Ramsour’s Mill: Initial Descriptions

Despite the fact that Ramsour's Mill appears to have been a crucial American victory – even a turning point, in the southern theater – the battle is little discussed in correspondence from that time.

Consider three letters written shortly after the battle: North Carolina governor Abner Nash to Virginia governor Thomas Jefferson on June 25, James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson on June 26, and Major-General Johann de Kalb to General George Washington on June 29.

Nash and Monroe referred to a brigade of North Carolina militia commanded by Brigadier-General Griffith Rutherford, but provided no hint that some of Rutherford’s men have won a victory at Ramsour’s Mill. In fact, their letters do not even suggest that there was significant Loyalist opposition in that part of the state. The letter by de Kalb is the only one of the three to refer to a Loyalist threat: he mentioned to Washington that a detachment of his men were in Guilford County helping the local militia defend themselves against their Loyalist counterparts. It’s unclear whether de Kalb was even aware of Rutherford’s force. Although he complained that “I am quite in the dark as to all eternal News from the South as well as from the East,” Rutherford’s force to the west was missing from a report he gave of American forces in the state.

Nash, Monroe, and de Kalb agreed on one thing: the main problem facing the Americans was a lack of provisions. Monroe noted that because of a lack of provisions, “…the Army under General de Kalb at Hillsboro, and that under General Caswell here [Cross Creek], are no longer able to hold those Stations and are in that dilemma, that they have only the alternative of advancing shortly on the Enemy or retiring to Virginia.” De Kalb complained that “We live from hand to mouth, and get very little, but what is collected by Detachments, and brought in with our Baggage Waggons [from] the Scatter’d few farms in this part…” As a consequence he was forced to put his men on reduced rations. [for a map of American dispositions, see here].

Perhaps the earliest written record of the battle of Ramsour’s Mill appears in the journal of Anthony Allaire, a lieutenant with the American Volunteers. On June 23 (i.e., 3 days afterwards), he wrote:

“Lay in the field at Ninety-Six [South Carolina]. Some friends came in, four were wounded. The militia had embodied at Tuckasegie [Tuckasegee], on the South Fork of Catawba river-were attacked by a party of Rebels, under command of Gen. [Griffith] Rutherford. The [Loyalist] militia were scant of ammunition, which obliged them to retreat. They were obliged to swim the river at a mill dam. The Rebels fired on them and killed thirty. Col. [Patrick] Ferguson, with forty American Volunteers, pushed with all speed in pursuit of the Rebels. It is seventy miles distance from Ninety-Six. The militia are flocking to him [i.e., Ferguson] from all parts of the country.”

It was not until July that American authorities referred to the victory in their correspondence. In a July 4 letter, South Carolina militia Colonel James Williams wrote that the Loyalists had 1,300 men at Ramsour’s Mill, that 35 were killed, and that 500 horses and all of their baggage had been taken. On July 23, North Carolina militia Major Thomas Blount claimed that the Loyalists had 70 men killed, 100 taken prisoners, and lost 300 horses and all of their baggage. Blount also claimed that the Americans lost a mere 7 killed and 19 wounded.

On the British side, Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis, did not refer to the battle in his correspondence with London until August 20, when he wrote:

“[O]ur Friends in Tryon County, North Carolina, in the latter end of June, who, having assembled without concert, plan, or proper leaders, were, two days, after, surprised and totally routed by the Son of Genl. Rutherford. Many of them fled into this Province, where their reports tended much to terrify our friends and encourage our enemies.”

Cornwallis perhaps chose to withhold this information until he could also report on positive developments. In this case, news of the defeat in North Carolina was accompanied by news of the British victories at Camden and Fishing Creek.

Note: Of course one's conclusions depend on the sources. In this case I searched the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, the Thomas Jefferson papers, the George Washington papers, and the records of the Continental Congress. Additional mentions of the battle may have been found were I able to search newspaper articles from that time.

Occupied South Carolina

[Minor revisions May 2, 2010]

On May 12, 1780, the American army in the Southern states, commanded by Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, surrendered at Charleston to a British army commanded by Lieutenant-General Henry Clinton. It was the worst American defeat of the war. Subsequently, Clinton left Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis with command in the South.

The British soon established a network of outposts across South Carolina. On the Atlantic coast, posts were established at Georgetown and Beaufort. The main base of operations was at Charleston. In the central part of the state, a post was set up at Camden. To defend the border with North Carolina, posts were established at Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, and Cheraws. In the west, posts were established at at Ninety-Six, "Sennica Fort," and Fair Forest.

A Section of Henry Mouzon et al.'s 1775 An accurate map of North and South Carolina... (click to enlarge). 1 is "Sennica Fort," 2 is Fair Forest, 3 is Ninety-Six, 4 is Rocky Mount, 5 is Hanging Rock, 6 is Camden, and 7 is Cheraws.

Clinton left Cornwallis with six regiments of British infantry (the 7th, 23rd, 33rd, 63rd, and 64th regiments of foot), and two regiments of German infantry (Fusilier Regiment Ditfurth and Garrison Regiment von Huyn). Cornwallis generally did not place his regulars in the more vulnerable posts (although there are exceptions: the 23rd was at Hanging Rock for a short while in early July and the 71st was at Cheraws for a longer period). Rather, the northern and western posts were manned chiefly by regiments of provincials. For example, the 3rd battalion of New Jersey Volunteers, the 1st battalion of DeLancey's brigade, and the South Carolina Royalists were assigned to Ninety-Six, the American Volunteers were at Fair Forest, and the New York Volunteers were at Rocky Mount.

Cornwallis was concerned with establishing a Loyalist militia in the state, and 18 regiments were organized. The outposts were important to the formation of these militia regiments, because they provided places where Loyalists could gather in safety, and receive arms and instructions. The placement of provincials in these outposts was perhaps deliberate. The provincials, of course, were diehard Loyalists, and it may have been thought that their presence would have a good effect on the civilian population.

A South Carolina Loyalist militia backed up by provincial regiments would seem like an effective strategy for completing the subjugation of the state. The former were well acquainted with the countryside and knew the "rebel" leaders. The latter were well armed veterans. It's not unreasonable to believe that the Loyalists should have been able to track down the bands of American militia, even infiltrate their organizations, and, with the help of the provincials, wipe out the remaining resistance.

If Cornwallis' strategy was effective in South Carolina, it reasonably might have worked in some other parts of the United States (North Carolina most obviously being the next target). Therefore, events in the South Carolina backcountry in the summer of 1780 would provide a critical test of Britain's ability to win the war.

Sources:

Letter from Brigadier-General Thomas Sumter to Major-General Johann de Kalb, July 17, 1780.

John A. Robertson et al.'s Global Gazetteer of the American Revolution.

William T. Sherman. (2009). Calendar and Record of the Revolutionary War in the South: 1780-1781. (pdf file).

Michael C. Scoggins. (2005). The Day It Rained Militia: Huck's Defeat and the Revolution in the South Carolina Backcountry, May-July 1780. (link to amazon.com).

Rodney Atwood. (2002). The Hessians. (link to amazon.com).

The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies. A History of the 3rd Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers.

The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies. A History of the 1st Battalion, DeLancey's Brigade

The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies. New York Volunteers Officers' Memorial.