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'R' is for Richardson, Richard (ca. 1705-1780)

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"R" is for Richardson, Richard [ca. 1705-1780]. Legislator Soldier. A native Virginian, Richardson immigrated to South Carolina in the 1730s. Settling on the Upper Santee River in Prince Fredericks Parish. He became a leading back country political figure and was instrumental in negotiating the end of the regulator movement. He was a member of the first and second provisional congresses of South Carolina and a well-respected militia officer at the start of the Revolutionary War in November, 1775, he was given joint command of a militia force of 2,500 and the mission to scatter the large concentration of loyalists gathering in the back country. In what became known as the Snow Campaign, Richardson's mission was successful. Richard Richardson was the founder of one of South Carolina's leading political families with six of his descendants becoming governor of the state.

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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.