Life in the Back Hills
David Fanning was born in Birch Swamp, Amelia County, Virginia in 1755. In July 1764 Fanning was orphaned. As a result, the young David was bound to Needham Bryan (Bryant), a county justice in Johnson County, North Carolina. The justice provided for his education but was by Fanning’s account, harsh. Or maybe young David was a bit of a handful. So in 1773, when Fanning was 18 and of legal age, he left his guardian and moved to Raeburn’s Creek in the western section of South Carolina. There the young man farmed and traded with the nearby Cherokee Indians. Although life on the frontier was not easy, it was reasonably good for the enterprising young David Fanning.
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| Fanning in the backcountry |
Things began to change when the American Revolution broke out in 1775. At the time, Fanning was a company sergeant in the Upper Saluda militia of South Carolina. Most upcountry Carolinians were sympathetic to the crown and eyed the lowland planters and merchants with suspicion. There was friction. A delegation from the low lands established a tenuous truce that was broken when a local Loyalist was arrested in November. Soon rumors spread that the rebels were enticing the Indians to their side. That was it. Accosted and robbed by patriot militias, Fanning sided with the local Loyalist faction.
Fighting for the King
David Fanning served under Major Joseph Robinson in military operations in western South Carolina. He was part of the force that captured a large Patriot garrison at the key Fort Ninety Six in November 1775. But Fanning himself was nearly captured in December that year during the battle at Big Cane Break. Eluding the local patriots, Fanning fled to the Cherokee Indians.
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| The Fort at Ninety Six |
Now wanted as a notorious Loyalist, Fanning was taken prisoner by the rebels in January 1776. This was the first of what be a possible record 14 times during the war! In some of these, he was paroled but the cunning and relentless Fanning made numerous harrowing escapes. Between these periods of imprisonment Fanning proved a ruthless, enterprising, and aggressive Loyalist officer. He relentlessly led partisan units in almost nonstop skirmishes with the rebel forces in the area. He was a key figure in the little known but decisive back woods civil war that would eventually turn the Carolinians against their British masters and those Loyalist supporters of the crown.
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| David Fanning made numerous escapes |
The Loyalists take a Knee
But by August 1779, most of the Loyalists were losing heart. They had suffered heavy losses and it looked like the south would be lost to the crown. Many of them, including Fanning, agreed to a conditional pardon by Governor John Rutledge. This kept Fanning out of the fray for several months. Fanning’s numerous escapades had taken a toll on him. By his own admission, he was worn out, frazzled and skeletal in appearance. His many wounds and injuries had taken their toll. Fanning had even agreed to guide patriot militia units in the backcountry as part of his pardon.
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| The British capture of Charleston marked a new dynamic in the southern theater of operations |
But things changed when the British shifted their strategy to the south. A British force besieged Charleston and its fall and occupation led to a British move to hold all the key positions in the state. The decisive defeat of the Continental forces under General Horatio Gates by British General Lord Cornwallis made it apparent that the British were here to stay.
The South in Flames
These events reignited the ardor of the Loyalists and they flocked to the colors once more – Fanning with them. Bloody civil war once more erupted across the southern backwoods and this time Fanning was at the forefront of the Loyalist cause. With South Carolina under the British heel and Cornwallis’s army in control, Fanning and other Loyalist partisan leaders now had a steady stream of weapons and other supplies. With things looking dark for the rebels, Loyalist bands were easy to recruit and equip.
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| The Southern Theater would prove Decisive and violent |
This high watermark of Loyalist ascendancy did not last long. One of the American cause’s best generals was sent south to instill new energy into the southern theater. Nathanael Green proved a
persistent and classic resistance leader. Giving ground when he had to, making stands, successful and not, but keeping his army in the field and active. Cornwallis had to destroy his army. He hurt it. But could not destroy it.
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| Nathanael Greene's arrival turned the tide in the Southern Theater |
The West is Lost
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| Cornwallis would fail to destroy Greene and make a grave mistake |
With things looking bleak for Loyalists in the west, Fanning took his band and headed east and north to Deep River North Carolina where he conducted operations against local patriots. His success led to his appointment to Colonel of Loyalist militia of Chatham and Randolph counties. For the next several months Fanning ruthlessly launched raids throughout western North Carolina. He now had become one of the most feared Loyalist partisan commanders in the theater.
With things looking bleak for Loyalists in the west, Fanning took his band and headed east and north to Deep River North Carolina where he conducted operations against local patriots. His success led to his appointment to Colonel of Loyalist militia of Chatham and Randolph counties. For the next several months Fanning ruthlessly launched raids throughout western North Carolina. He now had become one of the most feared Loyalist partisan commanders in the theater.
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| American victory Kings Mountain crushed loyal opposition in the western Carolinas |
Guerrilla Days in Carolina
Fanning was a classic guerrilla leader. He would move fast and hit hard, sometimes with as few as 12 men. Many of these raids resulted in the capture and ransom or parole of leading patriot sympathizers and political figures. He was involved in some 36 skirmishes in 1781 alone. One was a raid on a session of court in Chatham County. Fanning’s partisans took 53 prisoners, including court officials, militia officers, and members of the North Carolina General Assembly.
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| Fanning's Loyalist militia raised Cain among the patriots |
Fanning led the Loyalist militia at the battle at the House in the Horseshoe in the summer of 1781 where he forced the surrender of a force of patriot militia. By the end of the summer of 1781, Fanning's infamy had attracted a force of approximately 950 Loyalist men to his command. He was ready for the big time.
Conventional War Success… and Failure
With a large force in hand, Fanning was intent on using it. And he did. On 12 September 1781, he led a force of almost 1,000 Loyalists in a surprise assault against the rebel forces at Hillsboro, North Carolina. Hillsboro at the time was the main patriot base in the region and some time capital. He overwhelmed the patriot defenses and captured 200 prisoners along with Governor Thomas Burke. Hillsboro proved his most notable success in the war.
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| After the victory at Hillsboro Fanning is ambushed at Lindley's Mill |
But Fanning’s sweet success as a conventional force commander was not long-lived. He led his victorious column, along with prisoners, back to Wilmington. As he reached the area around Lindley’s Mill a rebel force of 400 under Brigadier General John Butler launched a fierce attack on Fanning’s men. The fighting was hard and the surprised Loyalist force would have crumbled but for Fanning’s personal leadership. He fended off Butler’s attacks and managed to get his column to Wilmington but was himself badly wounded. Thanks to Fanning's resolve, the hapless Governor Burke was imprisoned by the British Army on James Island near Charleston, South Carolina.
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NC Gov Thomas Burke |
Decline in Fortunes
In November 1781 the British withdrew from Wilmington on the news of Yorktown. The war seemed over but the Loyalists who remained with the colors would not go down so easily. The bitter civil war left too many desperate for revenge and unwilling to compromise or submit to the rebels they so despised. Fanning was one of them. He continued to lead partisan bands against the patriots. He made a series of bitter attacks on patriot settlements that continued into 1782 – a year that most of us think as one of quiet as the final treaty was negotiated.
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| Loyalist Provisionals |
But Fanning was worn and weary. And the canny backwoodsman saw the handwriting on the wall. It was time to return to a normal life. As a first step in attempting to establish that life, he married Sarah Carr, a 16-year-old young woman from the settlement of Deep River, North Carolina.
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| Charleston Harbor would provide many Loyalists' final glimpse of the country the fought so hard to keep loyal |
Fanning finally accepted a conditional truce from the local American government and agreed to suspend further military action. Now resigned to his fate and that of his cause, Fanning and his young bride went to Charleston where he was deported, with other Loyalists, to British Florida. Fanning’s success against the patriots and his notoriety as a guerrilla caused the North Carolina legislature to ban him from ever entering the state. This seems a bitter memorial to his accomplishments.
Oh Canada!
Like so many other members of the Loyalist diaspora, Fanning did not remain long in his first refuge. After a few months, he made his way to New Brunswick, Canada – one of the thousands who went there for a better life under the crown. His natural leadership put him in the legislative assembly until he was caught up in a shocking scandal in 1800. Fanning was charged and convicted of rape of 15-year old Sarah London and sentenced to be hanged. The evidence against him was scanty – essentially her testimony, but Fanning had few friends among his Loyalist peers. The combative man from the hills had brought his feisty ways to Canada. He appealed the sentence and was instead of hanging he was banished from New Brunswick.
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| Canada provided refuge for many Loyalists after the American Revolution |
Fanning proved resourceful when given a second chance. He moved to the small port town of Digby, Nova Scotia. Fanning spent the remainder of his life in Digby. He built a comfortable house and engaged in farming, fishing, and shipbuilding. He still wanted to return to New Brunswick to settle his financial affairs but his petitions to Thomas Carleton, Provincial Secretary Jonathan Odell, and other officials fell on deaf ears.
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| Digby, Nova Scotia was one of many Loyalist landing places in Canada |
In any case, considering his eight years of fighting and mayhem, the staunch and loyal David Fanning, managed to live to a reasonably ripe old age. He died on 14 March 1825.
A Loyal Life well Lived?
The tough and wiry Fanning was a stubborn and determined man in war and peace. As a Loyalist militia leader, he proved zealous and often brilliantly effective. But he was not gentile nor was he that type of intellectual loyalist, refined and smug, who sat out the war in the secure comforts of New York, Charleston, or England. Instead, Fanning fought tenaciously, fiercely, and occasionally cruelly against ex-friends and neighbors. Rather than endearing him, his successes made him unpopular with the privileged Loyalist gentry of New Brunswick.
But the last laugh and irony from this angry and combative former hillbilly was his epitaph in the Trinity churchyard at Digby: “Humane, affable, gentle, and kind – A plain honest open moral mind.”
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| Colonel David Fanning resting place in Digby, Nova Scotia |
In my take, it should have read: “I’m Loyal – Love it or Shove it.”
