What occurred at Matthews Bluff and Wiggins Hill epitomized the hatred and violence that raged across the deep south in the closing chapters of the American Revolution. Families and neighbors torn apart by a cause unleashed the worst of humanity. Pillaging, destruction, and savagery by both sides spawned vengeance that fed upon itself. Matthews Bluff, January 22, 1781,[1] a rebel victory, was ripe with treachery and murder. Only to be matched two days later, January 24, 1781, loyalist victory, with the vindictive execution and torture of patriot captives. The two main antagonists, Loyalist Carolina Rangers commander Lieutenant Colonel Thomas ‘Burnfoot’ Brown and Patriot Militia Captain James McKay, were engaged in unconventional warfare embodying sudden and ferocious raids. Besides targeting those in arms, the innocent bystanders who failed to adhere to the political agendas of king’s men or the rebellion fell victim to cupidity and reprisal. Historians refer to the events in the Savannah River Valley and the backcountry of South Carolina and Georgia as America’s first civil war. Those who lived through the carnage described it as pure terrorism.
Region History
Earliest known human habitation in the Carolinas was discovered by archaeologists in the Savannah River Valley; the region that bordered what became Georgia and South Carolina. Their finds dated back more than sixteen thousand years. Principal Native Americans of this area were Creek or Muscogee, Yamasee, and Cherokee. European immigrants arrived in the early 1750’s; many traveling the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to the Carolinas. Over 65% were from England, mainly Scotch-Irish, so too a small number of Germans, called Dutch. They settled at Matthews Bluff on the Savannah River and Jackson’s Branch, a tributary of the Salkehatchie River, about sixty miles northwest of Savannah, Georgia. Communities were also established further north into South Carolina, along the headwaters of the Coosawhatchie River and its tributaries. Cattle herding and farming were the mainstays of these pioneering economies.
This region became the Orangeburg District; established in 1769, it was initially an overarching district that was later divided and replaced by counties in the early 1800s. For protection, two militias were formed – the Upper and Lower Orangeburg District Regiments. At the close of the French and Indian War, 1763, South Carolina was already choosing sides amidst a growing autonomy that by the early 1770’s, rebelled against what was considered a draconian royal government. Many settlers along the Savannah and its tributaries sided with the patriots; however, there remained a strong presence of those who remained loyal to the crown. The two battles of this study, Matthews Bluff[2] and Wiggins Hill, were fought in the Upper Orangeburg District and present-day Allendale County.
War Erupts
By 1775, colonial legislatures throughout the thirteen American colonies had flexed their muscle and taken control, ousting royal governments.[3] An Association was drawn up in South Carolina,[4] demanding all within the colony to sign onto the rebellion. Those who did not sign were threatened with reprisals. By summer’s end, patriots and rebels gathered in force to take up arms. But this early conflict was short-lived. There were far more patriots than loyalists. In what has been called the Snow Campaign, November 24 – December 30, 1775, Colonel, and later Brigadier General, Richard Richardson marched over three thousand Whigs and squashed all loyalist opposition. Over the next three years, the south remained relatively calm while northern armies clashed. This changed when England, facing a stalemate north, decided to expand their influence in the south and launched an invasion of Savannah, Georgia.
Savannah fell on December 29, 1778 with the destruction of the Southern Continental Army led by General Robert Howe. Howe’s fractured force retreated into South Carolina while British commanders, Lt. Colonel Archibald Campbell and Brigadier General Augustine Prevost advanced up the Savannah River Valley to Augusta, Georgia. They established outposts and encouraged loyalists to march to the crown’s banner. But backcountry patriots were also called to gather.
Before a large loyalist force could join the British at Augusta, patriots under Colonel Andrew Pickens defeated the king’s men at the Battle of Kettle Creek, February 14, 1779. Facing superior numbers and a reinforced Continental army heading his way, Lt. Colonel Campbell withdraw from Augustus toward Savannah. Patriots followed and got their noses bloodied in a decisive defeat at the Battle of Brier Creek, March 2, 1779. After Brier Creek, what remained of the American force floated on logs or swam across the Savannah River to escape; their commander, General John Ashe, taking refuge at Matthews Bluff. A resurrected Southern Army under Major General Benjamin Lincoln and a French force under Admiral Comte de’Estaing failed to dislodge the British at Savannah, September 16 – October 18, 1779. This set the stage for another British invasion in 1780.
The Continental Southern Army established headquarters at Charleston, South Carolina where they continued to bash heads with British forces firmly established in Savannah. England continued their southern policy and in February, 1780, landed a large invasion force under Supreme British Commander General Henry Clinton. On May, 12, 1780, a British siege of Charleston ended with the complete surrender of the Southern Continental Army. South Carolina and Georgia militiamen, as well as leading patriots throughout the region, signed pardons and accepted paroles not to carry arms against the British government. Georgia became the first American colony to return under royal rule and British outposts were established throughout South Carolina.
But backcountry patriots who refused to accept British pardons were joined by many others who broke their pardons. Rebel militias rose to challenge British forces in dozens of encounters; large and small; often vicious and brutal. Even the destruction of a resurrected Southern Continental Army at the Battle of Camden, August 16, 1780, proved that in war, from the ashes of defeat, rose a stronger resistance. In this case, the strengthening backcountry patriot rejection of British authority.
Loyalist Lt. Colonel Thomas Brown and Patriot Captain James McKay
Thomas Brown (also spelt Browne) was the son of a wealthy Yorkshire, England merchant. He received a large land grant in the upper Savannah River Valley and arrived in Augusta, Georgia to develop his estate just as the caldron of rebellion boiled over into violence. When the Augusta Sons of Liberty insisted he sign an Association denouncing his King, he refused. The mob attacked and while fighting them off, a rifle stock was smashed against Brown’s skull. He was immediately carted to Augusta where he was tortured, his feet pressed upon hot ambers, tarred and feathered, then driven from his new home; taking refuge among loyalist strongholds in the Camden, South Carolina region.[5]
Labeled ‘Burnfoot’ Brown, Thomas suffered lifelong severe headaches and malformed feet with a pronounced limp from the bashing to his head and torture prior to tar and feathering. He harbored an intense hatred for his persecutors, giving rise to one of the rebellion’s fiercest enemies. During the 1775 patriot purge of loyalist leaders, Brown was forced to sail to British held St. Augustine, East Florida. From 1776 to 1778, Carolina and Georgia patriots staged three invasions of East Florida. All three times, Lt. Colonel Thomas Brown of the Florida Rangers was key in the defeat of American forces.
When General Augustine Prevost joined the invasion of Savannah in December of 1778, Brown and his rangers marched north. He returned to Augusta briefly in 1779, before joining the British on their retreat back to Savannah. He remained in Savannah and was instrumental in warding off the Franco/American Siege of Savannah in October of 1779. When a large British force under General Henry Clinton invaded Charleston, South Carolina in the spring of 1780, Brown, now at the head of his renamed Carolina Rangers, was there to see his patriot enemies accept oaths of parole.
In June, 1779, Brown was awarded the command of Augusta, Georgia. Because of his close relationship with Native American chiefs, Brown also assumed British stewardship over the Cherokee and Creek who had formed an alliance with England.[6] Due to Brown’s determination and courage, he survived an attack on Augusta, September 14-18, 1780, by his fierce nemesis, fellow Georgian Colonel Elijah Clarke. Shortly after Clarke’s failed assault on Augusta, Brown’s actions vilified him among backcountry patriots. Twenty-nine wounded were left at the rebel held Fort Grierson when Clarke hastily retreated before a large British rescue party. Brown ordered thirteen who were believed to have broken their parole to be hanged. Brown later stated he was only following British General Charles Cornwallis’s previous proclamation.[7] The rest were brutally tortured and killed by Native Americans in revenge for their killed and wounded. Brown was still in command of Augusta in January 1781 when patriot militias’ increased raids on the British supply chain and Savannah River Valley loyalists demanded he take a more aggressive action towards his enemies.
Captain James McKay (also spelt McCay and McCoy), was a native Georgian like Colonel Elijiah Clarke of the Georgia Refugee Regiment. Unlike Clarke, after Charleston fell, McKay and his extended family petitioned for a pardon and took an oath of loyalty not to take up arms against the British. James must have been convincing in his oath of loyalty for soon afterwards, Georgia’s reinstated Royal Governor James Wright appointed him a road commissioner “from the other side of the Ogeechee Ferry to Medway (also spelt Midway), Newport, and Sunbury.”[8] His role as diligent British agent did not last long. McKay broke his parole and recruited volunteers to form a company of patriot militia to operate in the Upper Orangeburg District. He soon began staging guerrilla raids in the Savannah River Valley; both in South Carolina and Georgia.
Devastation and Death
Augusta was a supply hub for British outposts in the backcountry and western South Carolina. It was also a staging area for expeditions into Patriot strongholds in the Georgia backcountry. Georgia’s Royal Governor James Wright tasked Brown with maintaining peace in the region and keeping the supply line between Savannah and Augusta open. Towards the end of 1780, Brown’s command consisted of 250 Carolina Rangers with 250 Creek and 50 Cherokee warriors. The number of loyalist militiamen fluctuated with sporadic calls by Brown to assemble.
By December, McKay’s violent raids could no longer be tolerated. They became bolder and frequent, while dangerously close to cutting off supply lines between Savannah and Augusta. Lt. Colonel Brown was forced to act Sources differ as if it were Brown or Royal Governor Wright who dispatched a strong force of Tory rangers to go after the rebel renegade. To command this force, Brown turned to one of his officers. Equal, if not more brutal than McKay, Lt. Colonel Daniel McGirtt (also spelt McGirth), was an accused horse thief and leader of a band of ‘ruthless banditti.’ He had been with Brown since Florida. McGirtt and his men would “enter houses and plantations at their discretion, to live at free quarter wherever they pleased and carry off negroes, cattle, horses, and property of all kinds under the idea that all was free plunder.”[9] As the war progressed, McGirtt marked his path by terrorizing both rebel and loyalist homesteads.[10] And the mission to pursue McKay became what may be the single most heinous act attributed to him and his men.[11]
McGritt’s two-day rampage hunting down McKay left a thirty-mile swath of ruin ten miles wide.[12] An unknown number were murdered during McGirtt’s plunderous passage. At least seventeen men died when one of McGritt’s patrols, under Captain Tmothy Hollingsworth, killed all within their reach. Patriot Tarleton Brown’s younger brother had been killed by Tory raiders earlier in the war. He and his other brother Barlett joined with the rebels and rode with McKay. Later Tarleton would join Colonel Francis ‘Swampfox’ Marion’s band. He wrote in his memoirs of the carnage McGirtt and his men carved through the Upper Orangeburg District, killing his father William[13] and many neighbors while looking for McKay and his men: “McGeart and his company of Tories crossed the Savannah River from Georgia, at Summerlin’s Ferry, (now called Stone’s Ferry), taking the course of the river, and killing every man he met who had not sworn allegiance to the King. This notorious scoundrel passed in this trip through the neighborhood where my father lived, and brutally murdered seventeen of the inhabitants, among whom were my father… They burnt my father’s house level with the ground, and destroyed everything he possessed — my mother and sisters escaping by fleeing to the woods, in which they concealed themselves until the vile wretches departed.”[14]
Battle of Matthews Bluff; Loyalist Prisoners Murdered
McGritt returned to Augusta loaded with loot, but without McKay. Raiding patrols sent out by McKay continued unabated. Brown wrote that they “attacked the guards of the public boats navigating [up] the Savannah River, with provisions, ammunition, and clothing for the garrisons…”[15] The disruptions to the supply line became critical and had a dire impact on Augusta and the other important backcountry outpost at Ninety-Six, sixty miles north. Brown authorized another attempt to locate McKay and bring him and his men into custody.[16] He ordered Captain Alexander Wylly of the King’s American Rangers to organize men for an expedition down the South Carolina side of the Savannah River.
Prior to Wylly setting out, an advance detachment under Lieutenant Kemp was dispatched to locate McKay. Brown’s memoir states he, not Wylly, sent Lt. Kemp: “Having received intelligence that the King’s stores had been intercepted, I dispatched Lieutenant Kemp, of the King’s Rangers, from Augusta, with ten soldiers [17]and twenty militia, to pursue the plunderers.”[18] History does not record Kemp’s full name. He may have been related to George Kemp, a refugee from South Carolina in St. Augustine who served as a delegate in the East Florida House of Commons.[19]
Brown wrote that a guide was employed who knew the area: “He [Kemp] engaged one Willie[20] as a guide, a man who had taken the oath of allegiance, and received protection.”[21] McCall’s account, that has been cited by many early histories, stated that the guide’s name was Wylly[22] – confusing partisan Captain Alexander Wylly with Willie (as stated by Brown). Interestingly, just prior to identifying Wylly as the guide, McCall described in detail Captain Wylly’s role in commanding a company of Loyalist Partisan Rangers under Brown. History does not record who Willie was besides the information Brown’s 1786 letter to Dr. David Ramsay provides; one who had taken the oath of allegiance and pardon. This would indicate a former patriot militiaman. Yet there is only speculation as to his race; that he may had been an Irishman, freeman, or enslaved person.[23] There was no mention of any treachery by the guide Willie in early texts of McCall, Jones, or McGrady. Only that McKay heard of Lt. Kemp’s men advancing south along the river. Brown’s letter stated that Willie got word to McKay, allowing the rebel leader to set an ambush. There is no record explaining how Willie alerted McKay who set his trap at Matthews Bluff, about sixty miles southeast of Augusta along the Savannah River, halfway from Augusta to Savannah.
On January 22, 1781, McKay attacked Lt. Kemp’s detachment. Brown explained what occurred: “this traitor [Willie] conveyed information to McCoy of Kemp’s force, design, and intended route, and led him into an ambuscade previously formed. The militia under the command of Kemp fled upon the first fire; he and the soldiers, unable to resist a very superior force, surrendered themselves prisoners. Captain McCoy asked Kemp to join his party. On his refusal, he stripped and shot him. The same question was put to the soldiers; nine out of the ten refused, and shared the same fate The other joined them to save his life, and in a few days afterwards made his escape, and brought me intelligence of the murder of Kemp and his men…”[24]
Historians cite Brown’s primary account that stated Kemp and nine of the ten soldiers were murdered by McKay after capture. By the opening of 1781, the backcountry south had been embroiled in a two-year civil war between rebel and loyalist factions resulting in numerous vicious raids and equally vicious retributions. Matthews Bluff, occurring on the heels of Captain McGirtt’s murderous spree among rebel homesteads, was enough cause to enact vengeance upon the captured partisans. Yet McCall, cited by later early historians, did not report McKay questioning then slaughtering his captives, indicating only that Kemp and his men died in battle. McCall wrote, “M’Kay hearing of the advance of the party, took an advantageous position near Matthews’ bluff, and attacked them, though much superior in number to his own, killed the officer and fifteen of his men, and compelled the remainder to retreat precipitately to Augusta.”[25] In reference to the guide Willie and Rannal McKay, Brown recorded“that Willie and young McCoy were the most active in putting them [partisan troops] to death.”[26] Later secondary accounts speculated from Brown’s report that seventeen-year-old Rannal McKay forced Kemp to strip, tortured him, and finally fired the shot that killed the officer.[27]
Battle of Wiggin’s Hill
The failure of McGirtt to apprehend McKay and the vicious murder of Lieutenant Kemp and nine of his detachment only emboldened the rebels. With supplies critically low, Brown could no longer tolerate further raids nor let the butchery of his soldiers stand without retribution. Five years later, he wrote to Dr. Ramsay that having learned a force under Lt. Colonel William Harden was marching to join McKay’s band, he quickly organized an expedition to deal with the rebels: “[McKay] had joined a Colonel Harden…Apprehending a general revolt in that quarter of the country, I immediately marched from Augusta with one hundred and seventy Indians, and was joined by four hundred militia.”[28] Brown’s letter did not specifically include his rangers nor the provincial troops under his command. Some historians have read his wording as one hundred rangers and seventy Indians. The following is what most secondary sources have accepted:[29]
- Kings Rangers (Carolina Rangers) led by Lt. Colonel Thomas Brown – 200 men.
- Captain Andrew Johnson
- Captain Joseph Smith
- Captain Alexander Campbell Wylly
- Captain Samuel Roworth
- 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants), 2nd Battalion (Young Royal Highlanders), Light Company led by Capt. Ronald MacKinnon.
- 100 Loyalists – commander unknown.
- 30 Creek warriors.
Rebel militia leader Lt. Colonel William Harden[30] was captured at Charleston and given his oath of parole. He broke his parole in the summer of 1780 to ride with Lt. Colonel Francis ‘Swampfox’ Marion. Later that year he organized militia in the southern portion of South Carolina. By January 1781, he had formed and was leading the Upper Granville County Regiment. After McKay’s force defeated Lt. Kemp’s detachment, Harden moved to join with the rebel raider.
Brown traveled rapidly along the South Carolina side of the Savannah. According to McCall, during the trek south, Brown detached a party under Capt. Wylly to reconnoiter Harden’s force.[31] Wylly’s scouts located Harden’s camp and Wylly reported back to Brown that Harden was advancing on him rapidly.[32] On the evening of January 23rd, Brown arrived at Wiggins Plantation where he made camp for the night at Wiggins’ Hill. Wiggins Plantation was near Burton’s Ferry, about 45 miles southeast of Augusta, 30 miles from Black Swamp, and around fifteen miles northwest of Matthews Bluff along the river. Harden learned of Brown’s camp on the 23rd, and set plans to attack that night.
Shortly after midnight on the 24th, Harden and McKay attacked. The rebels charged into the camp, terrifying the Loyalist militia who immediately fled. But the British Rangers and partisan troops, hardened veterans, did not panic. They quickly formed into a battle line and volleyed at the Patriots, proving that throughout the war, that whenever undisciplined militia came up against trained soldiers, the militia suffered the worst. Harden and his men were driven out of the camp. Brown wrote simply that “Colonel Harden, about midnight, attacked our camp, and was repulsed. The militia under my command during the action deserted to a man, joined Colonel Harden, who, thus reinforced, at ten in the morning renewed the attack, but his men being totally without discipline, were defeated with considerable loss.”
No other account but Brown’s later description to Dr. Ramsay details loyalist militia deserting to join Harden after the initial attack. McCall tells us that “Brown’s officers were apprised of Harden’s approach and were forming their ranks, when Harden’s troops commenced the attack. The contest lasted half an hour, when overpowered by superiority of numbers and discipline, Harden was compelled to retreat, which he effected in good order and carried off his wounded.”[33] McCall, Jones, McCrady, nor any other early writer recorded another rebel attack in the morning. Of interest is that McCall and Jones (who cited McCall) described Brown’s ‘unsoldierly’ actions after establishing his camp. McCall wrote, “but Brown, always imprudent, and possessing no quality of an officer but courage, retired to a house a few hundred yards distant from his camp, and went to sleep.”[34] McCall also stated Brown ignored Captain Wylly’s prior concerns of a rebel attack that evening. This left his officers to sound the call to arms. McCall gave no primary source for his information. By war’s end and generations afterward, Brown had been vilified; speculation of bias among early historians may have played a factor in reporting what occurred that night.
Rebel Prisoners Hanged; One Killed by Native Americans
Most accounts give rebel loses as seven killed and eleven wounded, stating that British casualties were similar. Brown’s letter indicated that thirteen rebels were taken prisoners, “Among the prisoners, Willie and young McCoy, and eleven of Kemp’s murderers, were taken.”[35] Most accounts read this as Willie and the young McKay were among the total captives taken, totaling eleven prisoners. Like Matthews Bluff, where retribution for McGirtt’s murderous raid on rebel homesteads was swift and brutal, resulting in all captives killed, the same fate awaited rebel prisoners after Wiggins Hill. Two versions of what occurred has been handed down; McCall’s and Jones, that has been parroted by other early histories including many modern internet articles, and Brown’s version, in which he attempted to set the record straight in his 1786 letter to Dr. Ramsay.
McCall wrote, “Several prisoners were taken after the skirmish at Wiggins’ hill, by parties of the enemy detached by Brown : one of them by the name of Wylly, [Willie] who had piloted Brown’s detachment to Matthews’ bluff, and whom they alleged, had treacherously led the detachment into that difficulty: on the bare supposition. Brown turned him over to the Indians, who ripped him open with their knives in his presence, and tortured him to death.”[36] As to the fate of the other prisoners, McCall wrote, “On the ensuing morning, the prisoners, Rannal M’Kay, Britton Williams, George Smith, George Reed, and a Frenchman, whose name is not known, were ordered forth to the gallows ; and after hanging until they were nearly dead, they were cut down and delivered to the Indians, who scalped them and otherwise abused their bodies in their accustomed savage manner.”[37] McCall writes of these five prisoners with no reference to the other rebel captives who, according to Brown, were also hanged.
McCall and later Jones tugged at patriot heart strings by describing the presence of seventeen-year-old McKay’s mother and her pleads for mercy. Jones wrote, “Another captive was Rannal McKay, a youth only seventeen years old and the son of a widow[38] who, with her family, had fled from Darien into South Carolina for refuge. Informed that her son was a prisoner, Mrs. McKay, taking with her some refreshments which she thought would prove acceptable to the British commander and commend her to his favor, repaired to Brown’s camp and craved the liberation of her boy. The monster accepted her present but, refusing her request and denying her an interview with her son, caused the sentries to force her beyond the limits of the encampment. The next morning McKay, Britton Williams, George Smith, George Reed, and a Frenchman whose name is not remembered, prisoners all, were taken from the rail pen in which they had been confined, were by Brown’s order hung upon a gallows until they were almost choked to death [McCall wrote nearly dead] and were then cut down and delivered over to the Indians who scalped, mutilated, and finally murdered them in the most savage manner.”[39]Both McCall and Jones added the heinous touch of delivering the prisoners to the Native Americans while they were still alive. History records time and again that those ‘strung up’ by patriot and loyalist bands near always left their victims hanging long after death – often as a warning to others.
McCall embellished his history by adding a British officer’s humanity that was ignored by Brown. Captain Rannal M’Kinnon, a Scots officer, who was a soldier of honour, and unused to murderous warfare, remonstrated with Brown against hanging the youth, and gave Mrs. M’Kay some assurances that her son would be safe. As if Brown was aware of McKinnon’s assurance to Mrs. McKay, he purposely put McKinnon in command of the gallows. McCall wrote, “M’Kinnon, the advocate of humanity, was ordered on command.”[40]
Brown’s account as a primary source to circumstances surrounding the death of captured rebels is in stark contrast to McCall’s history without primary citations. As touched upon earlier in this article, by war’s end, Brown had been vilified, causing speculation that historical bias affected early accounts of what occurred under the loyalist leader’s command. Brown wrote that he had contact with seventeen-year-old McKay and his mother prior to McKay’s capture at Wiggins Hill: “The account you have obtained relative to the death and sufferings of McCoy and his confederates, in Carolina, is equally delusive…”He explained that after Charleston fell, many patriot militiamen applied for pardons. Brown continued, “Among the number, one McCoy, a young man of a character notoriously infamous, applied for protection. His mother, from a knowledge of the character he bore, accompanied him, and promised she would be responsible for his future conduct ; he received protection, and was told if he persisted in plundering and destroying the peaceable inhabitants, he would receive no favour.”[41] Brown wrote that after “McCoy” received his pardon, he was riding with “Captain McCoy” and others who had broken their pardons to form “plundering parties” who “ robbed and murdered many of his Majesty’s peaceable and loyal subjects…”[42]
Brown makes no mention of Mrs. McKay showing up right after the battle to plead for her son’s life. Of the men taken captive, he is direct in explaining the consequences of having broken their oath of alliance: “The identity of their persons, [rebel prisoners] and the fact being proved and confirmed by their own confession, they (Willie excepted) suffered on the gallows;…”[43] As to Willie, “Willie, Kemp’s guide, experienced a different fate. An Indian chief, a friend of Kemp, on learning from the soldiers that Willie was the man who had betrayed and murdered his friend, immediately killed him with his tomahawk.” Brown made no mention of torture or mutilation. In fact, he took pains in his response to Dr. Ramsay to deny any outrage committed by Native Americans under his rule writing in reference to Willie, “This is the only outrage, if it ought to be called one, ever committed by any Indians under my command…”[44]
Aftermath
Patriots under Harden and McKay were forced back, scattering into the nearby Coosawhatchie Swamp, where the wounded were left until they recovered. For months, rebel raiders in the Savannah River Valley were too weak to be much help in the war effort of the low country. Matthews Bluff and Wiggins Hill had occurred a week after one of the most staggering as well as decisive encounters of the southern war; Cowpens, January 17, 1781 – a patriot victory which proved to be the beginning of the end for British hopes in the south. The tide had already begun to turn on England’s hopes in the south three months previously; Battle of Kings Mountain, October 7, 1780 – a patriot victory that wiped out a backcountry loyalist army, depriving British General Charles Cornwallis his western buffer against rebel insurgency.
The Southern Continental army, after maladroit performances by Generals Robert Howe, Benjamin Lincoln, and Horatio Gates, finally had an effective and qualified leader equal to Cornwallis; General Nathanael Greene. While Harden and McKay nursed their wounds in the swamps along the Savannah low country, the Race to the Dan was on, resulting in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, March 15, 1781. A pyrrhic victory for Cornwallis, with men worn down and supplies depleted, he had no choice to give up the chase and march to the coast where he could be resupplied. After which Cornwallis made his momentous decision to join with British forces invading Virginia, leaving Greene freehand in the south to attack British outposts. This in turn led to Lt. Colonel Thomas Brown’s demise.
By the spring of 1781, Colonel Elijah Clarke had recovered from wounds at the Battle of Long Canes, December 12, 1780. He was joined by firebrand militia leader General Andrew Pickens and Lt. Colonel Henry Lighthorse Harry Lee in what was the second expedition against Lt. Colonel Brown’s forces at Augusta; May 22 – June 5, 1781. Pickens and Lee had no problem finding militiamen to beef up their command. Historian Dr. Gary Olson wrote that “Brown’s attempt to discourage Whig insurrections by force had succeeded only in arousing intense hatred against himself and his men.”[45]
Facing superior odds and no hope of rescue from Fort Ninety-Six to the north, Brown was forced to surrender the garrison at Fort Cornwallis. Surrender terms guaranteed by Lt. Colonel Lee secured a parole to Savannah and his protection from vengeful rebel militiamen, especially Colonel Elijah Clarke. The Georgian militia commander had lost two dozen injured men to the gallows and Native American atrocities after the failed first siege of Augusta in 1780.
Lt. Colonel Thomas Brown would remain in Savannah and be exchanged in October of 1781. He continued to lead his King’s or Carolina Rangers in several skirmishes with American troops under newly arrived General “Mad” Anthony Wayne. So too, until Savannah and Charleston were abandoned, the industrious former aristocrat pursued his duties as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, supplying and organizing Cherokee and Creek raids against settlers and American forces. After the Treaty of Paris, Brown was given large land holdings in the Bahamas, then later St. Vincent Island. He died on August 3, 1825 at age 75; head of a profitable sugar plantation and owner of over 600 black slaves.
After Wiggins Hill, McKay reformed his band of raiders and continued his plundering of traffic along the Savannah. In February, 1782, a Loyalist patrol was foraging when they got news that McKay was seen at his home.[46] McCall wrote a tragic postscript of the adventurous rebel.“A select party of the description [loyalist foragers] formed a plan to murder colonel McKay at his own plantation. The house was surrounded in the night, and the enemy fired through the logs into the bed, in which it was understood McKay usually slept. McKay was not at home, but his wife was in the bed and supposed to have been in sound sleep; the ball passed through her body, and she was found dead in the morning. She had an infant in her arms, but it was not injured.”[47] By war’s end, Captain James McKay had dropped out of history.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE SOUTHERN CIVIL WAR DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING BOOKS:
OF SIMILAR INTEREST ON REVOLUTIONARY WAR JOURNAL
RESOURCE
Bailey, Harris. “Betrayal at Matthew Bluff January 22, 1781 – The Search for Willie.” September, 2024. Carolina 250 Anniversary.
Brown, Tarleton; Edited by Charles Bushnell. Memoires of Tarleton Brown, Captain in the Revolutionary Army. 1862: Privately published by Charles Bushnell, New York, NY.
Curwen, Samuel; Edited by Andrew Oliver. The Journal of Samuel Curwin, Loyalist 1970: DaCapo Press, New York, NY. 1972: In Two Volumes: Compiled and published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Dawson, Henry B. Battles of the United States, Sea and Land, Vol. 1. 1858: Johnson, Fry, and Company, New York, NY.
Gordon, John W. South Carolina and the American Revolution: A Battlefield History. 2003:University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina.
Johnson, Daniel McDonald. “Allendale County 1919 – Present.” April, 15, 2016. South Carolina Encyclopedia, University of South Carolina.
Jones, Charles C. The History of Georgia: Volume 2 Revolutionary Epoch. 1883: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston, MA.
Lynch, Wayne. “Daniel McGirth, Banditti on the Southern Frontier.” August 24, 2016. All Things Liberty.
Lynch, Wayne. “The McKay’s Family Personal War on the Savannah River.” September 26, 2016: All Things Liberty.
Martin Jolie, R. Kelsall, April 24, 1780, in Warren, Georgia Governor and Council Journals, 1780:51.
McCall, Hugh. The History of Georgia, Containing Brief Sketches of the Most Remarkable Events Up to the Present Day: Volume 2. 1816: Printed and Published by William T. Williams, Savannah, GA.
McCrady, Edward. The History of South Carolina in the Revolution 1780 – 1783. 1902: Macmillan & Co., New York, NY.
Olson, Dr. Gary D. “David Ramsey and Lt. Colonel Thomas Brown: Patriot Historian and Loyalist Critic,” South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 77 (October 1976): 257–67.
Olson, Dr. Gary D. “Thomas Brown, Loyalist Partisan, and the Revolutionary War in Georgia, 1777-1782, Part 2.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Spring, 1970), pp 1-19.
Russell, David Lee. The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies. 2000:McFarland and Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina.
Schenawolf, Harry. “Colonel Thomas Burnfoot Brown.” December 28, 2024: Revolutionary War Journal.
Schenawolf, Harry. “First Siege of Augusta: September 14-18, 1780.” December 9, 2024: Revolutionary War Journal.
Schenawolf, Harry. “Second Siege of Augusta.” January 1, 2025: Revolutionary War Journal.
Weigley, Russell F. The Partisan War: The South Carolina Campaign of 1780-1782. 1975: University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC.
White, Reverend George. Historical Collections of Georgia…” 1854: Pudney & Russell Publishers, New York, NY.
Williams Ancestry. Southern Roots.
Wilson, David K. The Southern Strategy: Britain’s Conquest of South Carolina and Georgia, 1775–1780. 2005: University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC.
Endnotes
[1] Early historian John McCall places the date of Matthews Bluff in April, 1781; causing confusion among later texts and articles on the internet. Matthews Bluff took place shortly before Wiggins Hill which is supported in primary sources.
[2] Matthews Bluff is the more common usage when referring to the settlement and historical references. Matthews Bluff is an older usage.
[3] By the conclusion of 1775, from Massachusetts to Georgia, most of the Royal Governors had either left the colonies or taken to British ships-of-war harbored along coastal cities.
[4] The main force behind installing a strong patriot presence in South Carolina was legislature William Henry Drayton. He manipulated loyalist leaders through bogus treaties and used the Association document, a with us or against us proclamation, to weaken the crown’s men. By the end of 1775, Drayton, then head of the SC Provincial Congress, ordered Colonel Richard Richardson to use whatever force he deemed necessary to destroy all crown resistance.
[5] The Georgia Gazette wrote on Aug. 4, 1775 that “This day a respectable body of the Sons of Liberty marched from this place [Augusta] to New Richmond, in South Carolina, in order to pay a visit to Thomas Browne…lately from England… for their having publicly and otherwise expressed themselves enemies to the measures now adopted for the support of American liberty [Association document]… Thomas Browne being requested in civil terms to come to Augusta, to try to clear himself of such accusations, daringly repeated that he was not, nor would be answerable to them or any other of them for his conduct, whereupon they politely escorted him into Augusta, where they presented him with a genteel and fashionable suit of tar and feathers, and afterwards had him exhibited in a cart from the head of Augusta to Mr. Weatherford’s, where out of humanity they had him taken proper care of for that night.” No mention of bashing in his head and torturing him prior to tar and feathering. So too, the Gazette would gloat over what who prove lifelong injuries – severe headaches and malformed feet with a pronounced limp: “Thomas Browne is now a little remarkable ; he wears his hair very short, and a handkerchief tied around his head, in order that his intellects this cold weather may not, be affected.” White pp. 606 – 607.
[6] While prior to leaving Georgia for Florida, Brown spent time with the Creek. This relationship with native Americans continued while he was in charge of the Florida Rangers. John Stuart, former Indian Commissioner, had died leaving his position open. Brown filled this temporarily in which he forged a strong relationships with the Creek. After Brown’s later capture and parole, he was officially given the title of Indian Commissioner. Brown spent the remainder of the war trying to get supplies to the Cherokee and Creek to help them harass patriot forces in the backcountry.
[7] Brown later while living in Barbados, responded to a letter from historian David Ramsay in which he claimed he hanged regels who broke their parole per General Cornwallis’ proclamation. White, pp. 616-617.
[8] Bailey.
[9] Lynch, Martin Jolie pg. 51.
[10] Daniel McGirt (also McGirth) was born of some wealth in South Carolina, about five miles south of Camden. Well educated, he was a patriot at the start of the war and was an officer in the Camden militia under Colonel Richard Richardson in 1775 Snow Campaign. He was a hunter and guide for rebel forces early in the war, but in 1776 is found in East Florida, a loyalist at the head of one of Lt. Colonel Thomas Brown’s Ranger companies. McGirt would accompany Brown on the British return to Georgia and become a leader of a band of ‘cutthroats and thieves’ who would terrorize both loyalists and rebels in search of plunder. Even after the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1783, McGirth and his band of banditti continued to raid the Georgia and Florida frontier. Only after Florida was returned to Spain and the government cracked down on McGirt’s activities, did the outlaw hang up his saber and live out his remainder years peacefully, dying in Camden, South Carolina in 1804.
[11] Lynch.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Williams ancestry.
[14] Tarleton Brown memoirs, pg. 31.
[15] White, pg. 616.
[16] Jones, pg. 474.
[17] McCall V2, pg. 363, Jones, pg. 474.
[18] White, pg. 616.
[19] Bailey, Olsen.
[20] Brown in his letter to Dr. Ramsay gave the guide’s name as Willie. McGrady wrote the guide’s name was William, pg. 259. McCall (V2 pg. 363) and Jones (pg. 474) make no mention of a guide in their histories.
[21] White, pg. 616.
[22] McCall, pg. 365.
[23] Baily wrote: “Could Willie have been an enslaved person, a self-liberated formerly enslaved person, a Free Person of Color working in league with the Patriots, or an enslaved person acting as a double agent or spy for the Patriots? We have insufficient information to determine the racial heritage of Willie.”
[24] White, pp. 616-617.
[25] McCall pg. 363, Jones pg. 474.
[26] White pp. 616.
[27] Bailey cited Rannal’s active role in killing Kemp; however, this writer could see no mention of this in the citations Bailey listed, particularly Curwin’s Journal nor Edward McCrady’s text. Wayne Lynch wrote that Rannal McKay led the way in butchering the prisoners. He cited Brown, but Brown only stated that McKay’s men did the deed, leading to speculation – true or not.
[28] White pg. 617.
[29] Carolana, Wiggins Hill
[30] Before the war, Lt. Colonel William Harden was a landed planter who entered military service in the militia of colonial Granville County, rising to captain of the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery Company by 1775. Commanded Fort Lyttleton until April 1777. No record of his service is found until the spring of 1779 when Colonel Harden commanded the SC Upper Granville County Reg. He was captured in Charleston in 1780 and pardoned. By the summer of 1780, he broke his pardon to ride with Francis Swampfox Marion. He returned to lead his Upper Granville militia by 1781. His command was noted for being undisciplined – which led to his defeat at Wiggins Hill on Jan., 24, 1781. Governor John Rutledge would later complain to General Nathanael Greene that Harden, although a “very worthy brave Man,” was no disciplinarian, allowing his men to “do as they please.” In November, 1781, when Harden was passed over as Brigadier General of militia, he resigned his commission and went home.
[31] Jones recorded that Wylly’s force consisted of 40 rangers and 30 Native Americans.
[32] McCall pg. 364.
[33] Ibid.
[34] McCall, pg. 364.
[35] White, pg. 617.
[36] McCall, pg. 365.
[37] Ibid., pg. 366
[38] Several internet articles describe as Rannal McKay as the son of Captain James McKay. Though related through family, Rannal was not the son of James McKay.
[39] Jones, pg. 474-475.
[40] McCall, pg. 366.
[41] White, pg. 616.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Ibid., pg. 617.
[44] Ibid.
[45] Olson, “David Ramsay and Lt. Colonel Thomas Brown…”
[46] Lynch.
[47] McCall, vol 2, pg. 401.