James Chitwood was born in 1751 in
Powhatan
County
Va. In
1775, Chitwood married Martha White and had four children from
this
Union. By 1780, Chitwood
had moved to Rutherford North
Carolina
In May 1781, Chitwood joined the
NC militia. His first tour of duty was along the
Congaree
River in
South Carolina.
Here in
South Carolina, Chitwood was
placed in charge of guarding the 150 British prisoners taken at
the battle of
Fort
Motte on
May 6 1781.
Fort
Motte
was the home of Jacob Motte, Provincial Treasurer before the
British seized it and made it the headquarters and supply depot
for the region.
Fort
Motte was the principal
depot of British Convoys destined for
Fort
Granby and
Ninety six. On May 6, 1781, Col. Francis Marion, one of the
leaders of the Sc militia attacked Lt. McPherson, commander of
Fort
Motte.
Marion
attacked
Fort
Motte at
first with cannon fire, but the cannon balls just bounced off
the house with little effect. Rebecca Motte, wife of Jacob Motte
gave the patriots’ permission to burn the house down since the
British had seized it. The militia then started shooting arrows
dipped in pitch onto the roof. The smoke and flames forced the
British out of the house. The British were soon captured and
taken prisoner.
In June 1781, Chitwood was part of
Sumter’s militia.
While in
Sumter’s camp one
day in June, Chitwood saw Emily Geiger ride into camp with a
message from General Greene. Emily Geiger, a young 16 year old
girl volunteered to take a message from Gen. Greene, Continental
Commander to Sumter about meeting and combining their forces
so they could attack Gen. Rawdon, British Commander at
Orangeburg Sc. The ride of Emily Geiger is one of the greatest
stories of bravery and courage during the revolutionary war. In
June 1781 after the battle of Ninety six, Greene developed a
plan to attack General Rawdon at Orangeburg. Rawdon had caused
Greene a defeat at Ninety six when he arrived with a relief
column 2000 troops from
Ireland.
Now it was payback time for Greene. Greene needed the help of
General Sumter camped on the banks of the
Wateree
River.
Greene tried unsuccessfully for
days to find a messenger to go to
Sumter. All the men
were afraid of being captured and hung as spies if captured.
Greene was amazed at the courage of this young girl when she
offered her services to carry the message to
Sumter. Emily rode
off with the message and was soon captured by the British. While
in the British camp; Emily ate the message before being
searched. Since the British couldn’t find anything on her they
let her go. Emily soon rode into
Sumter’s camp and
gave him the message. Chitwood along with
Sumter’s militia were
soon on their way to meet Greene.
By the time
Sumter arrived, Greene heard
reports of
Washington advancing toward
Yorktown. Greene changed his
plan to go after Lt. Col Alexander Stewart in order to keep his
army from combining with Rawdon and to keep the British tied up
in Sc so they wouldn’t advance towards Yorktown to help
Cornwallis in the upcoming battle of
Yorktown. The two armies would
meet at Eutaw Springs on September 8, 1781.
By the time Chitwood arrived at
Eutaw Springs, he had the mumps. Mumps were a major epidemic
problem for the patriots during the Revolutionary war. Most of
the young patriots lived on isolated farms and had not been
exposed to the mumps as a child. Due to the unsanitary
conditions in most revolutionary war camps, mumps spread like
wildfire exposing hundreds of soldiers to this dreadful disease.
In November 1781, Chitwood
participated in the recapture of Orangeburg. In May 1781, the Sc
militia ran the British out of Orangeburg only to have it
recaptured by the British in July 1781 by General Rawdon. On Nov
5, 1781,
Sumter attacked the British at
Orangeburg to keep the Tories in the region from sending
supplies to the British at
Charleston. On Nov
23, 1781,
Sumter wrote Greene
a letter saying all of Orangeburg was now under the control of
the militia. This would be the only and last battle Chitwood
would participate in.
After the war Chitwood moved back
to Rutherford
county
NC. By
1830, Chitwood and moved to
Campbell
county
TN. In
1832, Chitwood applied for his pension while living in
Campbell
County. In
1838, Chitwood moved to Winfield TN located in
Scott
County. In
1839, at the age of 88, Chitwood died and was buried near his
home place. Today most of Chitwood’s descendents live in
Campbell and
Scott
County
TN.