Being the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War, I thought I’d post a tidbit of my family’s history for my Mitchell kinfolks (my grandmother Drake’s people). This is a story that needs to be passed on in the family!

We are descended from Margaret Caldwell Richey, the sister of John C. Calhoun’s mother (Martha Caldwell Calhoun) of Newberry and Abbeville Counties in South Carolina. The Caldwell family was a prominent Scotch-Irish patriot (or Whig as they called themselves) planter family in the old Ninety Six District, and many of them served in the American Revolution. They had moved there down the Great Wagon Road from Virginia well before the Revolutionary conflict began. Our uncle, John Caldwell (the namesake of Senator, Secretary of War, and Vice President, John Caldwell Calhoun), is the subject of this story.

In 1776, John Caldwell was a representative of the Ninety Six District at the colonial SC Assembly in Charleston. He was also a Captain in the 3rd SC Colonial Militia and was a commander at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island (remember Ft. Moultrie and Carolina Day) which was the first defeat of the British in the Southern colonies (June 28, 1776). At this battle he fought valiantly along with his men, including one soldier under his command, William Cunningham.

William Cunningham, also from a prominent planter family in Ninety Six District, got the idea that he should have been given a promotion for his superior performance in that battle, but the promotion was denied because he was hot-headed and very quick to anger (as were the majority of the Scotch-Irish). As a result, he decided to raise a mutiny among the troops, for which Capt. Caldwell ordered that he should be flogged in front of the troops and sent to serve in Florida.

While in Florida, William Cunningham’s elderly Tory father was put out of his house, and his invalid brother was beaten to death by Whigs. Immediately following this incident (in 1781), he walked back to South Carolina, became an officer in the Tory militia, and was thereafter known as “Bloody Bill” Cunningham…the most ruthless and bloodthirsty commander of Tory militia troops in SC.

He was known for seeking out Whigs who had served with him and then taking revenge on them and their families, often killing entire families, along with their animals, and burning their houses, barns, and crops. Infants often were killed by “braining”…holding them by the feet and smashing their heads open on the nearest tree…Indian fashion. This civil war in the SC Backcountry was incalculably cruel and his revenge was ruthless and complete.

He soon sought out and found his old friend, neighbor, and commander, John Caldwell, who lived not too far from the current town of Newberry, SC. That morning on the Caldwell farm is one that has been recounted now for over 200 years. Bloody Bill and his men found Captain Caldwell in his peach orchard where he was immediately killed and hacked to pieces with a saber. Cunningham then went to the plantation house where he met with some resistance from Caldwell’s teenage son. He was cut to bits in front of his mother, and then the house and all others buildings were set ablaze. The women were not murdered, and survived to tell of the brutality they faced that day in 1781.

Before nightfall, our grandmother (my 5th great grandmother), Margaret Caldwell went to the peach orchard and brought her brother’s head and hands back to the ruined site of the homeplace in her apron so the hogs would not eat them. I assume the rest of his body, not consumed by hogs, was buried the next day.

This is just one of our family stories that illustrates what our forebears endured to secure the independence of this nation. Never forget what was sacrificed in order to win and ensure your freedom, and let the name of our uncle John Caldwell be passed on for generations to come.

Tim Drake, Author