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!
(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!
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