Within the present limits of Kershaw County was born, about the middle of the eighteenth century, a doubtful hero, Daniel McGirtt, one of the most picturesque figures of the American Revolution. He was a savage Tory outlaw, another “Terror of Loch Lomond’s side,” whose career might well adorn a highly-colored page of Scottish Border fiction.

Daniel was of good stock. His father, James, had a grant of land on the Wateree of 400 acres, five miles below Camden, at the horseshoe in the river then called the “Great Neck,” near Mulberry. Here probably Daniel first saw the light, though the bulk of his father's estates seem to have been lower down the stream. In 1753, James and his wife, Priscilla, conveyed this land in the Neck to Robert Milhouse. They also sold some of the “Hermitage” lands to Joseph Kershaw.

James McGirtt is said to have been a man of considerable culture. From “Wells’ Register and Almanac,” for 1775, we learn that he filled places of trust and confidence, being Lieutenant Colonel in Richard Richardson's regiment of Provincial militia. It was probably he, and not his son Daniel (as stated in the South Carolina Gazette of April, 1769), who, with Colonels Richardson and William Thompson, behaved with such “great spirit, discretion and success” in suppressing the Schofield trouble on Saluda River. The Gazette characterizes the three colonels as “gentlemen of great reputation and highly esteemed by the whole body of backsettlers.”

One of James McGirtt's daughters married Captain John Cantey, the founder of the Camden branch of that family.

Johnson, in his book titled "Traditions," says that the elder McGirtt was firmly attached to the American cause throughout the war, but there is no evidence to confirm this, and we incline to the opinion that he remained true to the Crown, and with his family retired to East Florida about the beginning of the struggle. Certainly this might be inferred from the following letter written by William Ancrum, a Charlestonian by residence but one of our first and largest landowners, who knew all the families here-abouts. It is directed to his agent at the Congarees, on May 9, 1778, and relates to the recent stealing of three slaves from his plantation at that point. He says:

“It is suspected that some of the McGirtts who were formerly settled near Camden and some time ago retired to East Florida and who, it seems, have given themselves up to these scandalous practices are the perpetrators of this villainy, who have also taken off with them a great many horses from the settlements on the Wateree River.”

From the reputed high character of the man, it is impossible to believe that James McGirtt, the father, is to be included in this grave charge of Mr. Ancrum. There may have been other misguided sons besides Daniel who had abandoned themselves to such nefarious business, all too common, alas, in the unsettled times of war and the unprotected condition of the upcountry.

Among Dr. Johnson's interesting traditions is one purporting to explain the reason of young Daniel McGirtt's desertion of the patriot cause. As a young man, says he, Daniel was a noted hunter and rider, thoroughly familiar with the woods and paths from Santee River to the Catawba Nation. As a scout, he was invaluable to the Americans, as well for his daring courage as for his accurate knowledge of the countryside.

His favorite mount was a magnificent mare that he called Grey Goose. His devotion to this animal led to his ultimate ruin. At Satilla, Georgia, a superior officer coveted the steed, and, not being able to get her by other means, swore that he would have her by force. This threat led to a personal difficulty in which the high-spirited Daniel felled the officer to the ground. For this he was court-martialed, found guilty of a serious violation of the rules of war, and publicly whipped at the post. By the terms of his sentence, a second whipping was subsequently to be inflicted. Stung to madness by this disgrace, Daniel determined to escape, in which, perhaps by the connivance of his guards, he succeeded. Mounting beautiful Grey Goose, who happened to be tethered near, he made a wild dash for liberty, turning however, in his saddle, to hurl back at his former comrades anathemas and threats of revenge. The latter he vindictively fulfilled.

Dr. Johnson represents this as having taken place, evidently, after the British had overrun the province, for he adds that, “When the State was again recovered by the American army,” McGirtt retired to East Florida. As a matter of fact, however, he had withdrawn to Florida and been made a Lieutenant Colonel in the Tory Florida Rangers as early as 1775, just after the “Snow Campaign.”

Dr. E. M. Boykin says of Daniel that his ruling passion seems to have been for horses. Indeed that he loved a horse so well that “he did not always stop to examine his title to it, but was in the saddle and over the hills and far away, taking, it is said, from the Whigs to sell to the British and vice versa.”

Daniel McGirtt was attached to Prevost's army on its devastating raid through lower Carolina. It will be recalled that plantations were laid waste and robbed of all their valuables - livestock, silver plate, provisions, even slaves.

Commenting on this, the Gazette of July 7, 1779, says that with Prevost was:

“ ... a large body of the most infamous banditti and horse thieves that perhaps ever were collected together anywhere, under the direction of McGirtt (dignified with the title of colonel), a corps of Indians, with Negro and white savages disguised like them, and about 1,500 of the most savage disaffected poor people, seduced from the back settlements of this State and North Carolina.”

Again, on July 28, 1779, the same journal remarks:

“A report prevailed that Brig. Gen. Prevost was ordered to New York under an arrest for not having done more mischief in this State than he did. But, if it be true that he was in copartnership to share all plunder, whether in plate, horses, or Negroes, with the famous McGirtt (as was confidently affirmed by most of the British officers while they were in this neighborhood), the general will have no cause to regret even a dismissal from their service, for McGirtt himself has declared that his own share of what he has stolen amounting to his weight in gold, he is now satisfied and will immediately quit his thieving and settle in West Florida.”

Lieut. James Cantey of Camden, with a small escort, was once convoying a large amount of money from Augusta, Ga., to Charleston. The wife of General Wilkinson was with the party. McGirtt, with a much larger force, hung upon the flanks of the convoy, and would occasionally call out: “James Cantey, get out of that party, or I will pounce down on you and wipe the last one of you off the earth. I have need of that money and am going to have it.” To this Cantey defiantly replied that he could get it only by walking over his dead body. Finally, seeing that his game of bluff would not work, McGirtt withdrew, when nearing the city, yelling out, as a farewell: “You confounded, hard­headed fool! You had better thank your stars that you happen to be my nephew!”

On another occasion, while Capt. John Boykin, of Hampton's Cavalry, and a party of Whigs were on a scouting expedition about the Santee Ferries, they encamped, one night, in a bend of Jacks Creek, near Vance. When all was silent, a voice was heard from the other side of the stream, “Hello! Is there a Boykin, or an Irvin, or a Whitaker in camp? If so, tell him to come where I may speak to him.” One of the gentlemen named at once responded, with the inquiry, “Well, who are you and what do you want?” “Never mind who I am,” said the voice, which was at once recognized as McGirtt's, “but take my advice and break this camp. Tarleton knows where you are and will be on you by daylight.” Needless to say, the advice was heeded, and, leaving their fires brightly burning, the party escaped to the other side of the stream, barely in time, and witnessed, from a place of safety, the Bloody Dragoon's furious overhaul of their abandoned camp. This story was told to Dr. E. M. Boykin by Mr. Stephen Boykin, who, then an aged man, could distinctly remember the days of the Revolution.

One of Daniel McGirtt's acts of daring is commonly believed to have given a name to a locality in this country. With a single companion he once ventured to make a secret reconnaissance in the swamps on the western side of the Wateree. Some patriots of the neighborhood, learning of his presence, determined to entrap him. Suspecting that he would wish to cross a creek with very high banks, on the Bettyneck plantation, ten miles below Camden, they removed the only bridge at that point and concealed themselves on either side of the way. McGirtt and his comrade rode blindly into the ambuscade, but, putting spurs to their horses, passed unscathed by the fire of musketry until they reached the yawning chasm. Retreat was impossible, so both urged their horses to the leap. The distance from bank to bank was quite twenty feet. McGirtt, as by a miracle, passed safely over, but his unfortunate attendant perished in the attempt. The stream has since been known as “Jumping Gully.” [Note: It is almost cruel to question these cherished traditions, but a recently discovered plat of James McGirtt’s lands in the Fork of the Wateree, made May 4, 1756, shows that this stream was, even at that early date, known as “Jumping Gully.”] After the war, McGirtt took his band of desperados to Florida, where they seem to have maintained themselves for a while by their wits and their good right arms, after the manner of medieval robber knights.