We have a few tales of the Old South to tell you this time, some new documents to go over, and a few tips and news items to relate.
A Jersey Volunteer returns to Kings Mountain
By Todd Braisted
We are very pleased about the exposure we have gotten as a result of our humble endeavors on the site. We're even more pleased that the folks at the National Park Service, specifically those at Kings Mountain, South Carolina noticed us!
For the past few years Kings Mountain has hosted an excellent symposium series on the famous 1780 battle there and related topics. After visiting our site they thought it might be a good idea if they invited me to speak at this year's event, held on May 6th.
After some correspondence to find out a little more about what they would like, it was an easy decision to accept their kind invitation. Nan had never heard any of my lectures in person, so she decided to head south for the festivities as well.
It was a very significant trip for me in a few respects. Eighty officers and men from New Jersey (my home and native land) took part in the campaign that culminated at Kings Mountain. The blood of New Jerseyians was shed on that hill and it was in their memory I was honored to visit.
The visit was also poignant with regard to my own family, as John Braisted had served with the New Jersey Volunteers in South Carolina from 1780-1782. It also seemed fitting as commander of the recreated 4th Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers to walk in the footsteps of the original corps.
Arriving at Charlotte on Friday the 5th, Nan and I had an opportunity to visit another nearby battlefield with Loyalist significance, Cowpens. It was there where Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton was defeated by the Rebels under Daniel Morgan on 17 January 1781.
The field undoubtedly looked quite different at the time of the battle. It was downright warm when we were there, and the trees were a lush green. The National Park Service, which runs Cowpens, does a good job though of marking out on the field where the different actions took place. One could almost hear the huzzahs of the soldiers, the clattering hoofs of the cavalry, and the dull thuds of the Royal Artillery guns.
Saturday, the day of the lecture, proved to be a beautiful spring morning. Arriving bright and early at the battlefield (after a bit of a surreal fast-food breakfast experience) we started to meet some of the NPS Rangers, volunteers, speakers and visitors. We were happy to meet several of the visitors to our site, including Beth Carter, Archivist of the Historical Center of York County, South Carolina, who was one of the first people to contact us when we went live.
Among the others presenting lectures that day were Larry Babits and Bobby Moss, both known for their works on the Southern Campaigns. Larry spoke on the South Carolina Militia while Bobby discussed his upcoming book on the journal of Surgeon Uzal Johnson.
Johnson was the surgeon of the 1st Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, detached to serve under Patrick Ferguson with the American Volunteers. He was renowned for treating the wounded on both sides after the battle and was brutalized for treating the prisoners who had been wounded while in captivity. The journal is in the manuscript collections of the Princeton University Library, as part of the Boudinot Papers.
Aside from the indoor lectures there was an outdoor presentation given by our good friends Mike Williams and Laurence Todd. Mike and LT discussed 18th Century medicine and surgical practices in the army.
They are part of the British Detached Hospital, a reenactment group, and members of the Brigade of the American Revolution. They had on display many of the surgical instruments of the day, as well as some of the medicines. Also taking part in the day's festivities was a Rebel reenactment group, Bratton's Militia, who set up a camp and did demonstrations for the public, and storyteller William Wilder.
The NPS set up a nice catered lunch for the participants, which was appreciated by all. They did a real first class job of putting together a fun and educational day and are to be commended for their efforts. Special thanks to Chris Revels for inviting me and making the trip so easy and enjoyable.
The evening was capped off by a very entertaining musical program featuring Ken Bloom, a reenactor with the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants), playing a huge variety of instruments, many of which he had built himself.
Our last day in the Carolinas started with a personal guided tour of the Kings Mountain Battlefield. Reading the accounts of the action is one thing; it is entirely different to witness firsthand the terrain and battleground features on the original field - the actual spots where columns of men moved, lines charged and fired, and ultimately men died. Some of the slopes of the mountain are (and would have been then) very difficult to assault, while others were more gentle and easier to assail. Our thanks to Bob Sweeny for leading us through our tour.
This ended our experience at Kings Mountain but left us enough time to continue on to yet another Loyalist locale -- Historic Brattonsville. This site had been suggested by Bert Dunkerly of the NPS, who himself had given a very informative presentation on the different commemorations that had been held at Kings Mountain, from the 19th Century to the present time. Thanks Bert!
Brattonsville is located southeast of King's Mountain and was the site of a defeat of Loyalists commanded by Captain Christian Huck. Huck commanded a troop of light dragoons made up of the former corps of Emmerick's Chasseurs.
This troop was not supposed to be incorporated into the British Legion but merely attached to them. However, by the time of this action (July 1780), there is little doubt they were a full part of the British Legion. Huck also had under his command a small party of New York Volunteers and some South Carolina Militia. This force, about 100 men, was defeated and Huck was killed.
Today, Historic Brattonsville is operated by the York County Culture & Heritage Commission and consists of a number of mostly original buildings of the 18th and early 19th Century, including a working farm. You can see some of them on the big screen, as they were used in the filming of the soon to be released Mel Gibson movie The Patriot. The folks here really know their stuff and we were very impressed by the entire operation. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to make our visit so enjoyable.
Thus ended our southern foray. Both Nan's plane to Chicago and mine to New Jersey were delayed, somewhat extending our trip into the night, but we both arrived home without too much trouble. Looking forward to another road trip,
I remain your humble servant,
Todd W. Braisted
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Mel Gibson: Rebel!
For anyone who might be unaware, a major motion picture starring Mel Gibson is due for release on June 28th. Entitled The Patriot, it is set in South Carolina during the Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution. Mel is drawn into the war and leads a crusade against the British, culminating at Yorktown.
This movie was originally to have been based on the exploits of Francis Marion, a Rebel Partisan who served in South Carolina, but the story started to stray so far from history that Hollywood instead created a fictional character for Mel to play. The evil British officer in the film is called Colonel "Tavington" and is supposedly based on Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton of the British Legion.
Filming for the movie was done in South Carolina throughout the autumn of last year. One of the places used was Historic Brattonsville, which we visited during our trip to Kings Mountain.
A call went out to the reenactment community to take part in the filming, and many indeed did make the trip and effort to lend their expertise and talents. Todd was among those asked, but he did not have the time necessary.
Many reenactors did participate though, not just in the filming, but also in training the extras to be 18th Century soldiers. Regrettably many of the reenactors and best-trained extras left the filming over safety and authenticity concerns.
Anyone thinking this will be an accurate portrayal of the American Revolution in the South is going to be sorely disappointed. The British will be typical arch-villains, and it's uncertain whether or not Loyalists are even mentioned.
The British Legion, of course, was a Loyalist unit wearing green jackets. They will be depicted in the movie as the "Green Dragoons," but since Hollywood figured modern American audiences wouldn't understand British in anything but red coats, they put the "Green Dragoons" in red coats faced with green. The Royal Artillery, which should be in blue coats, will likewise be in red.
Clothing issues aside, the story line will be stretching reality in every direction. One commercial now running on TV has a character telling Mel Gibson "Cornwallis is advancing…with 13,000 redcoats!"
There were not 13,000 British troops in all of America in 1780 or 1781! Cornwallis had barely over 2,000 men under his immediate command at any time in South Carolina. Allegedly, another scene will show "Tavington" and his men setting fire to a church full of parishioners. So much for reality…
Is there anything good here? Yes, mostly for those in the Living History community.
The period of the American Revolution has always run a poor second to the Civil War, as far as popular entertainment is concerned. Hollywood has created such movies as Glory and Gettysburg but has been reluctant to cover the period of our interest. Al Pacino's Revolution was an unintended joke while Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty was an intentional one.
In The Patriot the opportunity presents itself for people who would not otherwise pay attention to the events of the 18th Century to develop an interest. They will go to see Mel Gibson and, hopefully, some will want to learn more about what really happened.
This is where places like our site and people such as reenactors can step in and build upon the enthusiasm generated by the movie. We can tell folks "Yes, that was a good story. And an even more exciting one is what really happened, with real people on both sides!"
We can show them how the events of the past relate to the present and how people of good will fought on both sides. Between the glitz of Hollywood and the education we can provide them, perhaps these people will actually come away from this with a better understanding of the events of 225 years ago.
On a personal note, we were somewhat taken aback to find ourselves linked to the website of The Patriot!
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Tips on using the Search Engine
One of the features that we as site owners have is the ability to see how people are using our search engine. We cannot tell who is looking for something, but we can determine the search words used. While the instructions on its use are fairly straightforward, viewing some of the search requests tells us that perhaps some further hints are in order.
The search engine works by simply matching words that are typed in. You have two choices for what you want the search to do: it can find any of the words you type, or it can find all of the words you type.
For instance, if you type "Thomas Smith" and click "all the words," it will list every document that contains both the word Thomas and the word Smith. If you click "any of the words" it will return every document that has either Thomas or Smith in it. Big difference.
What you can't do is type "Tell me where Thomas Smith from New York settled" and expect the search engine to give you an accurate answer! Simply searching under Thomas Smith or Thomas Smith New York would probably turn up the documents you are seeking.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the search engine is sensitive to plurals. That is, if you type "Hessians" you will only get returns on the plural of the word. It will ignore "Hessian" because there is no "s" on the end. A good idea is to search both words separately.
Something else that is especially important for genealogists is multiple spellings of surnames. Since the documents on our site are by and large exact transcriptions of the originals, a family name might be spelled in a variety of ways.
Let's look at the name "Purdy" for instance. On an original document that name could be spelled: Purdy, Purdie, Purdey, Purday, Perdy, etc. It would be a good idea to do a search on each spelling, one at a time.
In placing our documents, especially military ones, we are careful to list a regiment's proper name. For instance, if you search "Jessup's Rangers" you probably won't get many, if any, hits, as there was no corps by that name.
However, if you search under Loyal Rangers, which is the correct name of the corps, you will find the information you are seeking. If you didn't know that was the name of the corps, then simply searching under "Jessup" would most likely lead you to the answer.
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What's New
We have concentrated this past month primarily on getting more regiments online in the Regimental History section. It's important that folks are able to get some sense of the history of a unit, and this is the area for it.
History Section:
We have added two new documents in the Battles and Campaigns area, both in keeping with the themes we mentioned earlier.
The first is a lengthy account of the fighting and aftermath of the Battle of Kings Mountain, written by Lieutenant Anthony Allaire. Allaire served in the Loyal American Regiment and was detached to the American Volunteers for the 1780 Campaign. His journal, as published in Draper's Kings Mountain and its Heroes has become an invaluable source for tracking the movements and fighting by Patrick Ferguson's corps.
The second document we have added is Tarleton's initial report of his victory over the Virginia Continentals commanded by Colonel Buford at Waxhaws, South Carolina. Tarleton was able to cover over 100 miles in just over two days and then defeat a superior force with fewer than 300 cavalry and mounted infantry.
This was the battle that has gone down in history as "Tarleton's Quarter" and was the basis for the ruthless character portrayed by Colonel "Tavington" in "The Patriot." Rebel accounts afterwards, and some to this day, said that no prisoners were taken by order of Tarleton. The website for the movie goes so far as to say this was a "policy."
The facts concerning Waxhaws are that Tarleton offered the Virginians terms to surrender, which were rejected, and when the battle commenced, it quickly became a bloody rout. To say, though, that everyone was killed would be highly inaccurate.
About a quarter of the Virginians were killed, while the rest were wounded or taken prisoner unscathed. Given that it was such a one-sided bloody affair though, the cry of "massacre" went up, and the story has survived to this day. We will be posting the casualty returns for both sides next.
Military Section:
We have added additional documents in the Regimental History area for the South Carolina Militia, Westchester Chasseurs, Butler's Rangers, Indian Department, New Jersey Volunteers, Provincial Corps of Pennsylvania Loyalists, and Royal Highland Emigrants.
In addition, we have added the following corps for the first time:
Loyal Associated Refugees. This corps was truly the first of the "Refugee" corps to be raised in the middle to later stages of the war. Organized and funded by George Leonard in 1779, this unit served less than one year at Newport, Rhode Island, before being broken up on the evacuation of that city. It was also the first corps to combine land forces with a naval contingent, making it self-sufficient in raiding along the New England coast and among the islands, such as Martha's Vineyard.
Duke of Cumberland's Regiment. This corps was raised at Charlestown, South Carolina in February of 1781 by Lord Charles Montagu. The initial recruits to the corps included hundreds of Continental Army prisoners who had been taken during in the 1780 Campaign in South Carolina. These men were mostly from Virginia and the Carolinas. The men enlisted on the understanding they would only fight the French and Spanish, not other Americans. The unit served with distinction on Jamaica until the end of the war. A second battalion was added in 1783 through the drafting of the Loyal American Rangers, Jamaica Corps (Amherst's) and the two Independent Provincial Companies created from the remnants of the 1780 Nicaragua expedition.
King's (Carolina) Rangers. This was the Provincial corps raised in 1779 out of the old East Florida Rangers. Commanded by Lt. Col. Thomas Brown, this corps became famous for its defense of Augusta, Georgia both in 1780 and 1781. With the addition of a troop of cavalry, it took part in many skirmishes around Savannah, until the evacuation of that place in 1782.
Charlestown, South Carolina Militia. Consisting of two battalions, with light infantry and grenadier companies, this corps helped garrison the city from its fall in 1780 until the evacuation in 1782.
Detroit Volunteers. A one-company unit raised for the defense of Detroit and service in the midwest. Many members of the corps were captured at the fall of Vincennes in 1779.
West Jersey Volunteers. Raised at Philadelphia in January of 1778, this corps was commanded by Major John Van Dyke. It served primarily at Billingsport, New Jersey until the evacuation of Philadelphia in June of 1778. As an understrength regiment, it was drafted later that year primarily into the 1st and 3rd Battalions of New Jersey Volunteers, although some men found their way into the infantry of the British Legion.
We have added several new documents in the Claims & Memorials area. In Massachusetts/Maine we have added Nathan Philips, James Symons and Jacob Young. They were all from what is now Maine. There is also a new memorial in New York - that of John O'Brien.
Genealogy Section:
In the Post-War Settlement area we have added a muster roll of soldiers and families settled at Antigonish, County of Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1784.
The majority of the officers and men listed had served in the Nova Scotia Volunteers, and by extension, the Independent Companies. Those two corps were merged in 1782.
Reenacting Section:
In the Photo Gallery we have a nice new selection of pictures showing the action and festivities at the massive Battle Road 2000 event, held in April in Massachusetts.
This event was the start of the 225th Anniversary of the American Revolution, and what a fantastic event it was! With over 1,400 men on the field, and the British column starting its march at 5:30 a.m., it was one of the most intense reenactments ever held. An estimated 150,000 - 200,000 spectators witnessed some or all of the day's events.
For would-be recruits out there, the time to join a group is now! Next year almost the entire New York Campaign of 1776 will be recreated, so join a group and join the fun!
&c &c &c Section:
In the Internet Links area we have added several new Reciprocal Links to sites that we have discovered are linked to us over the last month.
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Announcements
Let's Chat!
One of the things that we have wanted to do ever since we started talking about the idea of a website was to offer a place where we could all get together and chat. We are very pleased to announce that we have found a way to do that!
We have set up an account on eGroups, an internet site that offers, among other things, chat capability. This is not quite as handy as being able to offer chats directly through our own site, but it will at least let us get started without a lot of difficulty until we see what kind of interest there is in this concept.
We are thinking that we will start each chat with a short (perhaps 10 to 15 minutes) lecture on some aspect of Loyalist studies and then open the chat up to general conversation where folks can ask questions of us and also talk to one another to share research leads, make genealogy contacts, etc.
We would welcome questions and discussion on any of the topics that we cover on the site -- military research and history, genealogy or living history of the AWI. From time to time, we will also try to schedule special guests for the lecture portion of the chat.
The first chat will be held on June 14th at 8 p.m. Eastern time (9 Atlantic, 7 Central, 6 Mountain, 5 Pacific) and, following that, once a month on the second Wednesday of each month. We will plan for the chat to last roughly one hour, but we can be somewhat flexible on time.
You will not need any special software in order to attend the chats, although you will need a reasonably current version of your browser software. Prior to the 14th, we will put detailed instructions on the site on how to access the chat room and the minimum browser requirements. Once that page is up and running, we'll send a special mailing to all of our Loyalist Notes subscribers with a link to the page and an announcement of the first lecture topic.
We are very excited about this new venture and hope to see you on June 14!
Other Tidbits
We are also pleased to announce that New Brunswick Genealogy Links, the official links site of the New Brunswick GenWeb, has named us its Resource Site of the Month. Mr. C. Todd Gilbert, owner of the NB Gen Links site, was kind enough to say:
As you may tell from my site, I quite enjoy the one stop approach to information and yours is just that for Loyalist info. I have yet to dive into my Loyalist connections but it's easy to see how vital a resource your site is for those digging into their "red" roots.
On a somewhat related note, some kind soul has submitted our site to the Your Guide to Genealogy (Regional: Canada) directory, which ranks websites based on the ratings assigned by visitors.
Right now, there have been (most coincidentally!!) two votes submitted for us. If you would like to rate our site, which we would most appreciate, you can do that at: http://genbooks.hypermart.net/cgi-bin/links/rate.cgi?ID=699.
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