The History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina
From its first settlement to the close of The Revolutionary War
A. S. Salley, Jr - Member Southern History Association
Orangeburg, S.C.
R. Lewis Berry, Printer, 1898
Pages 471-486

There are many interesting traditions concerning several of these militia companies of Orangeburgh District.  One of them was commanded by Captain Jacob Rumph, who lived about five miles above Orangeburg village. It probably formed a part of Rowe's regiment. It is said to have marched to Savannah, in 1778, to join the American army in besieging that town, but arrived too late, the siege having been abandoned.

Mr. C. M. McMichael, of this County says that his father, Jacob McMichael (Whose first wife was a niece of Capt. Rumph, and a daughter of Lieut. Wannamaker' of Rumph's company) has often related to him many of the exploits of Rumph's company which had been related to him by Lieut. Wannamaker, and says that his father has often pointed out to him the spot whereon Rumph's house stood, and also a large oak whereon he said Rumph hung many Tories. His father was a boy of 10 or 12 during the Revolution, and lived not many miles from Capt. Rumph, and he further related to Mr. McMichael that Rumph had a "bull pen" wherein he kept his prisoners.

Leaving tradition and returning to records, it is a certainty that Capt Rumph still commanded a company of militia in Orangeburgh District in 1784, as will be seen by the following extract from Judge O'Neall's "Bench and Bar of South Carolina", page 841:

"November, 1784.
"Mr. Justice Heyward.

"On motion of Mr. Sheriff, ordered that Capt. Jacob Rumph do immediately send six men, out of his company, to guard the gaol for the space of seven days; and that, after the expiration of seven days, ordered that Capt. Henry Felder do relieve the aforesaid six men with six men from his company, to continue seven days; and that, after said term, Capt. Rumph shall again send the same compliment of men to relieve Capt. Felder's men, and so each to relieve the other alternately, until the prisoners now confined in gaol, and under sentence of death, be executed according to sentence, or otherwise disposed of." (From Circuit Court records.)

Below is a roll of Capt Rumph's company. It was first published in the Clayton, Alabama, Banner, and had, it is said, been furnished that paper by the holder of the original roll. A copy of the published roll was sent to the Southron, a newspaper published in Orangeburg about 1860, by the late Capt A. Govan Salley, and it was republished in the Southron on September 10, 1861, with the remark that the editor had "no doubt of its authenticity", and that it was "worthy of remark that after the lapse of three-quarters of a century, the names, with scarcely an exception, still exist among the present inhabitants of Orangeburg District." The writer then adds: "The following are the names of Capt Jacob Rumph's men who fought the Tories of South Carolina in 1783, Orangeburg District, commanded by Col Wm Russell Thomson."

The writer was wrong in giving the date 1783, and he also probably mixed Wm. Russell Thomson up with Wm. Thomson, his father.

Jacob Rumph, Captain	Jacob Wannamaker, 1st Lt.
John Golson, 2nd Lt.	Lewis Golson Sergeant
David Gisendanner, Clerk	Henry Whestone (Whetstone)
John Cooke	John Moorer
John Ditchell	Paul Strornan
Jacob Riser	Abrain Miller
John Leraruerman (Zimmerman)	John Whestone (Whetstone)
Michael Zigler (Zeigler)	Peter Pound
John Ott	David Rumph
John Rumph	John Hoober (Hoover)
John Densler (Dantzler)	John Miller
Henry Wannamaker	John Amaka
Michael Larey	Jesse Pearson
Jacob Amaka	Jacob Hoegar (Horger)
Christian Inabnet	George Shingler
Anthony Robinson	John Cooney (Cooner)
Jacob Strornan	John Deremus (Deramus)
Jacob Cooney (Cooner)	Thomas Aberhart
John Strornan	Nicholas Dill
Peter Staley	Nicholas Rickenbacker
Nicholas Hulong (Herlong)	John Inabnet
John Houk	Jacob Rickenbacker
Robert Bayley  (Baily)	Arthur Barrot
Frederick Burtz	George Ryly  (Riley)
John Amaka	John Brown
Daniel Bowden	Wm. Hall
Peter Crouk  (Crook)	Martin Grambik
John Dudley	John Rickenbacker
Isaac Lester	Benj. Collar  (Culler)
Henry Lester	Conrad Crider
Henry Strornan	John Housliter
Abram Ott	Peter Snell
Frederick Snell	.

 
The company is said to have numbered seventy men, but it is evident that there are only sixty-five names on the above list.

Many thrilling stories of the exploits of Rumph's daring partisans are told by the old people of this section, but, while many of them are no doubt ill-founded, or badly mixed up with other occurrences, they are worth preserving, and perhaps future discoveries in the way of records will either confirm or destroy their truth.

The following account of some of the exploits in which Rumph's company was engaged is taken from the Southern Cabinet for 1840. The article is signed "J.", and was probably written by Gen. David F. Jamison, of Orangeburg, a grandson of Capt Rumph, who signed most of his articles simply "J":
"After the siege and fall of Charleston in the year 1780, and the shameful violation of the articles of treaty by the British officers, the war in South Carolina became essentially of a partisan character. The State was overrun, but not subdued. Bold spirits arose everywhere to assert their liberties, and they were frequently and instantaneously crushed by a powerful and unsparing foe, and no recollection now survives of themselves or their deeds; but not all of them thus perished. One fearful contest tradition has preserved, which I will endeavor to record—a struggle of man with his fellow man, a pursuit, a pistol shot and a death.

"Capt Jacob Rumph, (known after the Revolution better perhaps, as Gen Rumph,) of Orangeburg District, was the commander of a troop of cavalry raised in his neighborhood to protect themselves and their families, who lost no occasion of aiding their friends or annoying their enemies. They are all gone; history has not recorded their names, but few bolder spirits struck for liberty in that eventful war. Capt. Rumph was a man of prodigious size and strength, of great courage and coolness in the hour of danger, and though of a harsh and imperious disposition, no one was better fitted for the command of the hardy and intrepid men who composed his corps. They were usually dispersed at their ordinary avocations on their farms, but they united at a moment's warning from their leader.

"Not long after Charleston was taken by the British Capt. Rumph was returning with two of his wagons, which had been sent to Charleston with produce in charge of a Dutchman named Houselighter, and while slowly riding in company with his wagons on a small but strong horse, his mind gloomily brooding over the oppressed and almost hopeless condition of South Carolina, he had reached a large pond, on what is now called the old road, about seven miles below the village of Orangeburg, when he was suddenly roused by the approach of three men on horseback, whom he instantly recognized as his most deadly foes. They were well mounted, and armed like himself with sword and pistol. When the horsemen had reached the opposite side of the road to Capt. Rumph they halted for a moment and would have approached him nearer, but he, placing himself in the best posture of defence he could, called out to them: 'Gentlemen, stand off—I wish to have nothing to do with you!' The Tories, for such they were, surveyed him for an instant, and after a short conference with each other, to Capt. Rumph's great relief, rode on, and soon disappeared at the next turn of the road.

"Rumph, though he saw with no little satisfaction that the Tories had passed on, yet was too well acquainted with them to suppose for a moment that he was to get off so easily. He knew very well that the short respite they had thus given him was only that with an increased force he might become their prey with less danger to themselves.   He rightly conjectared that the three who had passed him on the road were only scouts sent to apprehend him if unarmed, and who, if he had incautiously suffered them to approach him, would have shot him down while off his guard. Casting his eyes about a moment for means of escape from his wily foes, the danger of his situation became fully apparent. The three troopers he knew belonged to the corps of the sanguinary Cuningham, a part of which, he was certain, was in the neighborhood, under the command of one of his subaltern officers, and Capt. Rumph, after carefully surveying his situation, became fully conscious of his extreme danger of falling into the hands of his merciless foes. He was mounted upon a strong but slow horse, and the thought of escape on horseback was abandoned by him without hesitation. He was armed with a trusty cut and thrust sword and a brace of pistols, but it would have been madness, he well knew, to think of exposing himself to such odds as he was sure would be brought against him. There was no time to be lost.  His only chance of escape at once flashed across his mind, and he immediately set about executing it. He rode his horse up to the pond already mentioned, and tied him fast to a tree. He then took off the greater part of his clothes and left them near his horse, to induce the suspicion that he had concealed himself in that pond. But that was very far from his real intention. He walked in the water near the margin of the pond until he had gained the side opposite to which he had tethered his horse, and, choosing with some caution the place at which he could best leave it, he set off at a rapid rate through the pine woods for home, a distance of some sixteen miles.

"In the meantime the three troopers, who, as Capt. Rumph truly supposed, were a party detached to seize, him if they could, returned to their main body, consisting of about twenty men under the command of Lieut. Parker, and reported the situation in which they had left Capt. Rumph. Without loss of time the party set off to overtake him. Upon their arrival at the pond they found that the wagons had proceeded but little distance from the spot which they occupied when the three Tories passed them, and Capt. Rumph's horse and clothes were in the same situation in which they had been left by him. The whole party rode up to the wagon and fiercely inquired of poor Houselighter, who was pale with terror, where Rumph was.  He pointed to the pond, and they rode up to the place where the horse was tied, and when they saw his clothes and other signs of Rumph's having taken to the pond, they surrounded it on every side, and, dismounting, they entered it sword in hand, and searched every place where he could possibly have been concealed. But their search was fruitless. Rumph was far on his way towards home before those who were so eagerly thristing for his blood could satisfy themselves that he was not there.

 Irritated by the escape of the prey which they were so confident they had in their grasp, while one party scoured the neighboring woods in search of Capt. Rumph, the other party took charge of the wagons, and, after taking such of the horses as could be serviceable to them, they stripped the wagons of everything they could not carry away and-burnt them to ashes with the remaining part of their freight. They worried poor Houselighter until he was ready to die with fear and left him (Houselighter, who was then a mere boy, lived to a great old age, and there are several old gentlemen of this section who well remember him and his quaint Dutch expressions.  He often told how "Cunningham's men took his own wagon whip and flogged him severely with it.).

"Capt. Rumph reached home about sunset, with the determination to give bis pursuers chance of a fight with less odds on one side, and he immediately set about collecting the scattered members of bis corps.  This was soon accomplished, and they, about twenty-five in number, were ready to set off in pursuit of the Tories by daylight the next morning.

"This party had proceeded for several hours on their way, and had nearly reached the spot where the wagons, of their leader had been burned the day before, and which was the scene of his perilous escape, when they were informed that the Tories, not far below, were feeding their horses near the road and were wholly unprepared for an attack. The patriots were prepared for an attack. The patriots were extremely anxious to be led to the charge. Just before their eyes were the evidences of the wanton destruction of property by the Tories, and their memories could readily supply numberless instances of their horrid barbarity, rapine and murder. They proceeded at a quickened pace along the road and soon their enemies appeared in the situation in which they had been described, with their horses carelessly feeding with their saddles on, their bridle-bits out of their mouths and their riders lying about in groups, or sleeping apart from the rest on the ground. No surprise could have been more complete. The Tories discovered their opponents at the distance of three or four hundred yards and at once prepared for fight.

They soon caught their horses, bridled them and in an instant were mounted and flying in every direction. 'Save, who can', was the only word. Capt. Rumph and his troopers dashed down upon them and as the Tories scattered, everyone for himself, the patriots were obliged to single out and pursue, as they were nearly equal in number, almost every one his man. Various were the results of that fight and pursuit.

"It was the fortune of Lieut. Parker, the officer in command of the Tories, to be singled out by Lieut. Wannamaker, of Capt. Rumph's Troop. Wannamaker Was a man of singular boldness and true devil-may-care sort of spirit. He was a fine horseman, and on this occasion was uncommonly well-mounted. In this respect, however, he was not superior to Parker; for after a chase of nearly two miles Wannamaker had gained but little, if any, upon Parker, but, unfortunately for the latter, after keeping well ahead for that distance, and while looking back to see if the enemy was gaining upon him, his horse carried him under a stooping tree, which struck him a violent blow upon the left shoulder as he rode under it and knocked him nearly off, and in his struggle to recover himself his saddle turned and got under the belly of his horse. In that situation he rode for some distance at an evident disadvantage, and Wannamaker began to gain upon him.   Parker's horse, however, broke the girth and the saddle fell, so that Parker was again, for a while, able to keep Wannamaker at a safe distance. But it soon became apparent to Parker's great dismay, that his horse's wind was failing from being ridden without a saddle. In vain he whipped and spurred his jaded horse. Wannamaker was shortening the distance between them at every leap. Parker beheld him nearly within pistol shot, and, frightened beyond measure, he took off his hat and beat his horse on the sides with it to accelerate his speed.   It succeeded for a moment, but the fagged horse had done his utmost. Wannamaker was just behind, and called out to him with presented pistol:

'Parker, halt! or I will kill you.' Parker heeded not, but continued with renewed violence his blows with his hat. Wannamaker approached nearer and called to him again, but still he rode on.  Wannamaker called to him again, the third time, and offered him quarter, but the unhappy man knew that he had no right to expect that mercy which he had never given, and halted not. 

'Halt, Parker!' said Wannamaker. 'I have told you the last time.' Parker rode on. Wannamaker, fearing something might occur to incline the chances against him, approached the doomed man within half a horse's length, and fired. Parker rode erect for a moment, but his hold soon relaxed—he fell backwards on his horse, rolled heavily off, and expired. J."

That "J." was mistaken in saying that history had not recorded the names of the patriotic men of Rumph's company is attested by the resurrection of the original roll, and its publication in the Alabama paper. It has several times been reprinted in South Carolina newspapers. Lieut. Wannamaker often said, after he had had time to reflect upon the matter, that he regretted having killed Parker, as he had often thought that perhaps Parker had been stunned by his contact with the tree, and could not hear him calling to him. But, on the other hand, it is quite likely that Parker preferred to die the death of a soldier than run the risk of being hung by Capt. Rumph; for traditionary accounts of Rumph say he was a perfect martinet, and seldom showed his enemies quarter.

From the traditionary accounts handed down to Mr. McMichael we also learn that it was Capt. Rumph who drove "Bloody Bill" Cuningham to his deeds of violence.  The account says that Cuningham was a member of Rumph's company in the early days of the war, (He was a member of Capt. John Caldwell's company of regulars, but possibly he was attached to Rumph's command on some scouting expedition or other like service.) and a good soldier; but that he had a brother, who was a Tory. One day this brother (As we find no record of "Bloody Bill" having a brother, it is possible that this was only a kinsman.)  was captured by Rumph's men, and Rumph, as was his custom, ordered him to be immediately hanged. William Cuningham came up and begged that, his brother be spared, and said to Capt. Rumph: "If you will let him go I will guarantee that he will quit the Tories and join our company and make as good Whig as any man in the company", but Rumph was obdurate, and had the brother strung up. Cuningham quietly mounted his horse, and riding up to Capt. Rumph remarked: "From this day forth I am your deadly enemy. I have nothing against your men,  but we must go different roads", and he rode off in a gallop. Capt. Rumph ordered his men to shoot him, but such was the esteem in which he had been held, and such was the sympathy for him, that not a man obeyed the order; and from that time on Cuningham was the enemy of the Whigs, and the especial enemy of Capt. Rumph. Lorenzo Sabine's work, "American Loyalists", also states that Cuningham was first a Whig and then a Tory (See also O'Neall's Annals of Newberry, page 254)  but does not state why he changed. And a careful reading of J.'s article, above quoted, will disclose the existence of a vendetta-like hatred between Cuningham's men and Rumph.

Upon one occasion, when Rumph's men had put Cuningham's troops to flight, Lieut. Golson singled out Capt. Cuningham and gave chase. They were both riding rapidly through the woods, when suddenly Cuningham spurred his horse over a- little ditch, and wheeling it in an instant, presented his pistol at Golson, and said: "Stop, Golson! I have nothing against you, and I don't want to kill you, nor do I want to be killed by you, but if you cross that ditch to-day one of us must die; so you had better go your way and let me go mine." Golson said afterwards that he had never seen eyes in a human head that looked as Guningham's did on that occasion. He said it was a tigerish look—more of animal than of human being. He, however, did not further interfere with Cuningham, but returned to his company, and no one would ever have known of this incident had not Golson related it himself.

On another occasion Rumph's company come upon Cuningham's men taking their noonday naps, in fence corners, and before Cuningham awoke Rumph was upon him, and placing his sword at Cuningham's throat would have thrust it through his neck in another instant, but awaking suddenly, Cuningham, with a stroke like lightning, thrust aside the sword, sprang over the fence, and, mounting his horse, was off like an arrow, with a shower of bullets hissing all around him; but he was never touched.

He seemed to bear a charmed life—he had declared a vendetta, and he lived to make his very name cause a chill of horror to those who read me story of his bloody deeds.

Upon one occasion, while Rumph's partisans were scouting in the "Upper Bull Swamp" section of Orangeburg District, they came to a deserted settlement.  Rumph sent his men to hide in the swamp, near the opening in which the houses were situated, and he took Paul Strornan with him and went up to the front of the houses. When they got there they saw a tall man walking in the yard. Capt. Rumph proposed that they give him a shot, and he and Strornan tired at him, breaking one leg, but nothing daunted the man began to turn handsprings so rapidly, using his arms and the good leg, that he would have escaped had he not run (or rather turned) into the ambuscade in the swamp, where he was shot down and killed.  When Capt. Rumph came up Lieut. Wannamaker asked who the man was and what he was, but no one could tell, and Lieut. Wannamaker always held that the stranger should not have been killed, as he might have been a friend and not a foe. He described him as a magnificent specimen of manhood, and said he looked like a gentleman and was well dressed.

Another story told of Rumph is that upon one occasion he was complained to by some women who had been on  trading expedition to Charlestown—doubtless before its fall—that a party of marauders had stopped their wagons below Orangeburgh and robbed them of their purchases. Rumph immediately collected some of his partisans and went in pursuit of them, and succeeded in capturing the whole party of them. He took them up to his "bull pen", and, the robbed women having identified them, he proceeded to hang them on the big oak. There was among the marauders a red-headed man named Billy Sturkie. When the rope was placed about his neck and he was about to be jerked up one of the women cried out, "Stop! that red-headed man did not take anything, but tried to keep the others from stealing". The other woman confirmed her statements, and Sturkie was turned loose, but his fright had been so great that he was only able to feebly exclaim, "You might as well a hung me."

It seems rather peculiar that all of the best known historians of this State have totally neglected to say anything of Rumph's command, notwithstanding the fact that at least one, Dr. Joseph Johnson, knew of the existence and work of this command.   In his "Traditions of the Revolution", pages 548-50, speaking of the fight between the Tories and the Whig company, under Capt. Michael Watson, near Dean Swamp, in Orangeburgh District, he says: "Some of Watson's company, who had also taken to flight on seeing their captain fall, took possession of a farm-house near by, occupied only by a mother and her child. There was little or nothing to eat on the premises, and they now feared pursuit more than ever, believing that the woman would report them to their enemies. One of them was chosen by lot, and sent off to Orangeburg for help.  Colonel Rumph came out to them as soon as possible, but, before the arrival of his company, the poor woman and child, with their unwelcome guests, were all nearly starved out."

Dr. Johnson seems to presume that the reader well knows who "Col. Rumph" was, for it is the only mention made of him in the book. He also calls him by his post-bellum title, "Colonel", yet speaks of "his company." Capt. Rumph did not attain the rank of colonel until after the war, when he was chosen colonel of a militia regiment. Some years later he attained the rank of brigadier general of militia.

Some interesting stories are told of some of the individuals of Rumph's company. One of these is about John Amaka—and, by the way, there are two John Amakas mentioned on the roll of the company, above given—who was an actual illustration of late popular song, for "One of his legs was longer than it really ought to have been"; that is to say, he had one leg shorter than the other. When the Whigs had commenced to make it unpleasant for the Tories and those of Tory sentiments, many of them left the State and went to East Florida. One day John Amaka passed by the house of George McMichael (grandfather of Mr.C. M. McMichael) and inquired of him the way to East Florida. Mr. McMichael told him the way, but further remarked to him, "John you can't get there on those legs of yours, so if you are going to turn Tory you had better stay here and run your chances."  Amaka, however, continued on his journey, but in a day or so he hobbled back, and it seems decided to cast his fortunes with Rumph's partisans.

Paul Strorman, who lived where Mr. James H. Fowles's "Durham" place now is, has been accused of Toryism, but the traditions of his family and the appearance of his name on Rumph's roll tend to disprove the accusation. The charge was probably based on the ground that upon one occasion he, it seems, refused to obey some order of Rumph's, and it so aroused that officer's ire that he rode down to Stroman's place to arrest him. Strornan saw him coming and hid in his barn with his rifle by him. He afterwards declared that if Rumph had discovered him he (Strornan) would have shot him.

Mr. W. W. Culler, of this County, tells a good story of Capt. Rumph's wit. He relates that one night Capt. Rumph called for his grandfather, Benjamin Culler, who was a member of Rumph's company, and, with several others, they went out to waylay and capture some "outlyers".  They secreted themselves in some pine brush by the road side, and after awhile a woman, the wife of one of the "outlyers", came along and began to call her husband. After calling several times she called out, "0, honey, 0, honey!"

At that Capt. Rumph remarked to his companions; "If that fellow is any honey, the devil was the bee."
Mr. Culler also says that his grandmother has often told him that "Bloody Bill" Cunningham had on several occasions come to her house and made her run down and kill and cook chickens for him to eat, and that she had often known, or heard, of his presence in the community.

It is related that upon one occasion Capt. Rumph had two sick members of his company staying in his house. One night he was suddenly aroused by one of his slaves, who ran in and shouted;  "Run Massa de Tory comin!" Capt. Rumph quickly awakened his sleeping friends and told them to run for their lives, but one of them complained that he was too sick to run. "Then you are a dead man" shouted Capt. Rumph, and ran out of the house. Just then the Tories entered from the opposite direction, and finding the sick man, dragged him out into the yard and cut his head off with an axe.

Old James Knight, of the Limestone section, who died about forty years ago, had been a member of Cuningham's company during the Revolution, and he was often heard to tell how he escaped on one occasion when Rumph's men had put Cuningham's to flight. He said he simply lay down on his horse, threw his arms around the animal's neck, slapped his spurs to him with all his might and dashed through a thicket.