Chapter XXV: ```"Ours are no hirelings train'd to the fight, (1)

```With cymbal and clarion, all glittering and bright;

```No prancing of chargers, no martial display;

```No war-trump is heard from our silent array.

```O'er the proud heads of freemen our star-banner waves;

```Men, firm as their mountains, and still as their graves,

```To-morrow shall pour out them life-blood like rain:

```We come back in triumph, or come not again!"--T. Gray=.

T noon I crossed the Broad River at the Cherokee Ford, and turning to the southeast, pressed on toward Yorkville and the interesting fields of conflict beyond, near the waters of the Catawba and its surname, the Wateree, where the chivalrous partisans of the South, scorning the Delilah lap of ease, retained their strength and battled manfully with the Philistines of the crown.

The river at the ford is about eight hundred yards wide, and upon the firm pathway, which has been constructed at considerable expense, in this vicinity, that it is quite unnavigable, except in a few places.

Soon after leaving the ford, I passed through a gorge of a spur of King's Mountain, which here comes down in a precipitous ridge to the Broad River. The scenery within this gorge was the most romantic I had observed in the Southern country.

From a ravine, just wide enough for the passage of a small stream and the high-way, the hills rise almost perpendicularly to a considerable altitude. They were covered with the various evergreens which give beauty to Southern forests in winter; and from the fissures of the rocks, where the water-fountains were bursting forth, hundreds of icicles were glittering in prismatic beauty wherever the sun shed its rays upon them. It was truly a gorgeous scene. Along this sinuous mountain stream, rock-bound on either side, the road continued to an iron establishment, where it ascends the steep margins of the hills, presenting a surface of deep adhesive red earth. Descending the eastern side of the eminence, I crossed King's Creek, a dozen miles below the place where I passed it two days before when on my way to the Cowpens. Soon again I was among the rough hills, and so bad was the road, that at sunset I had traveled only ten miles from the Cherokee Ford.

The average depth of water did not exceed one foot. Unless the river is much swollen, the ford is perfectly safe. A strong dam, owned by the proprietors of the iron-works, crosses the river an eighth of a mile above; and so shallow and rapid is the current, and so rocky the bed of the river, for many miles

* This view is from the east bank of the river. Toward the extreme right is seen the dam, made to supply water-power for the iron-works delineated toward the left of the picture. The fording-place, which crosses a small island in the middle of the stream, is indicated by the slight fall toward the left.

[[[A Night on the Mountains.--Contentment.--Mule Driving.--Yorkville.--Catawba Indians.]]]

{655}I discovered that the temporary repairs of my wagon had not been sufficient to withstand the rough usage of the way, and that more thorough work was necessary before I could pursue my journey with safety. Yorkville, the nearest place In advance where a smith could be found, was fourteen miles distant, so I was compelled to halt for the night at a small log-house, of forbidding aspect, among the mountains. The food and shelter was of the plainest kind imaginable. There was no "light in the dwelling," except the blaze of pine wood upon the hearth, and I wrote a letter by the glare of a resinous knot, brought from the "wood pile" for the purpose. Lying in bed, I could count the stars at the zenith; while the open floor below afforded such ample ventilation, that my buffalo robe, wrapped around me, was not uncomfortable on that keen frosty night. But generous, open-handed hospitality was in that humble cabin, which made amends for trifling discomforts, and I felt satisfied.=

````"Out upon the calf, I say,

````Who turns his grumbling head away,

````And quarrels with his feed of hay,

`````Because it is not clover.

````Give to me the happy mind,

````That will ever seek and find

````Something fair and something kind,

`````All the wide world over."=

Unwilling to risk a journey to Yorkville in my broken buggy, I hired a team of mules and a lumber-wagon from my host, to convey myself and baggage thither; and placing Charley and the vehicle in charge of his son, a lad of fourteen years, we started for the distant village at daybreak the next morning. All the way over that rough road I had practical evidence that mules are, like facts, "stubborn things." I was furnished with a hickory goad as long as an angler's rod, and with this I labored faithfully, full half of the way, to whip the animals into a trot where a level space occurred. But I made no visible impression; walk they would, until they reached the brow of a hill, when they would descend with the vehemence of the swine of old, who, filled with devils, ran down into the sea. Down three long hills, rocky and gullied, they ran, while my energies were fully occupied in pulling at the reins with one hand, and securing my seat upon a loose board, covered with a sheepskin, with the other. I reached Yorkville in safety at a little past meridian, resolved never again to play postillion with mules or donkeys, whether biped or quadruped.

Yorkville, the capital of York District, in South Carolina, almost two hundred miles from Charleston, is a very pleasant village of about eight hundred inhabitants, situated in the midst of a high plain, on the dividing-ridge between the waters of the Broad and Catawba Rivers. Sheltered from the northwest winds by the mountains, the climate is mild in winter; elevated far above the low country of the Carolinas, it is salubrious in summer. The streets of the village are regularly laid out, and adorned with beautiful Pride of India trees, filled, when I was there, with clusters of fruit. I saw some elegant mansions; and in the gardens, fine palmettoes, the first I had seen, were growing. I passed the Sabbath pleasantly in Yorkville, and left it early on Monday morning, with the impression that not a lovelier village flourishes in the "upper eountry" of the South. Leaving the great highway to Columbia on the right, I traversed the more private roads in the direction of the Catawba, to visit the scenes of valor and suffering in the vicinity of that stream. The weather was fine, and the roads generally good. Soon after leaving Yorkville, I passed through a part of the Catawba reservation, a narrow tract of land on the Catawba River, near the southeast corner of Yorkville District. The Catawba tribe, once so powerful, have dwindled down to the merest remnant. For their general adherence to the patriots during the Revolution, they have always received the fostering care of the state. Their number now does not exceed one hundred, and in a few years that once great rival tribe of the Five Nations will be extinct. * So the aborigines pass away, and the few survivors in our land may chant in sorrow,

* The Catawbas spoke a language different from any of the surrounding tribes. They inhabited the country south of the Tuscaroras, and adjoining the Cherokees. In 1672, the Shawnees made settlements in their country, but were speedily driven away. In 1712, they were the allies of the white people against the Corees and Tuscaroras; but in 1715, they joined the other tribes in a confederacy against the Southern colonies. In 1760, they were auxiliaries of the Carolinians against the Cherokees, and ever afterward were the friends of the white people. Their chief village was on the Catawba, twenty-four miles from Yorkville. The following eloquent petition of Peter Harris, a Catawba warrior during the Revolution, is preserved among the colonial records at Columbia, in South Carolina. The petition is dated 1822: "I am one of the lingering survivors of an almost extinguished race. Our graves will soon be our only habitations. I am one of the few stalks that still remain in the field where the tempest of the Revolution has passed. I fought against the British for your sake. The British have disappeared, and you are free; yet from me have the British took nothing; nor have I gained any thing by their defeat. I pursued the deer for subsistence; the deer are disappearing, and I must starve. God ordained me for the forest, and my ambition is the shade. But the strength of my arm decays, and my feet fail me in the chase. The hand which fought for your liberties is now open for your relief. In my youth I bled in battle, that you might be independent; let not my heart in my old age bleed for the want of your commiseration."

This petition was not unheeded; the Legislature of South Carolina granted the old warrior an annuity of Sixty dollars.

````"Our hungry eyes may fondly wish

````To revel amid flesh and fish,

````And gloat upon the silver dish

`````That holds a golden plover

````Yet if our table be but spread

````With bacon and with hot corn-bread,

````Be thankful if we're always fed

`````As well, the wide world over."=

[[[Fishing Creek and its Associations.--Generous Hospitality.--Petition of a Catawba Indian.]]]

{656}

````"We, the rightful lords of yore,

````Are the rightful lords no more;

````Like the silver mist, we fail,

````Like the red leaves in the gale--

````Fail, like shadows, when the dawning

````Waves the bright flag of the morning.''

`````J. M'Lellan, Junior.=

```"I will go to my tent and lie down in despair;

```I will paint me with black, and will sever my hair;

```I will sit on the shore when the hurricane blows,

```And reveal to the God of the tempest my woes;

```I will weep for a season, on bitterness fed.

```For my kindred are gone to the hills of the dead;

```But they died not of hunger, or lingering decay--

```The hand of the white man hath swept them away!''

`````Henry Rowe Schoolcraft.=

I crossed the Fishing Creek at sunset; and at the house of a young planter, a mile beyond, passed the night. There I experienced hospitality in its fullest degree. The young husbandman had just begun business life for himself, and, with his wife and "wee bairn," occupied a modest house, with only one room. I was not aware of the extent of their accommodations when I asked for a night's entertainment, and the request was promptly complied with. It made no difference to them, for they had two beds in the room, and needed but one for themselves; the other was at my service. The young man was very intelligent and inquiring, and midnight found us in pleasant conversation. He would accept no compensation in the morning; and I left his humble dwelling full of reverence for that generous and unsuspecting hospitality of Carolina, where the people will give a stranger lodgings _even in their own bedrooms_, rather than turn him from their doors.=

```"Plain and artless her sons; but whose doors open faster

```At the knock of the stranger or the tale of disaster?

```How like to the rudeness of their dear native mountains,

```With rich ore in their bosoms, and life in their fountains.''

`````Gaston.=

My journey of a day from Fishing Creek to Rocky Mount, on the Catawba, was delightful.

The winter air[[Jan. 15, 1849]] was like the breath of late April in New England; and the roads, passing through a picturesque country, were generally good. Almost every plantation, too, is clustered with Revolutionary associations; for this region, like Westchester county, in New York, was the scene of continual partisan movements, skirmishes, and cruelties, during the last three years of the war. Near the month of the Fishing Creek (which empties into the Catawba two miles above the Great Falls), Sumter suffered defeat, after partial success at Rocky Mount below; and down through Chester, Fairfield, and Richland, too, Whigs and Tories battled fearfully for territorial possession, plunder, and personal re-

[[[Great Falls of the Catawba.--Mount Dearborn.--Cotton Factory.--Rocky Mount and its Associations.]]]

{657}venge. Some of these scenes will be noticed presently. Turning to the left at Beckhamville, * I traversed a rough and sinuous road down to the banks of the Catawba, just below the Great Falls.

Here yet remain the foundations of a projected United States military establishment, to be called Mount Dearborn, which was abandoned; and upon the brink of the foaming waters stands a cotton-mill, the property of Daniel M'Cullock, operated by white hands, and devoted chiefly to the production of cotton-yarns. At this place, in the midst of a fine cotton-growing country, almost inexhaustible water-power invites capital and enterprise to seek good investment, and confer substantial benefit upon the state. The place is wild and romantic. Almost the whole volume of the river is here compressed by a rugged island into a narrow channel, between steep, rocky shores, fissured and fragmented, as if by some powerful convulsion.

There are no perpendicular falls; but down a rocky bed the river tumbles in mingled rapids and cascades, roaring and foaming, and then subsides into comparative calmness in a basin below.

It was late in the afternoon when I finished my sketch of the Falls, and leaving Mount Dearborn, crossed Rock Creek and reined up in front of the elegant mansion of Mrs. Barkley, at Rocky Mount. Her dwelling, where refined hospitality bore rule, is beautifully situated upon an eminence overlooking the Catawba and the surrounding country, and within a few rods of the remains of the old village and the battle-ground. Surrounded by gardens and ornamental trees, it must be a delightful summer residence. Yet there was grief in that dwelling and the habiliments of mourning indicated the ravages of death. The husband and father had been an honored member of the Legislature of South Carolina, and

* Here was the scene of exciting events during the early part of the summer of 1780. Rocky Mount was made a royal post. Captain Houseman, the commander, sent forth hand-bills, calling the inhabitants together in an "old field," where Beckhamville post-office now stands, to receive protection and acknowledge allegiance to the crown. One aged patriot, like another Tell, refused to bow to the cap of this tiny Gesler. That patriot was Joseph Gaston, who lived upon the Fishing Creek, near the Catawba. In vain Houseman, who went to his residence with an armed escort, pleaded with and menaced the patriot. His reply was, "Never!" and as soon as the British captain had turned his back, he sent his sons out to ask the brave among his neighbors to meet at his house that night. Under Captain John M'Clure, thirty-three determined men were at Judge Gaston's at midnight. They were clad in hunting-shirts and moccasins, wool hats and deer-skin caps, each armed with a butcher-knife and a rifle. Early in the morning, they prepared for the business of the day. Silently they crept along the old Indian trail by the margin of the creek, and suddenly, with a fearful shout, surrounded and discomfited the assembled Tories upon the "old field," at Beckhamville. The British soldiers in attendance fled precipitately to their quarters at Rocky Mount. Filled with rage, Houseman sent a party to bring the hoary-headed patriot, then eighty years of age, to his quarters; but they found his dwelling deserted. His wife,= concealed in some bushes near, saw them plunder the house of every thing, and carry off the stock from the plantation. Nothing was left but the family Bible--a precious relic, yet preserved in the family. This movement of Justice Gaston and his neighbors was the first effort to cast back the wave of British rule which was sweeping over the state, and threatening to submerge all opposition east of the mountains. Judge Gaston had nine sons in the army. When they heard of the massacre of the patriots on the Waxhaw, by Tarleton, these young men joined hands, pledged themselves thenceforth never to submit to oppression, and from that time they all bore arms in defense of liberty.--See Mrs. Ellett's Domestic History of the Revolution, pages 169--174, inclusive.

** This view is from the west side of the Catawba, looking northeast, toward Lancaster District.

[[[A Night at Rocky Mount.--The Battle-ground.--Sumter again in Arms.--His Compatriots.]]]

{658}in the midst of his useful public life he was thrown from his gig and killed. Yet the light of hospitality was not extinguished there, and I shall long remember, with pleasure, the night I passed at Rocky Mount.

Accompanied by Mrs. Barkley's three daughters, and a young planter from "over the river,"

I visited the battleground before sunset, examined the particular localities indicated by the finger of tradition, and sketched the accompanying view of the principal place of conflict. Here, in the porch, sitting with this interesting household in the golden gleams of the declining sun, let us open the clasped volume of history, and read a brief but brilliant page.

Almost simultaneously, three distinguished partisans of the South appeared conspicuous, after the fall of Charleston;[[May 12, 1780]] Marion, between the Pedee and Santee; Sumter, upon the Catawba and Broad Rivers; and Pickens, in the vicinity of the Saluda and Savannah Rivers. With the surrender of Charleston, the hopes of the South Carolina patriots withered; and so complete was the subjugation of the state by the royal arms, that on the fourth of June, Sir Henry Clinton wrote to the ministry, "I may venture to assert that there are few men in South Carolina who are not either our prisoners or in arms with us." Many unsubdued patriots sought shelter in North Carolina, and others went up toward the mountains and gathered the cowed Whigs into bands to avenge the insults of their Tory oppressors. Early in July, Sumter (who had taken refuge in Mecklenburg), with a few chosen patriots who gathered around him, returned to South Carolina.=

````"Catawba's waters.smiled again

`````To see her Sumter's soul in arms;

````And issuing from each glade and glen,

`````Rekindled by war's fierce alarms,

````Thronged hundreds through the solitude

`````Of the wild forest, to the call

````Of him whose spirit, unsubdued,

`````Fresh impulse gave to each, to all."

`````J. W. Simmons.=

Already bold Whigs between the Catawba had banded, and, led by Bratton, M'Clure, Moffit, Winn, ** and others, had smitten the enemy at different points. The first blow, struck at Beckhamville, is noticed on the preceding page. To crush these patriots and to band the

* This view is from the garden-gate at Mrs. Barkley's, looking northeast.. On the left is seen part of a store-house, and on the right, just beyond the post with a pigeon-house, is a hollow, within which are the remains of houses. At the foot of the hill may still be seen the foundations of the house mentioned in the text as having been occupied by the British when attacked by Sumter. The small log buildings across the center, occupying the slope where the conflict occurred, are servants' houses.

** Richard Winn was a native of Virginia. He entered the service early, and in 1775 was commissioned the first lieutenant of the South Carolina rangers. He served under Colonel William Thomson, in General Richardson's expedition against the Tories, in the winter of that year. He had been with Thomson in the battle on Sullivan's Island. He afterward served in Georgia, and was in command of Fort M'Intosh, on the north side of the Santilla River. He was subsequently promoted to colonel, and commanded the militia of Fairfield District. He was with Sumter at Hanging Rock, where he was wounded. He was active during-the remainder of the war, and at the conclusion, was appointed a brigadier, and finally a major general of militia. He represented his district in Congress from 1793 to 1802. He removed to Tennessee in 1812, and died soon afterward. Winnsborough, the present seat of justice of Fairfield District, was so named in his honor, when he was colonel of that district, in 1779.

[[[Skirmish at Mobley's Meeting-house.--Expeditions of Huck and Cunningham.--Their Defeat]]]

{659}Loyalists, marauding parties, chiefly Tories, were sent out. At Mobley's meeting-house, on the banks of Little River, in Fairfield District, a party of these men were collected just after the affair at Beckhamville.[[June, 1780]] Around them were gathering the Tories of the district, when Captains Bratton and M'Clure fell upon and dispersed them. This disaster, following closely upon the other, alarmed the commander at Rocky Mount, and he sent out Captain Christian Huck, a profane, unprincipled man, * with four hundred cavalry, and a body of well-mounted Tories, to "push the rebels as far as he might deem convenient." He executed his orders with alacrity. At one time he destroyed Colonel Hill's iron-works; at another he burned the dwelling of the Reverend William Simpson, of the Fishing Creek church, and murdered an unoffending young man on Sunday morning, while on his way to the meeting-house, with his Bible in his hand. He hated Presbyterians bitterly, and made them suffer when he could. Loaded with the spoils of plunder, Huck fell back to Rocky Mount, and prepared for other depredations.

About this time, Bill Cunningham and his "Bloody Scout" were spreading terror in Union and Spartanburg Districts, and also south of the Ennoree. Against this monster, John M'Clure was dispatched. He chased him across Union District, and almost thirty miles further toward Ninety-Six. Four of the scout were captured, and carried in triumph into Sumter's camp, on the Waxhaw; their leader barely escaped.

Sumter was now gathering his little army, and Huck proceeded to execute his commission as speedily as possible, before the newly-made brigadier should approach. He encamped upon the plantation of James Williamson ** (now Brattonville), and there passed the night of the eleventh of July.[[1780]] At a little past midnight, Colonel Neil and the companies of Captains Bratton and M'Clure came down from Sumter's camp, in Mecklenburg, and cautiously approached the sleeping enemy in his encampment, which was in the middle of a lane. At dawn,[[July 12]] they entered each end of the lane, and fell upon Huck's party with fury. The surprise was complete, and for an hour a fierce battle ensued, when Huck, with Colonel Ferguson of the Tory militia, was killed, and his party dispersed. The whole patriot force was only one hundred and thirty-three men. M'Clure and his party, well mounted, pursued the fugitives almost to Rocky Mount, and within four hours the army of Huck was as completely dissolved as if they had never seen each other. Colonel Neil lost only one of his command.

The defeat of Huck had an important bearing upon the future condition of the state. It encouraged the Whigs, and many joined the standard of Sumter; while the Tories, abashed, were fearful and silent. Strengthened by daily recruits, until he had more than six hundred men under his command, Sumter determined to attack the royal post at Rocky Mount. The massacre of Buford's command on the Waxhaw, in May,[[May 29]] had fired the Whigs with a desire for revenge; and Sumter felt strong enough to attack a force known to be a third larger than his own. The post at Rocky Mount was now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Turnbull, with a small garrison, consisting of one hundred and fifty New York volunteers, and some South Carolina militia. These were stationed principally in three buildings, upon a slope surrounded by a ditch and _abatis_, and encircled by an open wood.

On the thirtieth of July,[[1780]] Sumter left Major Davie's camp, at the parting of the roads for Rocky Mount and Landsford, and crossing the Catawba at Blair's Ford,

* Huck had often been heard to say, says Ramsay (ii., 136), that "God Almighty was turned rebel; but that if there were twenty Gods on their side, they should all be conquered."

** The house of Colonel Bratton was only half a mile distant from Williamson's. There Huck had first halted, and rudely demanded of Colonel Bratton's wife where her husband was. "In Sumter's army," was her prompt reply. Huck tried to win her to the royal cause, or force her, by menaces, to disclose the place of her husband's retreat. She firmly refused all compliance, even when a sharp reaping-hook was at her throat, in the hands of a brutal soldier. This courageous act of Mrs. Bratton is still remembered with reverence in that section; and as late as 1839, a toast, complimentary of the "fortitude of Martha Bratton," was given at the anniversary of Huck's * defeat.--See Mrs. Ellet's Women of the Revolution, i., 237.

* This name is spelled by different authors, Huyck, Huck, and Hucko

[[[Sumter's unsuccessful Battle at Rocky Mount.--His Success at Wateree Ford.--His Defeat at Fishing Creek.]]]

{660}proceeded cautiously, but swiftly, toward Rocky Mount. Davie, in the mean while, was to attack the outposts of the British camp at Hanging Rock, east of the Catawba, twelve miles distant. Sumter was accompanied by Colonels Neil, Irvine, and Lacy, *and Captain M'Clure and some of the Gastons. At an early hour of the day, he appeared with his whole force upon the crown of the hill now occupied by the servants' houses of Mrs. Barkley. The British commander, warned of his approach by a Tory, was prepared to receive him, and though the Americans poured severe volleys upon the fortification (if it might be called one), they produced but little effect. Having no artillery, they resorted to means for dislodging the enemy, seldom used in war. Leaping the _abatis_ after three assaults, they drove the garrison into the houses. These, according to Mr. M'Ehvees, who was in the engagement (mentioned on page 635), were situated near the bottom of the slope, and were composed of logs. They first attempted to set them on fire by casting burning fagots upon them. Not succeeding in this, an old wagon was procured, and upon it was placed a quantity of dry brush and straw taken from the _abatis_. These were ignited, and then rolled down against the houses. The British, perceiving their danger, hoisted a flag. Supposing they intended to surrender, Sumter ordered the firing to cease. At that moment a shower of rain extinguished the flames, and the enemy defied him. Having no other means at hand to dislodge or seriously injure the garrison, Sumter withdrew, first to the north side of Fishing Creek, near the Catawba (where he was surprised eighteen days afterward), and then Lanisford, where he crossed the river. Seven days[[August 1780]] afterward, he was battling with the enemy at Hanging Rock. Early in the action, in front of the _abatis_, the gallant Colonel Neil was slain, with two other white men and a Catawba Indian. Sumter had ten wounded, also. The British lost ten killed, and an equal number wounded.

On the seventh of August Sumter attacked a British post on Hanging Creek, an event which we shall consider presently. Immediately after that engagement, he recrossed the Catawba. In the mean while, General Gates, with his army, had arrived in the neighborhood. Advised by Sumter that a British detachment, with stores for the main army at Camden, was on its way from Ninety-Six, Gates ordered that officer to intercept it,[[Aug. 15]] and detached to his aid one hundred infantry and a company of artillery of the Maryland line, and three hundred North Carolina militia, all under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Woodford, of Virginia. They captured a redoubt at the Wateree Ford, in Fairfield District, and, intercepting the escort from Ninety-Six, they secured forty-four wagon loads of stores and clothing, with a number of prisoners. On the seventeenth, Sumter was informed of the defeat of Gates, near Camden. Continuing up the Catawba (here called Wateree), he managed to elude the pursuit of Colonel Turnbull, whom Cornwallis had sent after him, and, on the eighteenth, encamped at the Fishing Creek, near the Catawba, a little above the Great Falls. Here he determined to allow his wearied troops to repose. But a more vigilant and active foe than Turnbull was upon his trail. Cornwallis, anxious to capture Sumter, dispatched Tarleton to overtake and smite him. With one hundred dragoons and sixty mounted light infantry, that officer pressed forward, without halting, in pursuit of his prey. Crossing the Catawba at Rocky Ford, he got into the rear of Sumter, and fell upon his eamp while resting, the patriot leader having had no intimation of his approach. The Americans were routed, with great slaughter. More than fifty were killed, and three hundred were made prisoners. All the stores, clothing, and prisoners, captured by Sumter on the fifteenth, fell into Tarleton's hands. This blow laid South Carolina in submission at the feet of the royal troops, none but Marion, the wily. "Swamp Fox," and a few followers, remaining in arms against the king. The subsequent organization of a

* Colonel Lacy was one of the most resolute and sturdy patriots of South Carolina. It is related that when the Americans were pursuing Huck, Lacy sent a small party to secure his own father, who was a Tory, and prevent his giving information to that marauder. Lacy was a man of great personal strength, and was a general favorite with the people. He was one of the most active participators in the action or King's Mountain.

[[[Passage of the Catawba--Appearance of the Road.--Anvil Rock.--Old Slave at Hanging Rock.]]]

{661}force under Sumter, his exploits west of the Broad River, and also the important events which followed the assumption, by Greene, of the command of the Southern army, have been detailed in former chapters.

I left the family of Mrs. Barkley with real regret, on the morning after My arrival, and, pursuing a crooked, steep, and rough road down to the brink of the river, crossed the Catawba upon a bateau, at Rocky Mount Ferry, just below the Falls at the mouth of Rocky Mount Creek.

The scenery here, and for some miles on my road toward Hanging Rock, my next point of destination, was highly picturesque. I was approaching the verge of the Lowlands, the apparent shore of the ancient ocean, along which are strewn huge bowlders--chiefly conglomerates--the mighty pebbles cast upon the beach, when, perhaps, the mammoth and the mastadon slaked their thirst in the waters of the Catawba and the Eswawpuddenah.

For several miles the road passed among the erratic rocks and curiously-shaped conglomerates. When within three miles of Hanging Rock, I passed the celebrated Anvil Rock, one of the remarkable curiosities of the South.

It stands alone, on the north side of the road, and is, indeed, a curiosity.

It appears to be a concretion of the soil around, being composed of precisely similar material; or the soil may be disintegrated rocks of a similar character. In its sides are cavities from which large pebbles have apparently fallen, and also furrows as if made by rains. Its height above the ground is about twelve feet; its form suggested its name.

I reached the Lancaster and Camden high-way at noon, and, on inquiry, ascertained that the celebrated Hanging Rock, near which Sumter and his companions fought a desperate battle, was about a mile and a half eastward. Thither I went immediately, notwithstanding the temptation of a good dinner, freely offered, was before me, for I desired to get as far on toward Camden, that night, as possible. The roads were now generally sandy, and in many places soft and difficult to travel, making progress slow. Along a by-road, across the high rolling plain upon which (at Coles's Old Field) tradition avers the hottest of the battle was fought, I rode to the brow of a deep narrow valley, through which courses Hanging Rock Creek, one of the head waters of Lynch's Creek, the western branch of the Great Pedee. The mingled sound of falling waters and grinding mill-stones came up from the deep furrow, while from a small cabin by the road side, upon the verge of the steep bank, I heard a broken melody. Alighting, I entered the cabin, and there sat an aged negro dining upon hoe-cake and bacon, and humming a refrain, he was the miller. His hair was as white with the frost of years, as his coarse garb was with flour. To my question respecting his family, he said, shaking his bowed head, "Ah, massa! I lives all alone now; tree years ago dey sole my wife, and she's gone to Mississippi. Hab to bake my own hoe-cake now. But neber mind; needn't work 'less I'm a mind too; 'nough to eat, and pretty soon I die?" He told me that he was more than eighty years old, and remembered seeing "de red coats scamper when Massa Sumter and Jacky M'Clure pitched into 'em." Pointing to the celebrated Hanging Rock upon the opposite side of the stream, "Dar," he said, "a heap o' red coats sleep de night afore de battle, and dar I hid de night arter." From

[[[The Hanging Rock.--Disposition of Troops there.--Preliminary Skirmish.--Sumter's Attack.]]]

{662}the venerable slave, whose memory appeared unclouded, I learned the location of several points mentioned in the accounts of the engagement.

Leaving Charley to dine upon the verge of the stream, I proceeded to Hanging Rock, of whose immensity I had heard frequent mention.

It is a huge conglomerate bowlder, twenty or thirty feet in diameter, lying upon the verge of the high east bank of the creek, nearly a hundred feet above the stream. Around it are several smaller bowlders of the same materials. It is shelving toward the bank, its concavity being in the form of the quarter of an orange paring, and capacious enough to shelter fifty men from rain. Beneath its canopy, let us turn to the record of history.

Near the Hanging Rock, on the western bank of the creek, Lord Rawdon, the British commander in that section, had established a post, whieh was garrisoned by the infantry of Tarleton's legion, part of Brown's corps of South Carolina and Georgia Provincials, and Colonel Bryan's North Carolina Loyalists; the whole were under the command of Major Carden, with the Prince of Wales's American regiment, in number about five hundred. The greater portion were Loyalists, the remainder were regulars. In the formation of the camp, the regulars were on the right; a part of the British legion and Hamilton's regiment in the center; and Bryan's corps and other Loyalists some distance on the left, Hanging Rock Creek being in the rear. As we have seen (page 660), Major Davie proceeded to an attack upon this post, simultaneously with Sumter's assault on Rocky Mount. Davie, with his cavalry, and some Mecklenburg militia, under Colonel Higgins, marched toward Hanging Rock. As he approached, he was informed that three companies of Bryan's Loyalists, returning from a foraging excursion, were encamped at a farm-house. He fell upon them with vigor, in front and rear, and all but a few of them were either killed or wounded. The spoils of this victory were sixty horses with their trappings, and one hundred muskets and rifles. This disaster made the garrison exceedingly vigilant.

We have observed that after the assault on Rocky Mount, Sumter crossed the Catawba, and proceeded toward Hanging Rock. He marched early in the morning cautiously, and approached the British camp in three divisions, with the intention of falling upon the main body, stationed upon the plain at Coles's Old Field. [[Aug. 6, 1780]] The right was composed of Davie's corps and some volunteers, under Major Bryan; the center, of Colonel Irwin's Mecklenburg militia; and the left, of South Carolina regulars, under Colonel Hill, Through the error of his guides, Sumter eame first upon Bryan's corps, on the verge of the western bank of the creek, near the Great Rock, half a mile from the British camp. Irwin made the first attaek. The Tories soon yielded and fled toward the main body, many of them throwing away their arms without discharging them. These the Americans seized; and, pursuing this advantage, Sumter next fell upon Brown's corps, which, being on the alert, poured a heavy fire upon him from a wood. They also received him with the bayonet. A fierce conflict ensued, and for a while the issue was doubtful. The riflemen, with sure aim, soon cut off almost all of Brown's officers and many of his soldiers; and at length his corps yielded and dispersed in confusion. The arms and ammunition procured from the vanquished were of great service, for when the action commenced, Sumter's men had not two rounds each. *

* Mrs. Ellet relates a circumstance which has some interest in this connection Colonel Thomas, of Spartanburg District, was intrusted by Governor Rutledge with a quantity of arms and ammunition. A party, under Colonel Moore (who was defeated at Ramsour's Mill), attacked the house of the colonel, during his absence, for the purpose of seizing the powder. His heroic wife, Jane Thomas, with a son-inlaw, her daughter, and a lad, formed the garrison in the house. Mrs. Thomas and her daughter loaded guns as fast as the son-in-law could fire; and the Tories, believing that the house was filled with men, decamped, and the ammunition was saved. This powder constituted a part of Sumter's supply at Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock.

[[[Sumter's final Blow.--Victory lost by Intemperance.--Sumter's Retreat.--The Loss.--Captain M'Clure.]]]

{663}Now was the moment to strike for decisive victory; it was lost by the criminal indulgence of Sumter's men in plundering the portion of the British camp already secured, and drinking freely of the liquor found there. A similar cause plucked the palm of victory from the hands of Greene at Eutaw Springs. Sumter's ranks became disordered; and while endeavoring to bring order out of confusion, the enemy rallied. Of his six hundred men, only about two hundred, with Davie's cavalry, eould be brought to bear upon the remaining portion of the British, who were yet in some confusion, but defended by two cannons. Sumter was not to be foiled. With a shout, he and his handful of brave men rushed forward to the attack. The enemy had formed a hollow square, with the field-pieces in front, and in this position received the charge. The Americans attacked them on three sides, and the contest was severe for a while. At length, just as the British line was yielding, a re-enforcement, under Captains Stewart and M'Donald, of Tarleton's legion, returning from an excursion toward Rocky Mount, appeared, and their number being magnified, Sumter deemed a retreat a prudent measure. This was done at meridian, but the enemy had been so severely handled, that they did not attempt a pursuit. A small party appeared upon the Camden road, but was soon dispersed by Davie. Could Sumter have brought all of his forces into action in this last attack, the route of the British would have been complete.=

```"He beat them back! beneath the flame

````Of valor quailing, or the shock!

```He carved, at last, a hero's name,

````Upon the glorious Hanging Rock!"=

With his few prisoners and booty, Sumter retreated toward the Waxhaw, bearing away many of his wounded. The engagement lasted about four hours, and was one of the best-fought battles, between militia and British regulars, during the war. Sumter's loss was twelve killed and forty-one wounded. Among the former were the brave Captain M'Clure, * of South Carolina, and Captain Read, of North Carolina; Colonel Hill, Captain Craighead, Major Winn, Lieutenants Crawford and Fletcher, and Ensign M'Clure, were wounded. The British loss exceeded that of the Americans. Captain M'Cullock, commander of the legion infantry, and two officers and twenty privates of the same corps, were killed, and forty were wounded.** Brown's regiment also suffered much. Bryan's Tories did not stop to fight,=

````"------but ran away,

````And lived to fight another day."=

About nine miles north of the present Lancaster Court House, and between twenty and

* John M'Clure was one of the master spirits of South Carolina. He was a nephew of the venerable Judge "Gaston, and partook of that patriot's purity and zeal in the cause of Republicanism. Of him General Davie said, "Of the many brave men with whom it was my fortune to become acquainted in the army, he was one of the bravest; and when he fell, we looked upon his loss as incalculable." He fell at the first fire of Bryan's Loyalists, pierced by two bullets, and at the same time, four of his cousins, sons of Judge Gaston, lay bleeding near him. When his friends came to his aid, he urged them to leave him and pursue the enemy. After the battle, he was taken, with other wounded soldiers, to Waxhaw church, where his mother went to nurse him. From thence he was taken to Charlotte, and on the eighteenth, the very day when his commander was surprised at Fishing Creek (see page 635). he expired in Liberty Hall, where the celebrated Mecklenburg resolutions were drawn up. M'Clure was a native of Chester District, and his men were known as the Chester Rocky Creek Irish. The first wound which he received in the engagement was in the thigh. He stanched it with wadding, when another bullet passed through him at the breast. Two of the Gastons fell dead across each other; a third was mortally wounded; and a fourth had a cheek shot away. Doctor Richard E.. Wylie, of Lancaster, wrote a ballad of twenty stanzas commemorative of this event.

** Ramsay, Moultrie, Lee.

[[[The British in South Carolina.--Retreat of Americans.--Massacre of Buford's Regiment near the Waxhaw.]]]

{664}twenty-three miles above Hanging Rock, upon the Waxhaw Creek, * the regiment of Colonel Abraham Buford was massacred by Tarleton on the twenty-ninth of May, 1780. Sir Henry Clinton took possession of Charleston on the twelfth, and immediately commenced measures for securing the homage of the whole state. He sent out three large detachments of his army. The first and largest, under Cornwallis, was ordered toward the frontiers of North Carolina; the second, under Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, was directed to pass the Saluda, to Ninety-Six; and the third, under Lieutenant-colonel Brown, was ordered up the Savannah, to Augusta. Soon after he had passed the Santee, Cornwallis was informed that parties of Americans who had come into South Carolina, and had hurried toward Charleston to assist Lincoln, were as hastily retreating. Among these was Colonel Buford. His force consisted of nearly four hundred Continental infantry, a small detachment of Washington's cavalry, and two field-pieces. He had evacuated Camden, and, in fancied security, was retreating leisurely toward Charlotte, in North Carolina. Cornwallis resolved to strike Buford, if possible, and, for that purpose, he dispatched Tarleton, with seven hundred men, consisting of his cavalry and mounted infantry. That officer marched one hundred and five miles in fifty-four hours, and came up with Buford upon the Waxhaw. Impatient of delay, he had left his mounted infantry behind, and with only his cavalry, he almost surrounded Buford before that officer was aware of danger. Tarleton demanded an immediate surrender upon the terms granted to the Americans at Charleston. Those terms were humiliating, and Buford refused compliance. ** While the flags for conference were passing and repassing, Tarleton, contrary to military rules, was making preparations for an assault, and the instant he received Buford's reply, his cavalry made a furious charge upon the American ranks. Having received no orders to defend themselves, and supposing the negotiations were yet pending, the Continentals were utterly dismayed by this charge. All was confusion, and while some fired upon their assailants, others threw down their arms and begged for quarter. None was given; and men without arms were hewn in pieces by Tarleton's cavalry. One hundred and thirteen were slain; one hundred and fifty were so maimed as to be unable to travel; and fifty-three were made prisoners, to grace the triumphal entry of the conqueror into Camden. Only five of the British were killed, and fifteen wounded. The whole of Buford's artillery, ammunition, and baggage, fell into the hands of the enemy. For this savage feat, Cornwallis eulogized Tarleton, and commended him to the ministry as worthy of special favor. It was nothing less than a cold-blooded massacre; and _Tarleton's quarter_ became proverbial as a synonym to cruelty. *** The liberal press, and all right-minded men in England, cried shame!

After the battle, a large number of the wounded were taken to the log meeting-house of the Waxhaw Presbyterian congregation, where they were tenderly nursed by a few who had the boldness to remain. With the defeat of Buford, every semblance of a Continental army in South Carolina was effaced. This terrible blow spread consternation over that region, and women and children were seen flying from their homes to seek refuge from British cruelty in more distant settlements. Among the fugitives was the widowed mother of

* This name is derived from the Waxhaw Indians, a tribe now extinct, who inhabited this region.

** Buford's answer, as given by Tarleton in his Memoirs, was brief and positive, as follows: "Waxhaws, May 29th, 1780. "Sir,--I reject your proposal, and shall defend myself to the last extremity. "Lieutenant-eolonel Tarleton, commander of British Legion."

*** Justice demands an audience for Tarleton. In his account of the affair, he alleges that a demand for a surrender was made before his main body had overtaken Buford, and that after that officer's defiant letter was received, both parties prepared for action. He excuses the refusal to grant quarter by the plea that some of the Continentals continued to fire. As Marshall suggests, the fact that Buford's field-pieces were not discharged and so few of the British were wounded, is evidence enough that the attack was unexpected. Tarleton was taunted with his cruelty on this occasion, on his return to England. Stedman. the British historian of the war says, "On this occasion, the virtue of humanity was totally forgot."--See Marshall, i., 338; Gordon, iii., 53; Lee, 78; Stedman, ib, 193.

[[[Family of President Jackson.--Journey toward Camden.--Flat Rook.--Rugeley's Mill]]]

{665}Andrew Jackson (the seventh President of the United States), who, with her two sons, Robert and Andrew, took refuge in the Sugar Creek congregation, at the house of the widow of the Reverend J. M. Wilson, near Charlotte.

This was the first practical lesson of hatred to tyranny which young Jackson learned, and it doubtless had an abiding influence upon his future life. *

Returning to the Lancaster road at two o'clock, I rode on toward Camden, about thirty-five miles distant, passing on the way the celebrated Flat Rock, a mass of concrete, like that of Anvil Rock, five hundred yards across. It lies even with the surface of the ground, and presents numerous pits or cisterns, supposed to have been hollowed out by the Indians for the purpose of holding water. The road passed over this mass with a gentle descent. Near its southern side, the place was pointed out to me where a severe skirmish occurred in August, 1778, between some militia and Tories, but the result was not very sanguinary. At sunset I arrived at the house of Mrs. Fletcher, within nine miles of Rugeley's Mill, where I was well entertained for the night. ** I departed at sunrise the following morning. Being now fairly within the sandy region upon the slopes between the upper and the lower country, the traveling was very heavy. At the first house after leaving Mrs. Fletcher's, I saw Mr. Paine, the brother of Mrs. Lee, an intelligent old man of eighty-four years. During half an hour's conversation with him, I obtained some valuable information respecting the various historical localities between there and Camden. The first of these is Clermont, sometimes called Rageley's, about thirteen miles north of Camden, where I arrived at an early hour in the forenoon. This is the place where General Gates concentrated his army for an attack upon the British at Camden. The place is also memorable on account of a military event which occurred near Rugeley's Mill, on the fourth of December, 1780. This mill was about one hundred yards east of the road where it crosses Rugeley's Creek. No traces of the mill remain; but an embankment, several rods in extent, partly demolished, and overgrown with pines and shrubbery interlaced with the vines of the muscadine, mark the place of the dam, a part of which, where the creek passes through, is seen in the engraving. Let us consider the event which immortalizes this spot.

When Cornwallis retreated from Charlotte (see page

* I am informed by the Honorable David L. Swain, that the birth-place of General Jackson is in Mecklenburg eounty, North Carolina, just above the state line. It is about half a mile west of the Wuxhaw Creek, upon the estate of W. J. Cureton, Esq., twenty-eight miles south of Charlotte. A month or two after his birth, his mother removed to the southward of the state line, to a plantation about twelve miles north of Lancaster Court House. That plantation is also the property of Mr. Cureton. The house in which she resided when Tarleton penetrated the settlement is now demolished. So the honor of possessing the birthplace of that illustrious man belongs to North, and not to South Carolina, as has been supposed.

* The massacre of Buford's regiment fired the patriotism of young Andrew Jackson; and at the age of thirteen he entered the army, with his brother Robert, under Sumter. They were both made prisoners; but even while in the power of the British, the indomitable courage of the after man appeared in the boy. When ordered to clean the muddy boots of a British officer, he proudly refused, and for his temerity received a sword-cut. After their release, Andrew and his brother returned to the Waxhaw settlement with their mother. That patriotic mother and two sons perished during the war. Her son Hugh was slain in battle, and Robert died of a wound which he received from a British officer while he was prisoner, because, like Andrew, he refused to do menial service. The heroic mother, while on her way home from Charleston, whither she went to carry some necessaries to her friends and relations on board a prison-ship, was seized with prison-fever, and died. Her unknown grave is somewhere between what was then called the Quarter House and Charleston. Andrew was left the sole survivor of the family.--See Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, p. 199.

** There I saw Mrs. Lee, the step-mother of Mrs. Fletcher, who was then ninety-two years of age. She lived near Camden during the war, but was so afflicted with palsy when I saw her, that she could talk only with great difficulty, and I could not procure from her any tradition of interest. Mrs. Lee had buried five husbands.

[[[Tories at Rugeley's.--Stratagem of Colonel Washington in capturing the Tories.--Gum Swamp.--Sander's Creek]]]

626), {666}Gates advanced to that place, and General Smallwood was directed to encamp lower down the Catawba, on the road to Camden. Morgan, with his light corps, composed partly of Lieutenant-colonel Washington's cavalry, was ordered to push further in advance, for the purpose of foraging, and to watch the movements of Cornwallis.

Smallwood having received information that a body of Tories, under Colonel Rugeley, were on the alert to intercept his wagons, ordered Morgan and Washington to march against them. They retreated, and took post at Rugeley's house, on the Camden road, which he had stockaded, together with his log-barn.

Washington, with his cavalry, pursued, and at about ten o'clock on the fourth of December,[[1780]] appeared at Rugeley's Mill, on the south side of the creek. The Loyalists were strongly posted in the log-barn, in front, of which was a ditch and _abatis_. Having no artillery,

Washington could make but little impression upon the garrison, so he resorted to stratagem.

Fashioning a pine-log so as to resemble a cannon, he placed it in such a position near the bridge as, apparently, to command both the house and barn of Colonel Rugeley. He then made a formal demand for a surrender, menacing the garrison with the instant demolition of their fortress. Alarmed at the apparition of a cannon, Rugeley sent out a flag, and, with his whole force of one hundred and twelve men, immediately surrendered. Poor Rugeley never appeared in arms afterward. Cornwallis, in a letter to Tarleton,[[Dec. 4]] said, "Rugeley will not be made a brigadier.