The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1901-02-20
GEN. THOMAS SUMTER.
he Fought, Lived and Died On tn
High Hills Of Santee.
A VERY INTERESTING SKETCH
Valuable Contribution TO Hlstory--Faoss
About the Grear Soldier Which Give
an Insight 20 His Character.

A Valuable Contribution TO HiSeory--FaceS
About the Grear Soldier Which Give
an Insight TO His Character.
While South Carolina has furnish
ed more great men TO this country
than any other State IN the sister
hood of States, except old Virginia,
and while no other people have
shown a higher appreciation Of their
great men in nonoring them with
Offices of the highest trust and confl-
dence than she has, it IS equally
true that 10 State has been more
careless than she in recording the
great deeds OF her leading men. 1t
Is one of the greatest, If not the great
est. sins that the old State has been
guilty of, for in it she has been uh-
true to herself in neglectlng to let the
world and future generations Know
OF the self-sac1iflclng Devotion OF
their Rutledges, Pinckneys, Cal
houns, Sumters, Hamptons, Buffers
and many other soldiers and states
men unsurpassed for unseif1sh devo-
ton to their country.
It has been said by q beautiful
writer that Universal history, the
history Of what man has accomplish
ed in this world, is, at the bottom,
the history of the great men VINO
have worked here We cannot
look, however imperfectly, upon a
great man without gaining some
thing by him. He is the living light
fountain, which it is good and pleas
ant 70 he near .sNo nobler feeling
than this of admiration for one high
er than himself dwells in the breast
of man" And ''no sadder proof can
be given of his own littleness than
disbelief in great men.
And, while South Carolina mas
shown the noble truthfulness OF her
nature several times in her history,
by putting herself completely in the
hands of one of her sons and obeying
his commands more implicitly than
the written law of the land, it is only
necessary to name Rptiedge. Cal
houn and the greatest OF all, old lion
like Hampton, to prove the tft1sh oi
this. It is equally and sadly true
that in the pages Of the popular his
tories of the day they are unknown
in comparison with Others who,
when we cone to find out what they
did. are not worthy Of being named
on the same page with those named
above.
THOMAS SUMTER, OF sTATBsBURG,
PLANTER.
When the Revolutionary war com
uenced in 1776, one OF these, to
whom we always turn when danger
approaches. was living here, near
Statesburg, leading the quiet, genial
life of a planter, the life from which
almost every one of the truly great
men Of this country sprung. This
couutrv gentleman was Thomas
Sumtar. then about A years OF age.
He came from the same sort OF
stock from which Hampton and n.
II. Anderson came, and from all that
we know of him he was very n0ch
she same sort of man: one who
always attended strictly to his own
business and never allowed any IN
reference with it by anyone else,
and who always wished to keep the
peace. but when GALE d upon to fight
for q lust cause, fought regardless OF
any Consequences to himself or OF
tufure reward or glory.
The countrymen Of such men have
accepted the measurement that their
own proud silence and modesty have
piaced upon themselves and have
either -ascribed their heroic deeds 10
others or buried them IN obiivIo2.
The people OF to-day in Gen. Sum.
ter's old home, the descendants OF
his friends and neighbors, know
more Of the deeds of Richard Ceur
de Lion in Palestine, than they do OF
Gen. Sunter's.
The two best and most widely
knowu things about him are that his
grave is unmarked even by q head
stone. and that Fort Sumter was
named after him.
Gen. Sumter seems 20 people liv-
ing TODAY like some hero OF romance; ;
inst enough is known Of him co make
peopie ut all interested in the history
of thesr country long to know more.
It is pretty we'll known that he
came TO this State from Virginia,
and it is thought that he first came
here as q soldier with the troops sent
here by Virginia to help South Caro-
lima in an Indian war some years be-
fore the Revolution. He was after
wards sent TO this State on mission
to the Cherokee Indians by the Gov
ernor of Virginia. in company with
two men named Timberlake and
Graham.
They found that there was French
emissary among the Indians work
Ing against the commissioners from
Virginia. These latter, therefore.
Kidnapped the Frenchman, carried
him to Charleston and put him ON
board of a vessel sailing to England.
The vessel was lost and the med
ding Frenchman was never heard OF
again.
SERVED UNDER BRADDocK IN vIR-
GINA.
Before moving to South Carolina
Gen. Sumter had held commission
:, tha VIRGINIA militia and had taken