Hero of the Battle of Kings MountainThe Clevelands, it is said, were an ancient family deriving their name from a tract of country in the north Riding of Yorkshire, England, still to this day called Cleveland. In history there are two Alexander Clevelands mentioned. The junior of this name was father of John Cleveland (1695-1778), who was the father of Benjamin, the subject of this sketch. John Cleveland in the early 1700’s, migrated to Virginia and married Martha Coffee. He settled on the famous Bull Run Creek in Prince William County. It was here where their fourth child, Benjamin Cleveland was born on the 26th of May, 1738. His early educational advantages appear to have been very limited. Much of his early life was spent in hunting. He learned much from his good friend, Daniel Boone. It is said that he, like Boone, had an unconquerable aversion to the tame drudgery of farm life. His favorite resort, in early youth, was in the wilderness where he secured pelts and furs, which found a ready market. He was also fond of hunting deer by torch light, commonly called fire hunting.In early manhood, he married Miss Mary Graves of Orange County, Virginia. It is said that he participated in the French and Indians wars, but this is not proven in history, and that his marriage did not tame him. He was fond of horse racing, gaming and other wild sports common on the frontiers. During harvest times the neighbors would be invited. A fiddler and plenty of liquor were provided, and the day’s work usually ended in a debauch. To break away from these habits and associations, Benjamin Cleveland moved with his family to Roaring Creek in Surry (now Wilkes) County, North Carolina. Here he started a farm and devoted much of his attention to stock raising and hunting. In 1772, in company with a party of friends, he set out to Kentucky in quest of Daniel Boone. On the way he and his friends were captured and deprived of their horses, guns, ammunition and shoes. In this pitiful and almost starving condition they returned home. Several months after this Cleveland raised a select party and visited the Cherokee country and recovered the stolen horses. In this he was aided by a friendly chief, Big Bear, who furnished him an escort to visit the several towns and assist in recovering the stolen property. The settlers in the colonial frontier were a hard and hearty lot. Their survival and the survival of their friends and families required it. Their ways, when viewed by today’s gentle society, might be considered harsh, even barbaric. This is the setting where Cleveland lived and thrived. He earned the reputation of being a ferocious fighter and leader. He early espoused the patriotic cause and on the first of September, 1775, was appointed an ensign in the 2nd North Carolina regiment, under the command of Col. Robert Howe. This honor, however, he declined, preferring rather to serve with the militia from his own locality in and around Surry County. During 1775 Cleveland’s neighbors had occasion to go to Cross Creek to purchase their supplies of iron, sugar, salt and other necessaries. They were compelled, before they could buy or sell, to take the oath of allegiance to the King. Cleveland, hearing of these acts of tyranny, swore that he would dislodge those “Scotch scoundrels at Cross Creek”. He raised a select party of riflemen and, marching down upon them, soon scattered them. He scoured the country and captured several of the outlaws, one of whom he executed. This scoundrel’s name was Jackson. He had set fire to the home and storehouse, with merchandise inside, of one Ransom Sunderland. In the campaign of Colonels Williamson and Rutherford against the Cherokee Indians, in 1776, Cleveland, as captain of a company in the Surry Regiment, served gallantly sharing all the hardships and privations which the soldiers had to endure. In 1777, Captain Cleveland again led his company to the Watauga settlements against the yet troublesome Cherokees, where he served at Carter’s Fort until a treaty of peace was concluded in July of that year. While securing the country around Cape Fear, Ben and his men engaged in the Battle of Moore’s Creek and captured and executed several outlaws while burning many Loyalist towns. “Cleveland’s Bulldogs” were earning Ben a reputation for brutality in partisan warfare characterized by “inhumanity, summary hangings, and mutilation.” On some occasions he would hang Tories by their thumbs until they confessed to British movements–thus creating a local expression “hanging one by his thumbs”. While Ben did resort to the severest measures of punishment against Tory outrages and marauding, he still had a commanding influence over many and caused them to abandon their Loyalist associations and unite with the patriots.Ben’s fiercely loyal mountain men were “untrained but hardy and accurate of fire”. Admirers and countrymen called them “Cleveland’s Heroes” or “Cleveland’s Bulldogs”, but to the British and the Tories they were “Cleveland’s Devils”. According to Ben, each of his men was equal to five ordinary soldiers. Ben summoned them to his side by walking into his elevated Round About yard and sounding a huge hunting horn. Tory depredations were considered worse than those of the Indians. Though by today’s standards some might think Ben was excessive in his punishment of the Loyalists, the colonists victimized by Tory aggression and brutality realized that Ben was administering “an eye for an eye” justice at a time when there was no dependable centralized means of law enforcement. Many Tories in North Carolina and South Carolina joined the British only for plundering and robbing. They had no political or moral principles and cared nothing for king and country. These Tories particularly enraged Ben. In 1778, the new County of Wilkes, North Carolina, was organized. Ben was made colonel of the militia. Despite his reputation for brutal justice (or perhaps because of it!), he was appointed justice of the Wilkes County court and placed at the head of the Commission of Justices. Regarded as one of the most popular leaders of the mountain section of the state, Ben was easily elected to the state’s House of Commons during this year. When the British forces invaded Georgia, Colonel Cleveland served in this campaign, his regiment being a part of General Rutherford’s command. Returning home from this service he was elected to represent his county in the State Senate. Even while Ben was busy with these affairs of county and state, he was active in sending scouting parties into certain mountain regions to break up Tory bands infesting the frontier. One detachment of Cleveland’s Bulldogs caught a Tory desperado named Zachariah Wells and brought him to Hughes Bottoms, about a mile from Round About. Here thirteen-year-old James Gwyn and a Negro boy were at work in a cornfield when Ben joined those who had taken Wells prisoner. The band of freedom fighters included Ben’s two sons, his brother Robert, and Lieutenant Elisha Reynolds. Needing something to hang Wells with, Ben borrowed the plow lines from James Gwyn’s horse. James, innocent of the ways of war, was shocked at so summary an execution and begged his neighbor not to hang the poor fellow who looked so pitiful and was suffering from a former wound. “Jimmie, my son,” Ben explained gently, “he is a bad man. We must hang all such [damned men]”. Captain Robert Cleveland was cursing “at a vigorous rate” as he prepared the wincing, squirming prisoner for execution. Ben was not unaffected by the boy’s naïve pleas, and tears flowed down his cheeks as he adjusted the rope around the neck of Zachariah Wells. The big-hearted colonel regretted the necessity of hanging the trembling culprit, especially in front of young Jimmie, but he also knew that the lives of the Yadkin River patriots would be much safer and they would all sleep more peacefully when the country was rid of such vile desperadoes. Wells soon dangled from a convenient tree, and his body was buried in the sand and loam on the bank of the Yadkin. In the summer of 1780, he was actively engaged in suppressing the Tories at different places; first in marching against the Tories assembled at Ramsour’s Mill, arriving there shortly after their defeat; second, in chasing British forces under Colonel Samuel Bryan from the State, and finally in scouring the region of New River, checking the Tory rising in that region. In some instances some of their notorious leaders and outlaws were hanged. In 1780, General Lord Cornwallis led a British army into the Carolinas and won several victories over the patriots. Major Patrick Ferguson, a Scot, was appointed Inspector of Militia on 22 May 1780. His task was to march to the old Tryon County area of North Carolina, raise and organize Loyalist units from the Tory population of the Carolina Backcountry and protect the left flank of Lord Cornwallis’ main body at Charlotte, North Carolina. In late September, Ferguson camped at Gilbert Town (in present day Rutherfordton). He sent a message to Colonel Isaac Shelby, whom he considered to be the leader of the “backwater men.” The message said that if Shelby and his men did not stop their opposition to the British, Ferguson would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders and “lay the country waste with fire and sword”. The Patriots would have none of it. The Overmountain Men first mustered at Sycamore Shoals organized a militia to eventually fight Ferguson and his British Loyalists at King’s Pinnacle, an isolated ridge on the border between the Carolinas. Cleveland played a key role in the Battle of Kings Mountain. According to legend, Cleveland climbed up Rendezvous Mountain near his home and blew his horn to summon some 200 Wilkes County militiamen. He delivered an address to his Wilkes County troops in plain, unvarnished language, which did much to inspire their courage and patriotism on this occasion, and doubtless added greatly to the triumphant success of the American cause. He led his Wilkes County militia to intercept Ferguson. They joined with forces under Colonels Charles McDowell, Isaac Shelby, John Sevier, William Campbell, Joseph Winston and South Carolina Colonel James Williams. On 7 October 1780, the two armies clashed during the Battle of Kings Mountain. The battle went badly for the Loyalists positioned high on the mountain ridge. During the fighting, Cleveland’s horse was shot from under him, and Major Ferguson was himself killed in the battle. Cleveland’s brother, Robert, is said to have rallied the militiamen during the heat of the battle, contributing to the patriot victory. Ferguson was shot from his horse. With his foot still in the stirrup, he was dragged to the rebel side. According to Rebel accounts, when a Patriot approached the major for his surrender, Ferguson drew his pistol and shot him as a last act of defiance. Other soldiers retaliated, and Ferguson’s body was found with eight musket holes in it. They buried him in an ox hide near the site of his fall. Benjamin Cleveland claimed Ferguson’s white stallion as a “war prize”, and rode it home to his estate of Round About. Noted historian, Lyman Draper, in his biography of Cleveland, gives an extended account of a narrow escape by him not long after the Kings Mountain expedition. It appears that on one occasion he captured two Tory outlaws, Jones and Carl, and hung them. Soon afterwards and while all alone, he was captured by a gang of Tories. His life hung on a thread. His name and influence was worth everything to the Tories, who decided before they executed him to require him to write passes for them, certifying that each was a good Whig, to be used when in close quarters. Cleveland was a very poor scribe and wrote passes very slowly, believing they would kill him as soon as he finished this work. While he was thus engaged a party of Whigs came up, under the command of his brother, Capt. Robert Cleveland, and he was fortunately rescued. Riddle, who commanded the Tory company which captured Cleveland, was afterwards captured with his son and another follower and carried before Cleveland, and by his orders all three of them were hung near the present town of Wilkesboro, North Carolina. It is said of Cleveland that while in many instances he resorted to the severest measures of punishment against the outrages and marauding of the Tories, he yet exercised a commanding influence over them and caused some of them to abandon their Tory associations and unite under his standard. Says a writer, “Cleveland was literally all things to all people.” By his severities “he awed and intimidated not a few, restraining them from lapsing into Tory abominations; by his kindness, forbearance and even tenderness, winning over many to the glorious cause he loved so well”. Cleveland’s last military service was in the autumn of 1781. He performed a three months tour of duty on the Little Pee Dee, in South Carolina. His command of mountaineers routed the Tory detachments. After this was accomplished he returned home. At the close of the war, Cleveland lost his handsome “Round About,” by reason of a defective title. His attention had been attracted to a beautiful country in the Cherokee Nation, while participating in the expedition of Colonels Williamson and Rutherford against the Cherokees in 1776. Though the Indian title was not yet extinguished he resolved to become among the first squatters of that country. He visited the Tugaloo Valley in 1784, and selected for his future home a magnificent body of land lying between the Tugaloo River and Chauga Creek, in the present County of Oconee, S. C. To this place Cleveland removed about the year 1785 or 1786. To the history of Col. Ben Cleveland’s life after his removal to the Tugaloo, much is due to his biography by South Carolina Governor B. F. Perry in his “Sketches of Eminent Statesmen”. It was not long after his removal to his new home until his services were called into requisition. When the new “County Court Act,” of which South Carolina’s Judge Henry Pendleton was the author, went into force, Col. Benjamin Cleveland and Gen. Robert Anderson were appointed judges of the court for Pendleton County. Colonel Cleveland was no lawyer, though a good judge of right from wrong. He had a contempt for the technicalities of law and its delays. He was fair in the administration of justice, and after hearing the evidence his mind was quickly made up. He did not consult books, but decided according to his sense of justice and right. It is stated by Governor Perry that Colonel Cleveland grew very corpulent during the latter days of his life, weighing some four or five hundred pounds. It is further stated by this eminent writer, that his (Perry’s) father, visited him one bitter cold morning and found him sitting in his piazza with nothing on but a thin calico gown, and that his legs were of a purple color. Mr. Perry said to him, “This is a very cold morning, Colonel Cleveland.” “No,” replied the colonel. “It’s a very fine morning, and I have come out to enjoy the fresh morning air.” It is further related by him that by reason of his fleshiness, he would, while sitting on the bench take a snooze, while the lawyers were rendering their arguments, sometimes snore so loud as to interrupt the proceedings of the court. The remains of Colonel Cleveland were buried on his farm which belonged, in 1887, to Dr. William Earle. Governor Perry states that he visited, when a boy, the grave of this immortal hero. It was much neglected, brambles, briers and bushes having grown up around it. Some years afterwards someone built a square pen around it of pine saplings, which soon rotted down. A few years ago, under the leadership of one of his descendants, Vanoy Cleveland, Esq., a handsome monument was placed over the last resting place of Colonel Cleveland by his relatives. It has been truly said of Colonel Cleveland, that he “was one of nature’s great men – great in every respect, great in person, great in heart and great in mind. He was honest, truthful and honorable, and discharged his duties frankly and fearlessly. He was a man of extraordinary judgment, good sense and practical wisdom.” Let his name and glory stand among the memories of other heroes that are being perpetuated. Cleveland‘s wife, Mary, died in the year 1800. Benjamin joined her in eternal rest on October 15, 1806. They are buried together on their farm in the Tugaloo Valley in Madison (Oconee County) South Carolina. |
Benjamin Cleveland rides astride Ferguson's mount in War Prize, by Don Troiani, 2012
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