The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-11-21
THE DEATH OF PARKER.
AN oRANGEBURG COUNTY INCIDENT
OFTHE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
| How a Band of Tories Was Dispersed and
Its Leader Killed by n Band of Patriots
Under Command of Captain Rumph---A
Daring Decd.
The following interesting story of
the Revolutionary War was printed
in the Southern Cabinet in 1910:
After the seige and fall of Charles
ton in the year 1880, and the shameful
violation of the articles of treaty by
the British officers, the war in South
Carolina became essentially of q parti-
san character. The State was over
run, but not subdued. Bold spirits
arose everywhere to assert their
liberties, and they were frequently and
instantaneously crushed by powerful
and unsparing foe, andno recollection
now survives of themselves or their
deeds but not all of them thus per-
ished. One fearful contest tradition
has preserved, which 1 will endeavor
to record "a struggle of man with his
fellow mana pursuit pistol shot
and o death.
Captain Jacob Rumph, (known after
the Revolution, better perhaps, as
General Rumph,) of Orangeburg dis
trict, was the commander of 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 man
of prodigious size and strength, Of
great courage and GOODNESS in the hour
Of danger, and though of harsh and
imperious 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 warning 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 almost hopeless condition of South
Carolina, hehad 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
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 bad passed
on, yet was too well acquainted with
them to suppose for moment that he
was to get off so easily. He knew very
we'll 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, a 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 strong but slow horse
and the thought of escape on horse
back was abandoned by him without
hesitation. He was armed with O
trusty cut and thrust sword and a
brace of pistols; but it would have
been Madness he we'll 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 a
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 in 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 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 it