```"Ours are no hirelings train'd to the fight,
```With cymbal and clarion, all glittering and bright;
```No prancing of chargers, no martial display;
```No war-trump is heard from our silent array.
```O'er the proud heads of freemen our star-banner waves;
```Men, firm as their mountains, and still as their graves,
```To-morrow shall pour out them life-blood like rain:
```We come back in triumph, or come not again!"--T. Gray=.
[Illustration: 9664]
T noon I crossed the Broad River at the Cherokee Ford, and turning to
the southeast, pressed on toward Yorkville and the interesting fields
of conflict beyond, near the waters of the Catawba and its surname,
the Wateree, where the chivalrous partisans of the South, scorning the
Delilah lap of ease, retained their strength and battled manfully with
the Philistines of the crown.
[Illustration: 8664]
The river at the ford is about eight hundred yards wide, and upon the
firm pathway, which has been constructed at considerable expense, in
this vicinity, that it is quite unnavigable, except in a few places.
Soon after leaving the ford, I passed through a gorge of a spur of
King's Mountain, which here comes down in a precipitous ridge to the
Broad River. The scenery within this gorge was the most romantic I had
observed in the Southern country.
[Illustration: 6664]
From a ravine, just wide enough for the passage of a small stream and
the high-way, the hills rise almost perpendicularly to a considerable
altitude. They were covered with the various evergreens which give
beauty to Southern forests in winter; and from the fissures of the
rocks, where the water-fountains were bursting forth, hundreds of
icicles were glittering in prismatic beauty wherever the sun shed
its rays upon them. It was truly a gorgeous scene. Along this sinuous
mountain stream, rock-bound on either side, the road continued to an
iron establishment, where it ascends the steep margins of the hills,
presenting a surface of deep adhesive red earth. Descending the eastern
side of the eminence, I crossed King's Creek, a dozen miles below the
place where I passed it two days before when on my way to the Cowpens.
Soon again I was among the rough hills, and so bad was the road, that at
sunset I had traveled only ten miles from the Cherokee Ford.
The average depth of water did not exceed one foot. Unless the river
is much swollen, the ford is perfectly safe. A strong dam, owned by the
proprietors of the iron-works, crosses the river an eighth of a mile
above; and so shallow and rapid is the current, and so rocky the bed of
the river, for many miles
* This view is from the east bank of the river. Toward the extreme right
is seen the dam, made to supply water-power for the iron-works delineated
toward the left of the picture. The fording-place, which crosses a small
island in the middle of the stream, is indicated by the slight fall
toward the left.
[[[A Night on the Mountains.--Contentment.--Mule
Driving.--Yorkville.--Catawba Indians.]]]
{655}I discovered that the temporary repairs of my wagon had not been
sufficient to withstand the rough usage of the way, and that more
thorough work was necessary before I could pursue my journey with
safety. Yorkville, the nearest place In advance where a smith could be
found, was fourteen miles distant, so I was compelled to halt for the
night at a small log-house, of forbidding aspect, among the mountains.
The food and shelter was of the plainest kind imaginable. There was no
"light in the dwelling," except the blaze of pine wood upon the hearth,
and I wrote a letter by the glare of a resinous knot, brought from the
"wood pile" for the purpose. Lying in bed, I could count the stars at
the zenith; while the open floor below afforded such ample ventilation,
that my buffalo robe, wrapped around me, was not uncomfortable on that
keen frosty night. But generous, open-handed hospitality was in that
humble cabin, which made amends for trifling discomforts, and I felt
satisfied.=
````"Out upon the calf, I say,
````Who turns his grumbling head away,
````And quarrels with his feed of hay,
`````Because it is not clover.
````Give to me the happy mind,
````That will ever seek and find
````Something fair and something kind,
`````All the wide world over."=
Unwilling to risk a journey to Yorkville in my broken buggy, I hired
a team of mules and a lumber-wagon from my host, to convey myself and
baggage thither; and placing Charley and the vehicle in charge of his
son, a lad of fourteen years, we started for the distant village at
daybreak the next morning. All the way over that rough road I had
practical evidence that mules are, like facts, "stubborn things." I was
furnished with a hickory goad as long as an angler's rod, and with this
I labored faithfully, full half of the way, to whip the animals into
a trot where a level space occurred. But I made no visible impression;
walk they would, until they reached the brow of a hill, when they would
descend with the vehemence of the swine of old, who, filled with devils,
ran down into the sea. Down three long hills, rocky and gullied, they
ran, while my energies were fully occupied in pulling at the reins
with one hand, and securing my seat upon a loose board, covered with
a sheepskin, with the other. I reached Yorkville in safety at a little
past meridian, resolved never again to play postillion with mules or
donkeys, whether biped or quadruped.
Yorkville, the capital of York District, in South Carolina, almost two
hundred miles from Charleston, is a very pleasant village of about
eight hundred inhabitants, situated in the midst of a high plain, on
the dividing-ridge between the waters of the Broad and Catawba Rivers.
Sheltered from the northwest winds by the mountains, the climate is mild
in winter; elevated far above the low country of the Carolinas, it is
salubrious in summer. The streets of the village are regularly laid
out, and adorned with beautiful Pride of India trees, filled, when I was
there, with clusters of fruit. I saw some elegant mansions; and in the
gardens, fine palmettoes, the first I had seen, were growing. I passed
the Sabbath pleasantly in Yorkville, and left it early on Monday
morning, with the impression that not a lovelier village flourishes in
the "upper eountry" of the South. Leaving the great highway to Columbia
on the right, I traversed the more private roads in the direction of the
Catawba, to visit the scenes of valor and suffering in the vicinity of
that stream. The weather was fine, and the roads generally good.
Soon after leaving Yorkville, I passed through a part of the Catawba
reservation, a narrow tract of land on the Catawba River, near the
southeast corner of Yorkville District. The Catawba tribe, once so
powerful, have dwindled down to the merest remnant. For their general
adherence to the patriots during the Revolution, they have always
received the fostering care of the state. Their number now does not
exceed one hundred, and in a few years that once great rival tribe of
the Five Nations will be extinct. * So the aborigines pass away, and the
few survivors in our land may chant in sorrow,
* The Catawbas spoke a language different from any of the surrounding
tribes. They inhabited the country south of the Tuscaroras, and
adjoining the Cherokees. In 1672, the Shawnees made settlements in their
country, but were speedily driven away. In 1712, they were the allies
of the white people against the Corees and Tuscaroras; but in 1715, they
joined the other tribes in a confederacy against the Southern colonies.
In 1760, they were auxiliaries of the Carolinians against the Cherokees,
and ever afterward were the friends of the white people. Their chief
village was on the Catawba, twenty-four miles from Yorkville. The
following eloquent petition of Peter Harris, a Catawba warrior during
the Revolution, is preserved among the colonial records at Columbia, in
South Carolina. The petition is dated 1822: "I am one of the lingering
survivors of an almost extinguished race. Our graves will soon be our
only habitations. I am one of the few stalks that still remain in the
field where the tempest of the Revolution has passed. I fought against
the British for your sake. The British have disappeared, and you are
free; yet from me have the British took nothing; nor have I gained any
thing by their defeat. I pursued the deer for subsistence; the deer are
disappearing, and I must starve. God ordained me for the forest, and my
ambition is the shade. But the strength of my arm decays, and my feet
fail me in the chase. The hand which fought for your liberties is now
open for your relief. In my youth I bled in battle, that you might be
independent; let not my heart in my old age bleed for the want of your
commiseration."
This petition was not unheeded; the Legislature of South Carolina
granted the old warrior an annuity of Sixty dollars.
````"Our hungry eyes may fondly wish
````To revel amid flesh and fish,
````And gloat upon the silver dish
`````That holds a golden plover
````Yet if our table be but spread
````With bacon and with hot corn-bread,
````Be thankful if we're always fed
`````As well, the wide world over."=
[[[Fishing Creek and its Associations.--Generous Hospitality.--Petition
of a Catawba Indian.]]]
{656}
````"We, the rightful lords of yore,
````Are the rightful lords no more;
````Like the silver mist, we fail,
````Like the red leaves in the gale--
````Fail, like shadows, when the dawning
````Waves the bright flag of the morning.''
`````J. M'Lellan, Junior.=
```"I will go to my tent and lie down in despair;
```I will paint me with black, and will sever my hair;
```I will sit on the shore when the hurricane blows,
```And reveal to the God of the tempest my woes;
```I will weep for a season, on bitterness fed.
```For my kindred are gone to the hills of the dead;
```But they died not of hunger, or lingering decay--
```The hand of the white man hath swept them away!''
`````Henry Rowe Schoolcraft.=
I crossed the Fishing Creek at sunset; and at the house of a young
planter, a mile beyond, passed the night. There I experienced
hospitality in its fullest degree. The young husbandman had just begun
business life for himself, and, with his wife and "wee bairn," occupied
a modest house, with only one room. I was not aware of the extent of
their accommodations when I asked for a night's entertainment, and the
request was promptly complied with. It made no difference to them, for
they had two beds in the room, and needed but one for themselves;
the other was at my service. The young man was very intelligent and
inquiring, and midnight found us in pleasant conversation. He would
accept no compensation in the morning; and I left his humble dwelling
full of reverence for that generous and unsuspecting hospitality of
Carolina, where the people will give a stranger lodgings _even in their
own bedrooms_, rather than turn him from their doors.=
```"Plain and artless her sons; but whose doors open faster
```At the knock of the stranger or the tale of disaster?
```How like to the rudeness of their dear native mountains,
```With rich ore in their bosoms, and life in their fountains.''
`````Gaston.=
My journey of a day from Fishing Creek to Rocky Mount, on the Catawba,
was delightful.
The winter air[[Jan. 15, 1849]] was like the breath of late April in
New England; and the roads, passing through a picturesque country,
were generally good. Almost every plantation, too, is clustered with
Revolutionary associations; for this region, like Westchester county, in
New York, was the scene of continual partisan movements, skirmishes, and
cruelties, during the last three years of the war. Near the month of the
Fishing Creek (which empties into the Catawba two miles above the Great
Falls), Sumter suffered defeat, after partial success at Rocky Mount
below; and down through Chester, Fairfield, and Richland, too, Whigs
and Tories battled fearfully for territorial possession, plunder, and
personal re-
[[[Great Falls of the Catawba.--Mount Dearborn.--Cotton Factory.--Rocky
Mount and its Associations.]]]
{657}venge. Some of these scenes will be noticed presently. Turning to
the left at Beckhamville, * I traversed a rough and sinuous road down to
the banks of the Catawba, just below the Great Falls.
[Illustration: 8667]
Here yet remain the foundations of a projected United States military
establishment, to be called Mount Dearborn, which was abandoned; and
upon the brink of the foaming waters stands a cotton-mill, the property
of Daniel M'Cullock, operated by white hands, and devoted chiefly to
the production of cotton-yarns. At this place, in the midst of a fine
cotton-growing country, almost inexhaustible water-power invites capital
and enterprise to seek good investment, and confer substantial benefit
upon the state. The place is wild and romantic. Almost the whole
volume of the river is here compressed by a rugged island into a narrow
channel, between steep, rocky shores, fissured and fragmented, as if by
some powerful convulsion.
There are no perpendicular falls; but down a rocky bed the river tumbles
in mingled rapids and cascades, roaring and foaming, and then subsides
into comparative calmness in a basin below.
It was late in the afternoon when I finished my sketch of the Falls,
and leaving Mount Dearborn, crossed Rock Creek and reined up in front of
the elegant mansion of Mrs. Barkley, at Rocky Mount. Her dwelling, where
refined hospitality bore rule, is beautifully situated upon an eminence
overlooking the Catawba and the surrounding country, and within a few
rods of the remains of the old village and the battle-ground. Surrounded
by gardens and ornamental trees, it must be a delightful summer
residence. Yet there was grief in that dwelling and the habiliments of
mourning indicated the ravages of death. The husband and father had been
an honored member of the Legislature of South Carolina, and
* Here was the scene of exciting events during the early part of the
summer of 1780. Rocky Mount was made a royal post. Captain Houseman, the
commander, sent forth hand-bills, calling the inhabitants together in
an "old field," where Beckhamville post-office now stands, to receive
protection and acknowledge allegiance to the crown. One aged patriot,
like another Tell, refused to bow to the cap of this tiny Gesler. That
patriot was Joseph Gaston, who lived upon the Fishing Creek, near the
Catawba. In vain Houseman, who went to his residence with an armed
escort, pleaded with and menaced the patriot. His reply was, "Never!"
and as soon as the British captain had turned his back, he sent his
sons out to ask the brave among his neighbors to meet at his house that
night. Under Captain John M'Clure, thirty-three determined men were
at Judge Gaston's at midnight. They were clad in hunting-shirts and
moccasins, wool hats and deer-skin caps, each armed with a butcher-knife
and a rifle. Early in the morning, they prepared for the business of the
day. Silently they crept along the old Indian trail by the margin of the
creek, and suddenly, with a fearful shout, surrounded and discomfited
the assembled Tories upon the "old field," at Beckhamville. The British
soldiers in attendance fled precipitately to their quarters at Rocky
Mount. Filled with rage, Houseman sent a party to bring the hoary-headed
patriot, then eighty years of age, to his quarters; but they found his
dwelling deserted. His wife,= concealed in some bushes near, saw them
plunder the house of every thing, and carry off the stock from the
plantation. Nothing was left but the family Bible--a precious relic,
yet preserved in the family. This movement of Justice Gaston and his
neighbors was the first effort to cast back the wave of British rule
which was sweeping over the state, and threatening to submerge all
opposition east of the mountains. Judge Gaston had nine sons in the
army. When they heard of the massacre of the patriots on the Waxhaw, by
Tarleton, these young men joined hands, pledged themselves thenceforth
never to submit to oppression, and from that time they all bore arms
in defense of liberty.--See Mrs. Ellett's Domestic History of the
Revolution, pages 169--174, inclusive.
** This view is from the west side of the Catawba, looking northeast,
toward Lancaster District.
[[[A Night at Rocky Mount.--The Battle-ground.--Sumter again in
Arms.--His Compatriots.]]]
{658}in the midst of his useful public life he was thrown from his gig
and killed. Yet the light of hospitality was not extinguished there, and
I shall long remember, with pleasure, the night I passed at Rocky Mount.
[Illustration: 9668]
Accompanied by Mrs. Barkley's three daughters, and a young planter from
"over the river,"
I visited the battleground before sunset, examined the particular
localities indicated by the finger of tradition, and sketched the
accompanying view of the principal place of conflict. Here, in the
porch, sitting with this interesting household in the golden gleams of
the declining sun, let us open the clasped volume of history, and read a
brief but brilliant page.
Almost simultaneously, three distinguished partisans of the South
appeared conspicuous, after the fall of Charleston;[[May 12, 1780]]
Marion, between the Pedee and Santee; Sumter, upon the Catawba and Broad
Rivers; and Pickens, in the vicinity of the Saluda and Savannah Rivers.
With the surrender of Charleston, the hopes of the South Carolina
patriots withered; and so complete was the subjugation of the state by
the royal arms, that on the fourth of June, Sir Henry Clinton wrote to
the ministry, "I may venture to assert that there are few men in South
Carolina who are not either our prisoners or in arms with us." Many
unsubdued patriots sought shelter in North Carolina, and others went up
toward the mountains and gathered the cowed Whigs into bands to avenge
the insults of their Tory oppressors. Early in July, Sumter (who had
taken refuge in Mecklenburg), with a few chosen patriots who gathered
around him, returned to South Carolina.=
````"Catawba's waters.smiled again
`````To see her Sumter's soul in arms;
````And issuing from each glade and glen,
`````Rekindled by war's fierce alarms,
````Thronged hundreds through the solitude
`````Of the wild forest, to the call
````Of him whose spirit, unsubdued,
`````Fresh impulse gave to each, to all."
`````J. W. Simmons.=
Already bold Whigs between the Catawba had banded, and, led by Bratton,
M'Clure, Moffit, Winn, ** and others, had smitten the enemy at different
points. The first blow, struck at Beckhamville, is noticed on the
preceding page. To crush these patriots and to band the
* This view is from the garden-gate at Mrs. Barkley's, looking
northeast.. On the left is seen part of a store-house, and on the right,
just beyond the post with a pigeon-house, is a hollow, within which are
the remains of houses. At the foot of the hill may still be seen the
foundations of the house mentioned in the text as having been occupied
by the British when attacked by Sumter. The small log buildings across
the center, occupying the slope where the conflict occurred, are
servants' houses.
** Richard Winn was a native of Virginia. He entered the service early,
and in 1775 was commissioned the first lieutenant of the South
Carolina rangers. He served under Colonel William Thomson, in General
Richardson's expedition against the Tories, in the winter of that
year. He had been with Thomson in the battle on Sullivan's Island. He
afterward served in Georgia, and was in command of Fort M'Intosh, on
the north side of the Santilla River. He was subsequently promoted to
colonel, and commanded the militia of Fairfield District. He was with
Sumter at Hanging Rock, where he was wounded. He was active during-the
remainder of the war, and at the conclusion, was appointed a brigadier,
and finally a major general of militia. He represented his district in
Congress from 1793 to 1802. He removed to Tennessee in 1812, and died
soon afterward. Winnsborough, the present seat of justice of Fairfield
District, was so named in his honor, when he was colonel of that
district, in 1779.
[[[Skirmish at Mobley's Meeting-house.--Expeditions of Huck and
Cunningham.--Their Defeat]]]
{659}Loyalists, marauding parties, chiefly Tories, were sent out. At
Mobley's meeting-house, on the banks of Little River, in Fairfield
District, a party of these men were collected just after the affair at
Beckhamville.[[June, 1780]] Around them were gathering the Tories of
the district, when Captains Bratton and M'Clure fell upon and dispersed
them. This disaster, following closely upon the other, alarmed the
commander at Rocky Mount, and he sent out Captain Christian Huck, a
profane, unprincipled man, * with four hundred cavalry, and a body
of well-mounted Tories, to "push the rebels as far as he might deem
convenient." He executed his orders with alacrity. At one time he
destroyed Colonel Hill's iron-works; at another he burned the dwelling
of the Reverend William Simpson, of the Fishing Creek church, and
murdered an unoffending young man on Sunday morning, while on his way
to the meeting-house, with his Bible in his hand. He hated Presbyterians
bitterly, and made them suffer when he could. Loaded with the spoils
of plunder, Huck fell back to Rocky Mount, and prepared for other
depredations.
About this time, Bill Cunningham and his "Bloody Scout" were spreading
terror in Union and Spartanburg Districts, and also south of the
Ennoree. Against this monster, John M'Clure was dispatched. He chased
him across Union District, and almost thirty miles further toward
Ninety-Six. Four of the scout were captured, and carried in triumph into
Sumter's camp, on the Waxhaw; their leader barely escaped.
Sumter was now gathering his little army, and Huck proceeded to execute
his commission as speedily as possible, before the newly-made brigadier
should approach. He encamped upon the plantation of James Williamson
** (now Brattonville), and there passed the night of the eleventh of
July.[[1780]] At a little past midnight, Colonel Neil and the companies
of Captains Bratton and M'Clure came down from Sumter's camp, in
Mecklenburg, and cautiously approached the sleeping enemy in his
encampment, which was in the middle of a lane. At dawn,[[July 12]] they
entered each end of the lane, and fell upon Huck's party with fury.
The surprise was complete, and for an hour a fierce battle ensued, when
Huck, with Colonel Ferguson of the Tory militia, was killed, and his
party dispersed. The whole patriot force was only one hundred and
thirty-three men. M'Clure and his party, well mounted, pursued the
fugitives almost to Rocky Mount, and within four hours the army of
Huck was as completely dissolved as if they had never seen each other.
Colonel Neil lost only one of his command.
The defeat of Huck had an important bearing upon the future condition
of the state. It encouraged the Whigs, and many joined the standard of
Sumter; while the Tories, abashed, were fearful and silent. Strengthened
by daily recruits, until he had more than six hundred men under his
command, Sumter determined to attack the royal post at Rocky Mount. The
massacre of Buford's command on the Waxhaw, in May,[[May 29]] had fired
the Whigs with a desire for revenge; and Sumter felt strong enough to
attack a force known to be a third larger than his own. The post at
Rocky Mount was now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Turnbull, with a
small garrison, consisting of one hundred and fifty New York volunteers,
and some South Carolina militia. These were stationed principally in
three buildings, upon a slope surrounded by a ditch and _abatis_, and
encircled by an open wood.
On the thirtieth of July,[[1780]] Sumter left Major Davie's camp, at
the parting of the roads for Rocky Mount and Landsford, and crossing the
Catawba at Blair's Ford,
* Huck had often been heard to say, says Ramsay (ii., 136), that "God
Almighty was turned rebel; but that if there were twenty Gods on their
side, they should all be conquered."
** The house of Colonel Bratton was only half a mile distant from
Williamson's. There Huck had first halted, and rudely demanded of
Colonel Bratton's wife where her husband was. "In Sumter's army," was
her prompt reply. Huck tried to win her to the royal cause, or force
her, by menaces, to disclose the place of her husband's retreat. She
firmly refused all compliance, even when a sharp reaping-hook was at her
throat, in the hands of a brutal soldier. This courageous act of Mrs.
Bratton is still remembered with reverence in that section; and as late
as 1839, a toast, complimentary of the "fortitude of Martha Bratton,"
was given at the anniversary of Huck's * defeat.--See Mrs. Ellet's Women
of the Revolution, i., 237.
* This name is spelled by different authors, Huyck, Huck, and Hucko
[[[Sumter's unsuccessful Battle at Rocky Mount.--His Success at Wateree
Ford.--His Defeat at Fishing Creek.]]]
{660}proceeded cautiously, but swiftly, toward Rocky Mount. Davie,
in the mean while, was to attack the outposts of the British camp at
Hanging Rock, east of the Catawba, twelve miles distant. Sumter was
accompanied by Colonels Neil, Irvine, and Lacy, *and Captain M'Clure and
some of the Gastons. At an early hour of the day, he appeared with his
whole force upon the crown of the hill now occupied by the servants'
houses of Mrs. Barkley. The British commander, warned of his approach
by a Tory, was prepared to receive him, and though the Americans poured
severe volleys upon the fortification (if it might be called one), they
produced but little effect. Having no artillery, they resorted to means
for dislodging the enemy, seldom used in war. Leaping the _abatis_
after three assaults, they drove the garrison into the houses. These,
according to Mr. M'Ehvees, who was in the engagement (mentioned on page
635), were situated near the bottom of the slope, and were composed of
logs. They first attempted to set them on fire by casting burning fagots
upon them. Not succeeding in this, an old wagon was procured, and upon
it was placed a quantity of dry brush and straw taken from the _abatis_.
These were ignited, and then rolled down against the houses. The
British, perceiving their danger, hoisted a flag. Supposing they
intended to surrender, Sumter ordered the firing to cease. At that
moment a shower of rain extinguished the flames, and the enemy defied
him. Having no other means at hand to dislodge or seriously injure the
garrison, Sumter withdrew, first to the north side of Fishing Creek,
near the Catawba (where he was surprised eighteen days afterward), and
then Lanisford, where he crossed the river. Seven days[[August 1780]]
afterward, he was battling with the enemy at Hanging Rock. Early in the
action, in front of the _abatis_, the gallant Colonel Neil was slain,
with two other white men and a Catawba Indian. Sumter had ten wounded,
also. The British lost ten killed, and an equal number wounded.
On the seventh of August Sumter attacked a British post on Hanging
Creek, an event which we shall consider presently. Immediately after
that engagement, he recrossed the Catawba. In the mean while, General
Gates, with his army, had arrived in the neighborhood. Advised by Sumter
that a British detachment, with stores for the main army at Camden,
was on its way from Ninety-Six, Gates ordered that officer to intercept
it,[[Aug. 15]] and detached to his aid one hundred infantry and a
company of artillery of the Maryland line, and three hundred North
Carolina militia, all under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Woodford,
of Virginia. They captured a redoubt at the Wateree Ford, in Fairfield
District, and, intercepting the escort from Ninety-Six, they secured
forty-four wagon loads of stores and clothing, with a number of
prisoners. On the seventeenth, Sumter was informed of the defeat of
Gates, near Camden. Continuing up the Catawba (here called Wateree), he
managed to elude the pursuit of Colonel Turnbull, whom Cornwallis had
sent after him, and, on the eighteenth, encamped at the Fishing Creek,
near the Catawba, a little above the Great Falls. Here he determined to
allow his wearied troops to repose. But a more vigilant and active foe
than Turnbull was upon his trail. Cornwallis, anxious to capture Sumter,
dispatched Tarleton to overtake and smite him. With one hundred dragoons
and sixty mounted light infantry, that officer pressed forward, without
halting, in pursuit of his prey. Crossing the Catawba at Rocky Ford, he
got into the rear of Sumter, and fell upon his eamp while resting, the
patriot leader having had no intimation of his approach. The Americans
were routed, with great slaughter. More than fifty were killed, and
three hundred were made prisoners. All the stores, clothing, and
prisoners, captured by Sumter on the fifteenth, fell into Tarleton's
hands. This blow laid South Carolina in submission at the feet of
the royal troops, none but Marion, the wily. "Swamp Fox," and a
few followers, remaining in arms against the king. The subsequent
organization of a
* Colonel Lacy was one of the most resolute and sturdy patriots of South
Carolina. It is related that when the Americans were pursuing Huck, Lacy
sent a small party to secure his own father, who was a Tory, and
prevent his giving information to that marauder. Lacy was a man of great
personal strength, and was a general favorite with the people. He was
one of the most active participators in the action or King's Mountain.
[[[Passage of the Catawba--Appearance of the Road.--Anvil Rock.--Old
Slave at Hanging Rock.]]]
{661}force under Sumter, his exploits west of the Broad River, and also
the important events which followed the assumption, by Greene, of the
command of the Southern army, have been detailed in former chapters.
I left the family of Mrs. Barkley with real regret, on the morning after
My arrival, and, pursuing a crooked, steep, and rough road down to the
brink of the river, crossed the Catawba upon a bateau, at Rocky Mount
Ferry, just below the Falls at the mouth of Rocky Mount Creek.
[Illustration: 9671]
The scenery here, and for some miles on my road toward Hanging Rock, my
next point of destination, was highly picturesque. I was approaching the
verge of the Lowlands, the apparent shore of the ancient ocean, along
which are strewn huge bowlders--chiefly conglomerates--the mighty
pebbles cast upon the beach, when, perhaps, the mammoth and the mastadon
slaked their thirst in the waters of the Catawba and the Eswawpuddenah.
[Illustration: 8671]
For several miles the road passed among the erratic rocks and
curiously-shaped conglomerates. When within three miles of Hanging Rock,
I passed the celebrated Anvil Rock, one of the remarkable curiosities of
the South.
It stands alone, on the north side of the road, and is, indeed, a
curiosity.
It appears to be a concretion of the soil around, being composed of
precisely similar material; or the soil may be disintegrated rocks of
a similar character. In its sides are cavities from which large pebbles
have apparently fallen, and also furrows as if made by rains. Its height
above the ground is about twelve feet; its form suggested its name.
I reached the Lancaster and Camden high-way at noon, and, on inquiry,
ascertained that the celebrated Hanging Rock, near which Sumter and
his companions fought a desperate battle, was about a mile and a half
eastward. Thither I went immediately, notwithstanding the temptation of
a good dinner, freely offered, was before me, for I desired to get
as far on toward Camden, that night, as possible. The roads were now
generally sandy, and in many places soft and difficult to travel, making
progress slow. Along a by-road, across the high rolling plain upon which
(at Coles's Old Field) tradition avers the hottest of the battle was
fought, I rode to the brow of a deep narrow valley, through which
courses Hanging Rock Creek, one of the head waters of Lynch's Creek, the
western branch of the Great Pedee. The mingled sound of falling waters
and grinding mill-stones came up from the deep furrow, while from a
small cabin by the road side, upon the verge of the steep bank, I heard
a broken melody. Alighting, I entered the cabin, and there sat an aged
negro dining upon hoe-cake and bacon, and humming a refrain, he was the
miller. His hair was as white with the frost of years, as his coarse
garb was with flour. To my question respecting his family, he said,
shaking his bowed head, "Ah, massa! I lives all alone now; tree years
ago dey sole my wife, and she's gone to Mississippi. Hab to bake my own
hoe-cake now. But neber mind; needn't work 'less I'm a mind too; 'nough
to eat, and pretty soon I die?" He told me that he was more than eighty
years old, and remembered seeing "de red coats scamper when Massa Sumter
and Jacky M'Clure pitched into 'em." Pointing to the celebrated Hanging
Rock upon the opposite side of the stream, "Dar," he said, "a heap o'
red coats sleep de night afore de battle, and dar I hid de night arter."
From
[[[The Hanging Rock.--Disposition of Troops there.--Preliminary
Skirmish.--Sumter's Attack.]]]
{662}the venerable slave, whose memory appeared unclouded, I learned the
location of several points mentioned in the accounts of the engagement.
Leaving Charley to dine upon the verge of the stream, I proceeded to
Hanging Rock, of whose immensity I had heard frequent mention.
[Illustration: 8672]
It is a huge conglomerate bowlder, twenty or thirty feet in diameter,
lying upon the verge of the high east bank of the creek, nearly a
hundred feet above the stream. Around it are several smaller bowlders of
the same materials. It is shelving toward the bank, its concavity being
in the form of the quarter of an orange paring, and capacious enough
to shelter fifty men from rain. Beneath its canopy, let us turn to the
record of history.
Near the Hanging Rock, on the western bank of the creek, Lord Rawdon,
the British commander in that section, had established a post, whieh was
garrisoned by the infantry of Tarleton's legion, part of Brown's corps
of South Carolina and Georgia Provincials, and Colonel Bryan's North
Carolina Loyalists; the whole were under the command of Major Carden,
with the Prince of Wales's American regiment, in number about five
hundred. The greater portion were Loyalists, the remainder were
regulars. In the formation of the camp, the regulars were on the right;
a part of the British legion and Hamilton's regiment in the center; and
Bryan's corps and other Loyalists some distance on the left, Hanging
Rock Creek being in the rear. As we have seen (page 660), Major Davie
proceeded to an attack upon this post, simultaneously with Sumter's
assault on Rocky Mount. Davie, with his cavalry, and some Mecklenburg
militia, under Colonel Higgins, marched toward Hanging Rock. As he
approached, he was informed that three companies of Bryan's Loyalists,
returning from a foraging excursion, were encamped at a farm-house. He
fell upon them with vigor, in front and rear, and all but a few of them
were either killed or wounded. The spoils of this victory were sixty
horses with their trappings, and one hundred muskets and rifles. This
disaster made the garrison exceedingly vigilant.
We have observed that after the assault on Rocky Mount, Sumter crossed
the Catawba, and proceeded toward Hanging Rock. He marched early in the
morning cautiously, and approached the British camp in three divisions,
with the intention of falling upon the main body, stationed upon the
plain at Coles's Old Field. [[Aug. 6, 1780]] The right was composed of
Davie's corps and some volunteers, under Major Bryan; the center, of
Colonel Irwin's Mecklenburg militia; and the left, of South Carolina
regulars, under Colonel Hill, Through the error of his guides, Sumter
eame first upon Bryan's corps, on the verge of the western bank of the
creek, near the Great Rock, half a mile from the British camp. Irwin
made the first attaek. The Tories soon yielded and fled toward the main
body, many of them throwing away their arms without discharging them.
These the Americans seized; and, pursuing this advantage, Sumter next
fell upon Brown's corps, which, being on the alert, poured a heavy fire
upon him from a wood. They also received him with the bayonet. A fierce
conflict ensued, and for a while the issue was doubtful. The riflemen,
with sure aim, soon cut off almost all of Brown's officers and many
of his soldiers; and at length his corps yielded and dispersed in
confusion. The arms and ammunition procured from the vanquished were of
great service, for when the action commenced, Sumter's men had not two
rounds each. *
* Mrs. Ellet relates a circumstance which has some interest in this
connection Colonel Thomas, of Spartanburg District, was intrusted by
Governor Rutledge with a quantity of arms and ammunition. A party, under
Colonel Moore (who was defeated at Ramsour's Mill), attacked the house
of the colonel, during his absence, for the purpose of seizing the
powder. His heroic wife, Jane Thomas, with a son-inlaw, her daughter,
and a lad, formed the garrison in the house. Mrs. Thomas and her
daughter loaded guns as fast as the son-in-law could fire; and the
Tories, believing that the house was filled with men, decamped, and the
ammunition was saved. This powder constituted a part of Sumter's supply
at Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock.
[[[Sumter's final Blow.--Victory lost by Intemperance.--Sumter's
Retreat.--The Loss.--Captain M'Clure.]]]
{663}Now was the moment to strike for decisive victory; it was lost by
the criminal indulgence of Sumter's men in plundering the portion of the
British camp already secured, and drinking freely of the liquor found
there. A similar cause plucked the palm of victory from the hands of
Greene at Eutaw Springs. Sumter's ranks became disordered; and while
endeavoring to bring order out of confusion, the enemy rallied. Of his
six hundred men, only about two hundred, with Davie's cavalry, eould be
brought to bear upon the remaining portion of the British, who were yet
in some confusion, but defended by two cannons. Sumter was not to be
foiled. With a shout, he and his handful of brave men rushed forward to
the attack. The enemy had formed a hollow square, with the field-pieces
in front, and in this position received the charge. The Americans
attacked them on three sides, and the contest was severe for a while. At
length, just as the British line was yielding, a re-enforcement, under
Captains Stewart and M'Donald, of Tarleton's legion, returning from
an excursion toward Rocky Mount, appeared, and their number being
magnified, Sumter deemed a retreat a prudent measure. This was done at
meridian, but the enemy had been so severely handled, that they did not
attempt a pursuit. A small party appeared upon the Camden road, but was
soon dispersed by Davie. Could Sumter have brought all of his forces
into action in this last attack, the route of the British would have
been complete.=
```"He beat them back! beneath the flame
````Of valor quailing, or the shock!
```He carved, at last, a hero's name,
````Upon the glorious Hanging Rock!"=
With his few prisoners and booty, Sumter retreated toward the Waxhaw,
bearing away many of his wounded. The engagement lasted about four
hours, and was one of the best-fought battles, between militia and
British regulars, during the war. Sumter's loss was twelve killed and
forty-one wounded. Among the former were the brave Captain M'Clure, *
of South Carolina, and Captain Read, of North Carolina; Colonel Hill,
Captain Craighead, Major Winn, Lieutenants Crawford and Fletcher, and
Ensign M'Clure, were wounded. The British loss exceeded that of the
Americans. Captain M'Cullock, commander of the legion infantry, and two
officers and twenty privates of the same corps, were killed, and forty
were wounded.** Brown's regiment also suffered much. Bryan's Tories did
not stop to fight,=
````"------but ran away,
````And lived to fight another day."=
About nine miles north of the present Lancaster Court House, and between
twenty and
* John M'Clure was one of the master spirits of South Carolina. He was
a nephew of the venerable Judge "Gaston, and partook of that patriot's
purity and zeal in the cause of Republicanism. Of him General Davie
said, "Of the many brave men with whom it was my fortune to become
acquainted in the army, he was one of the bravest; and when he fell,
we looked upon his loss as incalculable." He fell at the first fire of
Bryan's Loyalists, pierced by two bullets, and at the same time, four
of his cousins, sons of Judge Gaston, lay bleeding near him. When his
friends came to his aid, he urged them to leave him and pursue the
enemy. After the battle, he was taken, with other wounded soldiers, to
Waxhaw church, where his mother went to nurse him. From thence he
was taken to Charlotte, and on the eighteenth, the very day when his
commander was surprised at Fishing Creek (see page 635). he expired in
Liberty Hall, where the celebrated Mecklenburg resolutions were drawn
up. M'Clure was a native of Chester District, and his men were known as
the Chester Rocky Creek Irish. The first wound which he received in the
engagement was in the thigh. He stanched it with wadding, when another
bullet passed through him at the breast. Two of the Gastons fell dead
across each other; a third was mortally wounded; and a fourth had a
cheek shot away. Doctor Richard E.. Wylie, of Lancaster, wrote a ballad
of twenty stanzas commemorative of this event.
** Ramsay, Moultrie, Lee.
[[[The British in South Carolina.--Retreat of Americans.--Massacre of
Buford's Regiment near the Waxhaw.]]]
{664}twenty-three miles above Hanging Rock, upon the Waxhaw Creek, *
the regiment of Colonel Abraham Buford was massacred by Tarleton on
the twenty-ninth of May, 1780. Sir Henry Clinton took possession of
Charleston on the twelfth, and immediately commenced measures for
securing the homage of the whole state. He sent out three large
detachments of his army. The first and largest, under Cornwallis,
was ordered toward the frontiers of North Carolina; the second,
under Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, was directed to pass the Saluda, to
Ninety-Six; and the third, under Lieutenant-colonel Brown, was ordered
up the Savannah, to Augusta. Soon after he had passed the Santee,
Cornwallis was informed that parties of Americans who had come into
South Carolina, and had hurried toward Charleston to assist Lincoln,
were as hastily retreating. Among these was Colonel Buford. His
force consisted of nearly four hundred Continental infantry, a small
detachment of Washington's cavalry, and two field-pieces. He had
evacuated Camden, and, in fancied security, was retreating leisurely
toward Charlotte, in North Carolina. Cornwallis resolved to strike
Buford, if possible, and, for that purpose, he dispatched Tarleton, with
seven hundred men, consisting of his cavalry and mounted infantry. That
officer marched one hundred and five miles in fifty-four hours, and
came up with Buford upon the Waxhaw. Impatient of delay, he had left his
mounted infantry behind, and with only his cavalry, he almost surrounded
Buford before that officer was aware of danger. Tarleton demanded
an immediate surrender upon the terms granted to the Americans at
Charleston. Those terms were humiliating, and Buford refused compliance.
** While the flags for conference were passing and repassing, Tarleton,
contrary to military rules, was making preparations for an assault,
and the instant he received Buford's reply, his cavalry made a furious
charge upon the American ranks. Having received no orders to defend
themselves, and supposing the negotiations were yet pending, the
Continentals were utterly dismayed by this charge. All was confusion,
and while some fired upon their assailants, others threw down their arms
and begged for quarter. None was given; and men without arms were hewn
in pieces by Tarleton's cavalry. One hundred and thirteen were slain;
one hundred and fifty were so maimed as to be unable to travel; and
fifty-three were made prisoners, to grace the triumphal entry of the
conqueror into Camden. Only five of the British were killed, and fifteen
wounded. The whole of Buford's artillery, ammunition, and baggage, fell
into the hands of the enemy. For this savage feat, Cornwallis eulogized
Tarleton, and commended him to the ministry as worthy of special favor.
It was nothing less than a cold-blooded massacre; and _Tarleton's
quarter_ became proverbial as a synonym to cruelty. *** The liberal
press, and all right-minded men in England, cried shame!
After the battle, a large number of the wounded were taken to the log
meeting-house of the Waxhaw Presbyterian congregation, where they were
tenderly nursed by a few who had the boldness to remain. With the defeat
of Buford, every semblance of a Continental army in South Carolina was
effaced. This terrible blow spread consternation over that region, and
women and children were seen flying from their homes to seek refuge from
British cruelty in more distant settlements. Among the fugitives was the
widowed mother of
* This name is derived from the Waxhaw Indians, a tribe now extinct, who
inhabited this region.
[Illustration: 8674]
** Buford's answer, as given by Tarleton in his Memoirs, was brief and
positive, as follows: "Waxhaws, May 29th, 1780. "Sir,--I reject
your proposal, and shall defend myself to the last extremity.
"Lieutenant-eolonel Tarleton, commander of British Legion."
*** Justice demands an audience for Tarleton. In his account of the
affair, he alleges that a demand for a surrender was made before his
main body had overtaken Buford, and that after that officer's defiant
letter was received, both parties prepared for action. He excuses the
refusal to grant quarter by the plea that some of the Continentals
continued to fire. As Marshall suggests, the fact that Buford's
field-pieces were not discharged and so few of the British were wounded,
is evidence enough that the attack was unexpected. Tarleton was taunted
with his cruelty on this occasion, on his return to England. Stedman.
the British historian of the war says, "On this occasion, the virtue of
humanity was totally forgot."--See Marshall, i., 338; Gordon, iii., 53;
Lee, 78; Stedman, ib, 193.
[[[Family of President Jackson.--Journey toward Camden.--Flat
Rook.--Rugeley's Mill]]]
{665}Andrew Jackson (the seventh President of the United States), who,
with her two sons, Robert and Andrew, took refuge in the Sugar Creek
congregation, at the house of the widow of the Reverend J. M. Wilson,
near Charlotte.
[Illustration: 8675]
This was the first practical lesson of hatred to tyranny which young
Jackson learned, and it doubtless had an abiding influence upon his
future life. *
Returning to the Lancaster road at two o'clock, I rode on toward Camden,
about thirty-five miles distant, passing on the way the celebrated Flat
Rock, a mass of concrete, like that of Anvil Rock, five hundred yards
across. It lies even with the surface of the ground, and presents
numerous pits or cisterns, supposed to have been hollowed out by the
Indians for the purpose of holding water. The road passed over this mass
with a gentle descent. Near its southern side, the place was pointed
out to me where a severe skirmish occurred in August, 1778, between some
militia and Tories, but the result was not very sanguinary. At sunset
I arrived at the house of Mrs. Fletcher, within nine miles of Rugeley's
Mill, where I was well entertained for the night. ** I departed at
sunrise the following morning. Being now fairly within the sandy region
upon the slopes between the upper and the lower country, the traveling
was very heavy. At the first house after leaving Mrs. Fletcher's, I
saw Mr. Paine, the brother of Mrs. Lee, an intelligent old man of
eighty-four years. During half an hour's conversation with him, I
obtained some valuable information respecting the various historical
localities between there and Camden. The first of these is Clermont,
sometimes called Rageley's, about thirteen miles north of Camden, where
I arrived at an early hour in the forenoon. This is the place where
General Gates concentrated his army for an attack upon the British at
Camden. The place is also memorable on account of a military event which
occurred near Rugeley's Mill, on the fourth of December, 1780. This mill
was about one hundred yards east of the road where it crosses Rugeley's
Creek. No traces of the mill remain; but an embankment, several rods
in extent, partly demolished, and overgrown with pines and shrubbery
interlaced with the vines of the muscadine, mark the place of the dam, a
part of which, where the creek passes through, is seen in the engraving.
Let us consider the event which immortalizes this spot.
When Cornwallis retreated from Charlotte (see page
* I am informed by the Honorable David L. Swain, that the birth-place of
General Jackson is in Mecklenburg eounty, North Carolina, just above the
state line. It is about half a mile west of the Wuxhaw Creek, upon the
estate of W. J. Cureton, Esq., twenty-eight miles south of Charlotte. A
month or two after his birth, his mother removed to the southward of the
state line, to a plantation about twelve miles north of Lancaster Court
House. That plantation is also the property of Mr. Cureton. The house
in which she resided when Tarleton penetrated the settlement is
now demolished. So the honor of possessing the birthplace of that
illustrious man belongs to North, and not to South Carolina, as has been
supposed.
* The massacre of Buford's regiment fired the patriotism of young
Andrew Jackson; and at the age of thirteen he entered the army, with his
brother Robert, under Sumter. They were both made prisoners; but even
while in the power of the British, the indomitable courage of the after
man appeared in the boy. When ordered to clean the muddy boots of a
British officer, he proudly refused, and for his temerity received a
sword-cut. After their release, Andrew and his brother returned to the
Waxhaw settlement with their mother. That patriotic mother and two sons
perished during the war. Her son Hugh was slain in battle, and Robert
died of a wound which he received from a British officer while he was
prisoner, because, like Andrew, he refused to do menial service. The
heroic mother, while on her way home from Charleston, whither she
went to carry some necessaries to her friends and relations on board a
prison-ship, was seized with prison-fever, and died. Her unknown
grave is somewhere between what was then called the Quarter House
and Charleston. Andrew was left the sole survivor of the family.--See
Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, p. 199.
** There I saw Mrs. Lee, the step-mother of Mrs. Fletcher, who was then
ninety-two years of age. She lived near Camden during the war, but was
so afflicted with palsy when I saw her, that she could talk only with
great difficulty, and I could not procure from her any tradition of
interest. Mrs. Lee had buried five husbands.
[[[Tories at Rugeley's.--Stratagem of Colonel Washington in capturing
the Tories.--Gum Swamp.--Sander's Creek]]]
626), {666}Gates advanced to that place, and General Smallwood was
directed to encamp lower down the Catawba, on the road to Camden.
Morgan, with his light corps, composed partly of Lieutenant-colonel
Washington's cavalry, was ordered to push further in advance, for the
purpose of foraging, and to watch the movements of Cornwallis.
[Illustration: 8676]
Smallwood having received information that a body of Tories, under
Colonel Rugeley, were on the alert to intercept his wagons, ordered
Morgan and Washington to march against them. They retreated, and took
post at Rugeley's house, on the Camden road, which he had stockaded,
together with his log-barn.
Washington, with his cavalry, pursued, and at about ten o'clock on the
fourth of December,[[1780]] appeared at Rugeley's Mill, on the south
side of the creek. The Loyalists were strongly posted in the log-barn,
in front, of which was a ditch and _abatis_. Having no artillery,
Washington could make but little impression upon the garrison, so he
resorted to stratagem.
[Illustration: 9676]
Fashioning a pine-log so as to resemble a cannon, he placed it in such
a position near the bridge as, apparently, to command both the house and
barn of Colonel Rugeley. He then made a formal demand for a surrender,
menacing the garrison with the instant demolition of their fortress.
Alarmed at the apparition of a cannon, Rugeley sent out a flag,
and, with his whole force of one hundred and twelve men, immediately
surrendered. Poor Rugeley never appeared in arms afterward. Cornwallis,
in a letter to Tarleton,[[Dec. 4]] said, "Rugeley will not be made a
brigadier.
Soon after leaving Rugeley's, I came to a shallow stream which flows out
of Gum Swamp, and known in the Revolution as Graney's Quarter Creek. It
was thickly studded with ginn shrubs and caries, the latter appearing
as green and fresh as in summer. It was now about noon, and while I made
the accompanying sketch, Charley dined upon corn, which the generous
driver of a team "hauling cotton," gave me from his store. Between this
stream and Sander's Creek, within seven miles of Camden, is the place of
Gates's defeat.[[Aug. 16, 1780]] The hottest of the engagement occurred
upon the hill, just before descending to Sander's Creek from the north,
now, as then, covered with an open forest of pine-trees. When I passed
through it, the undergrowth had just been burned, and the blackened
trunks of the venerable pines, standing like the columns of a vast
temple, gave the whole scene a dreary, yet grand appearance. Many of the
old trees yet bear marks of the battle, the scars of the bullets being
made very distinct by large protuberances. I was informed that many
musket-balls have been cut out of the trees; and I saw quite a number
of trunks which had been recently hewn with axes for the purpose. Some
pines had been thus cut by searchers for bullets which must have been in
the seed when the battle occurred. Within half a mile of Sander's Creek,
on the north side, are some old fields, dotted with shrub pines, where
the hottest of the battle was fought. A large concavity near the road,
filled with hawthorns, was pointed out to me as the spot where many of
the dead were buried.
Sander's Creek is a considerable stream, about two hundred feet wide,
and quite shallow at the ford. Though flowing through a swamp like
Graney's Quarter, its waters were very
* This view is from the south side of the bridge. The counterfeit cannon
was plaeed in the road where the first wagon is seen. The house and barn
of Rugeley were in the cleared field seen beyond the wagons,
** Tarleton's Memoirs, &c, 205.
***This view is from the south side of the stream.
[[[Lincoln Calumniated.--De Kalb sent to the South.--His March.--Sketch
of his Public Life]]]
{667}limpid. Numerous teams drawing heavy loads of cotton, on their way
to Camden, were passing at the time, and the songs and loud laughter of
the happy teamsters enlivened the dreary aspect of nature. *
Let us consider the important events which occurred here.
Misfortune is too often mistaken for a fault, and censoriousness seldom
makes candid distinctions.
[Illustration: 8677]
When General Lincoln was finally obliged to surrender Charleston and his
army to Sir Henry Clinton,[[May 12, 1780]] calumny, with its busy tongue,
decried his fair fame, and whispered doubts respecting his skill and
courage. That blow, struck by a skillful hand, almost demolished the
Southern army, and for a moment the patriots were dismayed. But the
elasticity of hope was found in the national councils, and preparations
were soon made to concentrate the various detachments of the regular
army then in the South, and the volunteers whom Sumter and others were
collecting, to turn back toward the sea-board the flood of invasion.
A month before the fall of Charleston, when it was perceived that the
chief theater of the campaign of 1780 was to be in the Southern States,
Maryland and Delaware troops were sent thither, under the Baron De
Kalb, *** a German officer, who had distinguished himself in the French
service.
[Illustration: 6677]
He left Morristown
[[April 14, 1780]] with fourteen hundred effective men; reached the
head of Elk in May; left Petersburg early in June, passed through
Hillsborough, and halted on Deep River, in North Carolina, on the sixth
of July. In the mean while,
* All the way from Yorkville I passed caravans of wagons with cotton,
on their way to Camden or Columbia. The teams are driven by negroes,
sometimes accompanied by an overseer. They carry corn and fodder
(corn-stalks) with them, and camp out at night, in the woods, where they
build fires, cook their bacon, bake their hoe-cake, and sleep under
the canvas covering of their wagons. It is a season of great delight to
those who are privileged to "haul cotton" to market.
** This view is from the north side of the Creek. Like the other stream,
it is filled with canes, shrubs, and many blasted pines.