Tory officer William Cunningham notorious for  leading a massacre of patriot militia men at Clouds Creek near the current town of Lexington was a member of the Whig party. By 1775, at the age of 19, Cunningham's  views leaned toward the Whigs.  He was well liked and well respected." But in a matter of a few years, this whig-leaning well-liked neighbor turned into the hated and feared Bloody Bill. First however , he joined a Patriot militia recruited by Maj. John Caldwell and went with the other volunteers to Charleston with understanding that he had the right to withdraw from the company. Cunningham attempted to resign and eventally wound up with a court martial . He was acquitted and returned home. Capt. Ritchie  drafted his epileptic and lame brother John to serve in the militia. When John didn't appear for service , Capt. Ritchie in company with Samuel Moore, went  to get him. John Cunningham apparently used some spicy language, and the men attempted to whip him into silence, killing  him into the process, Mrs. Bryan  writes . When Maj. Cunningham learned of his brothers murder , he walked all the way from the coast to Ninety-six having been unable to get a horse. In the meantime, Capt. Ritchie dragged Maj. Cunningham's father from his sick bed by the hair of his head and attempted to beat information on his son's whereabouts out of him. When Maj. Cunningham returned to the district, he went immediately to Capt. Ritchie's home found him in the yard with other members of the whig militia and shot him proclaiming that he had come all the way Savannah on foot to kill him, on account of the crimes he had commited against his family. That cold blooded murder was the first of the atrcities  committed by Bloody Bill," and it was in retaliation for those committed against his own family such was the bloody nature of much  of the war fought on the frontier during the nation's struggle for independence.

A son of William Sawyer, named Anselm Sawyer was killed with Captain James Butler in the bloody massacre of Lick creek, Nov. 17,1781, not far from this spot. Young Sawyer was horribly mutilated, having been chopped to pieces by the Tories with their swords. He was carried from the battle ground on a ground slide by an old negro slave named Beister.