NEWS

​In a recent article on women in the Revolutionary War, I noted that seven of Eleanor Wilson’s sons fought in the Revolutionary War. They all served in the North or South Carolina militias, rather than in the regular army, and they enlisted for specific periods of time, returning home to Steele Creek between engagements. While Eleanor’s husband Robert was too old to fight, he was taken prisoner for ferrying supplies to Patriot troops. The family’s experience serves to illustrate both the character of the war in the Carolinas, and the sacrifices made by so many families.

Robert “Robbie” Wilson was born in Pennsylvania in 1717, and around 1747 he married Eleanor Carothers. In 1748 they had their first child, Joseph. The family moved to Mecklenburg County sometime around 1750, and their second son, Aaron, was born there in 1751. A number of other sons followed: John (1752), James (1757), Robert (1760), Samuel (1762), Thomas (1763), Zaccheus (1765), Josiah (1766), and Moses (1769). Most of the information on the Wilson brothers comes from Elizabeth F. Ellett’s biography of Eleanor Wilson in "Women in the Revolution" (1852). Pension applications are another source of information, but it wasn’t until 1832 that militia members were eligible to apply, and not until 1836 were widows eligible. By this time, many of the Wilson men had died.

Two members of the Wilson family did apply for pensions: James Wilson in 1833, when he was 75 years old, and Jane Wilson, widow of Robert Wilson, Jr., in 1838. James’ petition illustrates the staggered terms of service by many Patriots. According to his application, he was first drafted in October 1779 into William Barnett’s company of North Carolina militia under General Robert Irwin. He participated in several skirmishes with Tories and British scouting parties in Mecklenburg County and adjoining South Carolina.

He was discharged in January 1880 after three months’ service. He was drafted again in June of that year and fought at the battle of Hanging Rock in South Carolina. He was discharged on September 1 after three months’ service. As the British approached Charlotte that month, he volunteered and participated in a small skirmish as British troops approached Charlotte, and then he was posted at Tuckaseegee Ford on the Catawba River.

While there, his battalion heard that General William Lee Davidson had been killed at Cowan’s Ford, and they marched into Rowan County. After three or four weeks, his enlistment was up and he again returned home. At some point, he volunteered in response to a declaration by General Nathanael Greene and served four more months. He was adjudged to have served 16 months, and granted an annual pension of $53.53, retroactive to March 1, 1831. He died in Tennessee in 1843.

In Jane Wilson’s application, she relied on the affidavits of Robert Wilson’s youngest brothers, Moses and Josiah. In his statement, Josiah listed the names of his brothers who served:  Joseph, Aaron, John, James, Robert, Samuel and Zaccheus. Moses and Josiah recalled that their brothers were eager participants in the war and were active from the beginning of the war in the South until Cornwallis left the state in 1781.

Aaron, then 29, served as a lieutenant in the Battle of Stono Ferry, which took place near Charleston in June 1779. Robert Wilson, Jr. remembered that he and Joseph were “out in the North Carolina Militia under Genl. Lincoln before and during the siege of Charleston in 1780.”  On May 12, they were taken prisoner but were later released on parole. According to the terms of their parole, they were freed in exchange for a promise not to fight against the British until they were formally exchanged.

They made their way home, only to find that all paroles had been cancelled, and that the British were requiring all able-bodied men to join their forces. Refusing to fight their own countrymen, they joined the forces of Brigadier General Thomas Sumter, who was leading a brigade of South Carolina militia.

On August 6, 1780, Joseph and Robert Jr. participated in the battle at Hanging Rock, South Carolina, a crossroads between Camden and Charlotte, where Joseph killed a British soldier and stole his rifle. Two days after the Patriot defeat at the battle of Camden, South Carolina on August 16, the brothers participated in the Battle of Fishing Creek, near where the creek joined the Catawba River south of Lancaster, South Carolina.

On August 19, the elder Robert Wilson and his 28-year-old son John were captured while attempting to deliver supplies to Sumter’s troops camped near Fishing Creek. They were imprisoned in the jail at Camden along with several of their neighbors. According to historian Elizabeth F. Ellett, though Robert was not a combatant, he was kept because of his “position as an influential citizen who had numerous sons fighting for the Patriot cause.”

British general Charles Cornwallis reached Charlotte in September, and his troops occupied it for six weeks. While he was there, a group of British troops under Patrick Ferguson was defeated at King’s Mountain. Cornwallis then left for Winnsboro, South Carolina to regroup, and on the way he and his staff occupied Robert Wilson’s home.

Moses Wilson, who was then 11, recalled hiding in a loft while Cornwallis’ men were there, fearing that they would carry him off. The British demanded that Mrs. Wilson “provide for them as though they had been her friends. Although the soldiers were seizing every article in the way of provision on the place, Mrs. Wilson acted her part so well that the General decided…that she at least was not unfriendly to the Royal cause.”

When Lord Cornwallis attempted to enlist her in the King's cause, she replied that although “her husband and children were indeed dear to her,” she would “sooner than see one of my family turn back from the glorious enterprise … take these boys, … and with them would myself enlist under Sumter's standard.” In fact, her 15-year-old son Zaccheus had just left to join the Patriot troops.

The following day, some of Cornwallis’ scouts captured Zaccheus and the general took him to scout the best ford on the Catawba River. When they arrived, the ford turned out to be deep and treacherous, and Cornwallis suspected that he had been misled. According to Ellett, when Cornwallis threatened to cut off his head, Zaccheus replied that he had the power to do so, as he had no arms, and was his prisoner.  ““But, sir,’ said he, ‘don't you think it would be a cowardly act for you to strike an unarmed boy with your sword?’”

Impressed with Zaccheus’s courage, and having found calmer water upstream, Cornwallis dismissed him, “telling him to go home and take care of his mother, and to tell her to keep her boys at home.”

When Cornwallis arrived in Winnsboro, he ordered that Robert and John Wilson be moved to a prison in Charleston. Although their group was carefully guarded along the way, they tricked a guard and managed to escape. The Wilsons and several others made it back to Mecklenburg County, traveling almost 200 miles through enemy country. Cornwallis later re-entered North Carolina and set out for Guilford Courthouse, near present-day Greensboro.

Robert Wilson's headstone at Steele Creek Presbyterian Church (Found on findagrave.com)

Jane Wilson was unable to provide information on any other campaigns or tours of duty in which her husband had served, but she said that he and his brothers had been involved in nearly every campaign from 1779 until the British left North Carolina. In their affidavits supporting Jane’s application, Moses and Josiah mentioned other battles in which one or more of the Wilsons fought. Among these were Brier Creek near Savannah on March 3, 1779, Ramsour’s Mill in Lincoln County on June 20, 1780, the patriot victory at Cowpens, South Carolina on January 17, 1781, and Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781. This last battle was a defeat for the Patriots, but it was pivotal, as Cornwallis lost almost a quarter of his army.

Robert Wilson Jr. also participated in the Wilmington Campaign, the last military operation in North Carolina. As Cornwallis made his way toward the coast and Virginia, he ordered Col. Balfour at Charleston to send a detachment from Charleston and take Wilmington, thus acquiring a port through which he could be resupplied. The attempt was successful, and although a Patriot militia assembled at Heron’s Bridge near Wilmington, a threatened British attack sent them packing.

After the Wilmington Campaign, Cornwallis and his troops made their way through Virginia, and eventually surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781. Estimates indicate that counting the time that members of the Wilson family had either been fighting or imprisoned, each family member had served not less than two years each, and that the equivalent of 16 years had been served by them as a group.

After the Revolution, the Wilson family scattered. By 1792, all of the brothers had moved West; all eventually ended up in Tennessee, where some of their uncles had preceded them. Robert and Eleanor remained at Steele Creek. Robert died there in 1794 and his wife Eleanor around 1802. They were buried in the cemetery at Steele Creek Presbyterian Church.

For further information, consult Elizabeth F. Ellet’s article on Eleanor Wilson in the 1852 series "Women in the Revolution," available here.

Jane Wilson’s pension application is available here.

James Wilson’s application is here.