#67: Thomas Sumter, Hell Hole Swamp, and a lecture on the Fighters of Calhoun County
For South Carolina history lovers far and wide! Enjoy weekly SC history and upcoming SC historical events
Welcome to the first 100 days of the South Carolina History Newsletter! My name is Kate Fowler and I live in Greenville, SC. I have a 9-5 job in marketing, and outside of work, have a deep love of history. I started this newsletter as a passion project to learn more about our beautiful state and build a community of fellow SC history lovers along the way! To establish a foundation for the newsletter and to grow my expertise on a wide variety of South Carolina historical topics, this past February I challenged myself to post 100 newsletters in 100 days. After this coming May 20th, the newsletter will become weekly. Thank you for joining the journey!
Dear reader,
Welcome to Newsletter #67 of The South Carolina History Newsletter! I’m so happy you’re here.
A quick apology that today I wasn’t able to provide my little audio voiceovers. Alas, working on the newsletter after work last night, it simply got too late. I apologize!
Here’s a little welcome/update audio message:
As always, I’d like to also extend a special welcome to the following new subscribers — woohoo! Thank you for subscribing.
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I hope you enjoy today’s newsletter, and as always, please feel free to reply to this email with your ideas and suggestions on South Carolina history topics you’d like to learn more about. I’m only a click away.
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And now, let’s learn some South Carolina history!
Yours truly,
Kate
(Writing from Greenville, SC)
➳ Featured SC History Event
Please enjoy our featured SC History Event below, and click here to visit my SC History Events Calendar that organizes all the upcoming SC history events I have discovered. Please let me know if you’d like to add an event to the calendar! Reply to this email or send me a note at schistorynewsletter@gmail.com.
Sunday, April 21st at 3:00 pm | “Freedom Fighters of Calhoun County” | Cameron School Auditorium | Cameron, SC | FREE Event
“The South Carolina Calhoun County 250 Commission is sponsoring the premiere performance of “Freedom Fighters of Calhoun County” produced by Actors’ Theater of South Carolina on Sunday, April 21, at 3:00 pm in Cameron School Auditorium in Cameron, South Carolina.
Colonel William “Danger” Thomson led his militia to repel British war ships in Charleston harbor in 1776 in the Battle of Sullivan’s Island. Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox,” commanded his own band of men, both black and white, as one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare. Emily Geiger took a wild ride as a young spy for the patriots. John Chavis, a free African American soldier from the Orangeburg district, fought with several commanders. Rebecca Brewton Motte courageously helped burn her home on the Congaree River, when General Marion forced the British to surrender Fort Motte.
The purpose of SC250 is to celebrate the 250th anniversary era (1770-1783) of the Revolutionary War and educate South Carolinians and visitors about the state’s pivotal role in the nation’s independence. The mission of the county commission is to reveal as many different participants in the county during the revolutionary war era.”
➳ SC History Fun Facts
I.
Did you know that Thomas Sumter was named the “Fighting Gamecock” and was the last surviving general of the Revolutionary War?
Thomas Sumter is a famous founding father of South Carolina — who came from meager beginnings.
While he would make his name in service to South Carolina, Sumter was originally born in Virginia in Hanover County.
His father was a miller and an indentured servant and his mother (with the wonderful name, Patience) was a midwife.
Sumter spent the majority of his childhood helping his father at the family mill and tending livestock — he did not have a formal education.
During the French and Indian War, Sumter joined diplomatic missions to the Cherokee Nation and was even asked to escort a delegation of Cherokee Indians to London in 1761.
After returning home to Virginia from London, Sumter was “imprisoned for indebtedness,” but escaped and fled to South Carolina!
Once in South Carolina, in 1764, Sumter settled in St. John’s Berkely Parish near the Santee River and set up a mercantile shop, a sawmill, and a gristmill — which quickly prospered.
Soon, Sumter owned “considerable property” — including slaves — and in 1767, married Mary Cantey Jameson, who was “a wealthy, crippled widow 11 years his senior.”
Sumter and Mary moved to Mary’s plantation, Great Savannah, “across the Santee at St. Mark’s Parish.” The couple had 2 children and became members of the “planter class.”
Sumter and Mary had a comfortable life until the Revolutionary War begin, and Sumter was summoned for service. He participated in:
The Snow Campaign (1775)
The Balle of Fourt Moultrie (June 28, 1776)
And engagements in Georgia (1777, 1778)
After these campaigns, Sumter retired from the army back into private life.
It was in May 1780, when the British captured Charleston, and patriot morale was at its lowest point, that Thomas Sumter “made his greatest mark.”
The British pushed north and burned Sumter’s house to the ground. The attack was a deeply personal blow, and it ignited a fire in the general for revenge.
He organized a local militia, “Sumter’s Brigade.” In the summer of 1780 — although they had “mixed success in engagements” at Rocky Mount (July 30, 1780), Hanging Rock (August 6, 1780), and Fishing Creek (August 18, 1780) — the brigade nonetheless injected new life into the Patriot cause. It was during these dangerous and daring exploits that Thomas Sumter earned the nickname the “Fighting Gamecock.”
After 4 months of invaluable but unofficial service, Sumter was commissioned as a brigadier general of the South Carolina militia on October 6, 1780.
His force fought well at Fishdam Ford (November 9, 1780) and Blackstock’s (November 20, 1780), where Sumter was severely wounded. Incapacitated for several months, he returned to action in February 1781 and led his troops in additional encounters at Fort Granby (February 19–21, May 15, 1781) and Orangeburg (May 10–11, 1781).
As the Revolution continued, Sumter eventually was placed under the command of General Nathanael Greene, but was terrible at taking orders from another general. He tried to resign, but Greene refused to accept his resignation.
Maintaining his independent command, Sumter finally joined Greene in July 1781 and led “the raid of the dog days” into the Lowcountry.
Sumter resigned in February 1782 and closed his military career.
In 1783, he helped found the town of Stateburg, which he tried to promote as the new capital of South Carolina.
The remainder of Thomas Sumter’s life was spent in politics where he served 8 terms in the General Assembly between 1776-1790. He also served 5 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives for the Camden District between 1789-1801, and was elected to the US Senate in 1801, where he served until December 16, 1810.
As a politician, Thomas Sumer was a “staunch Jeffersonian” and upheld the “backcountry republican values” he had known since childhood.
He died on June 1, 1832 at the age of 97 and was the last surviving general of the Revolutionary War. (Note from Kate: here I need to give a shoutout to our subscriber Ellen Fishburne who first brought Thomas Sumter’s gravesite to my attention). He is buried at Thomas Sumter Memorial Park near Stateburg, SC.
Thomas Sumter has certainly left his mark on South Carolina. Sumter County, Fort Sumer, and Sumter National Forest are named in his honor. The town of Sumter is called "The Gamecock City." "Gamecock" is one of the several traditional nicknames for a native of South Carolina. The University of South Carolina's official nickname is the "Fighting Gamecocks," though since 1903 the teams have been simply known as the "Gamecocks."
I was touched by this quote from the Sumter National Forest Website: “The Sumter National Forest was the scene of many of his [Thomas Sumter’s] greatest exploits and was named in his honor in 1936.”
Please scroll to the bottom of this email for my sources for this section
Please leave a comment below!
II.
What are the origins of the name of Hell Hole Swamp in Berkeley County, SC?
Tucked into the boggy wilderness of northeastern Berkeley County, South Carolina lies Hell Hole Swamp. It is located entirely within the Francis Marion National Forest and contains 2,125 acres, all of which is designated as a wilderness area.
The origins of the swamp’s famous name are unknown, but it was labeled as such on a 1773 map of the Charleston Area.
Local legend credits British General Cornwallis with the name. He is said to have written in a letter to King George that General Francis Marion (“The Swamp Fox”) and his men had vanished into “one hell of a hole of a swamp.”
The Hell Hole Swamp has interestingly given rise to the Hell Hole Swamp Festival which started in the 1970s and celebrates a bygone era of moonshine, bootlegging, and murder.
Indeed, the area in and around the swamp was once a “moonshine hub” in the 1920s and 30s during the Prohibition era. (Note from Kate: a topic for a future newsletter!)
Sine 1972, the Hell Hole Swamp Festival takes place during the first weekend in May in Jamestown, SC on the northern edge of the swamp.
The festival includes a “cocoa spitting contest, arm wrestling, beauty contests, and the Hell Hole Gator Trot 10k, colloquially called the Redneck Run. It began in 1976 and is one of the oldest road races in South Carolina.”
Please scroll to the bottom of this email for my sources for this section
Have you been to the Hell Hole Swamp Festival? We would love to hear about your experience. Please leave a comment below!
➳ Quote from an SC historical figure
“Yours of 2d instant has this moment come to hand, I am very sorry to be so far out of the way of meeting with you at a time when there is the greatest occasion for it … My horses are so worn out that I can scarce move at all, and officers and men quite discouraged—finding no force in these parts, not even men enough to join to guide me through the country. But, notwithstanding little may be done now, yet much good might be expected to result hereafter from a personal consultation, which I hope to have the favour of by tomorrow night.”
—March 4. 1781, an excerpt from a letter from Thomas Sumter (“Fighting Gamecock”) to Francis Marion (“The Swamp Fox”) for his assistance after an unsuccessful attack on Fort Watson (Source: Journal of the American Revolution)
Thomas Sumter article sources:
Lockhart, Matthew A. “Sumter, Thomas.” South Carolina Encyclopedia, 25 Aug. 2022, https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/sumter-thomas/. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
“Who Was Thomas Sumter.” US Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/scnfs/learning/history-culture/?cid=fsbdev3_037410. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
Hell Hole Swamp article sources:
“Hell Hole Swamp Festival.” SC Picture Project, 29 Sept. 2016, https://www.scpictureproject.org/berkeley-county/hell-hole-swamp-festival.html. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
“Hell Hole Festival.” Hellholeinc, https://www.hellholeswampfest.com/. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
“Moonshine Over Hell Hole Swamp.” Charleston Magazine, 20 Nov. 2015, https://charlestonmag.com/features/moonshine_over_hell_hole_swamp. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
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