User:OburgCtynative/Siege of Fort Motte

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Siege

Arriving May 8, Lee and Marion immediately surrounded the fort, which was dominated by the two-story Motte residence and garrisoned by about 140 British and Hessian regulars under McPherson. On the approach of the Americans, McPherson's troops had evicted Rebecca Motte from the main house, and she had taken up residence outside the fort at the overseer's house.

As the forces of Watson and Rawdon were still active and might come to relieve the siege, Marion and Lee needed to bring the siege rapidly to a conclusion. At Fort Watson they had constructed a tower from which the attackers could fire into the fort, but this idea was not workable under the conditions at Fort Motte. The idea was then put forward to set fire to the buildings within the defenses. <Instead of using a tower as they had done at Fort Watson, they dug a ditch close enough to the house from which they would be able to fire and reach the roof.<<Maryland Gazette>> Mrs. Motte, apparently sympathetic to the Patriot cause, provided the arrows <a bow and its combustible attachment that had been brought from India <<“From Caldwell’s Life of Greene” as published in Maryland Gazette, July 24, 1823: (Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon Nathaniel Greene by Charles Caldwell)>>. The American forces waited until around noon when the shingles on the roof of the house were dry that were used to ignite the roof of the house on May 12 and used the apparatus provided by Mrs. Motte to light the roof on fire <Maryland Gazette>. When the defenders tried to go onto the roof to extinguish the flames, the attackers fired on them with their six-pound gun, driving them off. <Maryland Gazette> The garrison surrendered shortly after, and the Americans moved quickly to put out the fires before the whole house was engulfed.

Aftermath

The captured garrison was released on parole to return to Charleston.<Following the British surrender, the garrison, with the exception of the regular officers, were kept in Colonel William Thomson's millhouse which was at the bottom of the hill on which Fort Motte stood. The regular officers stayed with Col. Lee and his officers. <Letter to the The Royal Gazette, Charleston, SC From Saturday, April 13, to Wednesday, April 17, 1782>> Before they left, Mrs. Motte and the American and British officers shared a meal. <Maryland Gazette. Need to decide if want to move this somewhere else in this paragraph.> Near sunset of May 14th, Colonel Lee ordered the first of several prisoners be taken from their confinement at Colonel William Thomson's millhouse near the battlefield to Mrs. Motte's fence and hung for various crimes. The first to be hanged was a Lieut. Fulker from the militia. After Fulker was taken down from the fence, near dark on the 14th, Col. Lee ordered that private militia man John Jackson be hanged. On the morning of the 15th, Jackson's body was cut down and the bodies of both he and Fulker were buried in the redoubt which was being levelled by the American troops. When Jackson was cut down, another private militia man Hugh Maskelly was carried to the fence to be hanged. After Maskelly was taken to be hanged, another prisoner Levi Smith was to be the fourth man to be hanged. Before this could be carried out, General Marion interrupted and ordered Smith to be removed from the gallows. General Marion was upset that Col. Lee had taken it upon himself to order the hangings when Gen. Marion was in command of the fort at that time. <The Royal Gazette, Charleston, SC From Saturday, April 13, to Wednesday, April 17, 1782> General Marion proceeded to the port of Georgetown, where he found its British garrison had withdrawn, while Lee was ordered by General Greene to assist in recapturing Augusta, Georgia. <Citation needed>

References

1. Cate, p. 162
2. Letter, Sumter to Greene, May 2nd 1781. Greene Papers, Volume III <VIII - corrected> . p. 193 <Only reference to Fort Motte in this letter: “The Hessian horses is Gone Downwards Except Twenty five that crossed from the fort at Motts & Went in to Camden With Maj^r Doyl [John Doyle]. … Those at M^r Motts Very Much So.”>
3. http://www.nationalregister.sc.gov/calhoun/S10817709008/index.htm

<?. The Royal Gazette, Charleston, SC From Saturday, April 13, to Wednesday, April 17, 1782>

<?. “From Caldwell’s Life of Greene” as published in Maryland Gazette, July 24, 1823: (accurate title is: Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon Nathaniel Greene by Charles Caldwell)

• Cate, Founding Fighters
• Letter, Lord Rawdon to Cornwallis, May 24, 1781 in R. W. Gibbes. Documentary History of the American Revolution in 1781 and 1782. Appleton and Co. 1855. p. 79. <only reference to Fort Motte in this letter is: “My first news, upon landing at Nelson’s, was, that the post at Motte’s house had fallen.  It was a simple redoubt, and had been attacked formally by sap. Lieut. McPherson had maintained it gallantly till the house in the centre of it was set in flames by fire arrows, which obliged his men to throw themselves into the ditch, and surrender at discretion.”>
• Papers of the Continental Congress, M247, R175, I 155, volume 2. p. 8<3 (83) From Letters from Maj. Gen. Nathaniel (sic) Greene, 1776 - 85>. National Archives, Washington DC.
• Levi Smith. List of Officers in the Army. London: War Office. 1783.
• Letter, Col. Nesbit Balfour to Cornwallis, 21 May 1781. Cornwallis Papers, PRO 30/11/6. <The Cornwallis Papers: The Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Theatre of the American Revolutionary Way by Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis>
• Letter, Marion to Greene, 11 May 1781. Greene Papers. Volume VIII. P. 242. <Only reference to Fort Motte in this letter: “Gen^l [Thomas] Sumter is gone against the post at Orangeburg.  Our approaches here is almost up to the Enemys abbattis.  Today we shall make Lodgement at the foot of their work & make no Doubt we shall carry the post. …”>
• Letter, Lord Rawdon to Cornwallis, 24 May 1781. R. W. Gibbes, Documentary History of the American Revolution in 1781 and 1782. D. Appleton and Co. 1855. p. 79. <Duplicate "cite">