MEN OF GENERAL SUMTER'S BRIGADE, S.C.
This is a list of men who served under Capt. William Smith in General Sumter's Brigade, and a description of their service. William Houlditch of Lauren's County was in this company.
"Ramsay in his history of South Carolina says that a party of exiles who had fled into N.C., as the British advanced..made choice of Col. Sumter to be their leader..and that he took the field against the victorious British at a time when the inhabitants had generally abandoned the idea of supporting their independence. The British had burned Sumter's home and turned his family out of doors. They also burned the home and library of the local clergyman, Rev. Mr. Simpson and all Bibles which contained the Scots translations of the Psalms. "The people arranged themselves under Sumter with the enthusiasm of men called upon to defend not only their civil liberties but their Holy Religion." These men were woodsmen of the frontier up-country living mostly in the north eastern part of the state. South Carolina was no longer in a condition to pay, clothe or feed troops, therefore Sumter's men furnished their own horses and brought along their muskets and rifles. Often "iron tools of neighboring farms were worked up by blacksmiths into rude weapons..bullets were made by melting pewter..furnished by housekeepers. (In battles) some kept at a distance till by the fall of others, they were supplied with arms. When victorious, they rifled the dead..of weapons." General Sumter was so daring and fearless he was called "The Gamecock."
| Antly, George | Jones, Jonathan |
| Bearden, Richard | Lancaster, Saml. Sgt |
| Bearden, John | Lusk. Robt. Jr. 2nd Lt |
| Bearden, Wm | Motlow, Jno. 1st Lt |
| Bird, Nathan | Neal, James |
| Coldwell, Wm | Neighbours, Benj. |
| Chandler, Jesse | Pettitt, Henry |
| Dawkins, James | Rest, Jno |
| Day, Saml | Seagler, Wm |
| Eliott, Chas | Smith, Wm. |
| Flinn, James | Smith, Zopher |
| Gaston, James | Smith, Nathan |
| Griffis, Thos | Scott, Robt |
| Glasgo, Robt | Steel, Jno |
| Harris, Jno | Strother, Jas |
| Herrin, Wm | Swords, Geo |
| Houlditch, Wm | Toney, Abram |
| Hughes,Wm | Toney, Drewry |
| Jackson, Wm. | Wolliston, Joseph |
| Jeffris, Geo | White, Archb |
| Jeffries, Lt. Berry | Young, Wm |
| Jeffries, Allen |
Sarah Sullivan Ervin, compiler, South Carolinians in the Revolution, 1945 (Reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1965)