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With the British capture of Charleston in May 1780, Sir Henry Clinton left command of the southern forces in the hands of Lord Charles Cornwallis. Among General Cornwallis’ first priorities, aside from establishing garrisons throughout the Backcountry of South Carolina, was to instill loyalty oaths among the citizens. This was done to ensure the British strategy of courting eager citizens willing to fight against the rebellion would materialize as planned. Word spread throughout South Carolina demanding citizens step forward and declare allegiance to their king; otherwise, suspected citizens would face pillage and plunder for their aiding the rebellion. Loyalist parties began rising in the late spring of 1780, threatening to use force against citizens who did not comply.

Responding to this growing threat and the patriot defeat by Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Waxhaws on May 29, Americans got word of a band of loyalist raiders assembling at Alexander’s Old Field to pledge allegiance to the Crown. It would be here the small force led by Captain John McClure, perhaps 25 years old, would strike the first retaliatory blow since the fall of Charleston. McClure had marched with part of his militia company to Charleston in April 1780. He was near Monck’s Corner when Tarleton won the victory at Biggin Bridge on April 14. His force then returned home, and he visited the home of his uncle, Judge John Gaston, in May. While there, the two learned of the shocking massacre of Colonel Buford’s men by Tarleton at Waxhaws, no more than twenty miles from Gaston’s home. On receiving the news, McClure and Gaston, with three of Gaston’s sons, and Captain John Steel, rose to their feet and declared that, “they would never submit nor surrender to the enemies of their country; that liberty or death, from that time forth, should be their motto.” Each of these young men had served three years in the company of Captain Eli Kershaw, of the 3rd Regiment, South Carolina Militia, commanded by Colonel William “Danger” Thomson, with the above motto inscribed on the front of their military caps. While assembling their resistance, Colonel Houseman, the Loyalist commander at Rocky Mount, came to Gaston’s house accompanied by fifty partisans and demanded Gaston and his sons give up their arms and pledge allegiance to the king at his encampment. His camp at Alexander’s Old Fields was to be pitched so all loyal citizens could swear their allegiance. Gaston steadfastly refused. Upon Houseman leaving, Gaston’s seven sons immediately embarked to recruit militia from nearby at Fishing Creek, Rocky Creek, and Sandy River. They managed to gather thirty-two militia, including Reverend John Simpson and the eighty year old Judge Gaston among them.