TDIH: Victory at Rugeley's Mills
Patriots won without firing a shot!
On this day in 1780, Patriot forces win a victory against South Carolina Loyalists at Rugeley’s Mills. The officer leading the Patriot soldiers that day was none other than William Washington, a distant cousin of General George Washington.
Would you believe he won the day without firing a shot?
Patriots had suffered a difficult loss at Camden mere months before, which left British General Lord Cornwallis with troops both in Camden and in nearby Winnsborough (now Winnsboro), South Carolina. Unfortunately, Loyalist forces in those cities began leaving and attacking Patriot supply trains.
The Patriots weren’t going to take that lying down, of course. Instead, Brigadier General Daniel Morgan leapt into action, providing covering forces for the supply wagons. He was then in the area, along with Lt. Col. William Washington. Morgan had been tasked with leading a “flying army.” For his part, Washington was attached to Morgan’s force, leading 80 of his Continental Dragoons.
Morgan’s defense of the supplies was enough to send the Loyalist forces scuttling back to their outposts, including a local plantation owned by Loyalist militia Colonel Henry Rugeley. His home and barn were heavily fortified, and locals referred to it as Rugeley’s Mills or Rugeley’s Fort.
Rugeley hoped his loyalty to the Crown would earn him a commission in the British army. His home had become a well-known refuge for Loyalists, and he soon had more than 100 Loyalists at his plantation.
Washington’s Dragoons were in hot pursuit, though. They soon arrived and cornered the Loyalists at Rugeley’s Mills.
The Patriots were outnumbered, and Washington didn’t have any artillery. He could see that his men’s muskets and small arms would not suffice to force the Loyalists out. He needed artillery, but he didn’t have any. What was he to do?
Washington decided to use an old “Quaker gun trick.” He obtained a pine log and had it set up to look like a cannon. One soldier later recounted in a pension application that since they had “no cannon, cut a pine log; blacked the end & put it on wheels to represent one in order to deceive them in which we succeeded & took them without firing a gun.”
Would you believe it worked? Rugeley was soon raising a white flag of truce and offering his surrender.
“Poor Rugeley never appeared in arms afterward,” historian Benson John Lossing concludes. “Cornwallis, in a letter to Tarleton, said, ‘Rugelely will not be made a brigadier.”
The whole incident was surely quite embarrassing for the British—but also a badly needed morale boost for the Patriots.
The decisive victory at Yorktown was less than a year away.
Sources can always be found on my website, here.
Clever trick to fool the British and win the day without loss of life on either side. Too bad so many of these wonderful stories were not and maybe still are not taught in school. I’ve learned more in depth American history since I’ve been reading your posts than I learned in school, Tara. You present it in such an interesting way. Thank you for all you share.
Thank you Tara. Cousin William Washington was both creative and bold when he fashioned a log into a make believe cannon. His fake artillery undoubtedly saved lives and possibly shortened the war.