Revenge could not wait

Revenge could not wait, smallpox or not. Captain Robert Harrison was a dangerous menace to all Patriots. He would be found bedridden by a scouting party on October 14, 1780 near the Antioch community in Kershaw County.

Before the fall of Charleston, the Harrison brothers lived in a run-down log cabin near the Lynches River, east of Bishopville, SC.  They slept on animal skins strewn about the floor.  Near the sandy roadway, by a Ferry crossing, they lived with the pungent smell of dead fish and stagnant water.(1)

Then Charleston fell to the British and the Red-coats made their way inland towards Camden and Cheraw. With the Continental army in disarray, all was working out well for the King’s men.  Camden was occupied, and the fortifications were continually improved around the camp. Those seeking protection from the Empire were urged to come in and get it.

 

But the summer heat and mosquitoes took their toll on the troops and Cornwallis was faced with a serious problem of keeping an army in the field. If he did not act soon, all the gains would be for naught. The rebels would recognize a weakness and make trouble for those who had already pledged loyalty to the King. (2)

An opportunity was recognized by the Harrison men. The more enterprising of the brothers, John, convinced Lord Cornwallis that it would be a good idea to give him and two of his siblings (Robert and Samuel) commissions in the army.  They would raise upwards of 500 men as a corps of Loyalist Rangers and help defeat the rebels.

Thus, they began their campaign of legal murder and robbery throughout the PeeDee area under the British command of Major James Wemyss.  Burning homes and plantations, they quickly became hated by their neighbors and known as bandits.  Even British Major “Bloody Tarleton” would refer to them as “men of fortune” instead of soldiers. (3)

A week after the Patriot victory at King’s Mountain,  Captain Robert Harrison was found bedridden in a house off present-day SC Hwy 34. He was a victim of smallpox and yet another statistic of medical infirmities that plagued the British soldiers in camp. Quarantined away from the troops until his blistered body succumbed to the viral disease or beat it back, he was helpless and ostracized.

The band of rebels, bolstered by the success of their compatriots in the upstate, kicked in the door to the house and found him.  Not willing to take a chance on the disease doing their bidding, they killed him where he lay.

By the end of the war, Samuel would be dead as well.

John, on the other hand, retired as a Colonel in east Florida with the wealth he had taken from his years of murder and robbery under the King’s commission.

Freedom Reigns!

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

(2)  The British Soldier in America, Sylvia Frey

(3) www.suzanneadair.net/2014/07/08/the-winning-of-the-revolution-in-south-carolina/

Mr. and Mrs. William Moore

William Moore was a bold and fearless fighter during the Revolutionary war.  Taking up his rifle and horse, he would leave his wife at home to confront the British before they came to his doorstep.

 On making the long journey from Abingdon, Virginia with Colonel Campbell, he proved himself in the eyes of his leader.  He was selected at Cowpens, SC to be a part of the flying column.  This 900-man force was culled from the bigger army that had come and camped at Cowpens in the hunt for Major Ferguson.  Moore headed off with this fast-moving contingent that ultimately surrounded the British at Kings Mountain.

The warriors that fought with Campbell were described by an injured Tory, Drury Mathis, as darting about the mountain during the battle “like enraged lions.” Drury went on to say, “they were the most powerful looking men he had ever beheld; not over-burdened with fat, but tall, raw boned, and sinewy, with long matted hair…” 

William Moore was among these men of the mountains.  During the battle he was wounded badly in the leg and it was amputated in the field to save his life.  Moving back over the mountains on a 10-day journey was not something he could do.  Potential for infection was too high and a lack of medical supplies a reality.  He was left in the care of nearby good Samaritans while his compatriots made the long journey home.

Once at home, they gladly recounted their tails of victory to all who would listen.  An air of joy permeated the community as the warriors returned.

Among the listeners was Mrs. Moore who inquired about her husband’s fate.  

Hearing that her husband had been wounded and was still in the area where British General Cornwallis was, she saddled her own horse and immediately set out in search of her loved one.

Back across the November mountains and down through North Carolina she rode with bold determination to find her loved one. She camped beneath the stars and elements.  She forded rivers and streams.  Her journey was as like and long as the army that preceded her, but without the company of thousands of men.

Bold and fearless she rode on with determined spirit, until at last she found him.

Their story certainly had the makings of a ballad.  He, leaving home to protect her and she, leaving home to find and care for him.  They loved and lived to be a ripe old age.  Their story was a source of pride and a touchstone of patriotic fervor for the family generations afterward. (1)

Freedom Reigns!

(1)    King’s Mountain and Its Heroes: History of King’s Mountain, October7th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It, Lyman Draper, Anthony Allaire

Robert Henry with the South Fork boys

Impaled by bayonet and concealed by the powder smoke, Robert Henry, a mere 16 years of age, was forced to lay prostrate and helpless as the battle went back and forth at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780.

 

The bayonet charges were a mainstay in the British army and Major Patrick Ferguson had taught his loyalist troops well.  With shouts of Huzzah to the King they fired their muskets at close range and charged down the rocky portions of Kings Mountain faster than the Mountain men could reload their rifles.

 

Through the understory of sourwood, dogwood and rhododendron the two armies sought out each other to kill. 

Robert Henry’s leader, Major Chronicle, fell mortally wounded at the head of his warriors.  He was heard yelling, "Face to the hill!" just before he was shot down. Several other men in Henry's militia from Lincoln County would meet a like fate as they turned upwards to meet the enemy.

They were nearing the top of the rise when Ferguson’s men surged towards them.

Robert Henry was able to kill the red coated soldier coming for him at the last moment, but not before the bayonet skewered him through his hand and into his thigh.  He was immobilized and helpless as the powder smoke hung heavy in the air. So, he waited in agony and feared that he might be discovered and finished off by another soldier of the realm.

 

The British charged down the rocky hillside with professional skill. Henry’s fellow Patriots would fire their rifles and race away only yards ahead of the cold steel; buying time to reload.

 

Once their rifles had been recharged, the South Fork boys returned and pursued the British back up the mountainside.

 

On the way back up Henry’s friend kicked him free of the bayonet- hurting more coming out than when it went in.  Henry grabbed his rifle and followed after them up the steep bank.

For over an hour the fighting raged up and down the mountain on all sides. Then the Patriots rolled up and over the mountain and pushed the red coats into a tight circle, east of their encampment. 

   

Lt. Hambright, who took command after Major Chronicle went down, was wounded a stone's throw away from where British Major Ferguson was killed. Within sight of each other, each had shouted "Huzzah!" as they urged their men to fight.  

 

The battle was won and the next day the prisoners were marched away.

Robert Henry stared down the Grim Reaper and shared in the glory of the victory that autumn day. He was carried to his nearby home to heal.  

At home, a day or so after the battle, Henry and his two escorts were visited by Tories in disguise.  These Tories immediately took information of the defeat of Major Ferguson to Lord Cornwallis and rumors of a mighty Patriot army in the west caused great concern.

Cornwallis retreated out of Charlotte. His troops spent restless nights on the road after being misdirected by local guides. He set up winter camp in Winnsboro, SC to lick his wounds.  

Here, at Kings Mountain, a lowly 16 year old private fought the greatest nation in the known world on some of the hottest contested ground in the war. He would turn with others to face a precipice fortified by one of the King's fittest soldiers.  Within an hour's time, he was charged in anger with bullet and blade and was impaled and left for dead.  He was then rescued and gave battle to the enemy until victory was won.

In a moment when a fledgling nation was only a hope and the life of a teenager was only fodder for tyranny's sake, Robert Henry measured up to his rite of passage.

Freedom Reigns!

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

http://www.shelbystar.com/article/20150707/news/150709147

http://www.greatdreams.com/henry/robert-henry.htm

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/02/18/visiting-our-past-revolutionary-boyhood-robert-henry/342500002/