If the foregoing
expressions, in a previous chapter, from individuals and the courts,
indicated a strong attachment to the principles of liberty, they
evinced at the same time, a spirit of determination and increasing
readiness for the approaching crisis. If among the first to boldly
declare opposition to encroachments upon their sacred rights, the
fathers seemed to understand and appreciate that they were assuming
a position from which they could not recede. And yet they had not
gone so far but that reasonable concessions from the Crown, and a
show of just consideration to the interests of the colonies, would
have stayed the tide of revolution and restored loyalty and love to
the parent government. But such pacific measures were hoped in vain
from a proud, powerful government. Royalty yields only to necessity,
and 1775 witnessed an effort on the part of its representatives to
recall the people to a sense of their allegiance, by issuing one
order and proclamation after another, asserting the "divine right,"
and exhorting to obedience, and warning against
disloyalty.
The Provincial Congress, a body organized to
promote the interest of the people by counsel and remonstrance and
petition, had adjourned to meet on June 20. But on the 19th of April
the battle of Lexington was fought5 and, although the battle-ground
was far to the north, yet the tidings that American blood had been
shed upon American soil, for American liberty, stirred the American
heart in Carolina as surely as in Massachusetts, and the committee
invested with such authority called the delegates together on the
first day of June. One hundred and seventy-two brave men
responded to the call; among them Samuel Wise, Claudius Pegues and
William Henry Harrington, and on the second day of the session
passed a paper recognizing the "existence of hostilities"—declaring
the "causes sufficient to drive all oppressed people to arms"—that
they would "be justified before God and man in resisting force by
force, and solemnly engaging that whenever our continental or
provincial councils shall decree it necessary, we will go forth and
be ready to sacrifice our lives and fortunes to secure our freedom
and support."
It was further "resolved to raise fifteen
hundred infantry and four hundred and fifty rangers." Before the end
of the year matters had become so warlike that the royal governor
fled from the capitol and took refuge upon a "man of war,"
dissolving for the last time the "common House of Assembly." Before
this year ended a detachment of troops was ordered from the Pee Dee,
under Maj. Hicks, to the Congaree,but the order was countermanded
while they were upon the march. So that war was upon the people
before the end of 1775; although there were some who, no doubt,
honestly dissented, and were sincere in their professions of
loyalty; doubtless others were indifferent as to the result of the
struggle, provided they themselves could be let alone, while yet
another class dodged the service, only to plunder and spoil. But
thousands of the best people in the land threw the whole weight of
their influence, property and personal services into the cause of
the struggling colonies.
The year destined to be noted in
American history as "Independence Year," opened upon this southern
land dark and portentous. It looked as if Charleston was to be
assailed from the sea. Ships of war were seen upon the bar, and a
call was made for "detachments of volunteers in small parties of
twenty or fifty as they could be collected." Maj. Hicks and Capt.
Wise, with these detachments, promptly
responded. Some of the country troops remained for
some time, while others were soon discharged; and this seems
to have been a common rule of action. It
could not be otherwise; there were no arms, no
treasury, no supplies to keep an army in the
field. It was an infant republic
struggling for birth.
When some imminent peril
threatened one point, help was called in from neighboring regions,
and as soon as the danger was past the body of troops went
home subject to call. And so it was that the necessary
expenses of these volunteers were not always paid; and may have
become a source of irritation and a hinderance to a ready response
to an after call. It has been said that "certain
expenses incurred by this detachment under Maj. Hicks were not
paid"; and it is not surprising if some of these ready
patriots from the Pee Dee were a little slow
to answer when called again.
Yet it is amazing that with resources of all sorts so
feeble, and troops so few, the war was maintained
so long, covering, as it did, a field as wide as the thirteen
colonies, and sometimes running over into Canada. It was
the spirit of resistance, indomitable energy and love for the cause
they had espoused that animated all classes, that sustained
and carried them forward. Bishop Gregg, to whom the
writer is so largely indebted for many facts bearing upon the
history of these stirring times in Carolina and upon the
Pee Dee, has given us an interesting correspondence between "Oliver
Hart, pastor of the Charleston Baptist church, and Elhanan
Winchester, pastor of the Welsh Neck church, in behalf of the
Baptist congregation in general," on the one part, and the Hon.
Henry Laurens, Vice-President of the Province of South Carolina, on
the other part; which is a most beautiful expression of piety,
patriotism, trust in God and devotion to the cause of
independence on the part of all
concerned. The preachers said, among many other like
things: "We hope yet to see hunted liberty sit regent on the throne
and flourish more than ever under the
administration of such worthy patriots; may we not hope that the
time is come in which our rulers may be men fearing God, and hating
covetousness, a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that, do
well." In his reply Mr. Laurens said, "Let each man among us,
whether in the State or in the Church, whether in public or private
life, by example, by precept, by every becoming act, preserve and be
ready with his life and fortune to defend the just cause in which
God has been pleased to engage us. We shall, weak as we are, succeed
against those who have assumed to themselves the power of
Omnipotence, who trust in fleets and armies to determine the fight.
We shall be the happy instruments of establishing liberty, civil and
religious, in a wilderness where towns and cities shall grow, whose
inhabitants to the latest posterity will look back to this happy
epoch, and celebrate and bless the memory of this generation."
Eloquent prophecy! "There were giants in those days." Not alone
among the leaders, where circumstances place them in the front, but
in the rank and file among the humble and unknown, were men and
women as true, as brave, as noble and good as they.
We have
seen already that troops had gone from the Pee Dee to the
neighborhood of Charleston in response to the call of the Governor,
but it is not known whether any from this region were active
participants in the memorable struggle of June 28th. There is
evidence that Captain Wise, who was a Pee Dee man, was on Sullivan's
Island, only the day before, and that Captain Harrington with a
company of volunteers was at "Haddrell's Point," (now Mount
Pleasant), and it is altogether probable that one or both of these
Companies had some part in the memorable contest, which terminated
so favorably to the American arms. But in the presence of Moultrie,
Rutledge and Jasper, where artillery played the most important part
in the fight, it is not likely that half drilled militia should find
prominent mention, and yet from the correspondence of the men of Pee
Dee it is clear that they were under fire, and endured great
privations for some days in expectancy of the battle. And, without
positive proof, no reason is known for saying Marlboro was not
represented in the fierce engagement that saved Charleston for a
time, repulsed the foe, and gave comparative repose to the whole
province for a considerable time.
It was only six days after
the brilliant victory at Fort Moultrie that the Continental
Congress, on July 4th, 1776, adopted the Declaration of
Independence. South Carolina heartily approved the Act, and at a
court for the Cheraws held in November following, the Grand Jury
said in their presentment: "It is with the highest pleasure that the
Grand Jury for the District of Cheraws embrace this first
opportunity of congratulating our fellow citizens and American
brethren on the late declaration of the Continental Congress,
constituting the united colonies of North America free and
independent states, and the inhabitants thereof totally absolved
from any allegiance to the British Crown." It was not until the
autumn of 1778 that another court was held for the Cheraws, and that
was the last till the war was ended.
After their signal
repulse at Moultrie the British directed their operations against
the northern and more populous colonies, and the people of South
Carolina enjoyed a season of comparative quiet. Now and then a band
of Tories would dash across the border upon a foray of plunder, but
even they appeared to be awed by the successes of the patriots in
the first and only considerable engagement on Carolina ground. To be
sure, there was one here and there so fired with the spirit of
resistance and so determined to be free, that if not needed within
their own borders, would seek the service and march to the front,
though far from their own hearthstones. Such an one was
Joshua Ammons, now with Marion in the swamps of Pee Dee, then in the
Continental line an orderly sergeant with LaFayette, or with
Greene—he seemed to watch the progress of events and where the
bullets flew thickest, there he was found ready to hurl death and
defiance into the ranks of the foe, and, the war over, to settle
down an humble, consistent Christian man.
About the close of
1778 the clouds again grew thick and lowering. December witnessed
the fall of Savannah and, judging from a note in the journal of Mr.
Pugh, the pastor at Welsh Neck, and an ardent patriot, it is
inferred that troops from the Pee Dee suffered in that catastrophe.
On the 21st he preached a
sermon to his people for the youths lost at Savannah and says, "We
lost many youths." At the siege of Savannah, Samuel Wise, who had
risen to a Major's commission, a gallant son of Pee Dee, "fell at
the post of duty" in the thickest of the fight. He left no son to
bear his name, but his devotion to his country's cause entitles his
name to grateful memory. South Carolina was now to become the
theatre of active operations. General Prevost, with a large force,
was marching towards Charleston. Again the metropolis was threatened
with blood and carnage, and again large drafts of the militia were
called into service.
A regiment from the Pee Dee, under the
command of Col. Mclntosh, responded to the call. But unexpectedly
Prevost withdrew and the fall of Charleston was delayed for a time;
and the country had a brief rest from the ravages of war, only as
the "sons of liberty,"felt called to chastise some band of lawless
Tories, who, taking advantage of the absence of the men in camp,
would make a dash for plunder, or to murder some noted Whig who had
made himself obnoxious to them by his bold declarations or zeal for
the cause of independence. And yet, as the year 1779 drew to a
close, men felt that the struggle was yet before them; and that the
storm was gathering. But the Whigs in the Pee Dee region, not less
than their compatriots in other portions of the State, were ready to
make good their declarations, to "sacrifice life and fortune,"
rather than rest under the heel of British oppression.
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