** So certain was Gates of defeating Cornwallis, that when Marion departed, he instructed him to destroy all the boats, flats, and scows, which might be used by the British in their flight.
*** Rebecca Brewton was the daughter of an English gentleman. She married Jacob Motte, a planter, in 1758, and was the mother of six children. General Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, married in succession her two eldest daughters; the third married Colonel William Alston, of Charleston. Her other three children did not live to reach maturity. Mrs. Motte died in 1815, at her plantation on the Santee. The portrait here given is copied, by permission of the author, from Mrs. Ellet's Women of the-Revolution. The original is in the possession of Mrs. Motte's descendants.
American Battery.—Siege of Fort Motte.—Lee's Expedient.—Patriotism of Mrs. Motte.
ton which he planted the six-pounder, in a position to rake the northern face of the parapet of the fort, against which Lee prepared to approach. M'Pherson had no artillery, and his safety depended upon timely extraneous aid, either from Camden or Ninety-Six.
Between the height on which Lee was posted and Fort Motte is a narrow vale, which allowed the assailants to approach within four hundred yards of the fort. From that vale they began to advance by a parallel, which, by the assistance of some negroes from neighboring plantations, was sufficiently advanced by the tenthMay 1781 to warrant the Americans demanding a surrender. A flag was accordingly dispatched, with a formal summons, but M'Pherson gallantly refused compliance. That evening, intelligence of Rawdon's retreat from Camden toward Nelson's Ferry was communicated to the Americans, and in the course of the night a courier from Greene confirmed the report. Delay would be dangerous, for Rawdon, with his superior force, could easily repulse them. Early on the morning of the eleventh, the light of his beacon-fires were seen on the high hills of Santee, and that night their gloamings upon the highest ground of the country, opposite Fort Motte, gave great joy to the beleagured garrison. To batter down the enemy's works with the field-piece, or to approach by a trench, was too slow for the exigency of the case. The fertile mind of Lee, full of expedients, suggested a quicker plan for dislodging the garrison. The mansion of Mrs. Motte, in the center of the enemy's works, was covered with shingles, now very dry, for no rain had fallen for several days, and the rays of the sun were powerful. To communicate fire to this mansion was Lee's expedient. That officer had enjoyed the hospitality of Mrs. Motte during the siege, and her only marriageable daughter was then the wife of his friend, Major Thomas Pinckney. These circumstances made it a painful duty for him to propose the destruction of her property. Her cheerful acquiescence, and even patriotic desire to be able to serve her country by such a sacrifice, gave him joy; and, communicating his plan to Marion, they hastened to execute it. It was proposed to hurl ignited combustibles upon the roof of the house, by arrows. These were prepared, when Mrs. Motte, observing their inferiority, brought out a fine bow and a bundle of arrows which had been brought from the East Indies, and presented them to Lee. On the morning of the twelfth,May 1781 Lee sent Dr. Irvine, of his cavalry, with a flag, to state truly the relative positions of the belligerents; that Rawdon had not yet crossed the Santee, and that immediate surrender would save many lives. M'Pherson still refused compliance; and at meridian, when the ditch was advanced within bow-shot of the fort, several arrows from the hand of Nathan Savage, a private in Marion's brigade, winged their way, with lighted torches, toward the house. Two struck the dry shingles, and instantly a bright flame crept along the roof. Soldiers were ordered up to knock off the shingles and put out the fire, when one or two shots from Marion's battery, raking the loft, drove them below. M'Pherson hung out a white flag, the firing ceased, the flames were extinguished, and at one o'clock the garrison surrendered themselves prisoners of war. By invitation of Mrs. Motte, both the victorious and the captive officers partook of a sumptuous dinner from her table, while she presided with all the coolness and easy politeness for which she was remarkable when surrounded by friends in the enjoyment of peace. *
* Lee's Memoirs, 229-32. Simm's Life of Marion, page 236, 239. In this siege Marion lost two of his brave men, Sergeant M'Donald and Lieutenant Cruger. The British did not lose a man killed, and the prisoners were all paroled. Colonel Horry, in his narrative, mentions some pleasing incidents which occurred at the table of Mrs. Motte on this occasion. Among the prisoners was Captain Ferguson, an officer of considerable reputation. Finding himself near Horry, Ferguson said, "You are Colonel Horry, I presume, sir." Horry replied in the affirmative, when Ferguson continued, "Well, I was with Colonel Watson when he fought your General Marion on Sampit. I think I saw you there with a party of horse, and also at Nelson's Ferry, when Marion surprised our party at the house. But," he continued, "I was hid in high grass, and escaped. You were fortunate in your escape at Sampit, for Watson and Small had twelve hundred men." "If so," replied Horry, "I certainly was fortunate, for I did not suppose they had more than half that number." "I consider myself," added the eaptain, "equally fortunate in escaping at Nelson's Old Field." "Truly you were," answered Horry drily, "for Marion had but thirty militia on that occasion." The officers present could not suppress laughter. When Greene inquired of Horry how he came to affront Captain Ferguson; he answered, "He affronted himself by telling his own story."—Horry's MS. Narrative, quoted by Simms, Life of Marion, p. 239.
Rawdon's Retreat.—Belleville.—A Slave Market.—Trial of a Slave.—Columbia.
The prisoners were treated with great humanity, notwithstanding some of them were Tories of a most obnoxious stamp. As soon as paroled, they were sent off to Lord Rawdon, then crossing the Santee at Nelson's Ferry, near Eutaw Springs. The fall of Fort Motte greatly alarmed that officer, and two days afterward,May 14 he blew up the fortifications at Nelson's Ferry, and hastened toward Charleston. During the day of the capitulation, Greene arrived with a small troop of cavalry, being anxious to know the result of the siege, for he was aware Rawdon was hastening to the relief of the garrison. Finding every thing secure, he returned to his camp, then on the north side of the Congaree, after ordering Marion to proceed against Georgetown, toward the head of Winyaw Bay, near the coast, and directing Lee with his legion, and Captain Finley with his six pounder, to attack Fort Granby, thirty-two miles above Fort Motte, near the present city of Columbia. Thither we will presently proceed.
About a mile eastward of Fort Motte is the residence of Charles Thomson, Esq., known as Belleville. It was taken possession of, stockaded, and garrisoned by the Loyalists for a while. The fine old mansion, which I am told exhibits many bullet-marks made by some Whigs, who attacked a party of Tories stationed in the house, was owned by William Thomson, who, next to Moultrie, was most conspicuous in the battle on Sullivan's Island, at the entrance to Charleston harbor, in 1776. I intended to visit Belleville, but it was so late when I had finished dinner with Mr. Love, that I was obliged to mount one of his horses and hasten to the station to take passage for Columbia. While waiting for the cars, the overseer of a plantation near requested me to write a pass for a sick female slave, whom he was about to send to her master at Columbia for medical aid. Regardless of the penalty, ** I wrote upon a card from my port-folio, "Pass Dido to Columbia, January 19, 1849. J. Smoke." Two hours afterward I was there also, but did not again see the namesake of the Queen of Carthage.
Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, is a fine town, handsomely located upon a high plain three or four miles in extent, a little below the junction of the Broad and Saluda Rivers, where they form the Congaree. It was laid out in 1787, when the region around it was very sparsely populated. The Legislature first met there in 1790. There was a settlement on each side of the river, about two miles below, called Granby, which was a point of departure for the wilderness of the Cherokee country. The climate is mild and salubrious; and Columbia promises to be, from its geographical and political situation, a large inland city. It is the favored seat of learning in the state, the South Carolina College and Theological Seminary of South Carolina and Georgia being located there.