04AUG1781 – The Hanging of Col. Issac Haynes (Age 35) Who Was Beloved by the People

In my last post regarding the American Revolution, specifically the actions in and around South Carolina that Brig. Gen. Francis Marion was heavily and sacrificially involved with, I eluded to the backstory around the British hanging of a beloved 35 year old, probably as an example towards intimidating the colony’s inhabitants.

Issac Haynes was a popular planter and patriot military officer who during the summer of 1780, after Charlestown’s fall to the British, was traveling from his plantation to Charlestown to obtain a doctor and medical supplies for his very ill wife and children. The British would not allow him to pass through their lines back home without swearing an oath of allegiance.

With the early 1781 successes of the militia in South Carolina, the British sought to enlist Issac in the Loyalist militia. At the same time, patriot militia groups were also hoping Issac would join them as Francis Marion had been told another 200 men would follow this beloved planter. Eventually, Marion himself issued a commission which made Issac a Lt. Col. in the South Carolina militia. After some reluctance on the part of Issac, he relented and joined the cause.

In early July 1781, Issac led the militia near Charlestown to capture former patriot leader Andrew Williamson who took British protection a year prior. British leadership at Charlestown countered by sending Thomas Fraser with 90 cavalry to retrieve Williamson and took Issac Haynes prisoner. The British served justice in a way that tyrants do by not allowing Issac any counsel and was unable to call any witnesses. He found himself sentenced to death.

This news caused such an uproar in Charlestown among the ladies their and even some high-society Loyalists that the British decided to stand firm and united in this decision. Balfour, Rawdon and even Charlestown police chief Charles Fraser (brother to Thomas) all concurred. Haynes had countered to the charge of switch allegiance was due to the lack of British protection in the countryside from the Whig groups which was the exchange for his taking this oath.

While there was logic to this argument, the British were not ready to have hundreds of others seeking justice due to the British inability to honor their end of this agreement. The British decided, in a Banastre Tarleton way, to make an example out of Issac Haynes.

So on 04AUG1781, after a farewell session with his family, he was paraded through the streets of Charlestown past crowds who were moved to tears to the gallows. He took control of this even in a firm and serene way, proceeded to pull the cap over his own eyes, shook hands with the three gentlemen who would oversee his children’s care and himself gave the signal to move the cart to let him hang.

The firestorm ensued and emotions ran high, not just in Charlestown, or in the colony of South Carolina, but even overseas as well as even the British Parliament considered a motion to condemn Rawdon in this decision. The Southern Region Continental leader Greene stressed restraint (was Marion an influence here?) as the cycle of violence would result in revenge hangings across the colony.

This event had its blow-back, causing a potent rallying cry for southern patriots to be created. While there were other men closer to Charleston who quit the field thinking they were next, those away from the last British stronghold were more fervent in their cause.

Gen. Nathanael Greene soon orders Marion to attack British lines of
communication around Charleston. From his base on the Santee, Marion departed with his 200 men and picked up another 150 with the destination being south of Charleston on the Ashepoo River called the Horseshoe. The forces opposite his was a Hessian led force of over 500 men (180 Hessians, 150 British Redcoats, 130 Tory Loyalists and 80 dragoons under Fraser). This was essentially a foraging party that were transporting rice back to Charleston.

On 27AUG1781, Marion attempted an ambush at Godfrey’s Savannah. Lt. Col. Ernst Leopold von Borck was in charge of this British contingent, Maj. Thomas Fraser was the real target of this effort, but in the end he has to abort his plan. There were multiple failures to follow his orders as it was pretty apparent with the enemy’s two field pieces (none for the patriot militia), this would not end well.

On 31AUG1781 at Parker’s Ferry Marion finally gets his battle with Lt. Col. Ernst Leopold von Borck. The British on 29AUG1781 had moved to Isaac Hayne’s Plantation where Issac was just buried and Brig. Gen. Marion had followed this force again and sets up his camp only five miles away. Marion conceals his men in a swamp beside the causeway and directs Col. William Harden’s men o move back 100 yards from the ambush line so they can be used as reserves. Maj. Samuel Cooper and sixty swordsmen are told to attack the rear of the enemy after the ambush is initiated. They then wait for an opportunity.

Lt. Col. Ernst Leopold von Borck leaves Hayne’s Plantation in mid-afternoon with his infantry and has placed his two pieces of artillery in front of the column while Maj. Thomas Fraser and his mounted SC Royalists are in the rear of the column. It is almost dark on the 31st when they stumble into a firefight between Marion’s men and handful of Loyalist that have just discovered them.

Lt., Col. von Borck orders Maj. Fraser to drive off the Patriots so he sends Lt. Stephen Jarvis charging forward while he places his three other divisions on the road, and also to the left and right of the road.

Brig. Gen. Marion’s mounted men charge Lt. Jarvis, who reverses course quickly. Maj. Fraser believes that these are Col. William Harden’s men and
orders his cavalry in full gallop to intercept them.

Marion now has the enemy right where he wants them. He signals his hidden men, and instantly Maj. Fraser’s horsemen are surrounded. At a distance of 40 yards, the Patriots open up with buckshot and the dragoons go down.

Maj. Fraser rallies his men and tries to charge, but the Patriots deliver a second volley, and then a third volley. There is no way for Maj. Fraser to attack in the swamp so he has to withdraw down the causeway down the full length of the ambush. Maj. Fraser is badly bruised when his horse is killed and the rest of his cavalry rides over him as he lies in the road.

The patriots militia continue to occupy the causeway for three more hours until Marion sees British infantry with a field piece coming their way. His riflemen fire upon the field piece wounding and killing many accompanying it. Brig. Gen. Marion could have easily slaughtered
more of the SC Royalists with his rifles, but he is low on ammunition and his men have also not eaten in 24 hours, so he has them all just slip away
into the swamp.

Brig. Gen. Francis Marion reports that 20 Loyalist dragoons and 23 horses are dead on the spot. Brig. Gen. Francis Marion loses one man killed.
Col. William Stafford loses three wounded. The British evacuate the area and move back to Charlestown and Brig. Gen. Marion sends a party after them and they find 40 dead horses on the road. He then returns “home” to the Santee with his prisoners.

Mission accomplished! August 1781 has concluded with a further tighening around Charleston to keep the British foraging parties more heavily armed. Issac Haynes’ hanging motivates the true patriots to stay the course and drive the British Empire out of the colony of South Carolina.

-SF1

Empire Tactics: 1780 Green Dragoons/Hessians to 2019 US Special Ops/Blackwater

The benefit of knowing history is knowing when you are about to be scammed. In the past week we have heard that President Trump suddenly, without the blessing of his neo-con staff personnel, decided to exit Syria in the near-term. What happened next was typical to this empire’s entertainment aspects, people that were against war at some point in their life all of a sudden WANT war in Syria. I mean it was normal to hear most of Congress (who have been lobbied by the Military Industrial Complex – $$$) get upset that we can’t keep our “covert” war there intact since we have invested 7 years there with various rebel groups including ISIS.

It is all indeed a show, and having watched Home Alone over the Christmas break seeing Donald Trump giving advice to Kevin, we can’t be surprised in 2019 to understand that Donald Trump is still acting. All empires need good actors when they approach end of life status, it keeps the masses entertained while what is happening behind the scenes gets more and more desperate.

During the Revolutionary War, the British Empire used 30,000 Hessian mercenaries (30% of the total British force in the American Colonies) towards their attempt to hang on to their empire. Also deployed was their Green Dragoon Legions and the tactics that had local innocent citizens and their property in the cross-hairs of these forces.

During the follow-up of the Iraq invasion in 2003, the US Empire also used mercenaries in their attempt to hang on to the territory in Iraq as part of the US Empire. By 2007 there had been a huge number of incidents where these mercenaries were guilt of massacres throughout Iraq. In fact, trials are still ongoing here in 2019!

A more in depth article is this one by Chuck Baldwin who has been following closely the Trump promises before his election compared to the Trump realities to date. One of the most startling statistics is in the quote that follows:

.. the first two years of Trump’s presidency was a flagrant disavowal of that campaign promise. Not only did Trump not disengage our forces from these illegal and immoral wars, but, as I have documented, he dramatically INCREASED America’s involvement in these wars. In fact, President Trump has dropped more bombs on more people in his first two years of office than President Obama did in his entire last term in office. Plus, he sent thousands of additional ground troops to Afghanistan and Syria and several other countries.

So that leads us to Trump’s latest claim, that the US is “leaving” Syria and also drawing down troops in Afghanistan. Well, it all depends on who is doing the counting and what is being counted. Knowing full well that none of these numbers include deep state CIA operatives throughout the region, if we are talking “official military” personnel in Syria, the US claims that only 2000 are there currently. I highly doubt that. But what is really going on? Chuck says:

This month, in the January/February print issue of the gun and hunting magazine “Recoil,” the former contractor security firm Blackwater USA published a full-page ad, in all black with a simple message: “We are coming.”

Is the war in Afghanistan — and possibly elsewhere ― about to be privatized?

If Blackwater returns, it would be the return of a private security contractor that was banned from Iraq, but re-branded and never really went away.

21st century Hessians! This Empire is outsourcing the dirty work left behind by the 17 year Afghanistan conflict and the 7 year illegal intrusion into the sovereign nation of Syria that Obama pulled the trigger on.

The legacy is trillions spent, that we have a debt for, just to _______? You fill in the blank, is this to keep military contractors employed? Is this to keep the petro-dollar in placed globally? Is this to help Israel out .. perpetually?

And what of the US Empire’s legacy?

Here’s the horrifying part: These “private contractors,” i.e., mercenaries, operate in a manner that is totally unaccountable to the rule of law. Totally! They operate outside the Constitution, outside the Rules of Engagement, outside the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), outside the Law of Nations, outside law period—and also outside public scrutiny. There is virtually no accountability for whatever murders, rapes, plunderings or criminalities of any sort that these mercenaries commit.

More terrorists are home-grown the more the empire’s atrocities are known. This is “job-security” as the US Empire’s last gasp around the globe. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

In summary, Chuck Baldwin concludes:

Combining Special Forces units that are already plagued with rampant abuses of power with mercenaries who are virtually unaccountable to any human authority is a recipe for the worst kind of barbarity and atrocity. This is what the Roman Empire did during its last days of power and what Great Britain did in its failed war against the American colonies. And this is exactly what Donald Trump is preparing to do. In fact, Trump is already setting the table for an unaccountable military force by shutting down military watchdog groups, thus turning off the light of public knowledge and ensuring military unaccountability.

The “swamp” is still intact. The cynic in me points to the root of this nation’s poisonous government. Many, including Chuck claim that if we would just get back to the Constitution … yeah, it was never meant to be “got back to”. As Lysander Spooner said in the 19th century:

“But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case it is unfit to exist.”
Lysander Spooner, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority

My thinking, thanks to Ben Stone’s efforts and his manual , has evolved to this:

When I first read this a year ago I just laughed. About six months ago I read this and still thought that maybe Thomas Jefferson was blindsided by this whole Constitution coup d’tat that happened while he was Ambassador to France. I understood that George Washington was a Federalist at heart and wanted a mini-British nation on this continent, and that Benjamin Franklin was getting old and nodded his consent. But the likes of George Mason and Patrick Henry saw through all this and rightfully noted the slippery slope that this document created a path for going forward.

I now think that Thomas Jefferson really thought that there would be another revolution inside a generation as what was created was just an “experiment”, a beta-test version 1.0 of a federated republic that would have checks and balances like nullification and secession options that could keep it grounded until another version could be tried.

I do think that the pioneer spirit of that founding generation did not even last a decade before this country fell back into its old ways. Before you know it you have George Washington taking thousands of troops into Pennsylvania to enforce a 25% Whiskey Tax to fund his government. You can not possibly make this stuff up!

Happy 2019 y’all .. I will try to stay more positive in my future posts this year, if the Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise.

-SF1

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun – Ecclesiastes 1:9