Background
Born in Virginia in 1734, Thomas Sumter spent much of his life as a soldier. He served as an officer in the Virginia militia during the French and Indian War and in conflicts against the Cherokee. In the years before the Revolutionary War, Sumter spent time in debtors’ prison, moved to South Carolina, and established a successful plantation.
War-Time Service
- He became a prominent commander in the SC militia.
- 1776: Sumter watched the Battle of Sullivan’s Island but did not participate in the action. Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s raiders burned his home, and he organized a band of partisans to harass the British and their Tory alliances.
- General Charles Lord Cornwallis considered Sumter such an annoyance that he called him one of his “greatest plagues.”
- For the colonists, he was known as the “Fighting Gamecock.”
