to
585
IN THE REVOLUTION
bury the dead. To prevent the flag officer from perceiv- ing their small number, Major James Rutherford and another officer were sent to meet him a short distance from the line. The proposition being made, Major Ruther- ford demanded that the Tories should surrender in ten minutes, and that then arrangements should be made as to the dead and wounded. In the meantime Moore and Welch gave orders that such of their men as were on foot or had inferior horses should move off singly as fast as they could. This was done, so that when the flag returned not more than fifty remained and they immediately fled. Moore with thirty men reached the British army at Cam- den, where he was threatened to be brought before a court- martial for disobedience of orders in attempting to embody the Royalists before the time appointed by the commander- in-chief, but it was deemed impolitic to press the matter further.
As there was no organization of either party, nor regular returns made after the action, says General Joseph Gra- ham of North Carolina, from whose narrative this account of the battle has been taken, the loss could not be ascer- tained with correctness. Fifty-six lay dead on the side of the ridge where the heat of the action prevailed. Many lay scattered on the flanks and over the ridge toward the mill. It is believed that seventy were killed and that the loss was on each side equal. About one hundred men on each side were wounded and fifty Tories were taken pris- oners. As there was no distinguishing uniform it could not be told to which party many of the dead belonged. Most of the Whigs wore a piece of white paper on their hats in front, and as many of the men on each side were excellent riflemen, this paper was a mark at which the Tories often fired and several of the Whigs were shot in the head.
586
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
In this battle neighbors, near relations, and personal friends fought, and as the smoke from time to time would blow off they would recognize each other. In the evening and on the next day the relatives and friends of the dead and wounded came in, and a scene was witnessed truly afflicting to the feelings of humanity.1
.
The effect of this affair was completely to crush out the Tory element in that portion of the State, and they never attempted to organize again during the war. The men who assembled at Ramsour's Mill to resume their allegiance to the British government were not marauders in search of plunder, nor violent men seeking revenge for injuries inflicted in border warfare; they were nearly all simple- minded, artless Germans, industrious, frugal, and honest citizens, who had never been in arms before nor suffered persecutions from the Whigs. They believed the represen- tative of the army of Cornwallis, who informed them that the Royal authority had been reestablished in the South, and they were confirmed in this by the accounts of the absolute subjection of South Carolina and Georgia and the example of leading citizens of those states who had "taken British protection." They came to renew their citizenship and allegiance as they thought duty and conscience re- quired. Happy had it been for South Carolina had the Tories on her borders been so easily put down. But such was not the case. Her soil was to be drenched to a much greater degree in fratricidal blood.
1 Graham's Narrative, No. Ca., 1780-81 (Schenck), 51-62.
CHAPTER XXVII
1780
THAT there were great differences of sentiment in re- gard to the Revolution even among the people of the Low Country of South Carolina has abundantly appeared in the pages of this history. Friends and families were divided in opinion as to its cause, and still more so in regard to the course of events which had followed resulting in the Declaration of Independence. But these differences in the Low Country had caused little bloodshed by native Carolinians at the hands of each other. Few of the Tories in this section took up arms against their fellow-country- men. In the new field of war, alas ! as at Ramsour's Mill, the people who had not been interested in the questions which brought on the trouble were to fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbor. The most dreadful internecine strife was now to rage throughout the country beyond the falls of the rivers. The Scotchmen in Charlestown - especially the Scotch mer- chants, had almost unanimously opposed the Revolution ; and so had the many Scotch traders in the Piedmont region. The Scotchmen in Charlestown, however, con- tented themselves with passive resistance to the Revolu- tionary party until the fall of the town, and then did little more than congratulate Sir Henry Clinton upon his vic- tory over their rebellious fellow-townsmen ; but in the Up Country they rose with the advance of the British and with heroism and determination took part in the war.
587
588
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
It would be well if the historian was bound to add noth- ing more in regard to their conduct; but truth requires the statement that the heroism of these people in main- taining their loyalty to their King was tarnished by deeds of cruelty and bloodthirstiness. It will indeed appear, as we follow the fortunes of the war in their section, that South Carolina experienced all the dire effects which from civil discords flow.1
Before Tarleton had overtaken Buford the Tories in this section had begun to gather and organize. As early as the 26th of May - that is, three days before the massacre in the Waxhaws, a party of them had collected at Mob- ley's Meeting-house, about six miles west of Winnsboro in the present county of Fairfield; to meet this Colonel William Bratton of York and Captain John McClure of Chester gathered the Whigs and defeated and dispersed them. A similar uprising at Beckham's Old Field in the vicinity of Fishing Creek, in what is now Chester County, had been put down with equal ease, the Rev. John Simpson, then the Presbyterian minister of the congrega- tion in that neighborhood, being one of the principal movers in the affair. We have no account of the casual- ties on either side of these affairs.
But though Colonel Bratton took so decided and active a part in dispersing the Tories at Mobley's Meeting-house before Buford's defeat, he appears to have hesitated after that event to advise the people to further resistance. Colo- nel William Hill, who shall hereafter frequently appear as a gallant officer under Sumter, in a narrative of the cam- paign in 1780 2 giving an account of the condition of affairs in the New Acquisition, as the present County of York was then known, states that Bratton and Watson, the two mili-
1 Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. IV, 537.
2 Sumter MSS., vol. I.
589
IN THE REVOLUTION
tia colonels in that district, called a meeting at Bullock's Creek Meeting-house to which they gave their opinion that any further opposition to the British would avail nothing, and declared that they could have nothing more to say to them as officers, and advised that each one must do the best he could for himself. Colonel Bratton, however, him- self, went to Sumter's camp and soon was actually engaged. A commission was sent from the meeting at Bullock's Creek to Lord Rawdon, who was then across the Catawba, in the Waxhaws ; and the meeting adjourned to Hill's Iron Works on Allison Creek, not far from the Catawba, to receive the report. There the person sent returned and exhibited his commission under Lord Rawdon's seal, em- powering him to take submissions and to give paroles and protections to all that chose to become British subjects.1 The commissioner proceeded to read a proclamation of his lordship's asserting that Congress had given up the two Southern States and would not contend further for them; that General Washington's army was reduced to a small number of men, with which he had fled to the moun- tains. At this point Colonel Hill interrupted the commis- sioner, took the stand, and addressed the people. He told them that he was happy to have it in his power to inform them that both statements of the proclamation were false, and made only to deceive and intimidate the people; that, so far from these statements being true, Congress had come to a resolution not to give up any of the States, and that General Washington was in fact in a more prosperous way than he had been for some time ; so much so that he had sent an officer with a considerable army, which was then on the march to the relief of the Southern States. He re- minded them that they had all taken an oath to defend
1 Who this person was is not mentioned, nor have we been able to ascertain.
590
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
and maintain the independence of the State to the utmost of their power ; that if they could not raise a force to meet the foe they had one open side and could keep together and go into North Carolina, meet their friends there, and return with them to their State. This address produced a reaction ; there was a visible animation in the countenances of the citizens, says Hill, then despondency was dispelled, and Rawdon's commissioner disappeared with his procla- mation and protections, fearing the resentment of the people.
The meeting then proceeded to organize a force, and, upon a ballot, Colonel Hill and a young man by the name of Andrew Neel were chosen Colonels. A camp was formed, and the American standard raised. Around this little band men from Georgia as well as South Carolina gathered, and in a short time quite a respectable body was formed.
Colonel Neel had formerly commanded the militia be- tween the Enoree and Tyger rivers, in what is now Spar- tanburg County, and had been compelled to fly from the neighborhood, which was strongly loyal to the King; and after Sir Henry Clinton's proclamation requiring active service of the militia in the Royal cause, his command was given to our old acquaintance Matthew Floyd.1 Colonel Floyd was at this time recruiting in the western part of York for the garrison at Rocky Mount. Neel, who now had a force with which to act, determined to put a stop to this. Taking with him all the men but about twelve or fifteen, left to keep the camp, he started in pursuit of Floyd, but was too late. Floyd with his recruits had escaped him.
On learning of the affair at Fishing Creek, Lieutenant Colonel Turnbull, who was in command of the post at
1 Life of Greene, Johnson, vol. I, 292 ; Steadman's Hist. Am. War, vol. II, 200.
591
IN THE REVOLUTION
Rocky Mount, sent out Captain Huck with a detachment of thirty-five dragoons of the legion, twenty mounted in- fantry of the New York Volunteers, and about sixty Tory militia to investigate.1 This Captain Christian Huck, who in a short career was to become notorious for his cruelties and violence, was an American - a lawyer of Philadel- phia - who had gone to the British at New York and joined Tarleton when he was ordered to the South.2
The Rev. John Simpson, a Presbyterian minister of Irish descent, a native of New Jersey, had, some years before, succeeded the Rev. William Richardson in charge of the congregations of Upper and Lower Fishing Creek. He was an ardent Whig, and was regarded as the head of the party who had broken up the assemblies of the Tories both at Beckham's Old Field and at Mobley's Meeting- house. On Sunday morning, June 11, Huck and his party took their way to the church, where they expected to find the pastor with his assembled congregation, deter- mined, as was believed at the time, to burn both the church and the people by way of warning to other " disturbers of the King's peace." The pastor had fortunately escaped. The Friday before he had shouldered his rifle and taken the field, joining Captain John McClure, one of the young men of his congregation, who was then with Sumter across the State line. On their way to the church the British killed, with circumstances of great atrocity, Will- iam Strong, an inoffensive and pious young man, who was, at the time of their assault upon him, reading his Bible. Mrs. Simpson, the wife of the pastor, while sit- ting at her breakfast table, heard the report of the gun which killed young Strong and announced the approach of the enemy. The church was but a short distance from the dwelling-house of the minister. Huck's party went
1 Tarleton's Campaigns, 93. 2 Am. Loyalists (Sabine), 371.
592
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
first to the house. Mrs. Simpson, seeing their approach, fled with her four children and concealed herself in an orchard. Huck's party rifled the house of everything valu- able, destroyed the bedding, and, after taking all the cloth- ing and other articles they fancied, set fire to the house, which was soon burned to the ground, together with a valuable library of books and important manuscripts which were in Mr. Simpson's study.1
Huck then advanced to Hill's Iron Works, where the meeting told of above had taken place. These works were of great importance to the Whigs, for in them Colonel Hill was casting cannon and ordnance for their use, and they were also the only dependence of the farmers for forty or fifty miles around for the manufacture of their agricultural implements. Huck destroyed everything he could not carry away. He burned the forge, furnace, grist and saw mills, together with all the buildings, even the negro huts, and carried off with him about ninety ne- groes.2 From the iron works he retired to White's Mills on Fishing Creek in what is now Chester County, about six miles below the York County line. Here he remained, desolating the country around and committing many out- rages on inoffensive inhabitants.
In the meanwhile, Sumter having obtained from the authorities in North Carolina the wagons, horses, and provisions taken from the Tories at Ramsour's Mill, had moved into South Carolina and established a camp on Clem's Creek in what is now Lancaster County, just below the North Carolina line.3 Here he was joined by detach- ments of the Whigs, - volunteers under Colonels Hill and Neel from York, Richard Hampton from the Tyger River,
1 Howe's Hist. Presbyterian Church, 511.
2 Sumter MSS., vol. I, Hill's Narrative.
3 Ibid.
593
IN THE REVOLUTION
Spartanburg, Captain Samuel Hammond, Colonel Elijah Clarke of Georgia, and others who had passed by different routes through the upper part of the State, eluding the British outposts.1
Soon after the establishment of their camp, Colonels Hill and Neel with 133 men recrossed the Catawba into York to reënforce their party as well with men as with provi- sions. Hill was now confirmed in the rumor of the de- struction of his iron works and learned that Huck had sometime before summoned the men of the neighborhood to meet him, stating that "he would put them in the King's peace," that he had harangued those who had obeyed his summons on the certainty of his Majesty's reducing the colonies to obedience, and had used on the occasion the most blasphemous language, saying that God Almighty had become a rebel, but that if there were twenty gods on that side they would all be conquered. This foolish as well as impious language made a deep impression on the people to whom it was addressed, offending alike their religious and patriotic sentiments, and encouraging them in a belief that they would be made instruments in the hands of the Almighty to punish this wickedness and blasphemy.2
Besides Bratton, McClure, Hill, and Neel, another patriot now appeared who was to render singular service in the partisan warfare now inaugurated. Edward Lacey the father and Edward Lacey the son, of English descent, had removed from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. Edward Lacey the son had run away from his father in 1755, when but thirteen years of age, and joined Braddock in his unfortunate expedition, serving as a packhorse rider and driver. He again left his father at sixteen years of
1 Sumter MSS., Hill's Narrative ; Johnson's Traditions, 341.
2 Sumter MSS., Hill's Narrative.
VOL. III. - 2 Q
594
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
age, and emigrated to this section of South Carolina with the Adairs. In 1775 he had been elected Captain of a volunteer company; in 1776 served under Williamson in his Cherokee expedition, and in Howe's Florida campaign ; and when the Declaration of Independence was received, by Williamson's appointment he had read it to the troops. " Thank God," he had exclaimed, as he finished its read- ing, " we can now act on the offensive as well as the de- fensive." His father, who had followed him to South Carolina just before the commencement of the Revolution, was on the contrary an uncompromising Tory.
Colonel Turnbull had ordered Huck with the cavalry under his command to proceed to the frontier of the province, collecting all the royal militia on his march, and with these forces "to push the rebels." Huck had commenced his advance, and on his way stopped at Mrs. McClure's plantation, where they plundered and destroyed everything. Mrs. McClure's son James and her son-in- law Edward Martin were caught in the act of melting down their mother's pewter dishes and moulding bullets with the metal. They were made prisoners and ordered to be hung the next day. Mrs. McClure herself was struck by Huck with the flat of the sword. Her daughter Mary had fortunately succeeded in evading the British soon after their arrival, and rode to Sumter's camp, where she informed her brothers, John and Hugh, of what the British were doing and of their number. Colonel William Bratton and Captain John McClure set out that evening with 150 volunteers, and after a ride of thirty miles reached the neighborhood. In the meanwhile Lacey had also beat up the country for volunteers, and Hill and Neel, hearing of the intended attack upon Huck's corps, joined their forces, so that the patriots now had more than 500 men, with whom they determined to drive Huck out of the settlement.
595
IN THE REVOLUTION
Their plan was to steal a march by night upon the Royalists, who were supposed to have returned to White's Mills. The whole party accordingly assembled at sun- down on July 11 in the neighborhood, and, forming them- selves into parties, marched toward the Mills in perfect order. Before reaching the Mills, however, Captain Mc- Clure, who had preceded to reconnoitre, ascertained that Huck had on the same day, the 11th of July, advanced his whole body to Bratton's plantation, which was situated in the present county of York, about six miles above the Chester line, a distance of about twelve miles from White's Mills. The leaders and men in these parties were all alike volunteers, without commissions or authority. To decide, therefore, upon any movement consultations were neces- sary, and in these consultations all appear to have taken part. It being decided by a vote to advance, some mis- take in orders occurring caused confusion and excitement, whereupon 150 men mounted their horses, and never stopped till they reached Charlotte, North Carolina, a distance of forty miles. A second consultation was then held, and it being put to a vote it was unanimously re- solved to pursue Huck with those who remained, now about 350, and surprise him before day. On their way they were warned by old Mr. William Adair, with whom Lacey had come to the State, that Huck had near one thousand British soldiers with him, who had taken every eatable on his plantation, and left him "not meal enough to make himself a hoe-cake." Lacey only replied to his old friend that they would make the British pay for all before sunrise. Two of Adair's sons, William and John, were with Lacey at the time. A most interesting incident now took place, strongly illustrating the divided sentiments of the community. On the way the Whigs were obliged to pass the farm where lived Edward Lacey, the father and
596
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Tory. The son knew his father to be as determined as himself, and to be as devoted to the King as he was to the cause of independence, and he did not hesitate as to his course. He detailed four men to guard his father all night, and to tie him if necessary in order to prevent his going to the enemy and giving them notice of the attack. But old Lacey was as alive to the situation as his son. By some artifice he eluded the guard and started for Huck's camp, only two miles from his residence; fortunately, before he had gone two hundred yards he was overtaken, brought back, and actually tied in his bed till the next morning.
Huck, having arrived with his whole party during the day of the 11th, rudely entered Colonel Bratton's house and ordered Mrs. Bratton to provide a repast for him- self and his troopers; he demanded also that she should inform him where her husband was. "In Sumter's army," promptly replied the heroic woman. Huck, finding threats unavailing, then attempted to conciliate her, and proposed that if she would get her husband to come in and join the Royalists, he should have a commission in the Royal ser- vice. Mrs. Bratton replied, with continued firmness, that she would rather, if necessary, that he should die in the de- fence of his State. Upon this reply one of Huck's troopers attempted to take her life with a reaping-hook which was hanging near. He was, however, prevented, not by Huck, but by another officer.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.