Editing Thomas Sumter (section)

==American Revolutionary War==
Sumter raised a local militia group in Stateburg. In February 1776, Sumter was elected [[lieutenant colonel]] of the [[2nd South Carolina Regiment|Second Regiment]] of the [[South Carolina Line]] of which he was later appointed colonel. in 1780 he was appointed brigadier general, a post he held until the end of the war.<ref name="EB1911"/>  He participated in several battles in the early months of the war, including the campaign to prevent an [[Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War|invasion of Georgia]].  Perhaps his greatest military achievement was his partisan campaigning, which contributed to [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|Lord Cornwallis]]' decision to abandon the [[Carolinas]] for Virginia.

[[File:Thomas sumter 1352.JPG|right|thumb|upright|Statue of Thomas Sumter on the courthouse lawn in [[Sumter, South Carolina|Sumter]], [[South Carolina]] ]]

During fighting in August 1780, he defeated a combined force of [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]] and [[British Army]] regulars at [[Lancaster County, South Carolina|Hanging Rock]], and intercepted and defeated an enemy convoy. Later, however, his regiment was almost annihilated by forces led by [[Banastre Tarleton]]. He recruited a new force, defeated Major James Wemyss in November, and repulsed an attack by Tarleton, in which he was wounded.<ref name="EB1911"/> Sumter was carried into the Blackstock house, where his surgeon, Dr. Nathaniel Abney, probed for and extracted the ball from under his left shoulder.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

In 1781, in response to a low number of recruits, Sumter publicly implemented a bounty for Continental Army recruiters, which stipulated that anyone who managed to recruit a certain number of volunteers for the [[South Carolina Line]] would receive Loyalist-owned [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|slaves]] as a reward.<ref>{{Cite book|first=John U.|last=Rees|title='They Were Good Soldiers': African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783|publisher=Helion & Company|date=2019|isbn=978-1-9116-2854-5}}</ref> Sumter acquired the nickname "Carolina Gamecock" during the American Revolution, for his fierce fighting tactics. After the [[Battle of Blackstock's Farm]], British Lieutenant Colonel [[Banastre Tarleton]] commented that Sumter "fought like a gamecock", and Cornwallis described the Gamecock as his "greatest plague".<ref name=Buchanan>{{cite book |last=Buchanan |first=John |title=The Road to Guilford Courthouse |page=393 }}</ref>