The Battle of Stallings Plantation: Patriots & Loyalists In The South Carolina Backcountry 1780

Living history reenactors portraying Patriot militia at
Historic Brattonsville in York County, South Carolina.

The Battle Of Stallings Plantation

Patriots & Loyalists In The South Carolina Backcountry 1780 

By C.W. Roden

During the Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War the Piedmont region, or "backcountry" of the two Carolinas and Georgia was the scene of some of the most intense warfare of the entire conflict. Often referred to as "America's first civil war," the Revolution in the Carolina Backcountry divided families and pitted neighbor against neighbor.

After Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina fell to the British Army in 1779 and 1780, the war in the Backcountry settlements rapidly became a bloody partisan fight between the Patriots (Whigs or Rebels) who fought to maintain independence, and the Loyalists (Tories or Royalists) who remained faithful to the British Crown. 
  
Some neighbors who quite recently fought together against raiding Cherokee attacks and against the old Regulators now turned on those same neighbors. In many cases loyalty to the cause of independence, or loyalty to the old country, were simply pretenses to settle old family feuds and past conflicts. This led to bloody reprisal after bloody reprisal throughout the summer and autumn of 1780 in the South Carolina Backcountry. 

The story of the tragedy at the Battle of Stallings Plantation in September of 1780 is but one of many examples of how personal the Revolutionary War in South Carolina's Backcountry truly was.

The exact date of the conflict isn't exactly clear. Some sources site it as July 12, 1780 -- the same day as the Battle of Huck's Defeat about ten miles away. However, this is contradicted by the fact that some of the men reported to have been at Williamson's Plantation the same day also fought at Stallings, which is unlikely. The battle happened sometime in late July, or August of 1780.

John Stallings, a local Loyalist, owned a large plantation -- known locally as "Stallions" -- along Fishing Creek in modern-day York County, South Carolina. He was holding a recruitment meeting for local Tories in his home.

Now when talking about plantations, modern-day readers usually have an image of a large white house with columns surrounded by vast fields and slave cabins. In upstate South Carolina in 1780, "Stallions" was just a large wooden homestead with a few smaller fields, a barn, and maybe a few wooden outbuildings -- as many other plantations were at that point in time. If the Stallings were slave owners, this writer was unable to find evidence of it. 

The house was slightly fortified and served as a post for local Loyalists. Stallions, as a loyal servant of the King, also likely grew food that was sold to the British forces garrisoned at nearby Rocky Mount near the Catawba River.

Upon learning of the gathering, Stallions’ brother-in-law and local Patriot, Captain Andrew Love of the New Acquisition District Regiment of Militia, met with and persuaded Colonel Thomas Brandon of the 2nd Spartan Regiment of Militia (Fair Forest Militia), to join him in routing out the Loyalists.

Thomas Brandon needed very little encouragement.

Earlier in the year in June, Colonel Brandon and his militia had established a camp near Fair Forest Creek in modern-day Union County as a place to recruit new volunteers for the militia. He also used it as a place to launch patrols against local Loyalists and as a place to keep prisoners.

One night a Tory prisoner, Adam Steedham, escaped and made his way to the camp of Loyalist Captain William "Bloody Bill" Cunningham -- a nickname that was well earned for his brutal treatment of the local Whigs. This was in retaliation for the 1778 whipping death of his invalid brother, John Cunningham, by a local Patriot militia leader, Captain William Richie.

The story goes that, without a horse and in a boiling rage, Cunningham went straight to Ritchie's house where he shot and killed the man in front of his family. Cunningham then fled to Georgia and took refuge with the Loyalists there and remained in exile until the return of the Crown's authority in South Carolina. "Bloody Bill" Cunningham would go on to become one of the most infamous figures in the Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War.  

Colonel Brandon had about ten or twelve men in camp making breakfast that morning when Captain Cunningham and his Loyalist cavalry, led by Steedham, rushed in and completely routing them. Brandon had situated his men beside a deep ravine, and many were able to get away by jumping into it. Cunningham's horses could not jump it. Five of Brandon's men were killed -- including his nephew, 20 year old John Young.

When Brandon's other nephew, 16 year old Thomas Young, learned of his older brother's death at the hands of Cunningham's Loyalists, Thomas was so devastated by the news that he vowed to avenge his brother’s death. He left home the next day and joined the Fair Forest militia, vowing to kill as many Loyalists as he could. He would later fasten the rope around the neck of Steedham, the Loyalist he felt the most responsible -- other than Cunningham -- for his brother's death.

This theme of wanton brutality and bloody reprisals would continue to play out throughout the rest of the war in South Carolina.

Thomas Young described the skirmish at Stallings Plantation -- his very first battle with the Patriot militia -- in his memoirs:

We had received intelligence of a party of Tories, then stationed at Stallions; a detachment of about 50 Whigs under Colonel Brandon moved to attack them. Before we arrived at the house in which they were fortified, we were divided into two parties. Captain Love with a party of sixteen, of whom I was one, marched to attack the front, while Colonel Brandon with the remainder, made a circuit to intercept those who should attempt to escape and also to attack the rear. Mrs. Stallions, on the approach of her brother, ran out and begged him not to fire upon the house. He told her it was too late now and that their only chance for safety was to surrender. She ran back to the house and sprang upon the door step, which was pretty high. At this moment the house was attacked in the rear and Mrs. Stallions was killed by a ball shot through the opposite door. At the same moment with Brandon’s attack, our party raised a shout and rushed forward. We fired several rounds which were briskly returned. It was not long, however, before the Tories ran up a flag, first upon the end of a gun, but as that did not look exactly peaceful, a ball was put through the fellow’s arm. In a few moments it was raised on a ram-rod and we ceased firing.
While we were fighting a man was seen running through an open field near us. I raised my gun to shoot him, when some of our party exclaimed, "Don't fire; he is one of our own men." I drew down my gun, and in a moment he halted, wheeled around, and fired at us. Old Squire Kennedy (who was an excellent marksman) raised his rifle and brought him down. We had but one wounded, William Kennedy, who was shot by my side. I was attempting to fire in at the door of the house, when I saw two of the Tories in the act of shooting at myself and Kennedy. I sprang aside and escaped, calling at the same time to my companion, but he was shot (while moving) through the wrist and thigh. The loss of the Tories was two killed, four wounded, and 28 prisoners whom we sent to Charlotte, N.C. 
After the fight, Love and Stallions met and shed bitter tears; Stallions was dismissed on parole to bury his wife and arrange his affairs.

Though a short engagement, the battle at Stallings Plantation was just one of over 250 individual battles and skirmishes that took place in South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War's Southern Campaign -- more than in any other individual State during the war. Most of those battles were fought between fellow Americans.

The tragic story of what lead up to the battle and its personal aftermath for both Captain Love and Mr. Stallings showed just how brutal and bitter that fight would be; as well as a testament to the absolute ugliness of bloody civil war and the hatred in the human heart that causes it. 

South Carolina highway marker detailing the Battle of
Stallings Plantation located on SC HWY 5 near
Park Place Road in York County.

Sources for this article include the following:

Voices of the American Revolution in the Carolinas, edited by Ed Southern (2009) ISBN 978-0-89578-358-3 (paperback) Pages 87-88.
The Memoirs of Major Thomas Young (Penfield, GA.: Orion Magazine, 1843).