Martyr of the American Revolution: The Execution of Isaac Hayne, South Carolinian

198 Pages·2017·28.121 MB·English

by  C. L. Bragg

Martyr of the American Revolution
Last Words of Captain Nathan Hale, Hero-Martyr of the American Revolution.
Alexander Hay Ritchie’s 1858 engraving after the painting by Felix O. C. Darley.
Courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Reproduced with permission.
Martyr
of the

American Revolution
The Execution of
Isaac Hayne, South Carolinian
C. L. Bragg
The University of South Carolina Press
© 2016 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN 978-1-61117-718-3 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-61117-719-0 (ebook)
“Had the enemy wit enough to play a generous game, we should be ruined;
but with them humanity is out of the question. They will treat the people
with severity, rouse opposition in every quarter, and send recruits to
our standard, till they accomplish their own destruction.”
Attributed to Gen. Francis Marion in Alexander Garden,
Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War in America, 1822

Contents
List of Illustrations | ix
Preface | xi
Acknowledgments | xv
Prologue | 1
Part I
Chapter 1
The British Violate Their Terms and Rule by Edict | 5
Chapter 2
A Proud and Haughty Scot Takes Command of Charleston | 17
Chapter 3
A Fierce and Unrelenting Soldier Comes in from the Field | 29
Part II
Chapter 4
“I do not mean to desert the cause of America” | 43
Chapter 5
The Captor Becomes the Captive | 53
Chapter 6
“The imminent and shocking doom of the most unfortunate Mr. Hayne” | 65
Chapter 7
“We seriously lament the necessity of such a severe expedient” | 77
viii Contents
Part III
Chapter 8
Rawdon’s Fantastic Shipboard Recollections | 91
Chapter 9
“In South Carolina no one even knows where he is buried” | 103
Chapter 10
A Survey of the Story of Isaac Hayne in Art and Literature | 113
Appendix A
The Proclamations of Lt. Gen. Sir Henry Clinton | 123
Appendix B
The Correspondence between Col. Isaac Hayne and His British Captors | 129
Appendix C
John Colcock’s Legal Brief: “Case of Colonel Hayne” | 133
Appendix D
Ladies’ Petition for Colonel Isaac Hayne | 135
Notes | 137
Bibliography | 159
Index | 171
Illustrations
Last Words of Captain Nathan Hale | frontispiece
The Battle-Fields of South Carolina 1775–1780 | xviii
Sir Henry Clinton, engraving | 4
The most Noble Marquis Cornwallis, K.G. | 16
David Ramsay, M.D. | 22
Francis Lord Rawdon | 28
Colleton District, South Carolina/
A Map of South Carolina and a Part of Georgia | 38
Isaac Hayne, Carolina Patriot | 42
Richard Hutson, Member of the Continental Congress | 45
The grave of Elizabeth Hutson Hayne | 52
Capture of Hayne and Death of M’Laughlin | 57
The Royal Exchange and Customs House | 58
The Unfortunate Death of Major André | 61
Isaac Hayne Being Led from the Exchange to the Scaffold | 64
The grave of Col. Isaac Hayne | 71
Nathanael Greene, engraving | 76
Lt. Col. Nisbet Balfour’s dispatch | 84
Francis Lord Rawdon, Marquis of Hastings | 90
The Hayne family cemetery | 102
The Isaac Hayne monument | 112
Fictionalized portrait of Lt. Colonel Nisbet Balfour | 119