USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 > Part 51
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Major Dunlap, who, as has been seen, was an officer of much energy and promptitude, soon made his appearance with a strong force - part provincial dragoons, and part mounted militia - and commenced the conflict. The onslaught was furious, but vigorously met. The action lasted half an hour and was severely contested. Dunlap's mounted riflemen who were in front recoiled at the first fire, and their commander found it difficult to rally them. Having at length succeeded, Dunlap placed himself at the
1 Howe's Hist. Presbyterian Church, Vol. I, 534.
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head of the dragoons, and led them on to renew the con- test, followed by the mounted riflemen, who could not, however, be brought to very close quarters. Dunlap's dragoons, with their broadswords, played a prominent part in the action. In the fierce hand-to-hand contest, Clarke, who was maintaining a most unequal struggle with his foes, received two sabre wounds, one on the back of his neck and the other on his head, -his stock-buckle saving his life, - and he was even for a few moments a prisoner in charge of two stout men; but taking advantage of his strength and activity, he knocked one of them down, when the other quickly fled out of his reach.
A number of British prisoners were captured, and Dun- lap was beaten back with considerable loss. He was pur- sued a mile, but could not be overtaken. About two miles below the battle-ground Dunlap's fugitives were met by Ferguson with his whole force, who together advanced to the Iron Works, from which, as they came in sight a few hours after the action, Clarke and Shelby were compelled to make a hasty retreat, leaving one or two of their wounded behind them. These were treated by Ferguson with human- ity, and left there when he retired. As Clarke and Shelby expected, Ferguson now pursued with the hope of regain- ing their prisoners ; but the American leaders retired slowly, forming frequently on the most advantageous ground to give battle, and so retarding the pursuit that the prisoners were finally placed beyond recapture.1
Each side claimed the victory, though no great advantage had been gained by either. Draper observes that it is not
1 McCall's Hist. of Georgia, vol. II, 313, 314 ; Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, 224 ; King's Mountain and its Heroes (Draper), 89, 102. Landrum maintains that this engagement should be called the second battle of Cedar Springs, and not of the Old or Wofford's Iron Works. Colonial and Revolutionary Hist. of Upper So. Ca. (Landrum), 142.
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easy to determine the actual strength of the parties engaged, nor their respective losses. McCall does not specify how many on either side took part in the conflict -only that the Americans were outnumbered, erroneously naming Innes as the British commander, and states that the enemy pursued Colonel Clarke to Wofford's Iron Works, where he had chosen a strong position from which the British endeavored to draw him, that distant firing continued dur- ing the afternoon until near night, and that the Americans lost 4 killed and 5 or 6 wounded, while the enemy lost 5 killed and 11 wounded. Mills mentions in one place that Clarke's force was 168, in another 198, evidently ignorant of the presence of Colonels Shelby and Graham with their followers ; that Ferguson and Dunlap combined numbered between 400 and 600, of which Dunlap's advance consisted of 60 dragoons and 150 mounted volunteer riflemen ; that the Americans had 4 killed and 23 wounded, all by the broadsword, while Dunlap lost 28 of his dragoons and 6 or 7 Tory volunteers killed and several wounded.1 Shelby in Haywood's Tennessee states Ferguson's full force at about 2000 strong, which Todd augments to 2500, of which Dunlap's advance was reputed at 600 or 700; that the strength of the Americans was 600, and acknowledges that 10 or 12 of the latter were killed or wounded, but does not state the loss of their assailants. Colonel Graham gives no numbers, but asserts that many of the enemy were killed. These several statements differ very much from the British reports and from each other. Rivington's New York Royal Gazette, of the 14th of September, places the loss of the Americans at 50 killed and the British at 8 killed. Allaire in his diary allows a British loss of between 20 and 30 killed and wounded, and puts the American loss at 3 killed and 21 wounded.2 From these various accounts it may be con-
1 Mill's Statistics of So. Ca., 738.
2 Appendix to King's Mountain and its Heroes, 503.
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cluded that the Americans lost 4 killed and about 20 wounded; and as Allaire, an officer in Ferguson's camp, was likely to know accurately the number killed and wounded on his side, the British loss may safely be taken at his statement.
The last chapter told the story of four successive parti- san engagements on the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th days of July. This has added to the account six more : that at Flat Rock in Lancaster on the 20th of July ; at Thicketty Fort in Spartanburg on the 30th ; at Rocky Mount in Chester on the 1st August; at Hanging Rock in Lancaster on the same day ; at Hanging Rock again on the 6th ; and at the Old Iron Works in Spartanburg on the 8th. But there was still another field in which there was life and move- ment, and in which there were also other engagements - the region of the Pee Dee, to which we must now turn our attention.
CHAPTER XXIX
1780
WHILE the events just recorded were taking place in the upper part of the State, others no less stirring were trans- piring in the Low Country. Tarleton's barbarity, as has been seen, had roused all the fierceness of the Scotch- Irish on the Catawba and the Broad rivers ; and Fergu- son had at first in vain attempted to conciliate, and then with no better success to awe, the Whigs on the Savannah and the Saluda. Another officer, Major James Wemyss of the Sixty-third British Regiment, had been sent on a similar errand against the Irish at Williamsburg and the Welsh on the Upper Pee Dee. Immediately after the fall of Charlestown, Major Wemyss marched from Georgetown to Cheraw on the west side of the Pee Dee River, destroy- ing property of every description, and treating the inhab- itants with relentless cruelty.
The atrocities perpetrated by the British and Tories, for the latter followed in the train of the conqueror, only served to drive the Whigs to desperation, and led to a ter- rible revenge when the time arrived for throwing off the yoke. Major Wemyss, after accomplishing the object of his bloody march, returned to Georgetown. On the 12th of November following, in attempting to surprise Sumter, as we shall see, he was taken prisoner, having been severely wounded in an engagement; and in his pocket was a list of the houses he had burned at Williamsburg and on the Pee Dee, which with great trepidation he showed to Sum-
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ter, begging for protection against the Whigs, whose anger and revenge he so justly merited and greatly dreaded. Notwithstanding his atrocities, he was treated with indul- gence, but became a cripple for life.1 But in mentioning this we anticipate.
Early in June Major McArthur with the famous Seventy- first Regiment, which under Maitland had fought so gal- lantly on the Stono and at the siege of Savannah the year before, and then had taken part in the siege of Charlestown, was stationed at the Cheraws on the Pee Dee to cover the country between Camden and Georgetown, and to hold correspondence with the Tory settlement at Cross Creek, North Carolina.
Lord Cornwallis, in a letter to Sir Henry Clinton on the 30th of June, wrote, "I have agreed to a proposal made by Mr. Harrison to raise a provincial corps of five hundred men, with the rank of major, to be composed of the na- tives of the country between the Pee Dee and Wateree, and in which it is extremely probable he will succeed." 2 This man, to whom Tarleton refers as a man of fortune,3 was one of two brothers of bad character, -in fact, it is said, two of the worst banditti that ever infested a country. Before the fall of Charlestown they had lived by a road near McCallum's Ferry on Lynch's Creek, in a wretched log hut in which there was no bed covering but the skins of wild beasts. It was of such material that the British made officers for their purposes. The plan of raising the provincial corps failed, but the two brothers received high commissions : one, a major, was killed during the war; the other, the one alluded to by Tarleton, be- came a colonel, and after the war was over retired to
1 Gregg's Hist. of the Old Cheraws, 302, 303; Ramsay's Revolution, vol. II, 188, 189 ; also James's Life of Marion, 73.
2 Tarleton's Campaigns, 117.
3 Ibid., 91.
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Jamaica with much wealth acquired by robbery.1 The Tories led by these men committed many murders and depredations.2
During the occupation of Cheraw by Major McArthur, the Parish Church of St. David's was used as a barrack. According to tradition, McArthur and his officers were not wanting in courtesy to the ladies of the vicinity, and as a consequence were treated with such a degree of civility as the necessities of the case made imperative. The soldiers, however, were not generally restrained, and many persons in the neighborhood were plundered and treated with indignity. Numerous incidents are related of the suffer- ings and losses of the inhabitants during the brief sojourn of the enemy.
Soon after Major McArthur's arrival, he proceeded down the river with a detachment and made his headquar- ters for a short time at Long Bluff. While there he offered a reward for the capture of Thomas Ayer. Ayer had made himself conspicuous a short time before as the leader of a company which had been sent out to take some mischievous persons who had rendered themselves obnox- ious to the inhabitants by their lawless depredations. Having succeeded in capturing a portion of the band, he secured the country against any more depredations by hanging them all.
The effect of the reward offered for Ayer was his capture by a party of Tory neighbors who had kept vigilant watch and caught him while on a visit to his family, sixteen Tories galloping up to the house to which he had come after night and securing him. Tied with buckskin thongs, they hur- ried him off to the river, intending to take him immedi- ately to Major McArthur; but by the time they reached
1 James's Life of Marion, 45.
2 Hist. of Old Cheraws (Gregg), 308.
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Hunt's Bluff a severe thunder storm had blown up, and fearing to cross and to prosecute their journey through the swamp, they concluded to keep their prisoner in an old unoccupied house on the bank until the morning. So se- cure did they think themselves that George Manderson, the leader of the party, leaving Ayer in charge of the others, went down with one of his companions to get supper at the house of Jonathan Johns in the neighborhood. But relief was soon to overtake the desperate Ayer.
A few hours after the Tories left his residence, carrying him off with them, his elder brother Hartwell, with five others, rode up very unexpectedly to the family, and upon learning what had occurred they at once set out in pur- suit, and took the Tory party completely by surprise. Ap- proaching under cover of the darkness and storm, they were at the door of the house in which Thomas Ayer was held prisoner before they were discovered. Most of those guarding Ayer were asleep. Shooting first those that were up, they continued to fire and dispatch with the sabre and bayonet until all but one were killed. This one, Asal Johns, the son of his old neighbor, Jonathan Johns, a peaceable man, Thomas Ayer most generously and chival- rously protected with his own body. Having induced his rescuers to spare this man's life, Thomas Ayer mounted the horse of one of the Tories just killed, and returned home with all possible speed, not knowing what might have happened to his family during his absence.
But the tragedy did not stop here. Unfortunately, Hart- well Ayer was not governed by the generous impulse of his brother. Learning where George Manderson was with his companions, he went off in pursuit; and, riding up cautiously to old Johns's residence, they civilly inquired for Captain Manderson, who, as he approached, was received with a shower of bullets. But, as it happened, though
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struck with several, the wounds inflicted were slight, and springing through the back door of the house he made his escape to the swamp near by. Tom Johns, also one of the captors of Captain Thomas Ayer, had a similar experience. He was knocked down with the butt of a musket and pinned to the floor by a bayonet, and left for dead. But on the bayonet being removed, he arose and proved to be not seriously injured.
When informed of the rescue of Ayer and the slaughter of the Tories, McArthur determined in person to take ven- geance. Crossing the river with a strong party, he came very near surprising the Ayer family, then consisting of Mrs. Ayer and her sons Lewis Malone and Zaccheus, both of whom were lads. They timely escaped, however, to the swamp, and remained in concealment several weeks. Mc- Arthur took possession of the deserted premises, killed the stock, and burned all the buildings except a corn crib, which he spared on account of the corn it contained, and which afterwards became the dwelling of the family to the close of the war.1
Colonel Hill, it will be recollected, assured the Whigs of York that Washington was sending them assistance. The grand army coming was under the command of Gen- eral Gates, and as he approached South Carolina Lord Rawdon became anxious for the safety of the post at Cheraw, especially as the Highlanders of the Seventy-first Regiment had suffered greatly from the climate, to which they were unaccustomed. Tradition corroborates the ac- counts in the British histories, and tells how they sickened and died. Not many years ago quite a perceptible sink in the earth was pointed out as the spot where many of them were buried in one common grave. Major Mc Arthur was directed to draw nearer to Camden, and on the 24th he 1 Hist. of the Old Cheraws (Gregg), 309, 312.
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moved to a position on the east branch of Lynch's Creek. Knowing of no enemy within many miles, he ventured to send about one hundred sick in boats down the Pee Dee to Georgetown, under the care of Lord Nairne and the escort of a detachment of the Royal militia under Colonel William Henry Mills. This Colonel Mills was a physician who had originally been in the revolutionary movement, and had been a delegate to the Provincial Congress in 1776, but had given in his adhesion at once to the British upon their success, and from that time became a deter- mined foe to the American cause.
Hearing of the projected expedition down the river, a party of Whigs under the lead of James Gillespie collected at Beding's Fields, afterward Irby's Mills, three miles from Cheraw, and determined to surprise it. As they went on, their numbers increased, the command being assigned to Major Tristram Thomas. In the meantime, with the de- parture of the boats, McArthur retreated toward Black Creek. The Whigs fixed upon Hunt's Bluff, a point about twenty-five miles below Cheraw, between Darlington and Marlborough counties, for intercepting the expedition. A battery of wooden guns was hastily constructed and placed immediately on the bank in a sudden bend of the river. In due season, as the slowly moving flotilla appeared, a most imposing demonstration was made by the gallant Thomas, and unconditional surrender demanded. The British authorities charge that there was absolute treachery on the part of the Loyal militia, who, they say, rose in mutiny upon Colonel Mills; 1 the American accounts admit that it was not improbable that there was an under- standing with some of the leading men of the party.2
1 Steadman's Am. War, 201 ; Tarleton's Campaigns, 98.
2 Ramsay's Revolution, vol. II, 139; Memoirs of the War of 1776 (Lee), 173 ; Johnson's Life of Greene, 292 ; Gregg's Hist. of Old Cheraws, 315.
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However this may have been, no resistance was attempted, and the capture was effected. At the same time a large boat coming up from Georgetown, well stored with neces- saries for Major McArthur's force, was seized for the use of the American army. Colonel Mills succeeded in getting away, and made his escape to Georgetown. The other new-made British officers of the militia with the rest of the party were taken prisoners.
About the end of June Captain Ardesoif of the British navy arrived at Georgetown to carry Sir Henry Clinton's last proclamation into effect, and invited the people to come in and swear allegiance to King George. Many of the inhabitants of that district complied. But there remained a portion of it stretching from the Santee to the Pee Dee, including the whole of the present county of Williamsburg and a part of Marion, into which the British arms had not penetrated. The inhabitants of this section, it may be remembered, were generally of Irish extraction, and the Irish everywhere were almost as united against the Royal government as were the Scotch in its sup- port.
A public meeting was called to deliberate upon the criti- cal situation, and upon the course to be pursued in regard to Sir Henry Clinton's proclamation, especially as to Cap- tain Ardesoif's orders under it. Major John James, who had before commanded some of these people in the field, conspicuously so in Moultrie's fight at the Coosawhatchie the year before, and had represented them in the General Assembly, was chosen to go down to Georgetown and learn from Captain Ardesoif whether by his proclamation, carrying out Sir Henry Clinton's, it was really meant that they should be required to take up arms against their fellow-countrymen. Major James proceeded to George- town, in the plain garb of a country planter, and was
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introduced to the Captain at his lodgings a considerable distance from his ship. The Captain heard Major James with surprise and indignation that such an embassy should be sent to him, and promptly answered that "the submis- sion must be unconditional." To an inquiry whether the inhabitants would not be allowed quietly to stay at home upon their plantations he replied, "Although you have rebelled against his Majesty, he offers you a free pardon ; you must take up arms in support of his cause." To Major James's suggestion that the people he came to represent would not submit on such terms, the Captain, irritated at his bold language, particularly at the word "represent," replied, "You damned rebel, if you speak in such language, I will immediately order you to be hanged up to the yard-arm!" The Captain was armed with a sword, Major James had none; but perceiving what turn matters were likely to take, Major James seized the chair on which he was seated, brandished it in the face of Cap- tain Ardesoif, and making his retreat good through the back door of the house, mounted his horse and made his escape into the country. The story narrated, however told or embellished, always concluded in the same way, "You must take up arms in support of his Majesty." This inci- dent hastened the rise of Marion's brigade. Many of the people of Williamsburg had submitted and taken paroles, but they shuddered at the very thought of imbruing their hands in the blood of their countrymen. Besides this, two officers, Amos Gaskens and John Hamilton, had been put over them whom they despised. The first because he was a thief, and the second because of his profanity and immorality.1
About this time news came of the approach of Gates a public meeting was held, and it was unanimously re- 1 James's Life of Marion, 45.
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solved to take up arms in defence of their country. Major James was chosen leader, and four companies were formed under their former captains : William McCottry, Henry Mouzon, John James (of the Lake), and John McCauley. Mouzon's company had been organized before. It con- sisted of seventy-five men previous to the fall of Charles- town, and to the honor of the company and of the community there had been but one Tory in it, and that was John Hamilton, just mentioned, a petty merchant of Kingstree, who had recently come from parts unknown. In the earlier part of the struggle he had been a decided Whig, but had turned Royalist and gone to Charlestown, from which he returned with a captain's commission in the British service.1 These four companies mustered about four hundred men. Two more companies, Witherspoon's and Thornly's, were added under Major Hugh Giles of Pee Dee. General Gates had now arrived on the con- fines of the State, and in a consultation held among these leaders it was agreed to send to him a request that he should appoint them a commander.
Marion had, as we have seen, when he escaped the British on their advance into the interior, joined Baron De Kalb at Deep River, North Carolina. He had been well received by the Baron, who appears to have recognized at once his great merit, notwithstanding his uncouth garb and the ragged appearance of his party. But Gates could not conceive of military genius without military trappings, and gladly availing himself of an opportunity of getting rid of so unsoldierly a looking person, readily detached Marion at his request to proceed in advance into South Carolina, with orders to watch the motions of the enemy, furnish intelligence, and as we have seen to secure the boats on the rivers .. Upon his coming into the State, he 1 Hist. of Williamsburg Church, 41-109.
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was accepted as the commander of this body, which, under his lead, was to become famous.
The Whigs were not idle, however, while awaiting the arrival of their new commander. They captured Gaskens and most of the officers appointed over them, and took post under Major James at the pass of Lynch's Creek, at With- erspoon's Ferry, four miles above its junction with the Great Pee Dee between the present counties of Williams- burg and Marion. The Tories on Lynch's Creek in the neighborhood of McCallam's Ferry, on the other hand, had about this time been giving great trouble. Matthew Bradley, Thomas Bradley, and John Roberts, respect- able citizens, were killed in their own houses. The mur- derers were headed by the two Harrisons before mentioned. Captain McCottry was now posted in advance of Wither- spoon's Ferry, at Indian Town, in what is now Williams- burg County. Colonel Tarleton, having learned of the Williamsburg meeting, crossing the country advanced at the head of seventy mounted militia and cavalry to sur- prise Major James. McCottry, receiving notice of this movement, sent back for reenforcement, but immediately marched his company of about fifty mounted men to give him battle. Tarleton, who had reached Kingston about dark on the 6th of August,1 learning of McCottry's ad- vance, through the wife of Hamilton, whose report increased McCottry's command, however, to five hundred men, retired at midnight. McCottry with his little band pursued the great British cavalry leader, but failed to overtake him. In this march Tarleton burned the settle- ment of Captain Mouzon, consisting of his residence and other houses, fourteen buildings in all, and posted thirty miles from Kingstree to Salem. At Salem Tarleton went to the house of Mr. James Bradley, disguised 1 Hist. of Williamsburg Church, 48.
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as an American officer, representing himself as Colonel Washington. In this disguise he drew from the aged patriot, who had been one of the original immigrants to Williamsburg, an unreserved statement of the feelings of the Whigs, and a detail of their plans for the defence of the country. Having gained his confidence, Tarleton then induced Mr. Bradley to conduct him across the swamps of Black River on his way to Camden. Having reached his camp, he threw off his disguise, avowed him- self Colonel Tarleton, and informed Mr. Bradley that he was his prisoner. Carrying him to Camden he put him in irons. There the old man was repeatedly carted to the gallows to see his fellow-patriots executed, and was threatened at each time that he would be the next victim.1
In the meantime Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Horry arrived from Georgetown with a small party. He de- clined for some time the command over Major James, to which his rank entitled him; but upon assuming it, he on all occasions animated the men by his gallantry and persevering patriotism.2
On the 10th of August Marion arrived at the post of Lynch's Creek, and took command of the party there and of the large extent of the country on the east side of the Santee.3 He was accompanied by Major Peter Horry, Major John Vanderhorst, Captains Lewis Ogier and James Theus, and Captain John Milton of Georgia.4 He was a stranger to the officers and men, and they
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