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| A simple granite marker on the spot where the British outpost at Rocky Mount sat in 1780-81 marks the site of the battle of Rocky Mount on Thursday, August 1, 1780. The marker is located on SR 20 2.4 miles from HWY 21 in Fairfield County, just south of the town of Great Falls, SC. |
The Battle Of Rocky Mount
Sumter Goes On The Offensive
Tuesday, August 1, 1780
By: C.W. Roden
(Part 7 or a 15 part series)
In the aftermath of Huck's Defeat at Williamson Plantation, General Thomas Sumter received word from his camp at Old Nations Ford near Charlotte, North Carolina that Major General Horatio Gates "The Hero of Saratoga" had arrived in North Carolina, and assumed command of the Southern Department from Major General Johann de Kalb. Gate's Southern Army now consisted of around 1,200 Maryland and Delaware Continentals, 120 dragoons, and three artillery companies.
Intelligence gathered by Sumter's partisans showed that the British army stationed at Camden has only around 700 soldiers. Gates would soon begin a campaign to invader and take back the State of South Carolina from the British occupation.
Sumter, now with a brigade of around 600 Patriot militia under his command, was eager to start his own campaign to drive the British and Loyalist forces from their northern outposts at Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock.
Sumter's forces consisted of the militia from the upper Broad and Catawba River district (Chester County) were commanded by now Colonel John McClure, while Colonels Andrew Neel and William "Billy" Hill commanded the reconstituted New Acquisitions District (York County). Colonel William Bratton now commanded a smaller battalion of volunteers formed from the congregations of Bethesda, Beersheba, and Bullock's Creek churches. Also joining Sumter's forces were 35 Catawba Indians led by General New River, with General Billy Ayers and Major Jacob Ayers.
Sumter had learned from a spy that the defenses might be susceptible to small arms fire, a clear benefit since Sumter lacked any sort of field artillery. While the latter was certainly true, the former it turned out was misinformation and the spy might well have been a double-agent working for the British commander of Rocky Mount, Lieutenant Colonel George Turnbull of the New York Volunteers.
On Friday, July 28th, he broke camp and moved his brigade down to Land's Ford (now Landsford Canal State Park) an important crossing on the Catawba River between modern-day Chester and Lancaster Counties, where he was joined by Major William Richardson Davie and his dragoons, along with additional militia from Mecklenburg, Rowan, and the Waxhaws at their camp at Waxhaw Presbyterian Meeting House.
Y'all might recall the two months before Virginia Continental soldiers wounded during the Battle of the Waxhaws (Buford's Massacre) were brought to Waxhaw Presbyterian Meeting House where some died and are still buried in the historic cemetery on the site of the modern-day Historic Waxhaw Presbyterian Church.
Born into a Scottish family in Cumberland, England, William Richardson Davie emigrated with his family to America and grew up from age five in South Carolina. Because he carried out his civil and political life in North Carolina and later in life retired to Lands Ford (Landsford) on the Catawba River in South Carolina, Davie is claimed by both States. Among other achievements after the war, Davie would become governor of North Carolina and the founder of the University of North Carolina.
During the summer and fall of 1780, Davie used his own funds to raise and equip his own force of cavalry and mounted infantry. Noted for his dash and courage, as well as his excellent swordsmanship, by the end of the war Davie was reputed to have killed with his own saber more of the enemy than any other officer in the American army.
Also among Major Davie's militia was 13-year-old boy Andrew Jackson, the future 7th President of the United States of America and resident from the Waxhaws who'd previously witnessed the bloody results of Buford's Massacre. Jackson served as a courier for Davie's militia and often had to deliver dispatches through hostile backcountry territory in the summer and fall of 1780.
There along the banks of the Catawba River on the afternoon of July 30th, Sumter made the plans for the campaign. His forces would attack the Rocky Mount outpost, while Davie's militia would move towards Hanging Rock and later be joined by Sumter once Rocky Mount was secure.
The Battle
Rocky Mount itself sat on a hill overlooking the Catawba River and consisted of three logs buildings surrounded by wooden and earthen abatis as fortification against attacks. The buildings themselves were wooden clapboard siding on the outside, but another wall had been built on the inside to fortify them better against rifle fire.
Since learning the news of Huck's defeat, Colonel Turnbull predicted that the rebels would soon pay him a visit and made efforts to strengthen his defenses against an attack by Patriot militia. He had in his garrison about 150 British Provincials, including the remaining members of Huck's unit of the British Legion cavalry and New York Volunteers that escaped the disaster at Williamson Plantation, along with some local Loyalist militia that he no longer held any confidence in. He also sent a messenger to Camden requesting reinforcements.
Sumter's force of 600 Patriot militia arrived at Rocky Mount early on the morning on August 1st. Major Richard Winn, with his Fairfield Regiment leading Sumter’s advance, first ran off 100 Loyalists camped outside the fort, many leaving their horses which were captured by the Patriots.
Believing that the intelligence he received that the wooden buildings of Rocky Mount were of flimsy construction Sumter ordered a bold frontal attack. Sumter's force had no cannons, and attempted to penetrate the abatis and the buildings with rifle fire.
Colonel William Hill later wrote: "This was made under the impression that the enemy was in a large framed house; the walls of which were only thin clapboards, and we supposed that our balls have the desired effect by shooting through the wall…but the enemy…had placed small logs about a foot from the inside of the wall and rammed the cavity with clay…we injure them in no way, but by shooting in their port holes."
With their riflemen providing cover, the patriots under Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Neel charged twice more towards the fortifications with the intent to cut through the abatis. What brief success came with breaking through the tangled obstructions came at a price as Neal, two militiamen, and their Catawba Indian guide were killed. Neel was shot through the hip and fell from his horse dying close to the Loyalist position.
Planning to continue his assault, Sumter sent a message off asking for Turnball’s surrender of the fort. The shooting ceased for an hour before Turnball rejected Sumter’s request by stating, "Duty and inclination induce me to defend this place to the last extremity."
Over the next eight hours, there were several repeated attempts by the Patriots to break through the abatis, or destroy the buildings. Sumter found to his dismay that the intelligence about the strength of the fort was wrong.
A final plan was hatched where two men would cross over open ground under cover fire from their comrades, get behind a large rock near the buildings and attempt to set the buildings on fire with torches and smoke out the Loyalists.
Colonel William Hill himself volunteered for the desperate venture along with a young soldier, Sergeant Jemmy Johnson. Hill and Johnson raced the 100 yards of open ground to the bolder under intense fire from the three houses. Before they could ignite and hurl their firebrands, the Loyalists rushed out of the house and drove the two men back to the Partisan lines with their bayonets. The two volunteers tried again, this time protected by a heavy covering fire from an advanced screen of riflemen. The two men again reached the rock, lit the brands, then threw them onto the shingles of the smaller log house.
The plan seemed to work, despite Johnson being seriously wounded in the action. The roof of the smaller house began to smoke, and then a small blaze began. However one of the South's infamous summer downpours occurred shortly afterwards and extinguished the fire before it could do serious damage.
Completely frustrated in his failure to storm the post, Sumter was then forced to accept defeat and ordered his men to withdraw, suffering eight dead and several wounded. After leaving Rocky Mount, Sumter moved his men back to Lands Ford and his planned rejoining with Davie's forces.
Richard Winn wrote that on Wednesday, August 2nd the Rocky Mount garrison was reinforced with "eight hundred men and two field pieces." These troops were the Prince of Wales American Regiment, a Loyalist Provincial force under the command of Major John Carden, which had marched from the British base at Camden to reinforce Hanging Rock.
The Hanging Of William Stroud Jr.
Sumter was unable to move his campsite until Thursday, August 3rd, due to the high water at Rocky Creek caused by all the rain. At 11 o’clock in the afternoon Sumter crossed the creek with his force, and halted. The partisans "turned out their horses and scattered about in search of roasting ears and green peaches." This was all the men had to eat at the time.
While they were searching for food an alarm was sounded that Carden’s force was less than a mile away, and they had two pieces of artillery. Carden had stopped at Rocky Mount prior to continuing his march to Hanging Rock. Sumter was caught in the open and decided wisely not to fight the Loyalists.
He ordered Major Winn to take 100 men and delay Carden until they could all withdraw. Winn sent two men ahead, while he gathered the first 100 men who reached their horses. The two men that Winn sent ahead was a Captain Coleman from Georgia, and young William Stroud Jr. of Chester County. These two men ventured too close to the British and were captured. The Loyalists had them striped naked and immediately hung by the side of the road.
According to oral history, Stroud's body was left to hang for six weeks as travelers rode by as a warning. His mother Sarah Stroud, sister Nancy Morris, and Captain Edward Lacey, later cut him down and buried him beneath the tree from which he was hung on a dark, moonless night.
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| Granite marker honoring the memory of young William Stroud Jr., a sharpshooter in Colonel Edward Lacey’s Rocky Creek Militia, hanged on Thursday, August 3, 1780 about two miles from Hanging Rock battlefield. |
The two sides exchanged long-range fire, but did not get close enough to become engaged in a major skirmish. Major Carden did not anticipate finding hundreds of mounted partisans, and withdrew down the road back to Rocky Mount. Winn pursued them at a distance, but broke off as they neared Rocky Mount. The day after the skirmish Colonel Hawthorne was sent under a flag of truce to bury Colonel Neel.
Diversionary Engagement At Hanging Rock
At the same time as Sumter's assault on Rocky Mount, Major Davie with his force of less than 100 mounted infantry and dragoons planned a diversionary attack 15 miles east at Hanging Rock.
Davie knew his force was too small to take on the and British Provincials and Loyalist militia at the post, but he did find three companies of North Carolina Loyalists under Colonel Samuel Bryan at a farmhouse some distance from, but still in view of, the main camp at Hanging Rock.
Taking advantage of the fact the neither the Patriot or Loyalist militia wore uniforms, only their common farmer and civilian attire, Davie sent half of his men past the sentries and the house. They were not stopped, or even questioned at all. They rode unchallenged past the Loyalist sentinels, dismounted in a lane near the buildings, and opened fire. The other half waited until their comrades opened fire, catching the surprised Loyalists in a deadly crossfire.
The Loyalists fled toward the other end of the lane, but Major Davie had sent his dragoons on a circular path through the woods in anticipation. Cut off at both ends, the Loyalists tried the middle, but Major Davie also predicted that move and sent a small number of dragoons to close that escape route.
The Loyalists were cut to pieces within sight of their companions in the main camp. Before the main Tory force could be organized, Major Davie's troops remounted and withdrew from the scene back towards Lands Ford. Loyalist casualties are not recorded. Major Davie did not lose a man.
Aftermath
The final toll of the battle and subsequent skirmishes were twelve Patriots and twenty Loyalists killed and wounded -- all Americans as was the tragedy of the bloody civil war in the South Carolina backcountry in that dreadful summer and autumn of 1780.
The failed attack on Rocky Mount cost the backcountry Patriot militia one of their best militia commanders in Colonel Andrew Neel, though the destruction against the Loyalists inflicted by Davie near Hanging Rock made up somewhat for the loss.
Sumter was now moving to join up with Davie a few days later and their combined strength would be enough to take on the main British forces at Hanging Rock on Sunday, August 6, 1780, which will be explored in the next chapter in this series.
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| Colonel Andrew Neel is buried with his two brothers and father at the Historic Bethel Presbyterian Church Cemetery in York County, South Carolina -- all died in service during the American Revolutionary War's Southern Campaign. |
For more information about the Battle of Rocky Mount and its significance to American history 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
South Carolina's Revolutionary War Battlefields: A Tour Guide by R.L. Barbour (2002) ISBN 1-58980-008-7
South Carolina's Revolutionary War Battlefields: A Tour Guide by R.L. Barbour (2002) ISBN 1-58980-008-7
