USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 > Part 49
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Ferguson now moved his posts, crossed the Enoree at Kelly's Ford, and for a time encamped in the fork at the plantation of Colonel James Lyles, who was then in the service with Sumter on the Catawba; and there, embody-
1 King's Mountain and its Heroes (Draper), 73-75; Hist. Presby- terian Church (Howe), vol. I, 533-534.
VOL. III. - 2 R
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ing the Tories, he kept moving about the country and sending out his detachments in every direction. He marched into what is now Union County, camping on the south side of Tyger River about half a mile below Black- stock's Ford; thence passed into the settlement called " The Quaker Meadow," but since known as the Meadow Woods. Thence he moved up into the Fair Forest settle- ment. During this period of several weeks the Tories scoured all that region of country, plundering the people. The horses of Ferguson's men were turned loose into any fields of grain that might be most convenient. Foraging parties brought in cattle to camp for slaughter, or wantonly shot them down in the woods and left them. As many of the Whigs as could be found were apprehended, not even excepting those who had previously taken protection. But these were not many. Most of the Rebels at heart at this time capable of bearing arms were serving in Sum- ter's command, so that Ferguson had an excellent oppor- tunity to drill his new recruits and support his men by pillaging the people.1
Shortly after the fall of Charlestown, and before Colonel Browne had reached Augusta with his detachment, a party of Loyalists under the command of a Captain Hollings- worth was sent by McGirth, who was now commissioned as a Colonel in the Royal service, into the neighborhood of Captain McKoy in South Carolina, whose activity ren- dered him peculiarly obnoxious to the British. The party murdered seventeen men on their farms in one or two days. The country exhibited a scene of ruin. All the movable property was plundered, and every house was burned. A flourishing country of thirty miles in length and ten in breadth was desolated. Disappointed in their expectations of getting possession of McKoy's person, they
1 King's Mountain and its Heroes (Draper), 77.
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tortured his wife to extort from her a knowledge of the place of his concealment. The mode of inflicting the tor- ture was by taking a flint out of a musket and putting her thumb in its place. Thus improvising a most effective thumbscrew, the screw was applied until the thumb was ready to burst. While under this newly invented species of torture, in addition to the questions put to her respecting her husband, she was required to disclose the secret deposit of her most valuable property, which they alleged had been removed and hidden in the woods. McKoy was after- ward charged with cruelty toward the enemy by his own countrymen who were engaged in the same cause, but it is scarcely to be wondered at that he should have sought revenge for such barbarous treatment of his wife. Such atrocities upon the one side and the other did but provoke to others, and often to greater.1
Colonel Elijah Clarke, a noted partisan of Georgia, now also appears on the frontier of South Carolina. A native of Virginia, he had first settled on the Pacolet, whence he pushed into what is now Wilkes County, Georgia, where he was settled when the Revolution began. When Georgia was overrun, Clarke refused to take protection, and with other patriots of that State determined to move into South Carolina, to join those who were gathering under Sumter. Some small parties had already left Geor- gia, and passing by the foot of the mountains, sought the camp of Colonel Charles McDowell, who was embodying a force on the southwestern border of North Carolina.
On the 11th of July, one hundred and forty men, well mounted and armed, met at Freeman's Fort in Georgia, and crossed the Savannah at a private ford six miles above Petersburg, about ten miles west of the present town of Abbeville. The British and Loyalists were found in force
1 McCall's Hist. of Georgia, 307.
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in their front, and Colonel Clarke determined that it would be too hazardous to attempt in their face to pursue his intended route. The men who composed Clarke's com- mand were volunteers, and, having left their own State, each man claimed the right of thinking and acting for himself. The dangers which were presented, and the un- governable disposition of his men, induced Clarke to return to Georgia, temporarily to disperse and wait for more fa- vorable intelligence, when he would make another attempt by passing near the foot of the mountains through Carolina. This plan was generally approved and a retreat was imme- diately commenced.
Colonel John Jones of Burke County, however, objected to the retreat and proposed to a few to leave the country at every hazard, and, by passing through the woods of South Carolina, to join the Continental army wherever it was to be found. Thirty-five men formed themselves into a com- pany, appointed Jones their Captain and John Freeman Lieutenant, promising implicit obedience to their orders. They were fortunate in securing the services of Benjamin Lawrence, a good woodsman of South Carolina, well ac- quainted with the country, as their guide. In passing through the disaffected country they pretended to be a company of Loyalists engaged in the King's service, and in many instances were furnished with pilots upon that representation. When they had passed the headwaters of the Tyger River 1 one of the guides informed them that a party of Rebels had attacked some Loyalists the preced- ing night a short distance in front and defeated them. This was doubtless an allusion to the affair of Colonel
1 Draper says that Jones's retreat crossed the headwaters of the Saluda (King's Mountains and its Heroes, 79), but this Landrum shows to have been a mistake. It was the headwaters of the Tyger, as stated in the text. Colonial and Revolutionary Hist. of Upper So. Ca. (Landrum), 116.
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John Thomas, Jr., at Fair Forest, which has just been de- scribed. Jones thereupon expressed a wish to be con- ducted to the place, that he might join the Loyalists and have it in his power to take revenge for the blood of the King's subjects which had been shed. This the guide readily undertook to do, and about eleven o'clock, on the night of the 13th of July, Jones was led to the Royal party, where about forty were collected to pursue the Americans, who had retreated toward North Carolina. Jones at once made his dispositions to attack by surprise with twenty- two men, leaving the horses and baggage in charge of the remainder. Approaching the enemy, he found them in a state of self-security and generally asleep. On the first fire one of the enemy was killed and three were wounded. Thirty-two, including the wounded, surrendered and called for quarter. Jones ordered all the enemy's guns to be destroyed except such as would be useful to his men, paroled the prisoners, and took as many of the horses as they could carry away without incumbrance. The pilot did not discover his mistake until it was too late to pre- vent the consequences. After the skirmish was over the man was required to conduct Jones's party to Earle's Ford on Pacolet River, in what is now Spartanburg County, where he formed a junction with Colonel McDowell the next day.1 Jones's party had had no rest for three days and nights; McDowell had also made a tedious march with his three hundred men, so that they were all in a very fatigued condition.2
Within striking distance of McDowell's camping ground,
1 Draper, from whom we have taken the account of this affair, fails to locate the place where it occurred. Landrum places it at Gowen's Old Fort on the old Blackstock Road, near South Pacolet River. Colo- nial and Revolutionary Hist. of Upper So. Ca., 117.
2 McCall's Hist. of Georgia, vol. II, 311.
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some twenty miles in a nearly southern direction, was Prince's Fort,1 originally a place of neighborhood resort in time of danger from Indians, on the settlement of the country some twenty years before. This fort, now occupied by a British and Tory force under Colonel Innes, was located upon a commanding height of land near the head of one of the branches of the North Fork of the Tyger River, seven miles north of west from the present city of Spar- tanburg. Innes, unapprised of McDowell's approach, de- tached Major Dunlap with seventy dragoons, accompanicd by Colonel Ambrose Mills with a party of Loyalists, in pur- suit of Jones, of whose audacious operations he had just received intelligence. McDowell's camp was on rising ground on the eastern side of the North Pacolet, just across the dividing line between the two States in the present county of Polk in North Carolina. Dunlap reached the vicinity of McDowell's camp late at night, and, supposing it to consist of the Georgians only, commenced crossing the river, which was narrow at that point, when an Ameri- can sentinel fled to the camp and gave the first notice of the enemy's presence. Dunlap and his men rushed into the camp with drawn swords when but few of the Ameri- cans were awake. The position of the Georgians in the encampment exposed them to the first attack, in conse- quence of which they sustained very great loss in propor- tion to their numbers. Colonel Jones received eight cuts on the head with a sabre. Freeman rallied the remainder and joined Major Singleton, who had retreated about one
1 One of the old forts or stockades, a rallying point in times of danger. It was circular in shape, built of heavy timbers, from twelve to fifteen feet high, surrounded by a ditch, the dirt from which was thrown against the walls, secured in front by an abatis. This fort took its name from Mr. William Prince, who lived near it. Colonial and Revolutionary Hist. . of Upper So. Ca. (Landrum), 31 ; King's Mountain and its Heroes, 80.
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hundred yards behind a fence. McDowell formed the main body on Singleton's right. An advance was ordered, when the enemy retreated across the river, which was fordable in many places, enabling them to retire without much loss. Of the Americans, eight were killed and thirty wounded. The enemy's loss was not known beyond that of a single wounded man left on the ground.
Before sunrise the next morning fifty-two of the most active men, including Freeman and fourteen of his party, mounted upon the best horses in camp, were ordered to pursue the retreating foe under the command of Captain Edward Hampton.1 After a rapid march of two hours, the enemy were overtaken fifteen miles away, attacked, and completely routed. Eight of them were killed at the first fire, and Dunlap, unable to rally, made a precipitate retreat in which several more of his men were killed and wounded. The pursuit was continued within a few yards of the British fort, in which there were three hundred fresh men. Hamp- ton returned to camp at two o'clock, and brought with him thirty-five horses with dragoon equipage and a considerable portion of the enemy's baggage, without the loss of a man.2
The whole frontier of South Carolina was now ablaze. There were no Continental troops in the State. There was not even an officer with a regular commission except Davie, who held one as Major under the State of North Carolina, but who commanded only a volunteer corps furnished and maintained by himself. But resistance had sprung up in
1 A brother of Colonels Wade, Richard, and Henry Hampton. He was killed the ensuing October, at or near Fair Forest Creek, in the bosom of his family, by Bill Cuningham's notorious bloody scout. He was in the prime of life, and in his death his country lost a bold cavalier. He was the idol of his family and friends. King's Mountain and its Heroes (Draper), 83.
2 McCall's Hist. of Georgia, vol. II, 311, 312 ; King's Mountain and its Heroes, 80-83.
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the face of the British posts from the people themselves. They had risen and attacked the British outposts along the whole line in what is now the counties of Chester, York, and Spartanburg. There had been engagements upon four successive nights, in each one of which the Whigs had been victorious. At Williamson's and Bratton's plantations in York they had attacked and destroyed Huck and his party on the 12th of July. Colonel John Thomas, Jr., had defeated the attack made upon his camp at Cedar Spring in Spartanburg on the night of the 13th. Then Colo- nel Jones had surprised the Loyalists at Gowen's Old Fort near the South Pacolet in the same county on the night of the 14th; and finally the attack of Dunlap on McDowell's camp on the night of the 15th had been avenged by Hamp- ton on the morning of the 16th. Of these engagements, it is true, none could be described as a great battle, but the British had, in less than a week, lost more than a hundred men killed and wounded, while the loss of the Americans had not amounted to half that number.
CHAPTER XXVIII
1780
THE conduct of the British commanders within their lines was also driving men from desperation into the American camps. Forgetting, says Ramsay, their experi- ence in the Northern States, they believed the submission of the inhabitants to be sincere ; making no allowance for that propensity in human nature which leads mankind, when in the power of others, to frame their intelligence with more attention to what is agreeable than to what is true, the British for some time conceived that they had
little to fear on the southern side of Virginia. When experience convinced them of the fallacy of their hopes, they were transported with indignation against the inhabit- ants. Without taking any share of the blame to them- selves for their policy in constraining men to an involuntary submission, they charged them with studied duplicity and treachery. A matter which added greatly to their rage and indignation, and, no doubt, to their apprehensions as well, was the fact that there were great desertions from the Royal army, and especially from Lord Rawdon's pet regiment, the Royal Volunteers of Ireland, which he had himself organized in Philadelphia. These deserters had no difficulty in concealing themselves among the people around the garrisons. Lord Rawdon, whose temper was soured by disappointment, and was in great anger against the new sub- jects as well for their unmeaning submissions as for their conniving at a practice so injurious to the Royal interests, on the 1st of July addressed a letter to Rowland Rugeley,
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now a Major of British militia near the headquarters in Camden, in which he stated that so many deserters from his army had passed with impunity through the district under Rugeley's command, that he must necessarily sus- pect the inhabitants to have connived at, if not facilitated, their escape. If attachment to their Sovereign, he wrote, would not move the country people to check a crime so detrimental to his Majesty's service, it must be his care to urge them to their duty as good subjects by using invaria- ble severity toward every one who should show so criminal a neglect of the public interest. He therefore instructed Rugeley to signify to all within the limits of his command his firm determination that, if any person should meet a soldier straggling without a written pass beyond the pick- ets, and should not do his utmost to secure him or should not spread an alarm for that purpose, or if any person should give shelter to soldiers straggling, or should serve them as a guide, or should furnish them with passes or any other assistance, the persons so offending might assure themselves of rigorous punishment, either by whipping, imprisonment, or by being sent to serve his Majesty in the West Indies, according as he should think the degree of criminality might require. Lord Rawdon also instructed Rugeley to offer the inhabitants ten guineas for the head of any deserter belonging to the Volunteers of Ireland, and five guineas only if they brought him in alive. They should likewise be rewarded, though not to that amount, for each deserter belonging to any other regiment which they might secure.
In addition to this Lord Rawdon, on the first rumor of an advancing American army, called on the inhabitants in and near Camden to take up arms against these approaching countrymen, and confined in jail those who refused. In the midst of summer upward of 160 persons were shut up
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in a small prison, and 20 or 30 of them, citizens of the most respectable character, were loaded with irons. Mr. James Bradley, Mr. Strother, Colonel Few, Mr. Kershaw, Captain Boykin, Colonel Alexander, Mr. Irvin, Mr. Winn, Colonel Hunter, and Captain John Chesnut were among those sub- jected to these indignities. The last of these gentlemen, though taken in Charlestown, and entitled, therefore, to the security of his person and property by solemn capitu- lation, was despoiled of $5000 worth of indigo and chained to the floor for a considerable time, on the charge, by one of his slaves, that he was corresponding with the Americans.1
This conduct of the British authorities had the very opposite effect from that which was intended. Instead of intimidating the people, it aroused every sentiment of indig- nation and revenge. Gentlemen and men of character, how- ever well disposed to his Majesty's cause they may have been, resented the threat of being whipped or sent to serve with outcasts in a foreign service, unless they would turn detectives and constables to keep the Royal troops in their ranks. They preferred open war and at once accepted it. If Lord Rawdon was to hold them as violators of their paroles and oaths of allegiance at the whispering of their own slaves, they had better at once renounce the pledge they had given, and take their lives and their honors in their hands while they might yet strike a blow in their defence. Acting upon this impulse and sentiment Colonel John Lisle,2 formerly Lieutenant Colonel of the militia
1 Ramsay's Revolution of So. Ca., 131-135.
2 In the Annals of Newberry, Judge O'Neall, in a note to page 191, says, speaking of the Lyles family : "In Tarleton's Campaigns in the South, page 93, he speaks of one Lisle, who was from the District between Enoree and Tyger rivers, being banished to the islands ; returning, he took place in the regiment formerly commanded by Colonel Neel, then by Colonel Floyd, in the British interest, and carried it all off and joined Sum- ter. Who the Lisle spoken of by Tarleton may be, is uncertain." Jolin
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regiment between the Enoree and Tyger rivers under Colonel Fletchall, who had been captured and sent to the islands on the seacoast, and then required by Sir Henry Clinton's proclamation of the 3d of June to ex- change his parole for a certificate of allegiance, having returned home and obtained a command under Colonel Floyd, the British commandant of militia, had the address as soon as the battalion of militia was supplied with arms, to carry it off in a body to Colonel Neel, who was now with Sumter at Clem's Creek. The British historians speak of this action of Lisle as treacherous; but if it was so was it not induced, if not justified, by Clinton's faithless conduct in forcing him to exchange a parole as a prisoner of war-owing his allegiance to the American cause, but agreeing not to serve against his Majesty during the war unless exchanged or recaptured - for an oath not merely of neutrality while a prisoner, but of change of allegiance? However this question of ethics should be decided, certain it is that the faithless and cruel conduct of the British commanders within the lines drove into the American ranks many men who otherwise would have remained quietly at home as good subjects of his Majesty.
After the battle of Ramsour's Mill on the 18th of June, General Rutherford had marched toward the Yadkin to put down a body of Tories who were assembling under Colonel Bryan, while Major Davie and his mounted force were ordered to take position to check the foraging parties of the British across the line between the two States. Davie preceded Sumter, crossed the line, and took position on the north side of Waxhaw Creek, some fourteen miles
Lisle was Lieutenant Colonel in 1775 of the Upper Saluda Regiment, of which Fletchall was Colonel. See ante, page 12, note. See also Moultrie's Memoirs, vol. I, 319.
1 Tarleton's Campaigns, 93-126 ; Steadman's Am. War, 200.
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south of Clem's Creek. Here he was in the neighborhood in which he had been reared and in which he knew every road and by-path, and which was now to be the scene of his most brilliant exploits. He was joined by Major Craw- ford with some South Carolina volunteers and thirty-four Indian warriors of the Catawba under their chief New River, and some North Carolina militia under Colonel Heaggins. From this point Davie at once followed up the blow given at Williamson's.
When Lord Rawdon fell back from the Waxhaws he established a post at Hanging Rock about twenty-four miles from Camden, on the road to Charlotte, just on the dividing line between the present counties of Lancaster and Kershaw. Davie determined to interrupt the com- munication between these posts. On the 2d of July he fell upon a convoy of provisions at Flat Rock, a point about four and a half miles from Hanging Rock. The escort, some dragoons and volunteers, was surprised, and their capture was effected without loss; the wagons with the spirits and provisions were destroyed; and, with the prisoners mounted on the captured horses, the retreat was commenced at dark.
It has been said that Davie's corps was never surprised or dispersed during the war ; 1 but in this his first adven- ture with his gallant little band, while he was not surprised, as he had expected that an attempt for the recovery of his booty and prisoners would be made, and had himself taken every precaution against it, the officer in command of his advance allowed his guard to be drawn into an ambuscade which only Davie's prompt and judicious conduct pre- vented from proving fatal. When the retreat from Hang- ing Rock with the prisoners was begun, the advance was formed of guides and a few mounted infantry under the
1 Life of Marion (James), 74.
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charge of Captain Petit; the prisoners in the centre were guarded by dragoons under the command of Captain Will- iam Polk, who served as a volunteer; a rear-guard closed the column. The ford of Beaver Creek which crossed his road was approached by a lane which Davie foresaw would afford a suitable place for an ambuscade. Anticipating that an attempt to rescue his prisoners would be made at this place, Davie had ordered Captain Petit to advance and examine the lane, the ford of the creek, and the houses near it, and was expressly directed to secure all the per- sons in the families around so that no alarm could be created. He returned and reported that he had executed his orders, and that all was well. Upon this the party advanced, and the rear-guard had just entered the lane when an officer in the lead hailed the British who were discovered concealed under a fence in a field of standing corn. A second challenge was answered by a volley of musketry from the concealed foe, which commenced on the right and passed by a running fire to the rear of the de- tachment. Davie rode rapidly forward and ordered the men to advance and to push through the lane; but under the surprise of the moment his troops turned back, and he was then compelled to repass the ambuscade under a heavy fire. Overtaking his men retreating by the same road they had advanced, he finally rallied and halted them upon a hill, but they were so discomfited at this unexpected attack that no effort could induce them to charge upon the enemy. A judicious retreat was the only course left to avoid further disaster. This was effected. Davie passed the enemy's patrols and regained his camp the next day without further accident or loss. The loss of Davie's corps was slight compared to the advantages gained by him in the capture of the convoy. It so happened that the fire of the British fell chiefly upon their own comrades,
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Davie's prisoners, who were confined two on a horse, with the guard in the lane. They were nearly all killed or mortally wounded. In Davie's corps Lieutenant Elliott was killed, and Captain Petit and two of his men were wounded. In his account of this affair Davie observes that "it furnishes a lesson to officers of partisan corps that every officer of a detachment may at some time have its safety and reputation committed to him, and that the slightest neglect is generally severely punished by an enemy." 1
Soon after this Colonels Sumter, Lacey, and Neel with their volunteers from South Carolina and Colonel Irwin with 300 from Mecklenburg, North Carolina, joined Major Davie at Landsford on the Catawba. A council was held on the 30th of July, when it was determined that the Brit- ish posts at Hanging Rock and Rocky Mount should be attacked. It must be borne in mind that none of the South Carolina officers at this time had any regular commis- sions. Sumter had been a Lieutenant Colonel in the Con- tinental line, but had resigned. He is usually spoken of as a Brigadier,2 but he was not so commissioned until the following October. Colonels Hill and Neel had been chosen Colonels, as we have seen, at a meeting of the patri- ots in their regimental limits, but there was no government to commission them. Governor Rutledge was in Phila- delphia appealing to Congress for assistance. While there- fore these officers held councils and devised plans, their recommendations were submitted to the men, whose appro- bation of a move in those times was absolutely requisite.3
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