Book Description

Alexander Chesney, along with his parents and siblings, came from County Antrim, Ireland in 1772 with the Rev. William Martin and his five ship loads of Protestants. The Chesney family settled alongside kinsmen on the Pacolet River in the Up-Country of South Carolina. Chesney established a plantation and also became involved in freighting mountain produce and lumber to the coastal region of Carolina. He remained loyal to the British government in the American Revolution and was chosen by Maj. Patrick Ferguson, one of the two independent British commanders in the South, to be his adjutant in the American Volunteers. He was in the the defeat of Ferguson and his band of Loyalists in the battle of Kings Mountain. Next, at the battle of Cowpen, when Chesney faced his wife's Patriot father and brothers, the other British independent commander, Col. Banastre Tarleton, with regular British soldiers and militiamen met defeat at the hands of Daniel Morgan. Realizing that the British forces were destined to be driven from America, Chesney, while in poor health following his wife's death, returned to Ireland. There, he became an officer in the customs department and a militia officer. He recorded his experiences in two separate journals. In this book the two journals are united and edited. The result is a unique rendition of an eye witness account of the American Revolution in the South and the post war events in Ireland for many who returned to the land of their birth. Maps, illustrations, 247 pages (hard back); $29.95 plus $3.50 media mail, $4.00 priority mail.