March 23, 1781 – the Battle of Beattie’sMill – a battle that never occurred.
There never was such a place as Beattie’s Mill. Thats why the location was never found.
However, there was indeed a battle on Mar 23, 1781, but it was it was fought in Abbeville County (not McCormick) and the name of the battle is Dunlop’sDefeat.
The confusion began with Hugh McCall’s book “the History of Georgia” published about 1816.
Hugh McCall was 13 years old at the time of this battle. His father, Col. James McCall, was one of the Revolutionary War’s most heroic officers and co-commander of the battle that occurred on Mar. 23, 1781.
Sadly, Col. James McCall died from smallpox about 6 weeks later.
After the war Hugh McCall’s family moved from Abbeville, SC to Georgia. Hugh McCall talked at length to his father’s friends about their wartime experiences and wrote his book based on their recollections.
The problem is, Georgia veterans do not know South Carolina geography.
In their pension applications written in 1832, these veterans describe this battle as occurring on Hogskin Creek, Little River, Long Cane Creek, etc. There is absolutely no consensus.
For some unexplained reason, Hugh McCall ascribed the location of this battle to a place that never existed. That led some folks to assert that Beattie’s Mill must have occurred somewhere in McCormick County, SC. This assertion held sway for over 200 years.
However, the answer to this question lay not in the Patriot Pension Applications, but in the Loyalist Pensions.
Nancy Lindroth is a Revolutionary War researcher from Augusta. She spent 20 years trying to find the location of “Beattie’s Mill” and finally found the answer – in London.
Samuel Hill was a Loyalist who fought in this battle. In fact, the battle ended in Samuel Hill’s house in the Long Cane community in Abbeville County, many miles away from the presumed “location”.
Loyalist Samuel Hill was shot through the arm and the ball lodged in his body. He was left for dead on the floor of his house. He was taken to the British fort at Ninety Six where his arm was amputated. He returned to England where he received a lifelong pension for his losses.
Nancy Lindroth searched for Samuel Hill’s deeds and was able to determine the exact location of his house, and the exact location of the battle.
Based on Ms Lindroth’s information, four years ago a field research team examined the location. Rifle balls fired and unfired, musket balls fired and unfired, shotgun pellets, buttons, buckles and other accouterments of a Revolutionary War battle were found. These artifacts prove beyond doubt that the Battle of Dunlop’s Defeat occurred about 5 miles from Donalds, SC along the banks of Long Cane Creek.
The Battle of Dunlop’s Defeat is one of South Carolina’s newest discovered battlefields.
The picture is Samuel Hill’s house where the battle ended. It was torn down in the 1980s.
