RALEIGH — Two hundred and fifty years ago this week, thousands of Carolinians were trudging through deep snow. They weren’t in search of Christmas trees, or heading over the river and through the woods to their grandmothers’ houses for holiday feasting. These were Patriot militiamen, from both Carolinas, hunting for Tories in modern-day Greenville County, South Carolina.
The Snow Campaign of 1775, as it came to be known, was the second act of a revolutionary drama that began earlier in the year when the royal governors of North and South Carolina were each chased out of their capitals — New Bern and Charleston, respectively — to the safety of British warships anchored off shore.
The governors, in turn, attempted to rouse anti-revolution Carolinians to come to the defense of king and Parliament. There were, indeed, thousands of such Loyalists in the Carolinas, including merchants, lawyers, and other professionals in the towns as well as Scottish Highlanders, former Regulators, and other dissenters in the backcountry. Some responded by assembling as Loyalist militia companies. Others responded to Patriot calls to do the same…