The Day it Rained Militia: Huck's Defeat and the Revolution in the South Carolina Backcountry May-July 1780

by Michael C. Scoggins

Discover how ""Huck's Defeat"" spurred on the South Carolina militiamen to future victories during the Revolutionary War. In July of 1780, when the Revolutionary War in the Southern states seemed doomed to failure, a small but important battle took place on James Williamson's plantation in what is now York County, South Carolina. The Battle of Williamson's Plantation, or ""Huck's Defeat"" as it later came to be known, laid the groundwork for the vicious partisan warfare waged by the militiamen on the Carolina frontier against the superior forces of the British Army, and it paved the way for the calamitous defeats that the British suffered at Hanging Rock, Musgrove's Mill, Kings Mountain, Blackstock's Plantation and Cowpens, all in the South Carolina backcountry. In this groundbreaking new study, historian Michael C. Scoggins provides an in-depth account of the events that unfolded in the Broad and Catawba River valleys of upper South Carolina during the critical summer of 1780. Drawing extensively on first-person accounts and military correspondence, much of which has never been published before, Scoggins tells a dramatic story that begins with the capture of an entire American army at Charleston in May and ends with a resounding series of Patriot victories in the Carolina Piedmont during the late summer of 1780---victories that set Lord Cornwallis and the British Army irrevocably on the road to defeat and to surrender at Yorktown in October 1781.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[george burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forgotten Battles

To the extent that the American Revolution in the South is remembered it is the brilliant campaign waged by Nathanael Greene that comes to mind. But there was another war being fought; a civil war fought literally between between neighbors. It is this war that Mr. Scrounging brings to life in his scholarly account of some the largely forgotten actions of the civil war. The war was notable for its brutality and the frequently incompetent leadership of experienced but ill trained officers. This excellent study provides a fine introduction to the civil war in the South.

[Susan Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huck was a Loyalist who joined the British forces. His defeat near Brandon's Plantation was a major win for the Southern militia. This set up the confidence of the militia and was a build up to the win at King's Mountain. This book covers those months leading up to Huck's defeat and the following activities and triumphs of the Southern militia.

[Jay Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched account of a little known battle in the South Carolina upcountry. Although it involved very few participants, this conflict between loyalist and whig militia did much to turn the tide of the American Revolution in the South. Scoggins pulls from many primary sources, letting many of the veterans tell the battle's story for themselves. The last half of the book is filled with tons of information and resources about the backcountry of the Carolinas at the time of the Revolution.