North Carolinians join the first battle

It was 250 years ago this week that North Carolinians fought in their first formal battle for American independence. But they didn’t fight it in North Carolina — and they didn’t fight British redcoats.

As of late 1775, the Continental Army under George Washington was still besieging the primary British army up in Boston. Other American troops had invaded Canada, entering Montreal on Nov. 13 and moving on to the main prize of Quebec City.

Here in North Carolina, Patriot leaders were still organizing their militia and preparing for a rumored British invasion of the Southern colonies. Loyalists were doing the same. Indeed, the British strategy depended on it. The idea was for General Henry Clinton to abandon Boston in early 1776 and sail south to Wilmington, where he’d be joined by a reinforcing fleet from Britain and thousands of Loyalist recruits. The combined force would reassert the authority of Gov. Josiah Martin over North Carolina and then sail south to capture the key prize of Charleston.

Neither the American invasion of Canada nor the British invasion of the Carolinas would succeed. Those are stories for another day, however. What erupted 250 years ago this week was a battle between Patriot and Loyalist militiamen, not regulars, at a place in the South Carolina backcountry called Ninety Six.

The origin of its colorful name is shrouded in legend. The most popular explanation is that it began as a trading post about 96 miles from the Cherokee town of Keowee. One version of the tale is that a Cherokee woman named Issaqueena once rode the entire distance on a horse to warn the traders of an impending attack.

By November 1775, it was a small courthouse town that anchored South Carolina’s Ninety Six Militia District. When its commander, Major Andrew Williamson, learned that some 1,900 Loyalist militiamen were converging on the town, he ordered his men to start building a rude fortification in a field abutting the settlement.

On Nov. 18, the Loyalists arrived in Ninety Six and immediately occupied the town, converting its small jailhouse into their stronghold. Williamson’s men completed their own fort, made of fence rails, and placed their “artillery” — three small swivel guns — at its corners. The Patriots were also reinforced by additional companies of backcountry militia, including at least eight that crossed the border from North Carolina. One of them was led by 30-year-old Captain John Worke of Rowan County, my 5th-great grandfather.

The battle began in earnest on Nov. 19, with Patriots and Loyalists trading fire with “rifles and muskets, from behind houses, trees, logs, stumps, and fences,” according to one participant. A South Carolinian named James Birmingham fell mortally wounded, becoming the first Carolinian to give his life for the Revolution. That the bullet that killed him was fired by a fellow Carolinian underlines an essential truth: for many Americans, the conflict was more of a civil war than a defense against foreign invasion.

By Nov. 21, Williamson’s men were running low on ammunition. As for the Tories, they feared that Patriot reinforcements were headed to Ninety Six. So, the two sides negotiated a truce. The Loyalists agreed to pull back across a nearby river, allowing the Patriots to withdraw in good order from the town. According to my friend JD Lewis, whose Carolana.com site is an indispensable resource for researching the Carolinas’ role in the American Revolution, the Loyalists suffered 72 casualties (killed and wounded) at Ninety Six while the Patriot defenders suffered 13.

This was only the first Battle of Ninety Six, I hasten to add. In 1781, it was an American army, under General Nathaniel Greene, attacking a British-held fortification at Ninety Six. Again the defenders prevailed, with Greene retreating toward Charlotte. But the British soon abandoned Ninety Six as their position in South Carolina became increasingly precarious.

As for my ancestor John Worke, he returned home to what is now Mooresville, North Carolina. He’d also fight again — this time against redcoats.

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy and American history.