Darwintern Home The Origin of Darwins II: Darwins in the Revolutionary War 1776-1783

 

II: Darwins in the Revolutionary War 1776-1783

 

II: Darwins in the Revolutionary War 1776-1783 Formation of the 3rd Virginia Regiment Uniform of the 3rd Virginia Regiment Colonel Hugh Mercer The March from Virginia to New York New York and the Battle of Harlem Heights: August-September 1776 The Road to Philadelphia and the Battle of the Brandywine Germantown and Valley Forge Colonel William Woodford Valley Forge The Southern Theatre of War: 1778 Colonel William Bratton General Nathanael Greene Colonel Edward Lacey Biggin Church and Quinby Bridge: July 1781 The War Pension Application and Affidavits

 

John Darwin's first-person account of his service in the Revolution in his War Pension Application is both the most personal and most fulsome document we have. To present it, we must 'fast forward' to 1834 when, aged 79 in York District SC, he applied for (and was granted) a government pension for veterans that had in fact been available by an Act of Congress since 1818 (and renewed in 1832). Much more research than we have had opportunity to carry out remains to do on the people and places he names: we have inserted here our notes on our present understanding of this document. Additionally, we are beholden to Hugh T. Harrington for a large number of corrections and additions (kindly provided by him in February 2007) now included in this account.

 

It is worth presenting at the outset the summary prepared by Bobby Gilmer Moss (2):

 

Darwin initially served in the 3^rd Virginia Continental Regiment, seeing action at Harlem Heights, Brandywine and Germantown. He moved to York District, SC, in 1778, where he served as Liuetenant under Col. Bratton and was at the seige of Friday's Fort. In addition, he served for a short period under Col. Moffett. Later he became a Captain under Major John Wallace and also under Col. LAcey. He was in the engagement at Turkey Creek and probably at Cowpens.

 

Although thus presented in units, the full text of Darwin's pension application is given below. To assist others with their own copies of the original, the text below is laid out with the same line-breaks, and the original page breaks are indicated:

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Formation of the 3rd Virginia Regiment

 

The Third Virginia Regiment had been authorised by the Virginia Convention of Delegates, meeting in Richmond on 1 December 1775 and in Williamsburg from 5 December 1775 to 15 January 1776, through An Ordinance for Raising an Additional Number of Forces for the Defence and Protection of this Colony. The ordinance called for the formation of 6 additional regiments (to augment the existing First and Second Regiments), and to be comprised of 10 Companies of 68 men each, 3 of which companies were to consist of riflemen :

 

1 Captain

2 Lieutenants

1 Ensign

4 Sergeants

1 Drummer

1 Fifer

52 Private Soldiers

 

COMPANY	COUNTY RAISED	DATE RAISED	COMMANDER
1st	William	5 Feb 1776	Cpt. Andrew Leitch
2nd	Fairfax	8 Feb 1776	Cpt. John Fitzgerald
3rd	Loudon	9 Feb 1776	Cpt. Charles West
4th	Culpeper	12 Feb 1776	Cpt. John Thornton
5th	King George	20 Feb 1776	Cpt. Gustavus B. Wallace
6th	Westmoreland	26 Feb 1776	Cpt. William Washington
7th	Spotsylvania	Feb 1776	Cpt. William McWilliams
8th	Prince William	8 March 1776	Cpt. Philip R.F.Lee
9th	Fauquier	18 March 1776	Cpt. John Ashby
10th	Louisa	21 March 1776	Cpt. Thomas Johnson Jr.

 

Several notable individuals served in the 3rd Virgina, including future fifth President, James Monroe (1758-1831), a native of Westmoreland County.

 

We have not yet found further information on Captain Thomas Johnson, Jr., who recruited locally in Louisa County for what would be designated as Company 10 of the Third Virginia.

 

Uniform of the 3rd Virginia Regiment

 

 

A modern day re-enactment society, the B.A.R. 3VR Society provides the following details on the uniform of the 3rd Virginia Regiment:

 

The uniform of the 3rd Virginia reflects that of the regiment shortly after it's formation. The 'dark' dyed hunting shirt is short with red trim and has a single fringe on the one shoulder cape- some contemporary Virginia units had fringe on enlisted shirts and others used them only for NCOs and officers. The Hat is a typical round hat cut down to a 2" brim, edged in black tape with a white metal button and black cockade. This hat is turned up on the left side and is commonly referred to as a "Virginia Round Hat" and is not to be confused with a Riflemen's Hat which is similar in all aspects except it is edged in white tape. White shirt or shirt made of period "checks" design. While in uniform and on duty a black neckstock is to be worn as well. Weskit would be a civilian choice. In essence, whatever the soldier had on when he enlisted in the regiment. Breeches and stockings would also be a civilian choice. In essence, whatever the soldier had on when he enlisted in the regiment. Leggins: Are made of blue wool and have 5 black horn buttons similar to those issued to other Virginia regiments.”

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Colonel Hugh Mercer

 

Of the new Regiment’s commander, Colonel Hugh Mercer, Mark M. Boatner writes (in his Landmarks of the American Revolution (1992: Harrisburg, PA)):

 

Mercer (c. 1725-77) had been a doctor in the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie and had come to America after the defeat at Culloden. He settled in Pennsylvania around 1748 and practiced medicine in the vicinity of modern Mercersburg, and during the French and Indian Wars he rose from captain to colonel in four years of active campaigning (1755-59). During these years on the frontier he came to know George Washington, who may have been instrumental in bringing about Mercer's change of residence to Fredericksburg. As a doctor and apothecary, Mercer kept up his friendship with Washington and became well established in the community. He had reached the relatively mellow age of 50 when the Revolutionary War started, but he was beaten by only a slim margin in the competition for command of the 1st Virginia Regiment. This coveted post went to a politician of some reputation in Virginia named Patrick Henry. About six months later, however, Mercer was commissioned a colonel, and four months after this he became a brigadier general. D.S.Freeman has written that if Mercer had lived he might have become the best of Washington's commanders. After commanding the 3d Virginia and the "Flying Camp," Mercer led a column in the decisive battle at Trenton and was mortally wounded at Princeton. (p.544)

 

Hugh Mercer's Apothecary Shop still stands in Fredericksburg, modern address 1020 Caroline Street (at corner of Amelia Street). A bronze statue of him was erected in Fredericksburg at Washington and Faquier Streets in 1906.

 

 

Colonel Hugh Mercer, and his apothecary shop

 

The March from Virginia to New York

 

John Darwin's enlistment for two years (itself a much greater commitment than earlier enlistments in the colonial militia, which sometimes were measured in months or even weeks) was standard at this time. Later, enlistments in the Continental Army were for three years, but in practise rates of desertion were high throughout the war and regiments were often at half-strength or less. John's wages as a soldier were 6 and 2/3 dollars per month—except in November 1777, when he received 2 pounds sterling.

 

After joining the Third Virginia in Fredericksburg, John's account continues:

 

 

The new Regiment was mustered at Alexandria for coastal watch duty in the face of Lord Dunmore’s continued harrying of the Chesapeake with the Royal Navy. Hugh T. Harrington notes that Mercer's promotion was effected on 5 June 1776, after which date there is no further association between this distinguished officer and the 3rd Virginia Regiment.

 

Of Company 10’s Captain Levin Powell, H.T. Harrison wrote:

 

Col. Levin Powell (who married Sarah Harrison in 1765--ed.) was a man of much distinction, having been a colonel in the Revolutionary Army, of which is equipped and maintained at his own expense an entire troop. He was the founder of the Federal party in Loudoun Co., a member of the First Continental Congress and a close personal friend of General Washington. Col. Levin Powell planned and built the turnpike leading from Georgetown, D.C. to Louisville, Kentucky, which passed through Middleburg, his home. His residence on the outskirts of Middleburg was known as "the Hill" and there he kept open house and lavishly entertained all the celebrities who came to Virginia. In 1779 the Virginia Assembly established the town of Boonesborough, Kentucky and appointed Col Powell as trustee of the same. Powell Creek and Powell River in Kentucky as both named after him. Col Powell died July 23, 1810 at Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania, where his remains lie sill interred in the old church yard at tha place. To Sarah Harrison V and Col. Powell were born six sons, William Harrison Powell who married Sarah Green of Maryland and was accidently drowned in the Shenandoah River in 1802, Burr Powell who lived at "Bellefield", Loudoun Co., VA., which estate was afterwards owned by the Carters. Levin Powell, Jr., who married Elizabeth Orr and was a very Prominent importer and exporter and large shipping merchant of Alexandria, Virginia (The great Grandfather of the Powells who lived at langollen, Loudoun Co., VA.) Cuthbert Powell who lived at Llangollen, Loudoun County, VA. and married Catherine Simms and represented his district in the Federal Congress; Alfred Powell who was the father of Admiral Powell and one son who died in infancy.

 

An enormous amount of biographical information exists for the Regiment’s new commander (previously second in command), Lt. Col. George Weedon, who was a close neighbour of Hugh Mercer's in Fredericksburg and owner of The Rising Sun Tavern (Caroline Street, between Fauquier and Hawke). Of Weedon, Boatner writes:

 

Like all Colonial taverns, The Rising Sun was a focus of political activity. But because of its famous host, who was to become a general known to his troops as "Joe Gourd," this particular tavern was especially well known to travellers. One of these, an Englishman, commented five years before the Revolution started that Weedon was "very active in blowing the seeds of sedition." Washington and Lafayette celebrated here with their officers after the victory at Yorktown. Weedon had come to America from his home in Hamburg, Germany, where he had been born Gerhard von der Wieden and had risen to the rank of captain in one of the regional armies. He had fought in the French and Indian Wars before settling in Fredericksburg and becoming "Mine Host" of the tavern believed to have been built about 1760 by Washington's brother Charles. As the lieutenant colonel of the 3d Virginia he was second in command to his distinguished townsman Hugh Mercer, and he led a force of about 600 men in Washington's campaigns in New York and New Jersey before becoming acting adjutant general to Washington and being promoted to brigadier general (February 1777). After a long leave of absence he rejoined Washington and fought well at Brandywine and Germantown before again leaving the army and returning to Fredericksburg in November 1778. He died in 1793 at the age of about 63. (p. 545)

 

George Weedon (1791 sketch by John Trumbull)

 

After mustering in Alexandria, the Regiment appears to have been marched and counter-marched in response to naval raids (real and rumoured) by Lord Dunmore; we have not yet been able to establish how accurate is the itinerary John Darwin gives for the Third Virginia in the period 2 February to 4 July 1776.

 

 

After Norfolk had been razed on 2 January, Governor Dunmore had established a base for his naval force on Gwynn Island, on Chesapeake Bay (at the mouth of the Piankatank, between the Rappahannock and York Rivers). On 9 March, the Maryland ship Defence engaged and drove off Dunmore's HMS Otter at Chariton Creek, Virginia; off the Virginia coast on 17 April, HMS Edward became the first prize captured by the American navy. On 9 July, Virginia troops under General Andrew Lewis stormed Gwynn's Island and routed the British force: Lord Dunmore, wounded in the engagement, escaped with such of his navy as was not destroyed. The Governor led the remnant of his force on a an unsuccessful raid up the Potomac, the failed objective of which was the burning of Mount Vernon.

 

The Third Virginia was stationed alongside the Fifth Virginia guarding the Northern Neck. The scene John Darwin describes of his regiment cheering the Declaration of Independence was repeated across the country:

 

Soldiers standing in regimental formations listened to their officers read the declaration on July 9, and in the days that followed civilians heard it read or read it themselves in the newspapers. Although both soldiers and civilians responded with cheers and celebrations, there is no way of knowing what pleased them the most about the declaration. It seems likely that they were moved most by the Congress declaring them independent of Britain. That they were independent had seemed obvious to many for at least a year. Now they had to prove it, with their lives if need be. (Boatner, Op.Cit)

 

In early August, the Regiment received new orders. John Darwin’s own account continues:

 

 

 

Hugh T. Harrington notes that "Weedon was officially promoted the same day that the Regiment marched for New York: August 13, 1776." We have not yet been able to establish the precise route by which the Regiment marched from Alexandria to New York. B.A.R. (op. cit) notes that

 

"In the summer of 1776, the 3rd Virginia was directed to march from Williamsburg, where it had marched in anticipation to going to Charleston, S.C., to join the Main Continental Army under General George Washington, then up in New York. The 3rd marched by a circuitous route to avoid a smallpox outbreak in Philadelphia, arriving on Manhattan Island on September 15. Much was expected of the "Virginians," being the southernmost force to join this, heretofore, New England."

 

Sellers notes:

 

Thomas Marshall was selected by the Virginia Convention to be the first Major of the 3^rd Virginia Regiment. Marshall was the father of the future Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall (1755-1835) who also served in the 3^rd VA.

 

 

New York and the Battle of Harlem Heights: August-September 1776

 

Alexandria to New York is approximately 320 airline miles; the mileage of course would have been greater on the roads of that time.

 

On 1 August, Lord Cornwallis had arrived in New York with 2,500 British regulars: according to Edward Countryman, the British invaded New York with "the greatest seaborne army the modern world had seen". Washington's challenge in defending New York was enormous:

 

If Brooklyn was to be besieged, it was imperative that the wounded be sent to New York and that fresh troops take the place of those who were weary, wet and disheartened. Washington thought it possible that the British might attack New York while part of Howe's army held him in Brooklyn and did not strip New York of its last guards. Instead, he called additional reinforcements from the Flying Camp of Gen. Hugh Mercer at Amboy. The number who could be supplied from that quarter was small and the troops themselves were newly mustered militia, but any help would be an encouragement. (Freeman, Douglas Southall Washington (1948: New York))

 

The Third Virginia, as part of Major General Nathaniel Greene's Division, had arrived at the critical time. On the day of 15 September, 4,000 British and Hessian troops forced a landing on Manhattan at Kip's Bay (at the foot of present-day E. 34th St. on the East River) and routed the American defenders, who retreated in disarray to Harlem Heights and Fort Washington (the site of which is on the Hudson—then called the North River—at what is now 183rd St.).

 

 

This skirmish—John Darwin's first and nearly last—was later known as the Battle of Harlem Heights; the Third Virginia had played a conspicuous role in reversing the previous day's disaster of Kip's Bay, as related by Lancaster:

 

Before dawn Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton of Connecticut, who had known the rail fences on Breed's Hill, was on the move. Cool and courageous in battle, Knowlton was, said a contemporary, "six feet high, erect and elegant...courteous and affable...favourite of his superiors, idol of his soldiers." Down into the Hollow Way he led about 100 Connecticut Rangers, all picked men, and on the south slope they collided with light infantry. Knowlton's men stood firm, exchanging fire with the enemy until the sudden skirl of bagpipes brought on masses of the Black Watch (the 42nd Highlanders). Then, carefully and in excellent order, Knowlton broke off and made a leisurely retreat.

 

Not unnaturally, this move was interpreted by the British as flight, and a general forward movement was almost contemptuously begun. Immediately Washington saw an opportunity to draw the enemy's light infantry down into the Hollow Way. Orders snapped out, and Archibald Crary of Rhode Island drove south with 150 men of Nixon's Massachusetts brigade, supported by Andrew Leitch and some tough riflemen from the 3rd Virginia.

 

There was immediate contact. Jeering scarlet lines poured into the Vly, were checked, and, incredibly to both sides, faltered. The Yankees were attacking, and in the open, not from behind walls! More troops poured down from Harlem Heights, with Reazin Beall's Maryland militia pressing on with them. George "Joe Gourd" Weedon raced into action with the rest of the 3rd Virginia. (Lancaster, Bruce The American Revolution (1971, New York))

 

Though small, the victory on Harlem Heights was an important boost to morale. Washington's own description of the battle:

 

When I arrived I heard a firing, which I was informed was between a party of our rangers...and an advance party of the enemy.... I immediately ordered three companies of Colonel Weedon's Virginia regiment under Major Leitch and Colonel Knowlton with his rangers to try and get in the rear, while a disposition was making as if to attack them in front and thereby draw their attention that way. This took effect as I wished on...the enemy. On the appearance of our party in front, they immediately ran down the hill, took possession of some fences and bushes; and a smart firing began, but at too great a distance to do much execution on either side.

 

The parties under Colonel Knowlton and Major Leitch unluckily began their attack too soon, as it was rather in flank than in rear. In a short time Major Leitch was brought off wounded, having received three balls in his side; and in a short time Colonel Knowlton got a wound which proved mortal. The men continued the engagement with the greatest resolution. Finding that they wanted a support, I advanced part of Colonel Griffith's and Colonel Richardson's Maryland regiments, who were nearest the scene of action. These troops charged the enemy with great intrepidity and drove them from the wood into the plain, and were pushing them from hence, having silenced their fire in a great measure, when I judged it prudent to order a retreat, fearing the enemy....were sending a large body to support their party (Quoted in Wheeler, Richard Voices of 1776 (1991: New York))

 

Mark M. Boatner ( Landmarks , op. cit.) provides an account mapped on present-day New York:

 

HARLEM HEIGHTS, BATTLE OF: Although the site of this early American victory, on 16 September 1776, has long since been covered by some of the world's most exclusive urban development, many of the most important landmarks can be found. Patriot forces had retreated from southern Manhattan to Harlem Heights, the high ground along the Hudson north of modern 125th St. Here they started work on three defensive lines, and before dawn on 16 September Lt. Col. Thomas Knowlton led a reconnaissance to find out what the British were doing. With his elite force of 150 Connecticut Rangers, Knowlton made contact near a slight rise still discernable on 106th St. between West End Ave. and Riverside Drive. After a half-hour fire fight Knowlton withdrew when threatened with envelopment by the famous Black Watch. Skirmishing to the rear in good order, the Americans followed approximately the route now marked by Claremont Ave. and dropped into The Hollow Way about where the 125th St. subway station is located. Two British light-infantry regiments pursued to a hill near present-day Grant's tomb. Washington left the Morris-Jumel Mansion [160th St. and Edgecomb Ave., still standing and housing a museum] and reached the advanced American posts near 135th St. as Knowlton fought his delaying action. An aide reported that the Rangers were doing well and suggested they be reinforced. The commander in chief was considering this when a familiar tune floated from the enemy position—the call sounded by fox hunters at the end of a successful chase! Washington decided that the moment had come to undertake an offensive action. The plan was for one small force to advance directly against the British around the area of Grant's Tomb while a larger body made an envelopment to trap the British. It was working beautifully, the British charging forward from the hill, when unidentified officers in the enveloping wing prematurely gave the order to fire. The British quickly started withdrawing, the Americans pursued, and Washington sent in reinforcements. Generally along today's 120th St. the heaviest fighting took place in a buckwheat field. A bronze bas-relief at the Columbia School of Engineering, at Broadway near 118th St., claims to mark the site of the battle. It is about where the artillery on the British right flank was located after these two 3-pounders had been dragged forward three miles by hand. The guns and an accompanying company of Jägers may have saved the British from annihilation, but a shortage of ammunition forced another withdrawal. After a brief delaying action along 111th St., the British made a final stand about where the day's events had started on 106th St. Not wanting to fight a major battle, Washington ordered a withdrawal about 2 pm. Success in this skirmish lifted American morale at a time when this was badly needed, and some historians have seen the victory as a turning point in the war. American casualties were about 30 killed and 100 wounded or captured.

 

 

The 42nd Highlanders (Black Watch) at Harlem Heights

 

The following day, Washington issued the following announcement to his army:

 

The General most heartily thanks the troops...who first advanced upon the enemy, and the others who so resolutely supported them. The behaviour yesterday was such a contrast to that of some troops the day before, as must show what may be done where officers and soldiers will exert themselves. Once more, therefore, the General calls upon officers and men to act up to the noble cause in which they are engaged.

 

John Darwin's wound (the subject of his further correspondence with the War Department, discussed below) was to keep him out of action until sometime before 29 May 1777, as he explains:

 

 

During his confinement at Fort Washington, occupied New York City (then confined to the southern tip of Manhattan) was burned by local rebels on 21 September. The following day, on Long Island, the British hanged Nathan Hale for espionage. On 12 October 1776, General Howe landed 4,000 British troops on Throg's Neck (in the Bronx, on the East River), outflanking the Americans at Harlem Heights, who began their withdrawal on the 18th and reached White Plains on 22 October. The American garrison remained at Fort Washington; John Darwin was presumably evacuated to Fort Lee (opposite Fort Washington on the Hudson) at this time. The Battle of White Plains, at which Darwin was not present, took place on 28 October 1776.

 

A British naval detachment forced passage up the North River on 7 November, thereby showing the ineffectiveness of Forts Washington and Lee (under the command of General Nathanel Greene). On 16 November, the British stormed Fort Washington, which capitulated with the loss of nearly 3,000 Americans taken prisoner. This disaster for the Americans was nearly followed by a second on 20 November, when a force of 4,000 British and Hessian troops under Lord Cornwallis crossed the Hudson at night and nearly captured the garrison at Fort Lee, now forced to flee. Cornwallis pursued Washington's divided forces across New Jersey; somewhere in this time must have been John Darwin's evacuation to Philadelphia--where the Continental Congress was sitting (until, fearing a British advance, it adjorned to Baltimore on 12 December). Tom Paine, now a volunteer attached to the staff of General Nathanael Greene, was also in town. On 19 December he published the first part of his American Crisis, which began:

 

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us--that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.

 

 

The Road to Philadelphia and the Battle of the Brandywine

 

John's wound and smallpox kept him away from his unit when it crossed the Delaware with Washington for the famous rout of the Hessians at Trenton on Christmas Day. The Third Virginia did not participate at the Battle of Princeton (3 January 1777), where General Hugh Mercer fell mortally wounded by seven bayonet thrusts, as it had been detailed by Washington to escort Hessian prisoners of war from Trenton to Philadelphia and Lancaster. After these two victories, Washington settled the army in winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, on 6 January 1777. Desertions reduce his forces to fewer than 3,000, and of these some 2,000 are militia whose enlistments expired in March. But vigorous recruitment built Washington an army of 9,000 by May 1777—including John Darwin:

 

 

Washington moved the army from Morristown to the Middlebrook Valley on 29 May 1777. The summer was spent in manoeuvring to meet supposed threats, until British intentions became clear with Howe's landing at the Elk River in Maryland on 25 August. In Philadelphia on the previous day, Washington had marched the Continental Army in single column over the cobblestones of Front Street and up Chesnut Street to impress the local Tories. At his side was the Marquis de Lafayette, among his 16,000 troops was John Darwin. Watching the march through Philadelphia was John Adams, who said the American forces did not have

 

quite the Air of Soldiers. They dont step exactly in Time. They dont hold up their Heads, quite erect, nor turn out their Toes, so exactly as they ought. They dont all of them cock their Hats--and such as do, dont all wear them the same Way.

 

However his own hat was cocked, John Darwin continues with an account of actions in Pennsylvania:

 

 

John's regiment played a crucial role in preventing the American defeat on the Brandywine (11 September 1777) from becoming a complete disaster. The Third Virginia (part of Brigadier General William Woodford's Brigade, Major General Adam Stephen's Division), was stationed on the right:

 

John Armstrong, with militia from Pennsylvania, occupied the ground to the left, and Sullivan with Stirling and Stephen covered the right. These dispositions made considerable sense: they provided strength at the centre where the main road to Philadelphia ran, and they allowed concentration of forces. But they left uncovered Trimble's Ford on the west branch of the Brandywine and Jeffries Ford on the east. The right flank hung open, and behind it a hill which dominated the right and the rear sat unoccupied.

 

The "wild general," William Howe, whose wildness had a predictable character, sent Knyphausen's Germans up against Chad's Ford to fix Washington's attention, and then from Welch's Tavern and Kennett Square he set out at 4:00 A.M. by back roads for Trimble's and Jeffries Fords. Howe had shown this design before, most recently on Long Island, and he had no reason to suppose it would fail him now. At ten in the morning Knyphausen's guns spoke in thunderous tone as a prelude, as far as Washington could tell, to an assault across Chad's by the infantry. The American artillery replied; the main struggle seemed to be taking shape at the centre. Howe and his colleague Cornwallis, meanwhile, were in the process of turning the American flank. By 2:30 in the afternoon they had their troops over the fords and behind Osborne's Hill. Washington was warned of this move against the end of his unanchored line as early as 9:00 A.M. but failed to heed the warning. When the British appeared on Osborne's Hill, no one could deny that the Americans had been outflanked once again. Sullivan acted rapidly, moving Stephen and Stirling on right angles to the creek and into a position opposite Howe and Cornwallis.

 

Those two seemed in no hurry. Rather, they took their time, shifting their columns into two long lines, barely deigning to notice their enemy's mad scramble to get into position. Once the British were ready, they did nothing but stand in the sunshine, their bayonets sending off flashes when they caught the light. Perhaps they hoped to unnerve the Americans; if so, they failed, but they did impress them. At four o'clock in the afternoon Howe set them in motion--a march down the hill, not fancy, but stepping out smartly to the tune of the "British Grenadier" played by an accompanying band. The troops of Sullivan, Stirling and Stephen did not panic, but in their haste to realign themselves they had left a gap of several hundred yards in their lines. Stephen seems to have been mainly responsible for this for not hooking his left flank to Stirling's right; in any case, the hole there invited British penetration and the British accepted the invitation. Just as the light infantry and the grenadiers began pouring through and rolling up the American left, Nathanael Greene's brigade arrived. The brigade had been dispatched by Washington when he learned of Howe's appearance on his right. Greene's men came on a run that covered four miles in about forty-five minutes.

 

What had begun as a classic eighteenth-century engagement with the British regulars advancing in a dense line, bayonets at the ready, and sent off with the flourishes of the "British Grenadier" soon degenerated into a confusing and nasty fight. Smoke from cannon and muskets contributed to the confusion by obscuring the location of friend and foe (Middlekauff, op. cit., pp. 387-88)

 

 

Middlekauff's account also includes a contemporary description of the battle by a British officer:

 

Describe the battle. 'Twas not like those of Covent Garden or Drury Lane. Thou hast seen LeBrun's paintings and the tapestry perhaps at Blenheim. Are these natural resemblances? Pshaw! quoth the captain, en un mot. There was a most infernal fire of cannon and musquetry. Most incessant shouting, "Incline to the right! Incline to the left! Halt! Charge!" etc. The balls plowing up the ground. The Trees crackling over one's head. The branches riven by the artillery. The leaves falling as in autumn by the grapeshot.

 

The Brandywine proved a major British victory, but the American army remained intact in retreat.

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B.A.R. (op.cit) account of the Battle of Brandywine:

 

The 3rd Virginia was part of Woodford's (or the 3rd) Virginia brigade in General Adam Stephen's division held in reserve behind Brandywine Creek when both Stephen's and Stirling's Divisions were ordered to respond to Howe's troops executing a movement to get behind the Continental rank flank. Both Stirling's and Stephen's division occupied the Birmingham Plowed Hill, with the center of the line anchored on the Birmingham Meeting House.

 

Birmingham Meeting House

 

It was here behind a stone wall, that the 3rd Virginia was positioned. With artillery, the two divisions numbering 3,500 men total fought stubbornly against the cream of Howe's army numbering better than 7,000 men. Joined by the addition of General Sullivan's division, the Continental army held on to its position on Birmingham Hill as Cornwallis maneuvered his forces for the main attack. When the main attack hit, the numbers and determination of the British and Hessian troops began to extend beyond both flanks of the American position. To make matters worse, Sullivan's division was not ready to receive the blow and broke and ran. The 3rd Virginia and the rest of Stephen's and Stirling's divisions found their position becoming more untenable and began to fall back. The 3rd Virginia made the most of the stone wall around the Birmingham Meeting yard behind which they posted themselves, but were driven at the point of redcoat Light Infantry and Hessian Jager bayonets. The retreat was short lived as the 3rd Virginia rallied with remnants of Stephen's, Stirling's, and Sullivan's divisions on a second hill barely a half mile from the previous position since then called Battle Hill. General Sullivan noted in his report "five times did the enemy drive our troops from the hill, and as often was it regained, the summit often disputed almost muzzle to muzzle." Without bayonets and powder running low after almost 2 hours of severe fighting the American line collapsed and fell back once again. The battle continued with Greene's and Wayne's divisions covering the retreat of the army. The British and Hessian troops contented themselves with holding the field and did not push after them.

 

 

Germantown and Valley Forge

 

John Darwin's account continues:

 

 

On 18 September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia, which was occupied by the British under Cornwallis on 23 September. On October 4 Washington led an attack on Howe's forces in Germantown, and failed; the Americans were forced to withdraw, but in an orderly retreat which Tom Paine described as "extraordinary, nobody hurried themselves."

 

 

Hugh T. Harrington notes that Darwin appears to have slightly muddled the sequence of events. "White Marsh Church" was Washington's temporary encampment, from 2 November to 11 December 1777, after the Battle of Germantown.

 

 

 

Hugh T. Harrington notes that, at Germantown, the 3rd Virginia was part of "General William Woodford's Brigade, but Woodford was not present due to a wound received at Brandywine; Stephen's Division. General Adam Stephen was cashiered Nov. 20th fir being drunk at both Brandywine and Germantown." Washington's army arrived at Valley Forge on 19 December 1777.

 

The 1833 Affidavit of David Bullock is presented later in this chapter.

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Colonel William Woodford

 

 

The "Col. Woodward" of John Darwin’s account is Colonel William Woodford (1734-1780, the Virginian leader who had previously driven Governor Dunmore to Norfolk after defeating him at Great Bridge, Virginia, on 9 December 1775. Woodford later fought at Monmouth Court House, New Jersey (28 June 1778) and was one of the original jurors at the court-martial of Benedict Arnold. He was captured by the British at the siege of Charleston SC, and died in New York.

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Valley Forge

 

Many accounts exist of the army's sufferings at Valley Forge through the winter of 1777-78:

 

The woods afforded the materials for housing, and the soldiers fell to building huts almost immediately. Washington ordered that the camp be carefully laid out. Huts, fourteen by sixteen feet, were to be constructed of logs, roofed with "split slabs." Clay sealed the sides and was used to make fireplaces. Nails were not to be had, of course, and the logs had to be notched. Each hut housed a squad of twelve men. Washington promised to share his soldiers' hardships until the first huts were completed and lived in a tent before finally moving into one of the few houses near by. By January 13 the last of the huts were completed.

 

Comfort did not abound inside the huts' walls. Many had only the ground for floors, and straw for beds was not readily available. Worst of all, the troops frequently had nothing to eat. At the time of their arrival the commissary seems to have contained only twenty-five barrels of flour--nothing else, neither meat nor fish. During the days that followed the soldiers chopped down trees and put up huts with empty stomachs. At night, according to Albigence Waldo, a surgeon of the Connecticut line, there was a general cry that echoed through the hills--"No meat! No meat!" The troops added to this "melancholy sound" their versions of the cawing of crows and the hooting of owls.

 

Imitating bird calls suggests that the troops' sense of humour saw them throught the worst of their sufferings. They had their hatreds, too, and these also may have helped sustain them. One was firecake, a thin bread made of flour and water and baked over the campfire. Another was the commissaries who were supposed to provide food for the army. Waldo reconstructed a number of conversations along the following lines: "What have you got for dinner, boys?" "Nothing but firecake and water, Sir." At night: "Gentlemen, the supper is ready. What is your supper, lads?" "Firecake and water, Sir." In the morning: "What have you got for breakfast, lads?" "Firecake and water, Sir." And from Waldo, the snarl: "The Lord send that our Commissary of Purchases may live on firecake and water till their glutted gutts are turned to pasteboard."

 

During three periods even firecake was largely lacking--the last week of December, early January, and the middle weeks of February. The time in February was perhaps the worst, with Washington describing his troops as "starving" on February 6, 1778, and their condition one of "famine" on February 16. By this time the soldiers had already endured two months of short rations; they were cold and many were sick.

 

 

Modern reconstruction of soldiers' hut, Valley Forge

 

 

The Southern Theatre of War: 1778

 

From David Bullock's affidavit (also transcribed later in this chapter), we know that John Darwin spent the summer of 1778 driving cattle with which to feed the army. But as this was after the time his two-year enlistment had expired, he makes no mention of it in his account, which now gives a few personal details:

 

 

If, in joining his brother in South Carolina in 1778, John hoped to escape further rigours of the war, he could not have made a worse choice. As Edward Countryman puts it, "from 1779 to 1781, the Southern backcountry was the main scene of the conflict." He elaborates:

 

Georgia and the Carolinas became the main theatre of war after 1778, and by 1781 fighting had moved north into Virginia. These states had to endure the same problems of disaffection and militant loyalism that Maryland went through. But, except for Virginia, they felt them in a much more severe way. As in Maryland, questions of class, race, culture and region contributed to people's decision that they would stay neutral or that they would fight for king rather than Congress. In Maryland, those elements came together most powerfully on the Eastern Shore, cut off by Chesapeake Bay from the realm of great planters and fundamentally different in its social structure. Farther south, it was in the deep interior that planter control was weakest, and it was there that the most serious trouble erupted. (Countryman, op. cit.; p. 140, p. 160)

 

The journey from Louisa to York District was one of some 400 miles; John averaged about eight and a half miles a day.

 

For reasons he himself gives at the end of the pension application, it is somewhat difficult to follow John Darwin's account of his service in South Carolina. The actions he describes which can be dated are not always given in chronological sequence, and he is sometimes unsure of dates himself:

 

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Colonel William Bratton

 

Colonel William Bratton, a grandee of York District, was a noted partisan leader of the American victory over Capt. Christian Huck at Williamson's plantation, 12 July 1780. Bratton's home (right) near the site of Huck's defeat, still stands and is today a museum; it is not too fanciful to presume James and John Darwin were sometimes visitors there.

 

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Lt. Humphrey Barnett later rented and then sold 300 acres in York District to John Darwin (York County Deed Book A-67, presented in a later chapter). And, from a later source (also presented below) we know that most of James service (200 hundred days) was also under Lt. Barnett; we presume the Darwin brothers were together through the actions John narrates:

 

 

The seige of Fort Granby (the site is now West Columbia, South Carolina) took place 2-15 May 1781. Henry Lee (1756-1819), popularly known as "Light Horse Harry," was the father of Robert E. Lee (under whom five of John Darwin's grandsons, would serve in the Army of Northern Virginia). Lee had been operating with Francis Marion at the capture of Fort Watson on 15 April and Fort Motte on 12 May 1781: the day before, on 11 May, the British garrison at Orangeburg was captured by Thomas Sumter. Lee's own account:

 

Fort Watson, Fort Motte, Fort Granby and the fort at Orangeburgh had...yielded. Marion was now before Georgetown, which was sure soon to fall. Thus in less than one month since General Greene appeared before Camden he had compelled the British general to evacuate that important post, forced the submission of all the intermediate posts, and was now upon the banks of the Congaree, in the heart of South Carolina, ready to advance upon Ninety Six (the only remaining fortress in the state, besides Charleston, in the enemy's possession) and detach against Augusta in Georgia, comprehending... the completion of the deliverance of the two lost states, except the fortified towns of Charleston and Savannah--safe because the enemy ruled at sea. (Quoted in Wheeler, Voices of 1776 op. cit. p. 383)

 

 

John Darwin accompanied the march against Ninety-Six:

 

 

Remains of earthworks at Nintey-Six, South Carolina

 

The unsuccessful seige of Ninety-Six is dated 22 May to 19 June 1781.

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General Nathanael Greene

 

 

Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) was in overall command of the vital Carolina campaign. T.H. Johnson, in his Oxford Companion to American History (1966: New York) describes him as "a gifted leader and among Revolutionary generals is generally ranked next to Washington in military acumen."

 

Greene arrived at Ninety-Six around 22 May 1781 and lay siege to the British garrison there; the approach of British reinforcements under Lord Rawdon on 19 June caused Greene to abandon the unsuccessful siege.

 

John Darwin's account continues:

 

 

Of Colonel Moffett, Lyman Draper writes:

 

John Moffett was born, about 1742, probably in the Valley of Virginia. He early settled in Chester County, South Carolina, and served as a Captain on the Snow Campaign, and against the Cherokees in 1776. He was under Sumter in his operations in the summer of 1780, particularly distinguishing himself at Fishing Creek. His company formed a part of Lacey's regiment at Kings Mountain; he afterwards served with Sumter, and also at the Cowpens, attaining the rank of Colonel before the close of the war. He died in DeKalb County, Georgia, in 1829 aged about eighty-seven years.

 

John Darwin's description of the abortive march on Orangeburg seems to be out of place chronologically, as it had surrendered to Thomas Sumter on 11 May 1781, prior to the rendez-vous with Greene at Ninety-Six. But the British subsequently re-occupied Orangeburg from July to December 1781. John Darwin's account continues:

 

 

John gives no details of how they kept local Tories "in subjection," but the means may have been brutal. Edward Countryman (op. cit. pp. 161-62) describes the nature of this war of partisans:

 

For all their assertive rhetoric during the imperial crisis, the lowlanders (of South Carolina) rapidly settled down to a life of submission (following Sir Henry Clinton's occupation of Charleston). The interior was another matter. Already soured in the aftermath of the Regulator movements, its people had not been enthusiastic about the Revolution even in 1775 and 1776....It was not that the backcountry was united for the king; rather, the region was divided against both itself and the seaboard. When the British invaders dealt with low-country grandees, they treated them as gentlemen. But when they dealt with the rough men of the interior, it was another matter. As Jerome Nadelhaft's study of South Carolina's Revolution shows, it was the British who released the backcountry's tensions and set off the immense wave of violence that swept through it between 1778 and 1781.

 

A British officer, Sir James Beard, pointed the way early, when he ordered that rum privileges be taken from every soldier under his command "who took a prisoner." On one occasion, Beard slaughtered more than a dozen rebels himself, despite their surrender. Beard set a pattern that was followed through 1780 by such officers as Colonel Banastre Tarleton and Major James Wemyss. On one occasion, leading Clinton's cavalry, Tarleton chased a Virginia regiment and caught it at the Waxhaws. He paid no attention when the Americans tried to surrender and even had his soldiers pull apart piles of bodies so that living men at the bottom could be bayoneted. Tarleton's creed was clear: "If warfare allows me I shall give...no quarter."

 

Wemyss, meanwhile, was devestating an area seventy miles long and as much as fifteen miles wide between Georgetown, on the coast, and Cheraw, well inland and near the North Carolina line.Such brutality reignited passions that backcountry people knew well. Patriot partisan groups took shape under men like Thomas Sumter, Andrew Pickens, and Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox." Tory guerillas formed similar groups of their own under officers like William "Bloody Bill" Cunningham. Which side slaughtered more of the other cannot be said. Revolutionaries victorious at King's Mountain shouted "Tarleton's Quarter" and killed the loyalists whom they had captured. Cunningham's loyalists, for their part, once chopped to pieces twenty Whigs who fell to their mercy. These are only two of many instances. Nadelhaft's picture of the interior's agony reveals the worst suffering that any community in revolutionary America had to endure.

 

It may be that the Darwin brothers witnessed or participated in events neither would have cared to recollect in later years, which might explain John's later reference to a "memorandum" he kept covering his service in the Third Virginia but not the guerrilla war in South Carolina, the account of which is sometimes vague and confused:

 

 

By "Salt Catches" most likely is meant the Salkehatchie River is meant, referred to in a contemporary diary kept by a British soldier (Lieutenant Anthony Allair of Ferguson's corps) as the "Saltketcher River." But we have not yet been able to identify operations by Lacey corresponding to such a march.

 

Colonel Edward Lacey

 

Of Col. Lacey, Lyman Draper (op. cit. pp.463-64) writes:

 

Edward Lacey was born in Shippensburg township, Pennsylvania, in September, 1742; and when only thirteen, fascinated with the appearance of soldiery, he ran away, joined the Pennsylvania troops, serving in the pack-horse department, and was in Braddock's defeat. After two year's absence, his father found him and took him home. When sixteen, he again ran away, emigrating to Chester District, South Carolina, with William Adair, to whom he bound himself to learn the trade of brick-laying, and from whom he received a good English education. In 1766, he married Jane Harper, and settled on the head waters of Sandy river, six miles west of Chester Court House. He became a Captain on the breaking out of the Revolution, and served on Williamson's Cherokee Campaign; and when the news reached them of the Declaration of Independence, he read that patriotic paper to the army. He lead the detachment that defeated British Captain Huck, and served with Sumter at Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, Carey's Fort, and Fishing Creek.

 

At King's Mountain, he led the Chester troops, losing his horse in the action, which was replaced with one of Ferguson's chargers. He again served under Sumter at Fish Dam Ford and Blackstocks; on Sumter's rounds early in 1781, at Orangeburg, Biggin Church, Quinby Bridge, and Eutaw, and never received a wound, as a gipsy woman assured him, when a youth, that he would not, though destined to pass through many a battle, but would finally get drowned. After the war, he was chosen a Brigadier-General of the militia, a Judge of the County Court, and served many years in the Legislature. In 1797, he migrated first to West Tennessee, and two years later to Livingston County, Kentucky, where he was made a county judge; and was thrown from his horse while in a fit of catalepsy, in crossing the swollen waters of Deer Creek, and drowned, March twentieth, 1813, at the age of seventy-one years. His widow pined away, surviving her husband only two months. Of their eleven children, ten grew up to years of maturity. "General Lacey," says Mills 'Statistics of South Carolina', "was a cool, intrepid officer, and rendered important services to the State."

 

The next action John Darwin describes also seems to be out of sequence; indeed, we suspect it refers to his first tour of duty, under draft, in York District:

 

 

Hugh T. Harrington has indentifed this action:

 

Turkey Creek skirmish, September 6, 1781. Loyalist partisan Hezekiah Williams attacked a body of militia who were patrolling on Turkey Creek in Edgefield County. He killed or wounded ten of the Patriots and scattered the rest. Lacey had a fort on Turkey Creek and there were some minor skirmishes there.

 

Biggin Church and Quinby Bridge: July 1781

 

 

Biggin Church is meant, and Quinby Bridge, both of which are close to Moncks Corner. Mark M. Boatner ( Landmarks op. cit. pp. 501-03) gives an account with reference to extant landmarks:

 

QUINBY BRIDGE AND SHUBRICK'S PLANTATION, Huger Crossroads, Berkeley County. In mid-July 1781, when Greene's army was recuperating in the High Hills of Santee, Gen. Thomas Sumter got authority from Gen. Greene to undertake a major offensive against the British post at Moncks Corner. Lee's Legion and Marion's Brigade were attached to Sumter, and the veteran militia outfit of Col. Thomas Taylor had been with the Gamecock for some time.

 

When Sumter maneuvered to cut off the enemy forces at Moncks Corner, Lt. Col. John Coates won the first round by withdrawing into his strongpoint at Biggin Church. Three days later, before dawn on 17 July, he again slipped away with his entire force, burning the historic church and heading southeast for Quinby Bridge. Here he could be reinforced from Charleston by way of Cainhoy, or he could continue his retreat to that place. Coates was a military commander who knew what he was doing. The Carolina Gamecock, on the other hand, was piling error on error. He headed on down the road for another go at annihilating the elusive Coates and permanently clearing the British from this prosperous region.

 

The cavalry of "Light Horse Harry" Lee's Legion almost accomplished this. Leaving the slower-moving infantry of Lee, Marion, Taylor and Sumter to follow as fast as they could walk, three cavalry sections formed the Patriot advance guard. They succeeded in gobbling up the British rear guard and charging across Quinby Bridge with two sections before Coates knew what was happening. The British had covered the 18 miles to Quinby Creek in a rapid march and by afternoon of 17 July were holding a strong defensive position behind it. They had loosened the plank flooring of the bridge with the idea of removing it when their rear guard got across.

 

As you can see today, the creek here is wide and deep--a good defensive barrier if covered by fire and if that bridge is fixed so cavalry cannot charge over it. The first two sections of Lee's cavalry crossed the bridge, but in so doing they loosened the flooring, and the third section was unable to repair it in time to join the fray on the opposite bank. Meanwhile the surprise attack by Capt. James Armstrong and Lt. George Carrington, Jr., routed all the defenders but a small body that formed around Coates. But the British rallied, and Armstrong and Carrington escaped by finding a ford upstream. Here they were joined by Lee and Marion, who had come up with the foot troops of their commands, and these two leaders wisely decided not to renew the action. But when Sumter arrived with the rest of the infantry, about 5 P.M., he overruled this decision and formed for an attack.

 

Coates, meanwhile, re-oriented his defences to face this new threat. Using the rail fences and outbuildings of Capt. Thomas Shubrick's plantation (now Quinby plantation), he formed a hollow square. A single howitzer covered his front, but Sumter had left all the American artillery behind. Taylor's infantry opened the attack by charging across an open field and forming a line along a fence. The British counter-attacked and regained the position. Marion's infantry cut across from their initial position on the left flank and retook the fence line, but were driven back with heavy losses and their ammunition almost used up. Sumter's troops fired from the protection of buildings. The Gamecock had failed again, and his subordinates now rebelled at the price they were paying with the lives of their men. Taylor informed Sumter on the spot that he would no longer take his commands, and the next morning Lee and Marion marched away with their troops.

 

British reinforcements were meanwhile coming up to join Coates; so Sumter had to withdraw his remaining forces. The battlefield is not marked, but the terrain has changed little in two centuries. Open, well-tended fields surround a modern house on the site of Quinby Plantation, a little to the west of the bridge. ... Quinby Bridge survives as a small bridge approached by dipping down from the high banks of Quinby Creek. The latter feeds into the East Branch of the Cooper River about a mile below the bridge and is an edge of the remarkable Francis Marion National Forest. Quinby Bridge is on S.C. 98 just west of Huger.

 

 

Francis Marion

 

General Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee

 

General Thomas Sumter, "The Carolina Gamecock"

 

John Darwin’s account continues:

 

 

The site of Nelson's Ferry on the Santee is now lost under the waters of Lake Marion.

 

The War Pension Application and Affidavits

 

John's reference to "1783" in the closing section appears to be a simple error, for which he himself provides an explanation:

 

 

Appended to John Darwin's application are the following affadavits:

 

 

As noted above, John Darwin included an affidavit from another veteran of the 3rd Virginia, David Bullock, which adds a few details (transcribed as follows):

 

 

Bullock’s reference to a ‘transfer’ at Alexandra suggest the possibility John Darwin did not serve with Company 10, but was perhaps placed with a rifleman’s company—but this only conjecture. It is also suggestive that these two veterans were in contact in 1833. As we shall see in the following chapter, John Darwin’s brother Jesse remained in Louisa County, and Bullock’s 1833 affidavit may be evidence that John Darwin remained in contact with Jesse’s family in Virginia long after his own migration to South Carolina.

 

It is notable that David Bullock's affidavit is dated 5 November 1833, but John Darwin did not make his application to the War Department until 22 Ocotber 1834. Also of note is Bullock's claim that there were only 13 survivors of the 50 or 60 original recruits to the Third Virginia.

 

The pension (to get ahead of our story) was not immediately accepted, and led to further paperwork. John's half of this correspondence with the War Department (which apparently requested further documentation) has survived, one letter of 6 August 1835, and a further Letter of 8 October 1835. These follow-up documents included a Certificate of the Virgina State Auditor and a Certificate  of the South Carolina Comptroller General. It is from the office of the latter that we know of John's elder brother James also had extenisive Revolutionary War Service in South Carolina, recorded as follows:

 

 

Summary of South Carolina militia service for James and John Darwin:

 

James Darwin

Days	Commander
57	Capt. McCulloch
200	Capt. Barnett
40	Capt. Henderson

 

 

John Darwin

Days	Commander
30	Capt. Barnett
28	Col. Bratton
25	Maj. Wallace
27	Capt. Thomson
15	Capt. Thomas

 

John Darwin's Pension was eventually granted—at $112.50 annually, backdated to 4 March 1831. We presume John makes no mention of James (died 1822) in the above account as his brother's service was not thought relevant to the pension application, but what a pity he lost the "memorandum" he had prepared!

 

John Darwin's pride in his Revolutionary service is manifest, and the somewhat sorrowful plea he introduces of a farmer who lives "in obscurity and not intermingling with the world" may be as much for effect as it is the genuine plaint of an elderly man recalling the heady days of his youthful daring. But perhaps there is something more behind this sad note. The generation that had waged the War for Independence was passing away, and if the great achievements of the Revolution had long been evident, its failures were becoming more apparent by the time John Darwin applied for his soldier's pension. Tom Paine, who perhaps more than any other had given voice to the aspiration of James and John Darwin's generation, was to find himself impoverished and ostracised by the American Republic he had help found. As Edward Countryman explains, "the Constitution marked a repudiation of 1776 in its rejection of radical democracy. To that extent, it marked not only the end of the Revolution but also a reaction against it." Countryman (op. cit., p. 212, pp.163-64) explains how the Revolution failed even as the War of the Independence was won:

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With peace came new problems. As early as 1783, British merchants were beginning to regain control of Southern commerce. They had what the planters needed: slaves and familiar goods to sell, markets for plantation crops, and credit to make up for the planters' lack ofhard cash. Virginia had never had a merchant community of its own, and in South Carolina the planters used the power of the state to give British traders a privileged position. There was intense anti-British feeling in Charleston after the war, which took political form in the activities of groups like the Marine Anti-Britannic Society. Had such groups won the contest, artisans and local merchants might have become the basis for a pattern of development that did not depend fully on slavery. Charleston might have joined New York and Philadelphia on the course of differentiation and rapid growth that turned those Northern ports into great nineteenth-century cities. It had, after all, been very much like them in the late colonial years. Nor was it absolutely certain that the deep interior would become the heartland of slavery. Carl Bridenbaugh pointed out long ago that only in the Chesapeake and the South Carolina lowlands was slavery firmly established at the time of the Revolution. The small farmers of the Piedmont and the interior valleys were different. Most of them were Germans and Scotch-Irish who had migrated down from Philadelphia; many of them were receptive to the evangelical appeal, with its insistence on brotherhood and sisterhood even across the gulf of race; most important, the way they lived did not require large numbers of slaves to do their work. It may not have been necessary for the Southern states to become "the South."

 

But slavery did triumph, spreading not only into the piedmont but all across what would become the Cotton Kingdom. The South Carolina government, under planter control, embarked on policies which effectively cut off any possibility of the state developing into a society of merchants, artisans, and free small farmers. Most important, it began, almost as soon as peace returned, to give benefits to British traders and manufacturers at the expense of local ones. It extended citizenship rights freely; it allowed aliens on trial before a Carolina court to have other non-citizens on the jury; it established a city government for Charleston which took as its first priority the crushing of anti-British action. All the planters really wanted was sure markets and cheap goods. They knew that British traders could supply these and that American traders could not. But what they did committed South Carolina to a course that would leave it a colony in all but name. In 1850, as in 1750, it would be a society based on unfree labour, producing primary goods for people in far away places to process and to market. In 1850, as in 1750, Charleston would be a small port, serving its hinterland but enjoying little life of its own. The planters gained, immensely in some cases. But the society they ruled lost, for it would reap almost none of the benefits that rapid transformation would bring to the North. Whether or not the planters intended it, they were condemning their world to permanent underdevelopment.

 

They probably could not have done it had the interior not begun to transform itself in their image. By 1785 and 1786, tobacco culture was moving into the piedmont, bringing with it large-scale slavery and the plantation system. Even before Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin, the division of South Carolina into a lowland region of plantations and an interior region of small farms was coming to an end. With it also ended the structural basis for white popular movements against planter control. Carolina society had been wracked by the Regulation and then by the Revolution; now it would be united around the institution of slavery.

 

South Carolina thus left behind the tensions that had plagued it in the late colonial and revolutionary periods. Now it could become the center of pro-slavery feeling. It alone would allow the importation of slaves from Africa during the twenty-year interval in which the federal Constitution forbade Congress to prevent it. In the time of Andrew Jackson, it would be the state that forced the issue of the right to nullify a federal law. In the time of Abraham Lincoln, South Carolina would be the first state to secede from the union. The basis for all this was laid in the 1780s, as slavery triumphed over urban artisanship and commerce and backcountry free labor as the basis of the state's way of life.

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It cannot have been to make such a society that John Darwin had enlisted in the Third Virginia Regiment, or fought alongside his brother James with the South Carolina partisans. We have good evidence (considered in a later chapter) that John Darwin was opposed to Nullification in 1832. It is hard not to think that at the time of his pension application in 1834, John Darwin had some sense of how far short of the ideals of the Revolution the young Republic had already fallen.