Acent tag: Youtube
See communitites:
Grindal Shoals
Hancockville
Pacolet Mills
Pacolet
Unionville
Jonesville
Cherokee County
Kelton
Union County is a county in South Carolina. It is in the piedmont prt of the state – at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountain range which seperates South Carolina from Tennessee.
South Carolina was one of the thirteen original colonies. It was first explored as early as 1540 but the first attempt at permanent settlement was in 1670 when Charles Towne was settled not far from preset day Charleston.
Close ties with Barbados led to the importation of island style agriculture and the importation of African slaves. At its height, Charleston was the richest city in the British Empire.
The history of the inland areas of South Carolina and particularly the upcountry is a very different story. With weath and lawful civilaization consentrated at the coast, the upcountry was seen as nothing more than hiding place for maurading Cherokee and Catabwa indians and a haven for run-away slaves.
Settlement of the ucountry was encouraged by the Charleston government but very little support was given to the the orderly process. With population growing rapidly thanks to a steady flow of immigration from Great Britain and Germany especially, land was needed. Adventurers and common families alike began looking westward, looking for a piece of land to call their own.. With British rule forbidding expansion into the Appalacian mounains or beyond, going west actually meant going south-west. Routes like the Great Wagon Road brought settlers to untamed lands via the Shenandoah Valley to North and South Carolina.
COLONIAL
During British rule it was common pracice for the provincial governors to grant, on behalf of the crown, large tracts of land to their loyal supporters. Those so endowed could chose to live onthe land and build their wealth by its produce, but more often the land was sold bit by bit to others generating wealth and giving settlers a way of gaining some land affordably.
They would often squat on land for a long while before it was ever officially owned.
In the upcountry region of South Carolina, much land was granted by the governor of North Carolina thanks to uncertainty about the still unofficially surveyed border.
Ninety Six District
Before counties were established, the Governors of South Carolina instituted a series of Districts. The largest and most importand in the Upcountry was called 96 – a reference to a mile-marker onthe Wagon Road near where Fort Ninety Six was built.
REVOLUTION
Because the British crown believed that the more recently granted land owners in the south would remain loyal and help put down the rebellious factions in the more northern colonies, the British sent a large force to the Carolinas. They found the population much more mixed in their loyalties and in fact British heavy-handedness turned the tide of most- not all southerners against the crown.
The south was also very important to the revolutionaries as General Washington knew the longer that the British southern arm could be kept occupied and unable to join the main forces, the more chance they had to defeat the giant they were tangling with.
Consequently the Patriot southern campaigns of guerilla warfareutilizing militia and a better understanding of the loca terrain, played a major part in the ultimate success of the revolution.
In what was then Union County (which includes parts of modern day Cherokee County), several skirmishes and a few major battles were fought.
Musgroves Mill
Blackstock’s Farm
Hannah’s Cowpens being three of the most significant.
WAR OF 1812
Means 1st South Carolina Militia
ANTEBELLUM
Immigration
Great Wagon Road
CIVIL WAR
Sessession – J.S. Sims and the Sessession Table
Gist
Regiments from Union County
5th South Carolina Infantry18th South Carolina Infantry
Sacrifices, losses
Visit by Jefferson Davis – Wallace – Cross Keys
RECONSTRUCTIONO THE PRESENT
Occupation by Affrican American Union troops
KKK
Famous people/Events Union County:
Susan Smith