The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1894-11-21
THE DEATH OF PARKER.
AN ORANGEBURG COUNTY INCIDENT
OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
How Band of Tories Was Dispersed and
Its Leader Killed by Il Band of Patriots
Under Command of Captain Rumph--A

Its Leader Killed by IL Band of Patriots
Under Command of Captain Rumph---A
Daring Deed.
The following interesting story of
the Revolutionary War was printed
in the Southern Cabinet in 1S40:
After the scige and fall of Charles
ton in the year 1850. and the shameful
violation of the articles of treaty by
| the British officers, the war in South
! Carolina became essentially of a parti-
san character. The STATE was over
run, but not subdued. Bold spirits
arose everywhere to assert their
liberties, and they We're froa auently and
linstantaneously crushed by powerful
and unsparing foe, andno recollection
now survives of themselves or their
deeds s;-but not all of them thus per
ished. One fearful contest tradition
has preserved, which I will endeavor
to record "a struggle of man with his
fellow mana pursuit a pistol shot
and death
Captain Jacob Rumph, (Sncwn after
the Revolution, better perhaps, AS
General Rumph.) of Orangeburg dis
trict. was the commander of a troop of
cavalry, raised in his neighborhood to
protect themselves and their families,
who lost no occasion of aiding their
friends or annoying their enemies.
They are all gone;-history has not
recorded their names; but few bolder
spirits struck for liberty in that event
full war. Captain Rumph was a man
of prodigious size and strength. Of
great courage and coolneSs in the hour
of danger. and though of a harsh and
limperious disposition, no one was
better fitted for the command of the
hardy and intrepid men who compos-
ed his corps: They were usually dis
persed at their ordinary avocations on
their farms. but they united at mo-
ment's warming from their leader.
Not long after Charleston was taken
by the British. Capt Rumph was re-
turning with two of his wagons which
had been sent into Charleston with
produce. in charge Of a Dutchman
named Houselighter; and while slowly
riding in company with his wagons on
a small, but strong horse, his mind
gloomily brooding over the oppressed
and almosthopcless condition of South
Carolina. he had reacheda large pond,
on what is now called the old road,
about seven miles below the village of
Orangeburg. when he was suddenly
reused by the approach of three men
on horse back, whom he instantly re-
cognized as his most deadly foes. They
were well mounted and armed like
himself, with sword and pistol
When the horsemen had reached the
opposite side of the road to Captain
Rumph, they halted for moment and
would have approached him nearer;
but he. placing himself in the best
posture OF defence he could, called out
to them:
Gentleman. stand off wish to
have nothing to do with you.
The Tories, for such they were, sur
veyed him for an instant; and after a
short conference with each other, to
Capt. Rumph's great relief, rode on,
and soon disappeared at the next turn
of the road.
Rumph, though he saw with no little
satisfaction, that the Tories had passed
on, vet was too well acquainted with
them to suppose for moment that he
was to get Oft SO easily. He knew very
well that the short respite they had
thus given him was only, that with an
increased force he might become their
prey with less danger to themselves,
He rightly conjectured, that the three
who had passed him on the road, were
only scouts sent to apprehend him If
unarmed, and who, if he had incau
tiously suffered them to approach him.
would have shot him down while off
his guard
| Casting his eyes about a moment,
for means of escape from his willy foes
the danger of his situation became full
ly apparent. The three troopers he
knew belonged to the corps of the
sanguinary Cunningham, part of
which, he was certain, was in the
neighborhood, under the command of
one of his subaltern officers; and Capt.
Rumph, after carefully surveying his
situation, became fully conscious of his
extreme danger of falling into the
hands of his merciless foes He was
mounted upon a strong but slow horse
and the thought of escape on horse
back was abandoned by him without
hesitation. He was armed with a
trusty cut and thrust sword and a
brace of pistols; but it would have
been madness. he well knew, to think
of exposing himself to such odds as he
was sure would be brought against
| him. There was no time to be lost.
His only chance of escape at once
flashed across his mind, and he imme
diately set about executing it. He
rode his horse up to the pond already
mentioned, and tied him fast to
tree. He then took off the greater
part of his clothes and left them near
his horse, to induce the suspicion that
he had concealed himself III that pond.
But that was very far from his real
intention. He walked in the wa :er
near the margin Of the pond, until he
had gained the side opposite to Which
he had tethered his horse, and choos-
ing with some caution the place at
which he could best leave it. he set off
at a rapid rate through the pine woods
| for home, distance of some sixteen
miles.
In the mean time, the three troopers
who as Capt Rumph truly supposed,
were party detached to seize him if
they could, returned to their main
body, consisting Of about twenty men
under the command of Lieutenant
Parker. and reported the situation in
which, they had left Capt. Rumph.
With out loss of time the whole party
set off to ovcrtaken him. Upon their
arrival at the pond, they found that
the wagons had proceeded but little
distance from the spot which they oc-
cupied when the three Tories passed
| them. and Can't, RumDh's horse and