Andrew Williamson

Background

Andrew Williamson was born around 1730, in Scotland, United Kingdom. As a youngster he emigrated with his parents, whose names are not known, to British Colonial America.

Career

Like many other Scots on the frontier, Williamson became a trader, known by 1758 to be supplying cattle and hogs to frontier forts. He may also have driven cattle to Charles Town to market.

On September 22, 1760, he was commissioned lieutenant in the South Carolina regiment which served in James Grant's expedition against the Cherokee. By 1765 he was established as a planter, with several small holdings on Hard Labor Creek of the Savannah, and three years later, with Patrick Calhoun and others, he voiced the needs of the back country in a petition for courts, schools, ministers of the gospel, and public roads.

In 1770 he was named to lay out and keep in repair a road to his plantation, "Whitehall, " six miles west of Ninety Six.

When the Revolution began, Williamson, a fine-looking major of militia, was so influential in the back country and so sound a Whig, that he was elected to the first provincial congress and was awarded a contract to supply the troops. Appointed to enforce the Association in his district, he was summoned with the militia to support W. H. Drayton against the Loyalists, and for the capture of Robert Cuningham he received the thanks of the provincial congress.

Besieged by the Loyalists in Ninety Six, he signed the treaty with them on November 21, 1775, but was in the "Snow Campaign" of December which continued the civil war.

In 1776 he led the panic-stricken militia on his second Cherokee expedition, and when he was ambushed at Essenecca his horse was shot under him. Promoted to colonel, he commanded 2, 000 South Carolina troops in the devastating campaign which subdued the Cherokee.

He received the unanimous thanks of the Assembly and on May 20, 1777, signed the treaty which took from the Indians a large land cession. A popular officer, Williamson was promoted to brigadier-general in 1778 and commanded the South Carolina militia in Robert Howe's Florida expedition, sharing the blame for its failure.

In 1779 he was with Lincoln before Savannah; but it was necessary to furlough his deserting militia when the British approached Charleston. He was accused of treason after the fall of that city, when, encamped with 300 men near Augusta, he reputedly concealed the news of Charleston's surrender for a time and avoided action. It is said that he was rewarded with a British commission for advising his officers to return home and take protection, but no documentary evidence of this allegation has been revealed, and his brother-in-law, Col. Samuel Hammond, one of the officers present, affirms that he vainly urged that the struggle be continued from North Carolina.

After his surrender, he remained at "Whitehall, " where he was captured by the Americans in the hope that he might thereby consider himself released from parole. He escaped, however, and went into the British lines at Charleston. So strong was contemporary feeling against him, that when Col. Isaac Hayne captured him, it was supposed that he would be hung in Greene's camp, and his prompt rescue by the British confirmed that supposition. He is credited, however, with having later supplied the Whigs with valuable information through Col. John Laurens, and in 1783 General Greene intervened to save his estates from confiscation. Soon after the war he ended his days in the comfortable seclusion of his home in St. Paul's Parish, near Charleston, leaving a name for honesty and benevolence, and an estate, including ninety-odd slaves, valued at more than £2, 600. Andrew Williamson died on March 21, 1786, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Achievements

• Andrew Williamson was a commanding officer in the South Carolina backcountry militia, who led numerous campaigns against Loyalists and Cherokee, who in 1776 had launched an attack against frontier settlements across a front from Tennessee to central South Carolina. In addition, he was particularly effective in suppressing the Cherokee, killing an unknown number of Cherokees and destroying 31 of their towns.

Connections

Andrew Williamson was married to Eliza B. Tyler, by whom he had two sons and two daughters.

brother-in-law:

Samuel Hammond

Wife:

Eliza Betty Williamson (Tyler)