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Colonel Benjamin Cleveland was of the same bold character as Daniel Boone and found his most delightful pleasure in hunting rather than plowing. As a young man he was often found in the woods hunting and gathering pelts. Two of his childhood friends were Thomas Sumter and Joseph Martin.  Sumter would later be known as the […]

Signal Beacons of Gandor used in NC mountains during the revolution? Local folklore in and around Wilkes and Caldwell Counties in NC reveal the story of Martin Gambill. His 100-mile journey to warn the Patriots of the British invasion into the mountains is the stuff of Legends.  The story goes that the watch fires that

“If you want your horses fed, feed them yourself,\” replied ten-year-old William Davenport to Tory leader John McFall in September of 1780. Channeling his father\’s courage he would become a leader in his own right as he grew older.  The Davenport College for Women in Lenoir, NC was formed through his philanthropy. John McFall served in Major

In September of 1780 British Major Patrick Ferguson raised his army of over 1000 men and headed up into the North Carolina Mountains. Going through present day, Chesney, SC and onto Rutherfordton, NC., his army would live off the land as they worked their way from community to hamlet. On the general route laid out

The Twin Poplars of Peace Local legend has it that over 280 years ago the Catawba and the Cherokee Indians were locked in a brutal and savage conflict in the smoky hills around Lenoir, North Carolina.  So many warriors were killed on both sides that the leaders came together to talk peace, not as victor over

Isaac Shelby was definitely not a “fence sitter” during the war with the mother country.  He was, as a son of his father Evan Shelby, a proponent by deed of the Fincastle Resolutions and had resolved to \”live and die\” while never surrendering his \”inestimable privileges\”.(1)  He understood Freedom and slavery.  He understood the Quebec acts as intolerable to

A man and a horse do not a cavalry make!  A lack of swords was a serious problem for Revolutionary war era cavalry, and on June 18, 1781 the Patriots got the worst end of their encounter with 200 British mounted infantry in Gilbert, SC.  After this running battle from Highway 1 down Peach Festival

The Battle of the Great Savannah Perhaps the greatest single order that General Gates gave prior to his ignoble defeat at Camden was to appoint Francis Marion as the Brigadier General of the South Carolina Militia.   Following up on his orders, Marion departed from Gates at Rugeley’s Mill above Camden. He then headed south to

Ferguson was frustrated. At the Battle of Wofford’s Iron Works (Spartanburg) on August 8, 1780 American Col. Isaac Shelby and his frontiersmen played cat and mouse with Cornwallis’ man and eluded his British force with taunts and jeers on a hillside out of musket range.(1)  This came just a little over a week after Loyalists surrendered

Two ladies loyal to the King helped Tarleton put another jewel in his Crown while the “Gamecock” was saved by cattle, sheep and a low hanging branch. On August 15, 1780, the day before Camden fell, Col. Sumter won at Cary’s Fort.  Guarding the Wateree crossing, Cary’s Fort was located on the west side of

Perhaps the story of British occupation is best taught through the perils of the women on the home front, especially those of the frontier settlements.  Forced to reckon with Indian raids and bands of outlaws, these were not the women of the genteel plantations in the parishes outside of Charleston along the Cooper, Ashley, Stono, and

Hannah’s Cowpens near the intersection of SC Hwy 11 and Hwy 221, near the North Carolina line was; once again, an army camp.  In October 1780 it was the Patriots chasing British Major Ferguson on their way to Kings Mountain.  They had camped on these grounds to cull out a “flying column” of riders to

1777 Northern Theater of American Revolution “Too Cautious” was the description of General Gates by his subordinates at the battles at Saratoga. Indeed, Benedict Arnold’s ultimate treason of the American cause had much to do with his dissatisfaction of General Horatio Gates; who he called ‘the greatest poltroon in the world and many other genteel qualifications.’  Major General

Captain Johnson had a hard time wrestling Tory Captain Patrick Moore into submission.  Moore and his Loyalist sympathizers had been on the run from their defeat at Ramsour’s Mill near Lincolnton, NC for 12 days and were not too willing to fall into the hands of these Liberty Men. At six foot seven inches tall(1), Moore was

They came in droves, as if the flood gates had opened on some Scots Irish dam across the sea. With their recent inclusion into the United Kingdom they sought freedom and land in the British colonies as new British subjects. They disembarked at New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Charleston. They pooled money and families together and

Col. William Davie yelled to the British at Hanging Rock in Lancaster county, \”Soldiers, if you value your lives, ground your arms, and officers surrender at once!\” They didn\’t. He won. He later harassed Cornwallis\’ 2000 man army in the streets of Charlotte with only 150 cavalry, and was probably the reason Charlotte was called a

A mass grave in Lancaster, South Carolina entombs 113 men from Virginia who died at the hands of British soldiers! Eyewitnesses said the Virginians were throwing down their guns and trying to surrender when the British soldiers, led by Colonel Tarleton, began hacking them to death with their swords. Another 150 men were treated for severe injuries in

\”My hearers,\” he said, in his broad Scotch-Irish dialect— \”talk and angry words will do no good. We must fight!\” Highway 97 in York and Chester counties was part of the New Acquisition District during the revolutionary war.  We find stories of valor and intrigue dotting the various communities along that holy thoroughfare.  Reverend William Martin preached a

Murder or self defense? You would be hard pressed to second guess a man like Josiah Culbertson.  A Hunter and tracker, he would join one Patriot band and then another as a situation arose.  At times he served under Col Roebuck\’s Spartan Regiment and  Col. Shelby’s “Over the Mountain Men.\”  He was a true Son of Liberty.