Hi: The excerpt below came from the Randolph Co. NC Genealogical Journal Summer 2001 issue Regards, Nan [email protected] ---------------------------------- Page 54 from an article titled: "THE INFAMOUS COLONEL FANNING TELLS ALL Most people interested in Randolph Co. genealogy and history have at least heard of the exploits of Col. David FANNING (1755-1823), a famour Tory partisan leader during the Revolutionary War. Most of us have a very negative image of him. Patriot partisans depicted him as a ruthless and depraved man of bloodthirsty temperament, willing to slaughter innocent people at the drop of a feather. In actuality, this sort of image does FANNING little justice. He was a brave, resourceful and daring war leader who made the most of small assets. He did resort to terror tactics, but usually in response to depredations by the other side. Many of our ancestors rode with him or supported him at one time or another. One of my own grandfathers, Thomas ESTRICH or ESTRIDGE, was a captain in his Orange County contingent and was nearly hanged after the war for his association with this bugbear of the revolutionaries. (Skipping to page 56) "General GREENE followed his Lordship (Cornwallis) as far as Little River, and then returned to Ramsey's Mills on his way to Camden; his men marched in small parties and distressed the friends to Government throughtout the Deep River settlement. I took eighteen of them at different times, and paroled them, and after that we were not distressed by them for some little time. After a little while some of us had assembled at a friend's house, where we were surrounded by a party of eleven rebels under the command of Capt. John HINDS. We perceived their approach and prepared to receive them. When they had got quite near us, we ran out of the doors of the house, fired upon them, and killed one of them; on which we took three of their horses and some firelocks. We then took to the woods and unfortunately had two of our little company taken, one of which the rebels shot in cold blood, and the other they hanged on the spot where we had killed the man a few days before."