Cedar Springs

The Battle of Cedar Springs began with an act of extraordinary courage by Jane Black Thomas, wife of Spartan Regiment founder John Thomas Sr. While visiting her husband and son at the British prison at Ninety Six in July 1780, Jane overheard Loyalist soldiers' wives discussing a planned surprise attack on the Patriot camp at Cedar Springs — a camp now commanded by her son, Colonel John Thomas Jr. She immediately rode nearly 60 miles through dangerous, Loyalist-controlled territory to warn him, arriving in time for Thomas to order his 60 militiamen to leave their campfires burning and conceal themselves in the woods. When Major Patrick Ferguson's force of 150 Loyalists approached, the hidden Patriots opened fire from the tree line, killing one, wounding dozens, and sending the rest fleeing in panic. The entire engagement lasted only a few minutes.

Though brief, the skirmish had consequences that reached far beyond that July night. The Spartan Regiment went on to fight alongside Colonel Thomas Sumter's brigade at Hanging Rock, Musgrove Mill, and Blackstock's Plantation, while continuing to recruit local men to the Patriot cause. Those recruits showed up in force at the Battle of King's Mountain on October 7, 1780, where a Patriot force overwhelmed Major Patrick Ferguson's 1,100 Loyalists, killing Ferguson and destroying British hopes of Loyalist reinforcements in the South. The defeat forced General Cornwallis to eventually abandon South Carolina entirely, paving the way for the decisive American victory at Yorktown in October 1781 and the end of the war. The courage of Jane Black Thomas and the Spartan Regiment at Cedar Springs were small but vital threads in the larger fabric of American independence.