Moore’s Plantation, South Carolina
"The Bloody Scout"
November 1781
Major Cunningham paid a visit to the plantation of Charles Moore during his "Bloody Scout" and killed Captain Steadman while he was lying sick in bed.
According to local legend Steadman had come down with a fever and rested in the home of his fiancé’s parents to recuperate. With him were two of his subordinates. Being a proper household Steadman was rendered immobile within a bundling bag. The two soldiers accompanying Steadman were bedded down in a nearby barn.
When the Loyalists stormed the house Cunningham personally shot Steadman in his defenseless position. Knowing that they would be killed, the two other men with Steadman tried to run, but Cunningham and his Tories shot them down in front of the house.
Tradition also has it that the Loyalists were wearing pine sprigs in their hats. One of the Loyalists stuck his pine sprig in the ground, which grew to be a large pine tree standing there today.
The "Bloody Scout" moved on to the Wofford’s Iron Works at Lawson’s Fork Creek, and destroyed it before continuing their raid.