The Burning Of Justice Gaston's Home: The Loyalists Strike Back -- June 11, 1780

The Burning Of Justice Gaston's Home

The Loyalists Strike Back

Sunday, June 11, 1780 

By: C.W. Roden 

(Part 4 of a 15 part series)

In the space of just three days in early June of 1780, those backcountry Patriots living between the Broad and Catawba Rivers who'd been content to sit out the rest of the war following the fall of Charleston the month before struck back against their oppressive Loyalist neighbors and their British allies in two short, but important battles.

These small acts of defiance alone were not enough to completely erase the fear of the British occupiers. Yet they were enough to send a clear message to the British commander at the Rocky Mount outpost, Lieutenant Colonel George Turnbull, that the Upstate was not completely in British control. That many of the Patriots in the New Acquisition and the upper District between the Broad and the Catawba Rivers still had not submitted to the Crown's authority, neither would they lay down their arms without a fight.

Since taking command of the post at Rocky Mount days earlier, Turnbull, in keeping with the overall British Southern strategy, had been actively organizing a Loyalist militia regiment to reinforce his own New York Volunteers and detachment of British Legion dragoons. But the incidents at Alexander's Old Field and Mobley's Meeting House had demonstrated the Loyalist militia's lack of fortitude in the face of the more experienced Whig partisans. Turnbull had little confidence at that point in his own militia's abilities.

Loyalist spies informed Turnbull that Patriot militia Colonel William Bratton and Captain John McClure were camped at the Upper Fishing Creek Presbyterian Meeting House -- the church of the local minister, Reverend John Simpson, and were rallying men to their cause, both Patriot leaders winning support with their recent successes.

Turnbull realized that a show of force was going to be necessary to keep the rebels in the District Between the Broad and Catawba Rivers in check.

On Saturday, June 10th, Turnbull dispatched his detachment of the dreaded British Legion dragoons under the command of Captain Christian Huck and mounted militia under Loyalist Captain James Ferguson with orders to either kill or capture McClure, Bratton, Simpson, and other Patriot leaders; as well as commandeer any supplies of wheat, corn, and horses in the area.


The Swearing Captain

Captain Christian Huck of the British Legion cavalry, was born in one of the German principalities of Europe about 1748 and immigrated to Pennsylvania sometime before the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War where he became a successful lawyer in Philadelphia. Because of his outspoken Loyalist views, the State of Pennsylvania branded Huck a "traitor" and confiscated his property in 1778. That same year Huck formed a company of Loyalist militia and joined the British Army in New York where he was commissioned a captain.

By 1780, Huck and his Provincials were a part of Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's British Legion cavalry and took part in the Siege of Charleston -- particularly the Battles of Monck's Corner and Lenud's Ferry, both British victories. Huck was also among Tarleton's cavalrymen at the Battle at the Waxhaws the month before where Virginian Continentals under Colonel Abraham Buford were all but slaughtered in what many in the South Carolina backcountry saw as a massacre.

Huck was a loudly profane man who hated the South Carolina Upcountry and had a special dislike of the largely Scotch-Irish Presbyterians that inhabited the region. He was arrogant, short-tempered, profane, and blasphemous to those he considered rebels and traitors to the Crown. His tendency to use such colorful language earned him the nickname "the Swearing Captain."

He considered the Scotch-Irish and Ulster Scots people who lived in South Carolina's upstate and their Christian faith to be beneath him. During his raids on the local farms, Huck and his men would be known to burn the homes of those found with Presbyterian Bibles, swearing blasphemous insults at those he rendered homeless. 

Such statements, matched by his brutal contempt for the local population and their faith, would make Huck's name an anathema across the upper districts alongside his infamous commanding officer, "Bloody Ban" Tarleton.


Huck's Raid On Fishing Creek

On Sunday, June 11th, Captain Huck and his force arrived in the upper Fishing Creek settlements in western Chester County with his dragoons and Ferguson's Loyalist militia riding hard toward the Upper Fishing Creek Meeting House where Captain McClure, Colonel Bratton, and most of their Patriot militia, along with a number of Simpson's Presbyterian congregation attending morning worship service. Huck planned to catch them all by surprise.

Huck's forces first stopped at the neighboring home of Janet "Jenny" Strong, a widow and sister of Justice John Gaston. Her family were known to be staunch Patriots. Her eldest son, Christopher, was 20 and had served in the local militia for years. Her younger son, William, was 17 and had joined the local Patriot militia earlier that year. 

Huck's men entered the Strong home and plundered it of anything valuable, with emphasis on corn and wheat. When some of his men entered the barn where her youngest son, William, was hiding and reading his family Bible. The Loyalists shot him dead and dragged his body from the barn into the yard. There several of the Legion soldiers began to hack at the body until the grieving Mrs. Strong rushed from the house and covered her dead son's body with her own to stop the mutilation.

Monument dedicated to the memory of
Reverend John Simpson (1740-1808)
at Fishing Creek Presbyterian Church.

According to one local account, a tame pigeon landed in the yard drawn by some of the accidentally scattered wheat, and was cut in half by Huck's saber. The Loyalist captain then said in mockery to Mrs. Strong: "Madam, I have cut the head off of the Holy Ghost." The grieving woman reportedly responded prophetically to Huck by saying, "You will never die in your bed, nor will your death be that of the righteous!"

Huck then ordered the Strong home and barn burned, leaving Mrs. Strong homeless in the yard with her dead son. The Loyalists then marched on towards the Upper Fishing Creek Meeting House.

As they approached the Loyalists surrounded the building and went inside, finding the place empty with no Rebel militia in sight. From local Tories, they learned that the Whig militia -- tipped off that the Loyalists were on their way -- had already left the day before headed towards the New Acquisitions District (modern-day York County). Furious at missing his chance to capture the Patriot leaders, Huck ordered his dragoons and Captain Ferguson's men to sack and burn the meeting house.

Huck then ordered his men to remount and proceed to the Simpson's home where they hoped to capture the Whig minister. Several of Reverend Simpson's slaves were standing nearby and overhead Huck's declaration to "burn the rascal out." They hastened to the Simpson home to warn them.

Modern-day Fishing Creek Presbyterian
Church is located on SC Highway 32
(Fishing Creek Church Rd.)
near the town of Edgemoor, SC
in Chester County.

A quarter mile away at the Simpson home, the pastor's wife, Mary Simpson, was having breakfast with her children when she heard the sound of gunfire. The slaves arrived just ahead of Huck's Loyalists and alerted Mrs. Simpson of the destruction of the meeting house and Huck's imminent arrival. She directed them to take the children and hide in the woods nearby.

Huck and his Loyalists arrived moments later, demanding that Simpson surrender himself. Mrs. Simpson informed them that he was gone, sending Huck into another blasphemous rage where he reportedly uttered: "God almighty had become a Rebel, but if there were 20 Gods on that side, they would all be conquered!" He ordered the home plundered and burned to the ground.

The Loyalists stole clothes, family silver, and anything of value they could find; even tearing open the feather beds with their bayonets and scattered the feathers in the yard. Huck himself threw the Reverend Simpson's Bible into the fireplace, intending to burn it. Mary Simpson quickly saved it, further enraging Huck. Once the house was aflame, Huck's men also set fire to the barns and an outbuilding that the Reverend Simpson used as a study.

As the British soldiers departed, Mary Simpson ran into the burning study at great risk to her life -- she did in fact suffer terrible burns -- and saved two aprons full of the books. She and her children were now homeless and had to stay with a neighbor.

Huck and his forces then returned to Rocky Mount, having failed in their mission to capture the local Patriot leaders, but also having inflicted some degree of punishment to the rebellious Scotch-Irish Whigs. They'd left a young man murdered in his own yard, a local church and family homes ablaze, and two families homeless.


Aftermath

Huck's raid on the Fishing Creek community, and the subsequent cruelties he and his British Legion detachment and Loyalist militia subjected the local population to over the next month, would add to the terrible reputation of the green-coated Legion; and continued to strike both fear, and a great deal of resentment, to much of the local population along the Catawba River.

As bad as his destruction of the Upper Fishing Creek Meeting House and the Reverend Simpson's home would be, Huck's next act of terror would have long-lasting repercussions to the people of the Chester and York County areas, which will be explored in the next chapter of this series on June 17th.
 

For more information about Huck's Raid on Chester County please consult the following sources that were used to help with this blog post:
The Chester County Historical Society: http://www.chestercohistorical.org/

The outstanding books: The Day It Rained Militia by Michael C. Scoggins (2005) ISBN 1-59629-015-3

 Partisans & Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned The Tide of the American Revolution by Walter Edgar (2001)
ISBN 0-308-97760-5

Night Sky Photography -- 06-10-2026 -- Venus & Jupiter Conjunction After Sunset

 

Good evening, fellow amateur stargazers!

This evening I captured a great shot of the planets Jupiter and Venus together in conjunction about 70 minutes after sunset in the western sky above the trees.

The two planets had actually been much closer together the previous evening, however cloud cover prevented me from getting any photos unfortunately. Still the two planets were still close together and will remain so for the rest of this week, so spotting them with the naked eye won't be too difficult on a clear evening.

Venus is the larger and brightest object in the early evening sky at the current distance of about 111 million miles (or 178 million kilometers) away from Earth. Jupiter, while much larger, is much farther away at the current distance of about 563 million miles (or 906 million kilometers) from Earth.

The Raid On Mobley's Meeting House: The Loyalists Routed -- June 8, 1780

The Raid On Mobley's Meeting House

The Loyalists Routed  
Thursday, June 8, 1780

By: C.W. Roden

(Part 3 of a 15 part series)

As it was mentioned in the previous chapter in this series, that following the fall of Charleston to the British army on Friday, May 12, 1780, the British army established outposts across South Carolina in an attempt to reestablish the Crown's colonial rule of the independent American State and to recruit Southern Loyalists to join the fight against the rebellious Continental army and their Patriot neighbors. The British military presence at Rocky Mount in modern-day Chester County was enough to embolden the local Loyalist population to strike out against their Whig neighbors.

In the Fairfiled District (modern-day Fairfield County) a group of Loyalists, largely commanded by a local Tory militia leader Colonel Robert Coleman, established a camp at Mobley's Meeting House (also known as Gibson's Meeting House) a blockhouse located next to a high embankment on a branch of the Little River near a place called Shirer's Ferry. 

From their outpost these Loyalists, encouraged by British General Sir Henry Clinton's June 3rd Proclamation, informed the inhabitants of the region to take the oath of allegiance to the Crown, or be regarded as rebels and traitors. Emboldened they soon began to raid and plunder the homes and properties of their Patriot neighbors. Some of these acts were said to be revenge for similar plundering done by local Whigs following the Snow Campaign five years before where the Loyalists were soundly defeated.

Among the homes plundered were the plantations of Captains John and Henry Hampton, who were arrested and sent to British General Lord Cornwallis's headquarters at Camden under guard.


Gathering Of Upcountry Patriots

A former Patriot captain of the 3rd South Carolina Regiment and prominent landowner in the district named Richard Winn started to organize a militia to fight back against the Loyalists. Such was the fear of the British authority by this time -- largely due to the presence of the now infamous green-coated British Legion nearby at Camden -- that Winn was unable to find anyone in the district willing to oppose them.

Undaunted, Winn himself set out north to the New Acquisitions District -- modern-day York County -- on Wednesday, June 7th, and sought the help of local Patriot leaders he was well acquainted with there for assistance in raising a force to fight back.

Among the men Winn met with were Patriot militia leaders such as Colonel William Bratton who'd been leading local Patriot militia since 1775, Colonel William "Billy" Hill (grandfather of future Confederate General Daniel Harvey Hill) who ran the local iron works making weapons for the Continental Army, Colonel Edward Lacey Jr., and Captain John McClure who'd arrived along with most of the 33 men who led the successful surprise attack at Alexander's Old Field the day before on June 6th.

With their help, Winn was able to raise a force of about 200 Upcountry Patriots from York and Chester Counties. Colonel Bratton was elected the overall field commander for the engagement. With this strong force of militiamen, all well-mounted on good horses, Bratton, Winn and the other Patriot leaders set out for Mobley's Meeting House.


Surprise Attack

On the early morning hours of Thursday, June 8th, the Patriots arrived in the vicinity of Mobley's Meeting House and scouted the area. As with the previous engagement at Alexander's Old Field, some of the people gathered at the site were armed Loyalist militia, while others were local citizens complying with Clinton's proclamation to take protection and join the Loyalist militia.

The Loyalist stronghold had both a fortified blockhouse and the sturdy-built log meetinghouse itself. Coleman's Loyalists were posted both inside and outside the meeting house. Coleman and his men were not particularly alert against the possibility of attack, despite the news of the recent events near Beckhamville several days earlier.

A Southern Patriot militiaman during
the Southern Campaign 1780-1781.
Artwork by Don Troiani.

The strategy the Patriot militia agreed upon was virtually the same as the one McClure's men used at Alexander's Old Field: a quick attack without warning to surprise the enemy. They fanned out through the woods and surrounded the fortified meeting house on three sides -- the fourth side faced the high embankment overlooking the Little River that was both hazardous to climb, or descend in a retreat. The Whigs were certain that the Tories inside would not attempt to escape that way.

As the sun rose, Winn's party began the attack, catching Coleman and his Loyalists completely by surprise. So panicked were the Loyalists that many of them did in fact jump from the steep embankment in an attempt to escape. This accounted for most of the casualties in the battle, rather than deaths or wounds from musket and rifle fire.

The brief fight lasted for several minutes before the remaining Loyalists either escaped down the embankment, or surrendered to Bratton and Winn's Patriots. Several of the Loyalists were killed and wounded (the exact number is unknown) with no casualties among the Patriots.

Following the battle, the Patriots recovered from the captured blockhouse much of the loot that the Tories took from Whig plantations, including some 30 slaves, several wagons and teams, 30 horses, and the household furniture plundered from John and Henry Hampton. The plunder was later restored to their owners, and the Patriot militia commanded by Colonel Bratton and Captain's McClure and Lacey retired with their prisoners to the Upper Fishing Creek Presbyterian Meeting House in modern-day Chester County. The prisoners would be transferred to North Carolina, while most the Patriot militiamen would return to their neighborhoods until needed again.


Aftermath

Captain Richard Winn would immediately suffer the wrath of Loyalist reprisal. Knowing that Winn was one of the planners of the raid at Mobley's Meeting House, and that he was still in the field with the Whig partisans; Loyalists from the Little River area visited his plantation, sacking it and then put all of Winn's possessions to the torch.

British Lieutenant Colonel George Turnbull, commander of the Rocky Mount outpost, alarmed by the the two attacks at Alexander's Old Field and Mobley's Meeting House, knew that a show of force was going to be necessary to keep the Rebels in check. 

In reprisal, Turnbull would send out the detachment of British Legion Cavalry under the command of Loyalist Captain Christian Huck to punish the local Rebel population. Their first target would be the Upper Fishing Creek settlements and the home of Justice John Gaston, which will be discussed in the next chapter of this series.

For more information about The Battle of Mobley's Meeting House please consult the following sources that were used to help with this blog post: 

The outstanding books: The Day It Rained Militia by Michael C. Scoggins (2005) ISBN 1-59629-015-3

 Partisans & Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned The Tide of the American Revolution by Walter Edgar (2001)
ISBN 0-308-97760-5

Defiance At Alexander's Old Field: The Backcountry Resists The Crown -- June 6, 1780

Defiance At Alexander's Old Field

The Backcountry Resists The Crown
Tuesday, June 6, 1780

By: C.W. Roden 

(Part 2 of a 15 part series)

After a hot and exhausting journey of over two weeks on foot, Captain John McClure and his Patriot militia men finally reached their homes in what was then known as the District Between the Broad and Catawba Rivers -- now modern-day Chester County -- in South Carolina's sparsely populated backcountry about midday on Wednesday, May 31, 1780.

As it was mentioned in the previous chapter of this series, Captain McClure and his men decided to return home after the surrender of Charleston to the British army two weeks before. McClure, a young man in his mid-20s, arrived at the home of Justice John Gaston, a resident of Fishing Creek and well known local Patriot leader in the community.

It was there that McClure learned of the shocking massacre of Buford's Continentals at the Waxhaws two days before by Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's British Legion. McClure and three of Justice Gaston's sons who were present along with a few other Patriots made an oath declaring that they would never submit nor surrender to the enemies of their country; that liberty or death, from that time forth, should be their motto.

Each of these men had at one time served three years in the company of Captain Eli Kershaw of the 3rd Regiment of South Carolina Militia, with the motto "Liberty or Death" inscribed upon their caps.

This small core group of upcountry Patriots voted that night to continue the fight against the British forces, at the cost of their lives if necessary. They were about to go on the offensive. It was just a question of when and where.


The British Establish Their Rule In The Upstate

After the fall of Charleston and the surrender of the Southern Continental Army a couple of weeks earlier on Friday, May 12th, the British forces began to focus more activities inland and began establishing outposts in the backcountry to reestablish the Crown's control over the rebellious State.

Lord Francis Rawdon, who commanded the 23rd and 33rd British regiments along with his own Volunteers of Ireland (a corps of Pennsylvania-born Provincials) along with Tarleton's Legion and Lieutenant Colonel John Hamilton's mountain Loyalist corps, along with a detachment of Royal Artillery established a major British post at Camden (in modern-day Kershaw County), the largest town in the South Carolina backcountry at the time.

To the west, three battalions of the Royal Provincials and light infantry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Nisbet Balfour held the important frontier post at Ninety-Six (in modern-day Greenwood County) which connected the roads between Charleston and Augusta, with Major Patrick Ferguson and his American Volunteers (local Loyalists recruited along with a force of Northern-born Provincials) were assigned to the country between the Broad and Saluda Rivers. Balfor would later be reassigned to take command of Charleston around early August and Ninety-Six would be placed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John H. Cruger.

To the east, Major Arthur MacArthur and two battalions of the famed 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Highlanders) covered the country between Camden and Georgetown on the coast, establishing a post near the town of Cheraw in modern-day Chesterfield County.

In order to begin pacifying the upcountry between the Broad and Catawba Rivers, the Crown's forces established a Royal Post of three log fort-like houses at Rocky Mount (the area around what was then the Great Falls of the Catawba River near modern-day Great Falls, South Carolina) under the command of British Lieutenant Colonel George Turnbull. The garrison at Rocky Mount would eventually come to include 150 men of the New York Volunteers Provincial Regiment and a troop of some 40 dragoons of the now infamous green-coated British Legion commanded by Captain Christian Huck, a name that would, in due course, become as hated in the upcountry as that of his now infamous young commander, "Bloody Ban" Tarleton.

This force was to begin the process of recruiting local Loyalists to the main British forces to help establish control among the local population.

The reaction of local Loyalists was one of undisguised glee. Many of them were still bitter over their defeat during the Snow Campaign in November of 1775 and other petty humiliations inflicted since then by their Whig neighbors. The Loyalists in South Carolina were ready to avenge themselves against their "traitorous" neighbors. Many family feuds and old scores between bitter neighbors -- some dating back at least a generation -- or would simply be "settled" with robbery and murder under the guise of patriotism and loyalty to one's respective causes.

In some cases Loyalist fathers and brothers fought Patriot sons and brothers and brother-in-laws in the bitter, ugly civil war that would rise from British occupation of the State, and subsequent resistance to the Crown's authority. Neither those loyal to the British Empire nor those loyal to the State of South Carolina and the Continental cause of independence would be entirely clean from the ugliness and horror that would soon follow. 

General Clinton's Proclamation

On Saturday, June 3rd, British Commander In Chief Sir Henry Clinton issued a proclamation to the people of South Carolina that was destined to undermine any efforts at pacifying the State. The proclamation encourage the local population to swear an oath of loyalty to the British Crown and to formally enlist in the new Loyalist forces being formed to fight for the Empire.

The proclamation reads:

"Whereas after the arrival of His Majesty's forces under my command in this province, in February last, numbers of persons were made prisoners by the (British) army, or voluntarily surrendered themselves as such, and such persons were afterwards dismissed on their respective paroles; and whereas the surrender of Charles Town (Charleston), and the defeats and dispersion of the rebel forces, it is become necessary that such paroles should be any longer observed; and proper that all persons should take an active part in settling and securing His Majesty's government, and delivering the country from that anarchy which for some time past hath prevailed; I so hereby issue this my proclamation, to declare, that all the inhabitants of this province who are not prisoners under parole and were not in the military line, (those who were in fort Moultrie and Charles Town at the times of their capitulation and surrender, or were then in actual confinement exempted) that from and after the twentieth day of June instant, they are freed and exempted from all such paroles, and may hold themselves as restored to all the rights and duties belonging to citizens and inhabitants. 
"And all persons under the description before mentioned, who shall afterwards neglect to return to their allegiances, and to His Majesty's government, will be considered as enemies and rebels to the same, and treated accordingly." 

This proclamation enraged the local Patriots.

In one short document, Clinton not only revoked the paroles of the Carolina militia who signed oaths in Charleston, but also required them to take an active part in restoring British control to the State and to take up arms against their friends, family, and neighbors still in arms against the British Empire, or risk being considered enemies of the Crown and suffer the consequences. The proclamation offered no middle ground and forced many who were neutral in the war up till that time to pick a side.

It would prove to be one of the biggest mistakes the British could have done in their efforts to pacify the South Carolina backcountry.

The settlers of the South Carolina Piedmont and Upcountry were mainly Scotch-Irish Protestants, many descended from Ulster-Scots, who'd traveled from Pennsylvania and Virginia via the Great Wagon Road and settled in the Carolinas and Appalachia. These people grew up on their parent's stories of English cruelty in the old country. Now having seen firsthand the brutality of the British Legion at the Waxhaws, and incidents like the burning of Colonel Sumter's home after the fall of Charleston, these people were being forced to choose between loyalty to the British Crown, or being branded outlaws. 

Many of those in the backcountry would not stand to be bullied.

On Monday, June 5th General Clinton would leave South Carolina with much of the British forces to return to New York City and rejoin the main British and Hessian forces there still locked in the stalemate with General George Washington's Continental Army. Departing from British occupied Charleston with British Admiral Mariot Arburthnot aboard the British warship HMS Romulus, Clinton would leave behind Lieutenant General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a corps of about 5,000 British and Provincial soldiers. Clinton was confident that the small number of British regulars were enough to pacify the rebellious former colony long enough for new recruits of Loyalists to take over control. Many of these new recruits would then join Cornwallis as he would march north later that year into North Carolina and then to Virginia, repeating the same process and catching Washington's Continentals and the Continental Congress in Philadelphia between two large British armies.

Feeling secure now that his southern strategy was beginning to take shape, Clinton left South Carolina confident that his final proclamation would be the final nail in the coffin of resistance in the Southern State.


First Act Of Defiance In The Backcountry

From his newly established base at Rocky Mount, one of Colonel Turnbull's first acts was to send soldiers to distribute handbills among the people calling upon them to meet him at Alexander's Old Field near the small community of Bechamville near the Catawba River the next day on Tuesday, June 6th and to enroll their names as loyal subjects of King George III and receive British protection. 

Soon after doing this, a Loyalist militia captain named Henry Houseman visited the home of Justice John Gaston.

Gaston lived in his home about two miles south of Ceder Shoals on the south side of nearby Fishing Creek in modern-day Chester County. He'd served previously as justice of the peace under both the Royal and State governments, and was known to be a prominent Patriot in the area with a great deal of influence. Houseman believed that the old justice could and would bring many of his neighbors around to his way of thinking.

After treating his guest with proper Southern courtesy, Justice Gaston listened to Houseman's request and firmly rejected it. Houseman warned Gaston against causing any trouble for his sake before he departed. Justice Gaston sent his sons to various places in the community for men to meet at his house that same night. By midnight 33 men arrived, including Captain McClure. They were clad in hunting-shirts and moccasins, wool hates and deer-skin caps, each armed with a hunting knife and a rifle. 

The historic marker for the site of Justice John Gaston's home is
located on SC Highway 9 just west of Fishing Creek Bridge
between the Town of Richburg and Fort Lawn, SC.

The group were just as outraged as Gaston had been that Housemen was trying to force their loyalties and understood exactly what needed to be done. Captain John McClure led the group early the next morning as they set out down the Old Indian Trail running from upper Fishing Creek to lower Rocky Creek coming upon Alexander's Old Fields before daybreak.

The term "Old Fields" refers to large prairies, or open fields, that already existed when European settlers first arrived. It is presumed that these field were created by the local Native American tribes when they'd burned large areas of forests when hunting herds of wild game. The field was named for an early area settler.

Captain Houseman was there with a group of armed Loyalists along with others from the surrounding neighborhood gathered at the field, some 200 in number. Many of the latter had no real desire to take British protection, but most believed that they had no choice. 

The armed Patriot militia, seeing their neighbors and friends present on the field took extra careful aim at the armed Tories. Many of the locals had already taken the oath of allegiance when McClure's men opened fire from the trees, dropping several of the armed Loyalists.

The sudden attack took the Loyalists completely by surprise. A general stampede of men took place as the group scattered. Some dropped to the ground to play dead as the Patriot militia continued to fire at Houseman's Loyalist militia in the open field. The Loyalists managed to return fire only once before withdrawing from the field and retreating back to their outpost at Rocky Mount. 

The small battle took only a few minutes, resulting in 4 Loyalists killed and several more wounded. McClure's Patriots suffered only two wounded and none killed. Nine of the people who took the British oath were taken prisoner and ultimately paroled, or renounced their oaths and joined McClure's militia. A few of these men would pay later that summer when they were captured and hanged by the Loyalists for violating their oaths to the Crown.

Justice Gaston had seven sons, all of whom fought to maintain the independence of South Carolina and America. Four of them would die in that service.


Aftermath

The actions of Justice Gaston and Captain McClure's men would be the very first act of resistance to British rule in South Carolina's backcountry. The victory, though small, came just after the Fall of Charleston and Buford's Massacre and greatly raised the morale of the upcountry Patriots. It was the linchpin of resistance in South Carolina. The battle and routing of Houseman's Loyalists would spur even greater resistance throughout the backcountry.

Another equally important act of defiance against the British and their Loyalist allies would take place two days later on June 8th at a place called Mobley's Meeting House in modern-day Fairfield County, which we will talk more about in the next chapter in this series.

Marker at the site of the Battle of Beckhamville
(Alexander's Old Fields) on June 6, 1780.

Historical marker at the site of the battle is located in
Chester County, SC near the intersection of SC 97 and SC 99
near the town of Great Falls.

For more information about The Battle of Beckhamville please consult the following sources that were used to help with this blog post: 

The outstanding book: The Day It Rained Militia by Michael C. Scoggins (2005) ISBN 1-59629-015-3

and the Chester County Historical Society at their website: http://www.chestercohistorical.org/

House Finches In My Feeders

The end of May and the beginning of June bring more beautiful House Finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) to my backyard feeders. They are generally good-natured little birds that get along with other birds that visit my feeders.

The following are photos I've taken of these friendly little feathered visitors between the middle of May to the first week of June of this year.

By backyard buddy, Loki, also loves watching the House Finches.

More beautiful backyard bird photography coming soon.