Andrew Pickens

Andrew Pickens was born in 1739 in Pennsylvania, before migrating to the Waxhaws region of South Carolina. He established himself as a military leader fighting against the Cherokee. By 1779, he had become a prominent militia leader in the Ninety Six District and contested the British occupation of Georgia from across the Savannah River. His reputation was bolstered by his victory at the Battle of Kettle Creek (in Georgia). However, when Charleston fell, Pickens surrendered himself to the British and accepted parole, agreeing to sit out the rest of the war.

However, when Tory raiders destroyed his home, he considered his parole violated, and took the field again. He led the militia under Daniel Morgan at the American victory at Cowpens. And from there Pickens participated in many of the most significant battles of the war, including Eutaw Springs and the Sieges of Augusta and Ninety Six, rising to the rank of Brigadier General. After the war, Pickens represented South Carolina in the US House.

Margaret Catherine “Kate” Moore Barry

Kate Barry was the eldest of 10 children born to Charles and Mary Moore, early settlers who lived on Walnut Grove Plantation near Spartanburg, S.C. The wife of Patriot militia Captain Andrew Barry, who served with distinction at the Battle of Musgrove’s Mill, Kate
herself served as a scout and guide for the Patriots in the area, most notably for Brigadier General Daniel Morgan during the leadup to the Battle of Cowpens.

She is credited with being instrumental in gathering the large numbers of militiamen who joined Morgan immediately before the battle, swelling the ranks of his small regular army, and leading to his decisive victory over Banastre Tarleton.

While her existence and connection to Morgan and the Battle of Cowpens is well documented, many other stories about Kate Barry exist in the realm of legend. According to some accounts, she was captured and imprisoned in her home and then whipped by British soldiers when she refused to reveal the location of her husband. In another story, she left her home in the middle of the night to warn Patriot soldiers of the
approaching British, tying her infant daughter to a bedpost to keep her safe.

Whether these stories are true (or not), Kate Barry’s documented contributions to the Patriot cause make her a figure worthy of remembrance.

Elizabeth, Grace, and Rachel Martin

Elizabeth Martin, born Elizabeth Marshall, was the mother of nine, including seven sons who entered military service as soon as the Revolutionary War began. While her sons fought, two of her daughters-in-law, Grace and Rachel, stayed with her. Together, they supported the Patriot’s cause, tending to the wounds of Continental Army soldiers.
However, the Martins’ home, near Edgefield, S.C., was subject to British occupation, as British officers frequented their home for rest and refreshments throughout the war.

When they learned a British courier was passing through their district, Grace and Rachel dressed in their husbands’ attire, armed themselves with guns, and hid at an intersection where the courier was likely to pass. Elizabeth remained at home.

When the courier and his guards approached the intersection, Grace and Rachel attacked and forced the British soldiers to surrender. Collecting the documents, which included papers regarding battle plans, they forwarded them through another messenger to General Nathanael Greene.

Legend has it that Grace and Rachel rushed home and changed clothes, and the British soldiers soon after stopped at the Martin home for the night, explaining that “two Rebel lads” had ambushed them. The soldiers left the next morning, completely unaware that the “lads” had, in fact, been two of their hostesses.

Francis Marion

Francis Marion was born in 1732, in Berkeley County, South Carolina. He served in the volunteers during the Cherokee War of 1760 and enlisted in the South Carolina Line at the beginning of the American Revolution, rising from the rank of captain to the command of a regiment. He played key roles in the Battle of Fort Sullivan and the American attack in Savannah. Marion narrowly avoided being captured at the Fall of Charleston, after which he returned to the field, this time in command of a partisan band.

Marion led his men in series of daring raids and hit and run attacks from 1780-82, sometimes in cooperation with the Continental Army and other times on his own initiative. His guerilla campaign plagued the British high command, which was never able to catch him or definitively defeat his small rag-tag band of followers. Marion earned the nickname “The Swamp Fox” for his daring and unconventional form of warfare and has become one of the most well-known heroes of the Revolution in South Carolina.

Isaac Hayne

Isaac Hayne (1745-81) was elected to the Commons House of Assembly in 1769 and was a captain in the Colleton County militia. In Jan. 1776, Capt. Hayne marched 175 militiamen to Haddrell’s Point to defend
against the anticipated British attack on Charlestown.

He was nominated to be a colonel in the militia, but lost the election. Hayne then resigned his commission and enlisted in the militia as a private, a rank he held until the fall of Charlestown. He was
taken prisoner and paroled to his plantation.

In Apr. 1781, Hayne refused a commission in the state militia, choosing to honor his parole. Shortly thereafter Hayne was ordered to Charlestown to take an oath of allegiance. He took the oath because of
the threat of imprisonment and then returned to his plantation, where his wife and daughter died of smallpox.

When the Americans regained control of Colleton County, Hayne determined that his parole was no longer valid. Apparently, he contacted Harden and requested a commission. He was commissioned a colonel and took over a militia regiment.

On Jul. 5, Hayne led a raid on former Patriot Gen. Andrew Williamson’s plantation, capturing the converted Loyalist. Two days later, Hayne was himself surprised and taken prisoner at Horseshoe, in a raid that also recovered Williamson. Hayne was found guilty of taking up arms against the Crown.

Despite many Loyalists, including Lt. Gov. William Bull, pleading for leniency, Hayne was executed in Charlestown on Aug. 4. Hayne’s execution was protested by Americans, from Gen. Greene to the
Continental Congress. In his proclamation of Aug. 26, Greene promised to retaliate “for all such inhuman Insults…make British Regular Officers, and not the deluded Inhabitants who have joined their Army,
Subject of retaliation.”

Three days later the Continental Congress resolved, “And Whereas the officer, commanding the troops of his Britannic Majesty, in the State of South Carolina did cause to be hanged Col. Isaac Haynes an officer in the militia of the State of So Carolina under sentence of his being a British subject, which said act being not only contrary to the laws of War, but highly dangerous to the welfare of these United States if permitted to pass without just retaliation; Therefore Resolved, That the Commander in Chief be directed to cause a British officer, now a prisoner within these United States in the line of the British
army of equal rank Col. Haynes not under the rank of a Major immediately to suffer the same death that was inflicted on Col. Haynes.”

Although threats of retaliation were made by American authorities, none was ever taken. Ironically given these later events, Harden, in the letter of Apr. 7, accused Hayne of “Staying on too much formality,” suggesting that he was taking his parole too literally.

John Laurens

John Laurens (1754-82) was born in Charleston to one of South Carolina’s wealthiest planter families. His father, Henry Laurens, was a merchant, and slave trader who served as the president of the Second
Continental Congress. Sailing home from London at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, John Laurens became a volunteer aide-decamp to Gen. Washington in Sep. 1777 and was wounded at Germantown the next month. He was in the battle of Monmouth in Jun. 1778.

In Mar. 1779, he became a lieutenant colonel, at which point he returned to South Carolina and was elected to the 3rd General Assembly.

Laurens was wounded in the fight at Coosawhatchie Bridge in May 1779 after defying orders and crossing the river to confront the enemy. He led the attack of the American light infantry companies at the siege of Savannah in October of that year.

Laurens was taken prisoner at the fall of Charlestown on May 12, 1780. After his exchange, he became a special envoy to France at the end of 1780. He returned to America in time to take part in the surrender
at Yorktown in Oct. 1781, then went back to South Carolina after Cornwallis’s surrender in time to take his seat in the SC House in Jan. 1782.

Soon after, he returned to the field, and was killed at Chehaw Neck on the Combahee River on Aug 27, 1782.

Peter Harris

Peter Harris, a Catawba Native American, served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. As a toddler, Harris survived a devastating smallpox epidemic which killed his parents and half of his tribe. He remained in the village for two years before he was taken in by
Thomas Spratt, a nearby farmer and close friend of the tribe.

In June 1777, Harris enlisted in the Battalion of Georgia Minutemen, later joining Capt. Oliver Towels’ company of the Third South Carolina Regiment in February 1779. He was wounded at the Battle of Stono Ferry in 1779 but returned to serve under Gen. Thomas Sumter’s Militia
Brigade in 1780, participating in battles including Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock and Blackstock’s Farm.

Recognized for his service, Harris received a 200-acre land grant in 1794 and secured a $60 annual pension from South Carolina in December 1822. He died in 1823 and was buried in the Spratt family graveyard in Fort Mill, South Carolina, with a tombstone honoring his Catawba
heritage.

“The Body of Peter Harris a Cataba Indian by His last Request Was Buried Here 1823. Age 70 years. Left an Orphan He was Raised by Thomas Spratt, Sen r . Like All His Tribe, He was Ever Friendly to the Americans, and For His Services in Our War of Independence Received a Pension From The State.”

In an alleged death bed confession, Peter Harris told James Spratt that he had only one regret. He said he had killed a British soldier who’d laid aside his gun to get a drink of water at a spring. Harris said that it was the act of “a coward, rather than of a brave man, in which category he
had always hoped his fellow-man would place him.”

Rebecca Brewton Motte

Rebecca Motte was the daughter of Robert Brewton and the wife of Jacob Motte, both prominent Patriot members of Charleston society. She was among the women of Charleston who presented the men of the 2 nd  SC Regiment with two silk standards to celebrate their victory at Sullivan’s Island. When her brother Miles died, Rebecca inherited his elegant townhouse in Charleston, which was commandeered by the British high command during the occupation of the city.

Rebecca and her family fled the city to their plantation on the Congaree, where her husband soon fell ill and died. This home, too, was occupied by the British and transformed into “Fort Motte,” and she found herself once again evicted. However, in May of 1781, Francis Marion and Lt. Col. Henry Lee laid siege to the “fort.” When the Patriot officers came to Mrs. Motte to inform her that necessity required them to set fire to her home, not only did she not object, but she lent them a collection of arrows she owned to use as fire arrows. When the roof of the house caught fire, the British garrison surrendered.

Rebecca Motte had put the cause of the Revolution before her own family home.

Thomas Sumter

Known as the “Carolina Gamecock,” Thomas Sumter served in the Continental Army during the early years of the war, but is much more well known for commanding a brigade of militia through some of the most bitter fighting of the Southern Campaign, including at Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, Fishing Creek, and Blackstocks (where he was wounded), “Sumter’s Rounds,” and the Campaign of the Dog Days. Though his record was less consistent than that of Marion or Pickens, Sumter was tenacious and kept the Revolution alive during some of its darkest times in South Carolina.

After the war, Sumter served as a congressman and senator from South Carolina.

William Capers

William Capers (1758-1812/3?) served as a 2nd lieutenant in the 2nd SC Regiment starting in Mar. 1777 and became a 1st lieutenant in Mar. 1778. He was in the Battle of Sullivan’s Island in Jun. 1776 and was
transferred to Capt. Dunbar’s light infantry company (2nd Regiment) in Oct. 1779. He fought at the siege of Savannah during the failed assault on the Spring Hill Redoubt.

Capers took a leave of absence in Jan. 1780, as Marion explained to Gen. Lincoln, “I have been Oblige to give Lt. Capers Leave of Absense rather than lose a good Officer.” Capers did resign, however. After the fall of Charlestown, he joined Marion’s Brigade.

In Mar. 1781, Capers was named adjutant of Marion’s brigade while fighting in the Bridges Campaign. He became a captain under Col. Richard Richardson, Jr., in 1781 and fought at the Battle of Eutaw Springs in Sep. 1781.

Capers was elected to the House for the 5th General Assembly (1783-84), after which he rose to major in the militia and was inspector of the 6th Brigade (1802-1806).

William Jasper

William Jasper enlisted in the 2nd SC Regiment in Jul.1775. During the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, on Jun. 28, 1776, the fort’s flagstaff was cut by British shot and toppled to the ground. According to tradition,
Jasper jumped up on the ramparts and walked the length of the fort, until he came to the colors. He then jumped over the wall of the fort and retrieved the banner, ignoring the rain of shot and shell. Jasper then climbed the walls, tied the flag to an artillery sponge staff, and erected it on the walls. His bravery became a symbol of the Revolution in South Carolina. Gov. Rutledge presented Jasper with a sword. In 1777 he served as a quartermaster sergeant. During the siege of Savannah, in Oct. 1779, he attempted to plant one of the 2nd South Carolina’s two colors on the parapets of the Spring Hill Redoubt but fell mortally wounded and, as he lay dying, passed the colors to Lt. John Bush, who also fell. The British captured both flags, and they remained in British hands until purchased by the State of South Carolina and the Smithsonian Institute in 1989. Jasper County, SC, as well as a number of other Jasper Counties around the United States are named for him.

William Moultrie

William Moultrie was born in 1730 in Charleston. He served in the Cherokee War of 1760, and was given command of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment when the American Revolution broke out.
Moultrie commanded at Fort Sullivan during the British attack on Charleston in 1776 and led the heroic defense which drove off the British fleet. This resulted in his promotion to brigadier general and the fort itself being renamed after him. Moultrie also defeated the British invasion of South Carolina in 1779 at the Battle of Port Royal.

Moultrie was the highest-ranking South Carolina officer when Charleston surrendered in 1780, and he was captured. He shared his captivity with thousands of other Continental soldiers, and served as
their representative to the British command, advocating for better treatment. He was exchanged in 1782, and after the war served as lieutenant governor and then governor of South Carolina.