USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783 > Part 51
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Mills.
Captains Oldfield, Jones, and Cheshire of the
1 McCall's Hist. of Ga., vol. II, 398, 399.
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Royal militia represented the Tory side, and Colonel Davies, Captains Youngblood of Edisto and Heape of Horse Shoe, empowered by Governor Mathews, repre- sented that of the Whigs. A truce was agreed upon for two months, from the 1st of April and ending on the 1st of June, during which a strict neutrality was to be observed, and those who had lost property on either side were to be allowed to recover it upon proper proof. The territory included in the truce was described as extending from the Upper Three runs to Mathews's Bluff on the Savannah River, and from thence across the country in the same breadth in a direction nearly perpendicular to South Edisto, comprising an extent of country nearly sixty miles square, part of which reached within thirty miles of the rear of General Greene's position.1
This truce lasted until near the 25th of May, when The Royal Gazette charged that it was broken by the Whigs; Major Goodwyn of the Congaree militia with eighteen men from the post at Four Holes at midnight seizing Captain Cheshire and three of his men at a friend's house on the Edisto. But this action was probably brought on by the collection of a body of hostile Tories on Dean Swamp, a branch of the South Edisto, near the present town of Salley. Captains Michael Watson and William Butler of Pickens's brigade, learning of the assembling of the party of Tories, determined to break them up. The expedition was formed at the Ridge, in what is now Edgefield, with Captain Watson in command. Watson's men were mounted militia armed with rifles and muskets, Butler's were cavalry armed with pistols and cutlasses. The party moved for- ward at sunset to surprise the Tories. They moved with great rapidity and captured a disaffected man named Hutto, whom they hurried along with them under guard.
1 The Royal Gazette, June 8, 1782.
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As they approached the Tory encampment Hutto made his escape and gave notice to the Tories of Watson's ap- proach; upon which an ambush was arranged for the approaching Whigs. When Hutto's escape was reported, Watson declared his opinion that the expedition should be abandoned; but Butler thought otherwise, and they continued to advance. As the Whigs approached the edge of the swamp two men were observed as if endeavoring to hide themselves. Butler, Watson, and Sergeant Vardell - a very brave man -rode rapidly for- ward to capture them. Watson first discovered that these men were only a decoy, and when too late warned the others that the whole of the Tories were there concealed. The Tories arose on being discovered, and poured on their assailants a well-directed fire, which brought down Wat- son, Vardell, and several others of the foremost Whigs. Upon the fall of Watson, Butler assumed command, and, though sorely pressed, brought off the wounded men; but now found to his mortification that the infantry had little or no ammunition left, and that the enemy were advancing upon him. In this emergency John Corley, his lieutenant, made a desperate charge on the enemy, and that so unex- pectedly as to throw them into confusion; following up his advantage, his men, mingling in the disordered ranks of the enemy, prevented them rallying. Butler continued his impetuous onslaught until the Tories took refuge in the swamp. As the Whigs returned in triumph, the gallant Vardell made an effort to rise and wave his hand in exultation, but fell back and expired. He was buried in the field. Watson survived until the Whigs reached Orangeburgh, but died immediately afterwards.1
It was just after this that "Bloody Bill" Cuningham made a second incursion into Ninety Six District. Per. 1 Johnson's Traditions, 548, 549 ; MS. Memoir of General William Butler.
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fectly familiar with the country from his youth, possessed of great sagacity and fertility in military expedients, and endowed with all the physical qualities so essential to the partisan, he was no mean adversary. But, fortunately for the Whigs, a leader was found in Captain William Butler fully able to cope with the brilliant, if bloody, Tory parti- san. Cuningham's favorite manœuvre was to divide his command upon the march into small detachments, to be concentrated by different routes near the point at which the blow was aimed. In this manner he had concentrated his force at a point known as Corradine's Ford on the Saluda. Butler, with a portion of his company, marched to meet him, and to ascertain his position resorted to a ruse. Approaching the residence of Joseph Cuningham, near the junction of the Little and the Big Saluda, he sent forward his brother, Thomas Butler, with Abner Corley, to the house in the night. Thomas Butler was an excel- lent mimic, and, imitating the voice of one of William Cuningham's men, named Nibletts, called aloud and in- quired "where our friend Cuningham was." The wife of Joseph Cuningham replied that he had crossed Cor- radine's Ford. With that Captain Butler himself rode up to the house, and, mounting Joseph Cuningham upon a horse, compelled him to guide the party across the ford. They crossed this ford at twelve o'clock at night, and next morning halted in a peach orchard near Bauknight's Ferry. The horses were feeding, when a gray mare which Cun- ingham was known to have taken from the neighbor- hood was observed passing back, having escaped from his pamp. This incident disclosed in some measure the state of affairs, and Butler's rangers received the order to march. The rangers numbered about thirty, Cuningham's men bout twenty. The bloody scenes of Cloud's Creek, it was observed, animated every encounter between Butler and
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Cuningham with more the spirit of the duel than of the battle-field.
Approaching the Tory position unobserved, John Corley was detailed with eight men to gain their rear, and upon a preconcerted signal to attack while the main body ad- vanced under cover of a hedge. The Tories were drying their blankets by their camp-fires, and Cuningham him- self was at a little distance off from his band. As it after- wards appeared, Butler's person being at one time exposed in advancing before the signal was given, he was observed by the Tories, but taken for their own leader, for there was a strong personal resemblance between the two men. Corley's furious assault, himself foremost in the charge, was the first intimation to the Tories that their exasper- ated foes were at hand. Cuningham was promptly at his post; but, taken by surprise and attacked by superior numbers, thought only of safety. Having no time to saddle his horse, but seizing his holsters, with a partisan's quickness he sprang to his seat, while Butler, singling him out, dashed in pursuit. Both men were remarkably good riders, and tradition has preserved even the names of the horses they rode. Cuningham was mounted on a mare which had become celebrated in his service as "Silver Heels," while Butler rode a horse called "Ranter." As Butler carried only a sabre and Cuningham had only his pistols, which had been rendered useless by the rain of the previous night, life or death hung upon the speed of the horses. As long as the chase was in the woods Ranter maintained his own ; but when they struck an oper trail in which the superior stride of Cuningham' thoroughbred could tell, turning in his seat and patting with triumphant confidence the noble animal that bor him, he tauntingly exclaimed, "I am safe." Dashing rapidly away from his adversary, he escaped by himsel swimming the Saluda near Lorick's Ferry.
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When Butler returned from the pursuit of Cuningham, he found a portion of his command assembled at the Tory camp under circumstances which gave him great concern. Turner, one of the prisoners, had been deliberately shot through the head after he had surrendered. When But- ler had rebuked the act, Scysia, who had committed the deed, justified himself by telling of an outrage the un- fortunate Tory had inflicted upon his mother. The Tory, he alleged, had stripped Mrs. Scysia to the waist, had tied and severely whipped her, to force her to dis- close where were a party of Whigs among whom was her son. The corps justified Scysia, and no action was taken against him. A pursuit of Cuningham's men was ordered for the purpose of capturing or dispersing them, and some were overtaken while crossing the river, others were shot. The result of this action was the dispersion of Cuning- ham's famous band.1
1 MS. Memoir of General William Butler; Curwin's Journal and Letters, Appendix, 646.
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CHAPTER XXVIII
1782
ON the 4th of April, General Leslie addressed a com- munication to General Greene, in which he stated that it was with deep concern he viewed, in the proceedings of the late Assembly, acts for amercing the property of some persons and confiscating that of others whose prin- ciples had attached them to the cause of their sovereign. He had hoped that humanity would have arrested their execution, and that he would not have been compelled to take measures to counteract their effect. But when these hopes were disappointed and he found the property of the loyal removed from their estates, he could no longer remain the quiet spectator of their distresses ; and in order to induce a juster line of conduct he had employed a part of the force intrusted to his charge for their pro- tection in seizing the negroes of General Greene's friends, that restitution might be made to such of his as might suffer under these oppressive and ruinous measures. This, he stated, was the object of the late expedition towards the Santee, and intimated that others would follow unless the confiscation and amercement acts were abandoned.
General Leslie felt, however, the necessity, in making this communication, of explaining or justifying in some way the action of his predecessors in their conduct toward the estates of the rebels, as they termed the Whigs; so he proceeded : -
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"To point out to you, or the world, the distinction between tempo- rary sequestration and actual confiscation would be impertinent; but it will by no means be so to observe on the opposite conduct pursued by each party in carrying into execution these very different meas- ures ; for whilst you have endeavored to involve, in perpetual ruin, the persons and estates of those who have differed from you in politi- cal sentiments, I can safely appeal even to those whose violent opposi- tion to the King's government compelled the withholding from them for a time their possessions in this province, for the great attention which has been invariably paid to their property - the connected state in which it has been preserved - and the liberal allowances that were made to their families, in so much that, while other estates were run- ning to waste by the destruction of the country, these have greatly thriven at the expense of the government."
On the other hand, General Leslie went on to suggest that, should the enforcement of the confiscation acts be sus- pended, and General Greene should think a meeting of commissioners on each side might tend to lessen the devastations of the war and secure inviolate the property of individuals, he would have a peculiar happiness in em- bracing proposals that might accomplish such benevolent purposes.
To this letter General Greene returned an immediate answer "that he had the honor to command the forces of the United States in the Southern Department, but had nothing to do with the internal police of any State." On this General Leslie addressed himself to Governor Math- ews, enclosing the letter he had addressed to General Greene.
Governor Mathews on the 12th returned General Leslie an elaborate reply, in the course of which he wrote: -
" I would not, Sir, give an hasty answer to your observations on this subject, and thought myself well justified in deviating from the rule of politeness in delaying an answer, that I might have an oppor- tunity of investigating truth. I have taken much pains in my inquiries, the result of which has been the most indubitable proofs,
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that so far from these sequestered estates having had the greatest at- tention paid to them - being preserved in a connected state - and 'greatly thriven,' most of them, while under the management of your sequestrator, have been very greatly injured; many have been nearly ruined, and others altogether so. What expense the British government has incurred on their account I know not, but, I can with confidence assert the sequestered estates have been very little bene- fited thereby.
"I will now appeal to a fact within your own knowledge. You know that great numbers of the negroes, belonging to these estates are now within your lines, and lost to their owners. And on few plantations is a four-footed animal to be found. How then do you prove that the estates have been preserved in a connected state, when one-half of some, two-thirds of others, and the whole of a few have been deprived of the negroes and stock that were upon them when put under sequestration ? How do you prove that these estates have greatly thriven; and that the greatest attention has been paid to them ?
" As to the liberal allowance made to the families of those persons whose estates were sequestered : this, Sir, I must beg leave to say you have been as greatly deceived in, as the other parts of your informa- tion. So far from the wives and children having been allowed the stipulated sums out of their husbands' and fathers' estates, the truth is, that after much entreaty, and in many instances very unbecoming treatment, some have obtained trifling sums compared with what they were entitled to, while others have been altogether denied.
"On this ground of investigation I am ready to meet you, Sir, whenever you think proper, when I will undertake to produce to you the proofs for everything I have here advanced.
" Your observations on the opposite conduct of each party on carry- ing into execution the measures of sequestration and confiscation, so far from being founded in fact, evidently show the uniform deception into which you have been led.
" In the common acceptation of the word, it is true, sequestration means no more than a temporary privation of property ; but your sequestrator general, and most of his officers, have construed this word into a very different meaning ; and, regardless of the articles of capitu- lation of Charlestown, as well as the most sacred contracts contained in marriage settlements, every species of property, negroes, plate, house- hold furniture, horses, carriages, cattle, etc., have been indiscrimi-
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nately torn from their owners by persons now under your immediate command, and have been either sent beyond seas, for the benefit of those who had taken - I had almost said plundered - them, or now remains within your lines, and in either case lost to their owners.
Now, Sir, let us for a moment view the conduct of the legislature of this State in their late session. The most sacred regard has been paid by them to private contracts; neither marriage settlements nor the faith of individuals have been violated, but left to their full opera- tion. A provision was also made for the families of those whose estates have been confiscated. And although the property of British subjects within this State has been confiscated, yet the debts due to them from the citizens of this State have been left untouched. And be assured, Sir, whilst I have the honor of holding the rank I now do, it shall be my particular business to see that this, as well as every other law of the State, is executed with lenity, fidelity, and integrity." 1
The result of this correspondence left General Greene to expect a renewal of the incursions of the enemy, as well from the necessity of procuring supplies as from his threat of retaliation on account of the Confiscation Act. Steps, indeed, were taken to carry out this purpose. The com- missioner of sequestration prepared galleys and other ves- sels, which were manned by the dismounted troops, whose horses the enemy had been compelled to kill for want of forage with which to feed them, and stationed in the rivers and creeks contiguous to the valuable estates, to cover the shipment of produce in small craft and convey- ing. these supplies to town. Some of the strongest of . these vessels were sent thirty miles up the Cooper River.2
But while these measures were in preparation, news from England came which induced General Leslie to with- hold the attempt to carry out his threat.
On the 22d of February a resolution had been introduced in the House of Commons in England, that an address
1 Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 355-364.
2 Narrative of John Cruden, Commissioner, Winnowings in Am. Hist., Revolutionary Narrative, No. 1.
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should be presented to his Majesty that he would be pleased to give directions to his ministers not to pursue any longer the impracticable object of reducing his Majes- ty's revolted colonies to their allegiance by a war on the continent of America ; and to assure his Majesty that his faithful commons would most cheerfully concur with him in such measures as might be found necessary to accelerate the blessings of returning peace. The resolution, after a very warm debate, had been lost -but by only one vote. The majority of only one on the side of the ministry proved that their influence was at an end; and when, five days after, it was renewed, the resolution was carried without a division.1 A few days after a commission passed the great seal appointing Sir Guy Carleton commander-in-chief in America,2 thus superseding Sir Henry Clinton. Sir Guy arrived in New York on the 5th of May,8 and on the 7th communicated to General Washington the disposition that prevailed in the government and people relative to the making of a peace with the Americans.4
In the meanwhile Congress had, on the 23d of February, authorized the commander-in-chief to agree to the ex- change of Earl Cornwallis, provided that the Honorable Henry Laurens should be liberated, and proper assurances given for the exchange of all other prisoners.5 Mr. Lau- rens had been released from close confinement in the Tower on the 31st of December before, but was under a verbal recognizance to appear at the court of King's Bench the next Easter term, and not to depart thence without leave of the court. Though still a nominal prisoner on parole,
1 Annual Register, 1782, vol. XXV, 167-168 ; Wraxall's Memoirs, vol. II, 511, 522 ; Gordon's Am. War, vol. IV, 229-230 ; Bancroft's Hist. of the U.S., vol. V, 530.
2 Gordon's Am. War, vol. IV, 231.
3 Ibid., 249. 4 Ibid., 291. 5 Ibid., 245.
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Mr. Laurens was busy negotiating the treaty of peace which he was to sign as one of the commissioners on the part of America.1 His actual exchange for Lord Corn- wallis was not communicated to General Washington until the 2d of August.2
When the vote of the British Parliament was communi- cated to General Leslie, he proposed to General Greene a cessation of hostilities, and that he should be permitted to purchase and receive from the planters such subsistence as he needed. The subject of a cessation of hostilities Gen- eral Greene referred to Congress; the other subject he re- ferred to the governor and council. But their views had already been communicated to General Greene in a request "that he would by all means in his power prevent supplies from going into Charlestown, except so far as his contracts respecting clothing made it necessary." This was neces- sary, as the State had undertaken to supply the army in kind. To have opened a market with Charlestown would have been to drain the country immediately, and perhaps have protracted the stay of the enemy by lessening his inconveniences. General Leslie's offer was therefore, of course, rejected, and he thereupon intimated that, however anxious he was to discontinue the horrors of war, he would take provisions by force wherever they could be obtained, and immediately commenced preparation for that purpose. To meet this renewal of strife General Greene determined to reorganize his forces. General Marion, who had rallied his men sufficiently to recross the Santee, was requested to strengthen himself so as to meet the enemy in that quarter, whilst a strong detachment was formed under General Gist of Maryland to cover the country lying south and west of the army's position. The cavalry of the Legion and that
1 Mr. Laurens's Narrative, Coll. So. Ca. Hist. Soc., vol. I, 64 et seq. 2 Gordon's Am. War, vol. IV, 294.
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of the Third and Fourth Virginian regiments united under Colonel Baylor; the infantry of the Legion, the dis- mounted dragoons of the Third Regiment, the Delaware Regiment, and one hundred men detached from the line commanded by Major Beale, the whole infantry under the command of Colonel Laurens formed the brigade under the command of General Gist.1 Colonel Henderson, who had been appointed brigadier-general in the place of Sum- ter, was with Pickens, who had returned from his Indian campaign, and the militia under these, with Marion, were drawn together near the headquarters.
Scarcely had Marion reached Dorchester, when the Loyalists beyond the Pee Dee, with the celebrated Major Gainey at their head, once more appeared in arms. On the 28th of April a party of them, commanded by Captain Jones, surrounded and set fire to the house of Colonel Kolb of the militia. He, after receiving assurance of being treated as a prisoner of war, surrendered; upon which he was immediately put to death in the presence of his wife and children.2 From this time the Tories in this section, disregarding the treaty they had made with Marion on the 17th of June, 1781, had become more troublesome, not only to the people of this State, but of North Carolina. They now appeared in such large force, both cavalry and in- fantry, that it became necessary to detach Marion against them. At the head of Maham's cavalry - Maham himself being a prisoner as already related - Marion proceeded upon his mission. General Greene's instructions to him on this occasion, which were in consonance with his own senti- ments and the tenor of his whole conduct, were to spare
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 329.
2 Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 371. Ramsay gives the name of the officer in command of this party as "Jones," but James gives it as Gibson (James's Life of Marion, 166).
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the unnecessary effusion of blood.1 And happily these he was able to comply with. But little defence was made by the Tories ; only one skirmish took place, in which, however, Robert James, a friend of the general's, was wounded. At Burch's Mill on the Pee Dee, in what is now Marion County, about ten miles west of the present town of Marion, another treaty was signed on the 8th of June, by which Gainey's party agreed to lay down their arms, to demean themselves thereafter as peaceable citizens, to deliver up all stolen property, to apprehend all who did not accede to the treaty now made, to take all deserters from the American army, to return them to their allegiance, and to abjure that of his Britannic Majesty. From this treaty the officer in command of the party who killed Colonel Kolb, and a notorious Tory leader in North Carolina named Fanning and his party, were excluded, but they escaped. Under this treaty at least five hundred men laid down their arms to Marion.2
As usual, Marion's absence was the signal for the renewal of depredations between the Cooper and the Santee. Colonel Ashby had been left in command of the infantry, but he had been pressed upon and compelled to retire, so that the general was recalled the moment he had quelled the insurrection of the Loyalists, to spread his shield once more over the country which had so long been the object of his protecting care. But had he not been joined by a new corps under Major Conyers, he must have come alone. His movements had been so rapid that Maham's corps, broken down with fatigue, were necessarily left in his rear to recruit; the militia of the country he had thought advisable to leave under Colonel Baxter to hold the Loyalists in check, as he doubted their sincerity and feared they would rise in force, plunder the country, and
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 335.
2 James's Life of Marion, 167.
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move down with their spoil to a fleet the enemy had been preparing in Charlestown for some enterprise. At Murray's Ferry he halted to collect his militia, and awaited the arrival of Maham; then, having under an order of the governor consolidated the two commands of Maham and Conyers into one regiment, about the middle of July he was enabled once more to cross the Santee at the head of a respectable cavalry and about three hundred infantry. With these he took post on the Wassamasaw road, in St. James's, Goose Creek, in a position secure from sudden attack, and calculated for easy cooperation with the detachment of the main army, in covering the country.
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