Isaac Huger, born at Limerick Plantation at the head-waters of Cooper
River, South Carolina, on the 19th of March, 1742, was the grandson
of Huguenot exiles who had fled to America after the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes. Inheriting an ardent love of civil and religious
liberty, reared in a home of wealth and refinement, thoroughly educated
in Europe and trained to military service through participation in an
expedition against the Cherokee Indians, he was selected on the 17th
of June, 1775, by the Provincial Congress, as lieutenant-colonel of
the First South Carolina Regiment. Being stationed at Fort Johnson, he
had no opportunity to share in the defeat of the British in Charleston
Harbor, as Colonel Moultrie’s victory at Sullivan’s Island prevented
premeditated attack on the city. During the two years of peace for
the South that followed, Huger was promoted to a colonelcy, and then
ordered to Georgia. His soldiers, however, were so enfeebled by
sickness, privation, and toil that when called into action at Savannah,
they could only show what they might have accomplished under more
favorable circumstances. On the 9th of January, 1779, Congress made him
a brigadier-general; and until the capture of Charleston by the British
in May, 1780, he was in constant service either in South Carolina
or Georgia. Too weak to offer any open resistance, the patriots of
the South were compelled for a time to remain in hiding, but with the
appearance of Greene as commander, active operations were resumed.
Huger’s thorough knowledge of the different localities and his frank
fearlessness gained him the confidence of his superior officer, and
it was to his direction that Greene confided the army on several
occasions, while preparing for the series of engagements that
culminated in the evacuation of Charleston and Savannah. Huger
commanded the Virginia troops at the battle of Guilford Court-House,
where he was severely wounded; and at Hobkirk’s Hill he had the honor
of commanding the right wing of the army. He served to the close
of the war; and when Moultrie was chosen president, he was made
vice-president, of the Society of the Cincinnati of South Carolina.
Entering the war a rich man, he left it a poor one; he gave his wealth
as freely as he had risked his life, and held them both well spent in
helping to secure the blessings of liberty and independence to his
beloved country. He died on the 17th of October, 1797, and was buried
on the banks of the Ashley River, South Carolina.