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Skirmish at Mobley's Meeting-house.

Expeditions of Huck and Cunningham.

Their Defeat.

a June, 1780.

Loyalists, marauding parties, chiefly Tories, were sent out. At Mobley's meeting-house, on the banks of Little River, in Fairfield District, a party of these men were collected just after the affair at Beckhamville. Around them were gathering the Tories of the district, when Captains Bratton and M'Clure fell upon and dispersed them. This disaster, following closely upon the other, alarmed the commander at Rocky Mount, and he sent out Captain Christian Huck, a profane, unprincipled man,' with four hundred cavalry, and a body of well-mounted Tories, to "push the rebels as far as he might deem convenient.” He executed his orders with alacrity. At one time he destroyed Colonel Hill's iron-works ; at another he burned the dwelling of the Reverend William Simpson, of the Fishing Creek church, and murdered an unoffending young man on Sunday morning, while on his way to the meeting-house, with his Bible in his hand. He hated Presbyterians bitterly, and made them suffer when he could. Loaded with the spoils of plunder, Huck fell back to Rocky Mount, and prepared for other depredations.

About this time, Bill Cunningham and his "Bloody Scout" were spreading terror in Union and Spartanburg Districts, and also south of the Ennoree. Against this monster, John McClure was dispatched. He chased him across Union District, and almost thirty miles further toward Ninety-Six. Four of the scout were captured, and carried in triumph into Sumter's camp, on the Waxhaw; their leader barely escaped.

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b 1780.

Sumter was now gathering his little army, and Huck proceeded to execute his commission as speedily as possible, before the newly-made brigadier should approach. He encamped upon the plantation of James Williamson' (now Brattonville), and there passed the night of the eleventh of July. At a little past midnight, Colonel Neil and the companies of Captains Bratton and M-Clure came down from Sumter's camp, in Mecklenburg, and cautiously approached the sleeping enemy in his encampment, which was in the middle of a lane. At dawn, they entered each end of the lane, and fell upon Huck's party with fury. The surprise was complete, and for an hour a fierce battle ensued, when Huck, with Colonel Ferguson of the Tory militia, was killed, and his party dispersed. The whole patriot force was only one hundred and thirty-three men. M Clure and his party, well mounted, pursued the fugitives almost to Rocky Mount, and within four hours the army of Huck was as completely dissolved as if they had never seen each other. Colonel Neil lost only one of his command.

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c July 12.

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The defeat of Huck had an important bearing upon the future condition of the state. encouraged the Whigs, and many joined the standard of Sumter; while the Tories, abashed, were fearful and silent. Strengthened by daily recruits, until he had more than six hundred men under his command, Sumter determined to attack the royal post at Rocky Mount. The massacre of Buford's command on the Waxhaw, in May,d had fired the d May 29. Whigs with a desire for revenge; and Sumter felt strong enough to attack a force known to be a third larger than his own. The post at Rocky Mount was now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Turnbull, with a small garrison, consisting of one hundred and fifty New York volunteers, and some South Carolina militia. These were stationed principally in three buildings, upon a slope surrounded by a ditch and abatis, and encircled by an open wood.

On the thirtieth of July,e Sumter left Major Davie's camp, at the parting of the roads for Rocky Mount and Landsford, and crossing the Catawba at Blair's Ford,

e 1780

1 Huck had often been heard to say, says Ramsay (ii., 136), that "God Almighty was turned rebel; but that if there were twenty Gods on their side, they should all be conquered."

The house of Colonel Bratton was only half a mile distant from Williamson's. There Huck had first halted, and rudely demanded of Colonel Bratton's wife where her husband was. "In Sumter's army," was her prompt reply. Huck tried to win her to the royal cause, or force her, by menaces, to disclose the place of her husband's retreat. She firmly refused all compliance, even when a sharp reaping-hook was at her throat, in the hands of a brutal soldier. This courageous act of Mrs. Bratton is still remembered with reverence in that section; and as late as 1839, a toast, complimentary of the "fortitude of Martha Bratton," was given at the anniversary of Huck's* defeat.-See Mrs. Ellet's Women of the Revolution, i., 237.

* This name is spelled by different authors, Huyck, Huck, and Hucke

Sumter's unsuccessful Battle at Rocky Mount.

His Success at Wateree Ford.

His Defeat at Fishing Creek.

The

proceeded cautiously, but swiftly, toward Rocky Mount. Davie, in the mean while, was to attack the outposts of the British camp at Hanging Rock, east of the Catawba, twelve miles distant. Sumter was accompanied by Colonels Neil, Irvine, and Lacy,' and Captain M-Clure and some of the Gastons. At an early hour of the day, he appeared with his whole force upon the crown of the hill now occupied by the servants' houses of Mrs. Barkley. British commander, warned of his approach by a Tory, was prepared to receive him, and though the Americans poured severe volleys upon the fortification (if it might be called one), they produced but little effect. Having no artillery, they resorted to means for dislodging the enemy, seldom used in war. Leaping the abatis after three assaults, they drove the garrison into the houses. These, according to Mr. McElwees, who was in the engagement (mentioned on page 429), were situated near the bottom of the slope, and were composed of logs. They first attempted to set them on fire by casting burning fagots upon them. Not succeeding in this, an old wagon was procured, and upon it was placed a quantity of dry brush and straw taken from the abatis. These were ignited, and then rolled down against the houses. The British, perceiving their danger, hoisted a flag. Supposing they intended to surrender, Sumter ordered the firing to cease. At that moment a shower of rain extinguished the flames, and the enemy defied him. Having no other means at hand to dislodge or seriously injure the garrison, Sumter withdrew, first to the north side of Fishing Creek, near the Catawba (where he was surprised eighteen days afterward), and then to Landsford, where he crossed the river. Seven daysa afterward, he was battling with the enemy at Hanging Rock. Early in the action, in front of the abatis, the gallant Colonel Neil was slain, with two other white men and a Catawba Indian. Sumter had ten wounded, also. The British lost ten killed, and an equal number wounded.

a August, 1780.

On the seventh of August Sumter attacked a British post on Hanging Creek, an event which we shall consider presently. Immediately after that engagement, he recrossed the Catawba. In the mean while, General Gates, with his army, had arrived in the neighborhood. Advised by Sumter that a British detachment, with stores for the main army at Camden, was on its way from Ninety-Six, Gates ordered that officer to intercept it, b b Aug. 15. and detached to his aid one hundred infantry and a company of artillery of the Maryland line, and three hundred North Carolina militia, all under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Woodford, of Virginia. They captured a redoubt at the Wateree Ford, in Fairfield District, and, intercepting the escort from Ninety-Six, they secured forty-four wagon loads of stores and clothing, with a number of prisoners. On the seventeenth, Sumter was informed of the defeat of Gates, near Camden. Continuing up the Catawba (here called Wateree), he managed to elude the pursuit of Colonel Turnbull, whom Cornwallis had sent after him, and, on the eighteenth, encamped at the Fishing Creek, near the Catawba, a little above the Great Falls. Here he determined to allow his wearied troops to repose. But a more vigilant and active foe than Turnbull was upon his trail. to capture Sumter, dispatched Tarleton to overtake and smite him. dragoons and sixty mounted light infantry, that officer pressed forward, without halting, in pursuit of his prey. Crossing the Catawba at Rocky Ford, he got into the rear of Sumter, and fell upon his camp while resting, the patriot leader having had no intimation of his approach. The Americans were routed, with great slaughter. More than fifty were killed, and three hundred were made prisoners. All the stores, clothing, and prisoners, captured by Sumter on the fifteenth, fell into Tarleton's hands. This blow laid South Carolina in submission at the feet of the royal troops, none but Marion, the wily "Swamp Fox," and a few followers, remaining in arms against the king. The subsequent organization of a

Cornwallis, anxious
With one hundred

1 Colonel Lacy was one of the most resolute and sturdy patriots of South Carolina. It is related that when the Americans were pursuing Huck, Lacy sent a small party to secure his own father, who was a Tory, and prevent his giving information to that marauder. Lacy was a man of great personal strength, and was a general favorite with the people. He was one of the most active participators in the action o King's Mountain.

Passage of the Catawba.

Appearance of the Road.

Anvil Rock.

Old Slave at Hanging Rock.

force under Sumter, his exploits west of the Broad River, and also the important events which followed the assumption, by Greene, of the cominand of the Southern army, have heen detailed in former chapters.

APPEARANCE OF THE ROAD.

I left the family of Mrs. Barkley with real regret, on the morning after my arrival, and, pursuing a crooked, steep, and rough road down to the brink of the river, crossed the Catawba upon a bateau, at Rocky Mount Ferry, just below the Falls at the mouth of Rocky Mount Creek. The scenery here, and for some miles on my road toward Hanging Rock, my next point of destination, was highly picturesque. I was approaching the verge of the Lowlands, the apparent shore of the ancient ocean, along which are strewn huge bowlders-chiefly conglomerates the mighty peb

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bles cast upon the beach, when, perhaps, the mammoth and the mastadon slaked their thirst in the waters of the Catawba and the Eswawpuddenah. For several miles the road passed among the erratic rocks and curiously-shaped conglomerates. When within three miles of Hanging Rock, I passed the celebrated Anvil Rock, one of the remarkable curiosities of the South. It stands alone, on the north side of the road, and is, indeed, a curiosity. It appears to be a concretion of the soil around, being composed of precisely similar material; or the soil may be disintegrated rocks of a similar character. In its sides are cavities from which large pebbles have apparently fallen, and also furrows as if made by rains. Its height above the ground is about twelve feet; its form suggested its name.

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I reached the Lancaster and Camden high-way at noon, and, on inquiry, ascertained that the celebrated Hanging Rock, near which Sumter and his companions fought a desperate battle, was about a mile and a half eastward. Thither I went immediately, notwithstanding the temptation of a good dinner, freely offered, was before me, for I desired to get as far on toward Camden, that night, as possible. The roads were now generally sandy, and in many places soft and difficult to travel, making progress slow. Along a by-road, across the high rolling plain upon which (at Coles's Old Field) tradition avers the hottest of the battle was fought, I rode to the brow of a deep narrow valley, through which courses Hanging Rock Creek, one of the head waters of Lynch's Creek, the western branch of the Great Pedee. The mingled sound of falling waters and grinding mill-stones came up from the deep furrow, while from a small cabin by the road side, upon the verge of the steep bank, I heard a broken melody. Alighting, I entered the cabin, and there sat an aged negro dining upon hoe-cake and bacon, and humming a refrain. He was the miller. His hair was as white with the frost of years, as his coarse garb was with flour. To my question respecting his family, he said, shaking his bowed head, "Ah, massa! I lives all alone now; tree years ago dey sole my wife, and she's gone to Mississippi. Hab to bake my own hoe. cake now. But neber mind; needn't work 'less I'm a mind too; 'nough to eat, and pretty soon I die?" He told me that he was more than eighty years old, and remembered seeing de red coats scamper when Massa Sumter and Jacky M-Clure pitched into 'em." Pointing to the celebrated Hanging Rock upon the opposite side of the stream, "Dar," he said, "a heap o' red coats sleep de night afore de battle, and dar I hid de night arter."

64

From

The Hanging Rock.

Disposition of Troops there.

Preliminary Skirmish.

Sumter's Attack

the venerable slave, whose memory appeared unclouded, I learned the location of several points mentioned in the accounts of the engagement.

Leaving Charley to dine upon the verge of the stream, I proceeded to Hanging Rock, of whose immensity I had heard frequent mention. It is a huge conglomerate bowlder, twenty or thirty feet in diameter, lying upon the verge of the high east bank of the creek, nearly a hundred feet above the stream. Around it are several smaller bowlders of the same materials. It is shelving toward the bank, its concavity being in the form of the quarter of an orange paring, and capacious enough to shelter fifty men from rain. Beneath its canopy, let us turn to the record of history.

Near the Hanging Rock, on the western bank of the creek, Lord Rawdon, the British commander in that section, had established a post, which was garrisoned by the infantry of Tarleton's legion, part of Brown's corps of South Carolina and Georgia Provincials, and Colonel Bryan's North Carolina Loyalists; the whole were under the command of Major Carden, with the Prince of Wales's American regiment, in number about five hundred. The greater portion were Loyalists, the remainder were regulars. In the formation of the camp, the regulars were on the right; a part of the British legion and Hamilton's regiment in the center; and Bryan's corps and other Loyalists some distance on the left, Hanging Rock Creek being in the rear. As we have seen (page 660), Major Davie proceeded to an attack upon this post, simultaneously with Sumter's assault on Rocky Mount. Davie, with his cavalry, and some Mecklenburg militia, under Colonel Higgins, marched toward Hanging Rock. As he approached, he was informed that three companies of Bryan's Loyalists, returning from a foraging excursion, were encamped at a farm-house. He fell upon them with vigor, in front and rear, and all but a few of them were either killed or wounded. The spoils of this victory were sixty horses with their trappings, and one hundred muskets and rifles. This disaster made the garrison exceedingly vigilant.

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HANGING ROCK.

We have observed that after the assault on Rocky Mount, Sumter crossed the Catawba, and proceeded toward Hanging Rock.a He marched early in the morning cautiously, Aug. 6, 1780. and approached the British camp in three divisions, with the intention of falling upon the main body, stationed upon the plain at Coles's Old Field. The right was com

posed of Davie's corps and some volunteers, under Major Bryan; the center, of Colonel Irwin's Mecklenburg militia; and the left, of South Carolina regulars, under Colonel Hill, Through the error of his guides, Sumter came first upon Bryan's corps, on the verge of the western bank of the creek, near the Great Rock, half a mile from the British camp. Irwin made the first attack. The Tories soon yielded and fled toward the main body, many of them throwing away their arms without discharging them. These the Americans seized; and, pursuing this advantage, Sumter next fell upon Brown's corps, which, being on the alert, poured a heavy fire upon him from a wood. They also received him with the bayonet. A fierce conflict ensued, and for a while the issue was doubtful. The riflemen, with sure aim, soon cut off almost all of Brown's officers and many of his soldiers; and at length his corps yielded and dispersed in confusion. The arms and ammunition procured from the vanquished were of great service, for when the action commenced, Sumter's men had not two rounds each.1

Mrs. Ellet relates a circumstance which has some interest in this connection. Colonel Thomas, of

Sumter's Retreat.

The Loss.

Captain M'Clure.

Sumter's final Blow.

Victory lost by Intemperance.

Now was the moment to strike for decisive victory; it was lost by the criminal indulgence of Sumter's men in plundering the portion of the British camp already secured, and drinking freely of the liquor found there. A similar cause plucked the palm of victory from the hands of Greene at Eutaw Springs. Sumter's ranks became disordered; and while endeavoring to bring order out of confusion, the enemy rallied. Of his six hundred men, only about two hundred, with Davie's cavalry, could be brought to bear upon the remaining portion of the British, who were yet in some confusion, but defended by two cannons. Sumter was not to be foiled. With a shout, he and his handful of brave men rushed forward to the attack. The enemy had formed a hollow square, with the field-pieces in front, and in this position received the charge. The Americans attacked them on three sides, and the contest was severe for a while. At length, just as the British line was yielding, a reenforcement, under Captains Stewart and McDonald, of Tarleton's legion, returning from an excursion toward Rocky Mount, appeared, and their number being magnified, Sumter deemed a retreat a prudent measure. This was done at meridian, but the enemy had been so severely handled, that they did not attempt a pursuit. A small party appeared upon the Camden road, but was soon dispersed by Davie. Could Sumter have brought all of his forces into action in this last attack, the rout of the British would have been complete.

"He beat them back! beneath the flame

Of valor quailing, or the shock!

He carved, at last, a hero's name,
Upon the glorious Hanging Rock !"

With his few prisoners and booty, Sumter retreated toward the Waxhaw, bearing away many of his wounded. The engagement lasted about four hours, and was one of the bestfought battles, between militia and British regulars, during the war. Sumter's loss was twelve killed and forty-one wounded. Among the former were the brave Captain M-Clure,' of South Carolina, and Captain Read, of North Carolina; Colonel Hill, Captain Craighead, Major Winn, Lieutenants Crawford and Fletcher, and Ensign M-Clure, were wounded. The British loss exceeded that of the Americans. Captain M-Cullock, commander of the legion infantry, and two officers and twenty privates of the same corps, were killed, and forty were wounded. Brown's regiment also suffered much. Bryan's Tories did not stop to fight,

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About nine miles north of the present Lancaster Court House, and between twenty and Spartanburg District, was intrusted by Governor Rutledge with a quantity of arms and ammunition. A party, under Colonel Moore (who was defeated at Ramsour's Mill), attacked the house of the colonel, during his absence, for the purpose of seizing the powder. His heroic wife, Jane Thomas, with a son-inlaw, her daughter, and a lad, formed the garrison in the house. Mrs. Thomas and her daughter loaded guns as fast as the son-in-law could fire; and the Tories, believing that the house was filled with men, decamped, and the ammunition was saved. This powder constituted a part of Sumter's supply at Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock.

1 John M'Clure was one of the master spirits of South Carolina. He was a nephew of the venerable Judge Gaston, and partook of that patriot's purity and zeal in the cause of Republicanism. Of him General Davie said, "Of the many brave men with whom it was my fortune to become acquainted in the army, he was one of the bravest; and when he fell, we looked upon his loss as incalculable." He fell at the first fire of Bryan's Loyalists, pierced by two bullets, and at the same time, four of his cousins, sons of Judge Gaston, lay bleeding near him. When his friends came to his aid, he urged them to leave him and pursue the enemy. After the battle, he was taken, with other wounded soldiers, to Waxhaw church, where his mother went to nurse him. From thence he was taken to Charlotte, and on the eighteenth, the very day when his commander was surprised at Fishing Creek (see page 454), he expired in Liberty Hall, where the celebrated Mecklenburg resolutions were drawn up. M'Clure was a native of Chester District, and his men were known as the Chester Rocky Creek Irish. The first wound which he received in the engagement was in the thigh. He stanched it with wadding, when another bullet passed through him at the breast. Two of the Gastons fell dead across each other; a third was mortally wounded; and a fourth had a cheek shot away.

Doctor Richard E. Wylie, of Lancaster, wrote a ballad of twenty stanzas commemorative of this event. Gordon, Ramsay, Moultrie, Lee.

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