USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783 > Part 27
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Johnson observes that it is curious to follow out the well- concerted measures of the American commanders to their final failure; that in common with the Commander-in-chief, General Greene had often to dissemble his feelings, and to bear with his officers because the service could not well bear their loss. In this instance, he states that neither Mydelton nor Lee ever joined Washington, and that Lee, instead of directing his views against Stuart, thought proper to throw himself in front of Rawdon, in prosecution of a feeble and fatal effort to embarrass his march. As to
1 Memoirs of the War of 1776 (Lee), 380-381.
2 Annual Register, vol. XXIV (1781), 95. ª Ibid., 97.
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Sumter, he observes, that the express despatched after him, after three days' search, found him at Hanging Rock on the Catawba in prosecution of some measure connected with his command, which he did not abandon, and which detained him until the 8th or 9th of July. This criticism of his officers to cover the misfortune of the commander is scarcely just. For it must be remembered that Lord Rawdon's prompt and vigorous movement to Granby had disconcerted all of Greene's plans, and had Lee received the order to join Washington, he must have hesitated to do so, and thus to deprive his commander of all information as to the enemy's movement, under an order which he knew to have been issued under the supposition of a condition of things which no longer existed. He certainly did, in fact, render much more important services to Greene in destroying the enemy's cavalry force than he could possibly have done in going in search of Stuart, who at that time had fallen back to Dorchester. For Sumter, it must be said that he was daily in communication with Greene, and had informed him by letter of the 2d of the necessity of his movements,1 in reply to which, Greene writes to him from his head- quarters, which were still at Winnsboro, on the 3d of July :2 "Your letter of yesterday overtook me on the march for the Congaree. I doubt not material advantages will result from your visiting the upper regiments, but I fear the opportunity for striking the posts at Monck's corner and in that neighborhood is past." So too, Captain Pierce, A.D.C., writes to him by General Huger's direction as late as the 7th,3 "No barriers will be thrown in your way to obstruct the execution of your plan & our best wishes attend you for your success." 4 When, therefore,
1 Sumter's letters, Nightingale Collection, Year Book, City of Charles- ton, 1899, Appendix, 36, 37.
2 Ibid., 118. 8 Ibid., 121. 4 Sumter MSS.
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Greene reached Washington, he did not expect to find Sumter there, but knew that he was busy recruiting his forces preparatory to striking the post at Monck's Cor- ner, which was in accordance with his previous orders to him to penetrate lower down the country. True, in his letter of the 3d from Winnsboro, and in a second the same day from a point at which he was encamped, having left Winnsboro that day, he had urged Sumter to join him at Friday's Ferry, opposite Granby, as he had just learned that Lord Rawdon had reached that point. And this Sumter proceeded to do as soon as he had collected his force, though in doing so he abandoned his favorite plan of striking at the enemy's posts below. He joined Greene on the 8th, the day after Huger wrote him that no barriers would be thrown to obstruct his plan, for the success of which the best wishes of all attended him.
Washington, in the meantime, anxious to prosecute the enterprise against Stuart, despatched a courier to Marion, who was below with four hundred men, pressing him to hasten to unite in the undertaking. When Greene reached Washington, Marion had joined him, and at the head of these two corps he resolved to lead the enterprise in person. Passing down the Orangeburgh road on the 6th, he succeeded in avoiding Lord Rawdon, and there, watch- ing the progress of the British army, at the head of a com- pany of Washington's cavalry, lest relief should be pushed forward to Stuart, he detached Marion to attack and seize this important convoy, not only with relief for Lord Raw- don's army, but with the various supplies necessary to reestablish the post at Granby. Hourly communications were kept with Marion, and positive information obtained that Stuart was still below and approaching. Everything now promised success, when at one o'clock on the morning of the 8th Marion sallied forth from his covert to seize
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upon his prey, but to his utter discomfiture Stuart, un- conscious of his danger and influenced only by a choice of roads, had turned aside into one while Marion had pur- sued another, and they had passed each other in the night. On the morning of the 8th Rawdon and Stuart formed a junction at Orangeburgh.1
Greene was greatly disappointed upon his failure to in- tercept Stuart, but summoning Sumter, Marion, Lee, and Washington to form a junction as soon as possible, he resolved to march upon Orangeburgh and offer the enemy battle. The militia under Pickens was not included in this order, for that officer was at this time employed on the important mission of watching the motions of Cruger. Reënforced already by Stuart, if joined now by Cruger, Lord Rawdon's force would have been overwhelming, lack- ing only in cavalry, Colonel Stuart, to his lordship's great disappointment, having brought none with him. But Cru- ger was approaching.2
That officer, it will be recollected, had been left at Ninety Six to cover the retreat of the Loyalists' families. Whilst waiting their assembling, says Johnson, it would have been happy for his reputation, and that of the British arms, had he confined his efforts to the demolition of the defensive works that had been constructed at that post. But this last opportunity of wreaking vengeance on the unfortunate Whigs could not be suffered to pass away. A swarm of Tories, supported by a regular force, were per- mitted to carry fire and sword into the Long Cane settle- ment. The ravages sanctioned in this quarter gave countenance to the assertion that orders had been issued to lay the whole country waste. This dreadful calamity
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 162.
2 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 163; Annual Register, vol. XXIV (1781), 96.
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is sometimes justified or excused by the necessities which war imposes ; but what was there to justify it here ? They were abandoning the country, there was no army to be starved into a retreat, and the country was entirely too remote to furnish supplies to that which must be the seat of war. There is but too much reason to believe that the measure was one of revenge, perhaps of plunder or the petulance of disappointment. Fortunately Pickens and Clarke were at hand to check the ravages, and reënforced by the enraged inhabitants, whose smoking dwellings still stimulated their vengeance, the enemy were once more forced within their intrenchments or under the protection of their guns. Recent advices from Rawdon of his increas- ing difficulties hurried on the evacuation of the post of Ninety Six. And now the scene was changed.
Cruger, says the same author, at the head of a cavalcade not unlike the pictures of an exodus, commenced his march on the 8th of July. Many had been the distressing scenes that the country had exhibited, but few had equalled this. And to add to the mental and bodily sufferings of the miserable Loyalists, parties gathered from the recently desolated settlements, and reinforced by those habitual plunderers who had disgraced the American cause, hunted and cut off the small parties as they moved towards the rendezvous appointed on Cruger's line of march. Nor were their sufferings destined to terminate with this dan- gerous and distressing journey to which every age, sex, and condition were exposed, but after reaching the tract of country to which they were ordered to retire, and their land of promise, - the rich estates of the banished Whigs, - they soon found that all the remuneration and protection promised them ended in delusion. If they were fortunate to survive the diseases of the climate, they were soon driven from their new homes by the wandering parties of Whigs,
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or perhaps excluded by some prior possessors who did not find it convenient to relinquish their hold. At length they gathered in great numbers in the wretched settlement called Rawdon Town, in the suburbs of Charlestown, which had been formed by their predecessors, the Loyalist refugees from Camden, whose miseries were now to be increased by their coming. Here many perished. Some who had brought with them their slaves removed to some of the British settlements in the West Indies, where their descendants still live. Others, resolved to brave the dan- gers of returning to their native homes, secretly stole back and finally cast themselves on the clemency of their neigh- bors. None, it is said, who had not rendered themselves infamous by their crimes, were repulsed. In Pickens they found a zealous and benevolent protector.1
Though encumbered with this caravan, old men, women, and children, laden with household goods, besides the ordi- nary impediments of an army, Cruger, nevertheless, pressed forward with astonishing celerity, fear of being left behind and losing his protection aiding his efforts to hasten his convoy on the march. Lord Rawdon had written, urging his utmost speed, and by travelling by moonlight he was enabled to mitigate the sufferings attendant upon marching over barren sands in such a climate at such a season. He approached by a route which led between the great forks of the Edisto, crossing into that place, at a bridge to the west of the town, thrown across the northern branch of the river. For a great distance above and below that point the river was impassable, so that he proceeded in security from attack by the troops to its east. Pickens, with all his exertions, could not collect together a force sufficient to retard his march. As soon as Cruger had reached a point so far down the fork as to relieve him from fear for
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 163-164.
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the safety of the refugees, he left them under the protection of their own mounted men, with instructions to pursue their journey down the southwest side of the Edisto, so as to keep that river between them and the American parties.
On the 10th of July, General Greene, having been joined by Sumter and all his different detachments, moved within four miles of Orangeburgh, and offered the enemy battle. The ground he chose is on the north side of the creek which crosses the old Orangeburgh road to Granby, four miles from the town. The force he had with him amounted to about two thousand, but there were scarcely eight hundred regular infantry. Lord Rawdon's force after the junction with Stuart was estimated at fif- teen hundred, all disciplined men. In artillery the two armies were nearly equal ; in cavalry the preponderance was greatly in favor of the Americans. The advantages upon the whole were decidedly in favor of the latter, unless Cruger should rejoin Lord Rawdon before the issue of the battle. But it was known that Cruger was approach- ing, and his lordship had taken possession of the court- house, a strong brick building of two stories, not inferior in the estimation of Greene to a strong redoubt, with some other buildings commanding his approach, and securing his retreat over the bridge in case of misfortune.1
If, therefore, an attack was to be made, it must be made at once, before Cruger arrived. Recognizing this, General Greene reconnoitred the position in person at the head of cavalry, and reluctantly concluded that an attack was injudicious. In this view Lee asserts that some of his officers, in whose opinions he properly confided, did not concur. They advised that an attempt should be made.2
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 166.
2 Memoirs of the War of 1776 (Lee), 385.
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But Greene adhered to his opinion, and having offered battle for two days, he moved off with his infantry on the night of the 13th, and, crossing the river, retired to the High Hills of Santee.
Sumter had abandoned the repetition of his favorite plan of operations, the striking at the posts of the enemy upon the line of his communications in his rear, and had at Greene's call joined him before Orangeburgh; and when it is known that some of Greene's officers were opposed to retir- ing from Lord Rawdon's front without striking a blow, it may be safely assumed that Sumter was one of those who were for making the attempt. But now that that was given up, Greene turned over all the mounted men to him, and gave him leave to start upon that memorable incursion into the lower country which drove the enemy in all quarters into Charlestown, and for a while prostrated every appearance of Royal power beyond its limits.
There had been great activity as well in other parts of the State. While Marion was before Georgetown he had de- tached Colonel Peter Horry with a force against the Loyal- ists upon the Pee Dee. The repeated struggles between the contending parties in that country, also, had now nearly reduced it to desolation, and Colonel Horry was sent to endeavor in some way to put an end to the murderous strife. As he was authorized to do, Colonel Horry, on the part of General Marion, on the 17th of June, negotiated a treaty with Major Gainey, who styled himself " commanding officer of the Tories or king's subjects, inhabitants lying between the great Pee Dee River and North Carolina," by which it was agreed that from that time all hostilities on both sides should cease; that both parties should have free intercourse to traffic together unmolested; that in case of injuries committed on persons or property on either side, the captain or officer commanding the injured party
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should make complaint to the officer commanding the wrong-doer, whereupon a jury composed of two Whigs and two Tories, with an officer from the side of the com- plainant, should be called on to sit as a court-martial, and determine the matter between them and to inflict such punishment as should appear reasonable and just; that property not taken in action (but plundered), on being proven by either party, should be restored.1 This treaty afforded some pacification to the country, but was not strictly complied with until Marion, ten months after, found leisure to impose another, more humiliating, upon Gainey and his followers.2
A few days after General Marion had forced the evacua- tion of Georgetown, i.e. on the 10th of August, one Man- son, an inhabitant of the country, who had joined the British, appeared in an armed vessel before the town, and demanded permission to land his men. General Marion, it will be remembered, had been recalled to join Greene, and there was only a small party of militia left in the place. These refusing the permission asked, Manson sent a few of his men ashore under cover of his guns, and set fire to some of the houses next to the water. He then directed his crew to fire on the burning houses in such a direction as prevented the inhabitants from either extinguishing the flames or removing their property. Forty-two houses in this flourishing town were on this occasion reduced to ashes.3
In the meanwhile, however, Colonel Harden had not been idle in the Low-Country, and had established a camp at the Horse Shoe on the Ashepoo River. Here Hayne joined him, having at length yielded to the wishes of those
1 Gibbes's Documentary Hist. (1781-82), 98.
2 James's Life of Marion, 122 ; Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 128.
8 Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 236.
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of his neighbors who had revolted from the British au- thority, and upon their petition he had been appointed by Pickens to the command of their regiment. Having com- mitted himself to the cause and resumed his arms, Hayne at once entered the field with boldness, enterprise, and vigor. Taking with him a small party of mounted men, he dashed into the immediate vicinity of Charlestown, pene- trating to within five miles of the town, and on Thursday night, the 5th of July, he there surrounded the house oc- cupied by General Andrew Williamson, who, when Pickens took the field the fall before, had returned from Ninety Six, then to become the scene of struggle, and had gone to the British in Charlestown. Here he was living, as he no doubt supposed, in security, away from the danger of in- roads by Clarke or McCall, or any other of the partisan bands of his former party. But he had not counted upon Harden and his followers, still less upon Hayne, who, like himself, had refused to take any part in the struggle since the capitulation of the city. He was seized in bed, and, without allowing him time even to put on his clothes, he was carried away a prisoner. Great indignation and mor- tification was excited in the British lines when they learned that Williamson had been thus snatched away from their protection under their very guns. The honor of the British army, they felt, demanded his rescue, and Major Fraser, with ninety dragoons, was detached next day in pursuit. After a circuitous march of more than seventy miles through the woods, with the most profound secrecy, on Sunday morning, the 8th, Major Fraser surprised the camp at Horse Shoe, to which Colonel Hayne had re- treated with his prisoner. The British slew fourteen of the party on the spot and wounded several others. Colonel Hayne was taken prisoner, Lieutenant-Colonel McLauch- lan was killed, and his brother, Captain McLauchlan,
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dangerously wounded. The rest of the party were dis- persed.1
The circumstances of the capture of Colonel Hayne are interesting not only because of its tragic end. As has been intimated, Colonel Hayne was fond of horses, and, like many of the gentlemen in the State, had a stock of thor- oughbred animals. In this disastrous expedition he was mounted on a very fine horse of his own breeding called King Herod; but the animal, during his master's inac- tivity, had become too fat and heavy for great exertion, and in this raid had been foundered. Upon his return Colonel Hayne, deeming himself secure, with Mr. Charles Glover and a few followers, had turned into the plantation of Mrs. Ford, about four miles beyond Parker's Ferry across the Edisto; the rest of his party, apparently, pro- ceeding to the camp at Horse Shoe under Lieutenant- Colonel McLauchlan. While resting here, on Sunday morning, a company of British cavalry was seen galloping up the avenue. Colonel Hayne endeavored to escape by crossing the rice fields at the back of the plantation, but Captain Campbell, who commanded the company of cav- alry, saw and pursued him. Mr. Glover and most of the party escaped. Colonel Hayne soon found that his horse was giving out, and coming to a fence, the horse balked ; whereupon, instead of pressing him to take the leap, he dismounted and took down the fence, and thus facilitated the crossing of his pursuers. Captain Campbell, of Major Fraser's party, seeing this, knew his success was sure, and steadily gained on his flying foe. Shortly after, in leaping a ditch, the side of it caved. Colonel Hayne's horse fell, and he was captured. It is said that Captain Campbell - who was known in the garrison and town as "Mad Archy," and who was himself to fall before the end of the war - was
1 The Royal Gazette, July 11, 1781.
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very indignant at the ultimate fate of his captive, and de- clared that if he had thought such would have been his end, he would have killed Hayne in the pursuit, with his own hand, that he at least might have died the death of a soldier.1
1 Johnson's Traditions, 361, 362.
VOL. IV. - Y
CHAPTER XIV
1781
IN the expedition which Sumter had planned and which he was now allowed by Greene to undertake against the posts in the rear of Lord Rawdon, and in the neighborhood of Charlestown itself, he had under his command, besides his own brigade, that of Marion, and the Legion of Lee, with a detachment of artillery of one piece. In his own brigade he had his old comrades of Hanging Rock, Fishdam, and Blackstock -Taylor, Lacey, Mydelton, and Henry Hampton, with whom he had first checked and turned back the tide of British conquest, and who were still his devoted followers. To these were now added two other Hamptons, Wade and Richard. With Marion were the heroes of the Pee Dee, Peter Horry, Maham, and Baxter, the leaders under him in many brilliant affairs. The command thus consisted of all the State troops, with the exception of Pickens's brigade, which was still hovering in Cruger's rear, and Harden's small party, ranging upon the Ashepoo and Combahee. These State troops were not regulars, but they were now veterans, who had seen more actual service and fought more battles than probably any Continental troops in the service, with the exception of the Legion, which now accompanied them. It was a splen- did body of men, most of whom were volunteers, though veterans, fighting purely for patriotism and not for pay. The best of horsemen, unerring shots, and well disciplined in their rude way, they were most excellently fitted, alike
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by character and experience, for the service upon which they now entered. With such a body of men Sumter had every reason to expect the most substantial results. He had even enlisted some enthusiasm upon the part of Greene in the prospect of its success.
And Sumter did accomplish much. Perhaps it is not too much to say that he shook the fabric of the Royal au- thority to an extent which caused greater alarm than had yet been experienced, and demonstrated to a greater de- gree than had yet been done the impracticability of the British possession of the State. But the expedition, nev- ertheless, did not accomplish what it should have done. Had it succeeded, it is not probable that the battle of Eutaw would have been fought.
It is not an agreeable task to a historian of the State to dwell upon the foibles of her great men, but the truth of history as it affects the current of events requires the ob- servation, which may not have escaped the reader, that there had been a persistent and growing jealousy between the three great leaders, Sumter, Marion, and Lee. Lee's dislike of Sumter was open and avowed, and most improp- erly encouraged by Greene himself in their private corre- spondence. Indeed, notwithstanding the expressions to Sumter personally of the greatest confidence in and reli- ance upon his wisdom and conduct, it can scarcely be doubted that Greene himself depreciated Sumter's charac- ter quite as much as did Lee. If we are to accept Lee's own account of this expedition, he studiously ignored, not only Sumter's command, but even his presence. This, however, was not altogether unnatural. Sumter's commis- sion, though superior to that of Lee by two grades, was but that of the State; while Lee's was from Congress, and his command regulars, or Continentals, as they were called. On the other hand, Lee should have remembered that not
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only was Sumter much older than himself, not only that he had been fighting the French and the Indians before Lee was born,1 but that he too had been a Continental officer, and as such had greatly outranked him. Lee had been restless under the command of Marion or Pickens, and was still less willing to serve under Sumter.
Had jealousy only existed on the part of Lee to Sumter, it would not have been so unfortunate as that it should also be entertained by Marion as well. But this cannot be doubted. Marion's letters all disclose an impatience of Sumter's control, and it will be recollected that during Greene's absence from the State, while Sumter was exer- cising superior command under the direct and explicit orders of Governor Rutledge, communicated directly to Marion himself, Sumter in vain appealed to Marion, if not for obedience, at least for cooperation. It cannot, how- ever, escape the observation of even a panegyrist of the great leader that it was the misfortune of Sumter to incur in succession the hostility of Morgan, Greene, and Lee, as well as the want of cordiality upon the part of Marion. There may then have been something in Sumter's manner, if not in his conduct, which failed to conciliate those with whom he was called upon to act. And yet, in the corre- spondence between Greene and Sumter, now made public, we look in vain for the slightest want of cordiality and respect on the part of Sumter ; instead, we find the most constant attention to Greene's wishes, and an entire absence of even a suspicion of the hostile feeling we now know to have been early entertained by Greene in regard to him. Nor must the devoted adherence of those with whom he en- tered the service in the darkest days of the struggle be for- gotten. It is proper also to observe that when Sumter first
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