Decision at Fletcher's Mill

by David Caringer

  “The regular continentals will be lined up about 150 paces behind your main body near the top of the hill. Colonel Washington and his cavalry are gonna be around back of the hill out of sight. As Benny gets here, he’s gonna see you boys out in the open and come chargin’ in here thinkin’ he’s got us whipped. I want you pickets to give special attention to their officers. Anybody hangin’ back from the line on horseback is a fair and special target for ya. They’ll probably see what’s happenin’ and charge you with some of them dragoon cavalry fellas. It’s OK to shoot them too. The thing is, I know how long it takes to load a rifle. Just shoot, reload, shoot again, and run.” This brought a muffled chorus of protest from around the fire.

  The general paused a few seconds and then went on, “Now wait a minute! Just shut up and listen. When you knock down some of their officers and empty some of those dragoon saddles, they’re gonna be good and mad. When you skedaddle, they’re gonna think they got you whipped again, and they’ll come on like a herd of drunk mules with their tails on fire. You boys in the second line are just gonna shoot three rounds each, and then I want you to run too. They’ll turn into a chargin’ mob as soon as they see that. I want you to run around the hill on our left side. As you disappear, Benny’s boys will run headlong into our continentals near the top of the hill, and they’ll be flanked by our cavalry comin’ past you in the other direction. The only thing they’ll be able to do is die or give up.” He paused again, and this time the wisdom of what he was saying began to dawn on some of the men even though there were still muffled complaints about being expected to deliberately run away.

  This morning, Billy and Silas were among the hand-picked riflemen positioned in the line of about 150 skirmishers far in front of Colonel Andrew Pickens’s main body of militia. They watched as the British dragoons rode out of the trees at the far end of the meadow and formed a line. When the cavalry began to move slowly forward, Billy forgot his fear and jumbled thoughts. He selected a target near the center of the line of horsemen. The cavalry began to trot. The seconds seemed to slow perceptibly as a bugle blast sent the horses into a gallop.

  Billy felt a momentary twinge of anxious dread as he realized that he could now distinctly see his target’s face under the bouncing dragoon helmet. He had never before aimed his rifle at another man. Pushing this aside, he took a sharp breath and exhaled slowly as he calmed his aim and squeezed the trigger. Almost all of the skirmishers fired at the same time. The smoke billowed and blew quickly away as Billy saw his target collapse and fall from the saddle. Many of the saddles were empty now.

  The cavalry charge continued, but some of the horsemen began to shy away as a few more rifle shots took deadly effect. Some of the galloping dragoons were sporadically returning fire with their short carbines. Billy was frantically reloading as he watched a huge dragoon still charging toward him. Silas suddenly screamed and swung his unloaded rifle, butt first, at the nose of the charging horse, causing it to lurch to a halt and throw the dragoon forward. The cavalryman began to swing his saber before he was thrown. Silas couldn’t avoid the blade and the weight of the man as the horse now stumbled and rolled onto both of them. Billy momentarily froze in horror as his brain struggled to accept that his friend could not have survived the impact of both the rider and the horse. The area around him was filled with smoke, screams, shots, and galloping horses.

  The dragoon’s horse regained its footing and darted away. The dragoon began to rise. Billy stared in stricken shock at the crushed body of his friend. Silas seemed to be impaled with the cavalry saber, which was broken off about a foot from the hilt. The shock turned to rage as Billy ran forward and began beating the dragoon with his rifle butt until the man again collapsed. The rest of the charging cavalry went around, over, or through the militia pickets to continue their attack against the next line further up the hill. They were met with two ragged volleys that emptied more saddles and brought the charge to a confused halt.

  The sound of drums grew closer as the British infantry came up the slope following the now broken cavalry charge. Some of the riflemen managed to reload and began to shoot at the mounted officers directing the advance from behind the lines of infantry. The officers weren’t difficult to distinguish even if they hadn’t been mounted. Several of them fell. Billy was screaming and continued beating the now inert dragoon until someone grabbed his sleeve and started dragging him away toward the left flank. He tried to struggle free until he recognized the kindly face of Sergeant Duncan. The sergeant was saying something as he pulled Billy along. They were beginning their withdrawal as ordered by the general the night before.

  Billy still hadn’t reloaded. This was difficult even under ideal circumstances. Loading these long rifles involved pouring the measured powder into the muzzle, then wrapping the oversized lead ball in a thin scrap of leather soaked with grease, and forcing it down the barrel with the ramrod. The rod was returned to its holder loops along the barrel to avoid losing it. The lock was moved to the half-cock position, and the pan was opened. A measured amount of fine grained powder was poured in to prime the weapon and the pan was closed. These rifles took a long time to load even with an expert rifleman handling them.

  British infantry with their Brown Bess muskets were trained to fire and reload as many as four times per minute. A good rifleman could fire and reload about once per minute. The rifle’s advantage was that it could accurately hit targets from over two hundred yards, while muskets were only effective within seventy-five yards. Conventional infantry warfare at this time involved large numbers of massed muskets facing each other across small open fields. The side that could reload and fire more rapidly usually won the battle. The musketry would be followed with bayonet charges to secure the defeated enemy.

  Billy now began running along with the other surviving men from his group of forward skirmishers. They quickly merged with the now retreating members of the second militia line. Billy was still filled with rage and grief. Silas was his only true friend in the entire unit. He couldn’t believe he just left him out there alone. Shaking his head and dragging his sleeve across his blood and tearstained face, he continued the laborious process of reloading as he ran to keep up with his comrades.

  CHAPTER 2

  Ira Fletcher was the wealthiest man in the county. His ancestors were fletchers charged with constructing arrows used by the bowmen of the British Royal Army. The family changed their occupation from fletchers to millwrights when the military use of gunpowder made arrows irrelevant. The family name remained Fletcher. Ira’s father, Benjamin, decided to move to the New World with wife and children in 1726. He inherited considerable wealth from his own father, but the New World beckoned with a promise of greater opportunity. Ira was twelve years old when his family set sail from England. Ira’s mother and older siblings were taken with fever and perished during the passage.

  Benjamin and Ira found the vastness of South Carolina quite intimidating as they stood together on the Charleston dock at the journey’s end. They prayed for courage and protection before pushing further inland. Father and son spent months searching for a new home and the elusive “greater opportunity.” They eventually found a steep hill in a forested glen along a creek feeding into the Broad River. Benjamin knew this was the perfect place for a mill. It offered a swift waterfall with a natural cave cut deep into the rock behind the water course. The surrounding land was perfect. The forest held plenty of timber and stone for construction.

  Benjamin purchased two hundred acres on both sides of the creek. He was a devout Methodist who abhorred slavery but desperately needed manpower. He bought four stout slaves and granted them immediate freedom on the condition that they stay with him seven years as paid laborers. This was unusual behavior in the South Carolina of 1727. Benjamin, Ira, and these now free laborers spent those seven years effectively. They cleared the land, built a home, diverted part of the creek to an upper mill pond, and constructed a two-story stone mill house with grinding stations on both the upper
and lower floors.

  The massive mill wheel was fed and turned by water from the mill pond. The wheel turned an axle that was carefully hewn from the trunk of a single giant oak tree. The axle turned the upper “load-stone” grinding wheel directly. It also turned the lower grinding wheel through a handmade set of gears and axles. The upper grinding wheel was considered permanent and weighed nearly a ton. The lower grinding wheel was much smaller and could be replaced with a saw blade when needed. The mill house was constructed on the side of a very steep hill over a natural cave. Both floors could be accessed from outside via an external stone stairway. The mill house was a marvel of modern ingenuity and workmanship when it was complete.

  Ezekiel, one of the former slaves, stayed on at the mill when it was finished. Benjamin trained him well, and he slowly took responsibility for day-to-day management of the complex mill operations. Ezekiel, or “Zeke” as Benjamin called him, seemed to become a living part of the mill with the passage of time. This eventually earned him a last name. This was something that was almost unheard of for a black man in the southern colonies. Ezekiel, the miller, slowly became Ezekiel Miller. Ezekiel was a shining example of industry, integrity, and hope to Benjamin Fletcher and his friends. The rural colonial slave owners who learned about this odd phenomenon at Fletcher’s Mill didn’t share these unorthodox ideas though.

  Ezekiel’s strange position of authority at the mill soon seemed like a threat to the slave-owning planters’ fortunes and way of life. Benjamin became very rich and influential as time passed. Ezekiel became quite influential in his own right. Petty jealousies and grudges began to form which would someday fester into open conflict when the conditions were right. The mill drew customers from all over the county and beyond. Benjamin’s investment bore fruit. He made more land purchases and gradually amassed a great fortune in real property and hard cash. More people moved near the mill, and a village slowly developed.

  The village and Ira grew at roughly the same pace. The boy was educated by his father, and by Zeke. Benjamin longed to send Ira to the best schools in far off Charleston. He never remarried after the death of his wife, but he was determined to find a wife for his son among the Charleston gentry. Benjamin was in this mindset when he purchased a grand old house in the city. He and Ira left the mill operation in the capable hands of Zeke and moved to Charleston in the spring of 1735.

  Benjamin continued to purchase land in the area near Fletcher’s Mill. He soon owned several very productive farms. Agricultural labor on large farms in the southern colonies was almost exclusively the burden of slaves. Benjamin abhorred the very idea. He continued to confound his neighbors by purchasing slaves and granting them freedom in return for working his farms as paid laborers. When this became impractical, he changed the arrangement so that the farm laborers took a personal interest in farm output.

  Benjamin became a pioneer in what would eventually be known as “share-cropping.” He gave employment to anyone who was willing to work regardless of their skin color. His personal fortune continued to grow. Other large planters continued to seethe with resentment over the unorthodox outlook Benjamin had regarding their dependence on slavery. They knew their high profits wouldn’t continue if they were forced to pay for labor. Money was a blinding influence. Greed ruled these planters’ souls. They found it easy to hate anyone who showed empathy for the suffering of mere slaves.

  Tensions nearly reached a boiling point when several of these area planters decided to boycott Fletcher’s Mill. They began to transport their crops farther away to other mills for processing. Benjamin had a reputation for reasonable milling prices, but many of these men felt they could no longer tolerate the way he did business. Benjamin reacted by giving his larger farms to several of his share-croppers. These families were already working some of his largest landholdings. He obtained written guarantees in return for these deeds. These farms would always use Fletcher’s Mill to process their harvests.

  When the boycotting planters realized they now faced higher prices at more distant mills, along with greater shipping costs, they were furious. The stubbornness of these men brought several to financial ruin. Some found themselves forced to sell large land parcels to raise capital needed to satisfy creditors. Benjamin was one of the few men in the western part of the colony with enough money to buy rather than sell, and he ended up owning even more land.

  Complaints were made to colonial authorities. Benjamin enjoyed growing influence with the royal governor and members of the royal court. They knew him to be a man of impeccable character and great financial means, even if he had strange social views. The planters’ complaints fell on deaf ears, and Benjamin continued to prosper. This seemed to Benjamin as though it was confirmation of God’s blessing. The villagers at Fletcher’s Mill shared this opinion, and they also continued to prosper.

  Ira was too old for primary school training, and not formally educated enough to succeed in college at this time. Tutors were hired and the young man was soon immersed in study involving everything from mathematics to philosophy and classic Greek. Benjamin was a wealthy man with growing influence. He associated with other wealthy men and soon became involved in colonial politics himself. Ira was ever more deeply immersed in the mysterious world of upper society as he neared adulthood. The young man’s prospects seemed boundless. He quickly caught the eye of many young ladies and their parents as a wealthy youth with a bright future.

  Ira eventually fell in love with a beautiful, sweet-natured belle of Charleston society who returned his affection wholeheartedly. Mary Simpson was well educated and displayed a refined grace that seemed misplaced in one so young. She was quick to laugh but not foolish. She was generous and soft-spoken without seeming weak. Mary was a devout Christian with impeccable character who enjoyed a good joke and the pleasure of long walks in the garden with Ira. She agreed to marry him as soon as he asked her. Benjamin quickly came to love Mary as deeply as he loved his son. She had that effect on everyone around her. The couple settled into a life together that seemed too good to be true.

  Tragically, smallpox took Benjamin right after Ira’s twenty-first birthday. Ira was devastated. Mary desperately tried to help, but anything she did to ease his pain seemed to push him away from her. Small disagreements soon blew up into loud arguments and increasingly raw emotions. Ira seemed to lose his moral compass with Benjamin’s death. He inherited all of his father’s material wealth but little of his noble character.

  Benjamin’s estate contained large accounts in some of the Charleston banks. This money now belonged to Ira. He also inherited Fletcher’s Mill, the property around the mill, a large house overlooking the mill village, over one thousand acres of prime farmland, and the mansion house in Charleston. Money was not a problem in the conventional way, but its abundance soon caused other difficulties as Ira progressed from grief at the loss of his father to arrogant self-indulgence.

  Ira felt totally adrift. He contemplated what he saw as a boringly predictable future for himself and his new wife. Outwardly he did his best to settle down and establish himself as a productive member of society, but at home Ira became increasingly violent and unpredictable. Mary spent many long lonely nights crying out to God for Ira to come through this and once again be the man she loved so dearly. Ira seemed to grow worse as each day passed.

  Alcohol became a problem for Ira that was difficult to keep secret. On one stormy night, Ira found himself locked up by the Charleston constabulary after a particularly raucous party resulted in a fire that destroyed most of a fine old house near the docks. The magistrate was a friend of Ira’s late father. He agreed to set Ira free the next day with a written pledge to sell the Charleston house, pay for the damages, and move back to Fletcher’s Mill. The Charleston mansion sold easily, and the damages were quickly settled to the satisfaction of the Charleston authorities.

  The couple said goodbye to all their friends and family in the city. Mary was blessed with a longed-for peace as life became more stable for them
at Fletchers Mill. They were welcomed as landed gentry by most people in the growing village. Mary was pregnant within a few months with their only child. The entire village celebrated the birth of their son, Isaiah, with them. Ira learned to control his drinking and his fiery temper. Isaiah grew to be a fine young man. With Zeke managing the mill and Ira managing everything else, the family and the village continued to prosper.

  Ira eventually turned away from the bottle and the irresponsible ways of his youth. Mary’s saintly influence drew him to the Bible. He finally came to the end of himself one day and surrendered his life to Christ at the small village church. The circuit parson baptized him in the mill pond on the same afternoon. Ira spent the next few years reading and absorbing scriptures. He used every opportunity he could find to share the Gospel with anyone who would listen. Ira and Mary continued to mature into the roles God and society blessed them with. He developed into a fiery preacher of the Gospel who traveled throughout the colony spreading the Word with all the intent that he had used in his earlier less noble pursuits.

  Years passed. Isaiah was married to a beautiful young woman from a wealthy Camden family in the summer of 1763. Ira presided over the wedding with Mary beaming in the wings. The ceremony was a beautiful affair done outside under a flower-woven trellis arch with two hundred witnesses present. Most of the guests were landed gentry just like Ira and Mary. They represented both sides of the tense political environment. The assembly managed to lay aside their differences for the day in order to celebrate the promise of a bright future for these two young people. The future seemed promising indeed for the new couple. Natalie quickly became more than just a daughter-in-law to Ira and Mary. In the autumn of that same year, they were delighted to learn that they were going to be grandparents. On a bright spring morning in 1764, they welcomed their new granddaughter, Elizabeth Mary Fletcher, into the world.