It is fitting, in this connection, to
speak of the character of these Loyalists, here arrayed on King's Mountain, and
about to engage in a memorable conflict against their common country—for they
were all, or nearly all, save Ferguson himself, natives of the Colonies. Now
that Dunlap was separated from them, Ferguson's corps of Rangers seem to have
been quite as unobjectionable a class of men as the temptations and
unrestrained recklessness of war ordinarily permit the military to be; and,
though they had fled before Captain Hampton in their retreat from Earle's Ford
of North Pacolet, and had recoiled before the galling fire of Shelby and Clarke
near Cedar Spring, the summer preceding, yet they were experienced soldiers,
and were by many accounted as brave and reliable as any British troops in
America.
But who were the Tories proper? They
were made up of different classes of citizens who sympathized with, or took up
arms for the King, and fought against their fellow-citizens who were bravely
contending for the liberties of their country. Those of them who remained after
the war, in their old localities, were sadly abused and villified as long as
they lived. They hardly dared to offer an apology for their conduct. They were
numerous in many of the States, and have left many descendants, not a few of
whom are among the most worthy and respected in the communities where they
reside ; yet none of them boast of their relationship to the Loyalists. It has
been the fashion to stigmatize the Tories without stint and without
discrimination, heaping all manner of reproaches upon them and their class
generally. The issue of the war, and the
general verdict of the Whigs, who had suffered not a little in the seven years'
conflict, seemed to justify these severe judgments. No one now supposes that he
would have been a Tory, had it been the will of Providence that he should have
been an actor in the scenes of the Revolution a century ago. As he reads the
history of the stirring events connected with the war, he concludes, that had
he been there, he would, as a matter of course, have been on the right side,
periling life and fortune at every hazard in the cause of freedom.
It is easy enough for us to imagine,
when we read of deeds of humanity, generosity, and noble daring, that we, too,
would have acted in a similar manner had we been in the same situation as those
persons were who performed them. Few know, till they are tried, what they would
do under certain circumstances. One's associations, surroundings, and
temptations oftentimes exert an overpowering influence. Let us judge even the
Tories with as much charity and leniency as we can. Some of them were cajoled
into the British service, and not a few forced into it under various pretenses
and intimidations.
Rev. James H. Saye, who has spent his
life of over seventy years in Georgia and South Carolina, and had much
intercourse with the survivors of the Revolution in his day, made the various
classes of Tories a special subject of study and inquiry, including the
influences that prompted their unhappy choice, and grouped them into six
principal divisions:
I. There were some men in the country
conscientiously opposed to war, and every sort of revolution which led to it,
or invoked its aid. They believed that they ought to be in subjection to the
powers that be; and hence they maintained their allegiance to the British
crown. The Quakers were of this class. They were then far more numerous in the
Carolinas than now. They were, religiously, non-combatants; and the weight of
their influence naturally fell on the wrong side.
2.
There were many persons who really knew nothing of the questions at
issue in the contest. The world has always been cursed with too large a stock of
men of this class, whose days are passed in profound ignorance of everything
which requires an exertion of intellect, yet often the most self-conceited
beings that wear the human form—perfect moles, delighting in nothing so much as
dirt and darkness. This class followed their cunning and intriguing leaders in
the Revolution, and were easily and naturally led into the camp of the
Loyalists.
3.
Another class thought the Government of George the Third too good to
exchange for an uncertainty. They practically said: "Let well enough alone;
a little tax on tea won't hurt us; and as for principles and doctrines, leave
them to the lawyers and parsons."
4. Another class thought that, however
desirable the right of self-government might be, it was then quite out of the
question, unless his most gracious Majesty might be pleased to grant it; and
they believed that the fleets and armies of Great Britain were perfectly
invincible, while defeat and utter ruin to all engaged in it must follow
rebellion against the King.
5.
There was another class who claimed no little credit for shrewdness and
management; who prided themselves on being genteel and philosophical. If they
ever had scruples of conscience, they amounted to very little; if any religious
principles, they imposed no self-denial, and forbade no sensual gratification.
If they had a spark of patriotism or love for their King, it could only be
kindled by fuel from the Government coffers. The needle is no truer to the pole
than were these people to the prospect of gain. War is usually a great distributor
of money; they wanted a liberal share, and wanted to acquire it easily. On the
fall of Charleston, when Sir Henry Clinton issued his proclamation, these
money-worshipers discovered in it a bow of promise. Pardon was offered to all rebels with one
exception; and that exception embraced many persons of large estates, and a
still greater number possessing comfortable means. Here the shadow of a golden
harvest flitted before their longing eyes. The excepted Whigs had property
enough to make many rich, if informed against by the zealous advocates of the
crown; or, if plundered and appropriated without taking the trouble of making
any report of the matter. Feelings of humanity and tenderness were not
cultivated or regarded—it was enough that the proscribed Whigs had
well-cultivated farms, negroes, horses, cattle, or other desirable property,
and that they had, in their estimation, justly forfeited all by rebelling
against the King and his Government. This class became the sycophants to Royal authority,
and the army of plunderers during the war; and once hardened in pillaging, they
soon became reckless of life and virtue.
6. There was yet another class which had
a large following among the Tories—a class, too, which either on account of its
numbers, industry, or general influence, gave character to a large portion of
the whole fraternity. When a Revolutionary soldier was asked, "What sort
of men were the Tories?" The almost invariable reply was, "A pack of
rogues." An eminent example of this class was found in the person of
Plundering Sam Brown, already described, a notorious robber years before the
war commenced; yet, like other men who had wealth or the means of acquiring it,
he had numerous friends and followers. He had the shrewdness to perceive that
the field was well suited to his tastes and habits; and accordingly rallied his
retainers, joined Ferguson, and for a time proved an efficient ally. Though he
had been an outlaw for many years, yet few brought to the Royal standard a
larger share of talent for cunning and inhumanity for the position assigned
him. He now enjoyed the liberty of plundering under the sanction of law and
authority, and of arresting, for the sake of reward, those who had long been
known as the stanch defenders of honesty and justice. The notorious Captain
David Fanning, Bloody Bill Bates, and Bloody Bill Cunningham were men of the
same infamous character—unfeeling, avaricious, revengeful, and bloody.
Here, then, were the conscientious class
of Loyalists; an ignorant class; an indifferent class; a cowardly class; a
covetous, money-making class; and a disappointed, roguish, revengeful class. It
must not be supposed that these characteristics were never combined. Several of
them had a natural affinity for each other, and were almost invariably found
united in the same person. The non-combatants, the cowards, and the indifferent
were not found among those arrayed on King's Mountain ; but Ferguson's force,
aside from the young men who had enlisted under his standard, and a few worthy
but misguided people, was largely made up of the worst characters which war
evolves from the dregs of mankind.
Lord willing,
in the next post, we’ll take a look at the character of the men who comprised
the Patriot forces arrayed against Ferguson.
Christ, not man, is King!
Dale
1) Lyman C. Draper, King’s Mountain and Its Heroes (Cincinnati, OH: Peter G. Thomson, 1881), p. 238-42.
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