Patriot: Charles Darnell Bradford
Birth Date: c 1734 Birth Place: Maryland
Death Date: 1824 Death Place: South Carolina
War Time Residence: Fairfield District, South Carolina Spouse: Mary Lemon

Comments: I am writing to inquire if any descendants of the subject patriot have ever joined the SAR, or if a grave marker or historical marker has ever been placed for this patriot in Fairfield County, South Carolina? I have already checked with the DAR, but no one ever joined that society as a descendant of Charles Darnell Bradford.

According to his pension application # RW2696 to the State of South Carolina dated 20 Nov 1818, he served in the South Carolina forces in different capacities in several campaigns, including quartermaster and deputy quartermaster general, and was with Gen. Sumter's forces at the Battle of Fishing Creek. After Sumter's defeat at the hands of Lt. Col. Banastare Tarleton, Charles Darnell Bradford was taken prisoner by the British and imprisoned at Camden (as was his oldest son, John Lemon Bradford) under the most deplorable conditions including near starvation. The son, being only a foot soldier who joined the SC forces at age 16, was released from prison after about four months; but Charles Darnell Bradford was brought before a military tribunal composed of British officers, tried and condemned to death.

According to his obituary which was published in the SC State Gazette and reprinted 14 Aug 1824 in the Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot, Charles Darnell Bradford died at age 90, some 44 years after he had to watch several of his comrades in arms executed for treason upon the British gallows, was placed upon those same gallows with the rope around his neck and forced to view his intended grave and "rude coffin," all while surrounded by his wife, children and friends. At the last minute the British remitted the death sentence and Charles Darnell Bradford was restored to his family. At the time of his death Bradford was believed to be "the oldest surviving soldier and officer belonging to the provincial troops of South Carolina."

If none of this information has ever before come to light and this American patriot has never been listed in the SAR patriot index or appropriately honored for his service to the American cause, I would very much appreciate your advice on how to get him so honored.

I looked in the 2006 membership directory and found Bradford, but not Charles Bradford. Try the www.sar.org site and click on the membership tab. You can do a patriot search and also contact a helper. Since this is is South Carolina, I would contact that State society.

Thank you for looking. I will proceed as though no descendant of Charles Darnell BRADFORD ever applied to the SAR.

Question: Charles lived and died in Fairfield County, SC, but there is no record of a grave for him there. How and where could his descendants get a marker placed for him?

Also, my husband and I live in Georgia, so should he apply for membership locally (Button Gwinnett Chapter, Gwinnett County, GA) or in the SAR chapter that serves Fairfield County, SC?

Your NSSAR membership would be with Georgia as you live there. The NSSAR has a grave marking program under the tab, "Patriot" and "grave marking" at the www.sar.org web page. You can correspond via email and I will try to help as much as I can.

Jeff