North Carolina's Piedmont

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Anson County, NC is located in North Carolina's Piedmont region.  The Piedmont is a broad, upland plateau lying between the coast and the Appalachians far to the west. It is usually considered to start at the "fall line"—the point at which the numerous rivers drop suddenly in waterfalls or rapids from the plateau to the coastal plain. Because this once represented the limit of waterborne traffic upstream—and because of the opportunities for exploiting the rivers for power at this point—the fall line developed into a densely settled region of prosperous towns and cities.

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It's no accident that the state's capital, Raleigh, is located in this region.This Piedmont area attracted very different settlers than had populated North Carolina’s Coastal regions.  The reason lies in the origins of North Carolina’s 18th-century (1700s) newcomers.  The English who had largely settled along the colony’s coast in the colony’s earliest days did not need to move inland.  However, those who arrived later had to go further inland.  These new settlers included:South Carolinians moved north into the Lower Cape Fear region to establish pine plantations with African slave labor.  And, as land grew scarce in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia after 1730, migrants trekked down the Great Wagon road (at the eastern foot of North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains).  This path began near Philadelphia and extended southwestward to the Shenandoah Valley before veering east into the North and South Carolina Piedmont.These newcomers (settling primarily in the Piedmont) included a variety of ethnic and religious groups, including Quakers, German Lutherans, German Moravians, and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and Baptists. They contrasted with the mostly English and African coastal areas and, in fact, had little contact with those areas. The rivers of the Piedmont flowed into the South Carolina colony and that is the route commerce and communication followed as well. By the end of the eighteenth century, residents of Piedmont North Carolina had more contacts with Pennsylvania than they did with the coastal district of their own colony.

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Aaron Weaver's parents & birthplace

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Aaron Weaver was probably born around 1691 because he was about 90 years old when killed during the Revolution about 1781. Since he is at this time thought to be the son of Jonathan and grandson of William Weaver he would probably have been born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania 
because William was living there at that time.Aaron was a sympathizer with the American side and his son Othniel was a minister and shoemaker for Elijah Clark's American troops. He and 
his wife Hannah Jane Weaver were murdered in their home by Tories under the command of "Bloody Bill Cunningham".Since he was killed at the age of 90 and William was not living in 
South Carolina in the 1690, Aaron was probably born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

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The Little Saludy River

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South Carolina's Little Saludy River (now called the Little Saluda RIver) is one of four tributaries to the larger Salude River system.  The Salude River flows southeasterly on a diagonal course across the state from its head above Greenville, SC. At Columbia, the Salude joins th Broad River to form the Congaree which continues southeasterly and exits Lake Marion as the Santee River.  The Santee empties north of Chalreston, SC.  

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The Little Saluda River upon which Aaron Weaver was granted 150 acres ~1772, is the Salude River's southern most tributary.  The Little Saluda is formed at the town of Saluda by the confluence of Mine Creek (adjacent to which Aaron Weaver sold 50 acres of his Little Saludy acreage to John Douglass on 3 Jan 1776) and Red Bank Creek.  From these sources, the Little Saulda flows south into Lake Murray in Saluda County.

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The Salude River is named after an Indian tribe that once lived along its banks near the community of Chappells, SC. According to the Geographic Names Information System, the Saluda River has also been known as the:

Chickawa

Corn River

Saludy River

Saluta River

Salutah River

Santee River

Seleuda River

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Clouds over Cloud's Creek

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Concuring with the assessment below, snakyhollow provided the following information:  Aaron Wever was slain by Tories at Mine Creek, along with a Sisson and Allen (meaning not at Clouds Creek, though the two attrocities by Bloody Bill  may have been closely related in time and place).  

 

Below is a version of the full story of the Cloud Creek Massacre that can be found at http://wateroakhill.com/JB/Cloud_Creek_Massacre.pdf

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Several family trees list Aaron and Hannah Jane Weaver’s place of death as Cloud’s Creek, SC and their date of death as that of the Cloud’s Creek Massacre (17 Nov 1781).  Based on the work referenced above and somewhat edited below, I do not believe Aaron's wife "Hannah Jane" was killed in the Cloud’s Creek Massacre.  Not one woman was mentioned as killed in that action.  In addition, a surviving “Jane Weaver” is found in Edgefield County, SC on the 1790 Census and in 1791, signed her X on a transaction involving the sale of land her husband Aaron Weaver had owned.  Further, because Aaron is supposed to have been a 90-year old man at his death, it is equally unlikely that he was included in the party of Patriots killed at Cloud's Creek Massacre.  The men killed in the Massacre had just returned from a raid on "Bloody Bill" Cunningham's men. Not many 90-year olds would have been an active participant.  It is somewhat possible that Aaron was one of a handful of locals who had joined the Patriots at the Leesville Tavern to celebrate after the raid.  Like the Patriots, these five or so were also killed the next morning by Bloody Bill Cun- ningham.  However, even this seems a bit of a stretch since Aaron's property on the Little Saludy River (Mine Creek specifically) was some 15+ miles away. It is however, still possible.  It is also possible that Aaron was a victim of Bloody Bill Cunningham's Tory raiding parties which were active in the area at the time of the Cloud's Creek Massacre.  The retelling below states that settlers ~6 miles east of Saluda, SC were terrorized just before the Massacre.  Mine Creek (the location of Aaron’s land) runs ~12 miles north from ~ mid-way between Leesville and Edgefield, SC through Saluda before joining Red Bank Creek to form the Little Saluda River tributary.  It is entirely possible Cummingham carried on to harry/murder Aaron at his homestead, either before or after the Cloud's Creek Massacre.  However, if "Hannah Jane", wife of Aaron Weaver is Jane Weaver listed in the 1790 Census and signatory on the 1791 sale of land formerly owned by Aaron Weaver, at least she was not killed by Bloody Bill and his Tory raiders.

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THE CLOUD’s CREEK MASSACRE

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(During the “Southern Campaign” of American Revolution) Captain Bill Cunningham, known as “Bloody Bill Cunningham”, left a record of bloody deeds and atrocities across South Carolina.  (A colonist), He was born not far from “Ninety-Six” (a pre-county designation), an area of South Carolina now in the present County of Abbeville. He had been a man of some promise and influence, and at the beginning of the Revolution had enlisted in a military unit made up of men from the region of Saluda, Little River and Mudlick Creek. He deserted the American cause in 1776, and became an active partisan leader on the British side.  As the leader of a band of Loyalist, he soon embarked on his campaign of terror.

 

Late in the war, Major William Cunningham launched a raid into the back country, crossed the Edisto River and made his way from the Edisto to the Saluda River with his various detach- ments.  Two of his parties, under a Captain Williams and Radcliffe, began plundering local settlers around an area six miles east of the town of Saluda.

 

A small band of patriots assembled and started in pursuit of Captain Ratcliffe and his party of Tories.  These patriots were drawn from Captain Sterling Turner’s militia. Smallwood Smith, Matthew Jones, 19-year old James Butler Jr, and others.  At the Saluda River, Butler swam the stream and brought over a canoe from the opposite side.  The group used this to cross the river and pursued the Tories into what is now Newberry County.  There were 21 men in the small body of Patriots under the command of Captain Sterling Turner.  Upon catching up with Ratcilffe’s band they successfully made a surprise attack.  Ratcliffe and several of his party were killed. The rest were scattered. Young Bulter must have had something to do with the death of Radcliffe as later events would prove.

 

After the encounter with Ratcliff, Captain Turner undertook to deal with the other of Cunning- ham’s units.  Captain Hezekiah Williams was still lurking in the area. Captain James Butler Sr was requested to head the small band, but declined in favor of Captain Turner, though Butler did offer his service as a volunteer. Butler Sr had only recently been released by the British after serving 18 months imprisonment in Charlestown.

 

On 16 Nov 1781, Turner’s command caught up with Captain Hezekiah Williams and his Tory unit at Tarrar’s Springs.  At the time, the site was in a dense forest. Williams and his band were camped, resting at Tarrar’s Spring.  The bold attack by Turner and his small band ended in a negotiated settlement. Captain Turner left the scene with cattle that the Tories had stolen and Captain Williams and his men were released.

 

Returning, Captain Turner and his group stopped at Cloud’s Creek for a little rest and refreshments.  They visited a tavern near the present town of Leesville run by a man also by the name of Turner.  The men were tired, but jubilant and wanted to celebrate their victory.  Against the advice of Captain James Butler (Sr), the Patriot group failed to take some necessary precautions.  “Bloody Bill” Cunningham was on their trail, not with a small band, but with a sizable fighting unit of 300 men.

 

Captain Turner’s Whigs spent that night resting and celebrating.  They killed a beef and apparently had no worries.  At dawn the next day, 17 Nov 1781, they found themselves surrounded and at the mercy of the enemy.  It was then evident that the band of Tories attacked at Tarrar’s Spring the previous day was part of Cunningham’s command.  Cunningham had caught the Whigs off guard.  Turner’s command consisted of only 21 men and himself.  Apparently, there were some locals who had joined in the night of “refreshments” and celebration.  One of these was probably young Benjamin Hughes—just a “boy” of 22 at the time.  He (and seemingly the elderly Aaron Weaver??) was not on any official roster of the unit, but certainly appears to have been among those surrounded by Cunningham’s men.

 

The Patriots took refuge in the unfinished log house of a Mr. Carter on whose land the house stood and attempted to parley with the Tories.  Cunningham demanded an unconditional surrender.  Cunningham and Captain Butler (Sr) knew each other having served together in the Indian Wars.  Cunningham agreed to talk and Butler sent a prisoner who had been taken and was being held to carry the message. The prisoner, by the name of Kuffman (later Caughmen), told Cunningham how the small unit had been the one that had killed Ratcliffe’s party of british.  Radcliffe had been a friend of Cunningham’s.  Captain Butler’s son, Butler Jr, “Jim”, apparently had joined his father that morning upon hearing that Cunningham’s larger force was in the area, the young Butler having had a major part in the killing of Radcliffe.  When Cunningham learned that Butler Jr was in the party he declined to consider any further negotiation.  Captain Butler unselfishly offered himself as a hostage for his son, but without avail.  Young Butler decided to go down fighting and grabbing a rifle, killed a leading Tory named Stewart.  The fight was on.

 

The only protection the brave band of Patriots had was the shelter of a man named Carter’s newly constructed log house, without doors of shutters on the windows. Young Butler was killed while he was reloading to fire again.  With the death of Jim Butler, and realizing the hopelessness of their situation, and running out of ammunition, the small band surrendered. The struggle had lasted an hour.  Several had been killed, and those who had not were lined up and then heard Cunningham’s order to exterminate them.  Captain Butler then seized a pitchfork, and was using it effectively until his right hand was severed by a sabre stroke.  The survivors were then brutally murdered, 28 in all.  (Since the original group had been 22 plus the addition of Young Butler, at least five of the massacred were local citizens.)

 

A few of the names of Turner’s men have been forgotten, but we know the identities of most of them and the nature of their fate.  James Butler Jr, Smallwood Smith and Matthew Jones were killed before the battle actually started.  Nathaniel (Nat) Corley was shot down while attempting to make a run for his horse after he was captured. Sterling Turner, James Butler Sr, Burdit Escridge, Benjamin Bell, William Scissom, John Bland, Gideon Nicholson, Peter Foy, Berryman Bledsoe and a man by the name of Sullivan were all apparently massacred by the Tories after the battle.  Two men were reported spared through the intercession of friends in Cunningham’s band.  Benjamin Hughes was the only man to successfully escape.  It was told that he concealed himself among the cattle, gained the cover of a fallen tree. While Nat Corley cut his way through the Tories, Hughes ran with him.  As Corley was shot, Hughes jumped in a pen with a large gang of cattle.  The cattle, probably those taken from Ratcliff, broke out of the pen and ran off.  Hughes ran with them til he got to a swamp and was there able to hide and escape.  He was the only one who survived to tell the fate of the band of Patriots.

 

Hoping to capture another of James Butler’s sons, William Butler, a Captain of Patriot Rangers, Cunningham left a detachment of Tories to meet any party that might be sent to bury the victims.  Luckily, William Butler was too far from the scene to reach it in time.  But, Elizabeth Butler (15), another of Captain Butler’s children, rode a horse to the scene that night but found none breathing.  When she realized she could render no assistance, she returned home.  Mrs. Smith, the wife of Smallwood Smith (and sister of Captain James Butler Sr), and other women, relatives of the fallen, buried the bodies, aided by their servants.  Captain Butler’s 17-year old daughter, Nancy, accompanied her Aunt, Mrs. Smith, to the tragic scene to bury the dead and to identify her father and brother.  Captain Butler’s negro named Marmaduke came to help bury the dead only to be compelled by a ragged Tory to stand by as his master’s clothes were stripped from his dead body so the Tory could dress in the bloodstained clothing.  James Butler Sr and Jr were buried in separate graves while the other victims were buried in a large mass grave.  There are three markers, placed at different times by different commemorative organizations:  The Lexington Genealogical Exchange Magazine; The Star Fort Chapter of the DAR and the Lexington County Historical Society.

 

As far as history shows, Cunningham was never captured and it is believed that he escaped after the war to Cuba.  He is believed to have died there.  Benjamin Hughes died in Georgia at the age of 101.   When asked if he knew the Butler family he answered “Yes, I knew them well.  I was the only boy left when Bloody Bill Cunningham killed Captain Butler and his men; I sprang under a brush heap covered with gourd vines and saw them kill him in cold blood”.

 

 ** Note:  Apparently Benjamin Hughes was not a soldier as such in the American Revolution.   Surely his name would have appeared on a pension list or as a living veteran on a census record. Benjamin was 91 in the 1850 Census of Coweta County, SC, meaning he was born about 1759. That means Benjamin was about 22 when the events took place at Cloud’s Creek. When asked if he knew the Butler Family, Benjamin referred to himself as “the only boy left”.  At 22, he would hardly have been called a boy.  Although no official records have been found at this time that Benjamin Hughes was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, he would certainly be considered a patriot.  As to whether the evidence would be sufficient to qualify one of the DAR, I don’t Know.  Many members of the DAR are admitted because of an ancestor being a Patriot.  I would think that the chances are good that Benjamin Hughes would qualify ** HRC

 

 

Harold R. Coffman

31 Jan 1989

 

Harold & Jane Coffman

721 Chaparral Trail

Cedar Hill, Texas 75104

214-291-4153

 

Sources:

 

SOUTHERN MESSENGER AND REVIEW by Wm Gillmore Simms, Sep 1846

Article entitled “THIRTY MEN IN ONE GRAVE STONE MARK SITE”, by Mildren H McLen (1946)

“DR W T BROOKER’S ACCOUNT, The Dispatch, 1 June 1901

DRAPER MANUSCRIPTS 6VV223-226;

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER by John A Chapman Sep 1846

“HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BATESBURY-LEESVILLE, SC” by Mrs. Bryan Watlington

“THE HISTORY OF SOUTHCAROLINA IN THE REVOLUTION” by Edward McGrady, 1780 – 1783

 

And a letter written by H Arthur Fort, dated 8 Oct 1874 (found in the Draper Manuscripts)

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Killed by Cornelius Cargill

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http://heritagefromthepast.blogspot.com/2014_07_01_archive.html

At the start of the American Revolution, Cornelius Cargill (also known as "Neil" or "Neely"), was a Whig or Patriot. But, like many of his family members, he crossed the line and became a Loyalist or Tory, in favor of England. His reason for changing political parties is unknown, but it was this turning point in his life that would result in his death.

 

During the later years of the American Revloution, in the early spring of 1781, Cornelius Cargill led his troops in South Carolina to assist the Tory Lt Col. John Cruger. Along the way they passed the home of a Patriot, Capt. Solomon Pope. Three of Pope's men were there (90-year old Aaron Wever, along with Joe Allen, and Fred Sissan/Sissom). Cornelius and his troops took those men as prisoners. It was at this time (22 May - 18 Jun 1781) that the Siege of Ninety-Six occured. Lt Col John Cruger's men were stationed at Star Fort, a Tory held fortress which was beseiged by American General Nathaniel Greene. (Months?) After the Tories were successfully relieved from Greene's seige by British Col Lord Rawdon, Cornelius and his men took their three prisoners to a swamp at nearby Mine Creek and put them to death. The seige was relieved on 18 Jun 1781; while Aaron was killed on 11 Nov 1781... Considering the inconsistency in these dates, perhaps, after the seige--and unrelated to it, other than just to kill Patriots--Cruger had the three captives killed). 

 

Col. Pope took immediate retaliation and hunted down Cornelius and his troops.  A fight pursued at the fork of Cloud's Creek and Little Saluda. The Patriots killed Cornelius and all of his men except for one:  Henry Ethridge. It has been said that many of these men died even though they had surrendered.

 

Cornelius died at the age of thirty-five leaving his wife to raise their three young children alone. He did not have a Last Will but estate records have been located.

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Siege of Ninety-Six

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According to the Cargill family website, Aaron Weaver, Joe Allen, and Fred Sissan were killed by Patriot turned Tory, Cornelius Cargill, consequent to the Tories being Seiged at/in South Carolina's Ninety-Six.  Below is Wikipedia's overview of that battle and outcome.

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From May 22 to June 18, 1781, Major General Nathanael Greene of the American Continental Army led 1,000 troops in a siege against the 550 Loyalists in the fortified village of Ninety Six, South Carolina. The 28-day siege centered on an earthen fortification known as Star Fort. Despite having more troops, Greene was unsuccessful in taking the town, and was forced to lift the siege when Lord Rawdon approached from Charleston with British troops. 

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In March 1781, the British Army's "southern strategy" for winning the American Revolutionary War, (which had been successful in taking Charleston and winning submission of much of South Carolina and Georgia), hit a stumbling block. General Lord Cornwallis had defeated Continental Army General Nathanael Greene at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in Greensboro, North Carolina, though Cornwallis had suffered significant casualties and subsequently moved his army to Wilmington, North Carolina. Greene--whose army was still largely intact after that battle--took advantage of Cornwallis' move to march into South Carolina and begin operations to eliminate the British from that state.

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With the assistance of militia commanders Thomas Sumter, Francis Marion, and Andrew Pickens, the Patriot forces took a number of British outposts in the backcountry of South Carolina; others were abandoned to them. By mid-May, the only places in the state with significant British garrisons were Ninety Six, in the northwestern part of the state, and the port of Charleston, nearly 200 miles southeast on the Atlantic coast.

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The British outpost at Ninety Six was garrisoned by 550 experienced Loyalists, such as De Lancey's Brigade, formed into Provincial regiments (regular army troops who had been recruited from Loyalists in New York, New Jersey, and South Carolina) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Cruger. Occupied by the British since 1780, the defenses consisted of a palisade surrounded by a deep ditch and abatis (felled trees with sharpened branches facing out). A large redoubt called the Star Fort provided a place for defenders to enfilade attackers on two of the stockade walls, and a smaller redoubt provided similar cover for the remaining walls and the water supply. Cruger had three small (three pound) field pieces.

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Greene and about 1,000 men arrived outside Ninety Six on May 22, the same day that Andrew Pickens and Henry "Light-horse Harry" Lee began to besiege nearby Augusta, Georgia. Greene's men immediately began siege operations, targeting the Star Fort, under their chief engineer, Col. Thaddeus Kosciuszko of Poland. Cruger did what he could to interfere with the siege works, frequently sending out parties at night to harass the workers. In one notable incident, his forces drove the workers away and captured some of their digging tools.

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By June 3, Greene's men had dug a trench within 30 yards of the Star Fort. They used a tactic similar to one used by Gen. Francis Marion to capture Fort Watson, whereby they constructed a wooden Maham Tower, about 30 feet tall, with a protected platform at the top. Under this elevated cover, American sharpshooters would have a clear firing line into the fort. At first, the crack snipers in the tower were able to pick off a number of Cruger's artillerymen. Cruger quickly countered by using sandbags to raise the height of his parapet, giving enough cover so his own marksmen could fire on the tower through slats between the bags. He also tried to set the tower on fire with heated shot, but was unable to get the balls hot enough. The attackers fired flaming arrows into the fort (a tactic that had worked when Patriots captured Fort Motte), in order to set anything flammable within the fort on fire. Cruger had work crews remove the roofs from the buildings in the fort to prevent them from burning.

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On June 7, Lord Rawdon left Charleston with 2,000 British forces to relieve the siege. The next day, Pickens and Lee arrived to support Greene (having successfully captured Augusta on June 6). Greene did not learn of Rawdon's move until June 11. With the situation becoming critical, Greene decided to try an assault on the fort. (Cruger learned of Rawdon's approach the next day when the messenger, posing as a Patriot, got close enough to the fort to race the remaining distance on his horse.)

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Greene planned to have one party capture the smaller redoubt, while a larger attack force went after the Star Fort, where some men would pull down the sandbags to expose the defenders to fire from the tower. When the attack began on June 18, all went to plan at first—the smaller redoubt was taken, and men successfully penetrated the abatis and pulled down the sandbags. At this point, Cruger launched a counterstrike with a pair of sorties to strike at the flanks of the attacking party. In a fierce battle dominated by bayonets and the use of muskets as clubs, the leaders of the attack were killed and their men forced to retreat back to their trenches. With the failure of the attack, and Rawdon only 30 miles (48 km) away, Greene called off the assault and ordered a retreat.

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Greene's losses amounted to 150 men, while Cruger's casualties were under 100. Greene retreated toward Charlotte, North Carolina, allowing Rawdon to join forces with Cruger. Rawdon sent a sizable force after Greene, but heat and the toll of the long forced marches slowed them. The force was recalled to Ninety Six, which Rawdon then abandoned.

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General Greene blamed the failure of the operations against Ninety Six in part on Sumter and Marion, who failed to act in support of his operations in a timely manner. Later, other officers blamed Greene and Lee for failing to cut off the defenders' water supply at the Spring Branch.

Writing in his memoirs, Lee singled out Col. Kosciuszko for much of the defeat. He believed the engineer began the first parallel too close to the Star Fort, as well as underestimating the lengthy amount of time his undermanned and ill-equipped sappers needed to excavate the rock-hard soil enough to make a trench to support the siege. Though these issues contributed to the failure of the operation as a whole, Greene commended Kosciuszko's efforts in carrying out his orders, noting that given more time, his chief engineer's plan may well have succeeded.

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When Greene learned of Rawdon's retreat from Ninety Six, he tried to pull all of the elements of the Patriot military forces together to attack Rawdon before he reached Charleston. He failed because of Sumter's and Marion's apparently tardy movements. Greene rested his men for most of July and August in the High Hills of the Santee before engaging the British again outside Charleston at Eutaw Springs on September 8, 1781, in the last major battle in the South.

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The Loyalists who were saved by Rawdon in the siege were resettled by the Crown in Nova Scotia. They named the township Rawdon, Nova Scotia, after Lord Rawdon to commemorate his rescuing them

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Weaver vs Wever

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From Snakyhollow:

Some researchers seems to think that, no matter what the spelling, are all Weaver spellings are Weavers. One has to realize where these names originated. At some point in history people only had one name, and if their trade was a potter, a cooper, or a Weaver, then that was the name that was added. Now, "Weavers" were not just residents of England. There were people who made clothes throughout Europe, and a Wever in Germany or Holland was not blood related to others who worked the same weaving trade. In other countries, they might have even been called webers, or wiebers, wivers. 

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That said, I am reasonably sure that Othniel, Aaron, and other in this family were Weavers, not Wevers. The saying that seems to have been carried forward by the Wevers, was "Wever as in Never, i.e., no 'a'".

 

Bits and pieces

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Colonel Ryden Grigsby, a brave soldier, died in 1825. He had represented the District in the Legislature. His daughter became the wife of Captain Jonathan Wever, a man of great wealth, who lived three or four miles north of where the town of Johnston now is. The only son of the marriage was the somewhat celebrated John R. Wever. He became brigadier-general of militia and a member of the Legislature. He was a man of free and easy manners and lavish in the use of his money. He was wealthy and lived as though he was seized, and possessed of the River Pactolus, the waters of which flowed full of gold, and the sands at the bottom were not common sands but diamonds and gold dust and silver.    

 

Rhyden  Grigsby's daughter was Rosa, and she died after giving birth to Jonathan's son John Rhyden Wever, being about 20 years of age.

 

 

The information I have found on Aaron Wever shows he received a land grant for a couple hundred acres in the Mine Creek area, at the same location he was slain, also the same location that Jonathan Wever lived.  Coincidence, I think not.  I can find nothing to think he was slain at Clouds Creek.  And his wife was Jane Douglass whose family also came from Virginia, same as his family.  I believe Jehue and Dempsey Wever were his sons also.

 

I have found nothing to prove Jonathan Wever came from North Carolina.  There were other Jonathan Weaver's in North Carolina and from what I found, they died there. There are several Weaver/Wever's in the South Carolina archives going back to a George Weaver in 1700.  Others are Thomas Weaver, Henry Weaver, and Robert.  Anyone of them could have been Aaron's father.

 

After Cruger left Ninety-Six, while passing down the country, he permitted Carghill's men to visit their homes, and they on their way passed the house of Captain Solomon Pope, where they found three of Pope's men, Aaron Wever, Joe Allen, and Fred Sissan, whom they made prisoners. Having no place of confinement after the loss of Ninety-Six, they took them into a swamp near by on Mine Creek and put them to death. Captain Pope immediately called his company together, hastened to Mount Willing and called on Captain Butler for assistance. With their united forces they met the troops under Carghill in the fork of Cloud's Creek and Little Saluda, where a bloody fight ensued, in which Carghill's men were completely exterminated. It is said that about half of them were killed after they had surrendered, so great was the exasperation of the Whigs at their conduct in murdering Pope's men a short time before. Only one man was left alive, Henry Etheredge, and he was saved by the interposition of Clark Spraggins, they being closely connected by marriage. Henry Etheredge lived to be over four-score years of age and died on Little Saluda in November, 1840. Captain Mike Watson followed the retreating Cruger as far as Orangeburg, where, or near which place, he was killed by the Tories in a severe skirmish. After his death Bud Eskridge, a brave but rather rash man, was placed in command.

 

 

Another version of Clouds Creek Massacre

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FROM LEXINGTON COUNTY SC HISTORY WEBSITE

POSTED Saturday, November 23, 2013

 

Massacre at Clouds Creek

 

What: Revolutionary War Skirmish
Where: Clouds Creek - SC Hwy 391 above Leesville near the Lexington-Saluda County line
Who: Major William "Bloody Bill" Cunningham, Captain Stirling Turner, Captain James Butler, James Butler Jr.
When: 17 November 1781

Events: After allowing Col. Williams and his loyalists to leave Edgefield County, Capt. Stirling Turner camped at Clouds Creek against the advice of Capt. James Butler.  It had rained so hard and long that their guns were unable to fire. Capt. Turner went to Mr Carter's cabin in hopes of getting food and a place to dry out their guns.

Major Cunningham found out that they were occupying the cabin and struck at daybreak. The Patriots returned fire, but, seeing they were losing, asked for terms of surrender. Cunningham asked for the names of the men in the cabin. Upon learning that James Butler Jr. was in the house, he refused to grant any terms excluding Butler from execution, thinking he was the same Butler who had killed Capt Radcliffe.

Capt James Butler Sr. offered himself for his son, but James Butler Jr ended all discussion by firing out of the cabin and killing a Tory.

The Patriots saw no hopes of victory and surrendered. Cunningham killed Turner, Butler, and all of the men with the exception of Benjamin Hughes and Bartlett Bledsoe. Butler's body was so cut up that his wife could only identify him by his Bible in his pocket.

Benjamin Hughes escaped when Mr. Carter's cattle became frightened and stampeded. He hid in some driftwood that had caught on a log across the creek. The Tories stabbed into the driftwood but didn't touch Hughes.

Bartlett Bledsoe came out of Carter's house hugging onto Benjamin Rabun. When Cunningham demanded their names, the men refused to tell. Benjamin Rabun's skull was split in two by a saber, but Bartlett Bledsoe was not killed. It was said that he was never right after that.

Major Cunningham stopped at Towles Blacksmith shop to have their horses shod. When Oliver Towles had finished, Cunningham killed Towles, his son and a Negro. Before leaving, he set fire to the blacksmith shop and all the buildings.