The Destruction Of Hill's Ironworks: Huck's Reign Of Terror Continues -- June 17, 1780

Living history re-enactors portraying Captain Christian Huck and officers of the British Legion Cavalry
and American Loyalist Militia.
(Photograph courtesy of Historic Brattonsville, York County, SC).

 

The Destruction Of Hill's Ironworks
Huck's Reign Of Terror Continues
Saturday, June 17, 1780  

By: C.W. Roden

(Part 5 of a 15 part series)

On Sunday, June 11th -- the same day that a detachment of the dreaded British Legion and Loyalist militia under the command of Captain Christian Huck was destroying Reverend John Simpson's home and library -- another local pastor and staunch Patriot, Reverend William Martin, and his congregation were meeting at their church on Rocky Creek in Chester County. So many people turned out in fact that the service had to be held outside under the shade of the trees.

Though none of those assembled were yet aware of Huck's activities to the north along Fishing Creek, they were fully aware of the recent fall of Charleston and the massacre of Buford's Continentals at the Waxhaws the previous month, and very much aware of the more recent responses of many of their neighbors and relatives at Alexander's Old Field and Mobley's Meeting House.

That Sunday morning, Reverend Martin preached a sermon full of righteous fire and anti-British sentiment that was long remembered in the Rocky Creek community. In his sermon, Martin reminded the largely Scotch-Irish congregation of the hardships that their fathers had suffered, that they had been forced out of Scotland and again out of Ulster in Northern Ireland, had come to America where they were free men and where they had built their homes and church. Now the British were coming and would once again drive them from their homes. He told them that there is a time to pray and a time to fight and the time to fight had come. This sermon inspired many of them to take up arms against the British and their Loyalist neighbors.

The next morning, Monday, June 12th, a group of Martin's churchgoers and local Patriots assembled at a muster ground about seven miles from Rocky Mount near Beckhamville (the site of the engagement at Alexander's Old Field the week before) and began drilling under the command of local militia Captain Benjamin Land of the Turkey Creek regiment.

Unknown to Land and his men, a local schoolmaster and Loyalist named Montgomery had tipped off the British commander at Rocky Mount, Lieutenant Colonel George Turnbull, about the militia gathering. Turnbull himself, along with Captain Huck's green-coated Legion dragoons, caught the Patriot militia by surprise, then charged upon them, slashing at them with their sabers. The militiamen ran for their lives. Captain Land himself was surrounded by the dragoons and attempted to defend himself with his sword, managing to wound a couple of the horsemen before he was cut to pieces and killed.

About two miles from the muster ground, about half a dozen of Martin's neighbors assembled at the shop of a local blacksmith and free-man-of-color, George Harris. These men were getting their horses shod when the Legion dragoons also surprised them and killed one of their number.

Captain Huck's men then proceeded to the home of Reverend Martin, where they arrested and then took him back to their post at Rocky Mount a prisoner. Huck's dragoons also put Reverend Martin's home to the torch. The Patriot minister was transferred to the jail at Camden where he would remain for several months before being released by General Lord Charles Cornwallis.

D.A.R. marker at the site of Reverend Martin's Rocky Creek
"Covenenter" Church (Meeting House) located 2 miles
east of the modern-day Catholic Presbyterian Church.

The Meeting At Hill's Ironworks

On the same day that Reverend Martin was captured, a meeting took place in the New Acquisitions District at William Hill's Ironworks. A Loyalist envoy had been sent there from Lord Rawdon to the assembled locals with a British proclamation claiming that the Continental Congress had abandoned Georgia and South Carolina. The envoy also claimed that General George Washington's Continental Army was in flight before General Sir Henry Clinton's British and Hessian forces in the north. After making these bold claims, the Loyalist envoy then encouraged the people of the New Acquisitions District to take the oath pledging loyalty to the British Crown.

At this point Colonel Hill interrupted the commissioner and refuted the claims made by the officer. Hill informed the audience that the Continental Congress had not abandoned them, that instead Washington himself was sending one of his best officers south to form a new Southern Continental Army to take back South Carolina from the British occupation.

As the operator of a large ironworks that supplied weapons and material to the Continental Army, Hill had extensive contacts with important officials and prominent citizens in Charlotte, Salisbury, and throughout western North Carolina. These contacts kept Hill well informed of developments with the war in the north and with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. 

As a native of Ireland, William "Billy" Hill also had little love for the British authorities.

Hill's information was correct for the most part about the new Continental Army being formed in North Carolina.

Two brigades of Maryland and Delaware Continentals under the command of Major General Johann de Kalb (also known simply as Baron de Kalb) would arrive in Hillsborough over a week later, forming the nucleus of a new Southern command. These Continentals were among Washington's best soldiers. Also included in this new army were Virginia and North Carolina militia volunteers.

The Board of War appointed by the Continental Congress however overruled Washington's choice to command the Southern Army Major General Nathaniel Greene and instead appointed Major General Horatio Gates, the so-called "Hero of Saratoga" to the job. This choice would later have serious and disastrous consequences.

The crowd's reaction to these revelations was immediate. They sided with Colonel Hill and the Loyalist envoy left quickly with his proclamations for fear of being detained (or possibly tarred and feathered) by the angry crowd of Scots-Irish Patriots. The men of the New Acquisitions District agreed to form a new militia regiment and elected Andrew Neel as their colonel with Hill acting as lieutenant colonel.

Hill's Ironworks became the headquarters of the reconstructed New Acquisitions Regiment. Word quickly spread about the formation of the unit, and soon men from Georgia and western South Carolina added to the growing Patriot force.


The British & Loyalist Response

On Wednesday, June 14th, Colonels Neel and Hill both received intelligence that an Irish Loyalist named Matthew Floyd was raising men in the Broad River settlements to join his militia regiment to reinforce the British outpost at Rocky Mount. The reports also mentioned Floyd's Loyalists terrorizing Patriot inhabitants along the river.

Upon hearing this news, Colonel Neal collected a number of men and set off in pursuit of the Loyalists, leaving only a small garrison to guard the ironworks during his absence. Floyd and about 30 of his Loyalist neighbors from the Broad, Tyger and Enoree Rivers headed to Rocky Mount to offer their services to the British command there, unaware that he and his men were leaving their homes and friends unprotected from Patriot retaliation.

Floyd and his men arrived at Rocky Mount on Thursday, June 15th about the same time that Captain Huck and his men were returning from their foraging expedition.

In addition to confiscation horses and food supplies from known local Patriots and destroying the homes and churches of Scots-Irish Presbyterians, whom Huck held in particular disdain; Huck informed Colonel Turnbull that the local Whig militia under Colonels Edward Lacey and William Bratton had "fled to the mountains" (a reference to the hilly area of the northwestern part of modern-day York County, SC).

Turnbull was pleased to have Floyd and his men fill the ranks, considering the staunch Loyalist an asset and giving him a Royal commission of Colonel of militia in the Upper Spartan District (modern-day Spartanburg County). Floyd's son Abraham was granted a commission of captain.

Later that evening, a courier arrived with intelligence that Neel and his forces had left Hill's Ironworks and were advancing on the area west of the Broad River wreaking havoc on the Loyalist settlements where Floyd and his men lived.

Turnbull knew that the ironworks were a refuge for Rebels, as well as a source of weapons in the upcountry and that the time had come to deal with it. The British officer ordered Huck with a mobile force of his British Legion cavalry detachment and sixty mounted Loyalist militia under the newly commissioned Captain Abraham Floyd to march on Hill's Ironworks and to destroy it along with any Whig forces in the area.

Huck and his Loyalist forces set out early the next morning on Friday, June 16th.

At the ironworks, Colonel Hill received word that now Brigadier General Thomas Sumter was north in Salisbury, recruiting men and preparing to join Patriot General Griffith Rutherford, who commanded the Salisbury Militia Brigade, at Charlotte for a major attack against Loyalist forces near Ramsour's Mill.

Hill made plans to rendezvous with Rutherford at Tuckasegee Ford on the Catawba River in North Carolina. He left about 15 men under Captain John Henderson to guard the ironworks, taking the rest of his militia north, unaware that Huck and his Loyalists were on their way to visit.


The Destruction Of Hill's Ironworks

After securing his camp, Captain Huck set out for Hill's Ironworks in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 17th. Employing a local Loyalist named John Dennis as a guide, Huck's men made their way into the New Acquisition District.

Along the way Huck's Loyalist force stopped at the home of local Whig militiaman, James Simril, along Allison Creek, a tributary of the Catawba River. There they confiscated what provisions they could find and then set fire to the barn before they left. Next they arrived at the home of Moses Ferguson, another Whig sympathizer who lived on Allison Creek about two miles south of Hill's Ironworks. Huck ordered Ferguson under threat to kill him and destroy his home to show him the best route to take in order to outflank and take the Patriot militia stationed at the ironworks by surprise.

Captain Henderson had been scouting the area for Loyalists when he was captured by Huck's advance forces. Huck confiscated Henderson's horse and saddle, then sent the prisoner under guard to Rocky Mount while he continued to the ironworks.

The store, furnace, and mills that made up the ironworks themselves were built on the south side of Allison Creek. The Patriot militia accordingly set up their encampment there and prepared for an attack from the same direction they believed Huck would come from. Two of Colonel Hill's sons, Robert and William Jr., procured a one-pound swivel gun manufactured at the ironworks and set it up on a hill overlooking the south road, where they could train it on the approaching Tories.

Huck however had anticipated such a defense and instead attacked the Patriots from the north, catching the defenders completely by surprise. After exchanging a couple of volleys with Huck's forces, the outnumbered Patriots mounted their horse and road north to North Carolina. Huck overtook the rear of the militia's detachment killing several and taking about four prisoners. Huck also captured both of Hill's sons, though later released them. The Loyalists stripped the prisoners of their belongings -- including reportedly their rings.

One of the men captured by Huck was Hill's iron molder, an Irishman named Calhoun. Calhoun was hung by the neck and ordered to tell Huck where Colonel Hill was, but being true to his employer he refused to do so. The Loyalists left him hanging there, but one of Hill's slaves, who'd been hiding and witnessing the whole thing, cut Calhoun down and helped restore the man to health.

That afternoon, the Loyalists then plundered the ironworks and Whig camp of everything they could, and once that task was completed, Huck ordered the ironworks and all of the surrounding buildings burned to the ground. Huck burned the forge, furnace, sawmills, all of the outbuildings and even the slave huts. Around 90 African-American slaves were also taken as "contraband" and several would end up becoming servants to the British commander of Rocky Mount, Turnbull, and a few of Huck's officers.

After demolishing the ironworks, Huck moved his forces southwest down to Fergus Crossroads (where the modern-day town of York, South Carolina stands today) and made camp for the evening.

Immediately following the destruction of Hill's Ironworks, Captain Huck and his task force moved back down Fishing Creek towards Brown's Crossroads. In addition to the Whig prisoners and captured slaves, Huck sent a dispatch with a report to Colonel Turnbull claiming that he had "defeated 150 rebels" and completely destroyed the ironworks.


Aftermath

The destruction of Hill's Ironworks was not only a serious blow to the Patriot cause in the South Carolina backcountry, but also to the American cause itself. The ironworks had been a major producer or guns and ammunition that supplied the Continental Army in the north.

Worse for the people of the area, it was also a major producer of both kitchen utensils and agricultural implements depended on heavily by the farmers in the surrounding communities along the border of both Carolinas. The destruction of the ironworks was nothing less than a complete disaster which literally meant that some of these farmers had to return to briefly return to the wooden plough.

Because of the latter, the destruction of Hill's Ironworks ended up working badly against the British cause of pacifying the South Carolina backcountry. It also added to the list of grievances that the people along the Catawba River Valley had against Captain Christian Huck -- a list of abuses that would rapidly grow over the next month.

Believing that he and his men had dispersed the last body of armed Whigs from the district and secured the region for the Crown, Huck began to send his men throughout the area, posting notices and notifying the inhabitants of the region informing them that Huck would be holding an assembly at the Brown's Crossroads on Thursday, June 22nd, where the citizens could sign the oath of allegiance and take British protection. 

Since most of the young men in the area were now in North Carolina with Colonels Hill, Bratton, and Neel at Brigadier General Thomas Sumter's camp, the only men who attended Huck's assembly were primarily older citizens from the New Acquisition District and the upper part of what is modern-day Chester County. 

There it was reported to Colonel Hill by eyewitnesses that Huck verbally harangued the locals, spitting out blasphemous statements that no doubt deeply offended these Scots-Irish Presbyterians, and then proceeded to order his men to confiscate their horses. As the now outraged local men were forced at bayonet point to disperse and now walk many miles home on foot, the "Swearing Captain" then went on to boastfully declare in a mocking tone that: "Even if the rebels were thick as the trees, and Jesus Christ would come down and lead them, I could defeat them!"

Because of this most of these men refused to take the Oath of Allegiance. Indeed, some of these men had, until then, been neutral in the fighting. Huck's theft and blasphemy, along with his destruction of the Hill's Ironworks and the mockery he threw at the local Patriot militia ended up having quite the opposite effect that he'd intended on the locals. 

After witnessing Huck's blasphemous tirade one local resident who'd remained neutral up to this point, an Irish immigrant named Daniel Collins, upon returning home told his wife, "I have come home determined to take my gun and when I lay it down, I lay down my life with it." He would also encourage his 17 year-old son, James, to do the same. Both men would soon join with local Patriot militia under Colonels Hill and Bratton, along with other local Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who were being bullied by Huck and his green-coated Provincials.

The Bible makes it very plain that God will not be mocked. Huck himself would learn that lesson the hard way and it would be at the hands of those same faithful upstate Presbyterians Patriots that he insulted and terrorized that the Lord's vengeance would be delivered upon the Pennsylvania Loyalist. It would take place less than a month later at a place called Williamson's Plantation in modern-day York County, which we will discuss in detail in the next chapter of this series on July 12th. 

The grave of Colonel William Hill in the churchyard
of historic Bethel Presbyterian Church near
Clover, South Carolina.

For more information about the destruction of Hill's Iron Works 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

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.

Lieutenant-Colonel George Turnbull (1728-1809)
Commander of the British and Loyalist forces at
the Rocky Mount outpost near modern-day
Great Fall, SC (1780-1781).
Portrait courtesy of wikipedia.

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 eastern 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, it was Huck's next act of terror that 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

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/

The Massacre At The Waxhaws: The Revolutionary War Arrives In The SC Backcountry -- May 29, 1780

The British Legion charges Virginia Continentals at the Battle of the Waxhaws on May 29, 1780.
Painting by Graham Turner.

The Massacre At The Waxhaws

The Revolutionary War Arrives In The South Carolina Backcountry
Monday, May 29, 1780
 

By: C.W. Roden

This post is dedicated to the men, woman and children who help maintain the site of the Battle of the Waxhaws (Buford's Massacre), and especially to the Continental soldiers from the State of Virginia who were wounded and died there in defense of American liberty in May 1780. 

(Part 1 of a 15 part series)

After five years of largely indecisive fighting in the Northern States, the American Revolutionary War reached a stalemate in the year 1780. General George Washington's Continental Army faced off against the combined British and Hessian forces now under the command of General Sir Henry Clinton outside of New York City.

France and Spain had entered the war on the side of the newly independent American States in 1778 and the British Empire reoriented for a worldwide strategy. Losing the North American colonies would be bad; but the loss of Gibraltar, India, or the West Indies would have been a disaster for Great Britain. British troops and naval vessels were needed on other more important fronts.

General Clinton knew that there might still be a way to win the war for America: conquer the South. The region had been largely untouched by the war, and it was felt that in the Southern States there were yet many Loyalists who would rise to support the Crown if the British army established a serious foothold there.

General Sir Henry Clinton, Commander In Chief
of British Expeditionary Forces in
North America 1778-1782. 
Painting by English painter John Smart.

The Southern plan devised by Clinton and approved by his superior and  Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord Germain in London, was to invade South Carolina, set up outposts across the State, recruit as many as 5,000 Loyalist militia forces and augment them with a small core of several thousand British regulars, training them to fight for the British army. After securing South Carolina, the Loyalists there would remain to hold the rebellious colony for the Crown while the main British regular army marched north, repeating the process in North Carolina and Virginia. The goal would be to catch Washington's Continental Army between two main British armies and crush the colonial rebellion before the French could effectively intervene in America. 

On Sunday, April 2, 1780, a British armada and expeditionary force under Clinton's direct command launched his attack against the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Unlike Clinton's previous attack in June of 1776, this time the British forces laid siege to the city with both infantry and naval forces trapping the main Southern Continental Army under the command of Major General Benjamin Lincoln.

On Friday, May 12th at around 11:00 a.m., Lincoln surrendered the city and the entire Southern Continental Army after a six week siege. Lincoln's army included all four of South Carolina's remaining Continental regiments, two North Carolina Continental regiments and six Virginia Continental regiments, as well as a large number of North and South Carolina militia -- overall about 5,000 men.

The surrender of Charleston sent a shock wave throughout the entire continent. Charleston was the largest and most important city in the South -- still the capitol of the newly independent State of South Carolina at that time -- and its loss was a huge blow to the morale to the Continental Congress and the cause of American independence.

The loss of the entire Southern Continental Army would be considered single the worst American military defeat in history until the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines in May of 1942 (this is not counting the final surrender of the C.S.A. armies in April and May of 1865 that is).   

Under the terms of the surrender, the Continental regulars were to remain as prisoners of war until properly exchanged, but the Patriot militiamen were to be permitted to return to their homes as prisoners on parole provided they sign a pledge not take up arms against the British Crown again. Many took the offer of parole and went home, feeling that the war was over for them. Other backcountry Patriots upon learning of the defeat at Charleston simply turned around and went home. 

There were still some Patriot troops outside the city under the command of Brigadier General Issac Huger who had not surrendered with the rest of Lincoln's army. These troops also included the remnants of Lieutenant Colonel William Washington's Continental dragoons and a few companies of militia including a company commanded by Captain John McClure from what are now present-day Chester and York Counties. Having no further use for them, Huger dismissed the Patriot militia.

Devastated by the loss of their State's capitol, and angered at the loss of their horses at the Battle of Lenud's Ferry on Saturday, May 6th less than a week earlier, McClure's company broke camp and began the long walk home. At the time many of them felt that the war was lost in South Carolina.

The remains of Huger and Washington's Continental forces retreated to Lenud's Ferry on the Santee River where they would meet up with a force of Virginia Continentals under the command of Colonel Abraham Buford and North Carolina militia commanded by Colonel William Caswell. 


Buford's Virginians and the Retreat

Raised in Virginia earlier in the spring, Buford's command consisted of about 380 Continental officers and men of the 3rd Virginia Detachment which included the 7th Virginia Regiment, two companies of the 2nd Virginia regiment and a small force of artillerymen with two six-pounders. Many of these men were recruits with little battle experience, though Buford himself had seen battle before in Washington's Continental Army. 

Due to delays in getting his command organized and outfitted, Buford and his army did not even arrive in South Carolina until the beginning of May and was unable to reach Charleston in time to help in its defense. By the time the Virginians arrived at Lenud's Ferry, the city had fallen to the British. Buford's men were joined by about 40 Virginia Light Dragoons who had escaped the siege. A total of 420 men overall.

A battle flag of Buford's 3rd Virginia Detatchment.
The original banner (one of three) was captured by
Tarleton's British Legion at the Battle of the Waxhaws.

Huger, Washington and Buford met up at Lenud's Ferry that evening. Their combined forces were too small in number to resist the British so retreat was their only option. Huger ordered the Virginians and North Carolina militia to withdraw to Camden, South Carolina retreating north along the river, toward the High Hills of Santee, before the British could cross the river and overtake them. Marching north they came to the Great Wagon Road that led from Charleston to the Camden District and the upstate settlements. Both Washington and Huger went ahead to Hillsborough, North Carolina where the few remains of the Southern Continental Army not captured were gathering to regroup and gather into a new army.

On Friday, May 26th, Buford, Caswell, and their men arrived in the town of Camden where they encountered South Carolina Governor John Rutledge who'd managed to escape from Charleston before the surrender and took refuge there to assume direction of the remaining soldiers there.

Governor Rutledge informed Buford of rumors that the British army was in pursuit and advancing on Camden in force. He decided the best chance for them to escape was to separate the units and take two different routes. Caswell's brigade was to march northeast to the Pee Dee River and towards North Carolina while Buford's Virginians were to satay on the Great Wagon Road to Salisbury, North Carolina. Rutledge would go with them and establish a government in exile in North Carolina to continue fighting the British from there.
 

The British Advance

Receiving intelligence from Loyalist spies that Buford and Rutledge were in Camden and preparing to retreat to North Carolina, Clinton ordered his second-in-command Lieutenant-General Lord Charles Cornwallis, along with a corps of some 2,500 infantry, cavalry, and artillery, to persue Buford and neutralize his force. Clinton and Cornwallis were both in agreement that the pacification of the South Carolina backcountry and upstate was of major importance to the success of their campaign. Having an armed force of Continentals close by would only encourage those rebels left in South Carolina to continue their resistance to the Crown.  

On Thursday, May 18th, Cornwallis' forces made their way to Lenud's Ferry and crossed the Santee River headed for Camden. Heavy rains slowed the British pursuit and Buford's retreat since both forces were burdened by artillery and wagons on muddy roads.

By Saturday, May 27th, Cornwallis realized that his main army was advancing too slowly to catch Buford, so he detached the British Legion, a mobile force of cavalry and infantry made up of Northern-born American Loyalists from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania commanded by British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, to pursue Buford's force while he marched the rest of the army to Camden and being the task of establishing British outposts in the upcountry to maintain order for the Crown's forces.

Tarleton's command included 40 British cavalry regulars of the 17th Dragoons, 130 of his British Legion Cavalry, and 100 men of the British Legion's Infantry detachment -- riding double with a cavalryman on horseback for this occasion. A total of about 270 men overall.

British Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton wearing the green uniform
of the British Legion that earned him the romantic nickname:
"The Green Dragoon".
The actions of his men at the Waxhaws on May 29, 1780 would
earn him several less flattering nicknames in American history
such as: "Bloody Ban" or "Butcher Tarleton".
Painting by British painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.

At about 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 28th, then 11-year-old Thomas Sumter Jr., the young son of Colonel Thomas Sumter, was riding his horse through the High Hills of the Santee River 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. 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 his wife, Mary, and headed to North Carolina with Soldier Tom only a few hours ahead of the British Legion. 

Although Sumter had retired from active military service in September 1778, he was well known to the British and Loyalists in South Carolina as a prominent Continental officer. Tarleton dispatched Captain Charles Campbell of the Legion to bring in Sumter. 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 Sumter's family homeless. 

The destruction of Sumter's home would be just one of several huge mistakes the British Legion would make in the next two days that would have major long-term repercussions in derailing their overall Southern strategy.

That evening Tarleton reached Camden and wasted no time in setting off after Buford. He departed the town at about 2 a.m. the next morning on Monday, May 29th.

Buford's forces, along with Governor Rutledge, were camped at a place called Hanging Rock, a small creek overhung by a huge conglomerate boulder just 20 miles north of Camden.

A copy of the terms offer to Buford by Tarleton
on the afternoon of May 29, 1780 prior to the
Battle of the Waxhaws.
Courtesy of the Museum of the Waxhaws collection.

Governor Rutledge decided to ride on ahead to Charlotte, North Carolina with a small escort leaving Buford's force behind to continue on to Salisbury at double time. The men were already footsore and slowed with wagons and two cannons. Early Monday morning they reached the fork where the Great Wagon Road went toward Charlotte to the left and the more direct cutoff straight to Salisbury through thickly forested, lightly inhabited country, to the right. Buford headed right though the area of modern-day Lancaster County known as the Waxhaws after the Native American people that once largely inhabited the area.

Around midday an officer of the British Legion, Captain David Kinloch, under a banner of truce, came upon Buford's force with a message from Tarleton -- who by that time was at Barkley's tavern on the road less than an hour behind Buford. The message was clear, Buford could surrender on generous terms -- about the same given by Clinton to Lincoln at Charleston -- or, as Tarleton boldly phrased it in his message: "If you are rash enough to reject them, the blood be upon your head."

Buford and his junior officers conferred. They claim by Tarleton in his message of having 700 men, they guessed correctly, was a lie. In fact, Buford's Virginians actually outnumbered the British Legion detachment close to 3 to 1. Buford believed that the whole thing might be a ruse to bluff them to surrender. Buford declined the offer to surrender with a one sentence reply: "Sir, I reject your proposals, and shall defend myself to the last extremity."


The Battle of the Waxhaws

Virginia Continental Soldier.
Artwork by Don Troiani.

Buford continued to march toward North Carolina in an effort to put the British Legion forces behind him, with his cannons and wagons in the lead.  

Sometime around 3 p.m. that afternoon, a bugle sounded behind them, and Tarleton's 170 cavalrymen, sabers swinging, charged the Virginian's read guard, commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Pearson.  

In 18th century warfare, cavalry charges against infantry were a terrifying experience for the men on foot. Psychologically such an attack is meant to play on the nerves and strike terror into infantry soldiers. The sight of being attacked at high speed by a screaming, sword-wielding enemy riding a large horse, or other beast, is almost more than most people can stand up to.

Some of the Virginians ran, others dropped to the ground to avoid the British sabers. Lieutenant Pearson himself was not so fortunate. He was mounted himself and was knocked from his horse by a saber blow and then slashed across the face, the sword cutting his nose and lips in half and killing him instantly.

Buford halted his main column and ordered the Continentals to turn and form on the side of the road under the trees facing the enemy. In haste to do so, Buford either had no time to order the wagons to be used as an obstacle, nor get his two cannons in place. Tarleton deployed his men into three elements of combined cavalry and infantry, then attacked from about three hundred yards. The British Legion Cavalry charged the front and flanks of the Virginians.


As they charged, Buford gave what was perhaps a fatal order: hold fire until the enemy was ten paces in front of the line. By that time the cavalry was charging the line at full gallop and could not be stopped. The Continentals got off one volley of shots before the Legion's cavalry crashed into the line, British sabers went to work on the now all-but helpless Virginia infantry who had no time to reload their muskets. The two flanking units of the British line then all but surrounded the Continentals. By that point the charging Legion Infantry joined in jabbing anything that moved with their 15 inch bayonets.

British Legion Infantry Soldier.
Artwork by Don Troiani.

During the volley, Tarleton's horse was shot out from under him and he fell to the ground with his dead horse on top of him, pinning him down for the next few moments. The Legion's soldiers seeing their young commander shot down and believing him to be dead turned on the Virginians and began to literally hack them to pieces, some even as they tried to surrender.

Buford himself did not wait to see the final outcome of the battle knowing that defeat was inevitable. He galloped away towards Salisbury on horseback with a few survivors leaving the infantrymen to their fate.

Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton -- now mounted onto a fresh horse -- finally urged his officers to get the men under control. This took some time in the heat and confusion of battle with tempers flared and adrenaline pumping. The battle became a bloody melee with the Legion Cavalry slashing at survivors with sabers and the infantry stabbing with bayonets in hand-to-hand combat. Some were hacked to death, or wounded by bayonets when they raised their hands and tried to surrender.

When the smoke cleared, 113 of the Virginia Continental soldiers were dead -- many of which would die later from wounds -- 150 men were wounded and 53 were captured. Only a handful escaped with Buford. Of the British Legion, 5 men lay dead (probably from the volley by the Virginians) and 12 wounded. 

The entire battle took less then fifteen minutes.

British Legion Cavalry charging down Buford's Virginian Continentals.

The Bloody Aftermath

Tarleton ordered that the 53 Continentals still standing be transported to Camden where Cornwallis was setting up command of South Carolina. The 150 men that lay wounded -- some too badly to be moved any great distance -- were "paroled" which largely meant in many cases leaving them on the field to die.

By nightfall the British Legion camped closed to the battleground. Tarleton sent messengers over to the nearby Waxhaw community thirteen miles away to inform the residents of the battle. At a distance from the Legion's fires, dead and wounded still lay on the earth, the later screaming in torment. Tarleton sent for surgeons from Camden and Charlotte to help assist the wounded. His own Legion's doctor was busy helping with the fourteen wounded men of the Legion and did not bother with helping the enemy, the Hippocratic Oath notwithstanding.

Marker outside the Waxhaw Presbyterian Church,
site of Waxhaws Meeting House in 1780.

The local population of scattered Scotch-Irish settlers in the upcountry came to the scene to help with the wounded. What they found on Buford's bloody battlefield horrified them. Most of the wounded were so badly mangled suffering mostly from bayonet and saber wounds -- some with a few as four and many others with more than a dozen -- that they died where they lay. Others were pressed into service to bury the dead in a long mass grave that remains on the site. Some of the wounded that could be carried by cart were taken several miles away to Waxhaw Meeting House and nearby homes to be cared for. Some of those men died and are buried in the now historic Waxhaw Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

Among the local Waxhaw residents who helped with caring for the badly wounded Virginian Continentals was a local widow named Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson and her young 13-year-old son, Andrew Jackson -- the future 7th President of the United States -- who would later join with local patriots under Thomas Sumter's command to fight against the British and Loyalists in the upstate. 

 

Conclusion: "Tarleton's Quarter"

To the local residents, the sight of so much bloodshed, and young men literally cut to pieces was a scene of horror none of them would ever forget. For the people of upstate South Carolina up until then the American Revolutionary War was only know to them from family and neighbors who went off to fight far away through letters or second hand accounts.

For the first time since South Carolina declared her sovereign independence, eighteenth century warfare finally arrived literally in the back yards of the people of the South Carolina upcountry. These people now witnessed first hand the type of war and brutality practiced their new British masters.

In the aftermath of the Battle of the Waxhaws -- or "Buford's Massacre" as its still called in upstate South Carolina to this day -- both frightened and angered many backcountry Patriots, many of whom believed that Tarleton deliberately ordered his men to slaughter Buford's Continentals. The fact that Tarleton himself played up the one-sided battle and encouraged the stories of his men's slaughter of the Virginians would not help to dispel these perceptions.

The battle earned the young English Colonel the nicknames he would forever be known to South Carolina history as: "Bloody Ban" or "Butcher" Tarleton.

To the upcountry Patriots, the name Tarleton and the green-coated British Legion would be synonymous with terror. Worse for the British and their Loyalist allies, it would plant the seed of defiance in the hearts of Southern Patriots and a determination to expel an enemy capable of such wanton cruelty.

The bloody melee at the Waxhaws would be the prelude to nearly three years of bloody partisan fighting in the South Carolina backcountry, a civil war between Patriots and Loyalists that would reach it's peak from Buford's bloody battleground to the top of Kings Mountain five months later.

"Remember Tarleton's Quarter" would also become a rallying cry for a new wave of defiance in upstate South Carolina among Patriots waiting for the opportunity to strike back against the British and their Loyalist allies.

One of the very first acts of retaliation would come just over a week later on June 6, 1780 at a placed called Alexander's Old Field in modern-day Chester County, which this blogger will tell you about in the next chapter of this series.

The mass grave site of many of Buford's Virginia Continentals on the site of the Battle of Waxhaws,
on Monday, May 29, 1780. Others are buried in nearby local cemeteries like nearby historic
Old Waxhaws Presbyterain Church.
The mass grave is located at the corner of SC 9 and Rt. 522 about 9 miles east of Lancaster, South Carolina.

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

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

The Museum of the Waxhaws at their website: www.museumofthewaxhaws.org/

The South Carolina Society Sons of the American Revolution (SC SAR)

and the outstanding organization Friends of the Buford Massacre Battlefield at their website: www.friendsofbufordmassacrebattlefield.com/.