Gen. Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810)

Benjamin Lincoln was born on January 24, 1733, in Hingham, Massachusetts. He would grow to follow his father's footsteps into local political office. At 21, Lincoln became town constable and in 1755, Lincoln entered the 3rd Regiment of the Suffolk militia as an adjutant. In 1757, he was elected town clerk of Hingham, then Justice of the Peace in 1762. In 1772, Lincoln was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Regiment of the Suffolk militia. Being in the Suffolk militia allowed Lincoln to gain military experience which he used in three major battles of the American Revolution. In 1776, he was promoted to brigadier general, then major general, then commander of all Massachusetts troops in the Boston area. After the British evacuation of Boston, Lincoln joined General George Washington at New York, commanding the right wing at the Battle of White Plains. Shortly after seeing action at Fort Independence, he was commissioned into the Continental Army as a major general.
In September of 1777, Lincoln joined Horatio Gates' camp to take part in the Battles of Saratoga. Lincoln's role in the Second Battle of Saratoga was cut short after a musket ball shattered his ankle.
After recovering from this severe wound, Lincoln was appointed Southern Department Commander in September 1778. He participated in the defense of Savannah, Georgia on October 9, 1779 and was forced to retreat to Charleston, South Carolina, where they were subsequently surrounded, then forced to surrender to Lieutenant General Henry Clinton on May 12, 1780. This was one of the worst Continental defeats of the war. Lincoln was denied the honors of war in surrendering, which deeply rankled. He was exchanged as a prisoner of war, paroled, and, in the court of inquiry, no charges were ever brought against him. After the exchange, Lincoln returned to Washington's main army, even leading it south to Virginia and playing a major role in the Yorktown surrender in October 1781. General Lord Cornwallis was so humiliated by his defeat at the hands of the "Colonials" that he refused to personally surrender his sword to General George Washington, sending his second-in-command, General Charles O'Hara, in his stead. In response, General Washington sent his subordinate, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, to accept Cornwallis's sword after the defeat at Yorktown.

(from: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Lincoln)

Francis Salvador (1747-1776)

Francis Salvador was born in London in 1747, the fourth generation of Salvadors to live in England. His great grandfather Joseph, a merchant, established himself as a leader of England's Sephardic community and became the first Jewish director of the East India Company. When George III ascended the British throne, Joseph Salvador arranged an audience for the seven-man delegation that officially congratulated the king on behalf of the Jewish community.
Even before Francis Salvador's birth, his family developed interests in America. Salvador's grandfather teamed with two other leaders of the London Jewish community to raise funds to send some of London's destitute Jews to the new British colony in Savannah, Georgia. The Georgia trustees subsequently voted to ban Jewish immigration to Georgia but not before grandfather Salvador and his two associates had landed forty-two Jewish settlers in Savannah in July 1733. When the founder of the colony, James Oglethorpe, intervened on behalf of the Jews, the trustees decided to let them stay. The Salvador family then purchased personal land holdings in South Carolina.
As a young man, Francis Salvador was raised in luxury in London. He was well educated by private tutors and traveled extensively. At age twenty, he married his first cousin, Sarah, and took his place in the family shipping firm. The devastating effects of a 1755 earthquake in Lisbon, where the family had extensive interests, weakened the family fortune. The failure of the East India Company completed its ruin. By the early 1770's, virtually the only thing left of the Salvador family's immense wealth was the large plot of land they had purchased in the South Carolina colony.
In 1773, in an attempt to rebuild the family fortune, Francis Salvador moved to South Carolina. Intending to send for his wife Sarah and their children when he had prepared a proper home for them, Salvador arrived in Charleston in December and established himself as a planter on a seven thousand acre tract he acquired from his uncle. Salvador found himself drawn to the growing American movement against British rule and unhesitatingly threw himself into the patriot cause. Within a year of his arrival, at the age of 27, Salvador was elected to the General Assembly of South Carolina. He became the first Jew to hold that high an elective office in the English colonies. He would hold the post until his sudden death.
In 1774, Francis Salvador was elected as a delegate to South Carolina's revolutionary Provincial Congress, which assembled in Charleston in January 1775. The Provincial Congress framed a bill of rights and prepared an address to the royal governor of South Carolina setting forth the colonists' grievances against the British crown. Salvador played an important role in the South Carolina Provincial Congress, which appointed him to a commission to negotiate with Tories living in the northern and western parts of the colony to secure their promise not to actively aid the royal government.
When the second Provincial Congress assembled in November 1775, Salvador urged that body to instruct the South Carolina delegation in Philadelphia to vote for American independence. Salvador played a leading role in the Provincial Congress, chairing its ways and means committee and serving on a select committee authorized to issue bills of credit to pay the militia. Salvador was also part of a special commission established to preserve the peace in the interior parts of South Carolina, where the English Superintendent of Indian Affairs was busily negotiating treaties with the Cherokees to induce the tribe to attack the colonists.
When the Cherokees attacked settlements along the frontier on July 1, 1776, massacring and scalping colonial inhabitants, Salvador, in an act reminiscent of Paul Revere, mounted his horse and galloped nearly thirty miles to give the alarm. He then returned to join the militia in the front lines, defending the settlements under siege. During a Cherokee attack early in the morning of August first, Salvador was shot. He fell into some bushes, where he was subsequently discovered and scalped. Salvador died forty-five minutes later. Major Andrew Williamson, the militia commander, reported of Salvador that, "When I came up to him after dislodging the enemy and speaking to him, he asked whether I had beaten the enemy. I told him 'Yes.' He said he was glad of it and shook me by the hand and bade me farewell, and said he would die in a few minutes."
His friend Henry Laurens reported that Salvador's death was "universally regretted," while William Henry Drayton, later Chief Justice of South Carolina, noted that Salvador had "sacrificed his life in the service of his adopted country." Dead at twenty-nine, never again seeing his wife or children after leaving England, Salvador was the first Jew to die waging the American Revolution. Ironically, because he was fighting on the frontier, he probably did not receive the news that the Continental Congress in Philadelphia had, as he urged, adopted the Declaration of Independence.

(Source: "Francis Salvador: Martyr of the American Revolution", by Michael Feldberg, director of the American Jewish Historical Society, Jewish World Review Feb. 12, 2001)

Gen. William Moultrie (1730-1805)

Until 1760 William Moultrie had a fairly undistinguished career as a member of South Carolina's provincial assembly. But after playing a central role in putting down a Cherokee uprising, he became a leader in his colony's military affairs. Early in the Revolution his expertise won him command of the Continental army's Second Regiment. Moultrie commanded the fort on Sullivan's Island on June 28, 1776, and he was successful in repulsing the British fleet when they tried to enter Charleston harbor. It is said that during the bombardment of Fort Sullivan, General Charles Lee continuously tried to micromanage Moultrie's situation from a distance. While the battle raged, Lee sent a letter to Moultrie by an aide, saying, "If you should unfortunately expend your ammunition without beating off the enemy or driving them on the ground, spike your guns and retreat with all order possible; but I know you will be careful not to throw away your ammunition." Moultrie, instead, asked for more gunpowder. In appreciation of his efforts the fort was subsequently renamed after him. He was promoted to brigadier general in the Continental service, and thereafter operated independently. After the fall of Savannah (1778), he decisively defeated the British forces at Beaufort in February of 1779. Moultrie was captured by the British after the fall of Charleston in 1780 and sent as prisoner to St. Augustine. Exchanged in 1782, he was then promoted to major general.
Following the war, William Moultrie was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1783. In 1784, he served as Lieutenant Governor. He was then elected governor for a two-year term in 1785. While governor, Moultrie created the county court system, and relocated the South Carolina capital from Charleston to Columbia in 1786. He was elected to the State Senate in 1787. He was elected to his second two-year term as governor in 1792, and retired from public office in 1794. In 1802 his Memoirs of the American Revolution were published in two volumes. William Moultrie died in Charleston on 27 September 1805 and was interred at Windsor Hill Plantation.

William Richardson Davie (1756-1820)

William Richardson Davie was born on June 22, 1756 in Egremont Parish, County Cumberland, England, the son of Scottish Presbyterians, Archibald and Mary Richardson. In 1764, the somewhat affluent Richardsons moved to the Waxhaws region near Lancaster, South Carolina, where Mary’s brother, William Richardson, was a prominent Presbyterian minister. Davie had been named for his uncle, and many historians have falsely deduced that William Richardson adopted Davie after the boy came to America. Although that’s not true, the two were close. When Richardson died, Davie inherited 150 acres and a large library. As an adolescent, Davie studied at Queen’s Museum, later Liberty Hall, in Charlotte. In 1776, Davie graduated with honors from Princeton University, then the College of New Jersey.

Too young to take a leading role in the American opposition to British imperial polices, Davie enlisted in the Patriot cause once the Revolutionary War began and fought with considerable courage during the entire conflict. From 1777 to 1778, Davie served under General Allen Jones. (In 1782, Davie married Jones’s daughter Sarah—an unusual match to be sure, for Willie Jones, Sarah’s uncle, was the dean of North Carolina’s Radicals, and later, its Anti-Federalists.) Badly wounded in June 1779 in the Battle of Stono Ferry near Charleston, Davie spent the next several months convalescing and reading law with Judge Spruce Macay in Salisbury. As the fighting in the South intensified, Davie organized a troop of cavalry and returned to active duty. By September 1780, Davie had risen to the rank of colonel, and his subordinates included the future president Andrew Jackson [as a 13-year-old courier]. In December 1780, General Nathanael Greene, commander of Continental forces in the South, appointed Davie his commissary general—a critical yet thankless post.

After the war, Davie settled in Halifax and started a successful legal career. James Iredell, the distinguished North Carolina jurist, ranked Davie alongside Alfred Moore, a future justice of the United States Supreme Court, as one of the two best lawyers in the state. Davie’s most controversial case may have been his defense of three Tory officers charged with treason. Defeated in court, Davie secured pardons for the men from the governor. Elected to the House of Commons in 1784, Davie generally allied himself with the legislature’s conservative faction. Accordingly, he supported sound money and compliance with the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War, called for the payment of pre-war debts owed to British creditors, and encouraged the return of confiscated Loyalist property.

Davie’s effective performance in the House of Commons led to his selection as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention that assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787. Davie said little during the debates, seeming to defer to the experienced Hugh Williamson, the de facto leader of the North Carolina delegation. Yet Davie arguably cast the single most important vote of the convention. Serving on the Grand Committee appointed to consider the issue of representation in Congress, Davie voted for the Great Compromise providing for representation based on population in the House of Representatives and for state equality in the Senate. Davie’s vote made North Carolina the only large state to support the compromise, and it helped break the deadlock between the large and small states. Called away on legal business before the end of the convention, Davie did not sign the Constitution.

In North Carolina, however, Davie adamantly supported the ratification of the document. He served in the Hillsborough (1788) and Fayetteville (1789) conventions called to consider ratification of the Constitution. Even though Davie and Iredell led the outnumbered Federalist forces at the Hillsborough convention, delegates voted 184 to 84 against ratification. After the Constitution had taken effect, a second convention in Fayetteville finally approved it.

(Source: North Carolina History Project, John Locke Foundation, ©2007, http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/115/entry)

The Battle of Musgrove's Mill, August 1780

From The Annals of Newberry: In Two Parts, by John Belton O'Neall, John Abney Chapman, pub. 1892, Aull & Houseal, Newberry, SC, pp. 263-266:


In August, 1780, General John McDowell [sic, actually Colonel Charles], of North Carolina, commanded about two thousand militia, who were stationed at Smith's ford, on Broad River, which was about fifteen miles below the Cherokee ford. Colonel Isaac Shelby, of North Carolina, commanded a regiment under General McDowell. The term of service for which the men had enlisted was just about expiring. It was ascertained that there were about seven hundred tories camped at Musgrove's Mill, on the Enoree River, a few miles distant from the camp of [British] Major [Patrick] Ferguson. Col. Shelby conceived the plan of breaking up this camp and routing the tories. For this purpose, having obtained leave from General* McDowell, he raised about seven hundred volunteers from the army, without regard to rank; very many field officers having volunteered, Col. [Elijah] Clarke, of North Carolina [actually Georgia], was made second in command. 
To effect their design, it was necessary that the affair should be conducted with both secrecy and despatch. Accordingly, Shelby's force left General McDowell's camp on the 18th of August, a short time before dark. They traveled on through the woods until dark, and then fell into the road and proceeded on all night, passing within three or four miles of Ferguson's camp, and going beyond it to the tory camp at Musgrove's Mill. This post was forty miles from McDowell's camp.

Soon aftar daylight, when Shelby had arrived within half a mile of the camp, a citizen was taken prisoner, from whom he learned that the night previous the Queen's American regiment, commanded by Colonel [Alexander] Emines [sic, Innes], from New York, had reached the post at the mill, and that the enemy were then from twelve to thirteen hundred strong. Just as this information was received, the enemy's patrol fell in with the advanced corps of Shelby's force. The patrol was immediately fired on, and driven in with the loss of seven men. This gave the enemy the alarm. Although the tory force was so much larger than had been expected, neither Shelby nor his men thought of anything but meeting them. Ground was selected for an engagement, stretching at right angles across the road, about half a mile from the Enoree River. The army was formed, Shelby taking command of the right wing, and Colonel Clarke of the left. Colonel [James] Williams, of South Carolina, was stationed in the road in the centre, though without a separate command.

Whilst the tory force was forming, Shelby and his men were not idle. Immediately after taking their places in line, and securing their horses, they commenced making breastworks of logs. In half an hour they had one breast high. So soon as this was completed, Shelby sent Capt. [Shadrach] Inman, with a company of mounted men in advance, to make a false attack on the enemy. This feint was well executed. lnman and his men charged on the enemy, fired their pieces, and then, as directed, fled in apparent confusion. The enemy's centre, on whom the false attack had been made, seeing the light of this force, immediately pressed forward in pursuit, in considerable disorder, shouting, "Huzza for King George.'' On approaching the breast-work, they were unexpectedly met with a deadly fire. The superiority of the enemy in numbers emboldened them to press forward their attack, not withstanding the advantage which our troops possessed by the breast-work. After an hour's hard fighting, the left wing of the enemy, composed of the Queen's regiment, drove our right wing, under Shelby, from their breast-work. Our left wing, which was opposed by the tories, maintained its position. The battle was maintained some time longer, the right wing gradually giving way, whilst the left flank retained its connection with the centre at the breast-work. At this juncture, Col. Clarke sent his reserve, consisting of forty men, to Shelby's aid. Shelby thereupon rallied his men and ordered a charge, which was well seconded by officers and men, and the enemy were broken and fled in confusion. The rout now became complete along the whole line, and the enemy were pursued to the Enoree River, with great slaughter. Above two hundred of the enemy were killed, and two hundred prisoners were taken. On our side, Capt. Inman, who had conducted himself most gallantly, and thirty men, were killed.

The broken forces of the enemy having crossed the Enoree, it became necessary to follow up the pursuit on horseback. Shelby called back his forces, and mounted with the intention of pursuing the scattered tories, and then turning against Fort Ninety Six. While consulting with Col. Clarke, a messenger arrived from General McDowell, bringing a letter from Gov. Caswell to McDowell, informing him of Gates' disastrous defeat at Camden, on the 16th of August, and advising all officers commanding detachments to retreat, or they would be cut off.
Col. Shelby, perceiving the hazardous position in which he was placed by this unexpected calamity, with Cornwallis in front and Ferguson on his flank, immediately ordered a retreat. Taking his prisoners with him, he traveled all that day and the ensuing night, without rest, and continued their march the day succeeding, until an hour by sun, when they halted and fed their horses. Although they had thus been marching and fighting incessantly for forty-eight hours, the indomitable energy of their commander permitted his troops no rest, when there was danger of losing all by delay. Halting, therefore, no longer than was required to feed their horses, the line of march was resumed. It was well it was so; for the news of the defeat of the tories at Musgrove's Mill had reached Ferguson, who had despatched a strong detachment to intercept Shelby and release his prisoners. By making a hard forced march, this detachment reached the spot where Shelby and his men had fed their horses within thirty minutes after they had left it. But not knowing precisely how long Shelby had been gone, and the detachment being entirely exhausted, the pursuit was relinquished and Shelby reached the mountains in safety with his prisoners. 
The time of service of the men having expired, and there being no opportunity of doing any immediate active duty by a partisan corps, when they reached the road which led to Col. Shelby's residence, he and the men from his neighborhood returned home; the prisoners being left in charge of Colonel Clarke. After going some distance, Col. Clarke in like manner returned home, giving the prisoners in charge of Col. Williams, who conducted them to Hillsborough. At this place Col. Williams met with Gov. Rutledge, who, finding him in charge of the prisoners, supposed he had commanded the expedition in which they were taken, and as a reward for tho gallant achievement gave him a brigadier general's commission. Without detracting from the merits of Col. Williams, who was a gallant officer, is it right to say that this is an example too frequent in military history, where the rewards of a bold achievement fall on the wrong shoulders? 
Col. Shelby described the battle at Musgrove's Mill as the hardest and best fought action he ever was in. He attributed this to the great number of officers who were with him as volunteers. Considering the nature of the march and the disparity of numbers, the action at Musgrove's Mill must be considered as one of the most brilliant affairs fought by any partisan corps during the revolution.

_____________

*Blogger's note: During the Revolutionary War, Charles McDowell of Quaker Meadows, Burke County, North Carolina, served as a district commander with a Colonel's rank in the western Carolina patriot militia. Post-war, he gained the rank of General, serving as head of the Morgan District Brigade in the North Carolina Militia.

For Want of A Cell Phone

from The Road to Guilford Courthouse, by John Buchanan, ©1997, John Wiley & Sons, page 180:

A courier service was established to keep everyone informed of Ferguson's movements–Captain David Vance of the North Carolina militia called them "news-bearers." James Jack and Archibald Nail were assigned to bear news "over the Yellow Mountain to Shelby," Joseph Dobson and James Mackay to Cleveland and Herndon, Robert Cleveland and Gideon Lewis from Benjamin Cleveland to Shelby. "Thus the news went the rounds as fast as horses could carry their riders."

Patrick Ferguson's China Service

the caption reads:
FERGUSON'S PLATE
His tableware was divided after his death at the Battle of Kings Mountain. Handed down by Joseph McDowell of Pleasant Garden to his descendants, owned now by his great grand daughter Margaret Erwin McDowell of Morganton, N.C.

(from History of the McDowells and Connections, by John Hugh McDowell, pub. 1918, C. B. Johnston, page 260)

Hanging Rock: A Pictorial History

From Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, Vol. II, by Benson J. Lossing, 1850, Chapter XVII:
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 Camden, 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, 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.
We have observed that after the assault on Rocky Mount, Sumter crossed the Catawba, and proceeded toward Hanging Rock [6 August 1780]. He marched early in the morning cautiously, 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 composed 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.
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 re-enforcement, under Captains Stewart and M‘Donald, 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 best-fought 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, "-------------------- but ran away,
And lived to fight another day."

Mrs. Martha Bratton

A toast, during an 1839 celebration commemorating Huck's Defeat in Brattonsville, South Carolina:
"The memory of Mrs. Martha Bratton. In the hands of an infuriated monster, with the instrument of death around her neck, she nobly refused to betray her husband; in the hour of victory she remembered mercy, and as a guardian angel, interposed on behalf of her inhuman enemies. Throughout the Revolution she encouraged the Whigs to fight on to the last; to hope on to the end. Honor and gratitude to the woman and heroine, who proved herself so faithful a wife–so firm a friend to liberty!"
Martha Bratton is known for two heroic acts in which she bravely defied demands from British Officers.
Her husband Colonel William Bratton was away fighting for General Thomas Sumter's army, and Martha Bratton was left in charge of the gunpowder hidden on their property in North Carolina. The British were given a tip about the gunpowder and immediately left to seize the commodity. Martha was alerted they were coming, but did not have enough time to move the gunpowder. Not wanting the British to seize the ammunition, she devised another plan. She poured a trail of powder far away from its location, and, when she heard the British approaching, lit the trail. The British were furious, and demanded to know who had blown up the ammunition. Even with the threat of severe punishment Bratton willfully replied, “It was I who did it…Let the consequence be what it will, I glory in having prevented the mischief contemplated by the cruel enemies of my country.”
On 11 July 1780 Martha Bratton had another encounter with the British where she bravely stood up to their demands. British Captain Christian Huck visited Martha Bratton’s house ask about her husband’s location. Martha told the truth, defiantly saying that he was with Sumter’s army. Huck replied that Colonel Bratton should instead join the loyalists. Martha answered that “she would rather see him remain true to his duty to his country, even if he perished in Sumter’s army." Huck was enraged by this answer and threw her son, who had been sitting on his lap, to the floor. One of Huck’s soldiers held a reaping hook to her throat and threatened to kill her, but Martha still did not tell them of her husband’s location. Another officer persuaded the soldier to let her go.
Captain Huck demanded that Martha prepare and serve dinner. She considered poisoning the food, but knew her husband was close, and instead sent word to his troops that the British were there. After preparing the dinner, she and her children went upstairs and left the British to finish eating. After dinner the British went to neighbor James Williamson’s house to sleep. With about 75 men, Colonel Bratton and Captain McClure executed a surprise attack on the sleeping soldiers. The battle spread towards the Bratton house and Martha Bratton and her children were endangered. Martha hid her son in the chimney where he would be safe from stray shots. After the battle was over, she went outside and found that all of her relatives had survived. The Patriots were victorious and many of the British soldiers, including Captain Huck, were killed while others retreated into the surrounding woods. In the aftermath, Martha Bratton opened her house to care for wounded soldiers of both sides. Many British soldiers taken hostage were also held at her house, including the officer that had saved her life. She returned his favor by persuading the Patriots not to hang him, but instead to include him in a prisoner exchange.
(info: National Women's History Museum, http://www.nwhm.org/Education/biography_mbratton.html)

Rev. Dr David Caldwell (1725-1824)

From History of North Carolina, by Samuel A'Court Ashe, v.1 1584-1783, pub. 1908, C.L. Van Noppen:

In Guilford, David Caldwell, the leading Presbyterian of the province, from the pulpit raised a powerful voice for unity of purpose and co-operation in maintaining American liberty. Succinctly and graphically he portrayed existing conditions and eloquently urged the duties of patriotism."We petitioned," said he, "his Majesty in a most humble manner to intercede with the Parliament on our behalf. Our petitions were rejected, while our grievances were increased by acts still more oppressive, and by schemes still more malicious, till we are reduced to the dreadful alternative either of immediate and unconditional submission or of resistance by force of arms. We have therefore come to that trying period in our history in which it is manifest that the Americans must either stoop under a load of the vilest slavery or resist their imperious and haughty oppressors; but what will follow must be of the utmost importance to every individual of these united colonies.... If we act like the sluggard, refuse, from the mere love of ease and self-indulgence, to make the sacrifices and efforts which the circumstances require, or, from cowardice or pusillanimity, shrink from dangers and hardships, we must continue in our present state of bondage and oppression... until life itself will become a burden; but if we stand up manfully and unitedly in defence of our rights, appalled by no dangers and shrinking from no toils or privations, we shall do valiantly. Our foes are powerful and determined on conquest; but our cause is good, and in the strength of the Lord, who is mightier than all, we shall prevail.... If I could portray to you... the results of your conduct in this great crisis in your political destiny; or if I could describe... the feelings which you will have of self-approbation, joy, and thankfulness, or of self-reproach, shame, and regret, according to the part you act—whether as men and as patriots, or as cowards and traitors—I should have no difficulty in persuading you to shake off your sloth and stand up manfully in a firm, united, and persevering defence of your liberties.... We expect that none of you will be wanting in the discharge of your duty, or prove unworthy of a cause which is so important in itself, and which every patriot and every Christian should value more than wealth, and hold as dear as his life."

Gen. Nathanael Greene, re: The Backcountry

From The Road to Guilford Courthouse, by John Buchanan, ©1997, John Wiley & Sons, page 140:

"Even General Nathanael Greene, whose highly critical views of militia were well known and often justified, in a letter to Alexander Hamilton nevertheless admitted that 'there is a great spirit of enterprise among the back people; and those that come out as Volunteers are not a little formidable to the enemy. There are also some particular Corps under Sumpter, Marion and Clarke that are bold and daring.'"

York County & The New Acquisition

From "York: A Unique South Carolina County," by Lawrence E. Wells, The Carolina Herald, Official Publication of the South Carolina Genealogical Society, Volume 3, Number 1:

In 1772, the boundary question was settled and what became York County was thrown into South Carolina. Tryon County [North Carolina] lost its courthouse and perhaps a majority of its population. South Carolina gained a well-populated piece of territory, peopled almost entirely by Scotch-Irish pioneers. Within what became York County, there were already four Presbyterian churches, and by 1800 there would be four or five more. Although Baptists, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Quakers were nearby in both Carolinas, these groups were conspicuously absent in York County.
When York County became a part of South Carolina in 1772, it found itself in a Province of rather different traditions in local government. North Carolina, like Virginia, had from early on a system of strong county courts. These county courts, consisting of several Justices of the Peace, or "Gentlemen Justices", would sit together and hold court once a quarter. The Court would record deeds, prove wills, grant letters of administration, bind out orphans, license taverns, ferries, and grist-mills, and compile records of inestimable worth to genealogists. But South Carolina in 1772, a city-state ruled from Charlestown, had only nominal counties, and York fell into the ill-defined hunk of territory called Craven County. Equally meaningless was the fact that it belonged to the Parish of St. Mark: we may be very sure that the Anglican presence in York County at that time was negligible if not nil. The only hint of an Anglican clergyman in pre-Revolutionary York County was the chaplain who accompanied Governor Tryon when he traveled through in the 1760's surveying the Indian boundary.
Under the new government of South Carolina, a resident of York County had to travel to the district capital at Camden to enter a suit at law. To record a deed, prove a will, or obtain letters of administration, he had to make the long trip to Charlestown....
Under the new regime the [York County] area gained a quaint name: The New Acquisition. Although not all of the territory "newly acquired" by South Carolina through the 1772 survey was part of York County, the importance of the well-settled region between the Broad and Catawba Rivers caused the name New Acquisition to be used for what later became York County. At the Provincial Congresses of 1775 we find representatives from the "District of the New Acquisition", and the name stuck as late as the State Constitutional Convention of 1790. The importance of New Acquisition District is evidenced by the fact that in the Provincial Congresses it was allowed fifteen representatives, while the "District between the Broad and the Catawba" embracing the territory south of New Acquisition, later divided into Chester, Fairfield, and Richland Counties, was allowed only ten.

For the purpose of drawing up South Carolina's 1776 constitution, the area now known as York County was labeled "New Acquisition District" and called "Election District 10." These fifteen men from the New Acquisition were seated: William Byers, Joseph Woods, James Carson, Robert McAfee, Ezekiel Polk, Joseph Howe, William McCulloch, John Howe, Francis Adams, Thomas Neel, Alexander Love, Samuel Watson, Francis Ross, Thomas Janes, Robert Dickey.

Col. James Hawthorn

From King's Mountain and Its Heroes, by Lyman Copeland Draper, pub. 1881, P.G. Thomson:

"James Hawthorn was born in County Armagh, Ireland about 1750. His family were early Scots-Irish settlers of the back country of South Carolina, where the mother, two daughters and James, her 12-year-old son, were captured by Indians—the mother and girls were killed. James Hawthorn was at length released. He learned the blacksmith's trade in York district, South Carolina, where he married Mary 'Polly' Neel, a daughter of Colonel Thomas Neel.
"Hawthorne fought in several major battles and an unknown number of skirmishes during the Revolutionary War. He served under Col. Neel in the Snow Campaign in 1775, on Andrew Williamson’s Campaign of 1776, and as a Captain on the Florida Campaign of 1778-79. He served as Lt. Col. under Col. William Hill, under General Thomas Sumter, who fought at the Battles of Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, Carey’s Ford, Fishing Creek, Fish Dam Ford, and Blackstocks. He took command of Col. Hill’s Regiment at the Battle of Kings Mountain after Hill was wounded. James Hawthorn was Lt. Col. to Col. Thomas Neel prior to Neel’s death in the Battle of Stono. Hawthorn was wounded twice during the war. He died about 1808 in Livingston County, Kentucky."

Brig. Gen. Thomas Polk (1732-1793)

About 1750, Thomas Polk came with his father and mother, William and Margaret (Taylor) Polk, and at least some of his brothers and sisters, to the Yadkin country in the western part of the province of North Carolina. There are many Polk family histories that state Thomas arrived in North Carolina alone, showing up at the door of the Thomas Spratt family with nothing but a knapsack on his back. [Thomas Spratt is written up in the History of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina as being the first white man to cross the Yadkin River in a wheeled vehicle. The Spratt home was the site of the first court held in Mecklenburg County.] The Spratts had been one of the first families in the area, settling on Sugar Creek, a branch of the Catawba River, a few miles south of the present town of Charlotte near the South Carolina line. Most of the settlers of that area came south from Pennsylvania or northern Virginia, and the majority were Scots-Irish. With Abraham Alexander and John Frohock, Thomas Polk bought 360 acres of land from Britain's Lord Augustus Selwyn. The land lay where future downtown Charlotte, North Carolina would flourish. Thomas Polk married Susanna Spratt in 1755, one of his early host's numerous daughters.
In the 1770s, as conflicts grew between settlers and the British, Thomas Polk became commander of the local militia. He was one of twenty-seven men who signed documents in 1775 that pronounced their freedom from British rule. The "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence" and the "Mecklenburg Resolves" would remain the source of controversy for many years.
In 1776 Polk was appointed Colonel of the "Minute Men" (with Adam Alexander as Lieutenant Colonel), and then was appointed Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of the Continental troops following the Provincial Congress that same year. Though advanced in years, he served throughout the Revolution, and at retirement Thomas Polk was made a Brigadier General. His service to the country was recognized by Gen. Nathanael Greene and other leaders, and Polk was rewarded with numerous land grants in (what is now) Tennessee for himself and his heirs.
Thomas Polk would become great-uncle to James Knox Polk, eleventh President of the United States.

Arthur Middleton (1742-1787)

from Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, New York: William Reed & Co., 1856:

In the spring of 1775, Mr. Arthur Middleton was chosen on a secret committee, who were invested with authority to place the colony in a state of defense. In the exercise of the trust with which they were charged, they immediately took possession of the public magazine of arms and ammunition, and removed its contents to a place of safety.
In the following June, the provincial congress of South Carolina proceeded to appoint a council of safety, consisting of thirteen persons. This council, of which Mr. Middleton was a member, took measures to organize a military force, the officers of which received commissions at their hands, and under their signatures. Among the members of this committee, no one exhibited more activity, or manifested a greater degree of resolution and firmness, than did Arthur Middleton.
In February, 1776, the provincial legislature of South Carolina appointed a committee to prepare and report a constitution, which "should most effectually secure peace and good order in the colony, during the continuance of the dispute with Great Britain." This duty was assigned to Mr. Middleton and ten others.
Having discharged the duty to the satisfaction of the assembly, Mr. Middleton was soon after elected by that body a representative of South Carolina in the congress of the United States, assembled at Philadelphia. Here he had an opportunity of inscribing his name on the great charter of American liberties [the Declaration of Independence]. At the close of the year 1777, Mr. Middleton relinquished his seat in Congress, and returned to South Carolina, leaving behind him, in the estimation of those who had been associated with him in the important measures of congress, during the time he had been with them, the character of a man of the purest patriotism, of sound judgment, and unwavering resolution.
In the spring of 1778, the assembly of South Carolina proceeded to the formation of a new constitution, differing, in many important points, from that of 1776. On presenting it to the governor, John Rutledge, for his approbation, that gentleman refused to assent to it. But, as he would not embarrass the assembly in any measures which they might deem it expedient to adopt, he resigned the executive chair, upon which the assembly proceeded by a secret ballot again to fill it. On counting the votes, it was found that Mr. Middleton was elected to the office by a considerable majority. But, entertaining similar views in respect to the constitution, expressed by the distinguished gentleman who had vacated the chair of state, he frankly avowed to the assembly, that he could not conscientiously accept the appointment, under the constitution which they had adopted. The candor with which he had avowed his sentiments, and the sterling integrity of the man, exhibited in refusing an honor from conscientious scruples, instead of diminishing their respect for him, contributed to raise him still higher in the confidence of his fellow-citizens. The assembly proceeded to another choice, and elected Mr. Rawlins Lowndes to fill the vacancy, who gave his sanction to the new constitution.
During the year 1779, the southern states became the principal theater of the war. Many of the plantations were wantonly plundered, and the families and property of the principal inhabitants were exposed to the insults and ravages of the invaders. During these scenes of depredation, Middleton Place did not escape. Although the buildings were spared , they were rifled of every thing valuable. Such articles as could not easily be transported were either wantonly destroyed, or greatly injured. Among those which were injured, was a valuable collection of paintings belonging to Mr. Middleton. Fortunately, at the time the marauders visited Middleton Place, the family had made their escape a day's journey to the north of Charleston.
On the investment of the latter place, in the following year, Mr. Middleton was present, and actively engaged in the defense of the city. With several others on the surrender of this place, he was taken prison, and was sent by sea to St. Augustine, in East Florida, where he was kept in confinement for nearly a year. At length, in July, 1781, he was exchanged, and proceeded in a cartel to Philadelphia. On his arrival at the latter place, Governor Rutledge, in the exercise of authority conferred upon him by general assembly of South Carolina, appointed him a representative in congress. To this office he was again elected in 1782; but in the month of November of that year, he returned to South Carolina on a visit to his family, from whom he had been separated during a long and anxious period.
On the signing the preliminaries of peace, Mr. Middleton declined accepting a seat in congress, preferring the pleasures of retirement with his family, to any honor which could be conferred upon him. He occasionally, however, accepted of a seat in the state legislature, in which he was greatly instrumental in promoting the tranquillity and happiness of his fellow-citizens.
The life of Mr. Middleton was terminated on the 1st of January, 1787. His death was occasioned by an intermittent fever, which he took in the preceding month of November, by an injudicious exposure to the unsettled weather of the autumnal season.

Siege, Imprisonment & Exile

From The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, by Edward McCrady, pub. 1901, Macmillan & Co., Ltd.:

"Charlestown, the only city in America to endure a British siege during the war, was [in 1780] occupied by British troops and ruled by [Lt. Col. Nisbet] Balfour, an officer who reserved his valor for the oppression of defenceless men, unprotected women, and innocent children. But Balfour could not quell the spirit of his prisoners, however much he might curtail their liberties and despoil them of their property. Henry Laurens was in the Tower of London, Christopher Gadsden was in a dungeon in the Castle at St. Augustine, whither forty-three other principal citizens of the State had been sent in exile in August, and where in November, twenty-two more had been added to their company. (The names of these were: Joseph Bee, Richard Beresford, Benjamin Cudworth, John Berwick, Henry Crouch, John Splatt Cripps, Edward Darrell, Daniel de Saussure, George A. Hall, Thomas Grimball, Noble Wimberly Jones, William Lee, William Logan, Arthur Middleton, Christopher Peters, Benjamin Postell, Samuel Prioleau, Philip Smith, Benjamin Waller, James Wakefield, Edward Weyman, and Morton Wilkinson. With these were also sent General Rutherford and Colonel Isaacs of the State of North Carolina. Colonel Joseph Kershaw was sent to the British Honduras, and Captain Ely Kershaw to Bermuda, but died en route from New Providence to Bermuda.)"

The Kershaws of South Carolina

From The History of South Carolina Under the Royal Government, 1719-1776, by Edward McCrady, pub. 1899, Macmillan & Co., Ltd.:

Following the Indian traders, as the country became more settled, merchants began to establish themselves at the head of the navigable rivers. Among the earliest of these were the Kershaws. About the year 1755 three brothers, Joseph, William, and Eli Kershaw, came out from Great Britain to South Carolina, bringing with them considerable funds. In the year 1758 Joseph Kershaw settled at a place then called "Pine Tree," on the east side of the Wateree, at the head of navigation. John Chesnut, Duncan McRae, and Zack Cantey, each of whom were to establish a wealthy and influential family, were employed in his trading establishment there. Mr. Kershaw soon became one of the most extensive and influential proprietors in that section, and it was through his influence that the town of Camden was laid out. The county of which Camden is the seat is called Kershaw County in his honor. The land on which the town of Cheraw stands was granted to Eli Kershaw. There, at the head of the navigation of the Pee Dee, Joseph Kershaw, John Chesnut, Eli Kershaw, William Ancrum, and Aaron Lacock carried on a large mercantile business under the firm of Eli Kershaw and Company. The firm was dissolved in 1774, when they sold out the lands, stock, and negroes employed in carrying on their business.

William Henry Drayton (1742-1779)

William Henry Drayton, born in 1742, was the oldest son of John Drayton and his second wife, Charlotta Bull, daughter of John Bull, the colony's Governor. Afer spending early childhood on his father's South Carolina plantation, Drayton Hall, William lived in England from age nine until twenty-one, and, while there, studied at Oxford University. His first political writings appeared in the mid 1760s under the name "Freeman," and his most famous early piece was the 1774 pamphlet Letter from Freeman of South Carolina to the Deputies of North American Assembled in the High Court of Congress at Philadelphia. The pamphlet, addressed to the Continental Congress, discussed in detail America's grievances and included a suggested bill of American rights.
In 1775, Drayton was appointed to the South Carolina Provincial Congress and became its president. As president, he oversaw the formation of South Carolina's first constitution and issued the state's first order to fire on the British when, on November 9, 1775—almost eight months before the colonies would officially declare their independence—he ordered Colonel William Moultrie to fire from Fort Sullivan on British ships as they tried to enter the harbor.
In fact, William Henry Drayton was one of the first South Carolinians to openly call for a break from England. Speaking before the South Carolina Provincial Congress in February of 1776, Drayton declared that the British "hand of tyranny" threatened to "spoil America of whatever she held most valuable" and that America needed to decide quickly between "independence or slavery!"
Later appointed first chief justice of South Carolina, Drayton led the colony further along its path to independence with a series of charges to South Carolina's grand juries. According to his famous April 23, 1776 charge, "Under color of law, the king and parliament of Great Britain have made the most arbitrary attempts to enslave America," and "true reconcilement never [could] exist between Great Britain and America." Printed in newspapers throughout the colonies, Drayton's charge was also read by Arthur Middleton, another South Carolina patriot, to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia and has been credited with inspiring the delegates to push forward with the Declaration of Independence.

(info: Drayton Hall, http://www.draytonhall.org/research/people/drayton.html)

The Treaty of Ninety-Six, 1775

TREATY OF NINETY-SIX.
SOUTH CAROLINA — NINETY-SIX DISTRICT.
Whereas, misunderstandings but too often precipitate men and friends into quarrels and bloodshed, which, but for such misunderstandings, never could have happened: And whereas the present unhappy disputes between Great Britain and North America, have unhappily occasioned uneasiness between a part of the people living between Broad and Saluda rivers and other adjacent parts, and the other inhabitants of the Colony aforesaid, from misunderstandings as aforesaid, inasmuch as the said part of the people as aforesaid, having tender consciences, declined to accede to the Association signed in Congress on the 4th of June last; and the said other inhabitants thereby thinking that the said declining to accede, proceeded from principles and designs, in them the said part of the people, inimical to the proceedings and designs of the said other inhabitants; and that they, the said part of the people, did mean to aid, assist and join the British troops if any should arrive in the Colony aforesaid, during the present unhappy disputes as aforesaid: And whereas these are all misunderstandings, and it being the sincere wish and desire of all parts of the Colony to live in peace and friendship with each other: Wherefore, for the clearing up of the said misunderstandings, and for the manifestation of the wish and desire aforesaid, Colonel Thomas Fletchall, Captain John Ford, Captain Thomas Greer, Captain Evan McLaurin, the Reverend Philip Mulkey, Mr. Robert Merrick and Captain Benjamin Wofford, deputies for, and sent by the part of the people aforesaid, have repaired to the camp of the Honorable William Henry Drayton, Esquire, acting under the authority of the Council of Safety for this Colony; and, for the purposes aforesaid, it is hereby contracted, agreed, and declared by the Honorable William Henry Drayton, in pursuance of powers vested in him by the Honorable the Council of Safety as aforesaid on the one part, and the deputies aforesaid, in pursuance of powers vested in them by the said part of the people on the other part:

1st. That the said declining of the part of the people aforesaid, to accede as aforesaid, did not proceed from any ill or even unfriendly principle or design, in them the said part of the people, to or against the principles or designs of the Congress of this Colony, or authorities derived from that body, but proceeded only from a desire to abide in their usual peace and tranquility.2d. That the said part of the people, never did mean to aid, assist or join the British troops as aforesaid; and hereby it is declared, that if at any time during the present unhappy disputes between Great Britain and North America, any British troops shall or may arrive in this Colony, the deputies aforesaid, for themselves and the part of the people aforesaid, by whom they, the said deputies, are authorized, and whom they do represent, declare that if any British troops as aforesaid, shall arrive as aforesaid, they, the said deputies, on the part of the people aforesaid, shall not, and will not give, yield, or afford, directly or indirectly to, or for the use, advantage or comfort of the said British troops, or any part of them, any aid or assistance whatsoever, or hold with them the said troops, or any part of them, any communication or correspondence.
3rd. That if at any time during the unhappy disputes as aforesaid, any person or persons of the part of the people aforesaid, shall, by discourse or word, reflect upon, censure or condemn, or by any conduct oppose the proceedings of the Congress of this Colony, or authorities derived from them, the said Congress, the Council of Safety, or General Committee, as the case may be, shall, without being deemed to give any umbrage to the part of the people aforesaid, send to any of the deputies aforesaid to make requisition, that any and every such person or persons as aforesaid, offending in any of the premises aforesaid, against the proceedings of the Congress or authorities aforesaid, may, and shall be delivered up to the authority of the Congress, or the tribunals under that authority, to be questioned and tried and proceeded against, according to the mode of proceedings by authority of Congress; and if such person or persons as aforesaid, be not delivered up as aforesaid, within fourteen days after requisition as aforesaid; then, in such case, the Congress or Council of Safety, or General Committee, may, and shall be at liberty to use every means, to apprehend any, and every such person or persons as last aforesaid; and question, try, and proceed against as aforesaid, every such person or persons as aforesaid.
4th. That if any person or persons who has, or have signed, or shall sign the Association aforesaid, shall, without authority of Congress, molest any person or persons of the part of the people aforesaid, in such case, application shall be made to the said Congress, or Council of Safety, or General Committee, in order that such person or persons so molesting, be punished for, and restrained from molesting as aforesaid.

And it is hereby declared, that all and every person of the part of the people as aforesaid, not offending in or against any of the premises aforesaid, shall, and may continue to dwell and remain at home as usual, safe in their lives, persons, and property. Such being nothing more, than what has been, and is the aim, intention and inclination of the Congress of this Colony, and the authorities under that body.
All persons who shall not consider themselves as bound by this treaty must abide by the consequences.
Done at the camp, near Ninety-Six, this 16th day of September, 1775.
WM. HY. DRAYTON,
THO. FLETCHALL,
JOHN FORD,
THO. GREER,
EVAN McLAURIN,
BENJ. WOFFORD.
Witness,
WM. THOMSON,
ELI KERSHAW,
FRANCIS SALVADOR.

The Call for the Overmountain Men

From King's Mountain and Its Heroes, by Lyman Copeland Draper, pub. 1881, P.G. Thomson, page 84:

"When Colonel [Charles] McDowell became convinced that Ferguson's movement to the north-western portion of South Carolina, threatened the invasion of the North Province also, he not only promptly raised what force he could from the sparsely populated settlements, on the heads of Catawba, Broad and Pacolet rivers, to take post in the enemy's front and watch his operations; but dispatched a messenger with this alarming intelligence to Colonels John Sevier and Isaac Shelby, on Watauga and Holston, those over-mountain regions, then a portion of North Carolina, but now of East Tennessee; urging those noted border leaders to bring to his aid all the riflemen they could, and as soon as possible.
Sevier, unable to leave his frontier exposed to the inroads of the Cherokees, responded at once to the appeal, by sending a part of his regiment under Major Charles Robertson; and Shelby, being more remote, and having been absent on a surveying tour, was a few days later, but joined McDowell, at the head of two hundred mounted riflemen, about the twenty-fifth of July, at his camp near the Cherokee Ford of Broad river."

Gen. John Sevier (1745-1815)

John Sevier, pioneer, soldier, statesman and a founder of the Republic, was Tennessee's first governor and one of its most illustrious citizens. Married and on his own at sixteen, he was in the vanguard of frontier life and accomplishment from his late teens until his death. First and only governor of the short-lived State of Franklin, six-term governor of Tennessee, and congressman for four terms from the eastern district, Sevier was also a formidable soldier, having risen to the rank of general in the North Carolina militia.
Born near the present town of New Market, Virginia, Sevier was the oldest of seven children of Valentine and Joanna Goad Sevier. His forebears–the Xaviers–were Huguenots who had fled France for England, anglicized their name, and become prosperous farmers. By 1740 Valentine had arrived in Virginia and settled in the Shenandoah Valley on Smith's Creek.
By 1773 he lived on the Holston River, but three years later he had moved to a farm on the Watauga River near the present town of Elizabethton, Tennessee. In the same year, North Carolina authorities created the Washington District, which included the Watauga settlements, and Sevier was sent to the Provincial Congress of North Carolina as representative.
When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, Sevier was named a lieutenant colonel of the North Carolina militia, and was initially assigned to protecting frontier settlements. He ultimately distinguished himself as one of the commanding officers of the Overmountain Men at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780, which took down the forces of British Col. Patrick Ferguson and figured prominently in turning the tide towards Patriot victory at Yorktown.
Soon after the Revolutionary War, Sevier became involved in a movement designed to secure separate statehood for the people living in Washington, Sullivan, and Greene Counties. The Continental Congress in 1780 had urged that lands claimed by North Carolina and Virginia should become states soon after hostilities might end. Thomas Jefferson had presented a plan whereby eighteen new states might be carved from the western territories. But North Carolina authorities objected vehemently when western leaders assembled in Jonesborough in August 1784 to make plans for statehood. When they chose Sevier as governor and drafted a constitution, claiming an "inalienable right" to form an independent state, Governor Alexander Martin threatened to "render the revolting territory not worth possessing" if North Carolina did not retain sovereignty over it. Attempts at conciliation divided the Franklin people into factions, and border warfare developed. Several men were killed or wounded, and two of Sevier's sons were captured, threatened, and held briefly.
Sevier's term as governor of Franklin expired in the spring of 1788, and for all practical purposes the state came to an end. Sevier was arrested and charged with treason but never tried. Within less than a year he had taken an oath of allegiance to North Carolina and was elected to the state Senate. A few months later he was restored to his rank of brigadier general in the North Carolina militia.
In March, 1809, a few months before his final term ended–Sevier ran before the legislature for the U.S. Senate but was defeated by Judge Joseph Anderson. Later in that year, voters in Knox County sent him to the state Senate. Then, in 1811, he was elected to Congress. His advanced years and his unfamiliarity with federal procedures resulted in his being an ineffective legislator on the national level, however.
John Sevier died on September 24, 1815, while on a mission to the Alabama territory where he had gone with U.S. troops to determine the proper location of the Creek boundary. He was buried on the eastern bank of the Tallapoosa River near Fort Decatur.

(Source: The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, Tennessee Historical Society, Nashville, Tennessee; http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=S023#)