Clinton'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.

—Letter from Lord Francis Rawdon to Lord Charles Cornwallis dated 7 July 1780, excerpt

On 3 June 1780 Sir Henry Clinton inadvertently (and figuratively) shot himself in the foot. On that day he issued the third of his "Proclamations" in the aftermath of the Continental Army's surrender of Charleston. It was well and good that the proclamation released from parole all prisoners, excepting those taken during the British siege of Charleston, and restored to them their full rights as citizens. The stray bullet, so to speak, was the stipulation that all released parolees were required to take an oath of allegiance to the British empire, or else to be considered in rebellion. In other words, there was no such thing as neutrality subsequent to parole.

Sir Henry Clinton, with one piece of paper, guaranteed the continuance of the American Revolution in the Southern theatre. Not long afterward, Clinton and his fleet returned northward, to New York, and left the Carolinas to the jurisdiction of Charles, Earl of Cornwallis, aka Lord Cornwallis. The Loyalist troops of the Southern theater were his to command, and the Carolinas his to secure. 

The Continental regular army was either imprisoned or headed northward, so any Carolina patriot action in the aftermath of Benjamin Lincoln's surrender of Charleston was left to local and county militias. Paroled prisoners, not wishing to abide by Clinton's ultimatum, rallied to the patriot cause. As Cornwallis dispersed forces northward from Charleston into the Carolina backcountry to subdue remaining belligerents, patriot Colonel Charles McDowell, with networked knowledge of the advancing enemy, gathered his growing militia at a position at Smith's Ford on Broad River between Spartanburg and Rock Hill, South Carolina. 

The 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 General Benjamin Lincoln in Charleston while that port city continued under British siege. After Buford entered the South Carolina backcountry of the Waxhaws, however, he received news of Lincoln’s surrender to the British, and he turned his Virginia troops northward again, as ordered. 

The Waxhaws, a geographic region in the Piedmont of the Catawba River valley, was named for its earliest known inhabitants—the Waxhaw Indians. The tribe had been decimated by war and disease, and by 1715 the area was essentially uninhabited. By 1740 Scots-Irish and other immigrants had entered the land and established settlements. The fertile hunting ground of the Waxhaws spanned, after the border was eventually drawn, the North and South Carolina state lines. 

Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton was a British cavalry officer with a reputation for ruthless brutality that earned him the nicknames “Bloody Ban” and “Butcher.” On 29 May 1780 Tarleton’s force of about 130 cavalry, 100 infantry, and 40 British “Green Dragoons” overtook Colonel Buford’s 350 (or 380, per Tarleton) Virginia Continentals in the woods near Lancaster, South Carolina. As evidenced in their exchanged dispatches, Buford, at the outset, declined Tarleton’s option to surrender. Only after an early onset of heavy casualties did Buford order his troops to raise a flag of surrender. 

Buford now perceiving that further resistance was hopeless, ordered a flag to be hoisted and the arms to be grounded, expecting the usual treatment sanctioned by civilized warfare. This, however, made no part of Tarleton’s creed. His ostensible pretext, for the relentless barbarity that ensued, was, that his horse was killed under him just as the flag was raised. He affected to believe that this was done afterwards, and imputed it to treachery on the part of Buford; but, in reality, a safe opportunity was presented to gratify that thirst for blood which marked his character in every conjuncture that promised probable impunity to himself. Ensign Cruit, who advanced with the flag, was instantly cut down. Viewing this as an earnest of what they were to expect, a resumption of their arms was attempted, to sell their lives as dearly as possible; but before this was fully effected, Tarleton with his cruel myrmidons was in the midst of them, when commenced a scene of indiscriminate carnage never surpassed by the ruthless atrocities of the most barbarous savages. 

The demand for quarters, seldom refused to a vanquished foe, was at once found to be in vain; —not a man was spared—and it was the concurrent testimony of all the survivors, that for fifteen minutes after every man was prostrate. They went over the ground plunging their bayonets into every one that exhibited any signs of life, and in some instances, where several had fallen one over the other, these monsters were seen to throw off on the point of the bayonet the uppermost, to come at those beneath.

—Letter from Dr Robert Brownfield* to William Dobein James, excerpt

Local residents who had not fled tended to the casualties. The same afternoon of the battle 84 dead were buried together in a mass grave. The following day 25 more were buried in a second mass grave. The wounded were taken to nearby Waxhaws Church for care. Mrs Elizabeth Jackson served there as a nurse along with her sons, 16-year-old Robert and 13-year-old Andrew, who would carry these memories with him as a commander into the War of 1812.

“Tarleton’s Quarter” became a rallying cry among the Patriots, albeit a sarcastic one, which translated to: no quarter whatsoever. The slogan gained a motivational momentum, driving many much-needed new recruits into the partisan militia. The backcountry Scots-Irish communities were particularly responsive. Loyalist recruitment declined in inverse proportion. Loyalist desertions increased in step.

The Waxhaws battle became historically controversial. After breaking Buford’s line Tarleton’s dragoons slaughtered many partisans that reportedly had surrendered and asked for quarter, literally hacking them down and apart with their sabres. Some sources, such as partisan Surgeon’s Mate Robert Brownfield and Buford’s Adjutant Henry Bowyer, claimed that Buford raised a white flag, however belated, that was ignored by Tarleton. 

“The officers commanding platoons on Beaufort’s left, being all killed, and the command thrown into confusion, Adjutant Bowyer was ordered to advance with a flag, and to say to Tarleton, that he was willing to accept the terms offered before the action began. The Adjutant remonstrated by saying, that as the firing still continued, the execution of the order would be impracticable, exposing the bearer of the flag to the shot of both parties. Beaufort repeated his orders, in positive terms, and the Adjutant rode forward, with a handkerchief displayed on the point of his sword. When close to the British commander, he delivered Beaufort's message, but a ball at the moment striking the forehead of Tarleton’s horse, he plunged and both fell to the ground, the horse being uppermost. Extricated by his men from so perilous a position, the exasperated Colonel rose from the ground, and ordered the soldiers to despatch him. They immediately gathered round, and several cuts were made at him, which he had the good fortune to parry and avoid. By this time, Captain John Stokes and Lieut. Willison, who occupied a position opposite to that where the Adjutant was surrounded by the British Dragoons, and saw the danger impending over him, directed their platoons to fire at the group. They were well obeyed, and the bullets thrown among the party around the Adjutant, frightening the horses, gave him an opportunity of dashing through them, and effecting his escape unhurt. His horse was seriously wounded, but not sufficiently so to prevent his carrying his master to a place of security. The overwhelming force of the British then prevailed, and a dreadful massacre of the detachment followed. The rage of the British soldiers, excited by the continued fire of the Americans, while a negotiation was offered by flag, impelled them to acts of vengeance that knew no limits."

—Adjutant Henry Bowyer

Banastre Tarleton’s 1787 account set the scene for a massacre. His horse had been shot from under him during the initial volley. While Tarleton was briefly pinned beneath the horse, word rapidly, and most mistakenly, spread among his men that their commander had been killed.

“The loss of officers and men was great on the part of the Americans, owing to the dragoons so effectually breaking the infantry, and to a report amongst the cavalry, that they had lost their commanding officer, which stimulated the soldiers to a vindictive asperity not easily restrained.”

—Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton

The vengeful slaughter was not restrained. Of Colonel Buford’s approximately 350 men, 113 were killed and 203 captured, 150 of whom were so badly wounded that they were left behind. Tarleton’s casualties were 5 killed and 12 wounded. The affair became known as the Waxhaw Massacre. “Buford” would become the countersign at Kings Mountain later the same year. In January 1781, the patriot watchword for the Battle of Cowpens would be “Buford's Play.”

* Dr Robert Brownfield served as a Surgeon’s Mate in the regiment of Colonel Abraham Buford.

Allaire's Diary, 1780

Excerpts 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 about two miles. Received orders to halt, the rear guard being fired on; it proved to be the York Volunteers, getting the boats on the carriages at the river, were fired on by a skulking party of rascals on the other side of the stream.

Tuesday, 21st. The army got in motion. Marched to Fish Pond river. Here we were detained to repair the bridge till evening. Before we crossed we moved on about three miles, through a swamp, over an exceeding bad causeway. This day Col. Tarleton, with his dragoons, joined us from Beaufort, where he had been to get horses—his being all lost on the passage from New York.

Thursday, 23d. All the army, except the Seventy-first regiment, and greatest part of the baggage, crossed the river in boats and flats, the bridge being destroyed. Col. Tarleton came up with a party of Rebel militia dragoons, soon after crossing the river at Gov. Bee's plantation. He killed ten, and took four prisoners. Gov. Bee was formerly Lieut. Gov. under His Majesty, is now one of the members of Congress, and Lieut. Gov. of South Carolina.

Monday, 3d. Marched to Ashley Ferry to cover the Dragoons of the Legion whilst crossing the river. Marched from this up the river to Henry Middleton's plantation; passed several famous country seats, one called Drayton's Hall, belonging to William Henry Drayton, deceased, who was a member of Congress, and died at Philadelphia. Constant firing at our works from the Rebels all day.

Saturday, 8th. ... About four o'clock this afternoon the fleet hove in sight, coming up under full sail with a fresh breeze at south west, and passed Fort Moultrie--the Rebel fort that they boasted of on Sullivan's Island, which no fleet could ever pass.

Wednesday, 12th. Received orders to march. The North Carolinians were ordered to join Col. Ferguson.

(Lt. Allaire, a New York-born Loyalist, served under British commander Patrick Ferguson.) 

Loyalist Lieutenant Anthony Allaire

Lt. 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 Ferguson's corp during the seige of Charleston, at Monks' Corner, and in the up-country of North and South Carolina, including the Battle of Kings Mountain. He removed to New Brunswick, Canada in 1783 and died on his farm near Frederickton on 9 Jun 1838, "leaving a daughter who intermarried with Lieutenant John Robinson of the army."

(Source: http://www.tngenweb.org/revwar/kingsmountain/allaire.html)

Lt. Anthony Allaire's letter, 1781:

from Rivington's Royal Gazette, New York, February 24, 1781:

Extract from a letter from an officer [Anthony Allaire], dated Charlestown, January 30th, 1781.
This gentleman went from New York with a detachment drawn from the Provincial Brigade, which was commanded by the brave Major Patrick FERGUSON.
This letter gives the most circumstantial account yet received of the action at King's Mountain, in South Carolina, Oct. seventh.

"I think the last letter I wrote you was from Fort Moultrie, which I left a few days after.
We marched to a place called Ninety Six, which is about two hundred miles from Charleston; we lay there about a fortnight in good quarters, after which we proceeded to the frontiers of South Carolina, and frequently passed the line into North Carolina, and can say with propriety, that there is not a regiment or detachment of his Majesty's service, that ever went through the fatigues, or suffered so much, as our detachment.
That you may have some faint idea of our suffering, I shall mention a few particulars.
In the first place we were separated from all the army, acting with the militia; we never lay two nights in one place, frequently making forced marches of twenty and thirty miles in one night; skirmishing very often; the greatest part of our time without rum or wheat flour-rum is a very essential article, for in marching ten miles we would often be obliged to ford two or three rivers, which wet the men up to their waists.
In this disagreeable situation, we remained till the seventh of October, when we were attacked by two thousand five hundred Rebels, under the command of Gen. Williams.
Col. FERGUSON had under his command eight hundred militia, and our detachment, which at that time was reduced to an hundred men.
The action commenced about two o'clock in the afternoon, and was very severe for upwards of an hour, during which the Rebels were charged and drove back several times, with considerable slaughter.
When our detachment charged, for the first time, it fell to my lot to put a Rebel Captain to death, which I did most effectually, with one blow of my sword; the fellow was at least six feet high, but I had rather the advantage, as I was mounted on an elegant horse, and he on foot.
But their numbers enabled them to surround us and the North Carolina regiment, which consisted of about three hundred men.
Seeing this, and numbers being out of ammunition which naturally threw the rest of the militia into confusion, our gallant little detachment, which consisted of only seventy men, exclusive of twenty who acted as dragoons, and ten who drove wagons, etc., when we marched to the field of action, were all killed and wounded but twenty, and those brave fellows were soon crowded into an heap by the militia.
Capt. DePEYSTER, on whom the command devolved, seeing it impossible to form six men together, thought it necessary to surrender, to save the lives of the brave men who were left.
We lost in this action, Maj. FERGUSON, of the Seventy-first regiment, a man strongly attached to his King and country, well informed in the art of war, brave, humane, and an agreeable companion-in short, he was universally esteemed in the army, and I have every reason to regret his unhappy fate.
We lost eighteen men killed on the spot-Capt. RYERSON and thirty-two Sergeants and privates wounded, of Maj. FERGUSON's detachment.
Lieutenant M'GINNIS of ALLEN's regiment, Skinner's brigade, killed; taken prisoners, two Captains, four Lieutenants, three Ensigns, one Surgeon, and fifty-four Sergeants and privates, including the wounded, wagoners, etc.
The militia killed, one hundred, including officers; wounded, ninety; taken prisoners about six hundred; our baggage all taken, of course.
The Rebels lost Brig.-Gen. Williams, and one hundred and thirty-five, including officers, killed; wounded nearly equal to ours.
The morning after the action we were marched sixteen miles, previous to which orders were given by the Rebel Col. Campbell (whom the command devolved on) that should they be attacked on their march, they were to fire on, and destroy their prisoners.
The party was kept marching two days without any kind of provisions. The officers' baggage, on the third day's march, was all divided among the Rebel officers.
Shortly after we were marched to Bickerstaff's settlement, where we arrived on the thirteenth.
On the fourteenth, a court martial, composed of twelve field officers, was held for the trial of the militia prisoners; when, after a short hearing, they condemned thirty of the most principal and respectable characters, whom they considered to be most inimical to them, to be executed; and, at six o'clock in the evening of the same day, executed Col. MILLS, Capt. CHITWOOD, Capt. WILSON, and six privates; obliging every one of their officers to attend at the death of those brave, but unfortunate Loyalists, who all, with their last breath and blood, held the Rebels and their cause as infamous and base, and as they were turning off, extolled their King and the British Government.
On the morning of the fifteenth, Col. Campbell had intelligence that Col. TARLETON was approaching him, when he gave orders to his men, that should Col. TARLETON come up with them, they were immediately to fire on Capt. DePEYSTER and his officers, who were in the front, and then a second volley on the men.
During this day's march the men were obliged to give thirty-five Continental dollars for a single ear of Indian corn, and forty for a drink of water, they not being allowed to drink when fording a river; in short, the whole of the Rebels' conduct from the surrender of the party into their hands is incredible to relate.
Several of the militia that were worn out with fatigue, and not being able to keep up, were cut down, and trodden to death in the mire.
After the party arrived at Moravian Town, in North Carolina, we officers were ordered in different houses. Dr. JOHNSON (who lived with me) and myself were turned out of our bed at an unseasonable hour of the night, and threatened with immediate death if we did not make room for some of Campbell's officers;
Dr. JOHNSON was, after this, knocked down, and treated in the basest manner, for endeavoring to dress a man whom they had cut on the march.
The Rebel officers would often go in amongst the prisoners, draw their swords, cut down and wound those whom their wicked and savage minds prompted.
This is a specimen of Rebel lenity-you may report it without the least equivocation, for upon the word and honor of a gentleman, this description is not equal to their barbarity. This kind of treatment made our time pass away very disagreeably.
After we were in Moravian Town about a fortnight, we were told we could not get paroles to return within the British lines; neither were we to have any till we were moved over the mountains in the back parts of Virginia, where we were to live on hoe cake and milk; in consequence of this, Capt. TAYLOR, Lieut. STEVENSON and myself, chose rather to trust the hand of fate, and agreeable to our inclinations, set out from Moravian Town the fifth of November, and arrived at the British lines the twentieth.
From this town to Ninety Six, which was the first post we arrived at, is three hundred miles; and from Ninety Six to Charlestown, two hundred, so that my route was five hundred miles.
The fatigues of this jaunt I shall omit till I see you, although I suffered exceedingly; but thank God am now in Charlestown in good quarters."

The Battle of Stono Ferry, 20 June 1779

The Battle of Stono Ferry took place 20 June 1779 in South Carolina during the British retreat from an abortive raid on Charleston. Lieutenant Colonel John Maitland was in charge of the large rear guard left by British General Augustine Prevost upon his withdrawal to Savannah. A bridgehead was established on the north side of an area now known as New Cut Church Flats; this was meant to cover Stono Ferry. Three strong redoubts were built, circled by an abatis, and manned by Highlanders and Hessians. It was here that American Major General Benjamin Lincoln chose to lead his main attack. General William Moultrie led a smaller secondary effort to the east against a small group of British soldiers on Johns Island.

Lincoln deployed his troops after a night march of eight miles from the Ashley Ferry, located in the present village of Drayton Hall. Immediately upon their arrival at dawn, they began struggling through thick woods. The Americans advanced in two wings; General Jethro Sumner led his Carolina militia on the right, carrying two guns, while their right flank was covered by a company of light infantry, commanded by the Marquis de Malmady. Continental Army troops, under General Isaac Huger, made up the left wing; they carried four guns into battle. With Huger was a group of light infantry under John Henderson, and it was these troops who, shortly before sunrise, made first contact with the enemy.

The battle began well for the Patriots. They engaged the British positions with small arms and cannon fire for an hour, at which point they advanced to the abatis. Of the Highlanders, two companies resisted until only eleven men were left standing; a Hessian battalion finally broke. Here Maitland shifted his forces in an attempt to counter the larger threat posed by Huger's wing. The Hessians rallied and returned to the fight, and reserves were brought across the bridge. Lincoln chose this moment to order a withdrawal.

At 150 dead and a comparable number missing, Patriot losses had been heavy; among the dead was Andrew Jackson's brother Hugh, felled by heat and exhaustion. Also lost was Col. Thomas Neel. Most of the "missing" were deserters; the British claimed no prisoners from the battle. Huger was severely wounded. For their part, the British lost 150 officers and men, but only one was reported missing.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Gen. Nathanael Greene in the South

The Continental Congress had been unfortunate in its selection of commanders in the South. It had chosen Robert Howe, who lost Savannah. It had chosen Benjamin Lincoln, who lost Charleston. In August 1780, near Camden, South Carolina, the British attacked Horatio Gates' army, which broke and ran in wild confusion. The way was cleared for Lord Cornwallis to pursue his goals of gathering southern Loyalists and taking the war into Virginia. His southern ports could be mobilized to move men and materiel into the Carolinas.
Congress entrusted General Washington with the choice of Gates' successor. On October 5 it resolved "that the Commander-in-Chief be and is hereby directed to appoint an officer to command the southern army, in the room of Major General Gates." George Washington acted without delay. The day after he received his copy of the resolution, he wrote to Nathanael Greene at West Point, "It is my wish to appoint You." Congress approved the appointment, and gave Greene command over all troops from Delaware to Georgia with extraordinarily full powers, "subject to the control of the Commander-in-Chief." Greene took command at Charlotte, North Carolina on December 2, 1780. Brigadier General Isaac Huger of the South Carolina Continentals was appointed his second in command.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Nathanael Greene to Francis Marion, 4 December 1780:

". . . I have not the Honor of your Acquaintance but am no Stranger to your Character and merit. . . . Untill a more permanent Army can be collected than is in the field at present, we must endeavor to keep up a partizan war and preserve the tide of sentiment among the People as much as possible in our Favour. Spies are the Eyes of any army. . . . At present I am badly off for Intelligence. It is of the highest Importance that I get the earliest Information of any Reinforcements which may arrive at Charlestown or leave the Town to join Lord Cornwallis. I wish you therefore to fix some Plan for procuring such Information and for conveying it to me with all possible Dispatch. The Spy should be taught to be particular in his Enquiries, and to get the names of the Corps Strength and Commanding Officer's name, Place from whence they came and where they are going. It will be best to fix upon some Body in Town to do this, and have a Runner between you and him, to give you the Intelligence as a Person cannot make these Enquiries without being suspected who lives out of Town. The utmost Secrecy will be necessary in this Business."

Gen. Charles Lee (1731–1782)

Charles Lee was born in Cheshire, England, the son of General John Lee and Isabella Bunbury (daughter of Sir Henry Bunbury, 3rd Baronet). He was sent to school in Switzerland and became proficient in several languages. He returned to England in 1746 at the age of fourteen to attend school at Bury St Edmunds. That same year his father, then colonel of the 55th Foot (later renumbered the 44th), purchased a commission for Charles as an ensign in the same regiment.

Lee purchased a lieutenant's commission in 1751. He was first sent to America in 1754 for service in the French and Indian War under Major General Edward Braddock, but was apparently not with the regiment when it suffered disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela. He purchased a captain's commission in the 44th Foot in 1756. The following year Lee took part in an expedition against the French fortress of Louisbourg, and in 1758 he was wounded in a failed assault on Fort Ticonderoga. After recovering, he took part in the capture of Fort Niagara in 1759 and Montreal in 1760. Lee went back to Europe, transferred to the 103rd Foot as a major, and served as a lieutenant colonel in the Portuguese army, fighting against the Spanish in Portugal. He returned to England in 1763 at the end of the Seven Years' War. His regiment was disbanded and he was retired as a major.

In 1765 Lee fought in Poland, serving as aide-de-camp under King Stanislaus II. After many adventures he returned to England. Unable to secure promotion in the British Army, in 1769 he returned to Poland, saw more action, and lost two fingers in a duel in which he killed his opponent. Returning to England again, he found sympathy for the American colonists in their quarrel with Britain. Lee moved to the colonies in 1773 and purchased an estate in western Virginia.

At the start of the Revolutionary War, Lee's military experience won him a commission as major general in the Continental Army. After directing the fortification of New York City early in 1776, he was sent to Charleston, South Carolina, and received credit for the successful defense of that city, despite having advised William Moultrie to abandon the fort that saved the city. Lee was afterwards recalled to New York.

Toward the end of 1776, Lee's animosity for Washington began to show. He dawdled with his troops in New York, disregarding General Washington's numerous pleas to cross the Hudson River and join the retreat following the battle of White Plains. In the meanwhile, Lee intensified a letter campaign to various Congress members in Philadelphia, trying to convince them that he should replace Washington as overall commander. During this time, Washington accidentally opened a letter from Lee to Colonel Joseph Reed, in which Lee condemned Washington's leadership abilities and blamed Washington entirely for the dire straits of the army. Although his army was supposed to join Washington's in Pennsylvania, Lee set a very slow pace. On the night of December 12, 1776, Lee and a dozen of his guard inexplicably stopped for the night at White's Tavern in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, some three miles from his main army. The next morning, a British patrol of two dozen mounted soldiers (including Banastre Tarleton) found Lee writing letters in his dressing gown, and captured him. Lee was eventually freed in a prisoner exchange, after which he rejoined Washington at Valley Forge.

Lee is most infamous for his actions during the 1778 Battle of Monmouth. Washington ordered him to attack the retreating enemy. Instead, Lee ordered a retreat. He retreated directly into Washington and his troops, who were advancing. Washington dressed him down publicly. Lee responded with "inappropriate language," was arrested, and shortly thereafter court-martialed. Lee was found guilty and relieved of command for a period of one year. He continued to criticize Washington abusively, and in 1780, Lee was finally dismissed from service.

(info: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lee_(general); and Infoplease, http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0829226.html)

1775: SC Regiment Command, per Wells

From History of South Carolina, by Yates Snowden, Henry Gardner Cutler, published 1920, The Lewis Pub. Co., page 316:

According to Well's "Register and Almanac" for 1775 the colonels of the thirteen regiments were as follows: Of the one regiment of horse, William Moultrie; and of the infantry, Charlestown district, Charles Pinckney; Berkeley County, Richard Singleton; Granville County, Stephen Bull, of Sheldon; Craven County, Job Rothmahler; Colleton County, Joseph Glover; Orangeburg, William Thomson; Cheraws, George Gabriel Powell; Ninety-six, John Savage; Camden, Richard Richardson: Forks of Saluda, Robert Starke; Upper Saluda, Thomas Fletchall; New [Acquisition] District, Thomas Neel. Probart Howarth was colonel and governor of Fort Johnson, and Owen Roberts was captain of the artillery company with headquarters in Charlestown.

The Cunningham Mess, part 1: The Arrest

From The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, by Edward McCrady, published 1901, Macmillan & Co., ltd., South Carolina, pp. 86-87:

1775
On the day the Congress met, the 1st of November, it was informed that Captain Robert Cuningham [sic] had been taken into custody and brought to Charlestown. He had been arrested under orders from Major Andrew Williamson upon the affidavit of Captain John Caldwell, charging him with seditious words. Cuningham having been brought before the Congress did not deny that he had used the words with which he was charged; he did not believe, he said, that Captain Caldwell had perjured himself; but though he did not consider himself bound by the treaty at Ninety-Six, he averred "that he had since behaved himself as peaceably as any man, and although he had opinions he had not expressed them but when asked." Upon this frank statement Captain Cuningham was committed to the jail of Charlestown by a warrant under the hand of William Henry Drayton as President; Thomas Grimball the Sheriff was directed, however, to afford him every reasonable and necessary accommodation at the public charge. But he was enjoined not to suffer him to converse or correspond with any person whomsoever, or to have the use of pen, ink, or papers unless by express leave from the Congress. The arrest of Cuningham was deeply resented by the people of the Upper Country, and in connection with another matter, which occurred about the same time, occasioned further trouble and a far more serious disaffection of the people in that region. They were led to believe that the Revolutionists on the coast were intriguing with the Indians to bring them down upon the frontier settlements because the people there hesitated to join them against the King.

Georgia Enters The Revolution

From Our Country, a "Household History for All Readers," Vol. II, by Benson J. Lossing, published 1877:

Georgia, tardy in joining the Continental movement, felt the flame of patriotism warming the hearts and minds of her sons early in 1775. In February, the inhabitants of the parish of St. Johns, in that province, chose Lyman Hall to represent them in the second Congress, and he took his seat as such at the middle of May. In July the Provincial Convention that had been formed adopted the American Association, and chose delegates to represent the whole province in the Congress; and then the bright galaxy of the "Old Thirteen" was perfected. The royal governor, Sir James Wright, had tried in vain to suppress the rising tide of republicanism in Georgia. So early as May, 1775, when it was suspected that he was about to imitate General Gage, by seizing the ammunition of the province, several members of the Council of Safety and others broke open the magazine, sent a greater portion of the powder to Beaufort, South Carolina, and hid the remainder in their own garrets. When the governor and the Tories were preparing to celebrate the king's birthday, on the 4th of June, by firing the cannon on the battery in Savannah, some of the leading Whigs spiked the guns there, and hurled them to the bottom of the bluff. Not long afterward, a letter written by the governor to General Gage, asking him to send troops to Georgia to suppress the rising rebellion there, was intercepted at Charleston. The republicans were greatly exasperated; and a day or two afterward they seized a British ship at the mouth of the Savannah River, with thirteen thousand pounds of gunpowder on board. The spirit of resistance waxed from stronger and stronger, until, in January, 1776, the Whigs resolved to endure the adverse influence of the governor and the Tories no longer. Joseph Habersham, a member of the popular legislature, with some armed volunteers, seized Governor Wright and made him a prisoner on parole at his own house. A sentinel was placed before it, with orders not to allow any intercourse between the governor and the Loyalists. During a stormy night in February, Sir James escaped through a back window of his house, walked five miles down the borders of the river with a friend, and then entering an open boat, fled in the pelting rain, under the cover of darkness, for shelter to the British vessel-of-war Scarborough, lying in Tybee Sound. [John] Stuart, the Indian agent for the Southern Department, had fled for safety to St. Augustine. He had incurred the bitter resentment of the patriots by trying to execute an atrocious order from Gage, as commander-in-chief of the forces, in these words:
"The people of Carolina in turning rebels to their king have lost all faith; improve a correspondence with Indians to the greatest advantage, and even when opportunity offers make them take arms against his majesty's enemies, and distress them all in their power; for no time is now to be kept with them; they have brought down all the savages they could against us here, who, with their riflemen, are continually firing upon our advanced sentries; in short, no time should be lost to distress a set of people so wantonly rebellious; supply the Indians with what they want, be the expense what it will, as every exertion must now be made on the side of government."
Gage had borne the same false testimony concerning the employment of the savages by the Americans, to the British ministry, as an excuse for his barbarous recommendations to make allies of them with the British army. At the same time the British emissaries were among the savage tribes of the north trying to form alliances with them, and to incite them to war against the Patriots. 
So was ended royal rule in Georgia.

The Backcountry & the Scots-Irish

From The 1780 Presbyterian Rebellion and the Battle of Huck's Defeat, by Sam Thomas, Curator of History, Culture & Heritage Commission of York County:

In the Backcountry, due to their isolation from the coast, past resentments could be put aside - at least temporarily. When war arrived after 1776, at first the Scotch-Irish were rather lukewarm toward the idea of independence from Great Britain. Here they were content to remain neutral so long as they were left alone. The conflict as most of the Scotch-Irish saw it was between the British Crown and the Charleston aristocrats, whom they resented as much as the British officials and so it did not involve them. But the problems between the Backcountry and the Crown finally boiled to the surface in 1780 as "The Presbyterian Rebellion." In 1778 an unknown Hessian officer recorded his observations on the war. "Call this war by whatever name you may, only call it not an American Rebellion: it is nothing more or less than a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Rebellion." George Washington also remarked on the contribution to the war effort with a tribute to the Scotch-Irish from his headquarters at Valley Forge when he declared, "If defeated everywhere else, I will make my last stand for liberty among the Scotch-Irish . . ." It is this Backcountry Rebellion which is so closely identified with the battles of Kings Mountain, Cowpens, Hanging Rock, and Huck's Defeat.

Ramsour's Mill: America's First Civil War

From The History of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780, by Edward McCrady, published 1901, Macmillan & Co., ltd., South Carolina, pp. 587-588:

That there were great differences of sentiment in regard to the Revolution even among the people of the Low Country of South Carolina has abundantly appeared in the pages of this history. Friends and families were divided in opinion as to its cause, and still more so in regard to the course of events which had followed resulting in the Declaration of Independence. But these differences in the Low Country had caused little bloodshed by native Carolinians at the hands of each other. Few of the Tories in this section took up arms against their fellow-countrymen. In the new field of war [i.e., the back country], alas! as at Ramsour's Mill, the people who had not been interested in the questions which brought on the trouble were to fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbor. The most dreadful internecine strife was now to rage throughout the country beyond the falls of the rivers. The Scotchmen in Charlestown—especially the Scotch merchants, had almost unanimously opposed the Revolution; and so had the many Scotch traders in the Piedmont region. The Scotchmen in Charlestown, however, contented themselves with passive resistance to the Revolutionary party until the fall of the town, and then did little more than congratulate Sir Henry Clinton upon his victory over their rebellious fellow-townsmen; but in the Up Country they rose with the advance of the British and with heroism and determination took part in the war. It would be well if the historian was bound to add nothing more in regard to their conduct; but truth requires the statement that the heroism of these people in maintaining their loyalty to their King was tarnished by deeds of cruelty and bloodthirstiness. It will indeed appear, as we follow the fortunes of the war in their section, that South Carolina experienced all the dire effects which from civil discords flow.
Before Tarleton had overtaken Buford the Tories in this section had begun to gather and organize. As early as the 26th of May—that is, three days before the massacre in the Waxhaws, a party of them had collected at Mobley's Meeting-house, about six miles west of Winnsboro in the present county of Fairfield; to meet this Colonel William Bratton of York and Captain John McClure of Chester gathered the Whigs and defeated and dispersed them. A similar uprising at Beckham's Old Field in the vicinity of Fishing Creek, in what is now Chester County, had been put down with equal ease, the Rev. John Simpson, then the Presbyterian minister of the congregation in that neighborhood, being one of the principal movers in the affair. We have no account of the casualties on either side of these affairs.

Lord Rawdon in the Backcountry

Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings, was a British politician and military officer. He was born in County Down, Ireland, the son of John Rawdon, 1st Earl of Moira and Elizabeth Rawdon, 13th Baroness Hastings.
He joined the British Army in 1771 and served in the American Revolutionary War, particularly at the battles of Bunker Hill, Brooklyn, White Plains, Monmouth and Camden, at the attacks on Forts Washington and Clinton, and at the siege of Charleston. Hastings commanded the "Volunteers of Ireland", a Tory regiment raised by General Sir Henry Clinton. In the aftermath of the Battle of Camden, Lord Rawdon wrote to General Cornwallis:

"Soon after your Lordship had first taken possession of Camden, you detached me to Waxhaw with my own regiment, thinking that as it was an Irish corps it would be received with the better temper by the settlers of that district, who were universally Irish and universally disaffected. My conduct towards the inhabitants, and the extraordinary regularity of the troops under my command, I must assert to have been such as ought to have conciliated their firmest attachment; yet I had the fullest proofs that the people who daily visited my camp, not only held constant correspondence with the rebel militia then assembling at Charlotteburg, and with those who were harassing Lieut.-Colonel Turnbull's detachment, but also used every artifice to debauch the minds of my soldiers, and persuade them to desert from their colours. The encouragement which they gave to the men, and the certain means of escape with which they furnished them, succeeded to a very alarming degree, and the rage of desertion was not stopped by our return to Camden. When your Lordship left me to command in the Back Country, you left me in the territory of an enemy, awed solely by apprehension of our force from open opposition. I soon found (as your Lordship's experience since will readily lead you to believe) that I was betrayed on every side by the inhabitants. Several small detachments from me, were attacked by persons who had the hour before been with them as friends in their camp. As the rebels, however, had not strength to assail the body of the army, they endeavoured to weaken it by treachery. I had the clearest conviction that the militia who swarmed daily in our camp, not only held forth every allurement that could entice the soldiers to desert, but actually furnished horses to such as would go off, and forwarded them from house to house till they were beyond the reach of pursuit."

Gen. Lord Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805)

Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, is most remembered as one of the primary British generals in the American Revolutionary War. His 1781 defeat by a combined American-French force at the Siege of Yorktown is generally considered the end of the War, as the bulk of British troops had surrendered with Cornwallis, although minor skirmishes continued for another two years.

Cornwallis was educated at Eton College—where he received an injury to his eye by an accidental blow at hockey from Shute Barrington, afterwards Bishop of Durham—and Clare College, Cambridge. He obtained his first commission as Ensign in the 1st Foot Guards on December 8, 1757. His military education then commenced, and after travelling on the continent with a Prussian officer, Captain de Roguin, Lord Brome, as he was then known, studied at the military academy of Turin. He also became a Member of Parliament in January 1760, entering the House of Commons for the village of Wye in Kent. He succeeded his father as 2nd Earl Cornwallis in 1762.

Throughout the Seven Years' War, Lord Cornwallis served four terms in different posts in Germany, interspersed with trips home. In 1758, he served as a staff officer to Lord Granby. A year later, he participated at the Battle of Minden. After the battle, he purchased a captaincy in the 85th Regiment of Foot. In 1761, he served with the 11th Foot and was promoted to Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel. He led his regiment in the Battle of Villinghausen on July 15-July 16, 1761, and was noted for his gallantry. He became colonel of the 33rd Regiment of Foot in 1766.

During the 1760s and early 1770s, Cornwallis regularly spoke out against the repressive tax policies that Britain was imposing on its American colonies. However, his sympathy did not extend to support for independence and he joined British forces in America in August 1776.

Cornwallis saw action in most of the major campaigns of the American Revolutionary War. He served with William Howe on Long Island in the late summer of 1776, then assisted in the pursuit of George Washington across New Jersey. He was present at the American victories at Trenton and Princeton, and, in September 1777, the British triumph at Brandywine. Cornwallis was impatient with Howe’s seeming lack of initiative and was later similarly critical of Sir Henry Clinton. In frustration, Cornwallis resigned his commission, but his resignation was not accepted.

In 1778 Cornwallis was named second in command under Clinton and, in 1780, he assisted in opening a renewed effort in the American South. He won a key victory at Camden over Horatio Gates in June 1780, but was forced to retreat after his army's Pyrrhic victory in the March 1781 Battle of Guilford Court House. They subsequently marched north through North Carolina into Virginia, where the forces of General Washington and the French fleet compelled his surrender at Yorktown in October 1781.

The defeat at Yorktown did not destroy Cornwallis' career. In 1786, he was appointed governor-general of India, where he brought important reforms to the civil service and the judiciary. He also instituted a major land reform and led military campaigns against native uprisings. In 1792, he was made a marquess for his service in India. In 1798, Cornwallis became viceroy and commander-in-chief in Ireland. He won some measure of respect from both Roman Catholics and Protestants for his sincerity and dedication. Other contributions included quelling a rebellion in 1798 and thwarting a French invasion. He supported the Act of Union in 1801, which joined the British and Irish in Parliament, but resigned when the king failed to guarantee political rights for Catholics. Cornwallis served as minister plenipotentiary during the negotiation of the Treaty of Amiens (1802), which brought a cessation in the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1805, Cornwallis returned to India as governor-general, but died shortly after his arrival.

(info: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwallis; Charles Cornwallis, http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1304.html)

Plan of the Siege of Charleston

(click image to enlarge)

Gen. Sir Henry Clinton & the Southern Theatre

In March 1775, King George III dispatched reinforcements to the American colonies under General Sir Henry Clinton and fellow Major-Generals William Howe and John Burgoyne to strengthen the British position in Boston. On 17 June, with the British army having been besieged in Boston since April, Clinton was one of the British field commanders in the Battle of Bunker Hill. This assault to drive the rebels from the heights north of Boston harbor was successful, but only at the heavy cost of over 1,000 British casualties.
In January 1776, Clinton was sent south with a small fleet and 1,500 men to assess military opportunities in the Carolinas. In June, Clinton led a naval assault on Fort Sullivan at Charleston, South Carolina, successfully defended by Colonel William Moultrie. It was a humiliating failure for Clinton. The British did not attempt to renew the battle to try to take the fort again, and by mid-July the fleet withdrew northward. Clinton and his twenty-five ships rejoined the main fleet to participate in General Howe's August 1776 assault on New York City.
In May of 1778, after the British disaster of the Saratoga Campaign, Clinton replaced Howe as Commander-in-Chief for North America. He assumed command in Philadelphia. France had by this time overtly entered the war on the American side, and because of this Clinton was ordered by his government to send 5,000 of his troops to the Caribbean, which forced him to withdraw from Philadelphia and retreat to New York. Having concentrated his forces, for a time he pursued a policy of making mere forays from there. Before year's end, however, Clinton regained the initiative for the British and sent an expedition south to strike at Georgia. This force took Savannah in December, and by early 1779 it had gained control of the hinterland.
The Georgia campaign presumed Loyalist support would appear as soon as redcoats were present in strength. The notion that the South was more likely to be friendly to British forces had been entertained by George Germain, the American Secretary, for much of the war to date, a notion fed by Loyalist exiles in London. Contrary to expectations, the wave of public support for the arrival of British troops never materialized, leaving Clinton and his subordinates isolated. For much of the remainder of the war in the South, British commanders aimed at mobilizing Loyalist support, but results were never as successful as they had anticipated.
By late 1779 Clinton assembled a force for the next step in his strategy, an invasion of South Carolina. he took personal command of this campaign, and a force with 14,000 men sailed south from New York at the end of the year. By early 1780, Clinton lay siege to Charleston. In May, together with Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot, he forced the surrender of the city, with its garrison of 5,000. It was during the siege and capture of Charleston that Clinton's inability to cooperate with equal ranking officers began to become more evident. Arbuthnot and Clinton did not work well together, and the feud would last until the end of the war with disastrous results for the British high command.
Clinton subsequently returned north, leaving 8,000 British troops in the southern theatre under the command of General Cornwallis, his second-in-command. From New York, he continued to oversee and take an active interest in the Southern campaign, as evidenced in his correspondence with Cornwallis. However, as the campaign progressed, he grew further and further away from his subordinate. As the campaign drew to a close, the correspondence became more and more acrimonious.
In 1782, after being replaced as Commander-in-Chief by Sir Guy Carleton, Sir Henry Clinton returned to England.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Sumter Rides (in the Nick of Time)

from The Road to Guilford Courthouse, by John Buchanan, ©1997, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 120-121:

In September 1778, with South Carolina no longer in immediate danger from either the British or the Cherokee, Thomas Sumter resigned his commission and turned to his private affairs. He remained at Great Savannah with his family during the fighting between Benjamin Lincoln and Prevost around Charleston and the surrender of the city to the British. Then Sumter removed with his family to their summer home farther up country in the High Hills of Santee. But the war caught up with him there, too, and along with thousands of other men in the Carolinas he was faced with a critical decision.
On 28 May 1780 his son Tom was out riding when a neighbor galloped up with news that Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion were heading their way. It was Tarleton's famous dash to the Waxhaws in pursuit of Buford. Young Tom Sumter rode home to warn his father. From his immediate reaction, it appears that Thomas Sumter had known for some time precisely what he would do at such a time. While Soldier Tom, his African body servant, saddled their horses, Sumter donned his old regimentals. He kissed his wife and son goodbye, and then he and Soldier Tom rode off to war. He had no rank, no men, no prospects. Thomas Sumter, Jr., wrote to his own son many years later: "He left us on the 28th of May, 1780, only a few hours before Tarleton's legion passed us in pursuit of Buford."
It was well that he left quickly. The British knew of him, and Tarleton sent Captain Charles Campbell to bring him in. Mary Sumter was sitting in a chair inside her home. The dragoons of the Legion picked up the chair and carried her in it outside and set it on the lawn. Then they looted the house and the smokehouse. Then they set the house on fire. Gathered in a small group on the lawn, Mary Sumter, and her son Tom, and the house servants watched the house burn. The story is told that a Legion dragoon with a guilty conscience slipped a smoked ham under her chair.

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)