When you can field 700 instead of 20, 40 or 80, you are able to intimidate the enemy without bloodshed to obtain well needed supplies from their supply line. Lord Cornwallis is attempting to supply himself from the South Carolina coast but due to Marion’s streak of wins and his reputation, Lt. Col. Nisbet Balfour modifies the normal port of Charlestown to Camden supply route that includes a stretch from the Nelson’s Ferry and the Santee Road over to a “bypass” from Moncks Corner to Friday’s Ferry on the Congaree River. There is one supply boat does not receive this order in time and the Patriots board the vessel at Nelson’s Ferry on 14DEC1780 and Col. Marion’s men remove all supplies of military value, then they apply the torch.
The British 64th Regiment happened to be near Nelson’s Ferry at the time of this raid, but their numbers are not even adequate to pursue Col. Marion’s large number, 700 of them, mounted men.
The British and Loyalists continue their “no quarter ways” as the story comes out in December 1780 that Patriot leader Lt. Roger Gordon wast out with a small force to patrol on Lynches Creek, stopping at a house for provisions and refreshments., is attacked by Capt. Butler with a much larger force of Loyalists and they set the house on fire. Gordon then capitulates on the promise of quarter, but no sooner has his Patriots grounded their muskets than they are all put to death.
In addition to this, the British have a “Christmas present” for Marion, on 21DEC1780, Maj. Gen. Alexander Leslie arrives in Charlestown with 2000 British regulars. The gloves are coming off in South Carolina as the British desperately desire to move into North Carolina in early spring and take aim at Continental Gen. George Washington in the north.
Stay tuned for details as to how Marion deals with the swarming British forces that are all after neutralizing him and getting on with routing these farmers with pitchforks!
Marion’s Militia catches the British taking new recruits towards North Carolina
What prompted Marion and his men to leave Snows Island was two fold. First, word came that a patriot force found two brothers of the Loyalist militia leader Major John Harrison at home ill with smallpox and the patriots murder them in their beds. This action upsets Marion greatly as he desires a revolution that does not stoop to the tactics used by the British Empire. Second, Marion gets Intel that Lt. Col. Samuel Tynes has escaped and so Lt. Col. Peter Horry is sent towards the High Hills of the Santee in a chase. In the mean time Marion and his men ride to Indiantown which he knows will spark Intel back to the British that the “Fox” is out and about.
The British escapee Tynes makes his way to British HQ at Camden fairly shaken along with a small group of his men and decides he has had enough of the war and resigns. This is the psychological effect that Marion’s guerilla force had on the larger British/Loyalist forces that worked in the rebel’s favor.
This month of December 1780 marked a five year anniversary of one of the first actions in South Carolina in the drive to separate from the British Empire. In December 1775, Col. Richardson and his men had been busy in upcountry regions removing Loyalist leadership so that state forces could focus on the areas of the colony that were more aligned to Tory/British leadership, the area below the fall line and the tidewater regions of South Carolina. Toward the end of this late 1775 campaign, the troops faced an intense winter storm that lasted 30 hours or more and dumped over 20 inches of snow in areas of northern South Carolina and neighboring North Carolina. Does this sound familiar? Is this part of a re-enactment?
09DEC2018 Winter Storm Snow Estimates for South Carolina, North Caroline and Virginia
For Marion and his men, it had been quite a seesaw of emotions over the course of these five years. By summer 1776 it appeared after the British were repulsed at Charlestown that they would leave the southern colonies alone. This lasted until early 1780 when the British sought to roll-up through the southern colonies gaining loyalist men as they went to join British General Clinton in the north and squash this rebellion. Based on the success of their militia in the fall of 1780 I can only imagine that these men has a spark of excitement in their minds as they seemed to actually be able to slow the British advance into North Carolina. The next month would be critical to build on past success and continue to hamper British ops.
On 11DEC1780, more Intel arrives for Marion that alerts him to the British Commandant of Charlestown’s effort to send 200 new recruits to Cornwallis who is inside South Carolina at his winter headquarters at Winnsboro west of Camden. As Marion leaves Indiantown and approaches Nelson’s Ferry his band of freedom fighters swells to 700. A combination of his success and the fact that the harvest is about done allows Marion the opportunity to change things up a bit as how he has the numerical edge.
About 20 miles above the ferry at the Santee River, at the Halfway Swamp, (which is just a mile from Richardson’s plantation where Marion had almost walked into a trap just a month before) he overtakes the Maj. Robert McLeroth, his 64th Regiment of Foot who are escorting the recruits of the 7 th Regiment to Winnsboro. The very reason for the escort was that Cornwallis did not trust these 200 fresh recruits alone out there with the fox on the loose! Marion’s mounted troops made quick work of the British pickets as McLeroth had no cavalry.
[Author’s note: I had the privilege of visiting this site with Captain1776 and Malibu last month. While the road near the swamp had been closed for a while, and we could not get exactly to the site of this battle, it seems that the current swamp has not changed much from 238 years ago as it still is a cypress filled quagmire.]
Marker for Halfway Swamp near the Santee / Lake Marion
At this point, Marion was in control of the battlefield. McLeroth sent a message under a flag of truce protesting the shooting of the pickets. Marion’s reply was that the British practice of burning houses was more egregious adding that if the British persisted in the latter that he would continue the former. McLeroth also challenged Marion to come out in the open field and fight like a man.
Marion offered a counter proposal in that each side would pick their 20 best marksmen do this combo duel to decide this battle. This tradition dates back to biblical times! It was agreed that this would happen to the south of a prominent oak tree as the men lined up 100 yards from each other. Marion appointed Maj. John Vanderhorst to lead the patriot team but it seems that Vanderhorst asked Capt. Witherspoon at what range should they choose for firing the opening round of buckshot and Witherspoon said 50 yards. Vanderhorst admitted that he was not good judging distances and asked that Witherspoon tap him on the shoulder when they should commence firing.
As the men got closer, it was the British who fled the field back to the main body of their force. Marion’s men let out a cheer. Once again, psychological edge is a major factor.
It seems by this time it was about nightfall and each force went to their evening campfires. McLeroth actually was able to out fox the fox as he setup camp and kept the campfires lit while he and his men slipped away to Singleton’s Mill 15 miles north. However, the price paid by McLeroth was having to leave supply wagons and heavy baggage that the patriots used for re-supplying themselves.
Marion, once aware of the British slipping away sent Maj. John James in pursuit but he encounters British reinforcements of 50 mounted cavalry and 80 more infantry and even something more threatening than that, the Singleton family had smallpox. Jame’s men got off one round before leaving the property and returned to Marion who decided not to engage the enemy at this time. At least he delayed this force of recruits on their way to Winnsboro. These recuits would remember this encounter (psyche) and it would play a role in the battle of Cowpens about a month later.
December 1780 still has some more action packed in it so stay tuned!
I do believe it is easy for those insulated from war to have no clue as to the short and long term impact of war on people and society. Many of the politicians, generals and admirals remain out of harms way while giving orders to troops on the ground, in the air and on the oceans treating all of this like a video game. At the end of the day they return to their suburban Northern Virginia homes have been able to compartmentalize their day’s decisions that negatively impacted hundreds if not thousands of men and women not counting tens of thousands innocent men, women and children and the lands and societies they have to deal with on a daily basis. American foreign policy is the root negative issue in most parts of this globe while free market forces are solving poverty and other societal issues worldwide in a positive light.
Returning to the 1780 South Carolina colony that is seeking independence in federation with 12 other American colonies from British rule, if one only reads and understands the dates, stats and facts of the various expeditions the British regulars, American Continentals, and militias on both sides accomplished, one misses understanding what it was like for the average family that endured this 7 or 8 year war that was not regulated to far away fields of battle but took place ‘amongst’ us [movie “The Patriot” clip]:
To learn a “Tier 1” only history about a regional conflict only exposes the tip of the iceberg. Tier 1, if done right should tease readers and listeners to ask questions about Tier 2, a deeper insight into the daily life of the people involved and how it changed the communities involved.
Americans learn Tier 1 in this history classes in schools, Tier 2 requires one to invest the time to seek out deeper understanding, the ability to enter that period of time IN CONTEXT to fully adsorb what was won and what was lost. In the movie “The Patriot”, only the positives were communicated:
The feel good ending to this movie can only allow reality to counterbalance this by investigating, CSI if you will, how free American colonists were before and after the war. While Benjamin Martin (fictitious character that was the combination of three South Carolina militia leaders Pickens, Sumter and Marion) seems to be doing much better, Francis Marion would tell you differently, and that would be even BEFORE the end of this war!
One of the richest insights can be gained by a read of John Oller’s 2016 book “The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution“. I have included a few clips below that related directly to the posts I have had about October 1780 recently (here, here and here):
With the quieting of the Tory threat east of Camden, Marion sat at Ami’s Mill pondering his next move. On October 4 he confessed to Gates that he had suffered many fatigues over the previous few weeks but had managed to surmount them. He had never had more than sixty or seventy men with him of all ranks, and sometimes as few as a dozen. In some cases he had been forced to fight against men who had left him to join the enemy; he regretted that he had no authority to punish them. If he had a hundred men from Gates’s army, he thought, he could “certainly pay a visit to Georgetown” and attack the British garrison there. But Gates had answered none of his letters—
So early in October, Marion felt very alone after the three wins his militia had in late September that kept the British distracted from rolling up the colonies towards Virginia and eventually toward Washington’s Continentals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey while British General Clinton totally controlled the port of New York with his troops. It had been a stalemate in the north for months now.
Marion also felt the shift in what his leadership skills had to adjust to in commanding Continental regulars who obey verses volunteer militia that could quit at anytime ESPECIALLY if a command was given that the men did not agree with. I contend that this keeps leadership personnel honest and weeds out “management” personnel who are only worried about the status quo and their own position in the politics of things.
Brilliantly, Marion makes yet another bold move ..
Marion decided to make a little probing incursion against Georgetown anyway. He heard that Micajah Ganey, the Tory whose force he had bested at the Blue Savannah, was in Georgetown to reinforce the British garrison there. On October 9 Marion entered the city unmolested with forty men on horse and, once inside, issued a rather audacious demand to the garrison commander to surrender.
So if you have been reading my Tier 1 posts, you thought that Francis Marion and the men that remained with him took three week off from the conflict when in fact, they did venture into “British occupied territory” to harass the Redcoats!
While the British did not surrender …
Before leaving, however, and to show the enemy he was a force to be reckoned with—or just to show off—he took his men on a little parade through the town. They made off with a few horses and some of the enemy’s equipment and captured several notable Tory military men whom Marion immediately paroled to their homes. If nothing else, Marion served notice that if the British wanted to hold the second-largest population center in South Carolina, they would need to keep men and resources tied down there. “This damned Georgetown business,” as the British called it, would prove an unwelcome distraction for months to come.
Marion again attempts communication in his chain of command:
Marion reported to Gates on his little foray, saying he wished to hear from him as soon as possible, for he had received no word from him in a month. As Marion explained, this lack of information forced him to act with extreme caution lest he fall into the enemy’s hands. He closed by asking Gates to excuse his “scrawl,” as he had no table to write on in “this wild woods.” (Sometimes he lacked even paper to write on, which placed a premium on brevity.)
So here you get a little insight into JUST Marion’s world (Tier 2), not even his neighbors miles away near the St. Mark’s district closer to Kingstree, the shopkeepers in Georgetown or anywhere else in South Carolina.
If you wonder why Marion might have targeted Georgetown, you do know that as a teenager he attempted being a sailor and sailed out of Georgetown decades before right? Oh that Tier 2 knowledge sure does help with the context of things. You will find that Marion has a heart for the strategic importance of this port and what it would mean to the patriot cause. However, he was well aware of his limits and would not place his few men in harms way for his dream.
I do hope you are now even more curious about what made this militia leader tick .. if so, welcome aboard!
Francis Marion and a subset of his militia had a few weeks rest and most of the others had returned to their homes at harvest season when I posted the last time. Marion decided once again to re-enter the fray against the supporters of the British Empire, the local Tories and their Loyalist militias and on occasion, British regulars.
On 24OCT1780 Marion moves southwest out of the swamps closer to the North Carolina border towards the Kingstree district hoping to gain some men as well as some Intel. Marion is initially disappointed in the militia support that emerges from the district and momentarily considers leaving to join Continental Gen. Gates at Hillsborough, NC. Militia officer Lt. Col. Hugh Horry talks him out of this move and within hours the militia reforms and reinvigorates Marion. Over 150 men, with some accounts estimating even up to 400, came together and some brought with them Intel that Lt. Col. Sam Tynes with appox. 80 or so Loyalist militia had emerged from the High Hills of the Santee and are camped near what is called Tearcoat Swamp near the Black River.
The next morning, Marion and his men ride towards this camp and send Lt. Col. Tynes and his men back to the hills. Within a few days Lt. Col. Tynes and a few of his officers are actually captured by some of Marion’s militia commanded by Capt. William Snipes.
Lt. Col. Tynes loses include appox. 6 killed, 14 wounded and two dozen prisioners and more importantly, Marion gains eighty horses and muskets from this engagement.
Marion’s own losses are appox. the same as the Loyalist militia but there is a growing tide of defections from the Tories as many of Lt. Col. Tynes’ men actually come in and enlist with Col. Marion. The balance of the prisoners are sent to North Carolina Brig. Gen. Henry William Harrington at Cheraw, SC.
It is at this time that Marion proceeds toward establishing a new camp at Snow’s Island which would provide them a place of refuge in the months to come.
It should be noted that following Lt. Col. Tynes’ Loyalist militia defeat, Lt. Gen. Cornwallis has fifty men sent from Charlestown to Moncks Corner, while also maintaining patrols covering his line of communication at crossings up and down along the Santee River. The British Empire leadership is not amused at the successful guerrilla campaigns waged by Marion and his volunteer militia.
Stay tuned for a ramp up in the British reaction to Tearcoat Swamp!
This battle in addition to Marion’s three victories were a major turning point in this war to be free of the British Empire. The resurgence in people’s heart for liberty represented a much needed boost in the morale of the people and soldiers alike, at least for those aligned with the principles of self-government and consent of the governed!
Well, I will guide you to one of the best historians of the region, J. D. Lewis who has researched the Carolina events of the Revolutionary War meticulously. From his page on this battle he states:
Major Patrick Ferguson was patrolling with a force of about 125 Provincials and over 1,000 Loyalist supporters attempting to pacify the countryside. With violence and atrocities rising on both sides, 1,100 to 1,600 Patriot Militiamen, most from North Carolina but with a good number of Virginians and South Carolinians, gathered to stop Major Ferguson and his troops. When Major Ferguson became aware of the large contingent of Patriots gathering, he decided it would be prudent to move back toward Lord Cornwallis’s larger army, now in Charlotte, North Carolina, a little over 40 miles to the east.
The Patriot Militia followed rapidly and, when Major Ferguson realized that they were overtaking him, he organized his defenses atop Kings Mountain, a wooded hill with a fairly clear top. On October 7, 1780, the Patriot Militia arrived at the base of the mountain and surrounded it. Soon they began scaling it on all sides. The Patriots had the advantage that the slopes of the mountain were very wooded, while the summit was not, exposing the Loyalists and Provincial troops to attack by the more-concealed Patriots. The defenders’ losses quickly mounted and, when Major Ferguson was killed, the fight went out of the remaining soldiers.
Of the Loyalist and Provincial troops, 157 were killed, 163 were severely wounded and 698 were captured. The Patriot Militia lost 28 killed and 62 wounded.
This battle was a direct result of Lord Cornwallis’ desire to squelch the patriot fever in the back-country of South Carolina. Cornwallis had thought that this effort would allow him to roll up into North Carolina and Virginia and suppress the quest for independence from the British Empire.
With three militia victories under Francis Marion and this militia victory at Kings Mountain, the southern colonies again had hopes that independence was still possible.
Francis Marion took this period of time to rest and regroup:
30SEP – 11OCT1780 Marion camps at Drowning Creek and has comms with Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates who informs him that South Carolina Gov. John Rutledge is in Hillsborough, NC.
12OCT – 23OCT1780 – Marion moves back to his camp at Port’s Ferry and rests.
On 24OCT1780 Marion would receive more Intel about some Loyalists in the area and set some plans in motions.
