tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41345880508069651402024-03-05T13:04:00.738-05:00The Revolutionary SouthSouthern locales, events, groups, and individuals involved in the founding of the American republicA. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comBlogger147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-45694450078991506932017-01-16T18:52:00.000-05:002017-01-16T18:55:05.010-05:00Elder Miller's Prayer
"Good Lord, Our God that art in Heaven, we have great reason to thank Thee for the many battles we have won. There is the great and glorious battle of King's Mountain, where we kilt the great Gineral Ferguson and took his whole army ; and the great battle at Ramseur's and Williamson's : and the iver memorable and glorious battle of the Coopens, where we made the proud Gineral Tarleton run doon A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-5154224527393835552017-01-16T17:40:00.000-05:002017-01-16T17:41:21.113-05:00Cowpens, Greene, Morgan & SnailMailGeneral Nathanael Greene, unaware that the Battle of Cowpens had already taken place two days prior, wrote to General Daniel Morgan on 19 January 1781 regarding taking on British commander Banastre Tarleton and his legion:
"I do not wish you should come to action unless you have a manifest superiority, and a moral certainty of succeeding. Put nothing to the hazard. A retreat may be disagreeable, A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-12618079712143089722017-01-15T18:26:00.000-05:002017-01-16T16:31:15.402-05:00The Battle of Kings Mountain: recollections
The Battle of Kings Mountain, South Carolina, occurred on the 7th day of October, 1780, and resulted in the defeat of Lieutenant Colonel Ferguson, who commanded the royal forces, and the loss of his command, not one man escaping from the battle field. The thoroughness of the disaster, and the death of the brave and highly trusted leader, was by far the most serious blow to which the British A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-1110461035540239552017-01-14T17:52:00.000-05:002017-01-14T18:01:50.068-05:00Prelude to Kings Mountain, August 1780
The disparaging news of Thomas Sumter's embarrassing defeat by Banastre Tarleton and his legion at Fishing Creek on 18 August 1780 did not stop the strategic movements of the backcountry militia. On the upside, for the patriot rebels, August 18th was the day two hundred horsemen rode forth from Colonel Charles McDowell's rebel camp on the Broad River. They were headed for Musgrove's Mill on the A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-79249724591179752302017-01-13T17:18:00.000-05:002017-01-13T18:12:53.358-05:00Fishing Creek, 18 August 1780
While the humiliating Camden defeat of 16 August 1780 was unravelling for General Horatio Gates and his troops, General Thomas Sumter, who had successfully detached himself from the fiasco, achieved success in taking control of a strategic ferry crossing on Carolina's Wateree River between Camden and Charlotte. A surprise attack totally subdued the British garrison there, and a bounty of war A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-10224039840280615802017-01-12T17:20:00.000-05:002017-01-14T16:31:33.923-05:00The Battle of Camden, 16 August 1780
In May 1780 the regular Continental army, those not imprisoned, had retreated northward to Hillsborough, North Carolina, above Durham, and even as far as Virginia, in the aftermath of Charleston's surrender to the British. The Waxhaw Massacre of Abraham Buford's troops that month also signaled retreat for anyone lucky enough to survive.
Late in July, though, with Major General Horatio Gates at A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-1903647204953179592017-01-11T18:05:00.000-05:002017-01-12T16:48:53.864-05:00Skirmishes & Huck's Defeat, Summer 1780
Ramsour's Mill set the stage as July and early August of 1780 played out as a series of skirmishes traversing the Carolina backcountry. The absence of regular Continental army and any real general command structure allowed the rise of notable, innovative militia leaders such as Francis Marion, Andrew Pickens, Thomas Sumter (apart from his Fishing Creek episode), William Davie, and others. (A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-61887344402436279102017-01-10T17:53:00.000-05:002017-01-13T23:33:24.719-05:00The Battle of Ramsour's Mill, 20 June 1780
Derick Ramsaur, who was among the first Germans (generally called Dutch [mistakenly for Deutsch]) emigrants to Tryon County, [North Carolina,] erected his mill prior to 1770 on the west bank of Clark's Creek, where the Morganton road bridge at Lincolnton now spans the stream.
… After the battle of Alamance, Governor Tryon wrote the Secretary of State that the counties of Mecklenburg,A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-74383225023248943682017-01-09T18:06:00.000-05:002017-01-09T18:14:23.630-05:00Clinton's 3rd Proclamation rallies the Backcountry
… that unfortunate Proclamation of the 3d of June has had very unfavorable consequences. The majority of the Inhabitants in the Frontier Districts, tho’ ill disposed to us, from the circumstances were not actually up in arms against us; they were therefore freed from the Paroles imposed by Lt. Colonel Turnbull and myself; and nine out of ten of them are now embodied on the part of the Rebels.
—A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-25742548719267794852017-01-08T18:14:00.000-05:002017-01-08T18:27:59.143-05:00The Waxhaw Massacre, 29 May 1780
Upon the outbreak of war in 1775, Abraham Buford, a native of Culpeper County, Virginia, organized a company of minutemen. By May 1778 he had achieved the rank of Colonel in the Continental Army, and assumed command of the 11th Virginia Regiment in September the same year. In April 1780 Buford was reassigned to lead the 3rd Virginia Regiment southward into the Carolinas. He was to relieve A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-19429612878931735572016-12-28T17:17:00.000-05:002016-12-28T17:26:20.311-05:00Isaac Shelby, re: Charles McDowell, per DraperFrom King's Mountain and Its Heroes: History of the Battle of King's Mountain, by Lyman Copeland Draper, pub. 1881, P.G. Thomson, pp. 188-190:
[Isaac] Shelby's object in suggesting Colonel [William] Campbell's appointment [to command at Kings Mountain], is best explained by himself. "I made the proposition," says Shelby in his pamphlet, in 1823, "to silence the expectations of Colonel [A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-72797179021369851232016-12-27T17:02:00.000-05:002017-01-13T17:50:25.811-05:00Col. Joseph "P.G." McDowell, per John WheelerFrom Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians, by John H. Wheeler, published Columbus, Ohio: Columbus Printing Works, 1884:
Colonel Joseph McDowell was born on 25th February, 1758, at Pleasant Gardens, in Burke County. He was always called Colonel Joe of the Pleasant Gardens, to distinguish him from General Joe of Quaker Meadows.
He was a soldier and a A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-19303825889902527722016-12-26T17:48:00.000-05:002016-12-26T17:48:10.720-05:00Charles McDowell & The Kings Mountain CommandFrom "The McDowells of Burke County Divided Over Who Commanded at King's Mountain," A Sketch by Judge M. L. McCorkle, Charlotte Democrat, Charlotte, NC, 6 July 1894:
[Joseph] McDowell [b. 1715], of Quaker Meadows, married Margaret O'Neil. They were married in Ulster, Ireland. They determined to encounter all the perils in search of what better fortune might await them on this side A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-11244797954464412942016-12-26T17:39:00.002-05:002016-12-26T17:39:58.162-05:00"... the transmontane men..."From History of the McDowells and Connections, by John Hugh McDowell, pub. 1918, C. B. Johnston, pp. 234-235:
On the 29th of August, 1780, Colonel Ferguson moved into Troy (now Rutherford County) and camped, first at Gilberttown, three miles north of Rutherfordton, with the purpose of capturing Charles McDowell and destroying his command, and ultimately crossing into Washington and Sullivan A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-52059786240566565082016-12-18T18:13:00.000-05:002016-12-18T18:13:02.087-05:00Allaire's Diary, 1780Excerpts from Loyalist Lieutenant Anthony Allaire's Diary, March-April 1780:
Tuesday, 14th. Found several horses, a quantity of furniture, Continental stores and ammunition, hid in a swamp by one John Stafford, a sort of Rebel commissary who lives at Coosawhatchie, and is, by the by, a cursed fool, which alone prevents his being a damned rogue.
Monday, 20th. The army got in motion, marching A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-27092357487893487692016-12-16T17:00:00.000-05:002017-01-16T17:47:14.067-05:00Gen. George Washington, re: CowpensGeneral George Washington, to the President of Congress:
17 February 1781.
General [Daniel] Morgan's signal victory over Colonel [Banastre] Tarleton [at Cowpens] with the flower of the British Army reflects the highest honor upon our arms, and I hope at least be attended with this advantage, that it will check the offensive operations of the enemy until General [Nathanael] Greene shall A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-39488857824255457402016-12-15T16:31:00.000-05:002016-12-15T16:37:59.158-05:00The Waxhaw Massacre, Prelude
Sir,Resistance being vain, to prevent the effusion of human blood, I make offers which can never be repeated:— You are now almost encompassed by a corps of seven hundred light troops on horseback; half of that number are infantry with cannon, the rest cavalry: Earl Cornwallis is likewise within a short march with nine British battalions.
I warn you of the temerity of farther inimical A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-5519344089774646432009-04-14T18:35:00.011-04:002016-12-23T17:05:48.579-05:00Ramsour's Mill, per GrahamFrom The Battle of Ramsaur's Mill, June 20, 1780, by William A. Graham, 1904, Major on Staff of Adjutant General of North Carolina (excerpts):
... Lord Cornwallis' plan of campaign was to move with the main body of regulars by a central route through Charlotte and Salisbury, and to send a small force under a competent commander to his right to organize his friends in the upper Cape Fear section,A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-60017712988576557202009-04-08T18:03:00.003-04:002017-01-15T17:04:25.282-05:00The Overmountain Men, September 1780From Historical Handbook Number Twenty-Two, 1955, Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C., excerpts:
"Despite fears of a possible ambush, the patriots crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains safely on September 29. The two units, into which the volunteer army was divided, passed, respectively, through Gillespie Gap and what is believed to have been McKinney's Gap.A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-36228998744742556562009-04-08T17:45:00.007-04:002016-12-20T18:34:38.671-05:00Isaac Shelby to William Hill, 1814Frankfort,
The seat of Government
of Kentucky, March 4th, 1814
Dear Sir
I have to acknowledge receipt of your favor of the 7th of January last, which came to hand only four days ago. And now haste to answer it, by the first Southern Mail.
You inform me that you are about to write the history of the Battle of Kings Mountain, and several others, that were faught in So. Carolina, and you request A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-78149916221685009462009-03-15T17:20:00.002-04:002016-12-16T18:19:37.133-05:00Loyalist Lieutenant Anthony AllaireLt. Anthony Allaire was a New York-born Loyalist (Tory) whom British Col. Patrick Ferguson brought south when the latter was seconded to the South Carolina campaign. According to [author Lyman C.] Draper, he was of Huguenot descent, born at New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York on 22 Feb 1755, and commissioned a Lieutenant in the Loyal American Volunteers where he served as Adjutant in A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-85407788653767079762009-03-13T09:21:00.002-04:002016-12-19T17:51:21.307-05:00George Mason (1725-1792), re: "natural rights"
From the Virginia Declaration of Rights, May 1776:
“... That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural Rights… among which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursueing and obtaining Happiness and Safety.”A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-3498480075135571052009-03-11T12:36:00.005-04:002009-03-11T12:54:37.227-04:00Joseph Graham's Letter[to "The Hon. A. D. Murphey"]VESUVIUS FURNACE, 20th Dec., 1827.DEAR SIR: — Some time past, I forwarded you certain sketches relative to occurrences in the Revolutionary War in the Western part of North Carolina. I have since perused Johnson's History, of the life of Gen. Greene, and strictures on it by Lee, Jr., and would beg leave to correct some errors into which they have fallen. 1. It is A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-3959694853085079932009-03-07T18:51:00.001-05:002016-12-19T18:10:50.776-05:00Col. William Hill, re: Huck's DefeatFrom Colonel William Hill's memoirs:
"[Huck's Defeat] had the tendency to inspire the Americans with courage & fortitude & to teach them that the enemy was not invincible."
Note: Col. Hill (1741-1816) was owner of William Hill’s Ironworks in York County, South Carolina and served under General Thomas Sumter in the American Revolution. His memoirs were edited by Alexander S. Salley in A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4134588050806965140.post-24520189433355663032009-03-07T18:33:00.002-05:002017-01-07T18:35:47.401-05:00George Bancroft, re: the Scots-Irish PresbyteriansPer 19th century religious historian George Bancroft:
"... the first voice publicly raised in America to dissolve the connection with Great Britain came, not from the Puritans of New England, nor the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians."
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.com