USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 > Part 6
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
31
IN THE REVOLUTION
was that of placing Charlestown and the harbor in a con- dition of defence. Arthur Middleton was always urging the matter in the Council. Drayton and himself were now for the war they deemed inevitable, and from which they did not shrink. Rawlins Lowndes, Brewton, Hey- ward, and Bee would not allow themselves to believe it possible that they should be engaged in a war with the mother country to which they were so much attached. Arthur Middleton was particularly impatient with Raw- lins Lowndes, whom he regarded as the principal obstacle in the way of vigorous measures.1 He was for attaching the estates of those who left the colony ; but in the ab- sence of Drayton he could not get even a second to this proposition. "The matter," however, he writes to Dray- ton, then on a mission in the upper country, "is not rejected, only POSTPONED. Rawlinus Postponator declares the Resolution not proper to proceed from the committee of South Carolina, and so arbitrary that nothing but the Divan of Constantinople could think of promulgating such a law." 2 Again he wrote to Drayton, telling of the flight of Dr. Milligan, " Probably he had an unconquer- able dislike to the mode of clothing lately adopted in these scarce times, and by no means wishes to be exalted 3 in this damned hot country, but would rather have a high place in Scotland." The extremists were uneasy about Colonel Charles Pinckney, who had been acting with them.4 Mr. Timothy, the Clerk of the Council of Safety and publisher of the Gazette, writes, however, on the 22d of August to Mr. Drayton encouragingly, " Pinckney does
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 318.
2 Ibid., vol. II, 18.
3 The term "exalted " was at this time used for hanging or exposing a person tarred and feathered in a court.
4 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. II, 22.
32
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
not retreat - he comes forward bravely," but he adds, "I wish you and Mr. Tennent were alongside of him at this table." Then he goes on to give an account of the politi- cal condition upon the approach of another election for a Provincial Congress : -
" This week will be spent in matters relative to our election. The merchants (say gentlemen concerned in trade) at a meeting to-day either have or will nominate ten of their body to represent them in the ensuing Congress. At a previous meeting they proposed fifteen for their quota - then twelve - and at last condescended to be con- tent with ten. The Germans have taken the alarm and had a meet- ing. And the mechanics are not thoroughly pleased ; they also will have a meeting this week. In regard to war and peace - I can only tell you the plebeians are still for war; but the noblesse perfectly pacific." 1
Was Mr. Drayton pleased when he received this letter to know that the plebeians were with him ? or did he recol- lect his letter of the 16th of September, 1761, when he had upbraided Mr. Gadsden for counselling with illiterate and common men ? 2
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. II, 24, 25.
2 Hist. of So. Ca. under Roy. Gov. (McCrady), 654.
CHAPTER II
1775
IT will be recollected that the early German settlers had pushed into the interior and occupied the territory formed into the townships of Orangeburgh and Saxe-Gotha, and then extending farther and following the Congaree had crossed into the fork of the Broad and Saluda rivers ; and that these first settlers had been considerably aug- mented by another German emigration in 1764, which last had been greatly assisted by the English government and public-spirited citizens in London. In July, 1775, it was ascertained that these people were not at all inclined to join this movement on the coast against the govern- ment of Great Britain.
Their opposition was both negative and positive. They had no appreciation whatsoever of the mere theoretical questions of abstract right in the matter of taxation and representation. They knew little and cared less about the old struggles in England over the church, and taxation, and ship money. The government they were living under was a good enough government for them. It gave them far greater freedom than they had been accustomed to. They had not needed any stamps -if for no other reason - because the government on the coast had not been able to give them courts in which the stamps were to be used; they were not en- gaged in commerce, so the stamps had not worried them in that way. Then as to the tea : they did not use it, and did not see why they should go to war about a
VOL. III. - D 33
34
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
matter which did not practically concern them. And with what grace, they asked, could the people on the coast appeal to them to join in a war against taxation without representation in the Parliament in England, when, though they had asked and petitioned for it, they were without representation in the Commons House of Assembly here in Carolina ? Had they not been asking for the extension of the parishes in their section of the province so that they might have representation in the Colonial Assembly which taxed them in a way which they felt directly : and had they obtained it? Had they not been called rioters, and had not the Charlestown militia turned out ready to march against them because they had proposed to come down to the parishes and vote, as the government would not give them parishes of their own ? Then, on the other hand, had not the English government helped them to come to this country and even given a bounty to those who had last come ? And did they not hold their lands by grants of George the Third? and was he not Elector of Hanover as well as King of England, and thus to many of them doubly their sovereign ?
To conciliate these people it was thought expedient to send some of their own countrymen from Charlestown to reason with them. George Wagner and Felix Long undertook the mission, but accomplished nothing.
It was now ascertained that the disaffection extended much farther back into the interior and was particularly strong in the fork of the Saluda and Broad rivers, where the German element coming up from the coast had met the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians coming down by way of the foot of the mountains. They too had been without repre- sentatives in the Colonial Assembly, and had few in the Provincial Congress which now had assumed to over- throw one government and set up another over them.
35
IN THE REVOLUTION
They had been too short a time in the province to assimi- late with the people on this coast ; and they had particu- larly felt the weakness of the government here to protect them, or to provide them with courts. They had been compelled to set up a government of Regulators against the thieves and robbers that infested this part of the province. When they had asked for courts the gentle- men on the coasts had told them they would provide them as soon as the King would agree to allow the judges to hold during their good behavior, but not until then. In the meanwhile they had been suffering. It is true the gentlemen on the coast had given up the point at last, but the courts which had been held had been devoted more to political harangues and stirring up opposition to the King than to the punishment of criminals and the administration of justice. They, too, like the Germans, had had no use for either stamps or tea and took little interest in a dispute which from their distance appeared to be only a struggle for political power. Then unfortu- nately a committee of surveillance in Augusta, Georgia, not to be outdone by their compatriots in Charlestown, had taken to tarring and feathering, and had not only been more unwise in the selection of a victim, but besides treating the victim so ignominiously had punished him most cruelly.
1208962
Thomas Browne, a Scotchman, had indulged himself in indiscreet censure of the Revolutionary party. He had done worse-he had ridiculed them. Apprised of the resentment his conduct had excited, he attempted to escape, but, closely pursued, he was brought back to Augusta, and tried before the committee, was sentenced to be tarred, feathered, and carted unless he recanted and took the oath of allegiance to the new government. Browne was a firm man and resisted with a courage which
36
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
should have commanded the respect of his persecutors. But the spirit of the mob was aroused, and after under- going the painful and mortifying penance prescribed by the committee without yielding, says the author of the Life of Greene, he was doomed to have his naked feet exposed to a large fire to subdue his stubborn spirit. But in vain, and he was at length turned loose by his tormentors, who were surprised when the simple Indian trader reappeared an armed, vindictive, and implacable enemy. Embittered by his treatment, Browne became a most malignant foe to the cause, and fearfully did he take his revenge. He was now active among these people in rousing them to opposition. Later he entered the royal service and raised and commanded as lieutenant colonel a corps of Royalists called the King's Rangers, and was known during the war as an active and sanguinary parti- san officer.1
Thomas Fletchall, residing in Fair Forest in what is now Union County, was colonel of the regiment of mili- tia, which gave him great influence in that part of the country. His conduct of late had been such as to give great uneasiness to the Council of Safety. They deter- mined, therefore, if it were possible, to induce him to join the cause or to make known his sentiments. A letter was
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. I, 289, 290 ; Curwin's Journal and Letters, 1775-84, 625. The treatment of Browne was disgraceful enough to the Southern Whigs, but in the infliction of this outrage upon him the Georgia mob was but following the example of the Northern Whigs ; and the statement in the account of the battle of Eutaw Springs in the United Service Magazine, September, 1881, p. 313, by Major- General I. Watts De Peyster, that Browne was not only roughly handled by a Whig mob, " but actually flogged almost to death, as only a South- ern mob - so prone to whipping their own negroes - can flog when their passions are aroused," is an exaggeration, and an addition to the story for which there is no authority.
37
IN THE REVOLUTION
accordingly written to him, to which he replied complain- ing of the malicious reports in regard to him, which he declared to be false. He had called the regiment together, he said, on the 13th of July, when he had caused the Pro- vincial Association to be read to each company, but that no one of them had signed it. The people had agreed to sign an association of their own and that one had been drawn up which had been very generally signed from the Broad to the Savannah River-that is, through all the country now the counties of Union, Newberry, Laurens, Abbeville, and Edgefield. He expressed his concern that he was looked upon as an enemy to his country, and wished the government might have no greater cause to complain of his conduct than of some who were little suspected. But on the main subject he emphatically declared that he utterly refused to take up arms against his King, until it became his duty to do so.1
In consequence of the information that Stuart, the Indian agent, was tampering with the Indians, Major Mayson with two troops of Rangers commanded by Cap- tain John Caldwell and our old acquaintance, Moses Kirk- land, who had accepted a commission from the Provincial Congress, had occupied Fort Charlotte on the Savannah River. Leaving Captain Caldwell to garrison the fort with his troops, Major Mayson with Kirkland's troop returned to Ninety-Six Court House, bringing with him a small supply of powder and lead taken from this fort. Colonel Fletchall was at this time holding a general muster of his regiment at Fords on the Enoree River. Kirkland, who thought himself overlooked by the Provin- cial Congress in their military appointment, and who also had a grudge against Major Mayson, his rival for military rank and influence in that section, knowing that Colonel
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 311, 313.
38
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Fletchall had assembled a number of men, and believing the whole upper country disaffected to the revolutionary cause, resolved to change sides, and sent a message to Colonel Fletchall suggesting to him to take steps to recover the powder and lead which had been taken from the King's fort and was then at Ninety-Six, assuring Fletchall that the force sent to retake the ammunition should not be opposed. Fletchall declined to appear publicly in the affair, but Major Robinson, of Col. Neel's regiment, and Robert and Patrick Cuningham,1 with two hundred men on horseback, set out for Ninety-Six, and, on arriving there, had little trouble in possessing themselves of the ammunition ; Kirkland with his own company thereupon not only deserted Major Mayson, but carried off with them Captain Polk's company of the same regiment. Kirkland now openly joined Fletchall, whose regiment, as it then was, to a man refused to sign the Association, and going to the other extreme generally subscribed one drawn up by Major Robinson in favor of the King. The number of men at Fletchall's muster field amounted,
1 The family of Cuninghams (or Cuninghames) was from Scotland, where they had taken a determined part during the struggles there for religious freedom. The ancestors of the Cuninghams of South Carolina about the year 1681 came over to America and settled in Virginia. In January, 1769, Robert and Patrick, the two eldest sons of John, who was settled in Augusta, Virginia, removed to Ninety-Six District in South Carolina. Robert settled at Island Ford on the Saluda River, and was one of the first magistrates in that District. Patrick the same year was made a Deputy Surveyor General of South Carolina, under Sir Egerton Leigh, Surveyor General.
The Cuninghams were not altogether opposed to the principles of the Revolution. They did not think that the English government ought to be permitted to impose taxes on the colonies without their concurrence, but they thought that the people would gain but little if they escaped the injustice of the British Parliament only to subject themselves to what they regarded as an odious tyranny of an arbitrary faction at home. Curwin's Journal and Letters, 1775-84, 618-623.
39
IN THE REVOLUTION
it was said, to fifteen hundred at least. The disaffec- tion of the people increased, and from the Broad to the Savannah River they generally came out against the Congress and for the King. The millions of dollars voted by the Provincial Congress was an endless theme of harangue. Congress would ruin them, and the paper money was cried down as of no value. But above all, their spirits were kept up by correspondence which they had opened with Lord William Campbell, who, through Colonel Fletchall, commended the loyalty of Robinson and the Cuninghams. This correspondence with the Royal Governor gave these men great consequence among the disaffected, tied them fast to the Royal interests, and pre- sented an opportunity of advancement to every leader of the party.1 Indeed, it is probable that had Lord William Campbell at this time boldly gone up among the people of this section, had thrown himself upon Fletchall, col- lected his men around him, and acted with promptness and efficiency, the whole proceedings of the Provincial Congress would have been overthrown.
The Revolutionary party was, in fact, in a most un- happy condition. The leaders, the Council of Safety, and delegates to the Continental Congress were divided amongst themselves as to the nature of the Revolution in which they were involved, and the extent to which they would carry it. The two influential classes in Charlestown - the merchants and planters - were op- posed to the war. Divided thus on the coast, the whole upper country between the Broad and the Savannah was in open opposition to them, while between the Broad and the Catawba the people had taken no part in the move- ment-indeed, they had not been consulted in regard to it and were silent. There was but one party in South 1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 321, 323.
40
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Carolina which was heart and soul in the cause, and that was the old Liberty Tree Party under Christopher Gads- den, now in his absence, while he was attending the Con- tinental Congress, led by William Henry Drayton, his old adversary, and Arthur Middleton. The men who had marched with "Forty-five " lights from the Lib- erty Tree to Mr. Dillon's tavern in 1768, and toasted the "glorious Ninety-two Ante-Rescinders of Massachu- setts Bay "; the men who had made the Assembly send the £1500 sterling to Wilkes; the men who had domi- nated the town in the time of the non-importation agree- ment in 1769 through the General Committee, were still pushing on the ball of Revolution ; but as Arthur Mid- dleton wrote to Drayton, they were the common people and not the class to which he and Drayton belonged ; they were indeed the very men whose interference in public matters Drayton had so vehemently denounced. Had Lord William grasped the situation and appealed openly and boldly to the upper country, there is little reason to doubt but that the merchants in Charlestown and the planters on the coast would have risen with them and have overthrown the Council of Safety and their government. For wiser purposes however, says one, Providence had not so directed his actions, but left him in Charlestown to experience the daily loss of his execu- tive powers and the little consideration in which he was holden as well by the public authorities as by the citizens at large.
Accounts of Lord William's plots and the critical condition of affairs in the up country daily coming to Charlestown, it was proposed in the Council of Safety to send a commission into the interior to reconcile the people there if possible to their measures; but this at first was opposed. On the 23d of July, it was resolved
41
IN THE REVOLUTION
to send the Honorable William Henry Drayton and the Rev. William Tennent to explain to the people there the cause of the disputes between Great Britain and the Ameri- can colonies, to endeavor to settle all political differences, and to quiet their minds. They were given authority to call upon the militia for assistance, support, and protec- tion, and with the usual studied ambiguity of the times "to act as you shall deem necessary." Colonel Richard Richardson, Joseph Kershaw, and the Rev. Oliver Hart were desired to accompany them.1
The commissioners proceeding by the way of Monck's Corner arrived at the Congaree Store in the Dutch settle- ment of Saxe-Gotha - now Lexington County -on the 5th of August, in the vicinity of which a part of the Rangers were encamped. As a first step the commissioners dis- patched notices to persons of influence among the peo- ple in the neighborhood for the purpose of procuring a meeting of the inhabitants. Not one German, however, appeared at the time appointed and only one or two friends of the Association who had endeavored to get up the meeting. The Germans could not appreciate the refinement that in taking up arms they were warring against the Ministry, and not against the King, and they believed that if they did the King would annul the grants of land he had given them ; they were possessed with the idea too that the Rangers were posted among them for the purpose of awing them into submission and forcing them to sign the Association ; and could not by any argu- ment be induced to approach the commissioners. Colonel Thomson, who commanded the Orangeburgh Regiment of Militia in addition to his command of the Rangers, endeav- ored to assist the commissioners through the German cap- tains, but these flatly disobeyed his orders to muster their
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 324.
42
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
men, alleging that extra musters were warranted only by order from the Governor. The services of a Lutheran clergyman were then engaged to gather congregations, but with little success.1 Then their pecuniary interest was appealed to, and they were informed that no non-sub- scribers in the settlement would be allowed to purchase or sell at the Congaree Store or in Charlestown. But in vain ; these people would have nothing to do with the movement.
Another and greater danger was now exposed. Two companies of the Rangers had already, as we have seen, deserted and gone over to Colonel Fletchall ; and now a mutiny broke out in three of the seven remaining com- panies of the regiment in the very presence of the com- missioners. Captain Woodward had incautiously, while enlisting his men, promised provisions above their pay, and not receiving them the men announced their determi- nation to quit the camp in the morning and disband. This matter was, however, quieted ; and in order to allay the excitement of the people and to conciliate the Rangers themselves, the camp was broken up and they were allowed to return to their homes for a limited time to vote for congressmen.2
The commissioners now determined to separate, that Mr. Drayton should go up between the Broad and Saluda rivers, while Mr. Tennent should proceed on the east side of the Broad, between that and the Catawba.
Mr. Drayton accompanied by Mr. Kershaw crossed the
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 325-326. Who this clergyman was is not mentioned, but it was probably the Rev. Christian Theus, who officiated in Saxe-Gotha at that time and for many years thereafter. History of Orangeburg County, S.C., 1704-1782 (Salley), pp. 74, 80-83, 85-87.
2 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 327-330.
43
IN THE REVOLUTION
Saluda, and entered the Dutch Fork ; but he found the Germans on the north side of the Saluda no better dis- posed toward the cause than those in Orangeburgh and Saxe-Gotha. He addressed a meeting at McLaurin's Store, but no argument could persuade them ; not one sub- scriber to the Association was procured. John Adam Summer, who was a man of large influence in this region and who had signed the Association in Charlestown, proved himself a false brother, and with Mr. Neuffer and McLau- rin discouraged the movement. Mr. Drayton and Mr. Kershaw came to the conclusion that an attempt at that time to shake their opinions or remove their scruples would be useless against the influences which evidently held them in check ; in a letter to the Council of Safety of the 16th of August Mr. Drayton wrote, "We made the best of our way from this stiff-necked generation."
On the 15th of August Mr. Drayton addressed a large gathering at King's Creek on the lower part of the Enoree River. His address was received with apparent satisfac- tion, and Mr. Drayton had begun to hope that he would procure an accession to the Association there, when it was announced that Robert Cuningham was at hand. This brought everything to a pause ; the multitude now took up the idea of having the subject argued on both sides, and the commissioner found himself unexpectedly engaged in a public disputation. Cuningham was invited to dine with the commissioners, Mr. Drayton endeavoring to use the social intercourse of the table to influence him ; but in vain. Browne, who had been tarred and feathered, now also appeared upon the scene and read to the assembly Dalrymple's address from the people of England to the people of America, which had been received from Lord Campbell. Mr. Drayton replied to Cuningham and Browne, and thought that he had got the best of the
44
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
debate ; but as far as we are informed he had not pro- cured a signature to the Association.
On Thursday the 17th of August, Mr. Drayton and Mr. Kershaw arrived at Colonel Fletchall's residence at Fair Forest, where they found Browne, Cuningham, and Rob- inson, who had preceded them, arriving the evening before, as had also Mr. Tennent and Colonel Richardson from the Catawba. The heads of parties, as they then stood, for the first time had now all met together. Mr. Tennent, in his letter to the Council of Safety of the 20th of August, says: " We have at length visited the great and mighty nabob, Fletchall. We found him surrounded by his Court, viz. : Cuningham, Browne, and Robinson, who watch all his motions and have him under great command. We found the unchangeable malignity of their minds, and the inexpressible pains they were at to blind the people, and fill them with the bitterness against the Gentlemen as they are called. Gen. Gage's pamphlet is raging through the District and greedily read."
Mr. Drayton writes: "I reached Col. Fletchall's last Thursday morning before breakfast, and Mr. Tennent and myself after breakfast engaged him in a private conversa- tion during near three hours. We endeavored to explain everything to him. We pressed them upon him and endeavored to show him that we had confidence in him. We humored him. We laughed with him. Then we recurred to argument, remonstrances, and entreaties to join his country and all America. All that we could get from him was this : 'He would never take up arms against his King or his countrymen and that the proceedings of the Congress at Philadelphia were impolitic, disrespectful, and irritating to the King.'"1 Robinson announced that he had a commission to raise men for the King. His looks, wrote
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.