McCLURE, John, patriot, born in Chester district, South Carolina, about 1730; died in Charlotte, North Carolina, 18 August, 1780. After the fall of Charleston, South Carolina, 12 May, 1780, the South Carolina patriots were greatly disheartened, and in the following month Sir Henry Clinton wrote to the British ministry: "I may venture to assert that there are few men in South Carolina who are not either our prisoners, or in arms with us." Many patriots had found refuge in North Carolina, while others had gone up to the mountains and were gathering their countrymen into bands to avenge the insults of their oppressors. Earn in July, General Thomas Sumter returned to South Carolina with a few followers. He found that the Whigs, led by John McClure, Richard Winn, and others, had already attacked the enemy at different points. To crush these patriots, and bind the loyalists together, the British authorities sent out marauding parties, chiefly Tories. At Mcbley's meeting-house, on the banks of Little river, Fairfiehl district, Captain McClure and Captain Bratton fell upon a party of loyalists and dispersed them. This disaster, following closely upon that at Beckamville, where MeClure, at the head of thirty-three men, had routed a party of Tories and British soldiers the previous month, caused the commander at Rocky Mount, Chester County, to send out Captain Christian Huch with 400 cavalry and a body of well-mounted loyalists. After "theh had committed various depredations, he encamped in a lane on the plantation of James Wiliiamson, now Brattonville, where he passed the night of 11 July. Early on the following morning they were surprised by McClure and Bratton, whose forces, only 133 in number, entered each end of the lane. After a fierce struggle, lasting an hour, Ituch and Colonel Ferguson, of the Tory militia, were ldlled and the forces under them were dispersed, Captain McClure leading the pursuit. On 6 August that officer was present at the battle of Hanging Rock, and fell at first fire pierced by two bullets. When his friends came to his aid he urged them to leave him and pursue the enemy. After the battle he was taken to Waxhaw church, and thence to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he died in Liberty hall. General William R. Davie said of him" Of the many brave men with whom it was my fortune to become acquainted in the army, John McClure was one of the ***bravest, ."