Orange County, NC - William Cumming, 1759-1849

Charlotte Daily Observer
17 Jun 1901

Talks With A Grandfather

My first recollection of my grandfather, William Cumming, was in the 
year 1840; he was then 80 years of age. He was hale, hearty, tall and 
erect, his mind clear and active, bright and full of memories of the 
past and the stirring scenes through which he had passed. We were 
living then on the plantation four miles from the town of Greensboro, 
NC. He lived in a house in the yard, near the main dwelling. There, in 
the long winter evenings, before a roaring fire, I would go with some 
of the white men father employed, and hear him tell stories of camp 
life, which would thrill me and stir my blood. He would pat me on the 
head and make me promise to be a soldier and fight the English if an 
opportunity ever offered. If there was a race he hated it was the 
English, and hated with a depth of bitterness not found in these days.

No doubt he had heard from his Scotch ancestry of the grievous wrongs 
and cruelties inflicted by Claverhouse on the Convenanters, and longed 
for the day when he could repay England and the English Church for 
countless oppressions. He remembered that England set in motion the 
fierce savage nations from Canada to Florida, bent on the destruction 
of all those settlements west of the Alleghany and the Blue Ridge. 
English agents, shrewd and heartless, with gold and ammunition, kept at 
work with their savage allies stimulating their ferocity by purchasing 
from them the scalps they had taken. He would tell us of Washington and 
Greene and Gates and LaFayette and Steuben and of their personal 
appearance. He would tell us of the dreadful winter at Valley Forge, 
where he joined the army when encamped in winter quarters, and of the 
terrors and suffering he passed through, and of seeing Washington 
there, dignified, silent, though looking careworn and anxious. 

Next to his hatred of the English was his detestation of a Tory. The 
county in which he lived (Orange) was full of Tories, who carried on a 
predatory and guerilla warfare. They were friendly to the British, 
preying on the Whig farms and settlements and often on the helpless 
families of the patriots who were absent with the army, committing on 
them brutal and diabolical outrages. His family was a special mark for 
their cutrages, as they were well known to be such staunch patriots. 
Whenever he was in that section of his life was in constant danger and 
many were his miraculous escapes. Once, when he came home secretly, he 
was captured by some Tories who were preparing to hang him, when he was 
saved by a British officer, Lord Belhaven. This officer had married a 
Cumming, a cousin, or relative of grandfather. 

On one occasion he was a prisoner in the British camp, under close 
confinement, and Lord Belhaven had him released and allowed to freedom 
of the camp by his promising not to escape. 

Once when hearing dispatches he stopped at a Whig farmer's to get 
breakfast. The farmer went up the road about half a mile to feed his 
hogs and took his dogs with him. He sat by the kitchen fire, looking at 
the preparations for his breakfast and thinking of the dreadful times. 
He felt a hand on his shoulder and a voice said, "Come, Billy, you are 
my prisoner and must come with me." The man was armed and had a pistol 
cocked. He recognized him as a desperate and noted Tory. He said, 
"Well, I suppose I'll have to go, but let me have my breakfast." "No," 
the Tory replied, "you know me, come now." He got up and as they came 
on the porch he saw a fox horn hanging on a nail. He seized it and blew 
a loud blast. In those days people were ever on the alert. The Tory 
broke and ran. The farmer came tearing down the road, the dogs barking. 
They followed in the direction the Tory had gone and pretty soon they 
found him up a tree. They finally let him go.

A few years after that the Tories became so troublesome he was put in 
charge of a party who went "Tory hunting." They captured this very 
fellow, hung him to a tree and left him hanging there. 

After he was 85 or 87 years of age he was up street one day and a man 
spoke to him. He asked his name. The man said, "I understand, Mr. 
Cumming, you were a Tory during the war!" "You d---d scoundrel" he 
said, "I knew your father as the most rascally Tory that ever lived. 
Take that!" and he felled him to the ground with his cane and the man 
lay there senseless for a while. 

Lord Cornwallis once camped in their yard and pitched his tent right 
over the spot where their valuables were buried. But later the Tories 
burned the house and all papers and family records were lost.

The year 1840 was full of political excitement, such as this country 
had never seen and has not seen since. Harrison had been nominated for 
President. People were enthused over his battles and victories and 
campaigns against the Indians. He was a plain man but a great soldier. 
The country was on fire and the "Log Cabin" excitement stirred the 
Whigs to their utmost depths. Log cabins were built and put on wheels 
and with a barrel of hard cider on tap and coon skins tacked on the 
door, and the latch string on the outside, it would be drawn by horses 
from town to town, escorted by cavalcades of the best men on horseback, 
and throngs of people would follow on foot for miles and then others 
would join the procession. The "Tippecannoe Club," of Guilford, built a 
cabin and brought it to our house, four miles from Greensboro, and with 
it came a large and patriotic crowd.

Grandfather had made a wooden latch and rolled a leather latch string, 
and there and then he screwed it on the door and left the latch string 
on the outside amid the frantic cheers of the crowd, who yelled, and 
sang patriotic songs, among them the campaign words of "Tippecanoe and 
Tyler too." I remember the cabin, which was then driven to Salisbury. I 
have in my scrapbook a clipping from a paper of the time referring to 
this wooden latch.

William Cumming was born January 18, 1759, in Hillsboro, NC. North 
Carolina was then an English province, thinly settled. The roads were 
poor, the rivers were deep and wide, and bridges were rare. There were 
few schools, no colleges, no university. Raleigh did not exist. North 
Carolina extended to the Mississippi river. The people in that part of 
the State where he was born were industrious, many of them of 
Covenanter and Scotch-Irish stock, who did not love England. He was 
born in stormy times. Washington was a young officer in the British 
army and was with General Braddock, who not listening to Washington's 
warnings was terrible defeated and slain. The war against the Indians 
and French was raging. Louisburg had been taken from the French. After 
two or three attempts Fort Ticondergo was taken and the siege of Quebec 
was successful and the whole of Canada, except Montreal, was in the 
hands of the English. No doubt he was familiar with the events which 
led to the Revolution and his young blood stirred within him. 

At any rate, at the age of 18, he enlisted to the regiment commanded by 
Colonel Archibald Lyttle and marched by the way of Halifax, NC, and 
Petersburg, Va. to the historic camp of Valley Forge, Penn., where he 
remained three months or until the spring of 1778, when he returned to 
Halifax, NC, and was appointed quartermaster sergeant. The records show 
he was considered as very active and efficient in the discharge of his 
duty. He was in the disastrous defeat of General Gates, at Camden, SC, 
in 1780. The army being dispersed, he returned to Hillsboro, where he 
was attacked with the smallpox. 

After he recovered, while engaged in secreting some government 
supplies, he and his brother were captured by some of Tarleton's 
Dragoons. He was carried to Guilford Court House and was a prisoner in 
the old Quaker meeting house when Greene had his battle with Lord 
Cornwallis, which caused Cornwallis to retreat towards Wilmington. I 
have been in this old meeting house where he was confined. I have heard 
him tell of his anxious feelings while the battle was in progress, and 
when he saw the draggons galloping up and cheering over their victory 
(?) he was downhearted. The offered him his parole which he refused, 
saying he would rather be a prisoner than at liberty and inactive in 
such a war. 

The morning after the battle they (the prisoners) heard Greene fire his 
morning gun, which cheered them up, and he exclaimed, "Boys, the old 
cock is crowing again!" That night he escaped and returned to Hillsboro 
and joined the army and served to the end of the war. His brother, 
Henry, was subsequently killed in New Jersey. He was frequently bearer 
of dispatches, passing through sections of the country where the Tories 
were very active, rendering the duty of that kind very dangerous. He 
was bearer of dispatches from Hillsboro to Governor Martin in 
Rockingham county several times; also to other public men.

I have heard him tell of crossing the Yadkin, or Catawba River, the 
latter, I think. He had a horse named Brandy. He was a grand and 
intelligent animal, highly prized, which had borne him through many 
dangers by flood and field. He came to the river, avoiding the 
frequented crossings. The river was high and raging with the freshet 
and he was unacquainted, but he plunged in and gave his horse the reins 
as he swam and breasted the current. Suddenly the horse stopped still. 
He did not say a word and soon the horse resumed his course and landed 
safely on the other side, considerably below from where he started. He 
always supposed the horse encountered a rock upon which he stopped to 
rest a few minutes. 

In 1782 he was appointed to the command of a company of men who had 
been surrendered at Charleston. It does not appear that this company 
was actively engaged, but after a few months were discharged. He served 
to the end of the war, being with the army at Yorktown when Cornwallis 
surrendered. 

He died in 1849 in Greensboro. They gave him a military funeral and I 
shall never forget the sound of the muffled drums and the volley of 
musketry fired over his grave.

J.D. Cumming
Brooklyn, March 2, 1898

______________________________________________________________________

Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by
Connie Ardrey
______________________________________________________________________