Our four-part series on Revolutionary War battles in the Southeast concludes with Part 4 of Tom Poland’s feature, “Three Battles and a Massacre.”
Clouds Creek | November 17, 1781
For many years I’ve driven Highway 378 from Columbia, South Carolina, to my hometown of Lincolnton, Georgia. Along that route I plunge downhill over Clouds Creek. I knew a massacre was connected to this creek but had no idea where it took place. Now I do. On a cool and cloudy Sunday I made my way to the site in heavy woods near the Saint John CME Church.
A Patriot turned prominent Loyalist, Maj. William Cunningham, would become notorious for his brutality in a war that set South Carolinians against one another. Cunningham grew up near Ninety-Six, a Loyalist community. His cousins were Loyalist organizers. Cousin Robert Cunningham refused to sign an early truce with Patriots in South Carolina in 1776 and fought until imprisoned.