The Battle of Ramsour's Mill, 20 June 1780

Derick Ramsaur, who was among the first Germans (generally called Dutch [mistakenly for Deutsch]) emigrants to Tryon County, [North Carolina,] erected his mill prior to 1770 on the west bank of Clark's Creek, where the Morganton road bridge at Lincolnton now spans the stream. 

… After the battle of Alamance, Governor Tryon wrote the Secretary of State that the counties of Mecklenburg, Tryon, and western Rowan beyond the Yadkin River were contemplating hostilities and that he had sent General Wadell with the militia of those counties and some other troops to require the inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance. One of the points at which they were assembled for this purpose was Ramsaur's Mill.

—William A. Graham*

By mid-June of 1780, about 1300 Loyalist troops, under the commands of Lieutenant Colonel John Moore and Major Nicholas Welch, gathered at Ramsour's Mill near present-day Lincolnton, North Carolina. Colonel Charles McDowell was advised of their proximity and numbers. His brother Major Joseph McDowell, of Quaker Meadows, and cousin Captain Joseph McDowell, of Pleasant Gardens, were also on point regarding the situation. 

The friends of Britain in Tryon County were not confined to the Germans; there were probably as large a percent of the English Tories. Neither Moore nor Welch were German. Colonel Moore returned to the vicinity and appointed a meeting for June 10th at his father's (Moses Moore) residence on Indian Creek, seven miles from Ramsaur's. The place of the "Tory Camp" is still pointed out, and is on the Gaston side of the county line on the plantation which was owned by the late Captain John II Roberts. Forty men met him on that day. He delivered Lord Cornwallis' message, but before they dispersed a messenger informed them that Major Joseph McDowell [of Quaker Meadows] (who was one of the most ubiquitous officers of the North Carolina Patriot Militia during the Revolution) was in the neighborhood endeavoring to capture some of the men who were present. Moore, having a force double in number to that of McDowell, sought him and followed him to South Mountains, but did not overtake him. He then dismissed the men with directions to meet at Ramsaur's Mill on the 13th of the month.

—William A. Graham*

Colonel Charles McDowell dispatched Isaac Shelby and a number of his men to assist North Carolina militia from Mecklenburg, Tryon, and Rowan counties. Colonel Francis Locke led the approximately 400 patriot troops in their goal to dislodge Moore, Welch, and their troops. (General Rutherford, with Colonel William Davidson's infantry and Major Daire's cavalry, arrived from Charlotte too late to participate in the action.) The Loyalists had encamped at a strategically important position seated on a high ridge that sloped about 300 yards down to the mill on Clarke's Creek, and a similar distance to a creek branch at the bottom of the eastern slope.

Captain Joseph McDowell (of Pleasant Gardens) served as commander of one of Locke's companies. On 20 June 1780, he led the initial cavalry charge along Old Sherrill’s Ford Road which drove Moore's pickets back into their camp. Colonel Locke moved infantry into position in concert with the cavalry maneuver. 

The contest eventually became one of sharpshooting, as not much ground was gained in either direction. The patriots successfully picked off the enemy's officers one by one; the leaderless Loyalists eventually ceased firing and abandoned the ridge. As Locke's troops stood atop the ridge, a white flag was seen flying down by the far creek. About fifty prisoners were taken, those who had been unable to reach the bridge. Those who had successfully crossed, dispersed and escaped. 

The Battle of Ramsour's Mill exemplified the degree to which the summer's southern backcountry battles constituted civil war. Not a single British soldier or officer was present. Neither was there any regular army from either side. It was a battle of Patriot militia versus Loyalist militia. They were locals, for the most part, and many were related by blood and/or marriage.

*William A. Graham, The Battle of Ramsaur's Mill, June 20, 1780; booklet, volume 4, published 1904, E.M. Uzell, Printers; Raleigh, North Carolina

Ramsour's Mill, per Graham

From The Battle of Ramsaur's Mill, June 20, 1780, by William A. Graham, 1904, Major on Staff of Adjutant General of North Carolina (excerpts):

... Lord Cornwallis' plan of campaign was to move with the main body of regulars by a central route through Charlotte and Salisbury, and to send a small force under a competent commander to his right to organize his friends in the upper Cape Fear section, and another force to his left to embody the adherents of Britain in upper South Carolina and in Tryon County, North Carolina; to reinforce his main army and also to protect his outposts from the attacks of NC Militia Colonels McDowell, Cleveland and others aided by the "over the mountain men," as those beyond the Blue Ridge were called.
...
In those days there were no post offices or country stores for the congregating of the people. The flouring mills were the points of assembling, and the roads usually named for the mills to which they led.
...
The German population in North Carolina, who mostly came here from Pennsylvania, were, during the Revolutionary War, generally favorable to Great Britain.
...
After the battle of Alamance, Governor Tryon wrote the Secretary of State that the counties of Mecklenburg, Tryon, and western Rowan beyond the Yadkin River were contemplating hostilities and that he had sent General Wadell with the militia of those counties and some other troops to require the inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance. One of the points at which they were assembled for this purpose was Ramsaur's Mill.
...
General Griffith Rutherford, Colonel Neal, Captains Alexander, Shaw, and others were at that time officers of the militia.
...
In some instances this was a fight between neighbors and kindred,... In the thickest of the fight a Dutch Tory, seeing an acquaintance, said: "How do you do, Billy? I have knowed you since you was a little boy, and never knew no harm of you except you was a rebel." Billy, who was out for business and not to renew acquaintance, as his gun was empty, clubbed it and made a pass at his friend's head, who dodged and said: "Stop! Stop! I am not going to stand still and be killed like a damn fool, needer," and immediately made a lick at Billy's head, which he dodged. A friend of Billy whose gun was loaded put it to the Dutchman's side and shot him dead.
...
The troops engaged, except Reep of Lincoln, and Major Wilson, Captains Knox and Smith of Mecklenburg, were from (what to 1777 had been) Rowan County. The officers' surnames were found among the militia officers of the county in the proceedings of the "Committee of Safety," of which many of them were members.
...
This was a battle between the ancestors of the North Carolina Confederate soldier,...
...
This battle is but little known in history, yet is one of the most important in results and best-fought of the American Revolution. King's Mountain and Ramsaur's Mill at that time were both in Lincoln County, and not twenty miles apart. If Moore had obeyed Lord Cornwallis, and delayed organization until Ferguson advanced, he could have reinforced him with two thousand men. If the Whigs had been defeated matters would have been in even worse condition. Ramsaur's Mill was the first and most important "act" in King's Mountain. It destroyed Toryism in that section and caused Bryan, with his followers, to leave the "forks of the Yadkin" and not return until Cornwallis came.

The Propaganda of Patrick Ferguson

An appeal to the inhabitants of the Carolina backcountry to join the Loyalist militia serving under the King:

Denard's Ford, Broad River,

Tryon County, Oct. 1, 1780.

Gentlemen: Unless you wish to be cut up by an inundation of barbarians, who have begun by murdering an unarmed son before the aged father, and afterwards lopped off his arms, and who by their shocking cruelty and irregularities, give the best proof of their cowardice and want of discipline; I say, if you wish to be pinioned, robbed, and murdered, and see your wives and daughters, in four days, abused by the dregs of mankind--in short, if you wish or deserve to live and bear the name of men, grasp your arms in a moment and run to camp.

The Backwater men have crossed the mountain; M'Dowell, Hampton, Shelby, and Cleaveland are at their head, so that you know what you will have to depend upon. If you choose to be p––d for ever and ever by a set of mongrels, say so at once, and let your women turn their backs upon you, and look out for real men to protect them.

PAT. FERGUSON,

Major 71st Regiment.

Cane Creek: Prelude to Kings Mountain

From Biographical History of North Carolina, by Samuel A'Court Ashe, published 1908, C.L. Van Noppen, North Carolina, pg. 302:

On August 29th [1780] Cornwallis wrote to Sir Henry Clinton that Ferguson was to move into Tryon, now Lincoln County, with what the latter thought was a reliable body of militia. Ferguson accordingly advanced to Gilbert-town, three miles north of the present village of Rutherfordton, where he issued a proclamation to the citizens to renew their allegiance and join the king's army. Learning that McDowell had retired, and that the Watauga leaders had crossed the mountains to their homes, Ferguson began to send out parties of foragers to ravage the county of Burke. This aroused Colonel Charles McDowell, and learning that he was again mustering his men, Ferguson sent out a detachment in search of him. But he again failed to surprise McDowell, who was lying in ambuscade for him at Bedford Hill, three miles southwest of Brindletown and near Cowan's Ford of Cane Creek. On the [12 September 1780, per Lt. Anthony Allaire’s diary] approach of Ferguson's men, McDowell's men fired upon them, killing many of the Tories and wounding Major Dunlap, the trusted lieutenant of Ferguson. Ferguson was forced to retire hastily to Gilbert-town.

Tryon Safety Committee Meeting, 14 Aug 1775

From manuscript records, State of North Carolina, Office of Secretary of State; Vol. x-11; Colonial Records:

Proceedings of the Safety Committee in Tryon County.
Met according to adjournment. [14 August, 1775.]
Present: John Walker, Chairman; Thos Beatey, David Jenkins, Jacob Forney, Thomas Espey, Valentine Mauney, James Coburn, Robert Alexander, Joseph Harden, Benjamin Harden, Frederick Hambright, James Logan, Andrew Hampton, John Morris, Charles McLean, John Robinson, William Graham, James McAfee, George Paris, John Beeman, George Black, Andrew Neel, James Baird and David Whitesides, who took the necessary Oaths for their Qualification.

Andrew Neel was duly elected Clerk of the Committee.

Resolved, That Col. Charles McLean serve as Deputy Chairman in the absence of Col. Walker.
Resolved, That each Company elect three members of Committee for this County who on a Debate, are each man to have his vote.
Resolved, That this Association be signed by the Inhabitants of Tryon county, [viz]
AN ASSOCIATION. The unprecedented, barbarous and bloody actions committed by the British Troops on our American Brethren near Boston on the 19th of April & 20th of May last, together with the Hostile operations & Traiterous Designs now Carrying on by the Tools of Ministerial Vengeance Despotism for the Subjugating all British America, suggest to us the painful necessity of having recourse to Arms for the preservation of those Rights & Liberties which the principles of our Constitution and the Laws of God, Nature, and Nations have made it our duty to defend.
We therefore, the Subscribers Freeholders & Inhabitants of Tryon County, do hereby faithfully unite ourselves under the most sacred ties of Religion, Honor & Love to Our Country, firmly to Resist force by force in defence of our Natural Freedom & constitutional Rights against all Invasions, & at the same time do solemnly engage to take up Arms and Risque our lives and fortunes in maintaining the Freedom of our Country, whenever the Wisdom & Council of the Continental Congress or our Provincial Convention shall Declare it necessary, & this Engagement we will continue in and hold sacred ‘till a Reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain and America on Constitutional principles which we most ardently desire. And we do firmly agree to hold all such persons Inimical to the liberties of America, who shall refuse to subscribe to this Association.

[Signed by]
John Walker, Charles McLean, Andrew Neel, Thomas Beatty, James Coburn, Frederick Hambright, Andrew Hampton, Benjamin Hardin, George Paris, William Graham, Robt. Alexander, David Jenkins, Thomas Espey, Perrygreen Mackness, James McAfee, William Thompson, Jacob Forney, Davis Whiteside, John Beeman, John Morris, Joseph Harden, John Robison, James McIntyre, Valentine Mauney, George Black, Jas. Logan, Jas. Baird, Christian Carpenter, Abel Beatty, Joab Turner, Jonathan Price, Jas. Miller, John Dellinger, Peter Sides, William Whiteside, Geo. Dellinger, Samuel Carpenter, Jacob Mauney, Jun., John Wells, Jacob Costner, Robert Hulclip, James Buchanan, Moses Moore, Joseph Kuykendall, Adam Simms, Richard Waffer, Samuel Smith, Joseph Neel, Samuel Loftin

Resolved, That we will Continue to profess all Loyalty and attachment to our Sovereign Lord King George the Third, His Crown & Dignity, so long as he secures to us those Rights and Liberties which the principles of Our Constitution require.
Resolved, and we do Impower every Captain or other Officer in their Respective Companies to raise sufficient force in order to detain and secure all powder and Lead that may be removing or about to be Removed out of the County; and that they do prevent any of such powder and Lead from being sold or disposed of for private uses; but to be under the direction of this Committee until the Delegates shall return from the provincial Convention; Provided nevertheless that this Resolution is not meant to hinder any persons Inhabitants of other County’s from Carrying powder and Lead through this County to their respective abodes unless there is just Cause to suspect that they Intend such Powder and Lead for Injurious purposes; then and in such case notice is to be given to the Committee of the County in which such person resides, that they make such order thereon as to them shall seem proper.
Resolved, that Mr Daniel MeKissick do make application to the Council of Safety of Charles Town for 500 weight Gun powder 600 weight Lead, and 600 Gun Flints to be distributed under the direction of this Committee when it shall be judged necessary.
Resolved, That we do Recommend to the Captains of the Several Companies in this Regiment to call together their men in order to collect what money they can conveniently to provide powder and Lead, And that they make due return of what money is received to the Committee at next meeting.
Resolved, That this Committee meet at the Court House of this County on the 14th Day of September next there to Deliberate on such matters as shall be Recommended by Our Provincial Convention.
[Signed by]
John Walker, Chairman.

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.

York County Gets A Toehold

The colony of South Carolina was founded in 1670, and was divided into three counties 12 years later. Craven County, which roughly encompassed the northern half of South Carolina, included the southern half of present-day York County, while the top portion of present-day York County was considered part of North Carolina.
Before the boundary between the two Carolinas was fixed in 1772, the northern portion of York County was originally part of Bladen County, North Carolina. In 1750 it was included in the newly created Anson County, North Carolina; the first land grants and deeds for the region were issued in Anson County.
In 1762 Mecklenburg County, North Carolina was formed from western Anson County, and included present-day northern York County. Five years later the area became part of Tryon County, which comprised all of North Carolina west of the Catawba River and south of Rowan County. The area would remain a part of Tryon County until 1772, when the boundary between North and South Carolina was finally established.
After its transfer to South Carolina in 1772, much of the area was known as the New Acquisition. In 1785, York County was one of the original counties in the newly created South Carolina, and its boundaries remained unchanged until 1897, when a small portion of the northwestern corner was ceded to the newly-formed Cherokee County.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Col. Thomas Neel (1739-1779)

Thomas Neel was the second of ten children. His father was originally from the Cape Fear coastal area of North Carolina, but had moved to Mecklenberg County as one of its earliest settlers. This family would come to sacrifice more than most for their countrymen and the Patriot cause. From Carolina historian Louise Pettus:

In 1764 he [Thomas Neel] was one of a committee of four to select a site for Bethel Church and became one of its first elders. He was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly to represent Tryon County. In the Assembly he was active in rallying backcountry representatives to gather petitions for building roads and ferrys. He was appointed as a member of the board of trustees of Queen's College in Charlotte. He served as a justice of the peace and as a judge of Tryon County from 1769 to 1772.
In 1772 Neel served on the Boundary Commission that drew the North Carolina-South Carolina boundary line west of the Catawba River. Meantime, he was acquiring land in South Carolina. As soon as the boundary was settled he applied for a South Carolina land grant for 779 acres that had originally been patented in North Carolina. This land was near the Catawba River south of present-day Highway 49 near Buster Boyd Bridge.
Neel's first military experience was in North Carolina Governor Tryon's expedition against the regulators of Alamance County in 1771. Holding the rank of Captain, Neel commanded the Tryon County troops. By 1775 he was a Colonel in command of the militia of both the New Acquisition and Tryon County [therefore serving both North and South Carolina].
When South Carolina declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776, Neel was elected to the First South Carolina Provincial Congress. He spent little time with the Provincial Congress. Instead, he led the militia in what is called either the Cherokee Campaign or the Snow Campaign. The Cherokee Indians were scalping white settlers who were settling on traditional Cherokee hunting grounds. One of those scalped was the wife of Thomas Neel, Jean Spratt. Jean Spratt Neel had long coal-black hair. It is believed that the Cherokees intended to claim her scalp as that of a Catawba Indian, their traditional enemy. Thomas Neel was already in the field at the time of his wife's scalping. Struggling through waist-deep snow, Neel and his men surprised the Cherokee and destroyed many of their towns and villages.
In 1777 and 1778 Neel headed a regiment in the Florida and Georgia Campaigns that operated out of Phillip's Fort in Georgia. His last expedition was the defense of Charleston. Neel was shot through the head and killed in the battle of Stono.
Thomas Neel and Jean Spratt had three sons and four daughters. Daughter Sarah married David Johnston, a Revolutionary soldier with Capt. Jacob Barnett's horse troop. And daughter Mary married Lt. Col. James Hawthorne. Hawthorne fought in several major battles and an unknown number of skirmishes, and was twice wounded during the Revolutionary War. He served under Col. Thomas Neel in the Snow Campaign in 1775, and was Lt. Col. to Col. Neel in that fateful battle at Stono.

All three of Thomas and Jean's sons fought in the Revolution, and like their father, gave their lives for it. Son Andrew rose to the rank of Colonel and was detached by Sumter at Clems Branch as commander of the troops of York and Chester. He afterwards fell in the 1780 battle of Rocky Mount. Andrew's twin Lt. Col. Thomas Neel was killed in 1781. At age 16, youngest son Lt. John Neel was serving in Col. Joseph Hayes' Fifth Regiment when they fell victim to the (literal) butchery of Maj. William Cunningham's Loyalist militia in an ambush at Hayes' Station in 1778. He lies buried next to his father in Bethel Presbyterian Cemetery in York County, South Carolina.

The Tryon Resolves

In Tryon County, North Carolina there were many loyal subjects of the king, but there was likewise a band of patriots who, as early as August, 1775, adopted and signed the following declaration:

The unprecedented, barbarous and bloody actions committed by British troops on our American brethren near Boston, on 19th April and 20th of May last, together with the hostile operations and treacherous designs now carrying on, by the tools of ministerial vengeance, for the subjugation of all British America, suggest to us the painful necessity of having recourse to arms in defense of our National freedom and constitutional rights, against all invasions; and at the same time do solemnly engage to take up arms and risk our lives and our fortunes in maintaining the freedom of our country whenever the wisdom and counsel of the Continental Congress or our Provincial Convention shall declare it necessary; and this engagement we will continue in for the preservation of those rights and liberties which the principals of our Constitution and the laws of God, nature and nations have made it our duty to defend. We therefore, the subscribers, freeholders and inhabitants of Tryon County, do hereby faithfully unite ourselves under the most solemn ties of religion, honor and love to our county, firmly to resist force by force, and hold sacred till a reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain and America on Constitutional principals, which we most ardently desire, and do firmly agree to hold all such persons as inimical to the liberties of America who shall refuse to sign this association.

[signed] John Walker, Charles McLean, Andrew Neel, Thomas Beatty, James Coburn, Frederick Hambright, Andrew Hampton, Benjamin Hardin, George Paris, William Graham, Robt. Alexander, David Jenkins, Thomas Espey, Perrygreen Mackness, James McAfee, William Thompson, Jacob Forney, Davis Whiteside, John Beeman, John Morris, Joseph Harden, John Robison, James McIntyre, Valentine Mauney, George Black, Jas. Logan, Jas. Baird, Christian Carpenter, Abel Beatty, Joab Turner, Jonathan Price, Jas. Miller, John Dellinger, Peter Sides, William Whiteside, Geo. Dellinger, Samuel Carpenter, Jacob Mauney, Jun., John Wells, Jacob Costner, Robert Hulclip, James Buchanan, Moses Moore, Joseph Kuykendall, Adam Simms, Richard Waffer, Samuel Smith, Joseph Neel, Samuel Loftin