Andrew Williamson (soldier)

Andrew Williamson (c. 1730–1786) was a Scots immigrant who became a trader, planter, and soldier in the South Carolina militia, rising to be commissioned as Brigadier-General in the Continental Army in the American War of Independence. He led numerous campaigns against Loyalists and Cherokee, who in 1776 had launched an attack against frontier settlements across a front from Tennessee to central South Carolina. Williamson was particularly effective in suppressing the Cherokee, killing an unknown number of Cherokees and destroying 31 of their towns. As a result of his Indian campaign, the Cherokee ceded more than a million acres in the Carolinas.

Following the fall of Charleston to the British in 1780 after a month-long siege, and the capture of thousands of American troops, the Patriot resistance was effectively subdued in South Carolina and Georgia. Williamson, like some other officers and troops, appeared to sue for peace. While the circumstances were not clear, he appeared to be aiding the British. He was captured by Americans and gained release, moving from White Hall close to Charleston. There he was taken captive in a second American raid, but freed by British forces. After the war, Patriot General Nathanael Greene testified that Williamson had acted in Charleston to collect intelligence and pass it to the Americans; he was the "first major double agent" in America.

Williamson was born in Scotland. As a youngster he emigrated with his parents, whose names are not known, to British Colonial America. They settled on the western frontier in Ninety Six, South Carolina, which was called the Long Cane District.

Like many other Scots on the frontier, Williamson became a trader, known by 1758 to be supplying cattle and hogs to frontier forts. He may also have driven cattle to Charles Town to market. He bought a plantation, called Hard Labor, near a creek by the same name, and in Greenwood County near the settlement of Ninety Six. He renamed it as White Hall. He also purchased slaves to work the property. It was one of the few large plantations in this area. Much of the backcountry was being settled by Scots and Scots-Irish subsistence farmers, many of whom were Loyalists in the Revolution. Williamson was contracted to build a fort at Ninety Six, and later he built Fort Charlotte on the Savannah River toward North Carolina.

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