Capt. Benjamin Greer Saves Col. Benjamin Cleveland from a Tory Patrol!
During the years 1775 to 1781, not all Americans were in revolt against Great Britain. Those who remained faithful to the Crown were called Tories, and they numbered perhaps 1/3rd of the colonial population. In the frontier mountains of Western North Carolina, Southwest Virginia and the new land of Kentucky, law and order suffered, and numerous families grouped together according to their loyalties.
With the Patriot victory at King's Mountain and the gradual weakening of Lord Cornwallis's regular British Army, the tide of success began to move quickly away from Tory sympathizers. However, notorious quasi-outlaw Tory bands still roamed the highlands of the Carolinas. One group was led by William Riddle, and in the spring of 1781, he and his men kidnapped one of the heroes of King's Mountain, Col. Benjamin Cleveland, Capt. Benjamin Greer's commanding officer.
In addition to leading men to victory at King's Mountain and against Cherokee Indians, Cleveland had executed several Tories, without benefit of trial. That was a controversial act even for the frontier, and Cleveland only by a slim margin dodged imprisonment or worse. Revenge of a sort came when Riddle and his men captured Cleveland. An alarm went up over the mountains of Wilkes County, now Watauga County, North Carolina. Among those who rushed to Cleveland's aid was our ancestor, Benjamin Greer.
Below a 19th Century photo of the mountain terrain where Benjamin Greer rescued Benjamin Cleveland, and according to one source, dispatched the Tory Riddle to his glory!
John Preston Arthur in his 1915 work A History of Watauga County recounts that on April 22, 1781, Riddle and a gang of six to eight men bodily snatched Cleveland from a neighbor's home. In pursuit, Ben Greer and a few associates, including one Samuel McQueen who had fought with Greer in East Tennessee against Indians the year before, ambushed Riddle at the mouth of Elk Creek at a fork on the New River in what is now Watauga County. At the Wolf's Den, Benjamin Greer is alleged to have shot and killed Riddle.
Another tale (and the one officially recognized by Wilkes County historians) is that a wounded Riddle was transported to what is now Wilkesboro, North Carolina and was hung with several others. The 'hanging' oak stood for years, and today, a plaque recognizes the spot.
My generation's 5th great grandfather experienced one adventuresome year from the summer of 1780 to the spring of 1781. Later that October, Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, and the frontier people settled down to have an abundance of babies. Benjamin Greer's life has another tale to tell before we bid him adieu.
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