A Map of the lands ceded by the Cherokee Indians to the State of South Carolina at a congress held in May, 1777
Esseneca
Oconee County, SC | Aug 1, 1776
Fought during the Cherokee War of 1776, the Battle of Esseneca was one of many conflicts between Cherokee and British Loyalists and Patriot forces in the western frontier of the Carolinas. This battle resulted in the death of Captain Francis Salvador, widely remembered as the first Jewish man to die in the Revolutionary War.
How It Ended
Patriot victory. During the early hours, Patriot forces forced a Cherokee-Loyalist retreat from the Cherokee town of Esseneca, near current-day Seneca, South Carolina. After the retreat, the Patriots burned the town and then advanced to other Cherokee villages, torching the Cherokees’ vital reserves of food for winter and killing or driving off their livestock.
In Context
During the summer of 1776, violence dotted the western frontier of the Carolinas as British-allied Cherokee and Loyalists launched a series of attacks and raids on colonial communities. Known as the Cherokee War of 1776, the Cherokee hoped to protect their territory from encroachment by white settlers. Loyalists in the area aided the Cherokee in fighting Patriot communities to help suppress the growing rebellion.
Alexander Cameron, the British deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs, directed many of the Cherokee-Loyalist assaults in the Carolina Backcountry, and earned the wrath of South Carolina militia leaders like Patriot Major Andrew Williamson. In late July 1776, Cameron, along with a party of Loyalists, camped out with the Cherokee along the Keowee River by the Cherokee town of Esseneca, near current-day Seneca, South Carolina.
0
0
When Patriot scouts confirmed that Cameron and a party of Loyalists, were camped out with the Cherokee along the Keowee River, Williamson decided to attack. Waiting until well after dark on the night of July 31, 1776, Williamson and about 330 militiamen quietly marched along the Keowee Path toward Cameron’s location. But Cameron’s party was ready for them. In the early hours of August 1, Cherokee and British Loyalists ambushed Williamson and his forces as they approached the town of Esseneca.
Cameron’s group, larger than Williamson’s party, unleashed musket fire on the surprised American Patriots. Williamson’s horse was shot out from under him, and Captain Francis Salvador became one of the first casualties of the battle. Salvador, who was mortally wounded and scalped by a Cherokee combatant, was remembered as the first Jewish man to die in the Revolutionary War. Saving the militia from total slaughter was Captain Leroy Hammond, whose unit used their sabers to mount a counterattack, successfully scattering the Cherokee and Loyalists. Hammond’s action allowed time for militia commander Andrew Pickens to arrive with reinforcements. With Pickens’ support, Williamson’s men were able to turn the tide of the battle and force a Cherokee-Loyalist retreat. There were 20 confirmed casualties on Williamson’s side.
0
0
After the Cherokee and Loyalists factions left the area, the Patriot forces burned Esseneca and then advanced to other Cherokee villages, torching the Cherokees’ vital reserves of food for winter and killing or driving off their livestock. Two weeks later, Williamson was made colonel of the militia and given command of 2,000 South Carolinians in the ongoing Cherokee War. His new force systematically destroyed most of the lower Cherokee towns that summer and fall.
By late 1776, Williamson’s campaign of destruction had come to an end. Despite continued British support, the Cherokee could no longer fight the American Patriots. More than two thousand Cherokee had been killed. On May 20, 1777, American officials met at DeWitt’s Corner, a colonial trading post that is now the town of Ninety Six, South Carolina. There, the parties signed a treaty that ended the war. The Americans separated South Carolina from Cherokee lands by a boundary that ran along Oconee Mountain. By agreeing to the terms of the treaty, the Cherokee relinquished most of their lands in South Carolina, and the Cherokee War officially came to an end. Still, raids and violence between both sides continued to occur.
Considered the first Jewish person to die in the Revolutionary War, Francis Salvador moved to the Ninety Six district in South Carolina in 1773. After arriving in South Carolina, Salvador quickly became involved with the growing independence movement in the colonies. In January 1775, he was elected to South Carolina's First Provincial Congress, becoming the first Jewish person to hold political office in South Carolina. Because of his activism, he was elected to the Second Provincial Congress and helped raise funds to pay for the newly formed militia units within the state.
The next year, in July 1776, Salvador earned the nickname "Southern Paul Revere" when he rode over 30 miles to warn militia units in the backcountry of South Carolina of an Indian attack. One month later, he would be wounded at the Battle of Esseneca. He was 29 years old at the time of his death.
Resentment and bloodshed between white settlers and Native people had been growing since the early 1700s. After Britain’s victory in the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years War, 1754-1763), white settlers wanted to expand beyond the frontier, and they felt entitled to move into Cherokee territory. In 1763, the British government tried to take control of mounting tensions between the groups by issuing a proclamation that set a boundary running through the Appalachian Mountains. The boundary prohibited English settlers from moving farther west and claiming Native land, but ambitious settlers largely ignored the proclamation. By the time war erupted between Britain and the colonies in 1775, violence between the factions had escalated. The Crown took advantage of this. Britain allied with the Cherokee to fight Patriot communities and suppress the rebellion. The Cherokee allied with the British because they believed the Crown’s powerful government and its army would protect their land.
