The destruction of the Cherokee Nation in the Back Country: Part 4

In August of 1776 the Cherokee and their Loyalist allies decide to attack Col. Williams and his forces gathering to try to prevent the patriots from continuing their counter attack against the Cherokee homelands. To accomplish this 1200 braves attack Williams and his advance force early in the morning of August the first to try to destroy the threat to their Cherokee homes. This attack failed to dislodge Williams and his force because Andrew Pickens and a relief force was able to rush to Williams aid to check the Cherokee attack.  This failed attack was the last major attack of the Cherokee against the patriot force outside their land. Once the Cherokee were beaten back Williams along with Pickens began to enter the Lower Cherokee towns and began to apply the torch to them and their surrounding fields. Thus the total war against the Cherokee Nation began with the torch touching anything that the patriots felt could help the Cherokee in their path.

Andrew Pickens

On August 12^th, 1776 Andrew Pickens along with thirty-five men were caught in an ambush by a large group of Cherokees. This is where Pickens entered the realm of folk lore hero with his famous Ring Fight. Pickens formed his men into a two circles and had them fire two at a time to keep the Cherokee at bay until a relief force commanded by his brother Joseph Pickens could reach them.  Until the relief force reached them the men continued their fire on the Cherokee and even resorted to hand to hand combat when a group of Cherokees tried to charge the circle. Once the Cherokee were driven off it was discovered that only one of Pickens men was wounded, while his man claimed to of killed up to over eighty attackers.

Thomas Sumter

By August the twentieth the Patriots rushed counter attack was starting to fall apart as men began to run out of supplies and the supplies promised from Charlestown had not yet reached them. As a result Williams ordered most of the men home to replenish their supplies and to recruit others to come and join them against the Cherokee. These new recruits would have been the ones left home to protect the towns and settlements as Williams and Pickens began to set up a hurried defense and attack the Cherokee back in early July. To ensure that the Cherokee would know they were not finished and to protect from another Cherokee attack Williams built Fort Rutledge at the destroyed lower town of Essenca (present day Clemson) as a rallying point for the new recruits and as a staging area for the next round of attacks against the Cherokee.  On September the twelve Col. Thomas Sumter and his men along with the promised supplies from Charlestown arrives to help bolster the troop numbers and supplies needed.

By October 1776 Virginia and North Carolina also started attacks again the Cherokee Nation in order to protect their frontier. Thus by October of 1776 the Cherokee were fighting Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia militias at all points along their border. As a result of these fighting everyone and every where the Cherokee were hard pressed to stop the patriots as they went from village to village burning them to the ground. All of their lands are touched by the sword and flame from the lower villages to the over the mountain villages. As winter approached they found themselves without shelter, without food, and without help from their British Allies. They continued to try and fight through the winter and early spring but by May of 1777 they were ready to make peace. As a result of the peace treaty, they gave up all of their lands in the lower villages thus removing the Cherokee from the back country of South Carolina. This brought peace to the back country and South Carolina which was spared from war for the next two years because of it. 

The Patriot Response to the Cherokee Attacks

Gov. Rutledge

Once survivors began to make their way to settlements where they could get protection and spread the alarm the people of the back country began to rally to protect their homes and loved ones. The first major attempt of organizing resistance was with Major Andrew Williams who sent out the word for the word for his Ninety Six Militia Regiment to assemble to repel the Cherokee onslaught. This effort for some days was meet with futility as few people reported to Williams call because of fear of their homes being attacked while they were gone. Also during this time period riders where sent down to Charlestown to inform the government there of what was transpiring on the frontier. At this point the officials in Charlestown, including General Lee and Gov. Rutledge were still watching for a possible second attack from the British forces located in Charlestown Harbor when word reached them of the new enemy attacking along the frontier. After several days of waiting the South Carolina government released the Third South Carolina under Thomson, the Fifth under Huger, and the Sixth South Carolina under Sumter to begin the track up the Cherokee trail to assist the local militias with dealing with the attacks. The first to get up the Cherokee Trail was the Third South Carolina and Fifth South Carolina with the Sixth following behind them collecting supplies for the troops already in the Back Country and for future operations.

As Major Andrew Williams was continuing gathering his forces the first of the other Militia Regiments began to combine with his force. The first to come to his assistance was that of Major Andrew Pickens know as the “Wizard Owl” or the “Fighting Elder” with his Lower District Militia Regiment.  Other Militia Regiments began to form and moved towards Major Williams camp to help push back the Cherokee and to punish them for these attacks. These other militia regiments included the New Acquisition Regiment, Spartan Regiment, Little River Regiment, Camden Regiment, Fairfield Regiment, Upper Craven County Regiment, a Georgia Militia Regiment under the command of Col. Samuel Jack, and a group of Catawba Indians who had been fighting against the Cherokee for many generations and were more than happy to help settle an old debt with an old enemy.  Another group also offered their help against the Cherokee also, this was the Loyalist of the Back Country who had only a few months before been fighting against the Patriots in the Snow Campaign. These Loyalist were lead by Captain Robert Cunningham who offered to raise his Loyalist Regiment to help defeat the Cherokees. When Captain Cunningham offered his sword and that of his men to fight along with the Patriots they were refused. For logical reason we can understand why Williams refused Cunningham whom he had just been fighting some months before, but the question must also be asked why Cunningham and his men fighting alongside the Cherokee as other Loyalist wasn’t were at this time?  Did they not know this was an attack orchestrated by the crown or did they not want to be known among their friends and peers as those whom had assisted in this unleashing of total war?

William Henry Drayton

As this back country army formed they received unofficial orders for their expedition against the Cherokee nation from William Henry Drayton. In his letter Word to the Wise he told the expedition to “cut up every Indian corn field and burn every Indian town.” This letter was not official and surely not needed as a catalyst to let the back country know what they could or could not do against the Cherokee. These were people use to no prisoners taken type of fighting against the Cherokee Nation as they had already fought with the Cherokee numerous times and   understood this was not a war of territory, but that of survival for each. Whoever was left standing after this war would be masters of these lands and both knew the cost would be total war along the frontier. Once the Cherokee Nation started these attacks the gloves were off and nobody from Charlestown need worry what the back country population would do to the Cherokee once they organized and went out for vengeance.

On July 15^th it was found out by the Patriots that the Loyalist were more involved than what they thought in the 

Cherokee attacks. On July 15^th a siege lead by the Cherokee was broken by the Patriots at Fort Lyndley which was the first check against the Cherokee since the attacks began two weeks earlier. After the siege was lifted, Loyalist were captured dressed as Indians who had help in the attack against the Patriot fort. This only hardened the feelings of the Patriots against the Cherokee and the Loyalist in the battles to come.

As Major Williams force grew he began to move closer to the Cherokee lands to set up a base of operation to shield the settlements from further attack and to act as a jump off point to attack the Cherokee towns across the border.

Our next article will be about the Patriot Counter Attack against the Cherokee.

Cherokee Campaign Part 2; The Loyalist Uprising

Once John Stuart decided how to use the Cherokee Nation against the rebels with the input of other Loyalist based in the Florida Colonies such as Thomas Brown and Moses Kirkland he decided to go and meet with General Clinton in person. This plan had the approval of almost of all of the highest ranking British officials in North America and Britain such as General Howe, General Gage, Lord William Campbell, and Lord North.

Cherokee Settlements in 1776 before the attacks

So in February of 1776, Stuart boarded a boat to go and meet with General Clinton at Cape Fear off the coast of North Carolina to coordinate the efforts between the Cherokees and British Army now off of the Southern American coast trying to decide where they were going to strike. In conjunction with this meeting John sent his brother Henry Stuart and Alexander Cameron to the Cherokee Nation with as much military supplies as they could transport to the Cherokee. Once Stuart and Cameron arrived in the Cherokee nation they were greeted as friends and their military supplies divided up amongst the warriors who were now ready to attack. The next part of their mission was to coordinate with the warriors some sort of plan to attack when the British Fleet made land fall.

This part of the plan was for the Cherokee Warriors to fight alongside Loyalist who were in theory to show the Cherokee who were friends of the crown to not harm and whom were rebels that they could attack freely. This was a concept the French had used in the French and Indian War against the British themselves. This however was a different type of war all together, with people switching sides at this point of the war to protect their own interest fairly commonly. The Loyalist who were to travel with the bands of Cherokee as they began the attack wore to wear typical Cherokee clothes and war paint to help identify them as Cherokee Warriors so as to not be mistaken in a fight by the Cherokee in attacks against rebels. The other reason for the Loyalist to wear these disguises was to hide their identity to friend and foe alike. These Loyalist who fought and travelled with these Cherokee bands were doing so in their own communities, where they had families, farms, and other ties.  If they were discovered too of been helping unleash all settlers’ biggest fear of an Indian uprising along the frontier they would never be forgotten or forgiven by their former friends and neighbors.  If they were to return to these communities after this war it could only be if they were victorious and they acted as such when fighting.

Once John Stuart returned to West Florida after meeting with General Clinton the go ahead to release the Cherokee Nation was given and riders were sent out to the Loyalist in the field to begin their attacks with their Cherokee allies. So on July 1^st, 1776 the Cherokee Nation along with their Loyalist allies began to attack settlers and settlements along their boards thus begun a Cherokee War along the frontier.     

When the attacks started along the border they were swift and divesting to outlying farms and settlers families.  As could be imagined these attacks were carried out without regards to gender, race, age, or even loyalty to the crown. So as the word of these attacks began to spread along the frontier an alarm went out to all of those who lived there to be on the alert and to be ready to defend themselves against the Cherokee who were now unleashed on them all.

This marked a turning point in the back country of South Carolina in regards to the attitudes of its people. Before, during, and after the Snow Campaign of 1775 the back country had been a rough place for Loyalist and Patriot with whom both sides had shed the blood of the other, property was destroyed of each, and humiliation had been distributed. However after the Snow Campaign they had thought the issues settled and people had tried to return to their lives with hard feelings towards each other but not shooting after parole had been given. Both sides had returned to their fields and were trying to make a living under these conditions. The unleashing of the Cherokee however made this struggle more bitter and devise than anyone could of imagined with both sides now playing for total victory with no quarter to be given or expected as a result, until the matter was to be resolved at the end of the war with neither side willing to give an inch until then.

Next article up is: The Patriots response to the Cherokee attacks.

The Cherokee Campaign; Part One

This campaign against the Cherokee was the result of the Cherokee Nation going to war for King George against the Patriots of the South. On July 1^st, 1776 the Cherokee Nation in an attempt to coordinate with the British attack in Charlestown launched a campaign against the settlers along the Cherokee boarder in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. This attempt to coordinate with General Clinton on Long Island was designed to help the British regain control of South for the crown. The main problem with this use of the Cherokee Nation as an instrument of war against the rebels was that they could not or would not, discriminate against whom they attacked, be it Patriot or Loyalist when this Pandora’s Box of war was unleashed on the weakly defended frontier. This unleashing of the Cherokee Nation brought about the typical horrors of war to all those who were touched by it.

Before we go into the events of this campaign, we must first understand the reasons that caused the Cherokee Nation to take up arms for King George. Cherokee warriors fighting against the English settlers was not a new concept, they had fought that at several different times in the history of the British Colony. The most influential fighting happened during the French and Indian War when the Colonist and British troops defeated the Cherokee Nation and forced them to sign a peace treaty in 1761 ending the conflict between the Cherokee and the British while the war continued on in other parts of the World. The treaty of 1761 guaranteed the Cherokee their land boundaries and that they would be treated fairly in commerce. To ensure the Cherokee were treated fairly the British Government appointed Indian Agents to help make sure all of the treaty agreements were up held and so that the Cherokee would have a person they knew to voice concerns and complaints to. As long as these agents did their job fairly, peace would flourish along the frontier.

However ever as the years passed more and more people began to more closer and closer to the Cherokee boarder as the settlements of the Midlands of South Carolina continued to flourish and grow through trade and agriculture. The growth of the Midland was a result of the Rice and Indigo gentry of the Low Country of South Carolina trying to create a buffer zone between the Cherokee Nation and their highly profitable enterprises along the coast. The Royal Government of South Carolina gave land grants and farming tools to those who agreed to develop this wilderness between the coast and the Cherokee. As a result of these land grants, people from Pennsylvania and  Virginia in North American and Ulster, the Principalities of Germany, Sweden, and other Western European countries traveled by foot, wagon, horse, and boat to get to these advertised fertile lands. This land grant program was so successful that communities began to spring up all along the frontier of South Carolina in such areas as Camden, Fairfield, New Acquisition, Williamsburg, Ninety Six, Waxhaws, Spartan, Saxe-Gotha, Orangeburg, and others. As these communities began to grow and as more people continued to come, settlers started to move father and further up the Cherokee trail from Charlestown to the Cherokees land in order to get their share of the land grants. As a result of this movement of settlers towards their lands the Cherokee  began to rely more and more on the King’s Indian Agents to help control the perceived threat that was inching closer and closer to them each day. Thus a true bond was formed between themselves and their protector the King, through the Indian Agent.

Fortunately for the Crown, an Indian Agent for whom the Cherokee had total trust in was a very loyal subject from Scotland, named Captain John Stuart.

As the South Carolinas began to move closer and closer to war with the mother country in 1775 they knew that Captain Stuart was the key to the Cherokee threat on their frontier. His influence within the Cherokee high councils was well know and that he could either help pacify the Cherokee for the Patriots or send them to war against them was on their minds in dealing with Stuart. The Patriots did not want to fight a two front war against Britain and the Cherokee at the same time for obvious reasons. To this end the local radicals began to undoubtedly pressure him to either join their cause or to be dealt with to ensure the Cherokee would not interfere with their plans. With the pressure of these radicals  beginning to weigh on him and with the Royal Government of South Carolina in exile on board a ship in the harbor, he left Charlestown and his family for the safer haven of the British Florida Colonies to continue his work and communications with the Cherokee.   

At the end of the French and Indian War Spain ceded Florida and France ceded Florida and other territories on the Gulf Coast to England. With this being such a large area England decided to divide the colony of Florida into two parts with the addition of the other territories to form two colonies. The colony that comprised much of Florida except for the panhandle was names East Florida with Saint Augustine the old Spanish capital of Florida becoming the English capital of this colony. To the west they name this colony West Florida and it was composed of the panhandle of Florida and other lands along the gulf coast with its capital being located at Pensacola.  These two new colonies were added to the thirteen along the Atlantic Coast and the Canadian colonies under the Crown’s control. While the thirteen colonies were actively gearing for war the Florida colonies were staying very loyal to the crown and thus became a sort of safe haven for Loyalist who were being driven from their homes in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and other places. As these Loyalist began to gather at the capitals of the different colonies of Florida they began to form their own Loyalist Militia groups such as the Royalist Rangers and others and started to plan their return homes to restore the crown to power and to retaliate against those who had forced them from their lands. From this hot bed of Loyalist activity, John Stuart along with his brother Henry Stuart and other such as Alexander Cameron and Moses Kirkland began to plot how to use their Loyalist and Cherokee friends to bring the crown back into power over their former land.

Richard Richardson

After Captain Stuarts escape from Charlestown and its rebel government to Pensacola in West Florida Loyalist bands were already starting to form in the back country of the colony in order to put down the rebellion. As they began to form their Loyalist Militia in the back country they did so as close to the Cherokee Nation as they could for most Patriots were at this time trying to pacify the nation and were giving them a wide berth in coming anywhere near their lands as to not provoke them. However with Stuarts relationship with the Cherokee the Loyalist where not as fear full of the Cherokee and began to form near them. AS their numbers grew the Loyalist began to strike at different points along the back country and even laid siege to the town of Ninety Six which was a Patriot strong hold in the back country. In order to relieve Ninety Six and to restore Patriot control over the back country the Council of Safety in South Carolina ordered Col. Richard Richardson with Thomas Sumter as his second in command to relieve Ninety Six and to crush the loyalist in the back country. With a thirteen hundred man force he marched to Ninety Six in November of 1775 and relieved the Patriots under threat there and then began to march his force towards the Cherokee Nation boundary line to finish off the Loyalist still trying to use the Cherokee lands for a base of operation against the Patriots. This Loyalist force was lead by Col. Thomas Fletchall and others such as Captain Patrick Cunningham. After several weeks of fighting this campaign against what was left of the Loyalist force in the back country ended in December of 1775. This was to become known as the Snow Campaign in South Carolina lore because of the harsh conditions the men fought under and travelled under. At the end of this campaign the Loyalist were smashed as an organized resistance in the back country of South Carolina with its leaders dead, in prison in Charlestown, in hiding, or making their way to one of the Florida Colonies to regroup with other Loyalist there. 

Snow Campaign Route

              

While the events of the Snow Campaign were playing out in South Carolina, John Stuart was devising what would be a very dangerous plan that if it worked would quickly subdue the back country of the Southern Colonies for the crown in British controlled Florida. His plan was to use the Cherokee Nation to open a second front of the war sort to speak that the rebels would have to divide their resources to fight against. If he could convince the Cherokee to go to war on the side of the British they could help Britain end the war quickly with the numbers of warriors the Cherokee could place on the field of battle along the lightly defended frontier. The major danger of this plan was that once the Cherokee Nation was unleashed on the frontier there could be no pulling them back or stopping them until events had ran their course. We must try to understand, this time period was one of no quarter in terms of fighting on the frontier. Most settlers’ biggest fear was an Indian war with all of its barbarities and now Stuart, the commissioner, whose job it was to pacify the great Cherokee Nation was willing to unleash them on friend and foe alike in order to serve his king. Stuart had to of known what he was proposing to unleash and was still willing to risk this upon the frontier.  With this plan in mind he wrote a letter suggestion to General Gage that Stuart could have the Cherokee Nation coordinate with General Clintons planned Southern Expedition to the South and have the Patriots caught between the might of the crown and the might of the Cherokee Nation. This letter he entrusted to another eager Loyalist named Moses Kirkland whom boarded a ship to Boston to take the letter from Stuart. The ship that Kirkland was riding on was captured by Patriot Privateers and Kirkland did not destroy the letter before he was taken prisoner. Thus the letter feel into the hands of the Patriots who were shocked and appalled that the crown would even think of bringing the Cherokee into the war and all of the events that it would lead to all Patriot and Loyalist who lived along the frontier. Copies of this letter were distributed to all of the Southern Delegates in Congress and to the Southern Capitals for them to distribute to the frontier to show what the crown was willing to do. This letter without a doubt cost the crown many of its loyal supporters in the colonies because of the reality of what it meant to them and their families. 

Next up:  The War begins along the frontier

Next Series is on the Cherokee Campaign of 1776-1777

Looking forward to learning more about Richard Richardson, Andrew Williams, Andrew Pickens and their Tory counter parts. 

Andrew Pickens the Wizard Owl and also called the Fighting Elder