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 7th, 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
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