“…we were a set of men acting entirely on our own footing, without the promise or expectation of pay.” –Militiaman Sixteen-year-old James Potter Collins
Back country southern militiamen were cut from a far different mold than their northern counterparts. The war in the north, by design, was one of organized armies that marched, positioned along lines of battle, and clashed using tactics similar to their European counterparts. The American army, under a supreme commander, was organized into continental regiments, battalions, brigades, and divisions. Military protocol and rules of engagement that centered upon honor were practiced. Command structure was paramount as was discipline. And Congress and Commander-in-Chief General George Washington would have it no other way. Washington was a firm disciplinarian and abhorred the mere thought the war would degenerate into chaos. He feared factions of partisans would indiscriminately attack each other, loot, destroy property, in nothing short of vigilante violence. And Washington would have none of it, holding a firm hand over the army under his direct control. As such, northern militias, like the continental regulars, were an arm of the army and subject to firm control by the military establishment. But hundreds of miles from Washington’s influence, in the southern interior, it was a different story.
The war in the backcountry, from the very first shots fired in aggression, morphed into a civil war. There were no rules of engagement or military honor. It was a conflict where neighbor fought neighbor and friends became enemies. Where grudges played out and hate became the driving force. Attacks were sudden, often by surprise, and fierce. Military organization and decorum had no place where violence and vengeance reigned. Small and larger numbers of men gathered in vigilantism to attack and decide the fate of their enemy. Homes were pilfered, buildings torched, individuals were sought after and death by shot, blade, or noose satiated retribution. Instead of lines of battle fought over open fields, militia fought militia from one tree at a time. They crept up on their enemy or overwhelmed them in a sudden and vicious ambush. Men answered only to their company or regimental commander and fought individually. The south was a guerrilla war through and through, until peace was brokered and the final musket was silenced.
General Differences between Northern and Southern Militias:
- Northern militias frequently fought as organized units within the continental army. Southern militias were independent and fought as small groups under company commanders.
- In the north, militias were part of an organized main front against the enemy. Guerilla, hit and run warfare that depended on surprise and ambush ruled in the south.
- Militias in the north were ordered to coordinate with Continental troops. In the south, they were requested to coordinate, and often, as was the case with General of South Carolina Militia, Thomas Sumter, did not.
- In the north, rebel and loyalist militias fought each other as part of the Continental or British army. In the south, it was a civil war of rebel and loyalist forces pitted against each other.
- In the north, General Washington and Congress kept their eye on the big picture. War in the south was day to day; one action at a time.
- Northern militia leaders followed orders in a command structure from the top on down. In the south, individual militia leaders were their own commanders. When more than one militia gathered, a council of war and consensus by all present was needed before proceeding with any action. However, once the battle started, each militia commander continued to act independently as they assaulted the enemy.
- In the north, the war was fought under the auspicious eye of honor, military decorum, and respect. In the south there were no holds barred in a vicious and vindictive civil war.
- Northern militia fought alongside the main army who firmly followed military tactics. Southern militia tactics did not follow established protocols and were fluid, depending on the situation at hand.
- Northern militia attacked the enemy as part of an overall coordinated plan. Southern militiamen roamed the countryside seeking the enemy indiscriminately.
- The northern militiaman signed up for thirty-, sixty-, or ninety-day stints to fight alongside the Continental army before heading home. Southern militia were in the fight for the long haul; until the final shots was fired. Men would often retire home for short or longer periods; however, their horse was saddled and musket primed when called upon to rejoin the fight.
Militiaman James Potter Collins’ Diary
To grasp a true snapshot of life as a backcountry militiamen during the war, best avoid trivial nonsense like Parson Weem’s Life of Francis Marion [Swamp Fox], where glory bound visages of the conflict parroted early eighteenth-century heroic sacrifices and tales of daring escapades. Best to go right to the source; those who experienced the harsh tribulations of war on the run. In that we can thank rebel militiaman sixteen-year-old James Porter Collins. His diary offered a clear and sensitive picture of daily life. Collins left us a down-to-earth portrayal of what it was like to be toting a firelock in pursuit of their common enemy; including admitted doubts, fears, second thoughts, and yearnings to be home on his farm, far from all the violence. He also gave us a valuable description of a typical southern guerrilla band of militiamen.
Hardships
Often running from the enemy, militiamen bore extreme hardships. Collins wrote: “We had nothing for man or beast to eat…we lay down every man with his sword by his side, his gun in his hands, and his pistol near his head. All were silent, for we expected the whole army had been…put to the sword.” Weeks and months on end militiamen were on the move, “…we kept a flying camp, never staying long in one place—never camping near a public road…” Those farms who favored the rebel cause would help feed the men from time to time: “…a long table, prepared of planks, set in an open place, at some distance from the house. Never stripping off saddles…placing a guard over them [horses]; each one sat down with his sword by his side; his gun lying across his lap, or under the seat on which he sat, and so eating in his turn, until all were done…we then mounted our houses and moved off.”
War on the Community
Individual leaders and small groups of militia on both sides of the conflict frequently became targets by other militia bands, as were residences. This form of ‘homefront’ warfare was also practiced by partisan forces trained and equipped by the British. Tarleton’s Legion and Delancey’s New York Volunteers roamed throughout the backcountry seeking out rebel militia and torching homes and businesses. James Potter Collins describes some of the violence visited upon partisan homes by militia. He wrote: “Women were insulted, and stripped of every particle of decent clothing…every article of bedding, clothing or furniture was taken—knives, forks, dishes, spoons, in fact everything that could be carried off. Not a piece of meat or a pint of salt was left. They even entered houses where men lay sick…dragged them out of the sick beds into the yard and put them to death, in cold blood, in presence of their wives and children…it seemed as though they had been let loose from the bottomless pit, to execute infernal vengeance on all that disobeyed the mandates of the British…”
Scene of Butchery
Collins visited the battlefield of Fishing Creek, August 18, 1780, after the enemy had left. Tarleton’s Loyalist Legion’s surprise attack against militia General Thomas Sumter’s force viciously cut down all who could not escape. Collins wrote: “The dead and wounded lay scattered in every direction over the field; numbers lay stretched cold and lifeless; some were yet struggling in the agonies of death, while here and there, lay others, faint with the loss of blood, almost famished for water, and begging for assistance. The scene before me, I could not reconcile to my feelings…However, by custom, such things become familiar.”
Collins fought at the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7, 1780, where loyalist militia under Major Patrick Ferguson were defeated by a combination of Carolina militia and ‘over the mountain men frontiersmen. Again, he described the battlefield after neighboring partisans fought a close and brutal fight: “Next morning…the scene became really distressing; the wives and children of the poor Tories came in, in great numbers. Their husbands, fathers, and brothers, lay dead in heaps, while others lay wounded or dying; a melancholy sight indeed! While numbers of the survivors were doomed to abide the sentence of a court martial, [by Carolina rebel militiamen] and several were actually hanged.” And after the Battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781, he comments on war’s remains: “[the dead] becoming a prey to the beasts of the forest, or the vultures of the air…also the hogs in the neighborhood, gathered in to the place, to devour the flesh of men…half of the dogs in the country were said to be mad [after feeding on remains] and were put to death. I saw myself, in passing the place, a few weeks after, all parts of the human frame, lying scattered in every direction…”
We mounted and formed in order, when each man received a small glass of the peach again [brandy], and moving off, left the dead to bury their dead.” James Collins After King’s Mountain– James Potter Collins
Spoils of War Supplement Armed Militias
Collins was present during the death of one of Tarleton’s Legion captains, Christopher Huck. After having routed the enemy, the militia were keen to replenish their ‘home grown’ supplies with the spoils of war. He wrote, “[we] took three swords, three brace of pistols, some powder and lead, my Lord Hook’s [Huck] watch…” At a brief action near Ramsour’s Mill Collins described the aftermath of routing another band of loyalist militia: “…We took possession of most of their guns…likewise, most of their ammunition, swords, and pistols…We then selected a few of the enemy’s best rifles and whatever of the swords were deemed sufficient to stand service—breaking the others. We then took all the pistols we could find, and holsters, such as we thought would answer our purpose, breaking the locks of the others and throwing them away as unfit for further use. We took care of the powder and balls, and the guns we used similar to the pistols—breaking the locks and mainsprings.”
At another successful action Collins wrote, “Here I came in possession of a brace of excellent pistols, and the most of our men that lacked swords were furnished. We exchanged two or three of our horse, that were almost tired down…for …the best that they had.” Armies march on their stomachs which of course, included spirits. “On a large table set some decanters…with some peach brandy in them; our colonel ordered the man of the house who had surrendered…to produce some more of his brandy, which was done…” At the Battle of Hanging Rock, August 6, 1780, General Sumter failed in a complete victory over the British garrison when most of his men stumbled on the British camp, and their supply of rum. His men quickly became so roaringly drunk, that he had to call off the attack.
Description of Southern Backcountry Militia
Collins offered a detailed description of his militia’s daily lives. “We carried no camp equipage, no cooking utensils, nor anything to encumber us; we depended on what chance or kind providence might cast in our way, and were always ready to decamp in a short time…” So too, what they wore and how they supplied themselves from mainly ‘home grown’ materials. “There was nothing furnished us from the public; we furnished our own clothes, composed of coarse materials and all home spun; our over dress was a hunting shirt, of what was called linsey Woolsey, well belted around us. We furnished our own horses, saddles bridles, guns, swords, butcher knives, and our own spurs; we got our powder and lead as we could and had often to apply to the old women of the country, for their old pewter dishes and spoons, to supply the place of lead; and if we had lead sufficient to make balls, half lead and the other pewter, we felt well supplied.”
Weaponry was always in demand. “Swords at first were scarce, but we had several good blacksmiths among us; besides, there were several in the country. If we got hold of a piece of good steel, we would keep it; and likewise, go to all the sawmills, and take all the old whip saws we could find, set three or four smiths to work in one shop and take the steel we had, to another. In this way we soon had a pretty good supply of swords and butcher knives. We made the scabbards of our swords of leather, by closing on a pattern of wood, and treating it similar to the cap. Our swords and knives, we polished mostly with a grindstone – not a very fine polish to be sure; but they were of a good temper, sharpened to a keen edge, and seldom failed to do execution, when brought into requisition.”
Militiamen’s dress was that of the field farmer. However, much care was taken whenever they could add bits to their uniform to look more military like. Collins explained how the men would go into so much detail as they proudly designed and constructed dragoon caps from house hold materials: “Mostly all of our…horsemen’s caps, were manufactured by us. We would go to a turner or wheelwright, and get head blocks turned, of various sizes, according to the heads that had to wear them, in shape resembling a sugar loaf; we would then get some…light solo leather, cut it out in shape, close it on the block, then grease it well with tallow, and set it before a warm fire, still on the block, and keep turning it round before the fire, still rubbing on the tallow, until it became almost as hard as a sheet of iron; we then got two small straps or plates of steel, made by our own smiths, of a good spring temper, and crossing in the centre above, on reaching from ear to ear…the lining was made of strong cloth, padded with wool….there was a small brim attached to the front, resembling the caps now worn, a piece of bear skin lined with strong cloth, padded with wool, passed over the front to the back of the head; then a large bunch of hair taken from the tail of a horse, generally white, was attached to the back part and hung down the back; then a bunch of white feathers, or deer’s tail, was attached to the sides, which completed the cap…The cap was heavy, but custom soon made it so that it could be worn without inconvenience.”
Similarities Among Militia
North and South, militias left the war to reenter at various times. In the north, this was usually done by whole regiments after enlistments ended and reenlistments occurred when later recruited into the same or different regiments. In the south, it was more by company and individuals without a date set on when they would officially leave. As to returning, men usually just report to the same or different leader of militia in the field with musket in hand. Collins wrote after the rebel victory at the Battle of King’s Mountain lessened the destructive threat of bands or roving Tories: “It seemed like a calm, after a heavy storm had passed over, and for a short time, every man could visit his home…[but] the Tories were mustering up in small parties, to seek revenge, and we again, set out to chastise them…”
There was one main aspect of battle all militia feared; the British regular’s bayonet charge. Men equipped mainly with the family musket had no bayonet or such weapon to counter the deadly, 17-inch piked blade at the end of a British Brown Bess. Nor could bayonets be fitted to the rifle, which took longer to reload than a musket. Therefore, Continental officers, both north and south, eventually learned to be creative in the use of militia during battle, mainly as reserve or used in volleys to soften the enemy before they could bring their veteran Continental veterans into play.
Lastly, there was a commonality shared among all militia and so too a mainstay among armies from the times of chariot borne Egyptians: spirits – more particularly rum. From Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys takeover of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, when the backwoodsmen discovered the fort’s wine cellar (some accounts state the only reason the fort was taken over) to countless raids upon farms, plantations, and fortifications, to even in battle, when attacking militia came across the enemy’s baggage; rum was a huge draw among these citizen soldiers for the duration of the war.
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RESOURCE
Buchanan, John. The Road to Guilford Courthouse. 1997: John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York, NY.
Collins, James Potter. Autobiography of a Revolutionary Soldier, revised and prepared by John M. Roberts. 1859: Feliciana Democrat, Clinton, Louisiana. Revised 1979: Arno Press, New York Times Company, New York, NY.
Crawford, Alan Pell. This Fierce People, The Untold Story of America’s Revolution in the South. 2024: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY.
Southern, Edward – editor. Voices of the American Revolution in the Carolinas. 2009: John F. Blair Publisher, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Walter, Edgar. Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution. 2001: Harper Collins, New York, NY.