“A camping spot for local British troops under Capt. Christian Huck’s command…..”
The Yorkville Enquirer reported on July 24, 1879 – “Mr. A.D. Holler has taken the contract for building a bridge over Fishing Creek at Williford’s Mill. His bid was $795.”
City Directories and History: The historic location of White’s Mill was a point of hot discussion between numerous historians until the 1980s, when the mill stones for the historic site were found near the corner of Strait Road and Auten Road in York County S.C. Up until that point, and without the expert documentation by the late Elmer O. Parker, others would have continued arguing that the location was in Chester County, S.C., near Lando. Through his work and in conjunction with the S.C. Dept. of Archives and History, York County historian Sam Thomas and WBF, this location may have gone without an historic marker for decades. (R&R note) Following is an excellent article on the history of the mill sites as used during the American Revolution.
At Charlotte, N.C., Gen. Nathanael Greene found his resources even scantier than he had expected. “Given scope to your imagination and form… as bad a picture as you can draw and still it will fall short of the real state of things.” He had 2,300 men on paper—950 of them Continentals, of whom 1,482 were preset and fit for duty, but only eight hundred were adequately equipped. The men were “in rags or literally naked, housed in makeshift shelters.”
NATHANIEL GREENE AND THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION by James Haw, SCHM, Vol. 109, #3, 2008
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WHITE’S MILL ON FISHING CREEK by Michael C. Scoggins
Until the twentieth century, the grist mill was perhaps the most important industry in the South Carolina upcountry. Harnessing the power of the numerous fast running creeks and rivers in the Piedmont, these mills provided the only effective means for converting grains like wheat, oats, and com into flour and meal. One of the most important grist mills in what is now York County during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was White’s Mill on Fishing Creek. Owned and operated by Hugh White, this mill was not only an important food processing center for people in the Fishing Creek community; it also played a small but important role in the American Revolution during the summer and fall of 1780. Hugh White settled on upper Fishing Creek during the period when present-day York County was claimed by North Carolina as part of Mecklenburg County. On October 23, 1763, White purchased 300 acres on the north side of Fishing Creek from Phillip Walker and his wife Jean for 20 pounds “proclamation money.” (Proclamation money was a colonial term for foreign money, generally Spanish silver reales, that was valued in each colony by a specific proclamation fixing the exchange rate in British pounds.) Phillip Walker, who was also a miller, had obtained several land grants on Fishing Creek in 1754 and 1755 and was already operating a substantial grist mill about six miles downstream, where the town of Lando is now located in Chester County. White’s Mill was in operation by September 1766, when Hugh White obtained a new Mecklenburg County land grant for 350 acres “on both sides Fishing Creek including the house and mill….” The mill and mill house were located very close to where modem Auten Road crosses the main branch of Fishing Creek in southern York County, not far from the Chester County line (which in those days was the border between North and South Carolina). During the colonial period White’s Mill was an important landmark for residents of Mecklenburg and later Tryon County, North Carolina, and following the boundary survey of 1772 it became part of the New Acquisition District of South Carolina. During the early years of the Revolution, Hugh White continued to grind flour and meal for the residents of Fishing Creek, but as far as we can tell he performed no active military service. The critical nature of grist mills in the backcountry made them “neutral ground” for both Whigs and Tories, as neither side could afford to interfere with operations so important to the livelihood of the backcountry. Following the capture of Charleston by British forces in May 1780, grist mills became pivotal to the success of the British occupation of the upstate. British soldiers and Loyalist militia made extensive use of local mills, where they would grind wheat and com for the use of the king’s troops. Some of this grain was voluntarily contributed by residents friendly to the British cause, but much of it was confiscated from the plantations of local Whigs or “rebels.”
In June and July of 1780, Phillip Walker’s mill on Fishing Creek became a frequent stop for the British Legion cavalry commanded by Captain Christian Huck, who was based at Rocky Mount on the Catawba River. Huck’s dragoons camped near Walker’s Mill (White’s Mill) several times during this period, processing grain seized from rebel plantations and taking it back to Rocky Mount. After Captain Huck was defeated and killed at Williamson’s Plantation on July 12, the area gained a brief reprieve from further incursions by British troops.
This situation changed drastically in August 1780. On August 16, the Continental Army under Major General Horatio Gates suffered a disastrous defeat near Camden at the hands of the British Army under Lieutenant General Charles, Earl Cornwallis. Contributing to Cornwallis’s victory over the Americans was the British Legion under its flamboyant commander, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton. Immediately following his success at Camden, Cornwallis learned that Brigadier General Thomas Sumter and his Whig militia brigade were marching up the west side of the Catawba River after having captured a British fort and supply train the day before. Cornwallis immediately dispatched Tarleton and his Legion, consisting of 350 cavalry and infantry, to cross the river and attack Sumter’s militia while the main army prepared to advance into North Carolina.
On the afternoon of August 18, Tarleton’s force surprised Sumter and his militia at the confluence of Fishing Creek and the Catawba River. Many of Sumter’s men were killed, wounded, or captured, while the others—including Sumter himself—were driven from the battlefield and dispersed. Confident that he had put an end to Sumter’s threat, Tarleton returned to Camden and rejoined Cornwallis’ army. In early September 1780, Cornwallis set out from Camden with four regiments of British Army regulars, three regiments of Provincial soldiers and Loyalist militia, a detachment of cavalry, four cannon, and fifty supply wagons, and began marching north toward Charlotte. Due to the scarcity of supplies and forage on the east side of the Wateree and Catawba Rivers, Cornwallis ordered Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton and the British Legion to cross the Wateree and march up the west side of the river, a course that would take them through the present-day counties of Fairfield, Chester and York. On September 14, Tarleton and his men arrived at White’s Mill in York County and made camp. After receiving orders that Cornwallis wished to see him, Tarleton left his men at the mill, crossed the river and rode into Cornwallis’ camp at Crawford’s Plantation in the Waxhaw community (in present-day Lancaster County). Having learned that Sumter’s men had regrouped and were now camped on McAlpine’s Creek, about twenty miles to the north, Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to bring his troops back cross the Catawba River at Blair’s Ford (better known as Land’s Ford) and proceed with all haste and finish Sumter off, once and for all. Tarleton left Cornwallis and returned to White’s Mill on the 16th. Two days later, an express rider rode into Cornwallis’ camp bringing news that Tarleton had fallen “dangerously ill of a Fever” and was still at White’s Mill. Clearly worried about his favorite cavalry officer, Cornwallis immediately dispatched his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant John Money, to ride to White’s Mill and report back on Tarleton’s condition. Money arrived at White’s Mill and found the express to be accurate. “Col0. Tarleton being exceeding ill, I staid at this Post to-day,” Money noted in his journal. Although Lieutenant Money never stated the exact nature of Tarleton’s fever, it seems likely that the colonel was suffering from yellow fever, not an uncommon affliction for soldiers who frequently crossed and re-crossed the swampy creeks and rivers of the South Carolina backcountry. Money returned to Cornwallis’ camp on the 20th and gave his report. Two days later, he was back at White’s Mill with orders from his Lordship to move Tarleton if at all possible. The earl had received intelligence that some 700 North Carolina militia, under the command of Major General Jethro Sumner and Brigadier General William Lee Davidson, were lying between Charlotte and Sumter’s camp. “Their intention was to endeavor to surprise the Legion if possible,” Money reported. Arriving at White’s Mill at two o’clock in the afternoon, Money found that the Legion troops had received their own intelligence that Sumter planned to cross the Catawba that evening. “Tarleton was so dangerously ill, as to render his Removal impossible, with any degree of safety,” Money wrote. Due to the hilly and wooded nature of the terrain and the close proximity of the creek, the cavalry were in no position to act if attacked by the Whigs, so those dragoons who were equipped with carbines were dismounted and posted in the woods, “and every other Precaution taken to strengthen the Post & prevent a Surprise.” The expected attack by the Whigs did not come, and the next day, Saturday, September 23, Tarleton had recovered sufficiently from his fever to be transported across the Catawba at Blair’s Ford and safely sequestered in the Blair family’s house. The Legion also crossed at Blair’s Ford and rejoined Cornwallis’ army. On Sunday, the 24th, the British army broke camp at Crawford’s and began its march towards Charlotte. The North Carolina militia fell back before the British, while Sumter’s men crossed the Catawba at Biggers’ Ferry on the 26 , where they had a brief exchange of gunfire with British troops on the opposite side of the river. That same day Cornwallis’ army arrived at Charlotte. A small group of Whig riflemen under Colonel William R. Davie managed to hold up Cornwallis’ advance for twenty minutes, but were then forced to retreat in the face of the overwhelming British numbers. Cornwallis occupied Charlotte until after Major Patrick Ferguson’s defeat at the Battle of Kings Mountain in October, following which he withdrew to Winnsboro for the rest of the winter.
Although Tarleton was physically present at the Battle of Charlotte, he had still not sufficiently recovered from his illness to lead his men in the attack, and that job fell to his second-in-command, Major George Hanger. Tarleton was soon well enough to take the field again, but his brief illness at White’s Mill in September 1780 kept him out of the saddle during a critical period when he might otherwise have once again attacked and quite possibly destroyed Sumter’s militia brigade.
Hugh White went on to serve as a wagoner and militia captain in Sumter’s Brigade in late 1780 and early 1781, and not unexpectedly he provided significant quantities of wheat flour and oat meal to Sumter’s men during the same period. Following the end of the war, in 1784 White purchased Phillip Walker’s mill in Chester County, which also became known as “White’s Mill,” creating confusion for some modem historians between White’s Mill on Fishing Creek in York County and White’s Mill on Fishing Creek in Chester County.
In the 1830s and 1840s, many local Revolutionary War veterans reported in their memoirs and pension applications that Captain Huck of the British Legion camped at “White’s Mill in Chester District” during June and July of 1780. Unfortunately by the time these statements were recorded most people had forgotten that the lower Fishing Creek mill was known as Walker’s Mill during the Revolution, causing some historians to incorrectly assume that Huck must have camped at White’s Mill in Chester County. There is no historical evidence that Captain Huck ever visited White’s Mill in York County, and conversely there is no evidence that Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton ever visited Walker’s (or White’s) Mill in Chester County.
(Information courtesy of and from: YCGHS – The Quarterly Magazine – March 09)
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