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“H” is for Horry, Peter (ca .1743-1815)

“H” is for Horry, Peter (ca .1743-1815). Planter, soldier, legislator. Horry was born in Prince George Winyah Parish. His military service began during the Revolutionary War when he was commissioned a captain in 1775. He served with Francis Marion in the Second South Carolina Regiment, which distinguished itself at the Battle of Sullivan's Island. In January 1780 he took command of the Fifth South Carolina. A member of the Society of the Cincinnati, he collected a sizeable archive of war documents and letters. He gave them to Mason Locke “Parson” Weems, fresh from his popular, but contrived, biography of George Washington. Weems took so many liberties in writing the Life of Marion that Horry disassociated himself from the work. In 1801 when the legislature established new judicial districts the state honored Peter Horry’s wartime service by creating Horry District.

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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.