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"C" is Cunningham, William (d. 1787)

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"C" is Cunningham, William (d. 1787). Soldier. At the outset of the Revolution, Cunningham sided with the Patriots, but changed sides and became a vicious Tory partisan. After British evacuation of Ninety Six in 1781, Cunningham assembled a band of three hundred strong and set out on an expedition that would become known as the “Bloody Scout.” At Cloud’s Creek, he ordered that no quarter be given to surrendering patriot forces. At Hayes Station on the Little River, the Tories hacked more than a dozen men to death with swords and bayonets.  He continued his raids throughout 1782, but fled to the safety of East Florida before the British evacuated Charleston in December. By the end of the Revolutionary War, William Cunningham had gained an unenviable reputation in South Carolina and the epithet "Bloody Bill."

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.