The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1907-08-21

ures on the stage play TO new audi
ences and it comes to.pass that When
one of later generation turns TO
enquire of the details upon which g
fame was founded that has come to
him in the shape IF general and
cognized tradition, ne is perturbed to
find that there is nothing but this
general recognition and tradition up
on which he can lay hold.
$50 has it been with Gen. Sumter
There does not exist a single sketch
even of his life worthy of the title OF
life Of him.
His contemporary in time, al
though subordinate in rank, Gen.
Francis Marion, has three oiograph-
ers-weems, James and Sims. His
contemporary and commanding Off
Ger. Gen. Nathaniel Greene, has the
bulky two-volumed life Of him by
johnson. Sumter has had literally no
biographer, and to find out anything
al bout him it has been necessary to
nick it out of the histories Of the
| events of the day. Concerning MS
earlier life prior to the Revolutionary
war and his later years after It's
close there does not exist single ac-
| count of him worthy the name OF
even a sketch.
| around Marion there has grown
and clustered a wealth Of, romance.
Both fiction and poetry have joined
to paint him with ali the alluring col
ors of admiring description, yet l
venture to say that there is nothing
in Marion's life more romantic or
filed with more adventure than Sum
ter's early struggles in frontier Indian
warfare, or his intrepid and gallant
contests with Tarleton, the dashing
and concuering commander of Brit
| ish cavalry
| 1t has seemed to me, therefore,
that the most appropriate way in
which I could testify our admiration
for. his character and do honor to his
memory would be today as fully as
| possible in the narrow limits Of
public speech, repair the indifference
Of the past by giving as full and au-
thentic an account of his life and ex-
ploits as it lay in my power to do.
| Gas in many other cases Of men
who have become famous through
their worth and abilities, but who
have been too modest to be their own
biographers, there is very little ma
terial from which to write the history
Eof Sunter's early life. The date and
place of his birth are alike uncertain.
Date and Place of His Birth.
| ."McCradv, in his History of South
/ Carolina. states ;i7at h was oorn the
i14th Of July. 1856. II Hanover e9ssrty.
Virginia, and ADDS chat MS fasaer
family were from Wales. ou> had re-
/ moved 10 England ana thence enli-
grated to Virginia, and that his
mother was a yirginian of English
stock. He refers to no authority for
this. but it las always been under
stood that his information was de-
rived from Gen. Sumter's descend
ants. AS to date of birth this is con-
frmed by Mills, whose statistics OF
South Carolina were published in
1926, when Gen. Sumter was still
alive, and who states that he was
then 90.
also Gen. sumte-'s son, Thomas
Sumter, Jr., writing to his daughter
in December. 1925, mentions that his
father was then in his SSth year
which would carry the year of his
birth back. TO 1856. There is. how
ever. in the possession of Gen Sum
ter's lineal descendants an old leaf
which is rraditionally said to be g
leaf from the family Bible. This ole
leaf has written upon It in quite
archaic script the following entries;
"'Wra. Sumter was born in Han
over county. in Virginia, on the q
! October, 1871
Thomas Sumter was born in said
county on August II. 1874
From the "reminiscences Of Johr
Redd, later referred TO, We learn h<
had a brother, William. Taking int
consideration the family tradition a!
TO the leaf in question being from th'
family Bible. tee appearance Of tht
entries upon it and their particularly
corroborated by the fact that he hat
a brother William, evidently the on'
referred to in the past entry, It woult
seem most likely that the exact dat'
of his birth was as stated in the en-
try. 18th August, 1884. and that ht
was born in Hanover county.