BY WM. T. LEWIS
I had published some time since in the Pickens Sentinel, S. C. a brief sketch entitled, "Miss Ann Kennedy, a heroine of the Revolution." in which there were a few errors. I now propose to write it and correct those errors and add a few additional items.
William Kennedy, Sr., father of Miss Ann, was born in Virginia, where his father had settled on his arrival, from Ireland. On reaching majority he emigrated to South Carolina, where he married Mary Ann, a sister of Colonel Thomas Brandon of Union County, S.C. who was a revolutionary soldier, to be mentioned hereafter.
After the marriage of Wm. Kennedy he settled on Brown's Creek about three miles east of Union C.H, S.C. where he died at an advanced age. When the revolutionary war began, he espoused the cause of the colonies and joined the rebel army as a private soldier, and never would, during the war, accept office, although he was regarded as one of the leading men of his country during the war. He was in all the principal battles and skirmishes fought in the northern part of South Carolina and in North Carolina. He was wounded in the wrist and thigh at Stallion's in York County, S C and was in the battle of Ninety-Six, Cowpens, Black Stock, King's Mountain, and many others. He was regarded as the best shot with a rifle of any man in that section of the country, and whenever the well known report of his rifle was heard it was generally remarked, "there is another tory less." During the war, while on a visit to his family, the tories attempted to capture him. He was at work in his shop when they approached and endeavored to surround him. They got his hat, but he successfully made a precipitous flight to the nearest thicket amid a shower of bullets, that whistled around his head. After the tories left he returned to view his pillaged house, and bid his family a hasty adieu and returned hatless to the army. Wm. Kennedy, Sr., lived some years after the war &endash; was respected and honored by his countrymen with a seat in the Legislature, and equally respected as a member of the Presbyterian Church by being chosen Elder in said church. On one occasion he was grossly insulted after the war by a Tory at Union C. H. He put one of the smaller boys on his horse and said to him: 'Go home and tell Thomas B. my son, to come here quick.' Thomas B. leaped on the horse bareback and coatless and rode to town to know his father's wish. "Thomas" said the old man, "I want you to whip that rascal," pointing him out to Thomas at the same time. No sooner said than Thomas entered on the job and finished it up in good style to the satisfaction of the old man, not however, without suffering in the flesh himself, for during the fight Thomas received a severe wound on the forehead which left a scar for life.
Wm.
Kennedy was an industrious, intelligent and
devoutly pious man.
His fellow citizens had unlimited
confidence in him and trusted him in every
capacity as long as he was able to serve them.
The Elder Sims of Union said: "He was the
best man that ever lived in the county."
Thomas
Brandon was of Irish descent and was born in
Pennsylvania in 1741, and emigrated to Union
County S.C. about the year 1754.
He married a Miss McCool and settled on
Brown's creek three miles from where Union C.H.
now stands, in the Vicinity of Wm. Kennedy, his
brother-in-law, where he was residing during the
revolutionary war.
Col. B. was over six feet in height very
active and of great muscular strength.
When the revolutionary war commenced, he
had a broad sword fashioned out of a saw mill
blade, with which he could cleft the head of a
bullock.
At the battle of Musgrove's Mill, Thomas
Young, one of Col. Brandon's men, was in a hand
to hand fight with a tory, who was about to
prove too much for Young.
Col. Brandon discovered the critical
condition of his friend, rushed to his aid, with
his broad sword in hand, and with one fell
swoop, he severed the Tory's head from his body.
During a skirmish on Enoree river, Col.
B. came in contact with a tory by the name of
John Houston from Chester Co., S. C. and aimed a
blow at his head with his broad sword, but the
sword glanced cutting out one of his eyes and
leaving a deep wound in his face.
Houston fell bleeding profusely and was
left on the battle field apparently dead.
After the contest was over and each party
had retired, one of Col. B's men visited the
battle ground and found Houston still alive
weltering in his own blood.
He was cared for and recovered from his
wound, and was known during the balance of his
life as "one eyed John Houston."
In his old age he emigrated to
Mississippi with his two sons, Thomas and
Samuel, and finally died on Nox_____ in Winston
County.
Col. Brandon bent his broad sword when he
struck John Houston over the head and had to
straighten it before he could use it again.
Lyman C.
Draper in his "King's Mountain and its Heroes"
says that "On the retreat after the battle of
King's Mountain Col. Brandon discovered that one
of the tories who had been carrying two of the
captured guns had dodged out of the ranks into a
hollow sycamore tree by the road side, and that
the Col. Dragged him from his hiding place and
completely hacked him to pieces with his sword."
Judge
O'Neal in his "Annals of Newberry" says:
"Capt. Philemon Waters captured a tory
who was peculiarly obnoxious to Col. Brandon.
After the skirmish, when the prisoners
were presented to Col. Brandon he, on seeing
Waters's prisoner, drew his sword and was in the
act of running upon him to slay him, when Waters
threw himself between them and announced to his
superior (Col. B.) that the prisoner was under
his protection and should not be harmed."
The purpose of vengence was not
abandoned, and Captain Waters was peremptorily
ordered to stand out of the way.
"Africa," said the Colonel to his
servant, "bring me my rifle."
No sooner said than done.
Waters with his rifle in his hand and an
eye that never quailed, said to the Col., "now
strike the prisoner &endash; the instant you do
I will shoot you dead."
The blow was not struck, and the prisoner
was saved."
Col.
Brandon served under Sumter and Williams as
Colonel and fought in the battle of Ninety-Six,
Eutaw, Cowpens, Musgroves, Blackstocks, King's
Mountain, Stallions, etc.
After the
close of the war, the home of the Tory
Fletchall, at Fair Forest Shoals, was
confiscated and sold, when General Brandon
became the purchaser to which place he moved and
spent the remainder of his life.
He was one of the Justices of the Court,
County Ordinary, General of the Militia and
member of the Legislature.
He died on Fair Forest on the 5th of
February 1802 and was buried with military
honors two miles Northeast of Union Court House.
Africa, his faithful servant, who
accompanied him through all the hardships,
trials and privations of the Revolutionary War,
was during the funeral procession, mounted on
horseback, dressed in the General's military
uniform, and accompanied his remains to it's
final resting place amid the beating of drums
and the firing of guns.
Col.
Thomas Brandon had three sons and two daughters.
His sons were William, James and Thomas
Jr.
William died single in Union, S. C.,
James emigrated to Florida, and Thomas Jr.
married Cassandra Humphries, a sister of Amos
Humphries, of Winston County, Miss. And died in
Green County Ala.
He had in his possession the broad sword
that his father wielded during the revolutionary
war.
Miss Ann
Kennedy, the oldest daughter of Wm. Kennedy,
Sr., had nearly all the business of the farm to
superintend during the absence of her father and
older brothers while in the army.
She heard that the Tories were prowling
around through the neighborhood, expected any
day to be visited by them.
The oats being ripe she hired a young man
of the vicinity to cut them &endash; she
following as binder until all were cut, bound
and stacked.
Sure enough, only a few days elapsed
after cutting the oats, when a squad of Tories
unceremoniously approached the house in search
of her father and brothers.
They tore down the stack of oats and
scattered them to their horses.
Not finding her father and brothers, they
discovered two young men in the yard by the name
of Watkins, whom they shot down and with their
sabers hacked off their fingers and toes and
mangled their bodies in a most shameful manner.
After the Tories left she hired some
Quakers of the neighborhood to bury their
mutilated remains.
In
November of the same year, 1780, the battle of
the Black Stocks occurred, when Wm. Kennedy, a
cousin of Ann, was badly wounded.
He was conveyed to the house of Wm.
Kennedy, Sr., to be taken care of.
It was not long after this event, that
the tories again visited their house, but not
finding Wm. Kennedy, Sr., or his sons at home
they commenced searching through the house for
plunder, when they found Wm. Kennedy, the cousin
of Ann, in bed.
The tories held a consultation to decide
whether or not they would kill the wounded
soldier.
One of them remarked:
"Let him alone, he will die in a few days
anyhow."
The tories were so exasperated at not
finding the father and brothers of Ann at home,
that they soon began plundering the house.
They cut a web of cloth out of the loom,
ripped open the feather beds and scattered the
feathers to the four winds and made saddle
blankets of the clothe and bed ticks.
They robbed the ladies of their finger
rings and other jewelry.
They had taken nearly all the bedclothes
except a blanket which Ann's mother had folded
up, placed in a chair and was sitting on it.
A tory seized hold of it and attempted to
draw it from under the old lady.
She begged him not to take the last
blanket she had for herself and children.
Ann could brook the insult no longer.
She seized the tory by the arm pushed him
out of the door and gave him a kick as he went.
This so provoked him that he snatched a
gun from the hand of one of his comrades and
swore he would shoot her, but the captain
interposed and prevented him from committing the
rash act and advised him never to kill as brave
a woman as she was.
The tory then ran into the house picked
up a fire brand from the hearth, swore he would
burn the house and attempted to set fire to a
pile of flax in the corner of the house; again
Ann interfered and threw him out of the house.
The captain then requested him not to
burn the house as they had got everything that
was worth taking; so the tory threw the fire
brand at her with all vengeance, which struck
her on the hand breaking the bones therof, which
made her a cripple for life.
Fearing that other tories might not prove
so lenient to her wounded cousin, should they
make another visit to their house. She made a
litter and with some of the family, placed him
on it and carried him to the forest where she
made him a bed in a fallen tree top where she
dressed his wounds and waited upon him until he
recovered, which was some three or four weeks.
Not long after this, the neighborhood was
so annoyed by the tories, that a few resolute
whig women assembled together and wrote a note
to General Morgan, who was then stationed near
the Pacolet Springs in Spartanbury. To send a
company to Union to subdue the tories, but no
one manifested a willingness to be the bearer of
the note, until Miss Ann Kennedy stepped up and
volunteered her services to carry it.
She concealed the note in her stocking-
pinned a sunbonnet around her head &endash;
mounted a pony &endash; rode about sixty miles
&endash; delivered the note to General Morgan
and returned home in safety.
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When not
in the regular army, the whigs had to keep
themselves concealed in the woods to avoid being
killed by the tories.
A British and tory party came into the
settlement and commenced robbing the whig
families.
A runner was sent to the hiding place of
Wm. Kennedy, Jr., Christopher Brandon and
Richard Brandon to meet other whigs at a certain
place of rendezvous.
They mounted their horses and dashed off
at half speed along the byeways until they came
to Fair Forest Creek, where they were fired upon
by a squad of tories in ambush, scattering the
brains of Richard Brandon upon the clothes and
in the face of Christopher Brandon, the ball
grazing the cheek of Christopher Brandon also.
Brandon and his friend put spurs to their
horses, when they were fired upon by the tories,
and they fortunately made their escape without
an injury, and soon arrived at the place of
rendezvous, where they met Wm. Kennedy, Sr., and
a dozen or more gallant whigs, all of whom set
out in pursuit of the tories.
They soon overtook them while robbing a
house.
The tories fled and scattered.
Wm. Kennedy, Sr., singled out Neal the
leader and pursued him and when he got within a
hundred and forty yards of him he fired and
brought him to the ground.
They killed over half the tories and took
no prisoners.
Lyman C.
Draper in his "King's Mountain and its Heroes"
says; "On the heights at Fair forest Shoals was
an old stockade post or block house.
Many tragic incidents occurred there, and
in its neighborhood.
A tory whose name has been forgotten, had
with his own hands done much mischief in that
region, and among other unpardonable sins, had
killed one of Wm. Kennedy's dearest friends.
The latter learned that the culprit was
within striking distance and he called his
friends together, who went in search of him.
The two parties met some two or three
miles from the block house, where a severe
contest ensued.
The tories were routed and the leader,
who was the prize Kennedy sought, fled.
Kennedy, Hughes, Sharp, McJunkin and
others pursued.
The chase was one of life or death.
The tory approached the bank of Fair
Forest at a point on a high bluff, where the
stream at low water was twenty or thirty yards
over and quite deep.
The fleeing Loyalist, hemmed around by
his pursuers on the cliff, just where they aimed
to drive him, hesitated not a moment, but
spurred his horse and plunged over the bank and
into the stream below, a fearful leap.
His pursuers followed, and at the
opposite bank they made him their prisoner.
Their powder being wet by its contact
with the water, they resolved to take their
captive below to the block house and hang him.
When they arrived there, the officer in
command would not permit him to be disposed of
in that summary manner, but ordered him to be
taken to Colonel Brandon's camp, a considerable
distance away, to be tried by a court martial.
Kennedy was placed at the head of the
guard, but the tory begged that Kennedy might
not be permitted to go, as he apprehended he
would take occasion to kill him on the way.
Evidently intending to make an effort to
escape, he did not wish the presence of so
skillful a shot as Kennedy.
His request, however, was not heeded.
He took an early occasion to dart off at
full speed, but Kennedy's unerring rifle soon
stopped his flight, and his remains were brought
back to the foot of the hill near the block
house, and there buried."
Wm. Kennedy Sr., raised eleven children, viz.:
1. Rev. John Brandon, was a revolutionary
soldier.
He married Rebecca, daughter of Dr. Ross
of Laurens county, S C. where he died leaving
posterity.
2. William, Jr. was a Revolutionary soldier and
died soon after the close of the war.
3. James was a Revolutionary soldier.
He married Mary Snowden, and died in
Charleston, S.C. leaving posterity.
4. Ann, the "Heroine of the Revolution," married
Thomas Hamilton, a Revolutionary soldier, after
the close of the war.
They were both members of the
Presbyterian church and both died near
Pendleton, S.C.
She on the 24th day of March 1836, and he
on the 2nd day of May 1853.
She was in her 76th year and he in his
94th year.
5. Elizabeth married Samuel Clowney, a native of
Ireland.
He first settled on the Catawba river, in
N.C. and finally located in Union county S.C.
where he died in 1824.
He was a resolute whig of the Revolution
and joined Col. Thomas at Cedar Springs in
Spartanburg.
He and a negro captured a squad of eight
tories on Kelsey's creek near the Cedar Springs
in Spartanburg and drove them before them across
Fair Forest bridge to the camp of General Morgan
who inquired of Clowney, how he happened to
capture so many tories.
He replied: "Please your honor, I
surrounded them."
He fought through the war, but never
received a wound.
He was a kind hearted benevolent man,
much beloved by all who knew him.
He was a member of the Presbyterian
church and engaged in family worship ever night.
One night after the conclusion of a
lengthy prayer the family all resumed their
seats except his wife who still remained in her
attitude of prayer.
He walked up and called out to her,
"Betsy Clowney!
Betsy Clowney! Get up, you have prayed
long enough."
She had dropped off to sleep.
She raised up and replied: "Ah!
Sam Clowney, you are too tedious in your
prayer."
Wm. K. Clowney, his son was a member of
Congress from Union S.C.
While a student at college he would
frequently write home for more money.
One day they received a letter from him,
and Rebecca his sister, read it.
After she got through, her father made
the following inquiry:
"Well Rebecca, what does William say?'
she replied..
"He wants more money."
"Ah,' replied her father, "Wm. Clowney
will never scratch a rich man's head."
6. Mary Kennedy married Wm. Hamilton, a brother
of Thomas and died on Bullock's Creek, York
County S.C. leaving posterity.
7. Thomas Brandon Kennedy married Elizabeth
Potter, and died in Green County, Ala. 98 years
of age.
He raised ten children, viz: Mrs. Jane
Means of Union, S.C.; Mrs. Mary A. Walker, of
Green County Ala.; Dr. Wm. Kennedy, of
Enterprise, Miss.; John P. Kennedy of Winston
Co. Miss; Miss Elizabeth Price, of Green County,
Ala.; Mrs. Ellen Steele, of Green County, Ala.
And Mrs. Rebecca McLean, of Kemper County, Miss.
8. Letitia Kennedy married her cousin, George
Brandon and died in Union County, S.C., leaving
posterity.
9. Ellen Kennedy married John Brandon, a son of
Christopher, and died in Union County, S.C.
leaving posterity.
10. Jesse Kennedy married Mary, daughter of Col.
Jo Hughes, on Broad River Union County, S.C. and
died in Pickens County, Ala., leaving posterity.
11. Benjamin Kennedy married Lucy Gilbert, and was Sheriff of Union County, S.C. where he died, leaving posterity.
Issue of Mrs. Ann and Thomas Hamilton:
Mary Ann married John Dufrees.
Jane died single.
Wm. K. married Jane McCann.
Elizabeth married Crosby Miller.
Letitia married William Boggs.
David K. married Jane Walker.
Eleanor married Thomas g. Boggs.
Rebecca married Chs. Miller.
Ann married Josiah Gaillard.
Thomas W. died single.
Cynthia married Geo. Miller.
For further information relative to the Kennedy family, the reader is referred to Dr. George Howe's History of the Presbyterian Church of S.C. published in Columbia, S.C. by Duffie & Chapman
Wm. T. Lewis, Louisville, Miss, 1885 |
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