A 1776 skirmish in South Carolina...

Item # 704264

Currently Unavailable. Contact us if you would like to be placed on a want list or to be notified if a similar item is available.

October 03, 1776

THE PENNSYLVANIA EVENING POST, Philadelphia, Oct. 3, 1776

* Great year to collect (1776)
* American revolutionary War
* Cherokee village of Tamassee
* Major Andrew Williamson

Any newspaper dated 1776 is quite desirable, but even more so issues printed in Philadelphia.
Page 2 has a report which includes: "There is not a maritime nation in Europe but which privately carries on a trade with the British colonies of North America, France & Spain in particular, who have the best opportunity for it; witness that commerce never flourished so much throughout all Europe as it has actually done since the beginning of the present American war...".
Included is much more content concerning America & trade with England & others, carrying over to page 3.
The back page has reports from the South Carolina Gazette which include mention of Col. Williamson returning from his expedition through the Cherokee settlements where: "...He had an engagement on the 12th, near Tomawsey, with about 300 of the enemy, when they were routed, leaving 15 men dead on the field of battle..." with more. Further on is: "...The General Assembly of...Massachusetts Bay...passed a resolution for raising every fifth man in the same...to march for New York for the immediate assistance of our brethren there."
There are a few other tidbits which are war related. Half of the back page is taken up with ads.
Four pages, 8 1/4 by 10 1/2 inches, never-trimmed margins, archivally rejoined at the spine, several discrete archival mends, and several small holes mostly at the blank margins with no effect to readability. Mild wear at the wide margins.

background: In August 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, Colonel Andrew Williamson of the South Carolina militia led a major punitive expedition against the Cherokee Nation, who had allied with the British and launched raids on frontier settlements. As part of this campaign, Williamson and his forces systematically destroyed dozens of Cherokee towns in the South Carolina backcountry and beyond. On August 12, 1776, they reached the Cherokee village of Tamassee—likely the place sometimes misremembered or misspelled as “Tomawsey.” Though the village was abandoned by the time the militia arrived, Williamson’s troops burned it to the ground, part of a broader effort to break Cherokee resistance and force their withdrawal from contested frontier lands. This scorched-earth strategy ultimately contributed to the collapse of Cherokee military efforts and led to the Treaty of DeWitt’s Corner in 1777, in which the Cherokee ceded large swaths of territory in the Carolinas and Georgia. The destruction of Tamassee stands as a stark example of the brutal frontier warfare that marked the Revolutionary War in the South.