'Bloody' Bill Cunningham redux
"Bloody" Bill Cunningham appeared briefly in my last post because records show he was responsible William Cunningham for the death of one of Sharon's distant cousins, Dannett Abney, during the American Revolution. I didn't really have space to go into much of his background but wanted to return to his story. Imagine my surprise when I found that Cunningham had also participated in a battle involving another of Sharon's ancestors, Capt. John Weir, at the Battle of Kings Mountain. (See "Kings of Kings Mountain, published on April 9.) I suppose that shouldn't surprise me, but it was a serendipitous coincidence. Remember that the Revolution went beyond the war against Britain and was very much a civil war as well, pitting American loyalists, or Tories, against revolutionaries -- Whigs or patriots. Much of Cunningham's involvement, and the worst of his behavior lies in this civil war aspect. Cunningham originally enlisted in a South Carolina Whig militia...