the McDowells

In September of 1780 British Major Patrick Ferguson raised his army of over 1000 men and headed up into the North Carolina Mountains. Going through present day, Chesney, SC and onto Rutherfordton, NC., his army would live off the land as they worked their way from community to hamlet. On the general route laid out by the old Hwy 64 in NC., they rousted leaders and families to subdue the rebellion.

Ferguson had missed Colonel Isaac Shelby who had already made good his retreat over the mountains. But the left-wing commander of Cornwallis’ army had caught the scent of NC militia Colonel Charles McDowell and his force of about 160 men. McDowell was headed for the Watauga river valley in Tennessee, which is northwest of the present-day Beech Mountain snow resort of North Carolina.

Charles and his band of warriors had gone into South Carolina to stall Cornwallis and lend aid where they could.  McDowell was a prominent man in his community and he and his wife manufactured gunpowder in the Quaker Meadows of Morganton, NC.  McDowell had been appointed as a Colonel in the Burke County, NC militia and his brother, Joseph (a Major), served under him in all their military engagements. 

They had hoped to battle the King’s men in South Carolina and keep them away from their homes.  Colonel McDowell had sent out forces that won at Fort Thicketty and Musgrove Mill and the McDowells had done their duty and given aid and sword wherever they could.  Now they were on the retreat. (1)

As brothers they were a force to be reckoned with.  Where one, Charles, had the confidence of the local leaders; the other, Joseph, was a true fighter who inspired the men from Burke County and beyond. 

When Ferguson marched up old Hwy 64, the McDowells were ready for him at the headwaters of the Cane Creek.

The Patriots, though outnumbered, had laid an ambush up on the high ground and challenged the Lobster backs, led by their British Major.  On September 12, 1780 Patriot shots were fired from concealed positions and the Loyalists recoiled from the initial surprise, but they rallied.  With rifle and bayonet, Ferguson’s men began to make headway toward the Patriot lines up the hill. 

 Joseph McDowell

Joseph McDowell was heard swearing and yelling for his men to stand and die with him if need be, and that he would never yield!(2)  Rifle fire would mix with yells, screams and smoke in that shadow of the South Mountains. The Patriots fought for time and freedom to make good their escape.

The Brits only left the field after they claimed victory, but they came up short in the fray. Bones from the fight were still found four decades later, strewn across the battlefield. These remnants of the dead seemed to belie the viewpoint of victory that Ferguson’s men professed.   In the end, both sides lost men. 

But the McDowells were able to make good their escape. The Brits made their way back to Gilbert town with an unknown number of dead and wounded. Among the wounded was one Captain James Dunlap, a veteran of the Queen’s Rangers and leader of a troop of Loyalist mounted riflemen. Out of action for some time and convalescing from a serious wound to the leg, he would not see action again with Major Ferguson.

Dunlap was sheltered in a Loyalist home and could not move with the army.  He would later be shot by the Patriots seeking revenge for the death of Noah Hampton in South Carolina. His attackers failed to make sure he was dead, though, and he dodged their attempt to end his life. Rumor, lies and a false grave were utilized to stay one step ahead of his pursuers.

Perhaps the most telling result of this “check” by McDowell on Ferguson was what happened in the next few weeks.  Word got out to the countryside of the intrusion of the King’s forces into the mountain regions. In a short time, Ferguson begins to hear that an army of mountaineers are coming like a fog out of the high valleys across the Blue Ridge.  Coming for him!  

A Reckoning was coming!  Freedom Reigns!

(1)http://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/patriot_leaders_nc_charles_mcdowell.html

(2)King’s Mountain and Its Heroes: A History of the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7^th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It., Lyman C. Draper, Anthony Allaire

Heroines of the Upstate Revolution

Perhaps the story of British occupation is best taught through the perils of the women on the home front, especially those of the frontier settlements.  Forced to reckon with Indian raids and bands of outlaws, these were not the women of the genteel plantations in the parishes outside of Charleston along the Cooper, Ashley, Stono, and Wando rivers.  These women grew up in households that had survived and flourished in that dangerous land of the upstate of South Carolina far away from law and order.  Their lives had been forged in the fire of threats and the cold reality of life and death struggles.  So, when the British came with more of the same, is it any wonder that these bold women answered in like manner?

Martha Bratton stared down a sickle meant for her head and calmly spoke in defiance as the Red Coats demanded information about her husband.  The farm estate located off Hwy 321 south of York, SC was situated in the rolling green hills of the piedmont. Forests and brooks were boundaries of fields and tilled soil.  The wagon road, strewn with pine needles and oak leaves, wound down and then up again, across a good creek to the front of her small house in the back country.  Foot paths were worn along deer trails through the lush green canopies to neighbors and friends in this hamlet of partisan families.  It was along one of these hidden trails that word got to her husband nearby and he, and his militia, ambushed Captain Christian Huck (The Swearing Captain) at the Williamson’ homestead and caused the British troop to regret their threats upon his wife.  This stand against Huck and his band put an end to a series of attacks in Chester and York counties where several homes were burned and many people from the community had been killed.  On another occasion it is said that she blew up gun powder stored on her property and boldly proclaimed to the British, who were riding up, that she had done it in defense of her country.

Martha Bratton

Kate Barry was said to have been flogged by a Tory named Elliott, for not revealing where her Patriot husband was.  On her family farm at Walnut Grove in Spartanburg County she was an accomplished rider of horse and a pious Presbyterian. Her maiden name of Moore is still a namesake in the community to this day.  She was married in 1767 at 15 years of age to Andrew Barry, who had been a community magistrate and Captain in the local militia before the war with England.  Legend has it that she rode as a scout on horseback and swam swollen rivers in the dark of night to carry word of British troop movements to the Colonials.  In her 20s during the time of the revolution, she was the darling of her husband’s band of Rangers. She was instrumental in rallying the Patriot militia to assist General Morgan at Cowpens where the battle was won.  At the end of the war her husband’s troop wanted justice for their lady of Liberty and urged Captain Barry to seek retribution against the man who had whipped her. He found Elliott hiding under a bed and, in the end, dropped him to the floor with a three-legged stool.  He then walked away proclaiming, “I am satisfied, I will not take his life.”  Kate and Captain Barry raised their children near her Walnut Grove after the war.  One of her descendants is Amanda Blake (Miss Kitty) from the TV show “Gunsmoke”.

Kate Barry

Mary Dillard, in like manner, is said to have swam the Enoree river to warn General Sumter of the British order of attack at the Battle of Blackstock’s.  This information came to her after she had been forced to feed the British troops invading her home. Perhaps because she was just a small woman who stayed in the background or because the British felt strength and security in their numbers, talk of the impending order of battle flowed freely at the table.  Realizing the information was vital and the lives of her family were in peril, she snuck away in the night from the farm and rode bareback on her horse to General Sumter’s camp, 20 miles away.  Her toddler child had to be tied to the bedpost while she ran off into the night.  During the battle it is reported that she untethered the British horses and marched them away from their masters and into the Patriot camp, thus further hampering the Red Coat plans.  After the defeat Tarleton believes the battle was lost because of a woman that was seen spying on them across the river.  Fearing for her children’s safety, she came home to find the house burned, though the children had been taken to the neighbor. The burned home was a scene that would repeat itself before the wars end and would place an exclamation point on the hardships of the times.

Mary Dillard

Dicey Langston,15 years of age, in the dead of night walked and ran five miles and crossed a swollen river to warn her brother’s Patriot band that Loyalist Bill Cunningham was in the area looking to kill them.  Laurens County was a loyalist stronghold and she and her aging father were surrounded by Tory neighbors always watchful for her Patriot brother.  Ever the fierce one, she was retrieving a gun hid for her brother when men showed up to the house claiming to be of his company.  When she brought the rifle, she demanded the countersign given by her brother to test the validity of the men’s claim.  When they dithered and made a comment that it was too late as she had the gun in hand, she quickly cocked the rifle and boldly threatened the men.  The countersign was given, and laughter washed away the tense and potentially deadly encounter.  Later she bravely stood in front of a British pistol that was meant for her ailing father and pled for her father’s life.  Honest and brave, she was protector and Patriot in a time when youth and adulthood mixed at an early age.

Dicey Langston

These women Patriots lived a life in the back country of the Upstate of South Carolina where their whole families could be snuffed out by the war.  They walked a delicate line as daughters, wives, mothers, house keepers, cooks and community members that, in many cases was as dangerous as their Patriot husbands and brothers faced on the field of battle.  At least their men-folk had a fighting chance without the encumbrances of toddlers at their feet, questionable neighbors and opposing armies that come to call.

 

In the bloody civil war of the Revolution in South Carolina, sides had to be chosen and the families at the homestead were often the victims.  These women, and the women like them whose stories were never told, chose not to play the victim.  They chose independence over servitude.  They chose to fight! Freedom Reigns!

http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2010/10/martha-bratton

http://newacquisitionmilitia.com/christian-huck-biography/

Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

https://american-revolutionary-war-facts.com/American-Revolutionary-War-Women-Facts/Catherine-Moore-Barry-Facts.html

http://legendsofthefamily.blogspot.com/2017/08/mary-ramage-dillard-wife-mother-and.html

http://www.sarrettsofgeorgia.com/dillardhistory4.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29696253/mary-dillard

King’s Mountain and Its Heroes: History of the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7^th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It, Lyman Draper and Anthony Allaire

http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2009/04/dicey-langston-springfield.html

http://www.diceylangston.com/womenofrevolution.php

Battle of Camden

1777 Northern Theater of American Revolution

“Too Cautious” was the description of General Gates by his subordinates at the battles at Saratoga. Indeed, Benedict Arnold’s ultimate treason of the American cause had much to do with his dissatisfaction of General Horatio Gates; who he called ‘the greatest poltroon in the world and many other genteel qualifications.’  Major General Nathaniel Greene would write a similar, eloquent negative concerning Gates.  And even though Greene went on to praise Generals Lincoln and Benedict Arnold for the successes in that Northern theater, it was now the summer of 1780 and things had changed since the war had moved south. Lincoln had lost Charleston and Arnold was convalescing from his wounds and planning treason at West Point.  Gates, who had been honored with accolades from the new Congress, was Washington’s choice to counter the enemy’s advance in the south. ⁽¹⁾

1780 Southern Theater of American Revolution

So General Gates marched from the area of Greensboro, NC on July 25, 1780 with intentions to retake Camden, 150 miles to the south. Camden had become the staging area for General Cornwallis in the Southern theater of the war.  It was only a month and a half since Charleston had fallen.  Gates took over General DeKalb’s command and added troops that trickled in as they marched over the next 17 days. Many of these troops had come tardy to Charleston, but now found themselves in a position to avenge the loss of the “Holy City” of the South.⁽²⁾ 

Gates took a more direct route against the advice of his Generals, who wished a more westerly route. They counseled this to take advantage of a population more favorable to the cause who could feed the troops along the way.  They could also avoid some swamps and marshes that would slow them down. 

However, they marched with supplies and baggage wagons across the Piedmont plain of the Carolinas where the July sun and humid heat hung heavy on the head and shoulders of each soldier. Green apples, molasses (instead of the usual rum) and bad food combined to cause an epidemic of dysentery that swept through the ranks on the eve of battle. ⁽³⁾ 

Then, Gates dithered and failed to follow up on his skirmish with Lord Rawdon about 7 miles above Camden on August 11th, despite his advantage of 4 to 1 odds in manpower.  Gates' vacillation allowed Cornwallis to come up 5 days later and the two armies surprised each other at 2 a.m. 

Skirmishers were taken prisoner on both sides and debriefed. Both armies realized they were face to face.  Gates called another council of war seeking input from his officers, but once more failed in his administration of a battle plan by misplacing his militia on the battle lines.  

The Red Coats fixed bayonets, charged and decimated the militia.  Cornwallis then turned on the flank of the Continentals still fighting on the field under DeKalb.  DeKalb, a brave and noble warrior who had fought with honors in Europe during the Seven Years War,  received 11 wounds and was last seen fighting bravely while surrounded by the Red Coat onslaught.  Cornwallis’ physicians cared for DeKalb and he died a few days later in Camden. 

Though Gates would be credited by some as attempting to rally the troops, his backside was seen fleeing the battle lines while its decision was still in question. In an irony of war, Dekalb, whose command was turned over to Gates weeks before the battle, was the one deserving of honors. He was heard to declare while near death in the British camp,  "I thank you sir for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for: the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man."(4)

                                                                                               

Battle of Camden.Dean.USMA.edu.history.gif

The Retreat and more Foreign Patriots

French Lt. Col. Armand was at the head of a Patriot cavalry contingent made up of Foreign volunteers, Hessian deserters and Frenchmen.  Remnants of other companies joined up with him  near the end of the ignoble battle.  He and his men fought a rear-guard action and found themselves fending off an assault by Col. Banastre Tarlton’s Green Dragoons just north of the main battlefield. As the Colonial army attempted to make good their escape, Armand’s men stoutly gave battle to buy precious time for the troops retreating north.  

The scene of this rear-guard action is unceremoniously known only to have occurred near the bridge over Grannies Quarter Creek on Flat Rock Rd. in Kershaw County, SC.  Many of the final resting places of the foreign soldiers who died in defense of our liberty are sadly unknown to history and their remains were left in the fields and creek beds of the rural landscapes of our South State.  Their noble deeds known only to the Great Creator who, we pray, has given them due credit for their defense of Freedom. (5)

After the Battle

Gates was humbled at Camden and labeled a coward by many.  Lt. Colonel Armand remarked “I will not say that we have been betrayed, but if it had been the purpose of the general to sacrifice his army, what could he have done more effectually to have answered that purpose.”(6)

Cornwallis basked in the glory of what he thought was the last full measure of large resistance in South Carolina. As the Continental Army was defeated at Charleston and now at Camden, he set his sights on Charlotte. His troops were left with chasing the “Gamecock” Sumter and the “Swamp Fox” Marion.  Cornwallis contented himself in believing that these partisan bands were inconsequential in the whole.  

But, Cornwallis had now pushed up against the Catawba River Valley, and things were about to change in 52 days.  Freedom Reigns!

    (1)    http://www.historynet.com/benedict-arnold-general-in-the-battle-of-saratoga.htm  

    (2)    King’s Mountain and Its Heroes: History of the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7^th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It, Draper and Allaire

    (3)    https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/800816-camden/
    (4) The Life of General Francis Marion: A Celebrated Partisan Officer in the Revolutionary War, Mason Weems
     (5) Parkers Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker
(   (6)    Washington and the Generals of the American Revolution, J.B. Lippincott

    

Hanging Rock

Col. William Davie yelled to the British at Hanging Rock in Lancaster county, "Soldiers, if you value your lives, ground your arms, and officers surrender at once!" They didn't. He won. He later harassed Cornwallis' 2000 man army in the streets of Charlotte with only 150 cavalry, and was probably the reason Charlotte was called a "Hornet's Nest." Soldier, lawyer, future NC Governor and co-founder of UNC Chapel Hill, he lived a bold and intrepid life of service so that we could be free. Freedom reigns!

(1) Parker's Guide to the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

Buford's Massacre

A mass grave in Lancaster, South Carolina entombs 113 men from Virginia who died at the hands of British soldiers! Eyewitnesses said the Virginians were throwing down their guns and trying to surrender when the British soldiers, led by Colonel Tarleton, began hacking them to death with their swords. Another 150 men were treated for severe injuries in a nearby church…many not surviving the week. Patriot Colonel Buford admits defeat. Britain claims victory over South Carolina. Ulster Scots from the upstate and mountains are incensed and vow to hold the lobster backs accountable. History reveals they made true on their word within the year. You can find this site off of Hwy. 522 in Lancaster County.  Freedom Reigns! (1)

(1) Parker's Guide to the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

Rev. Martin Hwy 97 Chester Cnty

                                                      

"My hearers," he said, in his broad Scotch-Irish dialect— "talk and angry words will do no good. We must fight!"

Highway 97 in York and Chester counties was part of the New Acquisition District during the revolutionary war.  We find stories of valor and intrigue dotting the various communities along that holy thoroughfare.  Reverend William Martin preached a sermon at the Covenenter Meeting house in 1780 that was considered a rallying cry to the locals to rise up against the British occupation.  Coming on the heals of the massacre of Col. Buford in the Waxhaws on May 29, 1780 by British Col. Tarleton, Reverend Martin gave a sermon to a large and angry crowd,

 "As your pastor—in preparing a discourse suited to this time of trial—I have sought for all light, examined the Scriptures and other helps in ancient and modern history, and have considered especially the controversy between the United Colonies and the mother country. Sorely have our countrymen been dealt with, till forced to the declaration of their independence—and the pledge of their lives and sacred honor to support it. Our forefathers in Scotland made a similar one, and maintained that declaration with their lives; it is now our turn, brethren, to maintain this at all hazards."

With eloquence and intellect mixed with a fire brand of emotion he stretched out his hand toward the Waxhaws and continued,

"Go see," he cried— "the tender mercies of Great Britain! In that church you may find men, though still alive, hacked out of the very semblance of humanity: some deprived of their arms—mutilated trunks: some with one arm or leg, and some with both legs cut off. Is not this cruelty a parallel to the history of our Scottish fathers, driven from their conventicles, hunted like wild beasts? Behold the godly youth, James Nesbit—chased for days by the British for the crime of being seen on his knees upon the Sabbath morning!" 

 from The Women of the American Revolution. v.3 by EF Ellet (1848).(1)

Lord Rawdon dispatched some cavalry to the community, killed a number of local militia and burned the Reverend’s house.  Reverend Martin was arrested and imprisoned.  Released later by General Cornwallis, he died in 1806. (2)

This story of the patriotic zeal is memorialized off of Highway 97 just east of I-77.  The Covenenter Meeting House Granite Marker and the Catholic Presbyterian Church are silent monuments to the story of Freedom.  Freedom Reigns!


(1) http://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2016/11/rev-william-martin-sermon-extract-south.html

(2)Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina. P 150, by John C. Parker, Jr. (2013)

Josiah Culbertson

Murder or self defense? You would be hard pressed to second guess a man like Josiah Culbertson.  A Hunter and tracker, he would join one Patriot band and then another as a situation arose.  At times he served under Col Roebuck's Spartan Regiment and  Col. Shelby’s “Over the Mountain Men."  He was a true Son of Liberty. He was daring, fearless and direct. Sam Brown, on the other hand, was the person who carried off Culbertson’s father-in-law and two sons to the British soon after the fall of Charleston. Now Sam Brown was back again and threatening Culbertson’s wife while the Major was in the field. Whether Brown was acting at the behest of British Colonel Ferguson or on his own, the intent was clear that danger to the Culbertsons was imminent at the hands of this scoundrel. Upon hearing the facts of the altercation from her very lips, the Major vowed to put an end to Brown’s terrorism on his family. Culbertson tracked him down and killed him at a distance of two hundred yards near Morris Bridge Road, Spartanburg County (near present day I-26). Another Loyalist, upon hearing of the shooting, made bold threats to avenge Brown’s death. Such is the way of a lawless environment in a civil war, where nothing is civil. They met at the Green Spring near the end of what is now a private drive called Glendarosa on August 8, 1780. Both took aim with their rifles; Culbertson was the one who walked away with ne’er a scratch. The Tory was left at room temperature on the banks of that lonely creek.(1)(2) There was no law, judge or jury to contest the rights and wrongs. It was kill or be killed.  It was war.

Freedom Reigns!

(1) King's Mountain and its Heroes: History of the BAttle of King's Mountain, October 7th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It, Lyman Copeland Draper, Anthony Alaire
(2)  Parker's Guide to the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

July 12-16, 1780, Spartanburg County

When asked his name Noah replied, “Hampton.”  Enraged, “they cursed him for a Rebel, and ran him through with a bayonet.”(1) Yet the British were having the worst of this running battle from July 12-16, 1780.  Loyalists Captain James Dunlap ran into the Hampton’s, Capt. John Jones and other Patriots under General McDowell in and around Landrum.  Night raids were made by both sides with success, but in the end, it was Dunlap that was fleeing for safety on a wild race for shelter at Fort Prince.  On his heels was another Hampton, Captain Edward “Ned” Hampton.  As the dead and wounded were counted from Spartanburg to Landrum to Inman the costs were mounting on both sides. In the end Dunlap abandoned Fort Prince.(2)

 

Faint markers of these skirmishes dot the upstate as civilization moves on.  Houses, woods and kudzu have invaded these blood-stained landscapes and most of their secrets are lost to time.  For the inquiring minds; though, there are still some reverent moments of thankfulness found in finding just the area of these life and death conflicts where freedom was in the balance.  Freedom Reigns!

  “Men are not made for war. But, neither are they made for slavery.” Jean Guéhenno, 1942.

(1) North Carolina, 1780-'81: Being a History of the Invasion of the Carolinas ...By David Schenck

(2)  Parker's Guide to the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

Freedom Reigns!

Fort Charlotte to Ninety Six July 12-17, 1775

Victory thwarted by treachery and deceit in July of 1775! Patriot Major James Mayson's men successfully snatch the gunpowder and supplies from Fort Charlotte (Savannah River) on the 12th. But they lose it 5 days later when the militia at Ninety Six turn back to the Crown. Mayson's men march into Ninety Six and are forced to surrender to those who were thought to be Patriots! William Cunningham, the nephew of Loyalist General Robert Cunningham, is in the Patriot militia with Mayson. William would later turn out to be a turncoat and become a bloodthirsty murderer by war's end.(1)(2) Freedom Reigns!

(1) Parker's Guide to the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.
(2)South Carolina History Walter Edgar

Sawney's Creek

The skirmish of Sawney’s Creek was a follow up to the battle of Hobkirk’s Hill in Camden.  Nathaniel Greene pulled his force back across the Wateree River to cut off the supply and communication routes to Granby (modern day Cayce), Ninety Six and Augusta.  Posting his troops in an abandoned house and on the high ground around Twenty Five mile creek, Greene waited in anticipation of the British.(1) It was May 8, 1781 and I am sure the weather was beginning to heat up.  Lord Rawdon crossed the Wateree with reinforcements from Georgetown that had just arrived.  Rawdon stated in his report, “ Having driven in his pickets, I examined every point of his situation; I found it everywhere so strong, that I could not hope to force it without suffering such loss as must have crippled my force for any future enterprise; and the retreat lay so open for him, I could not hope that victory would give us any advantage sufficiently decisive to counterbalance the loss.”(2) Lord Rawdon and the British flinched, fell back, burned Camden and retreated to Charleston.  I have crossed this bridge many times over the years to go fishing and kayaking at the dam in Lugoff.  It is with new found excitement that I have become aware of the sacrifices for my freedom fought so many years ago in the same woods, creeks and rivers that I enjoy today.

(1) Parker's Guide to the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.
(2) Swamp Fox: The Life and Campaigns of General Francis Marion, Robert D. Bass