South Carolina’s FOUR SIGNERS of the Declaration of Independence: Heyward, Lynch, Rutledge, and Middleton

South Carolina’s four signers of the Declaration of Independence are inductees in the S.C. Military Veterans Hall of Fame (Class of 1776). They are Thomas Heyward, Jr. (captain of artillery, S.C. militia, captured by British forces); Thomas Lynch, Jr. (captain of infantry, service in both the S.C. militia and the Continental Army. Perished at sea.); Edward Rutledge (captain of artillery, S.C. militia, captured by British forces. Rutledge ultimately became governor of S.C.); and Arthur Middleton (brief service as an Infantryman in the S.C. militia before his capture by British forces).

Francis Marion

Born 1732 in Berkeley County, S.C., Francis Marion was a veteran of the French and Indian War and he was commissioned into the Continental Army at the beginning of the American Revolution. He quickly rose from company grade rank (captain) to the command of a regiment, playing key leadership roles in the Battle of Fort Sullivan in Charleston harbor and in the American attack at Savannah, Georgia. When Charleston fell, Marion narrowly avoided capture, after which he returned to the field, this time in command of a diverse band of guerillas.

Marion led his men in series of daring raids and hit-and-run attacks throughout the remainder of the war, sometimes in cooperation with the Continental Army and other times on his own initiative. His partisan operations plagued the British high command, which was never able to caprture him or definitively defeat his small rag-tag band of horse-mounted militia. Marion has since become one of the best-known heroes of the Revolution in South Carolina. Today considered the “Father” of modern U.S. special operations forces, Marion was nicknamed “The Swamp Fox” by his wartime nemesis British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton for his [Marion’s] daring, unconventional, hit-and-run methods of warfighting. Tarleton initially referred to Marion as “that damned ol’ fox.”

Thomas Sumter

Like Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter earned a now-famous nom d’ guerre first-uttered by his arch enemy Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton. Tarleton referred to Sumter as a “Gamecock,” a nickname which has since evolved into “Fighting Gamecock” or “Carolina Gamecock.” Thomas Sumter served in the Continental Army during the early years of the war, but is best known for commanding a brigade of militia through some of the most bitter fighting during the Southern campaigns, including operations at Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, Fishing Creek, and Blackstocks (where he was wounded). Though his record was less consistent than that of Marion or Andrew Pickens, Sumter was tenacious and kept the Revolution alive during some of its darkest times in South Carolina. British General Sir Charles Cornwallis referred to Sumter as his “greatest plague.”

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

Andrew Pickens

Pennsylvania-born Andrew Pickens was a South Carolina militia leader, who having spent much of his life in western S.C., developed a sterling reputation as a combatant leader during operations against the Cherokee, 1760-1761. The American Revolution erupted in 1775, and by 1779, Pickens had become a prominent militia leader in the Ninety Six District and he contested the British occupation of Georgia from across the Savannah River. His reputation was bolstered by his victory at the Battle of Kettle Creek (Georgia). When Charleston fell, Pickens surrendered himself to the British and accepted parole, agreeing to sit out the rest of the war.

However, when Tory (Loyalist) raiders destroyed his home, he considered his parole violated, and again took the field. He led Patriot militia forces in the American victory at Cowpens, and he 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 as U.S. congressman.

John Laurens

John Laurens was born in Charleston in 1754 to one of South Carolina’s wealthiest planter families. His father, Henry Laurens, served as president of the Second Continental Congress. Son John became a volunteer aide-de-camp to Gen. George Washington in 1777, and was wounded at Germantown, Pennsylvania, that same year. The younger Laurens also fought in the 1778 Battle of Monmouth and myriad other battles over the course of the war. Also in 1778, Laurens engaged General Charles Lee in a pistol duel in which Laurens wounded but did not kill Lee. The following year, Laurens was wounded in action, but survived and continued campaigning. He was captured when Charleston fell in 1780. He was exchanged, but briefly left military service to serve as a special envoy to France returning in time to take part in the fighting and ultimate surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, 1781 (at Yorktown, Laurens led a light infantry battalion in the storming of a redoubt prior to the British surrender). Laurens became one of the last casualties of the American Revolution when he was killed in action on the Combahee River in 1782.

Laurens is perhaps best known for his proposal to establish a regiment of black soldiers, slaves who would earn their freedom through military service, but his proposal was rejected.

Peter Harris

Peter Harris, a Native American (Catawba Indian), served as a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. [The source of his name is unknown.] As a toddler, Harris survived a smallpox epidemic which killed his parents and half of his village. He was taken in by a neighboring farmer Thomas Spratt, a close friend of the Catawbas.

In 1777, Harris enlisted in a Georgia militia company, two years later joining Capt. Oliver Towles’ company, 3rd S.C. Regiment. Harris was wounded at Stono Ferry that same year but returned to duty serving under Gen. Thomas Sumter’s militia brigade, participating in several engagements including Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, and Blackstock’s Farm.

In 1783, Harris traveled to England with two other Catawba natives as part of an “Indian tour.” Recognized for his service, Harris received a 200-acre land grant in 1794 and secured a $60 annual pension from S.C. He passed away in 1823 and was interred in the Spratt family graveyard in Fort Mill, S.C., his marker honoring his Catawba heritage: “The body of Peter Harris a Catawba Indian by His last request was buried here 1823. … 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 set aside his weapon to drink of water at a spring. Harris lamented that his act was that of “a coward, rather than of a brave man in which category [I] had always hoped [my] fellow man would place [me].”

William Jasper

William Jasper enlisted in the 2nd S.C. Regiment in the summer of 1775. The following year, during the June 28 Battle of Sullivan’s Island, Jasper disitinguished himself when the fort’s primary flagstaff was shot away by enemy fire and toppled to the ground. Jasper then leapt up onto the fort’s ramparts and ran along the length of the fort, until he came upon the colors. He then jumped over the wall of the fort, retrieved the banner, and ignoring the shot and shell, climbed the walls, tied the flag to an artillery sponge staff, and erected it above the walls for all to see. Jasper’s bravery became a symbol of the Revolution in South Carolina. During the siege of Savannah, Georgia, Oct. 1779, Jasper attempted to plant one of his regiment’s two colors on the parapets of the Spring Hill Redoubt but was struck by enemy fire and fell mortally wounded. As he lay dying, Jasper 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, S.C., as well as a number of other Jasper namesakes exist today around the United States: All named for Sgt. William Jasper.

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 began.
Moultrie commanded the garrison at Fort Sullivan during the British attack on Charleston and the defending fortress in 1776, and he led the heroic defense which repelled the British fleet. Moultrie’s heroic leadership resulted in his promotion to brigadier general and the fort itself becoming his namesake. Moultrie also repulsed 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.

Thomas Woodward

South Carolina militia Captain Thomas Woodward, known as “The Regulator” (a noted leader of the Regulator movement in the Carolinas prior to the American Revolution), has been described in various historical commentaries as “a large man of commanding presence, known for his physical strength, fearlessness, and relentless pursuit of criminals.”

Woodward was a member of the First Provincial Congress (precursor to the S.C. General Assembly). During the war, Woodward’s previous leadership in mounted Regulator operations transitioned into his service as a captain of Rangers operating from the South Carolina backcountry near his home below the township of Winnsboro (then “Wynnsborough“) to the Lowcountry and Charleston Harbor. Commentaries state: “The dry bones of tories shook at the very name of Woodward.”

Capt. Woodward led horse-mounted Rangers in multiple battles during the American Revolution including the Snow Campaign, 1775, and the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, 1776. Woodward was mortally wounded while leading his horsemen in a running gunbattle with Loyalist cavalry near Little Dutchman’s Creek in Fairfield County, 1779. Capt. Woodward is a S.C. Military Veterans Hall of Fame inductee (Class of 1776).

Johann Baron DeKalb

Maj. Gen. Johann Baron De Kalb was a Bavarian-born French military officer who earned a commission in the Continental Army and was mortally wounded during the ill-fate Battle of Camden, S.C., 1780.

Though not a native South Carolinian, DeKalb’s Palmetto State roots run deep and, because of his actions, he will forever be considered a “Son of South Carolina.”

On June 17, 1777 – during the height of the American Revolution – the the better known Marquis de Lafayette along with his cross-Atlantic traveling companion Dekalb landed in North America specifically the shores of South Carolina on the rice plantation of Major Benjamin Huger near Georgetown. Major Huger was the younger brother of Brig. Gen. Isaac Huger. DeKalb and Lafayette ultimately traveled north to Pennsylvania, were commissioned in the Continental Army, and DeKalb eventually made his way back to South Carolina as a general officer in the army of Gen. Horatio Gates. Considered the brightest star in the Battle of Camden, DeKalb heroically fought to the death as he attempted to rally his men. As DeKalb lay mortally wounded – shot through three times and with multiple bayonet wounds – British Gen. Sir Charles Cornwallis rode up to him and said: “I am sorry, sir, to see you [like this]. I’m not sorry that you are vanquished, but I am sorry to see you so badly wounded.”

Cornwallis then had his own surgeons attend to the dying DeKalb who is today interred in front of Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Camden. DeKalb is an inductee in the Class of 1776.