William Franklin FRSE was an American-born attorney, soldier, politician, and colonial administrator. He was the acknowledged illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin, one of the most prominent of the Patriot leaders of the American Revolution and a Founding Father of the United States. The last colonial Governor of New Jersey (1763–1776), Franklin was a steadfast Loyalist throughout the American Revolutionary War.
Titus Cornelius, also known as Titus, Tye, and famously as Colonel Tye, was a slave of African descent in the Province of New Jersey who fought as a Black Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War; he was known for his leadership and fighting skills. He fought with a volunteer corps of escaped Virginia Colony slaves in the Ethiopian Regiment and the "Black Brigade" associators. Tye died from tetanus and lockjaw from a musket wound in the wrist following a short siege in September 1780 against Captain Joshua Huddy. Tye was one of the most feared and effective guerrilla leaders opposing the American patriot forces in central New Jersey.
Joshua "Jack" Huddy, the commander of a New Jersey Patriot militia unit and a privateer ship during the American Revolutionary War, was noted as a figure of controversy after he was executed by irregular forces of the Associated Loyalists. He had been twice captured by Loyalist forces, escaping after the first time.
South Carolina was outraged over British tax policies in the 1760s that violated what they saw as their constitutional right to "no taxation without representation". Merchants joined the boycott against buying British products. When the London government harshly punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party, South Carolina's leaders joined 11 other colonies in forming the Continental Congress. When the British attacked Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 and were beaten back by the Massachusetts Patriots, South Carolina rallied to support the American Revolution. Loyalist and Patriots of the colony were split by nearly 50/50. Many of the South Carolinian battles fought during the American Revolution were with loyalist Carolinians and the part of the Cherokee tribe that allied with the British. This was to General Henry Clinton's advantage. His strategy was to march his troops north from St. Augustine, Florida, and sandwich George Washington in the North. Clinton alienated Loyalists and enraged Patriots by attacking a fleeing army of Patriot soldiers who posed no threat. Enslaved Africans and African Americans chose independence by escaping to British lines where they were promised freedom.
The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge was a battle of the American Revolutionary War fought near Wilmington in present-day Pender County, North Carolina, on February 27, 1776. The victory of North Carolina Revolutionary forces over Southern Loyalists helped build political support for the revolution and increased recruitment of additional soldiers into their forces.
Piney is a derogatory term that refers to inhabitants of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The Pine Barrens have sandy, acidic soil considered unsuitable for traditional farming by early settlers, who called the land "barren". The area is forested mainly with pitch pine and scrub oak. Many areas are swampy with cedar forests that grow along brownish-red, fresh water called "cedar water." The red color is actually created by the high level of iron in the water.
The Battle of Quinton's Bridge was a minor battle of the American Revolutionary War fought on March 18, 1778, during the British occupation of Philadelphia. New Jersey militia companies defending a bridge across Alloway Creek in Salem County, New Jersey, were lured into a trap by British Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mawhood and suffered significant casualties.
David Fanning was a Loyalist leader in the American Revolutionary War in North and South Carolina. Fanning participated in approximately 36 minor engagements and skirmishes, and in 1781, captured the Governor of North Carolina, Thomas Burke, from the temporary capital at Hillsborough. Additionally, Fanning was captured by Patriot forces 14 times throughout the war, each time escaping or receiving a pardon. After the British defeat in the war, Fanning fled to Canada, where he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1791 to 1801 representing Kings County. After being convicted of rape in 1801, Fanning was expelled from New Brunswick, and settled in Nova Scotia, where he lived the remainder of his life.
The Battle of Ramsour's Mill took place on June 20, 1780 in present-day Lincolnton, North Carolina, during the British campaign to gain control of the southern colonies in the American Revolutionary War. The number of fighters on each side of the battle is still an issue of contention, but Loyalist militiamen outnumbered Patriot militia and had captured a group of Patriots who they were planning to hang on the morning of June 20.
The Battle of Musgrove Mill, August 19, 1780, occurred near a ford of the Enoree River, near the present-day border between Spartanburg, Laurens and Union Counties in South Carolina. During the course of the battle, 200 Patriot militiamen defeated a combined force of approximately 300 Loyalist militiamen and 200 provincial regulars.
The Ethiopian Regiment, better known as Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, was a British colonial military unit organized during the American Revolution by the Earl of Dunmore, last Royal Governor of Virginia. Composed of slaves who had escaped from Patriot masters, it was led by British officers and sergeants. The regiment was disbanded in 1776, though many of its soldiers probably went on to serve in other Black Loyalist units.
Associators were members of 17th- and 18th-century volunteer military associations in the British American thirteen colonies and British Colony of Canada. These were more commonly known as Maryland Protestant, Pennsylvania, and American Patriot and British Loyalist colonial militias. But unlike militias, the associator military volunteers were exempt from regular mandatory military service. Other names used to describe associators were "Associations", "Associated", "Refugees", "Volunteers", and "Partisans".
The Snow Campaign was one of the first major military operations of the American Revolutionary War in the southern colonies. An army of up to 3,000 Patriot militia under Colonel Richard Richardson marched against Loyalist recruiting centers in South Carolina, flushing them out and frustrating attempts by the Loyalists to organize. The Patriot expedition became known as the Snow Campaign due to heavy snowfall in the later stages of the campaign.
The Siege of Savage's Old Fields was an encounter between Patriot and Loyalist forces in the back country town of Ninety Six, South Carolina, early in the American Revolutionary War. It was the first major conflict in South Carolina in the war, having been preceded by bloodless seizures of several military fortifications in the province. Patriot forces under the command of Major Andrew Williamson had been dispatched to the area to recover a shipment of gunpowder and ammunition intended for the Cherokees that had been seized by Loyalists. Williamson's force, numbering over 500, established a stockaded fort near Ninety Six, where it was surrounded by some 1,900 Loyalists.
Colonists who supported the British cause in the American Revolution were Loyalists, often called Tories, or, occasionally, Royalists or King's Men. George Washington's winning side in the war called themselves "Patriots", and in this article Americans on the revolutionary side are called Patriots. For a detailed analysis of the psychology and social origins of the Loyalists, see Loyalist.
Nesco is an unincorporated community in Mullica Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States.
The Cedar Bridge Tavern is a historic building located in the New Jersey Pine Barrens in Barnegat Township. It was built around 1740 and is believed to the oldest intact bar in the United States. It is located at the site of the last skirmish of the American Revolutionary War. It is on the National Register of Historical Places.
