USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 > Part 60
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1 Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, 225, 230.
2 King's Mountain and its Heroes (Draper), 184; Ramsey, supra; Simms's Hist. So. Ca. (1842), 338.
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held for the purpose of forming some better organization, as the disorders and irregularities which began to prevail among the troops unaccustomed to discipline and restraint occasioned no little uneasiness. Colonel McDowell, the senior officer present, presided. It was suggested that inasmuch as the troops were from different States no one properly had the right to command the whole, and as it was important that there should be a military head to their organization, a messenger should be sent to General Gates wherever he might be found, informing him of their situation, and requesting him to send a general officer to take the command. This was agreed to, but as expedition and dispatch were all important at this critical juncture, it was proposed, in the meanwhile, that the corps com- manders should converse in council daily to determine on the measures for the ensuing day, and to appoint one of their own number to put them in execution. Colonel Shelby, wisely, was not satisfied with this arrangement, observing that they were within but sixteen or eighteen miles of Gilbert Town, where they supposed Ferguson to be, who would certainly attack them if strong enough to do so, or avoid them if too weak until he could collect more men or obtain a reenforcement with which they would not dare to cope, and hence it behooved them to act with decision and promptitude. They needed at once an efficient head and vigorous movements, and he proposed that as all the commanding officers were North Carolinians except Colonel Campbell, who was from Virginia, but who was known to be a man of good sense and devoted to the cause, and commanded the largest number of men present, he should be made commanding officer until a general offi- cer should arrive from headquarters, and that they march immediately against the enemy. Colonel Campbell mod- estly hesitated to accept the important trust and urged
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Shelby himself to assume the command. Colonel Mc- Dowell, who was entitled to the command if any one was, but who had the good of his country at heart more than any title to command, submitted gracefully to what was done ; but observed that as he could not be permitted to command he would, if agreeable, convey to headquarters the request for a general officer. This was warmly ap- proved, as no one better than himself could explain the situation and concert with General Gates a plan of future operations. McDowell at once set off on his mission, leav- ing his men under the command of his brother Major Joseph McDowell. The hope was entertained that Gen- eral Morgan, who had gained such renown at Saratoga, and who had recently joined General Gates, would be sent to command them.1
On the morning of the 3d of October, while still in the gap at South Mountain, the officers took occasion before taking up the line of march to address a few stirring words to their followers. A circle was formed, and Colo- nel Cleveland thus addressed them : -
" Now, my brave fellows, I have come to tell you the news. The enemy is at hand, and we must up and at them. Now is the time for every man of you to do his country a priceless service - such as shall lead your children to exult in the fact that their fathers were the conquerors of Ferguson. When the pinch comes, I shall be with you. But if any of you shrink from sharing in the battle and glory, you can now have the opportunity of backing out and leaving, and you shall have a few minutes for considering the matter."
McDowell and Shelby made similar addresses, after which the word was given by the officers to their respective com- mands that "those who desired to back out should step three paces in the rear." Not a man accepted the offer. These appeals and the manner in which they were received
1 King's Mountain and its Heroes, 183-189.
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had the happy effect of inspiring confidence in the ranks, each man feeling that he could implicitly rely on his fel- lows to stand by him to the last. The march was resumed, but little progress made that day. The next day, October the 4th, they renewed the march, fording and refording Cane Creek many times, as the trail then ran, and at night reached the neighborhood of Gilbert Town. There they learned from Jonathan Hampton that Ferguson had re- treated from Gilbert Town, and that it was his purpose to evade an engagement. Here came in a party of thirty Georgians, under Major Chandler and Captain Johnston, of Colonel Clarke's party of refugees, who, learning of the assembling of the mountaineers to attack Ferguson, im- mediately left Clarke to join them. It was generally re- ported that Ferguson had gone some fifty or sixty miles southwardly, and two men came into camp who represented that he had directed his course to Ninety-Six, well-nigh one hundred miles away. It is necessary now to go back a little, and to recur to another part of the field to find out who these men were, and to explain their motives for this representation.
It will be recollected that when Clarke, to whom the prisoners taken at Musgrove's Mills had been committed, determined to return to Georgia on the expedition against Augusta, he had turned over the prisoners to Colonel Williams. This officer proceeded with them to Hillsboro in North Carolina, where he safely lodged them with Gen- eral Gates, who was there attempting to gather and reor- ganize his routed army. It so happened that Governor Rutledge, who since his escape from Tarleton at Rugeley's Mills had gone to Philadelphia appealing to Congress and to the other States for assistance, urging the necessity of reenforcement, was now at Hillsboro where the General Assembly of North Carolina was also sitting, concerting
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with Governor Nash and General Gates upon the reor- ganization and supply of the army. Colonel Williams's arrival there with the news of the victory at Musgrove's Mills, and the proof of the good news in the possession of the prisoners he brought, was the first gleam of encourage- ment the despairing patriots at Hillsboro had received since Gates's overwhelming defeat. Williams was the only one to tell the story of the battle, and his part in it was probably not represented any the less because of that circumstance. But however that may have been, Governor Rutledge, re- garding him as a valiant man that "cometh with good tidings," rewarded him with a commission of Brigadier General, and Governor Nash with the privilege of organiz- ing a corps of mounted men in North Carolina.
Sumter, after the surprise and defeat at Fishing Creek, had soon returned to the field and established himself at his old quarters at Clem's Creek. From that point he sent Colonel Lacey into the country between the Broad and Catawba, now York and Chester counties, to beat up more men from among the Scotch-Irish there and to organize a mounted corps. All his former officers soon collected around Sumter, and he was busy reorganizing his party in camp when Williams made his appearance, had his commission publicly read, and called upon all the offi- cers and men to fall in under his immediate command. This they flatly refused to do, and Williams was compelled to retire. Two equally conclusive reasons controlled the conduct of Sumter's men upon this occasion. The first was personal devotion to Sumter, and the second, animos- ity to Williams himself.
Sumter's men were volunteers. While the State was without government, and while Governor Rutledge was in Philadelphia and Virginia appealing in vain to Con- gress for adequate assistance, and to Governor Jefferson
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for aid, these men had voluntarily organized themselves without commissions and had chosen Sumter as their leader. Their organization was certainly very irregular, and there was little discipline among them. Indeed, so little did authority weigh that a council was held before every move was made, and a vote of the whole body was necessary for an undertaking. And however objec- tionable such a proceeding might appear in the eyes of the military critic, they knew that they had in this way thus far kept up the war against the invaders, had gained great and material advantages over them -advantages which had been lost to them by the folly and incompetence of the professional soldiers of the Continental army who had been grudgingly sent for the defence of the State. In this view they no doubt underrated the necessity of a proper military organization, but organization or not, they would fight under none but their own chosen leader.
On the other hand, they would have Williams neither as a commander nor as a companion. They regarded him as a deserter and an embezzler. To understand this, recur- rence must be had to some events of the early summer. While Sumter was organizing his force on this same spot early in the summer, Williams and some of his companions of Little River region had removed their families and all their effects to Granville County, North Carolina, where he had formerly lived, and had returned and joined Sum- ter, Williams frankly admitting that as he had brought with him no men he could claim no command, but never- theless wished to serve his country in some position of usefulness. Colonel Hill, who knew him, suggested to Sumter, who needed an efficient commissary, the appoint- ment of Williams, and he was accordingly appointed to serve in that capacity. An officer and twenty-five men with four teams and wagons were assigned to his service,
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and everything went well until after the battle of Hang- ing Rock on the 6th of August. But while Sumter was encamped on Cane Creek in the Waxhaws about the 12th of August, it was discovered that Williams had decamped without a word to Sumter on the subject, taking with him Colonel Brandon and a small party of followers, mostly of the Fair Forest region, together with a number of horses and other public supplies. Sumter and his officers were naturally indignant, and Colonel Lacey with a small guard was sent after the party for the purpose at least of recov- ering the public property. Colonel Hill in his narrative states that Lacey overtook the fugitive encamped on the western side of the Catawba, but finding Williams's party too strong to attempt coercive measures, resorted to other means to accomplish his purpose. Lacey, who was a man of remarkable personal prowess as well as courage, invited Williams to take a walk with him, and as soon as out of reach of the camp turned suddenly upon him and present- ing a pistol to his breast threatened him with instant death. Upon which Williams pledged his word of honor that he would take back all the public property and as many of the men as he could prevail upon to return with him. But once free from the duress, Williams, regardless of his promise, had hastened with his party and public property to Smith's Ford, where he joined McDowell, and, as we have seen, participated in the successful expedition against the enemy at Musgrove's Mills. Williams, no doubt, justified himself in the matter by arguing that he had as much right to judge of what was best for the country as Sumter, who had no more of a commission than himself, and that it was as necessary to be carrying the war into his section, the Fair Forest region, as into the Waxhaws to which Sumter was practically restricting himself. But however such specious arguments may have satisfied his
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own conscience, they made no impression on the minds of Sumter's men, who regarded him in the light of a deserter and betrayer of a trust.1
Soon after this Cornwallis had detached Rawdon and Tarleton to surprise Sumter and break up his new camp, but Sumter, learning of his movement, crossed the Catawba to the west side at Biger's (afterwards Mason's) Ferry, and there encamped. At this camp a convention or coun- cil was called by Colonel Hill to consider the matter of Williams's commission and its effect upon Sumter's com- mand. A skirmish between Rawdon's advance and Sum- ter's across the river broke up the convention, but it resumed its deliberations as soon as the party had marched to a safe distance up the river. It was then determined to send a delegation to Governor Rutledge at Hillsboro, remonstrat- ing against Williams's commission as superseding Sumter's. The delegates were Colonel Richard Winn, Colonel Henry Hampton, Colonel Thomas, Colonel Myddleton,2 and, it is supposed, Colonel Thomas Taylor.3 It was also agreed that Sumter should retire during the absence of these gentlemen, and that in the meanwhile Colonel Hill and Colonel Lacey should command Sumter's party. Hill and Lacey then continued the march up the river, which they recrossed at Tuckasegee Ford, a few miles north of Char- lotte, with the intention of forming a junction with General Davidson and the North Carolina militia. An express was sent to Davidson, from whom Hill and Lacey learned in reply that a number of men from the west as well as from the east of the mountains were marching with the
1 Hill's narrative, MSS. ; King's Mountain and its Heroes, 165-168, 465-467.
2 This name is usually spelt in the histories Middelton, but his signature in the Sumter MSS. is Chas. S. Myddleton. He was from Orangeburgh District.
8 King's Mountain and its Heroes, 168.
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intention of attacking Colonel Ferguson. Upon this in- formation the party again crossed the Catawba a little higher up, at Beattie's Ford. Here Williams again made his appearance, and in the absence of Sumter again asserted his right to command, but which was not allowed.
Upon the refusal of Sumter's men to receive him, Will- iams returned to North Carolina, and on the 23d of Sep- tember, the day after, as it happened, that Cornwallis entered Charlotte, he issued a call for recruits which was headed " A call to arms," " Beef, Bread, and Potatoes," and was based, as was understood, on the fact that Gov- ernor Nash had given orders to the commissaries of the State to furnish Williams with such supplies as might be necessary. Under this call Williams enlisted about seventy men while encamped at Higgins's plantation, in what is now Rowan County. Colonel Brandon and Major Samuel Hammond, also from the Ninety-Six District in South Carolina, were his lieutenants. Colonel Hill in his narrative is scarcely more complimentary to the character of the men Williams thus collected than to that of Will- iams himself; he describes them as "such as did not choose to do duty under their own officers," and who were induced to engage under him by Williams " promising them that if they would go with him to South Carolina, they would get as many negroes and horses as they chose to take from the Tories." In regard to the first part of this criticism upon the character of these men, it is to be observed that the terms of Governor Nash's order war- ranted Williams in obtaining volunteers from other com- mands, for it especially directed him "in getting your men you are to make no distinction between men already drafted and others." 1 As to the second, it may be that in the loose morality of a civil war the promise of spoils was
1 No. Ca., 1780-1781 (Schenck), 143.
VOL. III. - 3 D
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often more efficacious as an inducement to recruits than that of liberty ; 1 but however this may have been in this instance, Williams was not singular in resorting to such, in order to fill his ranks.2 Having raised this little force, Williams again turned toward South Carolina, and push- ing forward some sixty or seventy miles southwest of Salisbury, where, after crossing the Catawba at the Tucka- segee Ford on the 2d of October,3 he came up with Sumter's party. Upon joining them he again had his commission read, and required Hill and Lacey to submit to his author- ity. This was again indignantly refused, Hill informing him that there was not an officer or a man among them who would submit to his command, and also that the delegation had been sent to Governor Rutledge upon the subject. Williams thereupon withdrew and formed his camp at a distance from that of Hill and Lacey.
On the same day Colonel Graham and Hambright joined the South Carolinians with a small party of some sixty men from the neighborhood of Gilbert Town. That even- ing Colonel Hill suggested to Colonel Lacey that as they might soon have to encounter an enemy superior to all their parties together, it might be better to conciliate Colonel Williams so as not to lose his assistance, though small was his party. This Colonel Lacey approved, and it was proposed that the troops should be organized into three divisions, to wit: the South Carolinians under Hill and Lacey; the North Carolinians under Graham and Hambright; and Williams and his followers, who had now been joined by Captain Roebuck's company, perhaps some twenty or thirty in number- a commanding officer to be
1 King's Mountain and its Heroes (Draper), 192.
2 See letter of Colonel Richard Hampton to Major John Hampton, April 2, 1781; Gibbes's Documentary Hist., 47 ; and post.
8 King's Mountain and its Heroes (Draper), 192.
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chosen for the whole. The next morning these proposi- tions were submitted to Williams, but he "spurned them," asserting his right by his commission to command the whole. Upon this he was warned to absent himself, and not attempt to march with either Graham's or Hill's party. Williams then acquiesced, and an officer was chosen to command. Who was the officer is not mentioned by Hill. That day scouts came in with the intelligence that the mountain men were advancing; and the next, the 5th, they learned that Ferguson had sent a dispatch to Lord Cornwallis, that he had pitched his camp in a strong posi- tion ; that he had completed the business of his mission in collecting and training the friends of the King in that quarter, so that he could now bring a reenforcement of upwards of one thousand men to the Royal army; but that, as the intervening distance, thirty or forty miles, to Charlotte was through a rebellious country, he asked that his lordship would send Tarleton with his horse and in- fantry to escort him to headquarters.1
During the day Williams and Brandon disappeared, and Colonel Hill was informed that they had taken a pathway that led to the mountains. They returned after sunset, when Hill immediately demanded to know where they had been. This Williams refused to tell, but upon Hill's insisting that as honorable men they were bound to impart whatever knowledge they had gained for the good of the whole, Williams at length acknowledged that they had visited the mountain men, who were on the march from the neighborhood of Gilbert Town, and stated that these men expected them to form a junction with them at the Old Iron Works at Lawson's Fork, in what is now Spar- tanburg County, South Carolina. To this Hill remarked that that would be marching directly out of the way from 1 Hill's narrative, Sumter MSS.
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Ferguson, while it was undoubtedly the purpose of the mountain men to fight Ferguson, who had sent to Corn- wallis for Tarleton to go to his relief. That this reën- forcement might be expected in a day or two, and that if the battle was not fought before Tarleton's arrival, it was very certain it would not be fought at all; that Fer- guson was now in South Carolina within striking distance, and it appeared as if Heaven had in mercy sent these mountain men to punish the arch enemy of the people. Colonel Hill states that Williams seemed for some moments embarrassed, but finally admitted that he had made use of deception in order to direct the attention of the mountaineers to Ninety-Six. "I then used the free- dom to tell him," says Colonel Hill, "that I plainly saw through his design, which was to get the army into his own settlement, as well as to get some of his property, and plunder the Tories." In the course of the conversation Williams declared with considerable warmth that the North Carolinians might fight Ferguson or let it alone, that their business was to fight for their own country. Hill immediately informed Lacey of this conversation, and expressed the opinion that if they did not get better infor- mation Ferguson would undoubtedly escape. It will be recognized at once that Williams and Brandon were the two men who had reported to the mountain men that Fer- guson had gone to Ninety-Six. Hill was still suffering from the wound he had received at Hanging Rock, carry- ing his arm still in a sling, so Lacey undertook to make his way across to the mountain men to correct any false impressions which Williams might have made upon them. A guide was procured, and Lacey started with him about eight o'clock in the evening. In crossing the spur of a mountain they lost the path, and Lacey was on the point of killing the guide, believing that he was betrayed and
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misled by him, when, fortunately, just before day, he found himself in the camp of his friends. Lacey was at once taken in charge, blindfolded, and conducted to the colonels, to whom he introduced himself as Colonel Lacey. The officers at first repulsed his advances, taking him to be a Tory spy. He had the address, however, to convince them that he was no impostor, and learned from them that Williams and Brandon had been with them, and represented that Ferguson had gone to Ninety-Six, and that they had agreed to form a junction with the South Carolinians on Lawson's Fork of Pacolet. This confirmed Lacey in the opinion formed by Hill and himself of Will- iams's intention to mislead the mountain men into his own part of the country, upon the belief that they were follow- ing Ferguson; and Campbell and his associates were not a little indignant at the deception which had been practised upon them, and which had so nearly defeated the whole object of their expedition. Lacey undertook to bring the South Carolinians to the mountaineers, and it was agreed that the junction should be formed the next evening at "the Cowpens," a point nearly midway between the Broad and Pacolet rivers, in what is now Spartanburg County, between three and four miles below the North Carolina line - a spot which was soon itself to become famous as the battle-field of a great American victory.
Lacey's jaded horse having been well provided for, him- self partaken of a frugal repast, and taking only a few hours' sleep, started back before day, and reached his camp at about ten o'clock, having ridden about sixty miles in fourteen hours.1 Williams, intent upon carrying his point of getting control of Sumter's men, and marching them toward Ninety-Six, had, before Lacey's return, gone the rounds of the camp of the South Carolinians, ordering
1 Life of General Edward Lacey (Moore), 16-17.
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officers and men to prepare to march for the Old Iron Works; but Colonel Hill followed quickly, exposing his designs and directing the men to await Colonel Lacey's return, that they might know certainly to what point to march, in order to form the expected junction with their friends from the West. He urged the folly of making a foray into the region of Ninety-Six, simply for the sake of Tory booty, when Ferguson with his strong force would be left in the rear to entrap and cut them off. Colonel Hill then called upon all who loved their country and were ready to stand firmly by it in its hour of distress to form a line on the right; and those who preferred to plunder rather than courageously to meet the enemy, to form a line on the left. Colonel Hill adds that the greater portion took their places on the right, leaving but a few followers of Williams to occupy the other position. Upon Lacey's return the march to join the mountaineers was immediately. commenced. Williams and his followers hung upon the rear of the column, evidently afraid to separate themselves from their former comrades, and finally abandoned the idea of going alone to Ninety-Six. About sunset, after a march of some twenty miles, the South Carolinians arrived at the Cowpens, where they were soon after joined by the mountaineers.
Colonel Lacey's visit had been most opportune. It had not only decided the course of his own party, but had pre- vented the abandonment of the expedition by the western men. Some, at least, of the leaders of these had begun to doubt the policy of continuing the uncertain pursuit of Ferguson, lest by being led too far away their prolonged absence from their mountain homes might invite a raid from the hostile Cherokees upon their unprotected fami- lies. Lacey's information and spirited appeals reassured the timid, and imparted new courage to the hopeful. In-
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stead of directing their course, as they otherwise would have done, to the Old Iron Works, on Lawson's Fork of the Pacolet, some fifteen miles out of their way, they marched direct for Cowpens, a distance of some twenty miles, all together reaching the place of rendezvous, as has just been said, soon after sunset, a short time after the arrival of the Carolinians and their associates under Colonels Hill, Lacey, Williams, and Graham.
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