No Loyalist from the American Revolution in South Carolina’s backcountry captures the imagination like William “Bloody Bill” Cunningham. Just his nickname, “Bloody Bill,” exemplifies the longstanding infamy he gained in the memory of South Carolinians.
If he had been a Patriot, we would likely remember him as a great hero. In the same way South Carolina views the names of Pickens, Laurens and Marion. Instead, his legacy is a bloody road of murders and revenge raids. His story gives us a glimpse of the complicated reality of Loyalists in the South Carolina backcountry and the brutality of the civil war within the American Revolution. The American Revolution in the Carolina backcountry was a frightful and deeply personal conflict. Those fighting often knew each other and the war became one way to settle old grievances. The war was also one of retaliation. Burnings were followed by burnings, murders by revenge murders. Cunningham was right in the middle of all of it. So, who was the real William Cunningham? Why was he so feared and hated? And why did he side with the British in the American War for Independence?
The answers to these questions are difficult to track down due to the lack of original writings left by Cunningham and his men, but enough contemporary evidence exists to allows us to create a more realistic, if not more complicated, picture of the man who still haunts the legends of the Revolution in South Carolina.
Most historians agree that William Cunningham was born in Virginia around 1756 and that his family moved to the Ninety-Six District in the 1760s. At the beginning of the American Revolution, before independence was the goal and instead most were fighting to gain more rights under British rule, Cunningham joined the Patriot forces. He took part in the 1775-1776 campaigns against British garrisons and Cherokees in the backcountry, but by 1777 he had left the Patriot cause. Accounts vary as to why Cunningham switched sides but two reasons stand out. First, due to backcountry politics and old rivalries between the Cunninghams and their neighbors, William was passed over for promotion and punished, perhaps overly harshly, for attempts to resign from the militia. Second, and probably the most likely reasons for his changing of uniform: Cunningham’s brother, who suffered from epilepsy and was thus unable to serve in the militia, was executed by Patriots for refusing to serve. It so happened that the commander of the Patriots responsible were led by an old political rival of the Cunninghams, William Ritchie.
At that time, Cunningham was living in exile, due to leaving the Patriot cause, in British held Florida. According to later accounts, Cunningham heard of the death of his brother and walked from Saint Augustine to South Carolina, and shot Ritchie while he was having dinner with his family. After exacting his revenge on Ritchie, Cunningham fully committed to the British cause. He raised a regiment of Loyalist militia and commenced on a campaign of raiding and harassing Patriot supporters and supply lines. In 1781, Cunningham embarked on his infamous “Bloody Scout,” during which he attacked the farms of Patriots throughout the upstate of South Carolina, and brutally targeted those who had done him and his family offense in the past. This campaign in particular earned Cunningham the reputation his name still holds. With torch and sword, Cunningham laid waste to his enemies’ homes and lives. At the end of war, Cunningham fled to British held Florida and from there went to either England or the Bahamas. Despite physically leaving South Carolina, Cunningham’s infamy lives on.
At the Newberry Museum, we are actively engaged in telling the story of all participants in America’s struggle for independence. Stop by and learn more about our county during the American Revolution and the cast of characters who made history.