Daniel McGirt, also given as McGirtt or McGirth, (c. 1750 – 1804), a native of the Camden District in South Carolina, was the leader of an outlaw gang that operated in northern Florida and southern Georgia during the latter 1700s. Mostly uneducated, he made a living as a hunter and trapper until the American Revolutionary War broke out, whereupon he served for a while as a scout for the Continental Army, then switched sides, and became one of the more picturesque minor figures of the war.
Early years
Daniel McGirt was born to James McGirt and Priscilla Davison; the family was respected and well-established in the Camden area. His father was a prosperous miller who had acquired a grant on the Wateree River of 400 acres of land five miles below Camden, at the horseshoe bend in the river then called the "Great Neck, near Mulberry. McGirt was probably born here at the plantation the family called the “Hermitage”, though most of his father's lands seem to have been lower downstream.
Wells' Register and Almanac for 1775 records that James McGirt held offices of trust and confidence, serving as a lieutenant-colonel in Richard Richardson's regiment of the provincial militia. It was probably he, and not his son Daniel as stated in the South Carolina Gazette of April, 1769, who, with Cols. Richardson and William Thompson, acted with such "great spirit, discretion and success" in suppressing the Schofield provocations on the Saluda River. The Gazette characterizes the three colonels as "gentlemen of great reputation and highly esteemed by the whole body of backsettlers." The elder McGirt later served as a court justice, and one of his daughters married Capt. John Cantey, the founder of the Camden branch of that family.
Dr. Joseph Johnson says in his book, Traditions and Reminiscences, Chiefly of the American Revolution in the South, that the elder McGirt supported the American cause throughout the war, but there is no evidence to confirm this. Kirkland and Kennedy, authors of Historic Camden: Colonial and Revolutionary, are inclined to believe that he remained true to the Crown, and retired with his family to East Florida around the beginning of the conflict. This might be inferred from a letter written by William Ancrum, who lived in Charleston but was one of the largest landowners in the Camden area, and who knew all the families thereabouts. It is directed to his agent at the Congarees, on May 9, 1778, and concerns the recent stealing of three slaves from his plantation at that location. He writes:
"It is suspected that some of the McGirts who were formerly settled near Camden and some time ago retired to East Florida and who, it seems, have given themselves up to these scandalous practices are the perpetrators of this villainy, who have also taken off with them a great many horses from the settlements on the Wateree River." It is unlikely that James McGirt, given his reputed character, would have participated in these thefts; it was almost certainly another son, James, Jr., who joined Daniel McGirt in his misdeeds.
Scout for the Continental Army
In the early days of the Revolutionary War, Charles and Jermyn Wright, brothers of Georgia's Governor Wright, built a fort at their plantation on the Florida side of the St. Marys River. This fort, which was named Fort Tonyn after the governor of East Florida, Patrick Tonyn, became a refuge for the Tories of Georgia, from which they made numerous raids on the southern settlements of that province. In mid-May 1776, Capt. John Baker marched against the fort with 70 mounted men. His plan was to wait until nightfall, surprise the fort by a sudden assault and then make a rapid retreat. His movements were conducted with great secrecy, but his approach was discovered by a slave, who alerted the fort's defenders.
Three cannon were fired from the fort and were answered by the schooner St. John of eight guns lying in the river a short distance below. Baker, surmising that this was a signal for reinforcements from the schooner, placed his men in ambush along the banks and fired on the boats as they came up the stream. Several of the British were killed, wounded or captured, and from one of the prisoners Baker learned that a large body of Indians was encamped near the fort. He then retreated eight or nine miles before making camp for the night. During the darkness two of his men, Daniel and James McGirth, stole nearly all the horses belonging to the company and deserted to the enemy. The loss of the horses caused the failure of the expedition and Baker returned north to Georgia. For his act of daring Daniel McGirth was later made a lieutenant colonel in the Florida Rangers.