Thomas Sumter was a soldier in the Colony of Virginia militia; a brigadier general in the South Carolina militia during the American War of Independence, a planter, and a politician. The most significant phase of Sumter's career was in the Revolution; his importance was out of all proportion to the small numbers he commanded.
Background
Thomas was born on August 14, 1734 near Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It is said that his father, William Sumter, was an English redemptioner of Welsh extraction who died when Thomas was very young, and that his mother, Patience, was a midwife, who lived to a great age.
Education
He had little schooling.
Career
Thomas worked in his father's mill, tended his mother's sheep, and went with wild youths on the campaigns of Braddock and Forbes. His most enlightening experience, perhaps, was in 1762, when, after serving as sergeant of Virginia troops against the Cherokees, he accompanied Henry Timberlake on a mission to the head men and visited England with Chief Outacity.
He was lodged for debt in the Staunton jail, escaped, and in 1765 acquired lands near Eutaw Springs, South Carolina. Here he opened a crossroads store near Nelson's Ferry, became a justice of the peace. Elected to the first and second provincial congresses, he served as captain with the mounted rangers under William Thomson; and during an arduous Cherokee campaign he was placed in the Continental service as lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd Regiment of riflemen (later the 6th).
After campaigns in Georgia and Florida he resigned, on September 19, 1778, a full colonel, and was in retirement when the British conquered South Carolina in 1780. Unlike most South Carolina leaders, he did not take protection, and when Tarleton raided and destroyed his home, he joined Whig refugees near Charlotte, North Carolina. Informally elected general, he established headquarters on Sugar Creek, and revived resistance so successfully that Lord Rawdon offered 500 guineas for his betrayal.
Repulsed at Rocky Mount on July 30, 1780, he was successful at Hanging Rock on August 6, but in cooperating with Gates he was overtaken by Tarleton at Fishing Creek on August 18 and completely routed. Within a short time, however, he resumed operations, and on October 6, 1780, was commissioned brigadier in command of South Carolina militia. At Fishdam Ford on November 9 he escaped Wemyss' attempt to kidnap him, and on Tyger River on November 20 he repulsed Tarleton in the well-fought battle of Blackstock's Hill, where he was severely wounded. For these achievements he received the thanks of Congress on January 13, 1781.
Declining activity until February 16, 1781, he marched then for Granby, but finding the post had been warned, he went on a daring raid against Thomson's, Fort Watson, and Nelson's Ferry, and successfully returned to Sugar Creek. In spite of the non-existence of the state government, Sumter now undertook to raise a dependable force of mounted state troops.
With the sanction of Governor Rutledge and General Greene, he enlisted regulars for ten months' service, to be paid in negroes and plunder from Loyalists. The scheme, known as "Sumter's law, " was successful in procuring a force, but it augmented civil war between Whig and Tory, and gave Sumter the name of plunderer. Without an open break with Greene, Sumter maneuvered to maintain his command as a separate unit until July 1781, when, having finally joined Greene, he led the "raid of the dog days" into the low country. Though causing Dorchester and Biggin to be evacuated, he was repulsed at Quinby, and then to Greene's consternation he disbanded for the summer and retired to North Carolina.
In the ensuing campaign, therefore, Greene dismounted and diverted Sumter's force and stationed him at Orangeburg for police duty. Disgusted, Sumter resigned before March 1782, after serving as senator in the Jacksonboro Assembly.
The legislatures of both North and South Carolina by enactment forbade state courts to entertain suits for losses under his scheme. After the war, he founded the village of Stateburg, South Carolina, bred race-horses, was a charter member of the Santee canal company, and of the Catawba company, took out grants for more than 150, 000 acres of land, and experimented with tobacco and cotton in an effort to find a staple to replace indigo. In the South Carolina convention to consider the federal constitution, he opposed ratification before Virginia could be heard from.
As a member of the First Congress, his speeches voiced antifederalist fears, and he was among the last to be won to assumption. He was defeated in 1793 because of supposed speculation in government paper, but was reelected in 1796 and remained in the House until sent to the Senate in December 1801.
In December 1810 he resigned from the Senate, and for the next twenty-two years was harried by litigation and creditors, until the South Carolina legislature in 1827 granted him a moratorium for life from his debt to the bank of the state of South Carolina.
He died in 1832.
Achievements
Thomas Sumter has been listed as a noteworthy senator, congressman by Marquis Who's Who.
Politics
A devoted Jeffersonian, among the few senators to oppose Jefferson, he was gratified by the appointment of his only son Thomas as secretary of legation to France, and later as minister to Portugal in Brazil.
Views
In war he was a politician, and in politics he was an old soldier. Adaptable and progressive, he acquired dignity as he advanced and might well be called a typical American of the frontier school.
Sumter was nicknamed the "Carolina Gamecock, " for his fierce fighting style against British soldiers after they burned down his house during the Revolution.
Personality
Although a small man, Sumter's strength and agility were as remarkable as his longevity, and he rode horseback until the day of his death on his estate near Stateburg in his ninety-eighth year.
Connections
In 1767 he married Mrs. Mary (Cantey) Jameson, of an old and prominent South Carolina family; she was the widow of William Jameson.