The fence rail volley

The story, from several sources

This account blends Rothbard’s chapter with the other sources listed below and has not yet been separated into Rothbard’s own account and the fuller story. Read Rothbard’s chapter 55 for his account.

After Charleston fell in May 1780, the British thought South Carolina was pacified. In the back country the Tories they trusted to hold it plundered their neighbors, and the neighbors began to gather in bands. At Rocky Mount Colonel Turnbull sent Captain Christian Huck, whom Rothbard calls Houk, out with Tory militia to burn and plunder and crush the rebel partisans. Huck made camp at James Williamson’s plantation, in the fields between the rail fences along the road, with his tents pitched in the open. The rebel officers held a council of war and decided to attack on foot. Before dawn on 12 July they came up on two sides, and at first light Bratton’s men fired from behind the fence, resting their rifles on the rails. Huck ran for his horse, waving his sword, and was shot as he mounted. Rothbard counts almost ninety Tory casualties against one rebel dead; other accounts put the Loyalists at about 115 men and the rebels at about 250. For him the point was how it was won: every action decided by a vote of the whole militia. It was one of twelve fights in July and early August, and the back country took heart.