Dr. Robert Brownfield

Robert Brownfield was a surgeon's mate who gave notable service during the Revolutionary War at the Battle of Camden. He is reported to have saved the life of General Sumpter. Following the war, he moved to Sumpter County and was a physician at Georgetown, SC."

There is considerable doubt whether Brownfield was a doctor at all, at least at the time of the Waxhaws battle. He certainly was involved in caring for the sick and wounded, but probably in an inferior professional capacity, as a medical orderly, not as a qualified doctor. He appears to have qualified as a doctor later in life, by the time that he wrote his celebrated account of Tarleton's alleged brutality, and to have practiced medicine in Georgetown, South Carolina.

The first source below (Sandlapper) is a pdf file. On the 2nd page it describes Dr. Brownfield as "an American battle surgeon".

However, the second source (Radix) describes Brownfield differently. Here he is not a "doctor" (in the sense of a degreed medical man) at all: only a surgeon's mate, a distinctly inferior position. This article is a detailed investigation of whether there was actually any massacre of the wounded at Waxhaws, as Brownfield's famous letter claimed. Here is what the source tells us: -

"Although Buford clearly indicated that he dispatched only one flag of truce, a second person claimed to have carried it. Robert Brownfield, a surgeon's mate in the Second South Carolina Continentals, writing some forty years after the event, stated that an Ensign Cruit had carried the flag, but when he tried to advance with it, "was instantly cut down." Cruit, however, survived the battle. Again, Brownfield's account is not consistent with Buford's report or other known facts of the battle. Buford stated that the flag was refused with a rude reply; Brownfield says it never reached the British lines. Brownfield also states that upon receiving Tarleton's surrender demand Buford called a council of officers to deliberate upon three options the commander proposed; Buford states that he consulted his officers only after refusing the demand for surrender. Brownfield claims that Tarleton's attack followed soon after Buford's refusal to surrender, and that the British deployed their infantry in the center and the cavalry on their flanks. Buford reports a space of two and a half hours between the summons and the attack, and he and Tarleton agreed that the latter's deployment interspersed infantry and cavalry. Brownfield's evidence, once tested, is of no more value than that of Bowyer."

The 3rd source (Banecdotes) is even more dismissive of Brownfield's credibility, but sheds no light on his background, although here too Brownfield is a surgeon's mate, not a doctor. "Brownfield may have had a great future in writing Gothic horror or rebel propaganda, but there is relatively little in his account that is useful as history. The claim that no man was spared is contradicted by the casualty figures reported by both commanders and numerous subsequent documents. Ensign (John) Cruit (or Crute) must have had more lives than a cat, for Brownfield himself later mentions him as being one of the survivors. (There even exists the possibility that Cruit was not present at all. Another document lists an officer of the same name as having been taken prisoner at Charleston, and there seems to be no suggestion that two John Cruits were serving locally.)"

The 4th source (Bigham) gives much more information about Robert Brownfield than any of the others. I will quote the entry in full, but beware that the first Robert Brownfield mentioned in the text is not "your" Robert Brownfield, but rather his father: - "Robert Brownfield Robert Brownfield, Jr. was born in North Ireland in 1705. He married Jane (Jenny) Stuart in Chester Co. PA about 1737. In 1738 Robert was shown in Chester County PA documents to have assisted his brother, Charles to settle their father's estate (See Chester County PA Wills - Robert Broomfield February 22, 1739/40)

Brownfield was part of the group that helped produce the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence" and was active during the Revolutionary War. All three of the family's sons were officers during the war. Robert and Jenny Brownfield had 7 children, all born in Pennsylvania.

William married Margaret "Peggy" Giles in Mecklenburg County about 1782. William served in the Colonial Army in Pennsylvania (age 16) and under Col. Thomas Polk in NC. He and Peggy later moved to Greene County and Jasper County Georgia. William is shown in the Minutes of the Mecklenburg Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions July Session 1801 to have sold 259 acres to Colonel Charles Polk with a reservation of four acres for the Steele Creek Meeting House.

Isabella Brownfield was living in York County SC at the 1810 census.

Margaret Brownfield married Robert McKnight of Mecklenburg County and was the mother of Nancy L. McKnight who married Samuel Bigham in 1818.

There is no information available on Ann Brownfield.

John Brownfield fought at the Battle of Hanging Rock in the Revolutionary War and was later killed by indians near Augusta Georgia.

Robert Brownfield was a surgeon's mate who gave notable service during the Revolutionary War at the Battle of Camden. He is reported to have saved the life of General Sumpter. Following the war, he moved to Sumpter County and was a physician at Georgetown, SC."

Sources

• http://www.patriotresource.com/amerrev/documents/brownfield.html
• https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Robert_Brownfield_%285%29
• https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070222183551AADLee6
• Cyclopædia of American Literature, Volume 1
• Revolutionary War Amid Southern Chaos