13 Facts About the 13 Colonies-- Part 2

Again, go to the site for more information.

7.  New Hampshire offered parcels of land in exchange  for one ear of corn each year.  (Sounds like a deal to me.)

8.  Georgia was founded as a new haven for debtors and impoverished people.

9.  New York became  the first target of British trade restrictions -- for exporting fur hats.

10.  South Carolina benefited from the demand for blue dye.

11.  North Carolina was sold back to the British Crown.

12.  Rhode Island played a big role in the slave trade.  (By 1775, slaves made up 11.5% of its population.)

13.  Delaware really wasn't  formed until 1776.

--CootCol

April Events of the American Revolution: Paul Revere's Ride and Battles of Lexington and Concord

From the American Battlefield Trust April 2022 calendar.

APRIL 12, 1776

**  Halifax Resolves, North Carolina.  First colony to authorize its delegates to vote for independence.

APRIL 18, 1775

**  Revere and Dawes ride.

APRIL 19, 1775

**  Battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts

APRIL 19, 1782

**  Netherlands recognizes American independence

APRIL  27, 1777

**  Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut

APRIL 25, 1781

**  The Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, South Carolina

--Cooter

March Events in American Revolution: Charleston, South Carolina

From the American Battlefield Trust March 2022  calendar.

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

88 acres saved

Picture of Marion Square.

Home to a weekly farmers market and impromptu picnics, Charleston's Marion Square is also the setting for a Liberty Trail-sponsored archaeological study to document the footprint of the Horn Work.

This structure once stood tall as the defensive centerpiece for Continental commanders during the American Revolution.  It was where American generals Lincoln and Moultrie surrendered to the British after a six-week siege that began on March 29, 1780.

The trust and its partners, including the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust, have saved 88 Revolutionary acres around Charleston.

--Cooter

Andrew Pickens, Patriot Commander at Battle of Kettle Creek-- Part 1

 From American Battlefield Trust.

(September 13, 1739 to August 11, 1817)

The son of Scots-Irish immigrants, Andrew Pickens was born September 13, 1739, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  When he was a teenager,  his family moved to the Waxhaws region of South Carolina.

From 1760-61, Pickens fought in the Cherokee War, serving as an officer in a provincial regiment.  In 1764, he moved to Abbeville, South Carolina, where, a year later, he married  Rebecca Calhoun, the aunt of future pro-slavery politician John C. Calhoun.

When rebellion against Britain broke out in 1775, Pickens was made a captain of militia.  That autumn he took part in a campaign against Loyalists in the South Carolina backcountry and fought in the Siege of Ninety Six, the first major engagement of the revolution outside of New England.

In  the autumn 1776, Pickens served in an expedition that destroyed dozens of Cherokee towns.

--Cooter

In Honor of Veterans Day 2021: The Last Spanish-American War Survivors, Jones Morgan,

From the Spanish-American War  Centennial Website.

The last surviving veteran of the war was a black man named Jones Morgan who passed away in Richmond, Virginia,  on August 29, 1993, at the incredible age of 110.  His records, however, were lost in a fire.

He was born on October 23, 1882, in Newberry County, South Carolina, and ran away from home at age 15 to join the Army which he did in 1897, signing up with the  9th U.S. Cavalry, known as the "Buffalo Soldiers, an all-black unit.

He served for two years before his family located him  and had him discharged.  Since he had runaway and was underage, it is likely that he used an alias when he originally enlisted, making his records nearly impossible to find.

He served as a cook and as a horse wrangler and was in Cuba and at the assault on San Juan Hill although he apparently did not take part in it.  He also indicated that he helped  wrangle horses for the Rough Riders.

He was buried in Section 16 of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, Section 16.

10 Lesser-Known Facts About Revolutionary-Era America-- Part 1: We're Taller, and We Can Read Better and Make Babies Better. Then There Is That Drinking Thing

From the July 4, 2018, ListVerse by Kevin Klatman.

Go to the site for pictures and a lot more information.

*************************************

10.  AMERICANS WERE TALLER THAN THE BRITISH

On average, the British stood at 5-foot, five inches, and Americans were three inches taller.

9.  AMERICANS HAD A HIGHER LITERACY RATE THAN THE BRITISH

Much of this because the Puritans in New England valued education for religious purposes.

**************************************

8  ONE IN THREE WOMEN  WHO WALKED DOWN THE AISLE WAS PREGNANT

Perhaps because of the practice of bundling.

7.  AMERICANS DRANK ... A LOT

Alcohol safer than water.  Go figure.

6.  SOUTH CAROLINA: ONE OF THE MOST TOLERANT AND CULTURED OF THE COLONIES

New England colonies were too Puritan to go much for the arts.

--CooterGiveMeABeer

A Nurse Tells of Her Service in 1919

From the January 16, 2019, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1919, 100 Years Ago.

"At the Sunday evening service at the Hinckley M.E. church the program was given over to those who have lately returned from military camps in the country.

"Miss Dorothy Pritchard, who was training for a nurse at Camp Wadsworth, S.C., gave a most interesting account of her experience there."

--Cooter

Camp Wadsworth, S.C.-- Part 4: Specialized Units and the Slavic Legion

Camp Wadsworth also had several specialty units including military police, construction workers,  cooks and bakers and even a remount (horses) unit.

In addition, anti-aircraft machine gun battalions, signal battalions corps artillery parks and pioneer infantry  regiments.  There were also several military schools there as well, including one for nurses.

It was also the training base for the Slavic Legion intended as a regiment of non-naturalized volunteers from nations in the Balkans.  This group was only partly trained when the war ended and they were demobilized there.

Beginning in February 1919, the War Department began carrying out salvage operations at Camp Wadsworth, sending usable items to other posts that remained open.

Several of the camp's buildings were sold and moved to other places.

Most of the area that used to be Camp Wadsworth is now within the Spartanburg city limits and has been developed as  the Wadsworth Hills residential neighborhood.

--Cooter

Camp Wadsworth-- Part 3: The 369th Infantry Regiment (Blacks) Was There

The camp was used for individual training and bayonet practice.    They also dis unit level  exercises.  In addition, love fire ranges were established 26 miles from the camp where rifle, machine gun and artillery training was carried out.

In addition to the 27th Division, the  96th Division trained there, but the war ended before they were trained and they demobilized there on early 1919.

The 15th New York Infantry Regiment, a unit of black soldiers with white officers, later federalized as the 369th Infantry Regiment.  Tension with local population, who had been promised that no black soldiers would train there caused the Army to  rapidly transport the 369th to France where they completed their organizing and training.

They were assigned to the 93rd Division which was made up of other black units.  The regiments of the 93rd Division served in World War I as part of the French Army.

--Cooter

Camp Wadsworth-- Part 2: Named After a Union General and Built In A Hurry

Continued from October 29, 2018.

It was decided that a division of the New York National Guard would train there.

Camp Wadsworth was named for Union Brigadier General James S. Wadsworth, a prominent man from New York and who had been killed in 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness.  His son, James S. Wadswoth, Jr. was also in the Union Army during that war.  His grandson, James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr, was a U.S. Senator from New York during World War I.

There was a two-month deadline to build the camp.  Starting in mid-July 1917, thousands of civilian workers cleared trees, laid pipes, built roads and temporary structures.

National Guard troops from New York began arriving in August.  Eventually, all units of the New York National Guard's 6th Division were there and were federalized as the U.S. Army's 27th Division.

They departed for France in May 1918.

--Cooter

Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina-- Part 1: Mobilizing for WW I

In my last post, I mentioned the call for 2,395 white men from Chicago to go to Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina to train for war.

From Wikipedia.

A World War I training facility located near Spartanburg, S.C..  It was in operation from July 1917 to  March 1919.

As the United States began to expand its army in preparation for entry into the war through a combination of  mobilizing units of the National Guard and drafting men into the wartime National Army it was determined to open 32 centers to train them.

The centers for draftees would have wooden barracks as it would take longer to prepare them.  National Guard centers would use tents and be located in the warmer Southern states because of that.

Cities and towns lobbied to get one of these because of economic reasons.  Spartanburg was successful in their effort.  Newton B. Baker, Secretary of War, and General Leonard  Wood, commander of the Army's Eastern Department visited the area and approved a location there.

--CootCamp

WW I: October 28, 1918: A Call To Chicago For More Troops

From the October 28, 2018, Chicago Sun-Times  "Chicago Daily News: On This Date."  As reported by the Chicago Daily News, sister paper of the Chicago Sun-Times.

OCTOBER 28, 1918, 100 years ago.

**  A call for 2,395 white men for general military service, to entrain for Camp Wadsworth at Spartensburg,  S.C. (Spartanburg)., the five-day period beginning Nov. 11, was received by Adjt. Gen. Dickenson today.

**  Another call directs the entrainment of 465 colored men, beginning Nov. 13, for Camp Grant at Rockford.

**  These calls exhaust the draft availables in all registration lists previous to that of September 12.

--Cooter

Our World War I Soldier, Claude Pfaff-- Part 2: Camp Jackson and Camp Sevier

Claude Pfaff enlisted and was sent to Camp Jackson, a major training and staging base established near Columbia, South Carolina.  Here, battalions were formed before being sent overseas to fight in France.

Claude was promoted to Band Sergeant and assigned to the 156th Depot Brigade.  Using his musical talents, he played the bugle for military ceremonial occasions as well as morale-lifting events at such locations as the base hospital, the Red Cross Convalescent House and the Liberty Theater, which seated 3,600 soldiers.

On September 26, he was transferred to Camp Sevier, Greenville, South Carolina, and in October, he was commissioned out of the ranks to lieutenant.

With the war coming to an end and the Armistice going into effect on November 11, 1918, the military quickly demobilized and Pfaff was honorably discharged on November 30, 1918 as a second lieutenant and returned to civilian life.

A World War I Story.  --Cooter

Arrest Records of 9 Men in Famed Sit-In to be Erased

From the January 28, 2015, Chicago Tribune by Meg Kinnard, AP

Nine black men arrested for integrating a whites-only South Carolina lunch counter nearly 54 years ago made them heroes in the Civil Rights movement, but the law still considered them guilty of trespassing.

On Wednesday, a Rock Hill, S.C., judge is expected to vacate the arrests and convictions of the men known as the Friendship Nine.

The eight students at Rock Hill's Friendship JuniorCollege:  Willie McCleod, John Gaines, Clarence Graham, W.T. "Dub" Massey, James Wells, David Wiilliamson Jr., Mack Workman and Robert McCullough (who died in 2006) were led by activist Thomas Gaither of the Congress of Racial Equality.

About a year had passed since the better-known lunch counter encounter at the Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C. and they decided to do it in January 1961 at the white's-only lunch counter at McCrory's variety store.

They were arrested and convicted of trespassing and breach of the peace and opted for a month's hard labor rather than post bail.

Although their records are to be cleared, the men hope their nonviolence can be an example to protesters today.  "We still insist that nonviolence is the way to go," said Clarence Graham.  I think MLK would agree as well.

I am glad this happened.  They were very brave to challenge a horrible system intended to keep blacks down.

"Sinker Wood" Attracting Treasure Hunters-- Part 3

The two men cut the recovered logs into long slabs which expose the grain, which is what people want.

Despite the value of the logs, few people in South Carolina go through the cost and effort to recover them.  It is very dangerous and time-consuming.  There are only seven people doing it in South Carolina., but there are also some in North Carolina and Florida.

An annual South Carolina recovery permit costs $500 for in-state and $1,000 for out-of-state residents.

But to legally recover 'sinker wood", the person must also pay $8,000 to $10,000 got a "submerged cultural resource survey"  to inspect and map a mile of river bottom artifacts such as shipwrecks and fossils along with the wood.

Cypress trees were harvested for boat hulls and decking.  Long leaf pines were in demand for their long, straight trunks.  During the Colonial era they were called the "King's Trees" and reserved for making masts.

The pines were also tapped for rosin and turpentine.

The standard log cut back then was 14 1/2 feet long.  Emerson says, however, that the biggest log he has recovered was a 30-foot-long cypress.  Some of the cypress were well over a century old when felled.

I have read about "sinker wood" being recovered in the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.

Hard Work If You can Find It.  --Cooter

Rosenwald Schools

From the December 7, 1941, Charleston (SC) Post and Courier "Rosenwald Schools" by Robert Behre.

In 2002, the National trust for Historic Preservation listed these schools as most endangered sites. Sears president Julius Rosenwald put up funds to match to build 4,977 new schools for blacks in the South from 1912 to 1932. There were 13 built in Charleston County, 6 each in Berkeley and Colleton counties and 2 in Dorchester.

Only a few are known to be still standing. The interior of the Lincolnville Town Hall is one.

One in southern Charleston County is now a private residence. Of the more than 500 built in South Carolina, only 10-15% survive. They are not as common in SC's Low Country as in Upstate.

About 664,000 blacks in 15 states were educated in Rosenwald Schools.

It Is Too Bad That So Few Know of These Schools That Did So Much to Further Black Lives. --DaCoot

The Old Slave Mart in Charleston, SC

From the May28, 2009, St. Petersburg (Fl) Times "Museum offers quiet testimony to horrors of slavery" by John Frank.

The Old Slave Mart is a relatively new attraction in this city of attractions. It is the only remaining slave auction house in the country and located at 6 Chalmers St. near East Bay Street downtown.

Prominent slave auctioneer Thomas Ryan opened it July 1856 after Charleston banned the outdoor auction of slaves. It was known as Ryan's Mart.

About 40% of enslaved blacks came through Charleston, most landing on Sullivan's Island. First Lady Michelle Obama's ancestors came through Charleston. Her great-great grandfather worked on a rice plantation in Georgetown.

The museum has lots of information on the slave selling business and a first-hand account of slavery by Elijah Green, born in 1843 and recorded by the WPA in 1937. The museum itself is small as most of the compound was torn down, with just a roofed alley left.

A Sad Part of American History. --DaCoot

The Harlem Hell Fighters: A Black World War I Infantry Regiment

From the April 3, 2011, Aiken (SC) Standard.

A cleanup was going on at the Pine Lawn Cemetery in town, once called the Aiken Colored Cemetery. Former slaves, soldiers, paupers, Reconstruction leaders and black leaders were buried there over the years.

The place is now called the Pine Lawn memorial Gardens and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the graves is that of Pemeli Peeples, who died October 1918. He was a member of the 369th Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, a black regiment from New York during World War I.

Dr. Maggi Morehouse of the University of South Carolina-Aiken, knows a lot about the unit because her father was a white officer with the regiment which fought in World War I and World War II in the Pacific. They were known as the Harlem Hellfighters

During World War I, they were sent to Spartanburg, SC, but there was a riot and they were run out of town. Later, they were federalized and inducted into the US Army and sent to France to fight for the French Army where they spent 191 days in the trenches.

Peeple's death came two months before the unit was relieved after Armistice Day. It is not known how he came to be buried in Aiken unless perhaps he had relatives in the city.

An Interesting Story. --Cooter

Rare World War II Bomber Finds a Buyer and Is Destined for a Museum

From Dec. 7, 2010 Reuters.

The newly formed South Carolina Historical Aviation Foundation will pay $15,000 for a B-25C Mitchell bomber which was ditched in a South Carolina lake during a 1944 training exercise.

It is believed to be one of only three B-25Cs in existence. About 1600 were built by North American Aviation during the war.

The group is also restoring a historic 1929 Curtis-Wright hangar in Columbia, SC, where the plane will be on display. Among the notables to sign the hangar's logbook were FDR, Doolittle and Amelia Earhart.

In 1942, Doolittle's Raiders trained for awhile at the Columbia airport before their famous attack on Japan.

The plane spent the last twenty years in various warehouses after being pulled out of Lake Greenwood near Columbia. It crashed June 6, 1944, the same day as D-Day took place and it will cost an estimated $1 million to get it flying again.

Glad to Hear It. --Cooter

Morris Island Lighthouse-- Part 2

See, I kept the light on.

1938-- The lighthouse, originally 1200 feet from the water, is now at the edge of the water. The housing complex dismantled and lighthouse automated June 22.

1962-- Decommissioned and replaced by the new Sullivan's Island Lighthouse.

1965-- sold to a private citizen after being declared surplus property by the US government.

1999-- Save the Light, Inc, buys it for $75,000 to preserve it.

2000-- The SC Department of Natural Resources accepts it, qualifying it for engineering assistance and federal grants.

We looked for the lighthouse, but haven't been able to find it. Must be further up the coast from us. I understand it is now completely surrounded by the ocean.