This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: carroll, huck
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/1hH.2ACEB/1276.1283.1285.1303.13...
Message Board Post:
Christian Huck was a captain of dragoons in the British Legion. He was not a general. John
Carroll was given credit for firing the shot that killed Huck on the day of the battle (12
July 1780). He loaded his rifle with two balls and fired at Huck's head, and when
Huck's body was examined two bullet holes were found in his neck, close together.
However, other soldiers were also shooting at Huck that day and they also claimed to have
fired the shot that killed him. Charles Miles of Chester County and James Stephenson of
York County also believed that they killed Huck, but John Carroll got the credit that day
on the battlefield.
I have read dozens of accounts written by men who were in the battle of Huck's Defeat
(Federal pension applications, memoirs, etc.), and none of them ever gave credit to Thomas
Carroll for killing Huck. They all gave the credit to John Carroll. Unfortunately, John
Carroll did not survive the war, but was killed in a Tory ambush later that year. In 1859
Dr. Maurice Moore of York District wrote a book entitled "The Life of Gen. Edward
Lacey" that described the battle of Huck's Defeat in great detail, much of which
was incorrect. In a footnote, Dr. Moore describes meeting Thomas Carroll when Thomas was
an old man of about 90, and according to Moore, Thomas had Huck's sword and claimed to
have killed him. Moore goes on to acknowledge that the traditions of the neighborhood gave
credit to Thomas' brother John for killing Huck. What probably happened was that after
John was killed in the war, Thomas took over Huck's sword and eventually, as an old
man, began claiming to have kille!
d Huck himself. Maybe he even came to believe it himself. A few historians picked up
Moore's account and subsequently gave the credit to Thomas, and by so doing muddied
the field for all time.
I am a historian with the Historical Center of York County and work closely with the staff
at Historic Brattonsville in York County, SC, where the battle of Huck's Defeat was
fought. I am writing a book about the battle which will be published later this year. We
are planning a reunion of descendants of Huck's Defeat veterans to commemorate the
225th Anniversary of the Battle of Huck's Defeat at Historic Brattonsville in July
2005. I would be glad to place you on our mailing list and send you an further details as
our plans become more finalized.
Michael Scoggins, Research Historian
Historical Center of York County