I have to admit, I probably told a fib, a lie. You see, part of American history has been dramatized if you will. There was a certain author of “history” that came along later in the early 1800s that put his own spin on American History which subsequently went into many of the textbooks we had in our schooling over the years. You too have probably been impacted. Have you ever heard that George Washington cut down a cherry tree? Enough said.
So too in my rendering of the Black Mingo Creek Battle around midnight back on 29/30SEP1780 when I said:
As his militia crossed the Willtown Bridge only a mile or so from Col. John Coming Ball’s camp the noise from the bridge’s planks alerted the Loyalist militia.
As the author of The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution John Oller points out, Francis Marion, an attentive guerrilla commander, who never wanted to expose his men to the enemy, would know that at midnight the woods are quiet enough, that horse hooves on a wooden bridge would definitely be heard by the enemy within a mile. Apparently, this particular “historical author”, Parson Weems, liked to embellish history to make a sale according to this Journal of the American Revolution article:
Mason Locke Weems, better known as Parson Weems, considered himself an historian. But, he was far more interested in pleasing people than he was with writing history. His exaggerations and fabrications of fact led one commentator to remark that Weems had “a touch of the confidence man in him.”
Weems was born in 1759 and ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1784. Ten years later he became a traveling book salesman and author. He wrote sermons and religious tracts. His claim to fame, however, are his books on famous Americans from the Revolutionary period; Washington, Franklin, and Francis Marion.
Enough about Weems, and his spin on actual historical events, let’s get back to the story about what alerted John Ball’s Loyalist Militia on that night when Francis Marion’s militia approached.
As John Oller’s research shows:
At least four separate pension applications independently submitted under oath by veterans who fought with Marion at Black Mingo state that before crossing Willtown Bridge they spread blankets on it to prevent the Tories from hearing them ..
Well there you have it. Francis Marion’s leadership, combined being conservative with taking calculated risks, to make a difference one day or one battle at a time. It is this aspect that not only caused his men to trust him and go the extra mile for their leader, endeared many especially in the southern colonies after the war who saw him as the difference maker in their effort towards independence, but also caused many places to be named after Marion all over the country after the Revolutionary War for years to come.
So what did alert the Loyalist militia that night? Intel!
… in Marion’s letter to Gates a week after the battle. “They had intelligence of our coming,” Marion explained. That would indicate that it was not loud horse hooves a few moments before the battle that tipped off the Tories but rather some earlier advance warning. Marion was not the only person who had spies working for him. Plenty of Tories in the Black Mingo area would have been eager to spoil a patriot attack. Certainly that was true of Elias Ball. “He had about a hundred and fifty slaves, and he was a mean fella,” one of his descendants recalled. Perhaps Elias Ball or another local Tory got wind of the action and told his brother John…
Intelligence activities was a crucial aspect of this war, something we probably discount. But the fact that almost 40% of the civilian population considered themselves loyalists at some point of this war sure was a factor.
The impact of Marion’s militia delivering three victories in a row caused the Loyalists and their militia in the Santee area of South Carolina to lay low and refuse to take the field fearing Marion and his men would come calling. This psychological edge was dearly needed as this actually created a break in the violence on the innocent in this regions communities and also offered many of Marion’s men to return to their homes, especially the ones in the burnt-over districts that British leader Tarleton had laid waste to weeks earlier.
Immediately after Black Mingo, Marion wanted to go after Wigfall, who, along with Ball, had been sent into the Williamsburg area to keep the Whigs in check. Wigfall was now stationed with about fifty men at the Salem Black River Presbyterian Church upriver from Kingstree and was an especially enticing target for Marion. He had served under Marion earlier in the war, and Marion pointedly excluded him by name from the thanks he gave his officers at Dorchester. John Wigfall was one of those South Carolinians who blew with the prevailing winds, siding with whoever held the advantage. Marion wanted to pursue him but, as he told Gates, could not because “so many of my followers was so desirous to see their wifes and family, which have been burnt out.”
This lull in the action also allowed whatever harvesting that could be done to happen in earnest as the crops were getting ready and winter was coming.
Stay tuned for the next October adventure in American Revolutionary War South Carolina that did NOT include Francis Marion or his militia, the Battle of King’s Mountain on 07OCT1780 over 150 miles from where Marion and his men accomplished their victory on 29SEP1780.
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!
More on this tomorrow …
-SF1