William McCafferty
William McCafferty, a resident Scotchman and a man of considerable wealth was employed as the guide to lead the British army by the nearest road to Winnsboro, South Carolina. Tradition says that after so bewildering the troops in the swamps that much of their baggage was lost, he contrived to escape and left them to find their way out, as best they could, by the returning light of day. As the British army progressed, passing through the Steele Creek neighborhood, they encamped for about three days on the plantation of Spratt, waiting to cross the swollen Catawba River and for the collection of additional supplies. A soldier guarded the encampment; another guarded the Charlotte road and a neighboring canebrake. On the second or third day, the sharp crack of a rifle was heard on the Charlotte road, and a small detachment of the British army rushed to investigate its meaning. When the division arrived at the position of the sentinel, he was found dead at the foot of a black oak, against which it is supposed he was leaning at the time. Captain William Alexander (better known as Black Bill, one of the terrible Mecklenburg Whigs), fired the fatal shot from the adjoining canebrake. Many others of the Sugar Creek rebels were with Captain Alexander on this occasion, but he alone ventured within killing distance. Long before Tarleton and his dragoons could reach the scene of action, Alexander and his party were entering the brushy woods of Steele Creek on their way back to the Whig settlements of Upper Sugar Creek. The associates of Alexander were the Taylors, Barnetts, Walkers, Polks, and other kindred spirits, who shot many of the sentries around the British encampment at Charlotte and seriously annoyed or cut off the enemy's foraging parties. The last one of the Barnetts, belonging to this terrible party, died in 1829, at a good old age, within two miles of Cooks mills, on Big Sugar Creek.A singular incident occurring during this period is deemed worthy of narration. A relative of the Spratts, named Elliott, was living on the plantation at the time the British army arrived there from Charlotte. Believing they would capture him if, in their power, he broke and ran for the canebrake, about a half or three-quarters of a mile below the spot where the enemy shot the sentinel. Tarleton's dragoons pursued him, but he safely escaped into the densest part of the canebrake thicket.
While he was listening to the terrible denunciations of Tarleton's dragoons on their arrival at the swampy and imperious thicket and what they would do if they could only see a bush or a cane move, he felt perfectly safe as long as he could remain motionless in his muddy retreat. But when his fears had somewhat subsided in his place of concealment, still more alarming apprehensions of danger presented themselves on his espying a venomous moccasin of the largest size, moving slowly along in the water and mud and directing its course so near that, in all probability, it must strike him. He could not make the least defense against his ugly approaching visitor for fear of exposing himself to the pistols of the British dragoons. All he could do in this dreadful predicament was wave his hand gently towards the snake, which caused it to stop its course and throw itself into a coil, preparatory for battle. Fortunately, just then, the British dragoons made their welcome departure, and Elliott moved out of the way of his serpentine majesty.
Lord Cornwallis had come to Charlotte with victory and left disappointed.