Scots Irish in the Revolution

I rarely point out the mistakes of others, but, as a descendant of Rutherfords and Fraziers and other families of Ulster Scots, I was afraid that many may believe this statement contained in a family file sent to me. It was concerning an enlistment in the Colonial Army during the Revolution:

"This was a dangerous move , as most of the population of Moore County were Scots, who were loyal to the British King."

This is tragic misinformation. The following are exerpts from lectures and books at Clemson University:

"The Scots-Irish settlers made superb frontiersmen in early Colonial America. Their experiences over the previous few centuries, first in the Scottish Borders and then fighting the Irish Catholics in the north of Ireland had created a race of hardy unyielding people who were ideally suited to clearing the forests to build farms and pushing the borders further and further west.
Their experience of religious discrimination in Ulster by their Episcopal English landlords meant the Scots-Irish had no hesitation in taking the side of the rebels in the War of Independence. In the words of Professor James G. Leyburn "They provided some of the best fighters in the American army. Indeed there were those who held the Scots-Irish responsible for the war itself".

No less a figure than George Washington once said "If defeated everywhere else I will make my last stand for liberty among the Scots-Irish of my native Virginia".
The Scots-Irish provided 25 Generals and about a third of the revolutionary army. The Pennsylvania Line was made up entirely of Ulster-Scots emigrants and their sons. The Battle of Kings Mountain was a Scots-Irish battle where a militia of mainly Scots-Irish Presbyterians defeated an English army twice its size.
President Theodore Roosevelt said of the Scots-Irish "in the Revolutionary war, the fiercest and most ardent Americans of all were the Presbyterian Irish settlers and their descendants"

The Declaration of Independence was printed by an Ulster-Scot, John Dunlop, read in public by a first generation Scots-Irish American Colonel John Nixon and the first signature came from another Scots-Irish Presbyterian, John Hancock.

"One of the highest concentrations of Scots-Irish were in the Carolinas and many, after fulfilling indentured service contracts, had been forced to migrate over the Southern Appalachians for new land. In 1772, it was Scots-Irish settlers who formed the first independent government in America at Watauga in what would become the state of Tennessee. They continued to settle in the Appalachian valleys beyond colonial rule and, although their loyalty was questioned by their adoptive country, the settlers proved themselves vital in the American Revolution’s victories at Cowpens and Kings Mountain. In addition, they numbered many in the Regular Colonial Army. When the war was going badly for the American colonies, then-General George Washington expressed uncompromising confidence in the Scots-Irish ranks of the American militias.
"If defeated everywhere else," said Washington, "I will make my stand for liberty among the Scots-Irish of my native Virginia."
In fact, following the Revolution, a British Major-General testified before a committee at the British House of Commons that "half the Continental Army were from Ireland – Scots-Irish."

No Irishman, nor Scot, ever loved an English King. They were sent here, or fled here, because of English persecution.

Posted by: Ronald Couch mcouch@cableynx.com