Lovelady Gap

Shelby, OH

My ancestor, Thomas Lovelady, was an enlisted man in both the North Carolina and South Carolina militias during the Revolutionary War, at Guilford Courthouse and the Battle of the Cowpens. His rank was that of a corporal, and in company with eleven militiamen who were returning from Cross Creek, near New Bern where they had been sent to rout some Tories. Being very tired and hungry, they stopped on Stinking Creek at the home of an old Dutchman named Adam Appel and asked for food and lodging. The Dutchman, being a Tory himself, refused and the militiamen entered, helped themselves to food and bedded down upon the floor for the night, except Thomas Lovelady. The Dutchman's daughter refused to retire after being assured by Lovelady that she would not be molested. He determined to sit it out with her, but being extremely fatigued he finally fell asleep on his chair and sometime later awakened to find the girl gone. He immediately roused his company and advised them to leave, but being tired, they ignored his plea. Soon the house was surrounded by a troop of Tories and one militiaman was shot dead. A Tory had his gun trained on Lovelady when one of the Tories, a former acquaintance of Lovelady's, intervened. The eleven militiamen were forced to take the oath of allegiance to the British king and permitted to go on their way.
Soon after leaving the Dutchman's house, they met with another group of militia and together returned in search against the Tories, who had vanished. Nevertheless they went in, took the Dutch girl out and gave her a sound ducking in the waters of Stinking Creek, and in the words of Lovelady, "Left her in no condition to carry messages to the Tories." Whether he means that she was drowned is not clear.

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