Remembering The Christmas Eve Nakatomi Hostage Crisis 35 Years Later

 

Thirty-five years ago on Christmas Eve, 1988, the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. was the scene of the bloodiest international terrorist attacks on American soil in the 20th century.

Early in the evening of December 24th, just after sunset, a group of thirteen heavily armed mercenary terrorists seized control of the forty story Nakatomi Plaza Building, taking hostage nearly 30 employees who had been enjoying a private Christmas office party on one of the upper floors.

In addition to taking hostages, the terrorists also began to fortify their position in the building with a portable guided rocket launcher and planting C-4 plastic explosive charges. They also cut all landlines effectively cutting communication with the outside world and locked down the building's security system sealing off any way in or out.

The leader of the terror group -- later dubbed the "Gruber Gang" -- was a German-born radical, Hans Gruber. The hostages were rounded up and secured by the terrorists, while Gruber took away one of the top-ranking Nakatomi corporate executives, Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi, whom he later executed in cold blood for failure to provide information to the terrorists, and to make an example for the other hostages. 

The infamous "Gruber Gang" in the Nakatomi Plaza Building. Hans Gruber is seated in the middle.
Photo was taken by one of the hostages.

Later in the evening, a fire alarm was pulled at the Nakatomi Building; the first alert to the outside world that something was amiss. This alert, however, was called off by the terrorists posing as the building's security.

Half an hour later, an emergency broadcast was sent out by an unknown caller using a CB radio alerting the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) about the terrorist situation. This was initially believed to be a hoax, until LAPD officer Sergeant Al Powell stumbled into the situation and called for backup assistance.

The man who alerted the LAPD of the situation was an unexpected fly in the ointment to the Gruber Gang's plans: New York City Police Department (NYPD) detective named John McClane, a man 3,000 miles from his jurisdiction visiting his then estranged wife, one of the executives attending the office party.

Detective McClane managed to evade the terrorists taking over the building, armed only with his service pistol against men with automatic weapons. He was also reported later to have been barefoot throughout the crisis, having left his shoes in one of the restrooms before the takeover took place.

In attempting to attract outside attention to the deadly situation, McClane was forced to kill one of the terrorists after the failed fire alarm. Through a captured walkie-talkie radio he confiscated that the terrorists used to communicate, he sent out the radio message. Later, he would communicate with Sergeant Powell using the alias "Roy" (apparently in honor of Hollywood western star Roy Rogers) to relay information about what was happening inside the building.

McClane would also reportedly taunt Gruber himself over the radio.

Despite assisting the LAPD in reporting on the crisis, the police officer in charge, Deputy Chief Dwayne T. Robinson, was skeptical of McClane's claims. This despite protests from Powell, who correctly suspected their new ally was a police officer. In spite of McClane's warning about the number of terrorists and their hardware, Robinson gave the go-ahead for a SWAT Team attack, with disastrous results for the police.

Despite the situation being reported, the Gruber Gang were more than ready for an inevitable police confrontation. The entry points to the building were manned by terrorists who wounded four SWAT Team members. Robinson then sent in an armored ram to try and force entry into the building, only for the vehicle and the two officers inside to be killed when the terrorists deployed their portable guided missiles, destroying the armored car. 

The Gruber Gang might have added four more SWAT Team members to the death toll, if not for the intervention of McClane. The besieged police officer used a pound of captured C-4 to destroy the rocket launcher and kill two more of the terrorists -- as well as heavily damage one floor of the Nakatomi Plaza Building in the process.

McClane's identity would become known to all, including the LAPD and the news media outlets when Gruber contacted McClane to make him aware he knew who was interfering with his plan. This was thanks to the foolish efforts of another Nakatomi executive, Harry Ellis, who tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution. When McClane failed to give himself up, Gruber murdered Ellis as he had with Takagi just a couple hours before.

Not long after McClane's intervention and the murder of Ellis, Gruber himself contacted the police and sent out a list of demands in exchange for the lives of the hostages. These demands included the release of several terrorist group members imprisoned in Northern Ireland, Canada, and Sri Lanka. Gruber then demanded helicopters on the roof ready to fly him and his gang away once his demands were met.

The true goal of Gruber's call, and his takeover of the Nakatomi Building had nothing to do with liberating fellow revolutionary radicals. This would later be proved to be a tactic used to buy time until the arrival of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in order to implement the next step of his master plan.

The true goal of the Gruber Gang was to use the terrorist attack as a front in order to steal $640 million U.S. dollars worth in negotiable bearer bonds secured in the vault of the Nakatomi Building. The plan was brilliantly conceived by Gruber himself to use the FBI's own tactics for dealing with terrorist threats against them in order to gain access to the vault once the buildings power grid was cut off.

The second half of the plan was to be more nefarious.

Again anticipating FBI's tactics, the Gruber Gang were going to put the hostages on the roof, which had been heavily wired with C-4. Once the helicopters were to touch down, the explosives would have been set off, killing everyone in the process. The gang, meanwhile, would have escaped with their loot using a fake emergency service vehicle they'd secured in the buildings parking garage.

Had the Gruber Gang pulled off this plan, it might have been presumed they perished in the explosion along with the rest of the hostages, instead of escaping with untraceable bonds.

The roof of the Nakatomi Building was later blown, causing even more damage to the structure. Thanks to the heroic efforts of McClane, none of the hostages were killed....although two FBI military helicopters were destroyed in the blast along with at least eight personnel (among them two FBI agents named Johnson and Johnson -- apparently no relations) lost their lives in the blast.

Detective McClane managed to foil the Gruber Gang's plot and finish off the remaining terrorists, including Gruber himself, in a final showdown near the vault. Hans Gruber, the mastermind of the terrorist heist plot, would fall 30 stories to his death.

Only one of the Gruber Gang would be captured alive thanks to the unlikely assistance of a limo driver, Argyle White, who had also been trapped inside the building in the parking garage.

The final bloody death toll for the Nakatomi Hostage Crisis was 26 people killed, including:

2 Nakatomi Building security guards.
2 Nakatomi corporation executives.
2 L.A. Police Swat Team members in an armored car.
2 FBI agents.
6 Military helicopter pilots and support personnel.
12 of the Gruber Gang terrorists (including Gruber himself)

Detective John McClane, the hero cop of Nakatomi Plaza, following the crisis with his wife,
Holly Genarro-McClane who had been among the hostages.

At least another four L.A.P.D. Swat Team men were badly wounded in the failed attempt to move into the building, but survived. Also wounded in the attack was McClaine, who survived being shot and blood loss due to severe lacerations to his bare feet; as well as Sergeant Powell, who suffered minor head lacerations. 

Also a television news reporter, Richard Thornburg, suffered the loss of two teeth and a bloody nose after being punch in the face by Holly Genarro-McClane in response to a stupid question....no charges were filed since everyone on scene agreed he was kinda dick.

John McClane would go on to receive a commendation for his heroism and minor celebrity status for a short time. He would later be of assistance in foiling another terror plot a few years later in Washington D.C. (ironically during another Christmas weekend), but that's a story for another time.

Let us remember the tragedy and the heroism of the 1988 Nakatomi Hostage Crisis on this 35th anniversary. In the words of John McClane himself, "Yippee-ki-yay, mother f***er!"

Merry Christmas, Y'all, and Never Forget!

Winter Along The Rappahannock River 1862-1863

A scene where Confederate and Union pickets meet on the frozen Rappahannock River just south
of the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia in the winter of 1862-1863.
My Friend The Enemy. Painting by American Artist Mort Kunstler (2008).

This is one of the most often repeated stories of goodwill between friendly pickets during the War Between The States (1861-1865).

During the Christmas season of 1862, Union and Confederate pickets across the Rappahannock River just outside of the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia was the scene of just such fraternization with their opposite numbers. The river was largely frozen over that winter and the gap between both banks was only a few hundred feet across in many places. The lines were so close on the Rappahannock during the winter of 1862-1863, that personal contact between the soldiers of both sides became commonplace.

While the officers usually discouraged such contact, the common soldiers would make their exchanges by small, hand-made boats that the soldiers called "fairy fleets." Using these toy boats, both sides would exchange goods with each other from across the Rappahannock River.

Other times, when the river froze over more, these men and boys would often met together on rocks, or small islands in the river where Confederate troops exchanged Southern tobacco for the coffee ration issued to Northern soldiers. Sometimes they even met to play cards, or just to exchange stories.

These sorts of encounters were reported many times by soldiers of both sides.

In the spirit of the Holiday Season, this writer would like to offer two stories of these encounters told from the point of view of two young men at the time who served on both sides of the Rappahannock near Fredericksburg that fateful Christmas and winter following the major battle that took place there in December of 1862. 

The following account was written by Private John Randolph Paxton (1843-1923), of Company G, 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a resident of Washington County, Pennsylvania, was originally published in Harper's Weekly, but was later reprinted in newspapers all over the country. After the war, Paxton became a Presbyterian minister. 

The snow still fell; the keen wind, raw and fierce cut to the bone. It was God's worst weather in God's forlornest, bleakest spot of ground, that Christmas day of '62 on the Rappahannock, a mile below the town of Fredericksburg. But come, pick up your prostrate pluck, you shivering private. Surely there is enough dampness around without adding to it your tears.​
"Let's laugh, boys."​
"Hello, Johnny!"​
"Hello yourself, Yank!"​
"Merry Christmas, Johnny!"​
"Same to you, Yank!"
"Say Johnny, got anything to trade?"​
"Parched corn and tobacco - the size of our Christmas, Yank."​
"All right. You shall have some of our coffee and sugar and pork. Boys, find the boats."​
Such boats! I see the children sailing them on the small lakes in our Central Park. Some Yankee, desperately hungry for tobacco, invented them for trading with the Johnnies. They were hid away under the banks of the river for successive relays of pickets.​
We got out the boats. An old handkerchief answered for a sail. We loaded them with coffee, sugar, pork, and set the sail, and watched them slowly creep to the other shore. And the Johnnies! To see them crowd the bank, and push and scramble to be the first to seize the boats, going into the water, and stretching out their long arms! Then when they pulled the boats ashore, and stood in a group over the cargo, and to hear their exclamations: "Hurrah for hog!" "Sat, that's not roasted rye, but genuine coffee. Smell it, you uns." "And sugar, too." Then they divided the consignment. They laughed and shouted, "Reckon you uns been good to we uns this Christmas Day, Yanks." Then they put parched corn, tobacco, and ripe persimmons into the boats, and sent them back to us. And we chewed the parched corn, smoked real Virginia leaf, ate persimmons, which if they weren't very filling, at least contracted our stomachs to the size of our Christmas dinner. And so the day passed.​
We shouted, "Merry Christmas, Johnny." They shouted, "Same to you, Yank." And we forgot the biting wind, the chilling cold; we forgot those men over there were our enemies, whom it might be our duty to shoot before evening.​
We had bridged the river - spanned the bloody chasm. We were brothers, not foes, waving salutations of good will in the name of the Babe of Bethlehem, on Christmas Day, in '62. At the very front of the opposing armies the Christ Child struck a truce for us -- broke down the wall of partition, became our peace. We exchanged gifts. We shouted greetings back and forth. We kept Christmas, and our hearts were lighted for it and our shivering bodies were not quite so cold.​

The second account is taken from the memoirs of Sergeant Berry G. Benson (1843-1923), of Company H, 1st South Carolina Infantry Regiment, a resident of North Augusta, South Carolina, talking about his remembrances from the winter of 1862-1863 when Benson's unit was assigned picket duty several miles downstream from the town of Fredericksburg.

"We picketed the Rappahannock at Moss Neck Church, one's turn to picket coming every few days, 24 hours being the term. We became quite friendly with the enemy's pickets posted on the opposite side, and used to talk with them and exchange newspapers. The exchange was made by taking a piece of board or bark, fixing a stick upright in it as a mast, with the paper attached to this as a sail. By setting the sail properly, the wind would carry it across from one side to the other, as it was wanted to go. Once a Federal band came down the river and played 'Dixie.' We cheered them vociferously, of course. Then it played 'Yankee Doodle,' and the enemy cheered. Then 'Home, Sweet Home,' and the cheer went up loud and long from both sides of the river."

Both Private Paxton and Sergeant Benson were 19 years old and far from their homes that winter along the Rappahannock River. For them, if only for all-too-brief a time, it was the war that was the real enemy, and not each other. The common bond of being Americans; the divine spark of humanity, for all to brief a period overcoming the darkness of human nature.

Both of these men would thankfully survive the war and go on to have productive and meaningful lives beyond the bloodshed.

Reverend John R. Paxton
Co. G, 140th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, USA.
(September 18,1843 - April 11, 1923).

Sergeant Berry G. Benson
Co. H, 1st South Carolina Infantry Regiment, CSA.
(February 19, 1843 - January 1, 1923).

Have a Happy Holiday Season, Y'all!

Sources for this article include the following:

Harper's Weekly Archives, Library of Congress online.
The Abbeville Press And Banner (Abbeville, South Carolina) Wednesday, December 21, 1887, Page 8.
Berry Benson's Civil War Book: Memoirs of a Confederate Scout and Sharpshooter. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press. 1991. Page 35.

This article was reposted on this site from December 2021.

The Angel Of Marye's Heights -- Poem

 

The Angel Of Marye's Heights

A sunken road and a wall of stone

And Cobb's grim line of gray
Lay still at the base of Marye's hill

On the morn of a winter's day.

And crowning the frowning crest above

Sleep Alexander's guns,

While gleaming fair in the sunlight air

The Rappahannock runs.

On the plains below the blue lines glow

And the bugle rings out clear,

As with bated breath they march to death

And a soldier's honored bier. 

For the slumbering guns awake to life

And the screaming shell and ball

From the front and flanks crash through the ranks

And them them where they fall. 

And the gray stone wall is ringed with fire

And the pitiless leaden hail

Drives back the foe to the plain below,

Shattered and crippled and frail.

Again and again a new lines forms

And the gallant charge is made,

And again and again they fall like grain

In the sweep of a reaper's blade.

And then from out of the battle smoke

There falls on the lead-swept air

From the whitening lips that are ready to die

The piteous moan and the plaintive cry

For "water everywhere.

And into the presence of Kershaw brave

There comes a fair-faced lad

With quivering lips as his cap he tips,

"I can't stand this," he said.

Stand what? the general sternly said

As he looked on the field of slaughter,

"To see those poor boys dying out there

With no one to help them, no one to care,

And crying for water! water!

If you'll let me go, I'll give them some.

Why, boy, you're simply mad;

They'll kill you as soon as you scale the wall

In this terrible storm of shell and ball,

The general kindly said.

Please let me go, the lad replied.
May the Lord protect you, then!

And over the wall in the hissing air

He carried comfort to grim despair

And balm to the stricken men. 

And, as he straightened their mangled limbs

On their earthen bed of pain, 

The whitening lips all eagerly quaffed

From the canteen's mouth the cooling draught

And blessed him again and again.

Like Daniel of old in the lion's den,

He walked thought the murderous air
With never a breath of the leaden air

To touch or to tear his gray-clad form,

For the hand of God was there.

And I am sure in the Book of Gold,

Where the blessed angel writes

The names that are blessed of God and men

He wrote that day with his shining pen

Then smiled and lovingly wrote again,

The Angel of Marye's Heights. 

~ Walter A. Clark, 1908

Written in 1908 by poet Walter Augustus Clark (1848-1917) as tribute to the memory and humanity of Sergeant Richard Rowland Kirkland, (1843-1863) Company G, 2nd Regiment South Carolina Volunteer Infantry C.S.A. from Kershaw County, South Carolina -- the "Angel of Marye's Heights" during the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11-14, 1862).

An Inspirational Hanukkah Message Still Relevant Today

 

During the Hanukkah season in December of 1931, a Jewish Rabbi’s wife, Rachel Posner, photographed the family’s brass menorah sitting on the windowsill of their apartment home in the German northern port city of Kiel.

Opposite their home was the recently opened National Socialist Party’s regional headquarters with a large Nazi swastika flag hanging menacingly.

Rachel took the photo seen above of the menorah and its candles standing in defiance of the looming antisemitic threat beyond. When the camera's film was developed, she wrote those defiant words written in German on the back of the photo.

Less than two years later in 1933, just months after Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party came to power, Rachel Posner, her husband Rabbi Akiva Posner, and their three children: Avraham Chaim, Tova, and Shulamit, fled Germany for Palestine, taking their menorah with them as they built a new life.

Their family menorah still survives to this day and is currently on display at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel.

Today, over 90 years later, the ugly specter of antisemitism continues to exist in this world in various forms; threatening God's Chosen People and challenging their faith. Yet, always remember the lesson of the menorah -- that the light will always outshine the darkness.

This post is dedicated to my friends and readers of Jewish faith across the world, wherever y'all are. Have a Chag Urim Sameach (Happy Festival Of Lights) this Hanukkah season, and may each of the eight nights of Hanukkah be filled with warmth and light. 

The Life of General Thomas "Gamecock" Sumter (1734 - 1832) -- The Longest Lived General of the American Revolutionary War

Brigadier General Thomas "Gamecock" Sumter
(August 14, 1734 – June 1, 1832).
Painting by American artist Rembrandt Peale, 1795.

Thomas Sumter was born on Wednesday, August 14, 1734 in Hanover County, Virginia.

His father, William Thomas Sumter, was a former indentured servant as a youth in England to order to immigrate to Virginia where he met and married widow Elizabeth Patience Iveson in 1728. William Sumter owned and operating his own gristmill in Albemarle County, Virginia near the modern-day Charlottesville. Thomas was the fourth of six children the couple would have. 

Most of young Thomas Sumter's early years were spent tending livestock and helping his father at the gristmill, not in school. After his father’s death in 1752, Sumter cared for his mother’s sheep and plowed his neighbor's fields. He was given a rudimentary education living on what was then the American frontier.

Thomas Sumter would spend much of his life as a soldier.

At the age of 20, Thomas Sumter served as a sergeant in the Virginia Militia during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) under the command of then Colonel George Washington. He was present during the disastrous expedition of British Major General Edward Braddock to capture Fort Duquesne (modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and fought in the Battle of the Monongahela (Wednesday, July 9, 1755) where Braddock fell.

Later in the war, Sergeant Thomas Sumter would take part in the Anglo-Cherokee War of 1760-1761. The war with the Cherokee and the Colony of Virginia ended in early November of 1761 with the Treaty of Long-Island-on-the-Holston.

Following the end of the war with the Cherokee, Sumter took part in the Timberlake Expedition which he helped to finance. Sergeant Sumter accompanied Lieutenant Henry Timberlake, Mr. John McCormack (who served as their interpreter), and an unknown African-American servant, traveling into the Overhill settlements area to deliver a copy of the treaty with Virginia to the Cherokee. The expedition left Long-Island-on-the-Hulston on Saturday, November 28, 1761 and arrived in the Overhill village of Tomotley on Sunday, December 20th, where they were greeted by the Cherokee leader Ostenaco.

In May of 1762, Sergeant Sumter accompanied Lieutenant Timberlake and three Cherokee leaders (including Ostenaco) to London, where the chief had an audience with King George III, and has his portrait painted by British artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Cherokee returned to North America with Sergeant Sumter on Wednesday, August 25, 1762, arriving in Charleston, South Carolina weeks later.

Upon returning to the colonies, Sumter became stranded in South Carolina due to financial difficulties. He petitioned the Virginia Colony for reimbursement of his travel expenses, but was denied. He was subsequently imprisoned for debt in Staunton, Virginia. A friend and fellow Virginia militia soldier, Joseph Martin, visited and spend the night with Sumter in jail. He gave Sumter ten guineas and a tomahawk. Sumter used the money and the weapon to escape jail. When the two men were reunited some thirty years later, Sumter repaid Martin the money.

Around 1764 Sumter fled to South Carolina settled in St. John’s Berkeley Parish near the Santee River (modern-day Orangeburg County, South Carolina) and opened a country store. The mercantile venture prospered and Sumter soon owned considerable property. He earned such respect from the local community he was made a justice of the peace in 1766.

In 1767 he married Mary Cantey Jameson, a wealthy, crippled widow eleven years his senior. Sumter and his wife moved into her plantation, Great Savannah, across the Santee in St. Mark’s Parish (Orangeburg County) and became successful planters. The couple had one child, Thomas Sumter Jr., who was born on Tuesday, August 30, 1768, a year after their marriage.

Sumter was a man of many interests including tobacco and cotton farming and silk worms. He also bred and raised racing horses. As a prominent plantation owner, Sumter was believed to have owned just under 100 African-Americas throughout his lifetime.

Because he was a prominent property owner, Thomas Sumter was elected a delegate from the district eastward of the Wateree to the First and Second South Carolina Provisional Congresses that met in Charleston in 1775 and 1776, and was made a member of the Council of Safety. He would be present and took part in the adoption of the new State Constitution on Tuesday, March 26, 1776 which made South Carolina an independent sovereignty.

Following the Battles at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts on Wednesday, April 19, 1775 which began the American Revolutionary War, Sumter was appointed a Captain of Rangers and took part in Colonel Richard Richardson's Snow Campaign against American Loyalists, which ended with a Patriot victory at the Battle of Great Cane Brake (in modern-day Greenville County, South Carolina) on Friday, December 22, 1775 .

In 1776, Sumter was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Regiment of the South Carolina Line of which he was later appointed full Colonel. He and the 2nd Regiment were present in Charleston during the decisive American victory at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island (Friday, June 28, 1776) but did not participate in the action.

Colonel Sumter later took part in the Cherokee campaign (July-October 1776), and engagement with Loyalist militia forces in Georgia between 1777 and 1778. In 1778 Sumter joined with General Robert Howe in planning the aborted invasion of Florida, but contracted malaria. On Saturday, September 19, 1778, Sumter formally left the army still at the rank of Colonel and returned to private life.

He was still in retirement with his young son and crippled wife when the City of Charleston fell to British forces under General Sir Henry Clinton following a six-week siege on Friday, May 12, 1780.

Two weeks later, on Sunday, May 28th, 1780, a detachment of Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's British Legion Cavalry made their way through the High Hills of the Santee River. Commanded by Captain Charles Campbell of the Legion, the Loyalist provincials had orders by Tarleton to bring in Sumter -- a noted Continental officer despite having been retired for almost two years by that point.

Sometime about 10 AM on Sunday, May 28th, then 11-year-old Thomas Sumter Jr., the young son of Colonel Sumter, was riding his horse when a neighbor rode past in full gallop, crying that British cavalry was on its way. Tom rode his horse home to inform his father what he had heard. His wife, Mary, pleaded for her husband to run. Sumter called to Soldier Tom, his African-American manservant, and ordered him to saddle their horses. After donning his old uniform of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment, Sumter bid farewell to Tom and Mary, and headed to North Carolina with Soldier Tom only an hour, or so, ahead of the British Legion.

Campbell's detachment arrived at Sumter's plantation home to find Sumter had already alluded them. The British Legion soldiers then plundered the home and put it to the torch, leaving the Sumter's family homeless and Colonel Thomas Sumter vengeful against the British invaders and their Loyalist allies.

It would be during this stage of the war, with Patriot fortunes in South Carolina at their lowest, that Thomas Sumter would made his greatest contribution and secure his legacy as an American soldier.

Over the course of the summer and fall of 1780, Colonel Thomas Sumter's name would be the rally cry for upcountry South Carolina Patriots in their struggle against their occupiers. He organized a brigade of partisan militia to harass the British and their Loyalist allies. Along with other Patriot leaders like Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion who operated in the South Carolina lowcountry, these Patriots militiamen would conduct hit-and-run tactics on British outposts, disrupting lines of communication and badly needed British supplies.

Colonel Sumter was informally elected by his men as Brigadier General on Thursday, June 15, 1780. Afterwards, Sumter's Brigade would serve as the only organized Patriot force in South Carolina during the summer of 1780 conducting various raids on British and Loyalist targets in the upstate Piedmont in modern-day York, Union, Chester, and Lancaster Counties.

York and Chester County Patriot militia that made up the core of Sumter's Brigade were instrumental in the first defeat of Loyalist militia and a detachment of Tarleton's Legion at Williamson's Plantation (known locally as Huck's Defeat) in York County on July 12, 1780 -- although Sumter himself was not at the battle himself. This victory was instrumental in encouraging upstate Patriots to join the fight.

A month later, Sumter himself led an unsuccessful assault on the Loyalist stronghold at Rocky Mount (Tuesday, August 1, 1780) on the Catawba River in Chester County, but this was followed by a victory over Loyalist forces at nearby Hanging Rock (Sunday, August 6, 1780) in Lancaster County less than a week later. 

When Major General Horatio Gates' Southern Continental Army arrived in South Carolina that same month, Sumter's Brigade was tasked with harassing British supply lines in the central Piedmont area and his men would capture two supply convoys and dozens of prisoners. Because of this Sumter would not be present for Gates' defeat at the Battle of Camden on Wednesday, August 16, 1780.

Two days later, on Friday, August 18, 1780, Tarleton's Legion surprised Sumter's men at camp near Fishing Creek along the Catawba River in Chester County, completely routing the Patriots and nearly capturing Sumter (having been asleep when the attack started), who escaped on a wagon horse barebacked leaving behind his hat, coat, and boots. He fled with most of his men back to Charlotte, North Carolina.

This would be Sumter's only major defeat of the war at the hands of Banastre Tarleton's provincials -- one the proud American officer would be determined to avenge. Despite this one setback, Sumter's Brigade had done its part in delaying the planned British invasion of North Carolina and preventing the British from firmly establishing their occupation of South Carolina's upstate.

Because of the actions of his Patriot brigade, the commander of British forces in South Carolina, General Lord Charles Cornwallis considered Sumter such an annoyance that he referred to him in correspondence as "daring and troublesome" and "our greatest plague in this country."

On Friday, October 6, 1780, exiled South Carolina Governor John Rutledge writing from his temporary headquarters in Hillsboro, North Carolina, officially commissioned Thomas Sumter as Brigadier General and commander of South Carolina militia.

A day later, on Saturday, October 7, 1780, the decisive Battle of Kings Mountain took place, ending any further plans for a British invasion into North Carolina. Sumter would once again return to the upstate and wreak havoc on the British and Loyalists through the fall of 1780.

On Thursday, November 9, 1780, British forces under the command of Major James Wemyss of the 63rd Regiment of Foot, attempted to surprise Sumter's Brigade camped along Fishdam Ford on the Broad River in Chester County. Sumter's men where prepared for such an attack and repulsed the British, capturing Wemyss who was wounded in the engagement.

Following the British defeat at Fishdam Ford, Tarleton Legion was sent in pursuit of Sumter's Brigade where the two forces engaged in battle at Blackstock's Farm on the Tyger River in southwestern Union County on Monday, November 20, 1780. 

It was at Blackstocks that General Sumter earned his greatest success of the war. The battle was a Patriot victory, the first major victory against "Bloody Ban" Tarleton's forces since Huck's Defeat months before. Sumter's Brigade aggressively beat back the arrogant young British officer's provincials and British infantry.

He not only avenged his defeat at Tarleton's hands three months before, but also earned the nickname he would be best remembered for due to his resolve and aggressive fighting style in the battle. Tarleton himself reportedly commented in his battle report (where he claimed victory despite his men retiring from the field) that Sumter had "fought like a gamecock" during the battle, in grudging admiration.

General Sumter himself would be wounded in the battle when a musket ball struck him under his left shoulder. He would spend three months recovering before returning to the field in February of 1781 where he would again led his militia brigade in battles in the central portion of the state. 

Sumter attempted an unsuccessful assault at Fort Granby (near present-day Columbia, South Carolina) on Monday, February 19, 1781. The next day Sumter tried again with a Quaker gun and was again unsuccessful. He was forced to abandon the siege two days later on Wednesday, February 21st, when British reinforcements arrived, but  was successfully able to ignite the magazine and destroy other provisions. Two days later on Friday, February 23, 1781, he defeated the British at Manigault's Ferry on the Congaree River and captured a supply train. On February 28th, he launched an unsuccessful attack against Fort Watson (in modern-day Clarendon County, South Carolina). 

Although known for being a good leader and a tenacious fighter, Sumter was also known for his personal pride who bristled at the idea of taking orders from others. When the Continental army returned to South Carolina in the spring of 1781, Sumter was less than cooperative with Major General Nathanael Greene, preferring to act independently with his command, preferring to fight his own little war.

In April of 1781, when Greene needed his support at Hobkirk's Hill near Camden, Sumter again struck at Fort Granby instead of assisting him. He broke off that attack to capture Orangeburg on May 11th -- during which time Colonel "Lighthorse" Henry Lee (the father of future Confederate General Robert E. Lee) of the Continental army successfully captured Fort Granby. This embarrassed the proud "Gamecock" who threatened to resign as a result. Greene refused to accept his resignation, largely because he needed Sumter's help with gathering new recruits for the army and South Carolina militia.

With spring planting season coming and militia recruits returning home after their enlistments expired, in an effort to gain new recruits, Sumter would also become infamous for his controversial "Sumter's law". This plan included a bounty to recruit a certain number of volunteers into the army who would receive captured Loyalist-owned slaves as a reward, as well as other booty from those still loyal to the Crown. It was a vile practice, but one that most of the Continental Army largely looked the other way on for the time being.

"Sumter's law" succeeded in assembling men who were all-too eager to revenge themselves upon the local Loyalists and plunder their property, but this also touched off a renewed wave of the vicious civil war between Patriots and Loyalists and earned the Patriot general a disreputable reputation as a result.

Finally, on Tuesday, July 17, 1781, General Sumter -- with Marion and Lee now under his direct command -- launched an ill-fated frontal attack at Quinby Bridge on a tributary of the Cooper River north of Charleston. On Wednesday, July 25th, Sumter sent a force to plunder Loyalists in Georgetown. The British retaliated by virtually destroying the town on Thursday, August 2, 1781.

These actions led many of his followers to abandon him and return home. Now perceiving Sumter's policies as counterproductive, Governor Rutledge issued a proclamation formally terminating "Sumter's law" by prohibiting plundering.

As the war was beginning to wind down, and his frustrations over militia reorganization and the aftermath of "Sumter's law" continued to plague him, Sumter finally resigned his military commission in February of 1782.

After a brief investigation into his use of "Sumter's law", General Sumter was exonerated, and the legislatures of North and South Carolina forbade state courts to entertain damage suits connected with this matter. He was given the thanks of the South Carolina Senate and a gold medal for his wartime contributions -- particularly his contributions in the summer and fall of 1780. 

In the years following the American Revolutionary War, the remainder of Sumter’s public life was spent in politics. He was elected to the State Senate in 1782 and attended the South Carolina General Assembly at Jacksonborough. 

Thomas Sumter would later be elected five times by the Camden District to represent the State of South Carolina in the United States House of Representatives, serving his first and second terms from Wednesday, March 4, 1789, to Sunday, March 3, 1793; and his third through fifth terms from Saturday, March 4, 1797, to Tuesday, December 15, 1801. He later served in the United States Senate, having been selected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Charles Pinckney who had been appointed by then U.S. President Thomas Jefferson to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Spain. Sumter resigned from his seat in the U.S. Senate on Sunday, December 16, 1810. Sumter was a dedicated Jeffersonian, who remained devoted to his backcountry republican values. He would serve under four U.S. Presidents.

Sumter also founded the town of Stateburg, South Carolina. In 1785, Stateburg became the county seat of what was then Claremont County and served as such until the county was dissolved in 1800 and became Sumter County, in honor of the general. When he retired from public service, Sumter returned to his rebuilt home at South Mount and lived out the rest of his days there.

General Thomas "Gamecock" Sumter died on Friday, June 1, 1832 at the age of 97, the longest lived general of the American Revolutionary War. He is buried in the High Hills of the Santee at the Thomas Sumter Memorial Park in Stateburg, Sumter County, South Carolina along with members of his family.

The South Carolina Revolutionary War Generals Memorial at the State Capitol in Columbia, dedicated on Tuesday, November 11, 1913 and commissioned by the South Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution, honors Generals Thomas Sumter, Andrew Pickens, and Francis Marion for their service.

The Sumter National Forest in the South Carolina upstate -- the scene of two of his greatest wartime exploits (Fishdam Ford and Blackstocks Plantation) -- was named in his honor in July of 1936 by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sumter Counties in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are also named in his honor.

Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, planned after the War of 1812 (1812 - 1815) was named in his honor. The shots initiating the War Between The States (American Civil War) were fired there on Friday, April 12, 1861.

To this day the sports teams of the University of South Carolina in Columbia are called the "Gamecocks" in General Sumter's honor.

The tomb of General Thomas "Gamecock" Sumter at Thomas Sumter Memorial Park
in Stateburg, Sumter County, South Carolina, USA.

This blogger would like to thanks the following sources for information in this article:

Bass, Robert D. Gamecock: The Life and Campaigns of General Thomas Sumter. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961.
Gregorie, Anne King. History of Sumter County. Sumter, S.C.: Library Board of Sumter County, 1954.
Sumter, Thomas. Thomas Sumter papers. Madison: Wisconsin State Historical Society.
The University of South Carolina (USC) and the The South Carolina Department of Archives & History in Columbia, S.C.

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