Winn, Richard

WINN, RICHARD. (c. 1750–c. 1824). Militia officer. Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, around 1750, Winn went to South Carolina in 1768, working as a surveyor and becoming a large landowner. With the start of the Revolution, he received a lieutenant's commission in Colonel William Thompson's rangers. During General Henry Clinton's assault on Charleston in 1776, Winn's unit prevented the landing of British troops before Fort Sullivan. Promoted to captain, he was placed in command of Fort McIntosh in southeast Georgia, which was over-whelmed by Loyalists and Indians on 4 February 1777. Paroled to his home, Winn served in the legislature from 1779 to 1786 and trained militia until the British capture of Charleston on 12 May 1780, when he was promoted to major and raised militia to contest British control of South Carolina. On 29 May 1780 his volunteers defeated a Loyalist company at Moberley's Meetinghouse before crossing over to North Carolina to join General Griffith Rutherford's forces in their significant victory over the Loyalists at Ramsour's Mill on 20 June 1780. While Winn was engaged in this campaign, British troops burned his Winnsboro home. Promoted to colonel of militia, he served under General Thomas Sumter, leading his troops to several more minor victories and displaying particular heroism at the battle of Hanging Rock on 6 August 1780, in which he was wounded. After another fierce engagement at Fishdam Ford on 9 November 1780, Winn fought his last, inconclusive battle against Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's Loyalist cavalry at Blackstocks, South Carolina, on 20 November 1780. Made brigadier general at the war's end, Winn served in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1793–1797 and 1803–1813 and as lieutenant governor in 1800–1802. He was also major general of the Second Division of the South Carolina militia from 1800 to 1811. In 1812 he moved with his family to Tennessee, dying there at Winnsborough, perhaps in 1824.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chappell, Buford S. The Winns of Fairfield County: Colonel John Winn, William Winn, General Richard Winn. Columbia, S.C.: Buford, 1975.