General Richard Richardson: South Carolina’s First in Freedom

Speak of South Carolina’s role in the American Revolution and four names rise above all others: William Moultre, Andrew Pickens, Thomas Sumter, and of course, Francis ‘Swamp Fox’ Marion. But turn the browned pages of early historical texts, and one name appears first and foremost among South Carolina’s founding fathers; Richard Richardson (May, 1704^[1] – September 7) age 76. Like Cincinnatus, who abandoned his plow for country, Richardson was a respected planter who carried the banner of rebellion from its infancy. He trumpeted against autarchy and in the legislature, championed proclamations of freedom. And after Lexington, when musketry erupted throughout the land, it was Colonel Richard Richardson, later Brigadier General, who, when shots first erupted over the South Carolina countryside, led patriot citizen-soldiers against loyalist militiamen flocking to claim the colony for their King. A man for his time, General Richardson’s passion for liberty paved the path for other great men to follow. And as many who sacrificed all for a cause they firmly believed in, when given a choice to accept a King for parole, he chose country. He paid the ultimate price, succumbing to illness after imprisonment. His remains a timeless legacy, fortified in family and cherished by a grateful nation.

“He was a man of high character and great influence, possessing the entire confidence of the people, and noted for his prudence, firmness, self-possession, engaging deportment and fine, commanding person; and in the absence of courts, was frequently chosen by the people of Craven County as judge and arbiter of their feuds, bickerings and dissensions…”  Lodowick Johnson Hill from the “Hills of Wilkes County,” 1922.

Early Life

There are many contradictions in ancestral searches related to Richard Richardson’s parents and birthplace. It appears sources have speculated on three possible fathers of Richard, all named Charles Richardson, while jumbling the wives and the general’s grandparents. The birth dates and deaths of Richard’s likely fathers, including grandparents, have also been muddled. Most indicated two of the fathers died in 1727 with paths leading to two possible grandparents. Both had immigrated from England, resided in the same county in Maryland, (Somerset later named Worcester), and so too, are listed as buried in the same Snow Hill Cemetery, Worcester, Maryland. This writer tracked dozens of leads before concluding the following:

General Richard Richardson, was born in May of 1704 in Kent County[2], Virginia, the son of Charles Richardson, (around 1650 – 1710). His mother was Mary Burchell[3] of Gloucester, Virginia (1677-1714). Richard had one sister, Lucy (1703[4]-1759) who married Thomas Mallory. The general’s grandparents were Philip Richardson (1620 – d.) of England who married Grace Inman (1617-1697), of Yorkshire, England, daughter of ‘Robin the Bold’ Inman. Both grandparents are buried in Snow Hill, Worcester County, MD. Most sources mistakenly list wealthy landowner Robert Richardson (1615-1682) as Richard’s grandfather. He immigrated from England and established the Mt. Ephraim Manor, Maryland; however, Robert had a son Charles who was not the general’s father.[5]

We know very little of Richard’s life in Virginia; his father’s occupation, nor the son’s education. Englishmen originally settled the region and became the predominant culture. By the early 1700’s, the Kent County area of the Chesapeake Valley was established as a center of farming, trade, travel, with the Church of England firmly fixed as the official faith since 1692.  It was also a time of colonial expansion and frontier conflicts. We do know that Richard was employed as a land surveyor, an occupation George Washington would be similarly engaged. This experience would have given Richard unique ‘backcountry’ survival skills as he traversed wilderness territories.

By the time he came of age, the Chesapeake region had expanded into large, aristocratic plantations with manors dotting the countryside; based on purchased labor of African slaves, indentured servants, and convicts (two thirds of convicts transported to America settled in the region). With most of the land claimed, youthful farmers sought opportunities elsewhere. Employed to range the frontiers of civilization, no doubt Richard would have been exposed to land grants offered by investors interested in settling the vast regions of available lands.

Richard left Virginia in 1725, age twenty-one.[6] At the time, the Great Wagon Road, also labeled the Great Virginia Road, had yet to be established; that occurring around 1744.[7] Richard traveled to the South Carolina lowlands and Craven County[8], settling along the upper Santee River in what later became Prince Frederick’s Parish;[9] and still later St. Mark’s Parish.[10] In 1744, he partitioned for his first grant of land, between Halfway Swamp and Jack’s Creek, on the north side of the Santee River. We don’t know the exact date he was granted 1,000 acres in St Mark’s Parish.  The transaction was not recorded until December 16, 1768, while an additional 300 acres was recorded the same day, located on the Santee River at Futters Earth Creek. His land extended from Tavern Creek to Jack’s Creek, in what is now Clarendon County, bordering on the Swamp of the Santee River; about fifteen miles in total length. His spacious plantation, approximately seventy miles northwest of Charleston [spelt Charlestown in 1700’s], was named ‘Big Home.’ Anne Gregorie, in her History of Sumter County, South Carolina, described the approach as through “an avenue of live oaks more than a mile long.” By then he was a substantial landowner, acquiring him additional wealth, for he had married earlier into a prestigious Charleston family.

At age thirty-two, Richard married Elizabeth Mary Cantey (1722 – 1767)[11] on October 11, 1736,[12] at the old Prince George Parish Church, by Reverend John Fordyce.[13] Often referred to as Mary, she was the daughter of the wealthy William Cantey (1672 – 1729), and mother Jane Arabella Oldys (1685 – 1722).[14]  Accordingly, there were seven children by this marriage; two sons, Richard Jr. and younger son Edward, the sons would fight alongside their father, and five daughters – Martha, Rebecca, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Susannah.[15] Of interest, two major South Carolina officers in the American Revolution married ‘Cantey daughters’; General Thomas Sumter and Lt. Col. Wade Hampton.[16] 

After Mary’s early death in 1767, Richardson married Dorothy Sinkler (1739 – 1795), with whom he had four sons; James, John Peter, Charles, and Thomas.[17] Dorothy Sinkler belonged to the prominent and powerful Sinkler family, known for their wealth, patriotism, and influence in the Lowcountry (coastal region). This would later place Dorothy at the center of Revolutionary-era events.^[18]  The union of Richardson with the Cantey and Sinkler families would later form the roots of one of South Carolina’s most prominent political dynasties[19] while producing six governors, one of whom was a founder of the Citadel.^[20]  

During the early years of South Carolina’s emergence as an important colony of trade and resources, Richard prospered. Through land grants, opportune marriages, and enterprise, he became a successful planter.  Richard’s reputation for high character soon won him the confidence of fellow settlers, selecting him as arbitrator of local feuds and electing him as a Justice of the Peace in 1756.  He had previously been chosen as a member of the Commons House General Assembly for Prince Frederick, serving from 1754-1757, and St. Mark’s Parish (after it split from Prince Frederick) from 1757 – 1760.[21] But of future importance, prior to representing his district in the legislature, as a leading citizen in his parish, he was chosen to command men in his militia.

The earliest recording of Richard’s participation in a militia was in 1740. By age 36, he must have already acquired the station as a man of influence for he was elected Captain in Vonderdusen’s Regiment [Colonel Arnoldus Vanderhorst] on May 15^th of that year.[22] The system of militias to protect citizenry developed in England from medieval Housecarls to Elizabethan times. Standing armies were expensive so decrees were issued that all male citizens were to bear arms for King and Country when needed. Though by the eighteenth century, militias were no longer in use in England, not so in British colonies. England did not have the financial means nor manpower to safeguard the vast territories of the Americas. Weapons were supplied to settlers by the royal government who expected them to drill in military companies. When needed, they not only defended their homes from Native Americans, but reinforced the army in times of declared war.

Militias were also an important training ground for members of the planter elite who rose to positions of political leadership in the colony.[23] A role Richard filled nicely. In 1754, the American frontier erupted in the ongoing war with France and Native Americans.[24]  Colonials joined British regulars in expeditions against the French.[25] In 1757, Richard had been given command of the Richardson Provincial Regiment. It was made up from a wide area; beyond Camden toward the coast that included residents from Charleston. At that time, regiments were not named for its Parish or county as in the later American Revolution; but by its commander. Richard’s reputation as a clear-thinking leader with wilderness experience made him a natural choice to prepare and command his militia in response to possible Native American hostilities.

Anglo Cherokee War of 1758-61

The Cherokee Nation had allied themselves to the British and Carolina Province since mid-way through the Yamasee War of 1715-1717. Afterwards, a general peace settled over the territory for over forty years. However; during that time, the French were making inroads among native chiefs, particularly Overhill Cherokee in what is now eastern Tennessee. When the British learned that the French had constructed Forts on Native American lands from Tennessee to Alabama, England hastened to build forts of their own on Cherokee lands.[27]

For the Carolinas, war came to the region in a direct confrontation with the Cherokee Nation, mainly from 1758 – 1761. Between November, 1759, and August, 1761, there were three major expeditions launched in South Carolina against the Cherokee Nation that formed the western frontier of the Carolinas from present-day eastern Tennessee to the Savannah River. Documentation places Richard at the head of the Richardson regiment at the first two, but there is no evidence he was present at the third campaign. However, the absence of primary proof that he was not in the third campaign does not necessarily negate his possible participation. Because not one of the expeditions were militarily decisive, (the last expedition broke the back of the Cherokee Nation while wearing out Colonial troops), the three campaigns have too often been subsumed into one episode. Yet the three initiatives, like acts in a play, were distinct, with each an important subplot tied to its conclusion. One upon which seeds of dissatisfaction would morph into later rebellion.[26]

In the first four years of the French and Indian war that erupted in 1754,[28] frontier violence in the Carolinas was sparse. That changed when in 1758, a Virginia militia attacked and brutally killed over twenty Cherokee, accusing them for an alleged theft of horses.[29] Cherokee sought revenge and soon after, the frontier backcountry from Virginia to Georgia experienced multiple raids against colonial homesteads. South Carolina’s Royal Governor William Henry Lyttelton[30] reacted to settler casualties by placing an embargo on all gunpowder shipments to the Cherokee. He also called up district militias and state provincial troops. The Cherokee needed the previously promised ammunition for the fall and winter hunts and sent a delegation of 22 chiefs to negotiate a peace agreement with Lyttleton. Instead of negotiating with the chiefs, Lyttleton took them hostage. Purely a political move, he gained favor with the populace by offering to exchange the chiefs for those responsible for settlement raids. In November, 1759, amidst extravagant pomp, the governor marched 1,300 militiamen, rangers, and volunteers west.

First Expedition. Colonel Richardson’s militia, along with other notable South Carolinians such as Christopher Gadsden, Francis Marion, and John Moultrie, arrived at Ninety-Six[31] on November 21, 1759. Over the next week they constructed a stockade fort[32] before carrying on to the Cherokee village of Keowee^[33] and Fort Prince George; the native hostages in tow. Prince George, constructed in 1753 across the river from the village, would become a major staging area throughout the Anglo/Cherokee War. Over the next few weeks, the entire expedition was a farce. Lyttleton’s force proved to lack the discipline and military cohesiveness to launch an attack against the lower towns. Meanwhile, talks with native leaders immediately bogged down. The Cherokee did not understand why their chiefs, sent to negotiate a peaceful settlement, were taken captive in shackles and imprisoned in the fort – equating it with forced slavery. They would not negotiate. While a cold December rain fell, Governor Lyttleton, out of frustration, only furthered his demands that 24 Cherokees be delivered to be put to death for atrocities against settlers. This of course was refused.

When supplies dwindled and after the South Carolina Legislature denied further pay for the expedition, men grumbled. When smallpox broke out in the village, the operation began to unravel. On December 28^th, within an hour of the report of first cases of small pox in camp, most of the army packed their bags and left. It is not known if Richardson’s militia was part of that immediate exodus. Lyttleton drew up a quick settlement with local Cherokee chiefs[34] and ordered a retreat in what trader James Adair[35] called a “wild, ridiculous parade.”[36] After a 200-mile wintery backcountry trek, Colonel Richardson, along with the rest of the militiamen, returned home, many worn out and sickly.  Lyttleton returned to Charleston a hero’s welcome, even though having done little to quell hostilities. He left the hostages prisoners at Fort Prince George, crammed into a room housed for six bodies. Within a couple of months, the hostage chiefs would be massacred (then numbering 16[37]) and the territory erupt in flames.[38] As for Lyttleton, by April, 1760, he washed his hands of the whole affair and boarded a ship for Jamaica[39].

Second Expedition: Four weeks of relative peace along the frontier ensued after Lyttleton had called off the first expedition. In February, 1760, the backcountry had once more flared in violence. The Long Canes Massacre (near present-day Troy, SC) took place on February 1, 1760, resulting in the death of 23 settlers.^[40] The next day, Fort Ninety-Six was attacked and under siege.[41] Two weeks later, on February 16^th, Cherokee at Keowee tried to force the release of the sixteen held hostage chiefs. Lured outside Fort Prince George, commander Lt. Richard Coytmore was attacked and killed.^[42] The small garrison, fearing an escape attempt by the prisoners, massacred the chiefs and fended off an attack. By the end of February, over 100 settlers were killed, including an attack of Fort Dobbs[43], North Carolina, just south of present-day Winston-Salem.

After a second and more vigorous assault of Ninety-Six on March 1^st, Governor Lyttleton, on March 15^th, ordered up 35 militia and 4 swivel guns to Fort Ninety-Six. Colonel Richardson once again marched his militia west through wintery conditions. He and fellow planters led their neighbors to relieve Ninety-Six and planned to continue another hundred miles to rescue the garrison at Fort Prince George. In one of his last moves before leaving to accept the governorship of Jamaica, Lyttleton appealed for troops from General Jeffrey Amherst, the British commander in North America. Amherst answered by sending 1200 veteran regulars to South Carolina; under Colonel Archibald Montgomerie, seconded by Major James Grant.[44] They included four companies of the 1^st Regiment of Foot, Royal Scots of around 400 men, and a 700-man battalion of Montgomerie’s 77^th Highlanders.

On April 10^th, Colonel Richardson joined the militia camp at Ninety-Six. With reports of large numbers of ‘hostiles’ west of them, he and other militia officers decided they are insufficient to relieve Fort Prince George and would wait for the promised British reinforcements. On May 24^th, the first Scots begin to show up. By the 28^th, Colonel Montgomerie’s main force had arrived; joined by seven troops of 300 mounted Carolina rangers; including 100 militia and a party of 40 to 50 Catawba[45] warriors. Soon after, the entire force marched to relieve Fort Prince George, and assault the Cherokee Lower Towns. It was mid-June when Montgomerie attacked and razed Keowee, across the river from the fort. Along with provincial militia, Montgomerie’s men fanned out and destroyed ten nearby Cherokee Lower Towns. But as for Fort Loudoun among the Overhill Cherokee, it had been attacked on March 20th and was still under siege. To relieve the garrison would require a one-hundred-and-seventy-mile trudge over wilderness mountain passes, taking them into what would be eastern Tennessee.

Montgomerie orders committed him to destroy all Cherokee villages; lower, middle, and overhill.  Therefore, he prepared to march. All supplies were loaded on pack animals, as there were no roads to support wagons, and he set out. It is not known if Colonel Richardson’s regiment (or detachments of) accompanied Montgomerie; documentation does place provincial Rangers along with the Scots. After a fifty-mile march from Fort Prince George, near present day Franklin, North Carolina, Montgomerie was ambushed at a tight, wilderness pass by an unknown number of warriors. After six hours of constant fire exchanged at long range, labelled the First Battle of Etchoe (Echoee), June 27, 1760, Montgomerie counted his losses. The number of wounded was great, including killed pack animals. Instead of hauling supplies for the campaign, surviving horses were needed to carry the wounded back to Keowee. Montgomerie was forced to order a retreat.

Arriving at Keowee with worn out and sickly troops, Montgomerie decided he had done enough damage and withdrew all forces back to Charleston. Though the lower villages were in ruins, Cherokee in the middle and Overhill towns were intact. By August, Montgomerie’s troops were aboard transports heading back to New York. Fort Loudoun held out until August 8, 1760[46]. Allowed to leave, the garrison was ambushed on the 10^th. Survivors were led into captivity while all garrison officers, except one, were killed; the same number of chiefs executed at Fort Prince George.

Third Expedition: The third expedition was the largest that ultimately broke the back of the Cherokee Nation, resulting in the destruction of the middle towns and forcing the nation to sue for peace. After Colonel Montgomerie’s mission prematurely ended, British Supreme Commander General Amherst was determined “to chastise the Cherokees and reduce them to the absolute necessity of suing for pardon.” On April 10, 1761, a detachment of Colonel Thomas Middleton’s Provincial Regiment (Goose Creek Parish just northwest of Charleston), led by Major John Moultrie^[47] that included Lt. Francis Marion[48], arrived at Ninety-Six with 150 men and 50 slaves. They were sent to fortify and expand Fort Ninety-Six in preparation for an army of 2,800 British troops, South Carolina militiamen, and Rangers. The British regulars consisted of the 1^st (Royal Scots), 17^th and 22^nd Regiments of Foot. Colonel Middleton of Charleston commanded SC provincial troops while all were under the command of Lt. Colonel James Grant,[49] having returned from the second expedition the previous year.

Between May 14-18, Grant’s army camped at Ninety-Six. They prepared for their trek to Fort Prince George, arriving on May 27^th.[50]  On June 7^th, his large army left Fort Prince George and marched towards the Middle Towns. At the Second Battle of Etchoe, June 10, 1761, the same pass and at nearly the exact location as the first battle nearly a year earlier, Grant was met by 1,000 Cherokee. The Cherokee fought until their limited ammunition was exhausted and then withdrew. Grant’s force, adequately supplied, pressed on and over the next thirty days,[51] burned eighteen[52] Middle Towns, including all crops; housing, and food of approximately 5,000 Cherokee. Grant’s loathing for colonial troops was mild compared to his hatred of Native Americans, ordering that all natives they came upon, (man, woman, or child) were to be immediately executed. At least one hundred Cherokee, many women and children, were murdered during what has since been classified as genocide.

From October 26^th to the 30^th, Grant’s army camped near the fort at Ninety-Six. They were returning to Charles Town (Charleston) after reaching preliminary peace terms with the Cherokees. During the march, tensions flared between Provincials and British Regulars who took their commander’s lead in despising colonials. When the Cherokee negotiated peace terms with Virginia (First Treaty of Long Island on the Holston, November 20, 1761)[53] it was the prelude to a treaty that settled the war with South Carolina, Treaty of Charlestown, signed on December 18, 1761. The treaty was not received very well among many of South Carolina residents; those who considered the Cherokee Nation should have been dealt with more harshly while allowing more settlers to claim native lands.

This writer could find no primary source that placed Richardson nor his regiment among those who accompanied Lt. Colonel Grant in this last expedition against the Cherokee. The fact that most of the same militia who accompanied the previous two expeditions were present, leads to speculation that Richardson’s regiment was also represented. So too were many of the same militiamen who, like Richardson, would become leaders of the later American Revolution: Francis ‘Swamp Fox’ Marion, William Moultrie (hero of Fort Sullivan), Henry Laurens (president of Congress), Isaac Huger (general), Andrew Williamson (Brigadier and later double-agent), and Andrew Pickens (rebel leader). Also to be considered is that Richardson was a member of the peace commission Lt. Col. Grant headed that in mid-July first drafted the Cherokee terms for peace with four representing chiefs at Fort Prince George. This is strong evidence that Richardson was a member of the campaign while present at the fort during these talks.[54]

Richardson Among Growing Patriot Movement

Prior to the divisive Stamp Act,[55] and toward the end of the Anglo Cherokee War, the two adverse political camps that dominated the American political scene already took shape in the Carolinas; loyalist and patriot. Colonel Richardson, along with many other lowland planters, were firmly seated in the latter. Whilst the northern colonies’ fervor for rebellion was mainly fueled by financial concerns and rights of self-rule, the Carolinians had an additional gripe with their mother country; detestation towards British imperiousness and London’s draconian decisions concerning the Cherokee and western settlements. South Carolina’s early historian Alexander Hewatt wrote that given British restrictions on westward settlement due to the cost of fighting Indians, patriot sympathies only increased.[56] Author Daniel Tortora effectively argues that passions which arose from the Anglo Cherokee War had set the stage for southern resentment to British authority; nurturing seeds of rebellion. Even before the ink dried on the Charles Town Treaty that supposedly ended Native American hostilities, Carolinians began to take sides in what over the next decade and a half, festered into not just ‘Kings Men’ vs Patriots, but a vicious civil war of loyalists against rebels that morphed into pure hatred

Lt. Colonel Grant, a controversial figure, had little to no respect for colonial troops, including the colony’s legislators. Many colonial planters considered their wealth and prestige had placed them on equal terms with their English brethren. They were taken aback as he belittled them at every opportunity, shunning democracy while considering colonial advice “not worth a shilling.”[57]  South Carolinians soon despised how they were slighted by British soldiers and royal appointees. It wasn’t long before Grant became a symbol of England’s arrogance with little regard for American concerns.

When negotiating a peaceful solution with the Cherokee, Grant ignored colonial input and apprehensions from those among the peace commission that included Colonel Richardson. Grant settled on tribal boundaries and native autonomy that many South Carolinians, especially back-country settlers, believed favored the Cherokee over colonial rights. In essence, Scottish aristocrat Grant embodied what many colonists had come to resent about British authorities.[58]

After the Anglo Cherokee War’s conclusion, from 1762 – 1775, little is known of Richardson’s activities; assuming he mainly applied himself to the daily needs of his plantation. He continued his role in the peace commission, overseeing the tentative treaty with the Cherokee. For his actions during the war,^[59] in September of 1762, St. Mark’s Parish presented Richardson a silver ‘service of plate,’ for his role in the war; items that would have a dubious place in history nearly twenty years later. From 1762 – 1765, as before the war, he carried on in the Commons House Assembly,[60] representing his parish in its 26^th session.

At age sixty-one, there is no record of Richard continuing in the legislature nor politics beyond 1765; not emerging until ten years later, on January 11, 1775, at age seventy. The first few years after the Cherokee War ended were politically tumultuous. Just days after the signing of the treaty, in late December, 1761, a new royal governor, Thomas Boone, arrived with directions from the Crown to clamp down on the growing assertiveness of the colonial assembly. Christopher Gadsden, an outspoken planter in the Commons and colleague of Richardson, was reelected to the assembly, but was denied to be seated by Boone. The assembly overruled Boone who in response, dissolved the legislature. The issue was never resolved with Boone replaced by William Bull[61] in 1764; however, the damage had been done – the seeds of revolt had sprouted and began to flourish.  Even after the Stamp Act was withdrawn in 1765, resentment towards England’s heavy handedness, teamed with the explosive protests against the Stamp Act and the growing resentment towards limits on settling Cherokee lands, it roused, as South Carolinian Henry Laurens, future president of the Second United States Congress put it, by “the spirit of Gadsden.”[62]

Road to War

With the Intolerable Acts[63] and the Wilkes Fund Controversy of the early 1770s[64], the leading men of South Carolina, mostly lowland planters, had finally had enough. At a General Meeting in Charlestown on July 6, 1774, they elected five delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia,[65] and created the Committee of 99. The later designated to carry out resolutions of the general meetings; soon became the de facto government of South Carolina. History does not provide a list of its members, but it was inclusive of most influential leaders of the growing rebel cause; both backcountry and low country Rice Kings, which would most likely include Richardson.

In November of 1774, the General Meeting called for the election of a Provincial Congress, which was to convene in Charlestown in January of 1775. Elections were held in each parish and throughout the backcountry on December 19, 1774 to choose delegates for the January congress. Richardson emerged representing his district in the rebellious First Provincial Congress for South Carolina that was established on January 11, 1775. By the end of February of 1775, every parish and district had assembled several militia companies, although the readiness of these units were in various states of usefulness. Richardson would lead the Camden District militia with Major Joseph Kershaw his second. Within the legislature, a secret committee of five was formed, led by the intense patriot, William Henry Drayton.[66] Their goal was to seize public stores of arms and powder in preparation for hostilities. After blood was spilt at the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, the patriot movement moved rapidly towards open rebellion.

War Erupts in the North and Sides Chosen

Hostilities erupted at Lexington and Concord Massachusetts, April, 19, 1775. In South Carolina, most coastal residents claimed neutrality or favored the patriot cause, led by the elite planter ‘Rice Kings.’ While significant numbers of backcountry colonials, mainly Scottish immigrants, remained loyal to the British crown; however, a large majority of German ‘Dutch’ settlers remained neutral. On June 1, 1775, the First Provincial Congress met [67] with Richardson present representing his district. Outspoken patriot President Henry Laurens presided as they appointed a Council of Safety; the assembly’s military arm, similar to others organized in the American colonies. Three regiments of South Carolina state militia were formed.  Though Richardson’s role as militia leader in the Cherokee War was renowned, there is no record of him being offered to lead any of these regiments. Still active in the Camden militia, he would have been seventy-one years of age at this time which no doubt had a bearing on either the position state militia leader being offered to him, or of him even seeking what would be a grueling task.

Before the Provincial Congress adjourned, they decided on a decisive piece of legislation that would have a direct causation of hostilities between patriot and loyalist militias; forcing Colonel Richardson to once more take up the sword. The Association, as it was called, was drafted requiring all South Carolina citizens to sign. It stated 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 her freedom and safety…And we will hold all those persons inimical to the liberty of the colonies, who shall refuse to subscribe this association.” The choice was clear and stark: you are with us or against us, and your signature or lack of it will tell the tale.[68] Those who refused to sign in the low country were dealt with swiftly; tarred and feathered and paraded through the streets of Charleston. But in the backcountry,[69] whose needs were ignored for decades by the ruling ‘Rice Kings,’ and whereas three quarters of South Carolina’s white population of around 70,000 lived, it was no simple matter to force those in backwoods cabins and rude communities to sign.[70] Simply put, if the “pack of beggars” went Tory, the Rice Kings would be in deep trouble.[71]  

On July 23, 1775, the Committee of Safety moved to persuade the support of the backcountry. Many settlers in the fork between the Broad and Saluda rivers had refused to sign. William Henry Drayton, wealthy lawyer and Charleston stateman, was chosen to carry the patriot message and encourage signing of the Association document. His choice to coax those to the rebel cause was curious to say the least, for his opinion of frontier settler ‘bumkins’ was well known to one and all; having concluded that there was no consulting the ‘profanus vulgus’ on public affairs. Especially those whose principal talents were “how to cut up a beast in the market or cobble an old shoe…” summing that “nature never intended that such men should be profound politicians, or able statesmen.”[72] Drayton was to be accompanied by the Reverend William Tennent and three others that included Colonel Richard Richardson.[73]  The choice of Richardson was obvious. Among Patriots and Tories, his prestige and fairness had garnished the respect from lowland planters and backcountry settlers alike throughout his fifty years as a South Carolina resident and a leader of his parish’s affairs.

Drayton and William left Charleston on August 2, 1775 and were joined by Richardson in route. They first approached the large ethnic group of German immigrants. For the most part, the ‘Dutch’ were of no danger to the cause. Afraid to lose their land granted by the King’s agents, they would not support the rebellion. Nor would they join with their Tory neighbors. Wishing to be left alone to till their fields, most would not take up arms. However, among the Scotch Irish and English settlers, especially in the upper reaches of the Enoree River and area between the Broad and Saluda, there was real danger. They were passionate in the turn of affairs and were willing to fight either cause to obtain what they believed was right. The common thought among these later settlers from the north, both patriot and Tory, concerning any message from the coast, was best recorded by Reverend William: “that no man from Charleston can speak the truth, and that all the papers are full of lies.”[74] Though a considerable portion proved for rebellion, there was a sizable minority who favored the crown. Among the later were Robert Cunningham, brother William ‘Bloody Bill’ Cunningham, and Moses Kirkland[75]; former patriots who switched tenets for the crown. Rebel commander General Andrew Pickens would later write that had they not changed sides “…we would not have had so violent an opposition to our cause in this Country.”[76]

Drayton and his entourage entered the lion’s den of dubiety and met to debate loyalist Cunningham at King’s Creek in the upper reaches of the Dutch Fork near the North Carolina border. With Cunningham was his brother Patrick and Thomas ‘Burntfoot’ Brown[77], Georgian who had recently been attacked and tortured by Sons of Liberty for not signing the Association. The meeting did not go well for the patriot cause as Cunningham had many followers who believed that the ‘gentlemen below’ could not be trusted. Leaving empty handed, the entourage carried on. Drayton’s tirades to ‘quiet their minds’ continued to fall on deaf ears as few would cross the line to sign with the rebels. Among their visits was to the home of one of the most influential men in the backcountry, Tory militia leader Colonel Thomas Fletchall, who the Rev. William called “the great and mighty nabob, Fletchall.” [78]  The wealthy planter of over 1,665 acres on Fair Forest Creek (near present day Union, SC) would not budge from his position. He proclaimed that he would never take up arms against his monarch, adding that the Congress at Philadelphia was “irritating to the King.” [79]

Though having failed with Fletchall, there was light on the horizon. Rev. Williams had better luck on his own with the Scotch Irish in the New Acquisition and Thicketty districts further west, around modern Spartanburg. They came in droves and did not hesitate to sign on with the growing rebellion. But for loyalist strongholds, it became more obvious that there would be no success among those firmly committed to the crown; however Drayton would not give up and carried on, hoping to bring reason to the misguided ‘clod hoppers.’

Yet shortly after Fletchall’s visit, Richardson had enough. He could see the writing on the wall. There would be no escaping what was to come. Violent confrontation could not be avoided. He left the party and rode home to prepare his district to take up arms. Drayton soon came to the same conclusion after an August 23^rd meeting at John’s Ford. Fletchall was there backed by 1,000 militiamen with leading King’s men in attendance. Many were armed and the matter became heated. All that was needed was a spark to ignite violence, but cooler heads prevailed. For Drayton, having come away yet again empty handed, he, like Richardson, had enough. The spreading country beyond the forks of the Broad and the Saluda was soundly with the King. Drayton decided. He wrote to the Committee of Safety that “vigorous measures are absolutely necessary.” [80] He was through negotiating. Action was needed. Tory leaders Thomas Fletchall, Robert Cunningham and his three brothers,[81] Thomas Brown, Moses Kirkland, and all who refused to join the cause, had to go. The path was clear, and it would lead to civil war.

Previously, on June 18, 1775, the last Royal Governor, Lord William Campbell,^[82] had arrived in Charlestown. Over the next couple of months, he refused to recognize the Provincial government. He called for the Commons House of Assembly, which had been dissolved by previous governor William Bull, to convene on August 28th, but was ignored by the overwhelming number of patriot leaders. But by late summer, the dye was cast. Drayton informed them he had failed. And the Committee of Safety would prepare for action.

Richardson Gathers Rebel Militias

Drayton’s inability to win the minds of the backcountry Tories only strengthened his resolve and he quickly moved towards mounting a Whig offensive. With hostilities imminent, Whig rebels and Tory loyalists understood the importance of appointing influential officers to gain control of the militia. That had been done. But Drayton conceived a plan to deprive the Tory’s of their leaders. He wrote to the Committee of Safety and on October 31^st, received in reply what he had hoped for; “He [Drayton] is thereby required and empowered, to take every decisive step, and to use every vigorous measure, which he may, or shall, deem proper to promote the public service.”[83] But Drayton hadn’t waited for the Committee to make up its mind. Soon after the John Ford’s meeting, in early September, he had contacted Colonel Richardson and Colonel William “Danger” Thompson. They were to assemble their men and march. Thompson’s mounted Rangers were to position themselves about 30 miles above Snow Hill. Richardson, with 300 militiamen, were to take post near the mouth of the Enoree and Ninety-Six District.[84] There, both forces were to act quickly against Tory troops when necessary. Drayton then turned to manipulative negotiations to sow discord among his enemies.

Drayton invited Tory leaders to Ninety-Six to discuss a way to satisfy both rebel and Tory demands so violence could be averted. The Cunningham brothers and Brown refused. Drayton had already dealt with Moses Kirkland by issuing a declaration against the hotheaded militia leader. Kirkland lost his nerve and was out of the picture after he sought asylum aboard a British ship at Charleston. But Fletchall attended and was conned. On September 16^th, he signed an agreement that stated the loyalists would not assist the British and the rebels would not harm Tories. But the devil was in the details. For Drayton penned the agreement with an ominous threat: “All persons who do not consider themselves as bound by this treaty must abide by the consequences.”[85] A do or die masterminded by a cunning politician.

Tory leaders were enraged by the trumped up treaty and would not sign on. Drayton used this to charge the leaders with sedition. Brown went to Charleston to seek the Royal Governor’s help and was arrested by provincial authorities and ordered to leave South Carolina; shipping out for East Florida. Robert Cunningham[86] was now a fugitive and on the run. This left Colonel Thomas Fletchall in charge of loyalist factions. But soon enough, Fletchall proved he did not have the mettle to lead a Civil War. With things moving quickly and the Tory leadership in arrays, it was only a matter of time before Richardson and Thompson’s forces could be unleashed.

Throughout September, while Drayton strengthened rebel resolve and militia units west, the Committee of Safety gathered forces along the coast and lowlands. Tory leader Colonel Fletchall continued to use his influence to coerce any wavers towards the patriot cause from signing the Association. The first blow of direct action occurred on September 5^th, 1775, when Fort Johnson^[87] on James Island was seized by Colonel William Moultrie’s 2^nd SC militia regiment (Lt. Col. Isaac Motte commanding three companies in a 150-man detachment). Soon after, Governor Campbell dissolved the General Assembly and fled to the 16-gun HMS Tamar anchored in Charlestown harbor. At that point, all that was needed was for the fuse to be lit. Robert Cunningham had been captured by rebel rangers in early October. With Drayton back in Charleston, arriving October 1^st,  and now president of the Provincial Congress, Cunningham was brought before the Congress. He was convicted of sedition and jailed. For Tory militiamen, this was the last straw. And Robert’s brother, Patrick wasted no time to light that fuse.

Both sides of the conflict knew that besides mustering militia, of equal importance was to seize all stockpiles of arms and munitions before they fell into the hands of the other side.^[88] Rumors spread that loyalists were in secret negotiations with the Cherokee. There was fear of a possible uprising. The timing could not be worse. Though munition stockpiles were low, the Committee of Safety had decided, “rather than draw on an Indian war by an ill-timed frugality,” to appease the Cherokee by providing powder and shot for their winter hunt. “One thousand weight of powder and two thousand weight of lead, for the use of the Cherokees as the only probable means of preserving the frontiers…”[89] Before Drayton left for Charleston in late September, he had negotiated this agreement with native leaders. By late October, the munitions were enroute to the major Cherokee village of Keowee, around a hundred miles beyond Ninety-six. The single laden wagon was escorted by twenty men of the SC 3^rd Regiment of Rangers, commanded by Lt. Thomas Charlton. But they would never make it.

On October 31^st,[90] at the Congarees River, about seventy miles from Ninety-Six,[91] and what has been termed the Incident at Mine Creek, sixty Tory militiamen under Robert’s brother, Maj. Patrick Cunningham,[92] seized the wagon containing the munitions. When the outnumbered rangers rode up, they surrendered their weapons and were taken captive. A rumor soon spread, turning the tables that the munitions were being sent to the Cherokee by the rebels. They were the ones who hoped to ensure a native uprising against ‘crown’ settlers. Rebels hotly denied this, but the damage was done and both sides, fearing for their loved ones, grabbed their muskets and gathered. Tory ‘insurgents’ flocked to Cunningham’s side while Major Andrew Williamson, leading patriot leader in the Ninety-Six district, gathered militia to go after Cunningham.

The capture of powder and lead outraged Whig leaders and Drayton finally had his wish. The Provincial Congress, in a vote of 51 – 49, ordered immediate action. On November 8^th, Colonel Richard Richardson was officially ordered to assemble several militia units from the Charleston lowland region and lead his men west; however, Richardson had previous marching orders from Drayton, and was already assembling a small army. Drayton explicitly gave Richardson instructions to seize Patrick Cunningham, including a list of several others considered leaders of the ‘insurrection.’  Volunteers rushed to join Richardson’s growing army. One was to become a household name five years later, leading Carolina resistance during the rebellion’s darkest hour; Thomas Sumter. However, Sumter was under suspicion, for he had been selected by loyalist Moses Kirkland to lead the Tory leader’s company as his second. But Richardson stepped in on Sumter’s behalf and vouched for him;[93] Sumter having married widow Mary Cantey Jameson, one of the Cantey clan and his wife Elizabeth’s niece.[94] Captain Sumter would be alongside Richardson as his aide-de-camp in the coming campaign against the Tories, as would Captain Richardson, Jr., Richard’s son, leading a company of militia.

While Richardson continued to gather his army, affairs quickly heated up nearly a hundred and seventy miles west, at Ninety-Six.[95] Seeking Patrick Cunningham and the captured munitions, Major Williamson had quickly recruited several local patriot militias. In mid-November, Williamson arrived at Ninety-Six with 560 men.[96] He found the small village of around 100 settlers indefensible and established an improvised stockade at the John Savage planation. Not long after, on November 19^th, Patrick Cunningham proved he too had been busy rounding up support and arrived with 1,900 Tory militia. They took possession of the courthouse and the jail, and immediately invested the stockade.

In what has been considered the first drawn blood of the war in South Carolina, the two forces fired at each other for three days, inflicting minimum casualties.[97] With neither willing to commit to a long, drawn-out seizure, negotiations resulted in a treaty signed on Nov. 22^nd. Both sides agreed to withdraw, with Williamson leveling his temporary fortification. Grievances between the two would be submitted by the Tories to Royal Governor Campbell and rebels to the Provincial Congress. But the treaty was not worth the paper drawn upon. Williamson militia marched nearby into their district, their unit intact. The loyalist crossed the Saluda River and dissolved, only to be given an eighteen-day leave before reassembling at Hendrick’s Mill, about twenty miles north of Ninety-Six.

By the time the local patriot militia gave up Ninety-Six, Whig leader Colonel Richardson had begun his march from Charleston into the backcountry. On November 27^th, he reached the Congaree River with about 1,000 men. On the 30^th, he held a Council of War in which it was decided they were not bound by the treaty Maj. Williamson had signed. By December 2^nd, his army had swelled to around 1,500 men upon which Richardson broke camp and marched further west. On route, Richardson reverted to the previous treaty signed by Fletchall and Drayton, which he had claimed had been violated by Tory aggression. On December 8^th, Richardson drew up a Proclamation, giving the loyalists five days to return all captured munitions and turn over the arms and ammunition of their followers. Otherwise, he cautioned, “I shall be under a necessity of taking such steps as will be found disagreeable but which I shall certainly put in execution for the public good.” Cunningham of course refused and Richardson, true to his word, marched on the insurgents. By then, with upwards of 3,000 armed men and growing, there was punch behind Ricardson’s determination; and as such, it would be a walkover.^[98]

Snow Campaign

Richardson’s trek west to Tory strongholds would be labeled the Snow Campaign, because of its extreme harsh weather. He resumed his march on December 12^th and was shortly joined by additional forces. Colonel Williamson’s militia arrived from Ninety-Six. Two hundred and twenty state troops rode in under Colonel James Martin. And 700 men from North Carolina streamed into camp, led by Colonels Griffith Rutherford, William Graham, and Thomas Polk.[99] This swelled the army to just under five thousand men. It was the largest force ever seen in the Carolinas and it had the intended effect, both militarily and psychologically.[100] As they advanced through the loyalist stronghold between the Broad and Saluda Rivers, near present day Columbia, Richardson spread his men throughout the backcountry. Over the next ten days, in a relentless pursuit of Tories, both groups and individuals, he forced the complete disbandment of loyalist militia and captured most of the remaining key Tory leaders.

Some loyalists put up brief stands along the way, taking pot shots, but always retreating before the rebel advance. Richardson wrote to the Committee of Safety that his army “…proved to them what government can do in putting down opposition.” Most kings’ men; however, saw the odds clearly and gave up without a fight. Richardson continued, “…they are much terrified and come in with fear and trembling – giving up their arms and contrition for their late conduct.”[101] Early author Benson Lossing wrote that Colonel Richardson used his discretionary powers with mildness as he scattered resistance.[102] Later historians would agree, noting that the patriots were led by two first rate militia commanders in Richardson and Thompson; leaders who adopted a policy of firmness combined with forbearance and leniency.

Richardson later explained to Henry Laurens on January 2, 1776, that his actions “have had a good effect…Had I burnt, plundered, and destroyed, and laid waste, seizing on private property, then thousands of women and children must have been left to perish – a thought shocking to humanity.” Drayton reported that though Richardson had been humane, he was unyielding. Of those who turned themselves in or were captured, “he caused many of the insurgents to sign an instrument of writing…forfeiting their estates real and personal, should they ever take up arms again…”[103]  Three long years after Richardson’s campaign, the Tories in the backcountry would scarcely raise their heads in defiance against patriot rule.  Not until the end of 1778, when British regulars and partisan troops invaded from the north, would they once more gather in force.

Of captured leaders, they were shackled and sent in chains to Charleston under command of Richard’s son Captain Richard Richardson Jr. A major coup was the arrest of the influential Tory, Colonel Fletchell. He was found hiding, all 280 pounds, stuffed inside a huge hollow sycamore tree near his plantation at Fair Forest Creek. Only Patrick Cunningham and two hundred devout followers held out. They retreated onto Cherokee land to the Great Cane Break on Reedy River. Richardson had no intention of letting what Drayton called “this nest of sedition and turbulent spirits” escape. On the afternoon of December 21^st, he dispatched 1,300 cavalry and infantry under Colonel Thompson to go after what was left of Tory resistance, leading to what has been called, the Battle of the Great Cane Break.

After Thompson pushed his men twenty-one miles on a grueling overnight march, in the early morning hours on the 22nd, loyalist campfires were spotted two miles distant.  Accordingly, the patriots were able to sneak up on the Tories under the cover of crackling cane burned by the frigid militiamen. But were discovered during the attempt to surround the camp and seventy Tories fled the gap to escape among the Cherokees. With them was Patrick Cunningham and renegade Sergeant David Fanning;[104] a brutal man who would prey on backcountry settlers throughout the war. Five or six loyalists were killed with around 130 captured. Thompson had but one wounded. Although Cunningham managed to escape, the mission of dispersing the loyalists had been a success. Without a leader left to guide them, Tory resistance dissolved.

After Richardson dismissed his men and started on his march home, a heavy snow fell, up to two feet, thereby the nickname ‘Snow Campaign.’[105] His militiamen, ill clad for the extreme conditions, suffered terribly. Richardson wrote: “Eight days we never set foot on the earth, or had a place to lie down, until we had spaded or grabbled away at the snow. Many are frost bitten, some very badly; and on the third day a heavy, cold rain fell, together with sleet; and melted the snow and filled every creek with a deluge of water.” [106] In a country traversed with fords, many waist deep at high water, the painful suffering from continual icy soakings, combined with later sickness, can only be imagined.

State Constitution, Battle of Fort Sullivan, Brigadier General of South Carolina Militia

Home with mission accomplished, Richardson was not allowed rest. In late December, 1775, as a member of the legislative council that included forthright patriot leaders William Moultrie[107] and Charles Pinckney,[108] Richardson aided council president Henry Laurens frame a temporary constitution (second to do so among the 13 rebellious colonies); consisting of three branches based on the British government.[109] Remaining in the legislature, Richardson was present on the morning of March 26, 1776 when the Second Provincial Congress convened; John Rutledge (future governor) was president with Henry Laurens vice-president. They re-assembled in the afternoon as the First General Assembly of the State of South Carolina. At this session, they approved a new State Constitution which Richardson and others had previously drafted. South Carolina was now a State and its Provincial Troops were officially State Troops. Richardson had not sought to lead any of the first six South Carolina State Regiments that were soon after incorporated into the  Continental Army; choosing to carry on representing his Camden district as militia leader.

The same month that South Carolina established itself as a state with an official constitution, the British had faced General Washington’s cannon on Dorchester Heights and were forced to evacuate Boston for Halifax. Prior to that, as early as September, 1775, Secretary of State for the American Department, Lord Dartmouth, was convinced that large numbers of loyalists in the southern colonies could be organized and persuaded to destroy the revolutionists. They only needed additional arms and a few British regiments. With the king’s approval, Dartmouth wrote to Supreme British Commander, General William Howe, urging him to dispatch an expedition, along with four regiments sent from England, to assist the southern loyalists. Though royal governors of Virginia and North Carolina, both having been forced aboard British men-of-wars, impressed on Howe to send troops to their colonies, Commodore Peter Parker’s fleet, along with infantry commanded by General Henry Clinton, settled on attacking Charleston,[110] South Carolina. But to take command of the city, they had to reduce the newly constructed Fort Sullivan to rubble and better the nearly 2,500 state troops and militiamen gathered in defense.

Seventeen militia regiments were present in Charles Town on June 28^th; Battle of Fort Sullivan. Among the South Carolina State troops were William Thompson,^[111] Owen Roberts, Isaac Huger,^[112] and Thomas Sumter.^[113] All state troops and militias were led by Governor John Rutledge who placed command of state forces during the battle under Colonel William Moultrie of the 2^nd SC State Regiment. Continental soldiers were under recently arrived General Charles Lee,^[114] commander Southern Army. Brigadier General John Armstrong was his second in command. General Robert Howe^[115] (placed in command of the city’s troops), was replaced by Lee, after having organized the defenses at Charleston.

Though historical texts and internet sites state that Colonel Richard Richardson led the Camden Militia at the Battle of Fort Sullivan (Sullivan Island), June 28, 1776, there is no conclusive evidence to support this. We know that two companies of the Camden regiment were present, that of Captain John Nixon and Captain Robert Patton (both had been part of the six Camden companies during the Snow Campaign), but we do not know through documentation that Colonel Richardson commanded them. During the battle, they did not see action, stationed at defenses in the city; the main combat having taken part at Fort Sullivan and on Sullivan Island. Richardson’s son Capt. Richard Richardson Jr. was not listed on any roster during the action. However, Richardson’s youngest son Edward by his first marriage, was with Colonel William Thompson’s Rangers, commanding a rifle company.[116] His riflemen fired upon General Henry Clinton’s troops the day of the battle, helping to prevent British infantry from crossing the channel between Long Island to Sullivan Island.

After the Battle of Fort Sullivan, the Carolina’s remained relatively calm. During this period, Richardson carried on as colonel of his regiment. In three consecutive years, 1776 – 1778, three expeditions were organized to invade East Florida and capture St. Augustine commanded by Swiss born British commander General Augustine Prevost. All ended in failure, mainly due to lack of cooperation between Continental forces and South Carolina legislative militia forces.[117] Though dispatched companies of the Camden militia participated in these invasions, there is no evidence Colonel Richardson was among them; perhaps due to Richard’s advanced age and the rigors of the expeditions.

In the spring of 1778, the South Carolina Legislature decided to consolidate the many militias throughout the state into three brigades. On March 25, 1778, (some sources give this date as the 26^th) Richardson was appointed a brigadier general of state militia forces; command of his Camden militia reverted to his second, Major Joseph Kershaw.[118] On the 28^th, the General Assembly officially assigned the brigades: Brigadier General Richard Richardson would command the SC 2^nd Brigade of Militia. The 1^st was given to Stephen Bull and the 3^rd to Andrew Williamson.[119] Richardson’s brigade would be posted at Purrysburg, South Carolina, on the Savannah River, twenty miles north of Savannah, Georgia. Richardson was not present at Savannah when the British invaded in December, 1778. After the capture of Savannah and destruction of Georgia’s Continental and militia forces, Richardson remained at Purrysburg. Bull’s and Williamson’s brigades joined him with Richardson put in overall command. They were joined by the remnants of the Georgia Continental line, awaiting the arrival of the newly posted commander of the Southern Continental Army, General Benjamin Lincoln.

Fall of Charleston

By January 3, 1779, Richardson’s posting at Purrysburg was joined by William Moultrie from Charleston who showed up with 1,200 North and South Carolina troops. So too, General Lincoln arrived and replaced continental leader General Robert Howe and assumed total command; though what was left of his army did not exceed 2,500 men.[120]  Sometime during 1779, Richardson retired from the army at age seventy-five. He still led the South Carolina militiamen by January 30, 1779, having been selected president on a board of court-martial.[121] But by mid-February, evidence indicates that Richardson was no longer in charge of South and North Carolina militia. At that time, General Lincoln, concerned by an unruly militia that was refusing to obey orders nor submit to the articles of war in the presence of the enemy, turned over the command of militia to General Moultrie, in hopes that they would more readily obey his orders.[122]

Just prior to the Battle of Brier Creek, March 3, 1779, further evidence indicated Richardson had left by then. Lincoln called a Council of War in which General Moultrie, not General Richardson, was present in command of militia forces. After the British retreated to Savannah, Richardson’s name does not occur on rosters during the failed Franco/Anglo Siege of Savannah, September to October 18, 1779. Therefore, it can be concluded that by late February, 1779, Richardson had retired from active duty and in all probability returned home.

Not until a year later do we hear of General Richardson raising militia in the Camden region. On March 29, 1780, Supreme British Commander General Henry Clinton’s invading army advanced on Charleston by crossing the Ashley River and landing troops on Charlestown Neck. Charleston fell on May 12, 1780 with the surrender of Southern Army/ Commander General Benjamin Lincoln’s entire command of over 5,000 Continental and Carolina militiamen were lost. Though most historical accounts state that General Richardson was present and made prisoner immediately after the surrender, evidence does not support he was in the city. Colonel John Laurens^[123] wrote that in February, 1780, General Richardson and Colonel Kershaw were raising militia at Camden. General Moultrie confirmed this in his memoir, writing that with the British closing in around Charleston, word went out for militiamen to join the Continentals; “General Richardson and Colonel Kershaw [who had taken command of Richardson’s former Camden militia] were trying to raise the militia about Camden…” According to Moultrie, Richardson failed in his attempt to send militia due to the men’s fear of an outbreak of smallpox in the city.[124]

Early historian William Simms presents evidence that Richardson was no longer involved in military matters during the period Charleston fell. Simms wrote of a letter by John Lewis Gervais penned to Georgetown, SC, sixty miles north along the coast from Charleston. It was written at the height of the British siege on April 28, 1780. Among other things, Gervais spoke glowingly, but futilely, of aid to Charleston, listing concentrations of men, local militia and out of state, rushing to reinforce the encircled southern army. “They [reinforcements] are all ordered to rendezvous at Lanneau’s Ferry, with all the militia that can be collected from Pee Dee and Richardson’s former brigade — for he resigned long ago.”[125] So too, historian Edward McCrady concluded that Richardson was not in Charleston during the surrender. He wrote, “His name does not occur during the siege, nor is he mentioned among the prisoners.” McCrady concluded “he had no doubt resigned because of his infirmity; he was now more than 75 years of age…”[126]

Imprisonment and Death

There are no extant records from the South Carolina government between February 12, 1780 and 1783.  This coordinated with the invasion of Charleston in Feb, 1780 by Gen Henry Clinton and after military victories by SC militia and Continental Troops, resulting in the withdrawal of British troops by 1783. Therefore, official records of details surrounding the capitulation of Charleston are sketchy at best. After the surrender of Charlestown, all of South Carolina’s forces, Continental and militia, were in total disarray, with most of the experienced fighting men captured and imprisoned by the British. Rank-and-file Continental soldiers were to be held in horrid conditions on prison ships anchored in the harbor. Imprisoned Continental officers were paroled to await exchange, while some were allowed to return to their homes.[127]

As for the rebellious legislature and militia, General Clinton, with his second in command General Charles Cornwallis, sent word that parole would be given to all who gave an oath to the king and not carry arms against the crown. Most of the ‘Rice Kings,’ for fear of retaining their vast estates, accepted. So too did several key leaders in the backcountry.^[128] Those who refused faced imprisonment in the goal at Sunbury on the Medway River in Georgia, or shipped further south to East Florida and St. Augustine’s dungeons. General Richardson was given the choice and as recorded in early histories, often treated romantically to bolster book sales, colorfully declined parole: “I have from the convictions of my mind embarked in a cause which I think righteous and just; I have knowingly staked my life, family, and property all upon the issue. I am prepared to suffer or triumph with it and would rather die a thousand deaths than betray my country or deceive my friends.”[129]

Though often stated in these first second hand records, and parroted by present day internet articles, he was approached by Lord Cornwallis to whom he declined parole. But logistics disproved that possibility. Richardson was at his farm some seventy miles from Charleston when the city fell. General Cornwallis was consumed with immediate affairs in the city and would not ride out into the backcountry to offer paroles. It is more reasonable to assume that Richardson was offered parole in writing, and refused in kind. The exact date Richardson was arrested and transported to St. Augustine is lost. But it is fair to say that the journey by road to Charleston and 270-mile trip by sea would not have taken more than three weeks; placing him there sometime in June, 1780.

Most of the prisoners sent to St. Augustine were given the liberty of the town. Some were held in Castillo de San Marcos. A few captives were allowed to rent quarters, with many more housed in the government building, also referred to as the unfinished State House. It was a bleak, sickly construction prone to unsanitary conditions. Among those sent with Richardson were notable South Carolina rebels who had affixed their signature to the Declaration of Independence; Thomas Heyward, Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge, the three having been captured at Charleston. There is no record of what caused Richardson’s decline in health. Many accounts list that by reason of broken health, the infirmities of age, and prison confinement that exposed him to deleterious conditions, he was near death. He was sent back to Charleston where he was confined to close quarters on James Island before paroled to return home, sometime in late summer. He died shortly after on September 7, 1780, leaving his wife Dorothy and four young sons. He is buried in the family plot; Richardson Cemetery, one of the earliest graveyards in St. Mark’s Parish, and in present day Rimini, Clarendon County.

Pursuit, Destruction, and Myth

Two months after General Richardson was interned, his family was terrorized and estate ravaged and torched. The event and antagonists were real; Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton and Lt. Colonel Francis Marion. But the surrounding circumstances were like elements in a caldron, brewed to a devious potion that folklore concocted into a ghoulish tale. By the mid-1800’s, it had morphed into fact, while throwing in the birth of a legend; Swamp Fox.

Continental officer Francis Marion was not in Charleston when it fell to the British. Marion recruited a band of militia in the Pee Dee River District and soon afterwards, Lt. Colonel Marion notched a string of successful attacks on British and Tory partisans. After Marion had defeated a Loyalist militia at Tearcoat Swamp, October 25, 1780, the British commander at Georgetown, Lt. Colonel George Turnbull, had enough. He wrote to General Lord Cornwallis, expressing his outrage over Marion and requested the British commander release his favorite mastiff to go after the rebel leader. Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton, in the eight months since the 26-year-old arrived in South Carolina, had notched a string of brutal and ruthless victories; earning him the distinction as the south’s most despised British officer and sobriquet ‘Bloody Ben.’ Cornwallis agreed and on November 4^th,[130] ordered Tarleton, along with a detached Legion of cavalry and mounted militia, to ride to the Pee Dee and put an end to the rebellious pest.

Popular Version: Repeated in dozens of historical texts and parroted on the internet with just as many interpretations, the basic story reads that Tarleton and his legion rode onto Richardson’s estate on November 7th.[131] He forced Richardson’s widow, Dorothy,[132] to prepare dinner for himself and officers. Meanwhile, he set up a decoy camp with two field pieces,[133] hoping to draw in Marion’s men in ambush.[134] Marion, thinking that he faced a weakened detachment of Tarleton’s men (Tarleton having spread a rumor that most of his unit had returned to Winnsboro)[135] cautiously approached the estate. Dorothy sent a slave to Lt. Col. Richard Richardson Jr.,[136] telling her step son to warn Marion about the ambush. Richardson had recently suffered small pox while imprisoned, had escaped, and was hiding in the swamps. Richardson did so and Marion immediately rode off.

By next morning, Tarleton was aware his prey had slipped the noose. Some accounts state that one of Marion’s men deserted to tell Tarleton. Others write that a Tory held by Marion had escaped and told the young legionnaire Marion was warned by a ‘treacherous woman.’ Tarleton mounted up and the race was on. Over seven hours Tarleton relentlessly pushed his troops through roadless swamps and wilderness wetlands before finally giving up. As he stared into the murky gloom, he called out to his men that they would return to headquarters and go after the gamecock (Thomas Sumter). And “…as for this damned old fox, the devil himself could not catch him!” From that, ‘Swamp Fox.’ was born.

Upon returning to the ‘Big Home,’ Tarleton, in a rage, had Mrs. Richardson beat while her children looked on. With his own hand, applied the torch to the house. Some accounts state the family was forced to remain inside until a British officer rushed to rescue.[137] All livestock was herded into the barn which was also burned. But the real kicker, he ordered the general’s body disinterred and left exposed until the entreaties of the family finally gained permission to reinter it.[138] Supposedly, Tarleton had done so to peer upon the face of his enemy, or to get possession of the family silver plate setting[139] that was believed to have been buried with the body, or from pure hellishness. All depended on the telling. Afterwards, Tarleton went on a single-minded rage and burned thirty more homes and plantations before returning to Winnsboro.

Myths

We have four primary sources of information pertaining to what occurred in and around the Richardson estate: William Moultrie, Governor John Rutledge, Banastre Tarleton, and Francis Marion. All detailed to some extent the attempted ambush, pursuit, torching the Richardson plantation, as well as the destruction of dozens of other farms and plantations. To win the hearts and minds of backcountry settlers, the rebellion accentuated the greed and brutality of British officers while highlighting the brave resistance of innocents. In this case exaggerated accounts, more embellished with each telling, detailed British soldiers desecrating the body of a popular patriot while a heroine rose from the ashes to stand before her oppressors.

Lack of primary evidence does not emphatically mean something did not occur, there may be a basis of truth behind tales of lore and verbal history handed down over generations; however, as such they fall suspect to speculation and classified as myths. Listed are the considered main myths that eventually found their way into historical texts and laced over the internet:

• No primary source named Dorothy Richardson, nor anyone else, of sending a message to her stepson Richardson Jr, warning Marion of Tarleton’s ambush. ^[140] No historical account earlier than the 20th century reports this. However, there is no exact date when Richard Richardson Jr. joined Marion’s band. If he did so before the event, then Richard could have scouted Tarleton’s presence on his own or by Marion’s orders. If he joined Marion after the occurrence, then perhaps Dorothy, or someone, sent a message to Richard to ride to Marion and warn him of the danger of attacking. This might have been Richard Jr.’s introduction to the Swamp Fox and afterward becoming a member of the militia.
• Richard Richardson Jr. had not escaped from prison after his capture at Charleston. He gave his pardon and was allowed to go home. He would break the pardon to join Marion. The night of the 7^th, we know he  was scouting Tarleton’s camp at his father’s estate. He rode to inform Marion of the suspected ambush. It is unclear if he joined Marion before or after the evening he informed the rebel leader about Tarleton’s strength.
• No primary accounts name either a rebel deserter nor an escaped Tory captive of Marion who told Tarleton the next morning that a ‘treacherous woman’ had informed Marion of the ambush. When Marion failed to show, Tarleton wrote that he sent out a small patrol that discovered Marion had ridden off.[141]
• After failing to catch Marion, no evidence exists that Tarleton uttered in frustration the famous words credited to Marion’s title as ‘Swamp Fox.’  Tarleton undramatically wrote in his memoir that he turned about because he received a message from Cornwallis calling him back to headquarters; but Tarleton often painted himself in the best light, for that message did not arrive until some days after he gave up the pursuit.^[142]
• Tarleton did not have General Richardson’s body dug up. Not for finances nor to gaze upon the face of his enemy. No first-person source supported this. Though the home was pillaged with Tarleton and his officers sharing in the booty, there is no mention of the silver plate setting that Richardson had received from the South Carolina legislature for his role during the French and Indian War.
• There is no primary evidence indicating that Dorothy and her children were in the home when it was torched and saved at the last moment by a British officer.
• Not a myth – but confusion in dates. Tarleton wrote that he set his ambush on Nov. 10^th. Marion wrote a letter to General Gates on Nov. 9^th detailing the event. Tarleton wrote that he was ordered to go after Marion on the 4^th. It is 70 miles from Winnsboro (British headquarters) to the Richardson estate. Combined with Tarleton’s tendency to push his troops hard, it would be a two, three-day ride at most. Most accounts accept the 7^th as Tarleton’s presence at the estate.

Of interest is one source, that of Marion’s, in a November 9^th letter to General Gates, in which he stated that Mrs. Robinson had been beaten. “…Col. Tarleton has behaved to the poor Women he has Distressed with great Barbarity. He beat Mrs Richardson the relict of Gen. Richardson to make her tell where I was…”^[143]  However, Marion does not say from whom he got his information; which is suspect as hearsay from residents shortly after Tarleton had left the region.

Source of Myths

Among the war’s earliest historians like South Carolinian David Ramsay’s 1789 – The History of the American Revolution, and William Dubien James’ 1821 – A Sketch of the Life of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and A History of His Brigade, there is no mention of Dorothy Richardson sending a warning to Marion, nor of the general’s body being dug up. So too, there are no records of general atrocities committed against the Richardson family by Tarleton or his men; outside that the plantation was torched. William Johnson’s 1822 Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene, writes of burned buildings, but not digging up the general’s body – though he mistakenly replaced Colonel Rawdon[144] for Tarleton.

The initial publication that put the popular story to print was in Joseph Johnson’s 1851 Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution in South Carolina. Johnson was the first to have Tarleton standing over General Richardson’s disinterred body, having written, “…[Tarleton] ordered the body of General Richardson to be taken up, and left it exposed, until, by the entreaties of his family, they were permitted to re-inter it…” Johnson offered no citation to back up his account other than a Richardson family descendant gave him a letter offering details of the event. Johnson gave no further information about the letter which, had it existed, is lost to history. Within the same time of Johnson’s publication, Benson J. Lossing hopped on the bandwagon in his two volume The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution (1850-1852) writing that “Soon after his death, Tarleton occupied his house, and, believing the family plate was buried with him, had his body disinterred. When he was about leaving, that cruel man applied the torch to the house with his own hand, avowing his determination to make it the [quote] funeral pile of the widow and her three young rebels [unquote].[145]

By 1900, the tale of General Richardson’s disinterment was legendary. Edward McCrady’s extensive 1901 account of the war in South Carolina: The History of South Carolina in the Revolution detailed the event, focusing on the general’s body and adding Richardson Jr. had escaped capture, plus Marion’s guide deserted and an’ escaped Tory from Marion’s camp slipped away to Tarleton. Citing Joseph Johnson,he wrote, “He [Tarleton] ordered the body of General Richardson, it is said, to be taken up, and left it exposed…His pretext for this act of barbarity was that he might examine the features of a man of his decided character; but the true object was, it was believed, to ascertain if the family plate had not been buried in his grave…”[146] Over time, other treaties on the war took the account one step further, added Dorothy Richardson as sending her stepson Richard to warn Marion.

Can one primary source be pinpointed from which these myths took root? The answer is yes, and it comes down to one word. After Charleston fell, Governor John Rutledge continued to govern South Carolina in exile. He wrote to Congress on December 8, 1780. Among other business, he included Tarleton’s attempt to ambush Marion in which he gave details of Tarleton’s ‘barbarity.’ He wrote, “Tarleton, at the house of General Richardson, exceeded his usual barbarity for having dined in his house, he not only burnt it afterwards, but having driven into the barns a number of cattle, hogs, and poultry, he consumed them together with the barn and the corn in it, in one general blaze. This was done because he pretended to believe, that the poor old general was with the rebel army; though had he opened his grave before the door, he might have seen the contrary.” [147]  The key word above, perhaps the major misinterpretation that sprung a myth of demonic proportions, is HAD he opened the grave. Nothing written by Governor Rutledge indicated Tarleton had ordered the general’s body to be dug up. Easy to construe that Rutledge’s mention of the grave was just a witty play on words. Perhaps enough to fuel a myth; further evidence of Tarleton’s demonic nature which by the mid-eighteen hundreds, was accepted as fact.

Afterward

After Charleston fell, state troops and brigades of militias were disbanded. Existing patriot regiments of militia who refused to sign paroles were left to reorganize and recruit new men. By the summer of 1780, it became apparent that militia infantry could not face regular British troops and partisan legions; loyalists trained and equipped as British regulars. The best way to combat the British push westward into the backcountry was to create mobile units on horseback. Many regiments of militia, a fraction of their former size, decided to go it alone. However, over time, more sought to align with others. Two new brigades of rebel resistance emerged by the late fall of 1780; the South Carolina 1^st Brigade of Militia – backcountry rebels led by Colonel Thomas Sumter, and the South Carolina 2^nd Brigade of Militia (Richardson’s old unit), mostly in the Pee Dee region commanded by former Continental officer Colonel Francis Marion,^[148] who had yet to gain his legendary title, ‘Swamp Fox.’

With Georgia returned to the royal fold, and the rebel Southern Army held captive, only a few scattered units of Continental troops and backwater militiamen stood in the way of total British control of South Carolina. General Clinton left for New York leaving his competent second, Lord Cornwallis in control; who turned to a young lieutenant colonel to mop up rebel remnants. Banestre Tarleton showed no mercy as he pushed his legion to hunt down patriots; earning the sobriquet ‘Bloody’ Tarleton. Though backcountry patriots continued to suffer setbacks, and another Continental southern army would fall prey to Cornwallis’ crack regulars, good generalship, and the immense territory that wore down troops would, in a year’s time, the Americans would claim the war’s southern prize.

Richardson Waltz

The Richardsons were known for their dancing skills and love of music. Tradition states that they usually played what has been termed the Richardson Waltz at family gatherings. The Richardson waltz is a beautiful and soulful melody; a memento of the musical tradition of the Richardson family descendants of General Richardson. It has for many generations played an unofficial but important role in the musical history of South Carolina. It was handed down from one member to another in the family of General Richardson for more than 200 years in Clarendon County.^[149]

In 1985, Mary Richardson Briggs formally documented the waltz on paper and in a video recording. Adopted by the South Carolina Legislature on July 21, 2000 by Act No. 389, it became the official State Waltz of South Carolina and signed into law by Governor Jeff Hodges and Representative Alex Harvin.

Youtube Recording of the Richardson Waltz Performed by Hope Fahey, Descendant of General Richard Richardson

Special Thanks

To this day, the descendants of General Richard Richardson remain numerous and include six former governors of South Carolina by his 2^nd wife, Dorothy Sinkler Richardson. They remain active in their communities, cultural events, and endowments. 

By General Richardson’s first wife, Mary Cantey Richardson, of particular interest is Bobby Richardson, a former great baseball Yankee player who, in the early 1960s, earned an MVP in the World Series. He remains active in his church and recently celebrated his 90^th birthday.   

A special thanks to Hope Richardson Fahey, also a direct descendant of the General’s first wife, whose inspiration and dedication to our nation’s heritage supplied a great deal of information that gave fruit to General Richardson’s story. A story, like that of so many of our Founders, is one of sacrifice and a firm belief that the freedom of self-government thrives in a flowering democracy upon which all generations may flourish.

To Read More About the American Revolution in the South, We Recommend the Following Books

Of Similar Interest on Revolutionary War Journal

Southern Militia in the American Revolution

History of Early Colonial Militias in America

American Revolution In the South: A Brutal Civil War

Loyalist David Fanning: Fierce, Ruthless Southern Partisan

Francis Marion ‘Swamp Fox’ and the Battle of Tearcoat Swamp

Bloody Ben Tarleton Chases the Swamp Fox

Battle of Charleston and Fort Sullivan: American Victory and Hope in 1776

Siege of Charleston, May 12, 1780: General Benjamin Lincoln Surrendered the Largest Continental Army During the War

Arguments for a Southern British Invasion

Road to Camden: The Southern War of the American Revolution

Colonel Thomas ‘Burnfoot’ Brown

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Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766. New York: Knopf, 2000.

Bancroft, George. History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. IV, Boston, 1872.

Baskin, Marg.  Lost History.  Banadotes, General Richardson’s Grave
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Buchanan, John. The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas. New York: Wiley, 1997.

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Bush, Ellen C.  “Daniel J. Tortora: The Grant-Middleton Duel and the Aftermath of the Anglo-Cherokee War”  Excerpts from Daniel J. Tortora, assistant professor of history at Colby College. The University of North Carolina Press Blog. August 15, 2015.

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Johnson, Joseph. Traditions and Reminiscences Chiefly of the American Revolution in the South.  1851: Walker and James, Charleston, SC

Johnson, William. Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene, Major General of the Armies of the United States, in the War of the Revolution, Vols I, II.  1822: By A. E. Miller, Charleston, SC – Reprint 1973: Da Capo Press, New York, NY.

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Landrum, John Belton O’Neall.  Colonial and Revolutionary History of Upper South Carolina. 1897:  Shannon & Co., Printers and Binders, Greenville, SC.

Lossing, Benson J.  The Pictorial Fieldbook of the Revolution…Vol. II.  1852: Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, NY.

Lumpkin, Henry. From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South. 1981: University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC.

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Prince County Historical Society. “Fort Prince George.”   

Ramsay, David.  The History of the Revolution of South Carolina… In Two Volumes, Vol. I.  1785 – 1789: Printed by Isaac Collins, Trenton, NJ.

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Schenawolf, Harry.  “Bloody Ben Tarleton Chases the Swamp Fox.” November 10, 2024: Revolutionary War Journal.

Schenawolf, Harry.  “Francis Marion ‘Swamp Fox’ and the Battle of Tearcoat Swamp.” July 21, 2023: Revolutionary War Journal.

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Tortora, Daniel. Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast, 1756-1763. 2015: University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.

Tortora, Daniel J. & Burges, Michael. “Off the Beaten Path at Ninety-Six” A Corps of Discovery Besides the Star Fort, What happened at Ninety-Six?  Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution.  Vol 7 Special Edition  Corps of Discovery   March 19, 2011.

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Endnotes

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[1] This writer has found no listing of a day for Richardson’s birth only a reference to the month of May.

[2] Virginia Biography, Vol. I, Chpt. VII. Lucy, Richard’s sister, was born in Hanover, VA, a year earlier than the general, just north of Richmond. Speculation concludes that in the year or so between siblings, the family moved to Kent County just east of Richmond. Most sources list Jamestown, VA, or Northampton, VA (100 miles east on the peninsula), but this writer believes that is not supported by research.

[3] Several sources list his mother as Mary Canty Burchell. Richard married Mary Canty leading to the assumption that secondary sources may have confused and combined the two names.

[4] Some sources list Lucy’s date of birth as 1701)

[5] See Donald Richardson’s “Welcome the Descendants of Robert Robertson…”

[6] Virginia Biography, Vol. I, Chpt. VII.  Multiple sources simply state the date of Richard’s departure from Virginia at a later age, during the early 1730’s.

[7] The Great Wagon Road, famously traversed by ‘ole wagoneer’ Daniel Morgan of the famed Morgan’s Riflemen, was an ancient Native American route through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to the Carolina backcountry. It was traversed by a large migration of Scots-Irish and mainly Palatine German immigrants from Philadelphia. During the American Revolution, many of the Scots-Irish remained loyal to the King while most German descendants remained neutral.

[8] Craven County was one of the three original counties established in 1682 by the Lords Proprietors of the English Colonies. The county was named for William, the 1st Earl of Craven, one of the original Lords Proprietors granted land in the New World by King Charles II. At that time there was one Carolina, not separating into north and south until 1712.  In 1706, the proprietors established the Church of England’s system of smaller Parishes with no administrative functions. The original Craven County’s lands now lie in parts of Berkeley, Charleston, Georgetown, and Williamsburg Counties.

[9] Prince Fredrick Parish, named for Prince Fredrick of Wales, son of King George II, was formed in 1734. It was the farthest northwestern portion of what was Craven County. Craven was split into two counties in 1721, St. James Santee & Prince George Parishes. Prince George Parish was the northwestern portion of the original Craven County. Prince Fredrick Parish was formed from Prince George Parish.

[10] St. Mark’s Parish was established on May 21, 1757 that included the entire country between the Great Pee Dee and Santee Rivers from the modern Clarendon-Williamsburg county line northward to North Carolina and westward. 

[11] Mary’s date of birth and date has also been recorded as 1720 – 1762.

[12] Date of marriage in Allston in Register Book for the Parish Prince Frederick Winyaw,  Dalcho pgs. 319-321. Some sources list the year of marriage as 1738 when Richard was 34 years of age.

[13] The George Parish Church was established on April 9, 1734. The Rev. Thomas Morritt was the first Minister of this Parish; but his conduct not being satisfactory to the people, he soon resigned. He was succeeded by the Rev» John Fordyce, A. M. who arrived in 1736. Dalcho, pp 319 – 321.

[14] Mary Cantey’s parents were married in 1703.

[15] The children by Richard’s first marriage to Mary Cantey were; Richard Jr. (1741-1816), Martha (1746-d.), Edward (1748-1808), Rebecca (1752-1831), Margaret (1754-1780), Elizabeth (1758-1818), Susannah (1767-1838).

[16] General Thomas Sumter married widow Mary Cantey Jameson in 1767. Lt. Col. Wade Hampton, commander of Light Dragoons in Sumter’s brigade; third wife was Mary Cantey, married in 1801. She was the stepsister to Hampton’s second wife Harriet Flud who died in 1794.

[17] James 1770-1836, John Peter 1772-1811, Charles 1774-1829, Thomas 1775-1793.

[18] Fahey, DAR Presentation December 9, 2021

[19] Ibid.

[20] Richard’s son, James Richardson (1802-1804), Richard Irvine Manning (1824-1826), John Peter Richardson II (1840-1842),  John Lawrence Manning (1852-1854), indirect Wade Hampton III (1876-1879), and the general’s great-great-grandson Richard Irvine Manning III (1915 – 1919). The Citadel, South Carolina military academy, was founded by the SC state legislature during Governor John Peter Richardson II’s rein, 1842, in response to feared slave uprisings.

[21] General Assembly in pre Revolution in South Carolina referred to the colonial legislature which formed from an upper house, Governor’s Council, and lower house, the Commons House of Assembly. The later members were popularly elected from each county or parish and became a major source of colonial power, responsible for initiating laws, taxation, including overseeing the courts and Native American Trade.

[22] Hill, pg. 259.

[23] For a number of men, it was to provide military leadership for the Revolutionary cause in South Carolina after 1775, including Francis Marion, William Moultrie, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter. All had gained combat experience in the Cherokee War (although Sumter’s was gained as a member, at that point, of the Virginia forces involved in Braddock’s defeat in 1755), which served also as a vehicle for the rebellion’s lowcountry and backcountry contacts and networking. Gordon, pg. 12.

[24] The Seven Years War in Europe, and the French and Indian War in America, lasted from 1754 – 1763 with the Treaty of Paris.

[25] Many Carolinians joined Virginia militia regiments who were at the forefront of the wilderness war. One such expedition was the Battle of the Monongahela, July 9, 1755. It resulted in the death of British leader General Braddock and a crushing defeat of British and Colonial forces. Later American leader General George Washington was present, as well as famed South Carolina rebel leader Thomas Sumter.

[26] Hatley, pp. 119-120.

[27] Fort Prince George^[27] near the Cherokee village Keowee, in western South Carolina (among the Lower Cherokee Towns), was completed in 1753. Fort Loudoun, near the Cherokee village of Chota (among the Overhill Towns), about forty miles southwest of present-day Knoxville, Tennessee was completed in 1756. Two hundred and fifty miles east of Ft. Loudoun and just south of present-day Winston-Salem, Fort Dobbs, named for NC royal governor Arthur Dobbs, was finished in 1755

[28] In late 1753, Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia ordered a young, ambitious 21-year old George Washington on a mission deep into the Ohio Country where he was to protect the auspicious construction of a controversial Fort at present-day Pittsburg. On May 28, 1754, provincial militiamen and a small number of Mingo warriors, under Lt. Colonel George Washington, encountered a French party.  Thirty-five French Canadians, led by Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, were sent as emissaries to give the Virginians a summons, warning them off French land. Washington’s force ambushed the Frenchmen, killing ten and capturing the rest. Of the dead was Jumonville. Washington later retreated to Fort Necessity, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburg. He was confronted by Jumonville’s brother, Louis Coulon de Villiers, who left Fort Duquesne with 600 French and Indian allies. Washington surrendered the fort, with de Villiers’ allowing his brother’s killer to return to Virginia. This action escalated into what became the Seven Years War (1756-1763)  in Europe and the French and Indian War (1754-1763) in America.

[29] in 1758, Virginia milita attacked  a band of Cherokee under Moytoy, (Amo-adawehi) of Citico, returning after assisting the British in the north,  in retaliation for the alleged theft of some horses by the Cherokee. Trader James Adair wrote that the militia were ‘Tied-arsed’ Germans. Over time, approximately 40 Cherokee would be killed in various attacks.  Moytoy led retaliatory raids against colonial towns along the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers in North Carolina. This began rounds of retaliation that spread to colonial homesteads and British fortifications from what would become eastern Tennessee to the Georgia border with South Carolina. Williams “Adair’s Memoirs,” pg. 260 – 262.

[30] Governor William Henry Lyttelton, 1^st Baron Lyttelton, governor of South Carolina (1755 – April 5, 1760) was an arrogant, pompous colonial legislature whose rash  actions against the Cherokee, ignoring an offered peaceful settlement in favor of a ‘glorious’ military campaign, resulted in a powder keg of violence. After a dismal campaign that only set the stage for more violence, he claimed victory and soon after, left S. Carolina. In April, 1760, he was presented the prize of British colonial America; governor of Jamaica, England’s richest coloney. 

[31] Ninety-Six, 180 miles northwest of Charleston, believed named from a 1730 map by George Hunter. He marked the region that gained much notoriety during the American Revolution Ninety-Six because it was 96 miles from the lower Cherokee town of Keowee (near present-day Clemson, SC).

[32] The colonials built a stockade fort around Robert Gouedy’s barn before continuing to Keowee.

[33] Keowee is near present-day Clemson, SC).

[34] So too, like the expedition, the settlement was a farse. All it did was restate that the hostages would remain at Fort Prince George until traded for a like number of Cherokee who would be executed.

[35] James Adair was an English trader and agent who lived among the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Cherokee from 1735 – 1774.  He wrote a memoir of his years with the southwest Native Americans first published in 1775, London.

[36] Williams, “Adair Memoirs,” pg. 265.

[37] Accounts of the number massacred run from 14 to 38. Most primary sources center on 16.

[38] Early author Hewett wrote that “There were few men in the Cherokee nation that did not lose a friend or a relation by this massacre and therefore with one voice, all immediately declared war. Hewett, Vol II, pg. 228.

[39] Lyttleton was replaced as Royal Governor of South Carolina with Lt. Governor William Bull.

[40] At Long Canes, in present-day McCormick County, one hundred and fifty refugee settlers were attacked by one hundred Cherokee warriors. Twenty-three settlers were killed including Catherine Calhoun, grandmother of John C. Calhoun. One survivor was fifteen-year-old Rebecca Calhoun, who watched from her hiding place as her grandmother and others were scalped, would five years later become the wife of leading American Revolution rebel Andrew Pickens – hero of the Battle of Kettle Creek and later Cowpens.

[41]  On February 2^nd and 3^rd, Forty Cherokees attacked Fort Ninety Six. The Fort’s defenders, under militia Capt. James Francis, defended the attack. March 3-4 – 250 Cherokees vigorously, but unsuccessfully attacked the fort again.

[42] Chief Oconosta asked for parlay with Fort Prince George’s commander, Lt. Richard Coytmore. When Coytmore and two of his aides proceeded to the meeting near the river, Oconosta’s warriors appeared from hiding and opened fire, mortally wounding Coytmore. Fearing their hostages would attempt an escape, the garrison immediately tried to secure the prisoners. The first soldier through the door was stabbed to death and the next wounded. The troops opened fire killing fourteen Cherokee chiefs. Pickens County Historical Society, Fort Prince George.

[43] This, and the only battle fought against Fort Dobbs, named for NC Governor Arthur Dobbs, occurred on Feb. 27, 1760. Colonel Hugh Waddell commanded 30 NC Provisionals against approximately 70 Cherokee attackers. He fended off the attack with minimal casualties.

[44] Major James Grant was active in the war’s northern campaign; leading an advance column that was soundly defeated at the Battle of Fort Duquesne, Sept. 14, 1758. Grant would lead the third and decisive expedition against the Cherokee.  During the American Revolution, Grant would gain notoriety as one of the most hated British officers of the war; having led more than one ‘massacre’ against American troops.

[45] The Catawba of the lowlands of South Carolina along the Catawba River, (they once extended into North Carolina) had aligned with English settlers from early on. Long-time enemies of the western Cherokee, they readily joined British and colonial militias in conflicts with the Cherokee.  In 1759, smallpox wiped out half their population. By the late 1800’s, only about a 100 Catawba were still alive, their reservation reduced to less than one square mile. Today, they have regained recognition by the Federal Government; numbering about 2,600 in 2006; the reservation headquarters is at Rock Hill, SC.

[46] Finished in 1757, Fort Loudoun, not to be mistaken for Fort Loudoun Virginia- headquarters of Colonel George Washington during the French and Indian War, was named after General John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, the British Commander in Chief in North America. It was sited on the south side of the Little Tennessee River on high ground about five miles below the Cherokee capitol town of Chota. It was about 200 miles from the nearest eastern outpost.

[47] John Moultrie, Jr. was the brother of famous General William Moultrie, American Revolutionary War and hero of the Battle of Sullivan Island. He was a wealthy physician turned planter after he married into wealth. He was the first American to graduate from the University of Edinburgh. He became good friends to General James Grant and settled in Florida, a loyalist who lost all his holdings after the war and moved to England.

[48] Francis Marion was a later colonel among South Carolina Continental troops. He escaped capture during the fall of Charleston, 1780, and went on to become the famous guerrilla fighter ‘Swamp Fox.’

[49] Grant had a very low opinion of colonial troops, stating that South Carolina’s provincials and rangers were poorly trained and undisciplined buffoons. Colonel Middleton and others countered that he was a condescending, petulant, and inept officer. Grant carried his intense dislike of colonial Americans into the American Revolution, calling for a complete destruction of both the Continental army and the colonies’ economy.  Most believe this hatred stems from a superior, aristocratic upbringing and his embarrassing defeat at Fort Duquesne.

[50] Hewatt, pg. 247.

[51] Ibid., pg. 250.

[52] Some sources put the number of Middle Towns burned as fifteen.

[53] There were two Treaties of Long Island on the Holston between the Cherokee and Virginia. The first was signed on November 20, 1761. The second was towards the end of the American Revolution, July 26, 1781 between the Overhill, Valley, and Middle Towns, and the Overmountain settlers that confirmed former cessions but gave up no additional Cherokee land.

[54] Hewatt, pp 251 – 252.

[55] Stamp Act, March 22, 1765 – March 18, 1766.

[56] Hewatt, pg. 255.

[57] Bush, “The Grant Middleton Duel…”

[58] The day after the Charleston Treaty with the Cherokee was signed, Grant was confronted by a mob in which Colonel Middleton (he had commanded provincial troops under Grant) physically assaulted Grant. Middleton had symbolized to many colonial elites, the heroic colonial public servant slighted by British authorities.

The two fought a duel on December 23, 1761. Grant missed and Middleton held his shot. Grant would go on to lead British troops against Washington in the New York City region. Middleton would succumb to illness in 1766.

[59] The South Carolina Gazette of the 25 Sept., 1762, informs us that “A very handsome service of plate was lately presented by the inhabitants of St. Mark’s Parish to Col. Richard Richardson as a mark of their gratitude and esteem, and to show their sense of the many services he rendered to this Parish during the late unhappy Cherokee War, and to that Parish, in particular, on every occasion.” Hill, pg. 259.

[60] The Commons House Assembly dominated colonial South Carolina since 1692, setting all laws and collecting and spending revenue. Composed of mainly lowland wealthy planters, it became contentious early on in the lead up to war. Backcountry settlers despised the authority of rich plantation owners who they believed had no regard for their needs – leading many to chose sides with England over the rebel movement.

[61] Governor interm William Bull first served as governor from April 1760, after Gov. Lyttleton’s departure, until Gov. Boone’s arrival in Dec., 1761. In May of 1764, Governor Thomas Boone sailed for London, and Lt. Governor William Bull, Jr. again took the reins of the government in Charles Town until Governor Lord Charles Greville Montagu arrived on June 17, 1766.

[62] Christopher Gadsdon. He was a member in the Commons with Richardson and as a captain, was involved in the Anglo Cherokee Wars. He, like Richardson continued in the commons after the Cherokee War, however was a leading spokesman against British rule; in 1762, Royal Gov. Boone refused to swear him in the assembly, and soon after briefly dissolved the entire legislature. Gadson would become one of the founders of the SC Sons of Liberty, commissioned a Brigadier and was present at the Battle of Sullivan Island (having built the bridge from the island to Charleston), and would, along with Richardson after the fall of Charleston, be taken as prisoner to St. Augustine, Florida. He would survive his 42 week ordeal in Florida and return after the war to become politically active in SC politics.

[63] Intolerable Act of 1774 was England’s ill-advised response to the Boston Tea Party, Dec. 16, 1773. Besides closing the harbor, it added additional penalties that alarmed the rest of the colonies; reduced self-government, allowing colonists to be removed to and tried in England, and residents forced to house British soldiers. Instead of separating and penalizing Massachusetts as an example, it united the colonies who labeled it the Coercive Acts; a causation that led to the assemblage of the First Continental Congress; Sept. 5 – Oct. 26, 1774.  

[64] The Wilkes Fund controversy was a major constitutional crisis in colonial South Carolina in 1769-1770, where the local Assembly clashed with British officials over financial autonomy. The Assembly’s vote to send £1,500 to support the radical British politician John Wilkes triggered a British order requiring the governor’s signature for all funds. When the Assembly refused, legislative government effectively ceased, leading to no tax bills being passed and contributing to the polarization that helped led to the American Revolution. 

[65] Five members to the First Congress representing SC: Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch Jr., Henry Middleton, Edward Rutledge, and John Rutledge. The assemblage met from Sept. 5 – Oct. 26, 1774. Of importance was an agreement to convene again the following year, 1775.

[66] William Henry Drayton, Charleston Rice Planter and lawyer, whose mother was the daughter of Royal Governor William Bull, became an active patriot, helping to form South Carolina’s Committee of Safety – military arm of the Provincial Legislature, and later one of the delegates selected to present SC in the Continental Congress. He died in 1779 from a seizure while still a member of Congress.

[67] The first Provincial Congress met on June 1, 1775 in which 172 out of 184 members were present.

[68] Buchanan, pg. 92.

[69] The backcountry of South Carolina stretched from roughly fifty miles outside of Charleston, westward another 150 miles to Ninety-Six, with settlers beyond labeled ‘over the mountain men’ who homesteaded illegally on Cherokee land.

[70] Rare in the backcountry, and only in larger communities, like Augusta, Georgia, did local ‘Sons of Liberty’ organizations give backbone to the Association letter. In Augusta, they attacked a wealthy recent arrival from England who refused to sign away his support of the crown; Thomas Brown, later labeled ‘Burntfoot,’ who was terribly tortured, but became one of the fiercest loyalists in the American Revolution.

[71] Ibid.

[72] Walsh, pg. 53.

[73] The other two men to join Drayton, Willaim, and Richardson were the Reverand Oliver Hart, SC’s leading Baptist minister, and Joseph Kershaw, an important merchant from backcountry outpost Camden; like Richardson, Kershaw had been elected to the Provencial Congress.

[74] Buchanan, pg. 95.

[75] Cunningham and Kirkland, along with James Mayson were candidates to officer one of the three state regiments authorized by the Committee of Safety on June 1, 1775. Mayson was chosen as major of the 3^rd Regiment. Cunningham and Kirkland felt shunned and decided to join with the Tories.

[76] Andrew Pickens to Henry Lee, August 28, 1811. Pickens Papers, South Caroliniana Library.

[77] Thomas ‘Burntfoot’ Brown, wealthy merchant’s son who had recently arrived from England, was attacked by over a hundred patriots near Augusta, Georgia, about 40 some miles from Ninety-Six, fracturing his skull. During his immediate tarring, his feet were forced over burning coals resulting in scars and loss of two toes; albeit his sobriquet ‘Burntfoot.’ He would live with the Cherokee and become one of the fiercest loyalists of the south. He went on to lead the Florida Rangers that helped defeat three attempts by patriots to invade East Florida. Later, heading the Carolina Rangers, he would be active in England’s invasion of the south. He would lose everything in the war, starting afresh as a planter in the Bahamas.  

[78] Buchanan, pg. 96.

[79] Ibid.

[80] Ibid.

[81] Cunningham Tory leaders of Ninety-Six district: Brigadier General Robert Cunningham and brothers: Colonel Patrick Cunningham, David Cunningham, and John Cunningham, along with younger cousin Colonel William ‘Bloody Bill’ Cunningham.

[82] Lord William Campbell was the 30^th and last England appointee to govern South Carolina. The first 16 ruled over a united Carolina when in 1712, Richardson would have been 8 years of age in Virginia, it separated into north and south; north ruled by Edward Hyde and the south by Charles Craven – for whom his father, Sir William Craven, Richardson’s county residence, was named.

[83] Drayton Memoirs, Vol. I, pg. 396.

[84] McCrady, pg. 46.

[85] Buchanan, pg. 96.

[86] Robert Cunningham, the eldest of three Tory brothers, immigrated from Virginia in 1769 and established large plantations in the backcountry, becoming influential leaders. Robert was captured early on in the war and jailed, triggering a violent reaction from backcountry loyalists. After the British invaded the south in force, Robert was commissioned a Brigadier General of Tory forces in the Carolinas.

[87] Fort Johnson, built in 1708 and named for Gov. Nathaniel Johnson. Later a second fort was constructed on location in 1759.  Three companies under Lt. Col. Motte captured the fort on the early morning of Sept. 15, 1775. The British had information of the planned seizure and had already removed cannon and abandoned the fort; no shots were fired. The Fort fell into British hands in 1780 and eventually was abandoned. Over time storms ravaged the fort’s ruins so to this day nothing remains. Errors occur in on-line articles, placing Colonel Richardson in charge of the fort’s seizure – also, that the fort was renamed Fort Sullivan – Fort Johnson was on James Island, and Fort Sullivan was on Sullivan’s Island, north, across the harbor.

[88] Gordon, pg. 13.

[89] Ramsey, pg. 71.

[90] Some sources state November 3^rd.

[91] Interesting that Moses Cotter later testified that the incident occurred on the Congaree River, 18 miles below Ninety-Six, but the Congaree was over seventy miles from Ninety-Six.

[92] Patrick Cunningham, a wealthy and influential farmer land surveyor, would, alongside his brothers (particularly Brigadier General of Tory militia Robert, and cousin William ‘Bloody Bill’ Cunningham fought for the ‘crown’ throughout the war.

[93] Worth noting, though Sumter was accepted by the rebel council, Drayton was assured by Richardson that he would keep an eye on Sumter, Drayton later in his memoirs writing: “The Colonel, nevertheless, from his seeming connection with Kirkland, proposes to keep a sharp eye upon Mr. Sumter’s conduct.” Buchanan, pg. 101, Drayton Memoirs, vol. II, pp. 64-68.

[94] In 1767, Sumter married widow Mary Cantey Jameson, eleven years his senior, settling in the same county as Richardson, St. Mark’s Parish. Mary was the daughter of Joseph Cantey whose father was William Cantey and Jane Oldys; who were also the parents of Richard’s wife Elizabeth Cantey; therefore Sumter’s wife Mary was Elizabeth’s niece.

[95] Ninety-Six, about sixty miles south of present day Greenville, S. Carolina, was a thriving town of one hundred residents at the time of the American Revolution. At first it was believed named by early trappers who upon reaching that point, estimated ninety-six miles remained to the Cherokee village, Keowee, further up in the South Carolina foothills, [the actual mileage is seventy-eight]. A more recent study claims that “the nine and six,” is a reference to two sets of southerly flowing streams—nine tributaries of Marion and Henley creeks, and six tributaries of Thompsons Creek.

[96] Some sources give the number as 594.

[97] Rebel Williamson reporting one man killed and a dozen wounded. Losses for the loyalists were higher, with four killed and twenty wounded. Gordon, pg. 30.

[98] Buchanan, pg. 102.

[99] Ramsay, pg. 76, Lossing, Vol. II, pg. 650.

[100] Buchanan, pg. 102.

[101] Ibid.

[102] Lossing, vol. II, pg. 650.

[103] Ibid.

[104] David Fanning would carry on in a civil war against his former neighbors for several years. Captured several times, but always managing to escape, his tactics were among the most vicious, resulting in several brutal murders of rebel leaders.

[105] Buchanan, pg. 103.

[106] Parker, pg. 34.

[107] William Moultrie, chosen to lead the 2^nd SC Regiment, was a Charleston native and militia leader, having fought in the Cherokee War of the early 1760’s. He would champion the British defeat at the Battle of Fort Sullivan and continue to lead his Continental troops against the British when they invaded in 1779. He was captured with the fall of Charleston in 1780. While in captivity, he negotiated for prisoner of war treatment and would be exchanged in 1782. He was the last Major General to be commissioned by Congress.

[108] Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was active as commander of the 1^st SC Continental Regiment. He was active from SC’s early revolt to the Battle of Fort Sullivan. In 1776, he joined Washington’s army outside Philadelphia and participated in the campaign against the British. He returned to SC and was eventually captured when Charleston fell. After exchanged, he was commissioned brigadier general. After the war, he represented SC in the US Congress, signing the Constitution.

[109] Ramsay, pg. 86.

[110] At first, Clinton thought to join Highlander settlers of North Carolina in a conquest of that colony. But when rebel forces devastated the Scotsman at Moore’s Creek Bridge, Feb. 27, 1776, Clinton reevaluated his options and settled on Charleston.

[111] William Thompson commanded patriot militia forces with Richardson during the 1775 Snow Campaign

[112] Colonel Isaac Huger would escape capture during the First Battle of Savannah, December 29, 1778. Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton would later attack and devastate Brigadier General Huger’s command at the Battle of Monck’s Corner, April 14, 1780.

[113] Infamous ‘Gamecock’ would lead militiamen of South Carolina throughout the war. Later in the war, he and Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton would trade victories and defeats; Sumter’s Aug. 18, 1780 defeat at the Battle of Fishing Creek, and Sumter’s revenge with ‘Bloody Ben’ Tarleton’s first major defeat at the Battle of Blackstocks, Nov. 20, 1780 – predating Tarleton’s main defeat at Cowpens, Jan. 17, 1781, in which Sumter (who refused to aid rebel commander General Daniel Morgan) was not present.

[114] Lee had arrived Charleston on June 4, 1776, twenty-four days prior to the May 28^th Battle of Sullivan Island.

[115] General Robert Howe would later command the Southern Continental Army during the third failed attempt to invade East Florida. Always at odds with South Carolina and Georgia legislatures, he would later command the defense of Savannah against Lt. Colonel Archibald Campbell’s British and Hessian regulars. This resulted in a total rout of his army on December 29, 1778  in which but a small fraction escaped unharmed or captive. He had already been relieved of duty by Congress, replacing Howe with General Benjamin Lincoln. Howe would later join Washington’s northern army.

[116] Richardson’s son Edward joined William Thompson’s regiment on June 18, 1775.

[117] Three failed invasions of East Florida: 1776 Aug – Oct (aborted), 1777 defeated at Battle of Thomas Creek May 17^th, 1778 defeated at Battle of Allegator Creek June 30^th. 

[118] Colonel Kershaw led Richardson’s former regiment at the Battle of Stono Ferry, June 20^th, 1779. He fought at the ill-fated Battle of Camden, Aug. 16, 1780 where he was captured. He was sent to Barbados and exchanged towards the end of the war.

[119] A fourth brigade of South Carolina militia was established in 1779 and prior to the fall of Charleston and placed under Brigadier General Alexander McIntosh.

[120] McCrady, pg. 332.

[121] Ibid, pg. 335.

[122] Ibid, pg. 343.

[123] Continental officer and General Washington’s aide, Colonel John Laurens of South Carolina, was President of Congress Henry Lauren’s son. He was good friends of Colonel Alexander Hamilton, also Washington’s aide, some sources state they were lovers, based on intimate letters between the two. Colonel Laurens was captured at Charleston on May 12, 1780 and allowed to return to Philadelphia to await exchange. Upon exchange in 1781, he traveled as US emissary to France and returned in time to fight at the Battle of Yorktown. He returned to South Carolina and was killed during a skirmish in one of the last actions of the war.

[124] Moultrie’s Memoirs, Vol II, pg. 47. Also McCrady, pg. 433.

[125] Simms, pg. 137.

[126] McCrady, pg. 526.

[127] As was General Lincoln, who would in a year and a half’s time, accept Cornwallis’ sword at Yorktown.

[128] As did Colonel Andrew Pickens (later general). The leader of rebel forces at the Battle of Kettle Creek, Feb. 14, 1779, accepted parole, only to break it when the aggressive backcountry policies of British General Charles Cornwallis’ allowed Pickens’ home to be among the many destroyed by British and partisan troops.

[129] Hill, pg. 259.

[130] Many sources give the date for Tartleton’s departure in pursuit of Marion as the 5^th; however, Tarleton’s memoir gives this date as the 4^th.

[131] Tarleton gives this date as the 10^th, while other primary sources list the 7^th and the 9^th.

[132] Many accounts state his wife was Mary; however Mary Cantey was Richardson’s first wife who died in 1767 whereas he married Dorothy Sinkler.

[133] Three pounders called ‘grasshoppers,’ for their light mobility drawn by cavalry and easily positioned.

[134] Some accounts state that he had already torched the Richardson estate as part of the ambush attempt.

[135] Headquarters of General Charles Cornwallis’ main army.

[136] Some accounts state that Dorothy had slipped away and delivered the information to her step son.

[137] Johnson, pp 161 – 162.

[138] McCrady, Vol. I pp 817-818.

[139] The silver setting bestowed upon Richardson by the legislature for his actions during the French and Indian War.

[140] Moultrie’s Diary, Vol. I  pg. 239, Francis Marion papers pp 219-220, Tarleton Memoirs pp 175-176. 

[141] Tarleton Memoirs, pp 175-176.

[142] Ibid.

[143] Francis Marion Papers, pp. 219-220.

[144] Colonel Francis Rawdon first arrived Boston in time for the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was present in almost every major battle in the north before accompanying General Cornwallis to the south. After the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, March 15, 1781, and Cornwallis marched the main army north into Virginia, Rawdon remained in command of British forces in the south. He fended off Greene’s attack on Camden, also known as the Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill, April 25, 1781, before retiring from the war due to medical reasons (he was worn out) and returned to England.

[145] Lossing, Vol. II, pg. 650.

[146] McCrady, pg. 817.

[147] Moultrie’s Diary, Vol. I  pg. 239.  Also in Ramsay, Vol II pg. 160, Extract from Gov. Rutledge SC to Congress  Dec. 8, 1780.

[148] By luck, Colonel Francis Marion was not in Charleston when the city was surrendered; having injured his leg leaping from a window and consequentially infirmed outside the city. He organized a resistance unit that quickly gained notoriety for their daring and bold attacks on British regular and partisan troops.

[149] Fahey, DAR Dec. 9^th, 2021.