Stirring Up a Hornet's Nest: - UGA Laboratory of Archaeology ...

Mr. William Lake, a newspaper man from Union, South Carolina wrote to the Georgia Historical Society in
1942 requesting information about the Kettle Creek battle. Mr. Lake stated, “We have here a cannon ball
dug up on the old battlefield. The owner wishes to donate it to the scrap iron collection for the War effort
and desires the history of the battle” (Lake 1942:1). Lake’s mention to a cannon ball is an important
reference, since it tends to confirm the presence of artillery on the battlefield—a fact not mentioned in any
of the primary accounts.
A person nicknamed, “Jabbo”, who was a resident of the Tyrone community, reportedly owned a metal
detector and used it to gather relics from the battlefield. His collection was described as, “a five gallon
bucket of cannonballs” by one unidentified area resident. Another story was that he had, “dug one
cannonball out of a tree”. Jabbo was an elderly African-American who drove a Wilkes County school bus
until his retirement. Jabbo, whose surname was later determined to be Mr. Williams, was deceased
(Richard McAvoy personal communication February 8, 2008). The research team tracked down his former
residence and attempted to contact his descendants. His daughter, who lives in the metropolitan Atlanta
area, was contacted, but no further information about Williams’ relic collection or her father’s relic
collecting activities, was ascertained (Jackie Young personal communication February 8, 2009).
A second story of an important relic find was related to the research team by Carolyn Bryant Faz, a local
historian. She related a conversation that she had with a landowner on the north side of Kettle Creek. That
farmer was approached by an unidentified relic hunter for permission to collect artifacts from his property.
The landowner granted permission. He later received a telephone call from the relic hunter, who announced
that he discovered a small cannon, exposed in the creek bank on his property, and that collector offered to
show this discovery to the landowner. The landowner, however, was disinterested and declined and he
never saw this alleged find. The current whereabouts of this cannon, if indeed it truly exists, remains
undetermined. It seems unlikely that the Patriots would have “lost” something as valuable as a cannon on
the battlefield, unless it was broken and worthless. If the Loyalists had a cannon, it most likely would have
been captured by the Patriots. This mystery of a cannon at Kettle Creek remains unsolved.
Early in this project Elliott spoke with a long-time Georgia relic collector and relic dealer, Mr. Chad
Childs, Childs stated that he and his father had made several dozen visits to the Kettle Creek battlefield in
the 1980s. Childs emphatically stated that most relics that he and his father had discovered were not located
on the knoll containing the Kettle Creek monument (Loci A, B and H) but were on an adjacent lower ridge
slope. Childs mentioned one noteworthy find, which was a brass spike, or spontoon, that was decorative
and bore a number. Spontoons were decorative pointed weapons made of silver, brass or iron and mounted
on a long staff. They were used by soldiers on both sides of the American Revolution. The spontoon find
was not discovered by Childs or his father but by another collector, who was present at the same time as
Childs. The research team attempted to contact Larry Childs (Chad Child’s father) by two letters for any
information about his relic hunting activity and collections from the Kettle Creek battlefield but received no
response. Chad Childs mentioned several other avid relic hunters who made repeated trips to Kettle Creek
and unearthed and removed many military relics. No contact information for these individuals was made
available to the research team, so these people and their collections remain undocumented (Chad Childs
personal communication October 15, 2007).
Additional commemoration of the Kettle Creek battlefield was conducted in the 1960s and 1970s by the
Kettle Creek Battlefield Commission. The Kettle Creek Battlefield Commission, which was composed of
Mr. Turner Bryson, Mrs. John A. Callaway, and Mrs. J.M. Griffin, sought information on War Hill and
Star’s Hill in 1962. Turner Bryson remarked that, “information is particularly needed concerning a place
called Star’s Hill. The Commission…would like to know if Star’s Hill was ever known as War Hill and if
there was ever a church and or graveyard located nearby”(Washington News Reporter 1962). We were
unable to determine whether any additional information was brought forth in response to Bryson’s request.
Newspaper reporter Gale Whyte described a ceremony in 1974 where soil from the suspected grave sites of
two Patriot veterans and one spouse were buried and marked by a tombstone (or more properly, a cenotaph)
near the Kettle Creek monument. Whyte wrote:
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