What if the British had won the American Revolutionary War?

You have until noon next Friday, January 3 to answer the question "What if the British had won the American Revolutionary War?"

 

Your answer can be serious, clever, or funny. The top three best answers each will win a copy of my novel, The Chamomile, a Revolutionary War romantic suspense set in Charleston, SC, during the two years the British occupied the city.

I’ll start you off.

For instance, here’s a serious answer – there wouldn’t have been a Civil War because the British abolished the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807 and the practice of slavery in 1833.

Funny answers – the Indianapolis 500 would be the Indianapolis 805 (500 miles = 805 kilometers) or, we wouldn't be driving on "the wrong side of the road."

A clever answer – My novel, The Chamomile, might have been written from the perspective of a Loyalist woman who spies for the British, not a woman who spies for the Patriots, and it certainly would have ended differently.

Baron de Kalb and the Battle of Camden, SC

By Susan F. Craft



General Baron de Kalb

General Baron de Kalb was born in Germany in 1721. He served with distinction in the French Army during the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War.

In 1768 on behalf of France, he traveled to America on a covert mission to determine the level of discontent amongst colonists.

In 1777, he returned with his protégé, the Marquis de Lafayette, and joined the Continental Army.

On August 16, 1780, five miles north of Camden, SC, British forces under Lt. General Charles, Lord Cornwallis defeated the American forces under the command of Major General Horatio Gates.

Gates had over 4,000 men, but only 2,000 were effective for combat. Many succumbed to the heat and also the night before, the men had been fed green corn, causing many to suffer bowel problems.

Lt. General, Lord Cornwallis

Cornwallis had around 2,100 men. Six hundred were Loyalist militia and Volunteers of Ireland, and 1,500 were regular troops. Cornwallis also had the infamous and highly experienced Tarleton's Legion, around 250 cavalry and 200 infantry.

The British troops opened the battle by firing a volley into the militia, followed by a bayonet charge. The militia, lacking bayonets, panicked and ran away. The panic spread to the North Carolina militia, and they also fled. Gates bolted with the first of the militia to run from the field and took refuge 60 miles away in Charlotte, NC. Before he ran, he ordered his right flank under General Baron de Kalb to attack the British militia.

Under de Kalb, the Continentals fought hard, but they numbered only 600 to 2,000 British troops. Cornwallis ordered Tarleton's cavalry to charge the rear of the Continental line. The cavalry charge broke up the formation of the Continental troops.

De Kalb tried to rally his men but was fatally wounded.

After only one hour of combat, the Americans were utterly defeated, suffering over 2,000 casualties. Tarleton's cavalry pursued and harried the retreating Continental troops for 20 miles.

The terrible route for the Americans at the Battle of Camden strengthened the British hold on the Carolinas that were already reeling from the capture of Charleston, SC, by General Sir Henry Clinton in January 1780.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s how Andrew, a character in my novel, The Chamomile, described General de Kalb.

You see, General de Kalb wasn’t one of those officers that puts space between him and his men. He was one of us. Most times when we traveled, he didn’t ride his horse, but marched along beside us. Came around each night and shared the food and fire. Slept on the ground with us. And stories? He could tell some of the best stories. Knew how to share silence too.

At Camden, we were pretty much beaten. Six hundred of us to their two thousand. De Kalb sent his horse to the back of the lines early on, so he could fight side by side with us on foot. Time after time we charged, reformed, and charged again with the general leading the way.

Someone laid his head open with a saber. He was shot. Bayoneted. Cut many times. But he still led one more charge. When the general finally fell, we closed ranks around him. Then Tarleton brought in his dragoons. We fought as long as we could, until most of us broke and ran.

I was running for the woods with the rest of them, but I turned in time to see British soldiers headed toward the general to finish him off. They would have, too, but his aide, Chevalier de Buysson, threw his body on top of him and yelled, "No! No! It’s de Kalb. Brigadier General de Kalb."

 

Cornwallis ordered his own surgeons to try and save de Kalb.

Death of de Kalb

Here is de Kalb’s response, “I thank you sir for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for; the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man.”

When the general died three days later, Cornwallis found out he was a Mason, same as himself. He had him buried with full military and Masonic honors.

Years later, on a tour of South Carolina, President George Washington visited the grave of de Kalb and is reported to have said the following, “So there lies the brave de Kalb; the generous stranger who came from a distant land to fight our battles and to water with his blood the tree of our liberty. Would to God he had lived to share with us its fruits.”

 

Rosanna Farrow, A SC Revolutionary War Heroine



A typical backcountry cabin.



Rosanna Farrow was proud of the fact that she had five sons old enough to fight for liberty. When her boys went to war, she and her daughters were left alone, unprotected and surrounded by Tory neighbors. There was often not enough food, and sometimes when their home was in danger from the enemy, they hid out in the woods and swamps in hollow trees and the rocky coves of the Enoree River.

They slept with pistols or weapons of some kind under their pillows, for they never knew when the enemy would come to their door.

One night, a messenger came to tell her that three of her sons had been captured and were in a jail in Ninety-Six, a British post in the SC backcountry. The commander, Colonel Cruger, who was prepared to hang the boys, offered to trade them one rebel for two British soldiers.

Lt. Col. John H. Cruger

After instructing her daughters to stay indoors and to keep the doors and windows closed, she grabbed a rifle and ran to the stable where she caught and saddled a colt. The only horse left on the place, it had never been ridden. Nevertheless, she sprung into the saddle and bound herself to it with a girth. As she rode away, she shouted to her daughters, “It is not the most comfortable way of riding.”

She made her way towards Fair Forest camp in the present region of Spartanburg, SC. This region was inhabited by only a few hunters and some scattered families and Indians. Her path was a lonely wilderness, broken only by hills and streams.

Ninety-Six, SC

Arriving at Colonel Williams' camp, he granted her six British prisoners and a guard. Not stopping for rest, she rode on for miles through barren wilderness and gloomy forest. Before daybreak of the second night of her wild ride, she caught sight of the English standard waving above the scarlet uniforms of the British, and with her apron as a flag of truce, she dashed up to the camp commander, Colonel Cruger, and informed him of her mission.

Colonel Cruger replied, “Well, you are just in time, for I had given orders for those rebellious youngsters of yours to be hanged at sunrise, but I guess you can take the rebels.”

“My sons!” she cried, then turning with eyes flashing with indignation, she retorted, “I have given you two for one, Colonel Cruger, but understand that I consider it the best trade I ever made, for rest assured, hereafter the ‘Farrow boys’ will whip you four to one.”

As she dashed off followed by her sons, a soldier remarked, “That's a pretty good speech for so dainty a lady, but she is as warm for the cause as the men.”

So long as she lived, Mrs. Farrow was admired and loved, and it is said that even years after, the eyes of the British soldiers flashed with pleasure when they talked of this South Carolina daughter.

Samuel Farrow

One of her boys, Samuel, lived to represent Pinckney District in Congress, and a portrait of him now hangs in Washington showing the sabre scar on his face made at the Battle of Musgrove's Hill.

Samuel Farrow lies buried in the family burying ground near Enoree Station in Spartanburg County. Where the noble mother lies is not known, but history will always cherish the memory of one whose warm heart and love of country prompted her to so daring a deed of heroism.

(A lot of this information was taken directly from An Essay, by Miss Ruth Petty, Converse College, Class of 1897)

Footnote: Samuel Farrow served in the US Congress and the SC House and was Lt. Governor of SC from 1810-1812. Subsequent research indicates that Mrs. Farrow's burial place was found along with other family members in a pasture near the Enoree River in South Carolina.

Baby Bottles in Colonial America

Powder horn with membrane attached converting it to
a baby bottle

In a novel I'm writing called Cassia, my heroine, Lilyan, who is shipwrecked on one of the islands in the Outer Banks, rescues a newborn after the mother dies in childbirth. While researching about how Lilyan could manage to feed a newborn, I discovered some really interesting information about baby bottles and thought I’d share.

The word “pap” is supposed to have been derived from the Scandinavian for the sound a baby makes when he opens his mouth to feed.  It was first recorded in literature in the mid eighteenth century.

porcelain pap boat

Pap usually included bread, flour, and water.  Sometimes mothers would add butter and milk to the pap or cook pap in broth as a milk substitute. Other mixtures included Lisbon sugar, beer, wine, raw meat juices and Castile soap.  Sometimes drugs or chamomile tea were added to “soothe the baby.”

Pewter bottle

To feed these mixtures to babies the “pap boat” was designed. These looked like a sauce boat or a small bed pan and were made of wood, silver, pewter, bone, porcelain, or glass. They ranged from plain for poor families or foundling homes, to highly decorated pieces for wealthier clients.

In the eighteenth century, as new materials and methods of production became accessible, many types of feeding implements were created in different shapes and sizes. Some pap boats were closed, others looked like animals, most often a duck.

Sucking pots made of pewter were used and later  replaced by  porcelain; some stood upright and others were submarine-shaped.

bubbly pot

In 1770, Dr. Hugh Smith invented the "bubby  or bubbly pot," made of pewter and resembling a gravy pot or tea pot. This was a time when there was a strong move to make artificial feeding safer, and reduce dependency on the wet nurse. The perforated spout was covered with cloth, which served as a nipple. Dr. Smith, in recommending his idea, stated, "Through it, the milk is constantly strained and the infant is obliged to labor for every drop he receives."

silver sucking bottle

Although Smith’s pot underwent many variations and existed in porcelain, it never replaced the sucking bottle. An American equivalent, the nursing can, used by the Pennsylvania Germans, may have been copied from the bubby pot. This gained little popularity and, by the 19th century, the sucking bottle was almost the rule.

glass bottle

Glass rapidly replaced the porcelain successors of pewter. They were now easier to clean and their acceptance coincided with understanding of bacteria, contagion, and improved sanitary conditions. Increasing cleanliness, reliance on milk as the chief "artificial dietary source," and diminished use of pap helped to lower the devastatingly high infant mortality rates in urban foundling homes which often approached 100%.

One humorous thing I found while researching baby bottles was a newspaper ad that said “Good breast wanted.” I was taken aback until I realized that the person was advertising for a wet nurse to breastfeed their baby and that it was a common term used during that time. My how things have changed. Could you imagine the reaction to that advertisement today?

I’m currently writing an inspirational historical fiction set in South and North Carolina immediately after the Revolutionary War. It is the third book of a series that features Lilyan and Nicholas Xanthakos.

The first book in the series is The Chamomile, set during the Revolutionary War. It was released by Ingalls Publishing Group in November 2011 and won the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance  Fall 2011 “Okra Pick” as one of the best novels of the season.

 The second book in the series, entitled Laurel, is represented by Hartline Literary Agency. The third in the series has the working title of Cassia.