Spartanburg

When asked his name Noah replied, “Hampton.”  Enraged, “they cursed him for a Rebel, and ran him through with a bayonet.”(1) Yet the British were having the worst of this running battle from July 12-16, 1780.  Loyalists Captain James Dunlap ran into the Hampton’s, Capt. John Jones and other Patriots under General McDowell in and around Landrum.  Night raids were made by both sides with success, but in the end, it was Dunlap that was fleeing for safety on a wild race for shelter at Fort Prince.  On his heels was another Hampton, Captain Edward “Ned” Hampton.  As the dead and wounded were counted from Spartanburg to Landrum to Inman the costs were mounting on both sides. In the end Dunlap abandoned Fort Prince.(2)

Faint markers of these skirmishes dot the upstate as civilization moves on.  Houses, woods and kudzu have invaded these blood-stained landscapes and most of their secrets are lost to time.  For the inquiring minds; though, there are still some reverent moments of thankfulness found in finding just the area of these life and death conflicts where freedom was in the balance.  Freedom Reigns!

  “Men are not made for war. But, neither are they made for slavery.” Jean Guéhenno, 1942.

(1) North Carolina, 1780-\’81: Being a History of the Invasion of the Carolinas …By David Schenck

(2)  Parker\’s Guide to the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

Freedom Reigns!