Benjamin
Cleveland
Hero of the Battle of King's Mountain
Compiled
from a number of public domain sources by Doug
Land
Benjamin
Cleveland was born on May 26th,
1738 in Bull Run, Prince William County, Virginia. He was the son of
John Cleveland, a house-joiner, and Martha Coffee. His education was limited and he strongly
disliked the constant effort of farm work. He was a hunter for
several years, living irresponsibly. In 1761 he married Mary Graves
and made a reluctant attempt at farming. The couple had two children,
but Cleveland also had another child by a woman in Virginia.
About
1769, at the age of thirty-one, Cleveland moved to the Upper Yadkin
in North Carolina with his father-in-law and family. They settled
near Mulberry Fields, in Wilkes County. There he began to earn a good
reputation among the locals. He still did not show any strong
interest in farming, so while his father-in-law’s slaves cleared
land for the new plantation he continued to hunt. He later moved to
Surry County on the north side of the Yadkin River. In the early
1770’s he learned about promising land in Kentucky from his
neighbor Daniel Boone and in the summer of 1772 Cleveland organized a
party to search for it, but they were robbed by a band of Cherokee
around Cumberland Gap and returned home due to the lack of supplies.
After his return Cleveland regained his strength, gathered a party of
gunmen, and daringly returned to the Cherokee area, moving from
village to village to recover his possessions. This event permanently
established his reputation as a strong Indian fighter.
In
1774 Cleveland sat as a justice in the Surry County court and was
appointed that same year to be a juror at the superior court in
Salisbury. In 1775 news of the Battle of Lexington cause the Surry
court to quickly change to a safety committee. He was offered the
position of ensign in the Revolutionary Army by the provincial
congress, but he turned down the offer to become a captain of the
Surry militia in 1776. He fought against Loyalist forces in the Wake
Forest region and in the autumn 1776 he led a company in Rutherford’s
campaign against the Cherokees in North and South Carolina. During
the course of this campaign militia forces completely destroyed
thirty-six Cherokee towns. In 1777 he served at Carter’s Fort and
the Long Island of Holston, in East Tennessee while a treaty was
negotiated. He was made Justice of the Peace of Wilkes County in 1778
and became a colonel in the Wilkes County militia. Cleveland also
held other civil positions in the years of the Revolution. He was the
commissioner of the Loyalist’s confiscated estates, supervised
elections, county ranger, and in 1778-1779 he was a member of the
North Carolina House of Commons, representing Wilkes County. In 1780
be became a member of the N.C. Senate for a term. He voted against
tax raises and supported a bill to capture and sell slaves that had
been illegally freed. Cleveland himself was a slave owner.
In
June 1780 he helped to drive Loyalists from Ramsour’s Mills and
then fought at the battle of King’s Mountain. This battle was
against Major Patrick Ferguson, who was the left wing of the British
army’s attack on the South. The Revolutionaries won decisively,
killing Ferguson, and the battle became the turning point of the war
in the South. In 1781 Cleveland was briefly captured by Loyalists but
was soon rescued by his friends and brother Bob. Throughout the war
Cleveland was merciless to the Loyalists that fought against him. He
hanged those that he did not like, had others whipped, and allowed
some to give an oath of allegiance with the promise of good future
conduct. In 1779 he was indicted at the superior court of Salisbury
for murdering two Loyalists, but was pardoned by the governor at the
request of the General Assembly. Cleveland was not always nice to his
own people either. The people around Salem complained about the
militia under Cleveland who had a habit of taking things without
paying for them.
At
the end of the Revolution Cleveland was forced to give up his land
and in 1785 Cleveland moved to the western border of South Carolina
and became an associate judge in Pendleton County. He became quite
overweight with the loss of his active lifestyle, and reached the
weight of 450 pounds. He was forced to travel by cart as he was no
longer able to ride a horse and wore only a shift in warm weather.
Cleveland died in his chair in October 1806 at his plantation on
Tugaloo River, in current Oconee County, S.C. A monument was erected
to him on July 29th,
1887 at Fort Madison, South Carolina and in 1841 North Carolina named
a county after him.
"Of
all the fierce frontiersman whose activity spread consternation among
the partisans of King George in the Southern campaigns of the
American Revolution, not one stood higher than Colonel Benjamin
Cleveland." (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 69).
Colonel
Cleveland was born on May 16, 1738, in Prince William County,
Virginia. His family home was on Bull Run, the same creek that later
became famous during the Civil War. The family moved sixty miles west
to Orange County when Cleveland was still young. (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 69).
Cleveland
showed a bold and forceful personality even when he was a boy. It is
said that "at the early age of twelve he seized his father's gun
and put to flight a party of drunken rowdies who were raising a
disturbance at his home while John Cleveland, the father, was
absent." The young Benjamin was not fond of farming, thinking it
too tame, and instead became a good hunter. "To him the life of
a hunter was a source of profit as well as pleasure, for the hides,
furs, and pelts won by his rifle brought him no inconsiderable
income." (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. pp. 69-70).
Tradition
says that Cleveland fought in the French and Indian War, where he
learned how to be a soldier. (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 70).
Sometime
before he left Virginia, Cleveland married Mary Graves, the daughter
of a wealthy gentleman. They had two sons and a daughter. Around
1769, Cleveland moved his family to North Carolina. They first
settled on the shore of Roaring Creek, a tributary of the Yadkin
River. (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. pp. 70, 73).
In
1772, Cleveland left for Kentucky with four other men. He had heard
tales of the abundant hunting from Daniel Boone himself. On the way,
the party was robbed of all of their provisions, including their
guns, by a party of Cherokee Indians, who demanded that the white men
go back to where they had come from. The group did. Later, Cleveland
returned to Cherokee territory in order to get his horse back. He was
able to do so with the help of a few friendly Cherokee. (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 70).
When
the Revolutionary War began, Cleveland was commissioned as an ensign
in the Second North Carolina Regiment. In January, 1776, he was
promoted to lieutenant. In November of the same year, he became a
captain. Eventually, he resigned from the Continental Line and joined
the militia. He saw action at Moore's Creek and skirmished with the
Cherokees until a peace treaty was worked out in July 1778. (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. pp. 70-71).
In
1777, Wilkes County was formed, "chiefly through the
instrumentality of Captain Cleveland, and he was made colonel of the
militia forces of the new county in August 1778. In 1778 Colonel
Cleveland represented Wilkes in the North Carolina House of Commons,
and was State Senator therefrom in 1779." (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 71).
Cleveland
was kept busy throughout the rest of the war. "To tell in full
of the desperate encounters in which Cleveland engaged would fill a
volume. He was constantly engaged against the enemy, in 1777 serving
in enemy campaigns, going on the expedition to Georgia in 1778, and
returning in 1779, and afterwards marching against the Tories at
Ramseur's Mill, though he did not reach that place in time for the
battle" (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 71).
"'Old
Round About,' as Cleveland was familiarly known (taking that
sobriquet from his plantation of the same name), probably had a hand
in hanging more Tories than any other man in America. Though this may
be an unenviable distinction, he had to deal with about as
unscrupulous a set of ruffians as ever infested any land--men who
murdered peaceable inhabitants, burnt dwellings, stole horses, and
committed about every other act in the catalogue of crime."(1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol V. p. 71).
The
historian Dr. Lyman C. Draper wrote of Colonel Cleveland: "Cleveland
was literally 'all things to all people.' By his severities he awed
and intimidated not a few --restraining them from lapsing into Tory
abominations; by his kindness, forbearance, and even tenderness
winning over many to the glorious cause he loved so well."
(1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 72).
Cleveland
distinguished himself most in the Battle of King's Mountain on
October 7, 1780. "The battle of King's Mountain was fortunately
a great and overwhelming victory for the Americans; and among all the
desperate fighters there engaged not one showed more personal courage
than Colonel Cleveland. " (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 72).
"After
the victory at King's Mountain more than thirty Tories were condemned
to death, and nine were executed--the others being reprieved. The
executions here alluded to were...punishments for past
crimes--house-burnings, outrages against women, desertions and
betrayals, assassinations of non-combatants. These measures were also
in retaliation for past British cruelties--a few days before this
eleven Americans having been hanged at Ninety-Six in South Carolina
and many more having been accorded similar treatment at other times.
Cleveland was a member of the court (or court martial) --the nature
to the tribunal being of a perplexing character --which tried and
condemned these Tories. The Battle of King's Mountain restored
comparative order to western North Carolina, yet there was more
fighting to be done, and Col. Cleveland as usual bore more than his
share, serving under General Griffith Rutherford. (1906.
Ashe, Samuel.
Biographical History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. pp. 72-73).
After
the war, Cleveland lost his plantation, "The Round About"
to "a litigant who had a better title therefor." Cleveland
moved on to South Carolina, where he became an Indian fighter and
then a judge after the fighting ceased. Apparently, the more
sedentary lifestyle of a judge did not agree with Cleveland, for
"Before he died Cleveland attained the enormous weight of four
hundred and fifty pounds." (1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 73).
Colonel
Cleveland died in Oconee County, South Carolina, in October of 1806.
"By chapter 9 of the Laws of 1840-41 a county was formed out of
Lincoln and Rutherford and named for Colonel Cleveland. In this act
the name was misspelled Cleaveland, but by another legislative
enactment --passed many years later --the error was remedied."
(1906.
Ashe, Samuel. Biographical
History of North Carolina.
Vol. V. p. 73).
Bibliography
Ashe,
Samuel, ed. Biographical
History of North Carolina, Vol. 5.
Greensboro, NC: Charles L. Van Noppen, 1905.
Carnes,
Mark C., and Garranty, John A., editors. American
National Biography, Volume 15.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Fiske,
John, and Wilson, James Grant, editors.
Appleton’s
Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume 4.
New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888-1889. Reprint. Detroit: Gale
Research, 1968
Powell,
William S., ed. Dictionary
of North Carolina Biography, Volume.
Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
