250 and Counting

Tag: South Carolina History

Busy Day For Mr. Rutledge–September 27, 1776

In putting this episode together, I realized that I used this same image of Edward Rutledge back in the September 9 episode. However, I neglected to put the information for the image in the alt text. And that’s something I do try not to overlook. On the other hand, I was still hopped up on cold medication, so there’s that.

And before I forget, I mentioned the censure of Esek Hopkins during the episode, so I wanted to ensure that I linked back to that as well.

In addition to being the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, at the tender age of 26, Edward Rutledge was also a governor of South Carolina. By my count he was their ninth governor, from 1798 to 1800, but that’s if you count his brother John Rutledge twice, since John served twice, non-consecutively. Also, he was the ninth governor of the state of South Carolina; if you count the colonial governors, he’d be thirty-ninth.

After leaving the Continental Congress, Rutledge did fight in the Continental Army. He was captured during the Siege of Charleston in 1780 and released in a prisoner exchange the following year.

I should note that while Rutledge was governor he suffered from an attack of gout and went home to Charleston to recuperate. Not long afterwards, he heard the news of George Washington’s death and was so upset by this that he had an attack of apoplexy and died. (Modern-day medical types would probably say that he had a cerebral stroke.) Rutledge had been the Governor for 401 days.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

September 27, 2026
Battle of the Black Hole–September 19, 1776

The Battle of the Black Hole, also known as the Battle of Coweecho River, lasted about two hours and had surprisingly few casualties, considering its location and just how fierce the fighting was.

Colonel Andrew Williamson essentially marched into an ambush in a deep gorge, and had to fight their way out. They began by using a circular formation because they found themselves surrounded. But because they were in such a tight spot geographically, they realized that the only way out is through, as the expression goes. Williamson led a bayonet charge, which drove out the Cherokees, who were low on ammunition anyway.

Four Cherokees were killed altogether, and eleven militiamen were killed, plus twenty-four men were wounded.

Interestingly, the exact location of the battle is not known, but based on contemporary accounts, historians have placed it at or near Wayah Gap in Macon County, NC. For some time there was an argument that it took place further north, in Swain County, a place called “Indian Grave Gap.” But given the militia groups’ respective destinations as they moved, this location doesn’t make sense.

The fact is, much of the correct information for this battle had to be painstakingly teased from contemporary reports. At one point it was thought that it was General Rutherford’s men who had fought the battle, but that was based on a single article written nearly a hundred years later. Furthermore, that article was based on sketchy research.

So the Battle of the Black Hole was brief, it was relatively bloodless, and it was the last battle in the Cherokee-American War that would take place in North Carolina, though many more were to come in other states.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

September 19, 2026
Langdon Cheves–September 17, 1776

Langdon Cheves had a bit of a rough start in life, but he managed to pull himself up and become quite the influential man in the early 1800s.

Despite the fact that few people have heard of him, Cheves was an active member of the House of Representatives, and managed to make the best of bad situations. When the 1810 embargo on European goods had the effect of collapsing rice and cotton prices, Cheves was able to channel the voters’ dissatisfaction into returning him to Congress. He was considered a War Hawk as 1812 rolled around and still managed to get re-elected.

Cheves was in the House of Representatives when Henry Clay was appointed Speaker, but while they generally followed similar attitudes, Clay and Cheves had a falling out over the seizure of merchants’ bonds during the War of 1812 and he found himself stripped of all committee assignments, Unfortunately for Clay, when he was asked to negotiate peace with Britain in 1824 he had to resign his position, and Cheves found himself elected Speaker. Cheves essentially went from Worst To First in the space of a year.

After leaving Congress, Cheves returned to his law practice but found himself appointed the presidency of the Bank of the United States, a position he held for longer than he’d planned because the Board of Directors had a hard time finding his replacement when he wanted to retire. After leaving the bank, he returned to South Carolina to become a rice planter and continued to engage in public debate, at one point arguing against South Carolina seceding from the Union unilaterally, believing in Southern unity.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

September 17, 2026
Do The Fight Ring–August 12, 1776

Andrew Pickens was a plantation owner whose property was near Seneca, South Carolina, which is almost as far west as you can go and still be in South Carolina.

As the Cherokee-American wars wore down, Pickens was able to sign peace treaties with the tribe, which was known as the Treaty of Hopewell.

Meanwhile, in the American Revolution, Pickens had to surrender the fort in the Ninety-Six District. He agreed to sit out the war as part of his parole, but when the British later destroyed most of his property, all bets were off. He led numerous campaigns in South Carolina and Georgia, making him popular enough the he was elected to the House of Representatives from 1781 through 1793.

It’s worth noting that some of his Revolutionary War battles were the basis of some scenes in the 2000 film The Patriot.

Andrew Pickens was one of only nine Representatives to vote against the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution, which prevents states from sovereign immunity in lawsuits against them by citizens of another state. For example, under the amendment a private citizen from Virginia is allowed to sue the state of Tennessee, and Tennessee cannot claim that the person has no standing because they’re not a citizen of Tennessee.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

And no, I do not apologize for the title of today’s episode.

August 12, 2026
The Charleston Liberty Tree–August 5, 1776

The Charleston Liberty Tree has something in common with its more famous counterpart in Boston: neither tree made it to the end of the Revolutionary War.

The Boston Liberty Tree was cut down by Loyalists in 1775, and the Charleston Liberty Tree was burned down by the British in 1780.

In researching these trees and their ultimate fates, I couldn’t help but laugh: the trees are meaningless. They’re literally landmarks, not secret meeting houses. Removing the trees does nothing whatsoever to prevent the Patriots from doing the Patriot thing; in fact, it’s entirely possible that it spurred the “victims” to rebel all the harder.

It’s just a weird thing for Loyalists to get upset about, right?

And then I realized that things really haven’t changed very much since then. Politically active people of all stripes these days also get kind of overwrought over relatively stupid stuff.

Just saying.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

August 5, 2026
Escalation Everywhere–August 1, 1776

At this point, Americans were fighting a two-front war. More accurately, they were fighting two wars against different enemies: the Cherokee in the southwest areas of the country (so far), and the British…well, practically everywhere else. But today we’ll focus on the British in New York.

After yesterday’s disaster in the Ninety-Six District of South Carolina, the Cherokees, plus a bunch of Loyalists, moved east about 30 miles to Seneca, which at that time was called Esseneca Ford.It was there that they met up against Andew Williamson, who they outnumbered by something like four-to-one. But with the assistance of some men on horseback, plus another batch of reinforcements, the Cherokees were forced to retreat.

In New York, the British, along with a huge number of Hessian mercenary soldiers, were massing in Staten Island with an eye toward taking Manhatten, Long Island and the Hudson Valley in an effort to cut off New England. George Washington will be facing an enormous battle very soon, but on Monday we’ll be telling you about something at least as important fo the General.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

August 1, 2026
Farewell, Francis–July 31, 1776

As I mentioned very early in this podcast, Francis Salvador’s life was especially notable for two things: the day he was elected to public office, and the day he died. And in his case, the dates were notable largely for the fact that Francis Salvador was a Sephardic Jew, making him the first man of his faith to be elected to office in America, and the first of his faith to die in the Revolution.

Francis Salvador was born in London, but his family were part of a Portuguese and Spanish Sepharidic Jewish enclave in that city. Salvador had an uncle who’d invested heavily in the British East India Company, and they still owned lots of land in Portugal, so they were pretty comfortable financially.

Until, that is, the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, and the subsequent failure of the East India Tea Company. They were in much worse shape after those two blows, but by that point Salvador had already purchsed some land in South Carolina. In 1773 he emigrated to America, intending to bring his family over when he had the money to do so, but he was killed before they could make the move.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

P.S. Thanks to Mike for stepping in and recording this episode when I had a power failure preventing me from getting it done.

July 31, 2026
The Battle of Sullivan’s Island–June 28, 1776

The Battle of Sullivan’s Island was part of Great Britain’s first attempt to take the city of Charleston, South Carolina.

Unfortunately for the British, too many things went wrong for them, and there were logistical problems that they somehow hadn’t accounted for as well.

Sullivan’s Island was (is, really) not an impressive piece of land. It’s a barrier island that’s a couple of miles long but only a couple of hundred feet wide. But because of its location at the mouth of Charleston Bay, it was an ideal place from which to defend the city.

Now, if you look at a modern-day map of the bay, you’ll see Fort Sumter in the dead center of the bay’s channel. Fort Sumter, however, was little more than a sand bar in 1776, and was artificially built up in the 1830s so that the fort could be constructed there. Insterestingly, although Fort Sumter gets credit for the first shots of the Civil War, the structure was never finished. Construction began in 1829 and hadn’t been completed as of 1861, when the war started.

Oddly enough, when the Battle of Sullivan’s Island took place, Fort Moultrie wasn’t completed either. Then in 1798 the Army decided that it needed updating, so they started over, building a new structure atop the old one. That fort was destroyed in a storm in 1804 and was rebuilt again in 1809. During the Civil War it was reduced to rubble by Union forces but was rebuilt again in the 1870s.

Fort Moultrie was taken out of service in 1947, then decommissioned and became part of the National Park Service in 1960.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

June 28, 2026
South Carolina’s Small Declaration–April 23, 1776

William Henry Drayton was born in 1742 on his family’s plantation just outside of Charleston. The plantation was dedicated to growing rice.

In 1764 he married Dorothy Golightly. In the early 1770s he was a Loyalist and enjoyed some of the perks that came with it. Then in 1774 he wrote a pamphlet supporting a Continental Congress and lost all his government jobs. That, go figure, radicalized him to the Patriot cause and he dedicated the rest of his life to it.

William Henry Drayton died in Berkeley County, SC at the age of 37. His home, Drayton Hall, is now within Charleston city limits and operates as a museum.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

April 23, 2026
Raid On Tybee Island–March 25, 1776

The raid on Tybee Island wasn’t the only one of its kind; in fact a similar action had been taken at Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina a few weeks earlier.

In that case there were many more runaway slaves involved, but like Tybee, very few were actually captured and the fate of most of the others is unknown, although there is one account that says fifty people had resisted capture and were subesquently killed.

But in both cases we see a raid that took place specifically to deny people their freedom, and the proclamation the led to these raids directly influenced the argument in the Declaration of Independence that King George incited “domestic insurrections.” So…the desire of slaves to be free…drove the Patriots to desire independence.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

March 25, 2026