Returning to the Lancaster road at two o'clock, I rode on toward Camden, about thirty-five miles distant, passing on the way the celebrated Flat Rock, a mass of concrete, like that of Anvil Rock, five hundred yards across. It lies even with the surface of the ground, and presents numerous pits or cisterns, supposed to have been hollowed out by the Indians for the purpose of holding water. The road passed over this mass with a gentle descent. Near its southern side, the place was pointed out to me where a severe skirmish occurred in August, 1778, between some militia and Tories, but the result was not very sanguinary. At sunset I arrived at the house of Mrs. Fletcher, within nine miles of Rugeley's Mill, where I was well entertained for the night. ** I departed at sunrise the following morning. Being now fairly within the sandy region upon the slopes between the upper and the lower country, the traveling was very heavy. At the first house after leaving Mrs. Fletcher's, I saw Mr. Paine, the brother of Mrs. Lee, an intelligent old man of eighty-four years. During half an hour's conversation with him, I obtained some valuable information respecting the various historical localities between there and Camden. The first of these is Clermont, sometimes called Rageley's, about thirteen miles north of Camden, where I arrived at an early hour in the forenoon. This is the place where General Gates concentrated his army for an attack upon the British at Camden. The place is also memorable on account of a military event which occurred near Rugeley's Mill, on the fourth of December, 1780. This mill was about one hundred yards east of the road where it crosses Rugeley's Creek. No traces of the mill remain; but an embankment, several rods in extent, partly demolished, and overgrown with pines and shrubbery interlaced with the vines of the muscadine, mark the place of the dam, a part of which, where the creek passes through, is seen in the engraving. Let us consider the event which immortalizes this spot.
When Cornwallis retreated from Charlotte (see page
* I am informed by the Honorable David L. Swain, that the birth-place of General Jackson is in Mecklenburg eounty, North Carolina, just above the state line. It is about half a mile west of the Wuxhaw Creek, upon the estate of W. J. Cureton, Esq., twenty-eight miles south of Charlotte. A month or two after his birth, his mother removed to the southward of the state line, to a plantation about twelve miles north of Lancaster Court House. That plantation is also the property of Mr. Cureton. The house in which she resided when Tarleton penetrated the settlement is now demolished. So the honor of possessing the birthplace of that illustrious man belongs to North, and not to South Carolina, as has been supposed.
* The massacre of Buford's regiment fired the patriotism of young Andrew Jackson; and at the age of thirteen he entered the army, with his brother Robert, under Sumter. They were both made prisoners; but even while in the power of the British, the indomitable courage of the after man appeared in the boy. When ordered to clean the muddy boots of a British officer, he proudly refused, and for his temerity received a sword-cut. After their release, Andrew and his brother returned to the Waxhaw settlement with their mother. That patriotic mother and two sons perished during the war. Her son Hugh was slain in battle, and Robert died of a wound which he received from a British officer while he was prisoner, because, like Andrew, he refused to do menial service. The heroic mother, while on her way home from Charleston, whither she went to carry some necessaries to her friends and relations on board a prison-ship, was seized with prison-fever, and died. Her unknown grave is somewhere between what was then called the Quarter House and Charleston. Andrew was left the sole survivor of the family.—See Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, p. 199.
** There I saw Mrs. Lee, the step-mother of Mrs. Fletcher, who was then ninety-two years of age. She lived near Camden during the war, but was so afflicted with palsy when I saw her, that she could talk only with great difficulty, and I could not procure from her any tradition of interest. Mrs. Lee had buried five husbands.
Tories at Rugeley's.—Stratagem of Colonel Washington in capturing the Tories.—Gum Swamp.—Sander's Creek
626), Gates advanced to that place, and General Smallwood was directed to encamp lower down the Catawba, on the road to Camden. Morgan, with his light corps, composed partly of Lieutenant-colonel Washington's cavalry, was ordered to push further in advance, for the purpose of foraging, and to watch the movements of Cornwallis.
