Fishing Creek

Two ladies loyal to the King helped Tarleton put another jewel in his Crown while the “Gamecock” was saved by cattle, sheep and a low hanging branch.

On August 15, 1780, the day before Camden fell, Col. Sumter won at Cary’s Fort.  Guarding the Wateree crossing, Cary’s Fort was located on the west side of the Wateree River in the general area of where I-20 crosses it. After the battle “The Gamecock” Sumter had the task of transporting 100 prisoners, over 40 wagons loaded with supplies and 300 head of cattle (and sheep) north towards the State line.  Just on the other side of the river the Battle of Camden raged and was lost by Gates. 

Sumter was in a precarious situation and he posted a rear guard as they slowly made their way towards Charlotte, hoping to go undetected.  But Tarleton was sent by Lord Cornwallis to find his captured Loyalist men and supplies. Soon Tarleton and his Dragoons were able to observe Sumter’s camp fires from across the river.  They caught up with them on August 18, 1780 just north of the present-day Fishing Creek Dam off Hwy 21 in Chester County.  Sumter had managed to travel roughly 40 miles since his battle at the Wateree crossing.

Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s Dragoons were in no mood to play nice. They had been riding, marching and fighting for days without rest when they came upon Sumter’s force of over 800 men.  Now they rode two to a horse to bring enough men to the fight.  Aided by information from two Tory ladies, Tarleton was able to know Sumter’s location and disposition of the rebel forces. These ladies of the Crown also informed him of alternate avenues of approach to the Whig camp by way of some secondary roads. 

They found Sumter and he had let his guard down!  Sumter had stopped to rest in the rolling green hills along the banks of the Catawba river just above the Great Falls.  The Patriot force had stacked their arms around noon and were bathing, eating, shaving and foraging. Indeed, some of the militia had found the rum in the wagons and were too drunk to fight.  Two of Sumter’s men guarding the rear approach of the Patriot force were found and killed by saber, without drawing attention to the British Legion’s presence.

Tarleton, extremely outnumbered, boldly charged with his 100 mounted dragoons, augmented with but 60 foot soldiers. Whether by design, wisdom or chance he had played upon the psychology of the Patriot loss at Camden just two days before.

The cows and sheep grazed away as the human conflict flared.  Sumter was caught by surprise as he was observed sleeping when the battle commenced. Sumter quickly took in the situation and yelled, "Let every man take care of himself!” Leaving his coat and boots behind he jumped on an unsaddled wagon horse and rode out of camp in a flash. Riding furiously through the woods he was knocked from the horse by a low hanging limb and lay unconscious for some time after the battle.  

Col. Bratton and a small band of Partisans fought valiantly as the rest of the militia ran in all directions.  

Tarleton quickly inherited the shackles of baggage and livestock that Sumter had been relieved of. He could not pursue his foe for fear of losing that which he had just liberated. He turned his attention to his prisoners and spoils and turned south. 

In the confusion of the round up and trek back to Cornwallis, several Patriot prisoners were able to make good their escape.   

While Tarleton returned to Camden with added jewels to his crown, Sumter limped to Charlotte to regroup.

Thus our “Gamecock” though beaten by two ladies, a keg of rum and Tarleton, was saved by cattle, sheep and a low hanging branch!

With Gates and Sumter whipped in a matter of days and all his supplies intact, Cornwallis felt pretty confident.  The British army seemed invincible.  But rumors were in the air of a Loyalist defeat to the west. It was an omen that would haunt Cornwallis and a harbinger of things to come!

Freedom Reigns!

                                 

                                            General Thomas Sumter

https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/800818-fishing-creek/

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

Before They Were Heroes at King’s Mountain, Randell Jones

History of the Upper Country of S.C., Logan

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

    

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)