December 22nd, 1775
"While those engaged at Ninety-Six, South Carolina, were negotiating a truce, Patriot Col.
Richard Richardson was already on its way into the upcountry to arrest
the leaders of the Loyalist party. Richardson decided that his mission
was not affected by the truce signed at Ninety-Six and proceeded to
carry out his instructions.
"Receiving intelligence that the most
active leaders of the opposition were encamped on Cherokee land, he
dispatched a force under Colonel William Thomson (SC 3rd Regiment of
Rangers), which surprised the Loyalists on the morning of December 22
and defeated them in the Battle of Great Cane Brake. Most of the
Loyalist band were captured and sent back to face charges of sedition in
Charleston. However, Patrick Cunningham and Col. Joseph Robinson
escaped to the Cherokee Nation.
"The Great Cane Brake was located on
the Reedy River in the southern portion of present Greenville County, South Carolina.
The only location Colonel Richardson gives us is that the site was a
long march of nearly twenty-five miles from his camp at Hollingsworth's
Mill on Raborn's Creek (in present-day Laurens County, and the modern
spelling is Rabon Creek). Luxuriant growths of cane were quite common in
river valleys of the upcountry before the US Revolution."
December 22nd, 1775
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