Whigs, and Ryan, distrusting them, placed them in front with instructions to his men to shoot them if they proved false. In the fight which ensued his chief was was again disabled and William Butler assumed the coramand. The Tories were defeated.
In 1782 Cunningham made a second incursion into the Ninety-Six District. Perfectly familiar with the country in his youth, possessed of great sagacity, fertility in military expedients and endowed with all the physical qualities so essential to the partisan, he was no mean adversary to contend with. A favorite maneuver with him was to divide his command upon the march into small detachments, to be concentrated by different routes near the point at which the blow was aimed. In this manner he had concentrated his force at Caradine's ford on Saluda. William Butler then was commanding a company of Rangers under the authority of General Pickens and, with a portion of his company marched to meet him. With a view to ascertain the enemy's position he resorted to a ruse. Approaching the residence of Joseph Cunningham near the junction of Little Saluda with Big Saluda, he sent forward his brother, Thomas Butler, with Abner Corley to the house at night. Thomas Butler was an excellent mimic and, imitating the voice of one of William Cuiiningham's men, called Nibletts, asked from without where
