After his unsuccessful attack on
Rocky Mount,
Colonel Sumter crossed the
Catawba, and fell upon a British post at
Hanging Rock. 12 miles east of the river, Aug. 6, 1780, commanded by
Major Carden.
A large number of British and Tories were there.
Among the former were the infantry of
Tarleton's Legion.
Sumter soon dispersed them, when his men scattered through the camp, seeking plunder and drinking the liquors found there.
Intoxication followed.
The
British rallied, and attacked the disordered patriots, and a severe skirmish ensued.
The
British were reinforced, and
Sumter was compelled to retreat: but the
British had been so severely handled that they did not attempt to pursue.
With a few prisoners and some booty,
Sumter retreated towards the Waxhaw, bearing away many of his wounded men. The battle lasted about four hours.
Sumter lost twelve killed and forty-one wounded. At the same time
Marion was smiting the
British and Tories with sudden and fierce blows among the swamps of the lower country, on the borders of the
Pedee;
Pickens was annoying
Cruger near the
Saluda, and
Clarke was calling for the
patriots along the
Savannah and other
Georgia streams to drive
Brown from
Augusta.
Hanging
Rock is a huge conglomerate bolder near the
Lancaster and
Camden highway, a few miles east of the
Catawba River, in
South Carolina.
It is a shelving rock, 20 or 30 feet in diameter, lying on the verge of a high bank of a small stream, nearly 100 feet above it. Under its concavity fifty men might find shelter from rain.
