The Massacre At The Waxhaws: The Revolutionary War Arrives In The SC Backcountry -- May 29, 1780

The British Legion charges Virginia Continentals at the Battle of the Waxhaws on May 29, 1780.
Painting by Graham Turner.

 
The Massacre At The Waxhaws

The Revolutionary War Arrives In The South Carolina Backcountry 
Monday, May 29, 1780
 

By: C.W. Roden

This post is dedicated to the men, woman and children who help maintain the site of Buford's Massacre, and especially to the Continental soldiers from the State of Virginia who were wounded and died there in defense of American liberty in May 1780. 

(Part 1 of a 15 part series)

After five years of largely indecisive fighting in the northern States, the Revolutionary War reached a stalemate in the year 1780. George Washington's Continentals faced off against the combined British and Hessian forces now under the command of General Sir Henry Clinton outside of New York City.

France and Spain had entered the war on the side of the newly independent American States in 1778 and the British Empire reoriented for a worldwide strategy. Losing the North American colonies would be bad; but the loss of Gibraltar, India, or the West Indies would have been a disaster for Great Britain. British troops and naval vessels were needed on other more important fronts.

General Clinton knew that there might still be a way to win the war for America: conquer the South. The region had been largely untouched by the war, and it was felt that in the Southern States there were yet many Loyalists who would rise to support the Crown if the British army established a serious foothold there.

General Sir Henry Clinton, Commander In Chief
of British Expeditionary Forces in
North America 1778-1782. 
Painting by English painter John Smart.

The Southern plan devised by Clinton and approved by Lord Germain was to invade South Carolina, set up outposts across the State, recruit as many as 5,000 Loyalist militia forces and augment them with a small core of several thousand British regulars, training them to fight for the British army. After securing South Carolina, the Loyalists there would remain to hold the rebellious colony for the Crown while the main British regular army marched north, repeating the process in North Carolina and Virginia. The goal would be to catch Washington's Continental Army between two main British armies and crush the colonial rebellion before the French could effectively intervene in America. 

On Sunday, April 2, 1780, a British armada and expeditionary force under Clinton's direct command launched his attack against the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Unlike Clinton's previous attack in June of 1776, this time the British forces laid siege to the city with both infantry and naval forces trapping the main Southern Continental Army under the command of Major General Benjamin Lincoln.

On Friday, May 12th at around 11:00 AM, Lincoln surrendered the city and the entire Southern Continental Army after a six week siege. Lincoln's army included all four of South Carolina's remaining Continental regiments, two North Carolina Continental regiments and six Virginia Continental regiments, as well as a large number of North and South Carolina militia -- overall about 5,000 men.

The surrender of Charleston sent a shock wave throughout the entire continent. Charleston was the largest and most important city in the South -- still the capitol of the newly independent State of South Carolina at that time -- and its loss was a huge blow to the morale to the Continental Congress and the cause of American independence. The loss of the entire Southern Continental Army would be considered single the worst American military defeat in history until the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines in May of 1942 (the final surrender of the C.S.A. armies in April and May of 1865 aside that is).   

Under the terms of the surrender, the Continental regulars were to remain as prisoners of war until properly exchanged, but the Patriot militiamen were to be permitted to return to their homes as prisoners on parole provided they sign a pledge not take up arms against the British Crown again. Many took the offer of parole and went home, feeling that the war was over for them. Other backcountry Patriots upon learning about the defeat at Charleston simply turned around and went home. 

There were still some Patriot troops outside the city under the command of Brigadier General Issac Huger who had not surrendered with the rest of Lincoln's army. These troops also included the remnants of Lt. Colonel William Washington's Continental dragoons and a few companies of militia including a company commanded by Captain John McClure from what are now present-day Chester and York Counties. Having no further use for them, Huger dismissed the militia. Devastated by the loss of their State's capitol, and angered at the loss of their horses in battle less then a week earlier, McClure's company broke camp and began the long walk home. At the time many of them felt that the war was lost in South Carolina.

The remains of Huger and Washington's Continental forces retreated to Lenud's Ferry on the Santee River where they would meet up with a force of Virginia Continentals under the command of Colonel Abraham Buford and North Carolina militia commanded by William Caswell. 


Buford's Virginians and the Retreat

Raised in Virginia earlier in the spring, Buford's command consisted of about 380 Continental officers and men of the 3rd Virginia Detachment which included the 7th Virginia Regiment, two companies of the 2nd Virginia regiment and a small force of artillerymen with two six-pounders. Many of these men were recruits with little battle experience, though Buford himself saw battle before in Washington's Continental Army. 

Due to delays in getting his command organized and outfitted, Buford and his army did not even arrive in South Carolina until the beginning of May and was unable to reach Charleston in time to help in its defense. By the time the Virginians arrived at Lenud's Ferry, the city had fallen to the British. Buford's men were joined by about 40 Virginia Light Dragoons who had escaped the siege. A total of 420 men overall.

A battle flag of Buford's 3rd Virginia Detatchment.
The original banner (one of three) was captured by
Tarleton's British Legion at the Battle of the Waxhaws.

Huger, Washington and Buford met up at Lenud's Ferry that evening. Their combined forces were too small in number to resist the British so retreat was their only option. Huger ordered the Virginians and North Carolina militia to withdraw to Camden, South Carolina retreating north along the river, toward the High Hills of Santee, before the British could cross the river and overtake them. Marching north they came to the Great Wagon Road that led from Charleston to the Camden District and the upstate settlements. Both Washington and Huger went ahead to Hillsborough, North Carolina where the few remains of the Southern Continental Army that was not captured were gathering to regroup and gather into a new army.

On Friday, May 26, Buford, Caswell, and their men arrived in the town of Camden where they encountered South Carolina Governor John Rutledge who'd managed to escape from Charleston before the surrender and took refuge there to assume direction of the remaining soldiers there.

Governor Rutledge informed Buford of rumors that the British army was in pursuit and advancing on Camden in force. He decided the best chance for them to escape was to separate the units and take two different routes. Caswell's brigade was to march northeast to the Pee Dee River and towards North Carolina while Buford's Virginians were to satay on the Great Wagon Road to Salisbury, North Carolina. Rutledge would go with them and establish a government in exile in North Carolina to continue fighting the British from there.
 

The British Advance

Receiving intelligence from Loyalist spies that Buford and Rutledge were in Camden and preparing to retreat to North Carolina, Clinton ordered his second-in-command Lieutenant General Charles Lord Cornwallis, along with a corps of some 2,500 infantry, cavalry, and artillery, to follow Buford and neutralize his force. Clinton and Cornwallis were both in agreement that the pacification of the South Carolina "backcountry" and upstate was of major importance to the success of their campaign. Having an armed force of Continentals close by would only encourage those "rebels" left in South Carolina to continue their resistance to the Crown.  

On Thursday, May 18th, Cornwallis' forces made their way to Lenud's Ferry and crossed the Santee River headed for Camden. Heavy rains slowed the British pursuit and Buford's retreat since both forces were burdened by artillery and wagons on muddy roads.

By Saturday, May 27th, Cornwallis realized that his main army was advancing too slowly to catch Buford, so he detached the British Legion, a mobile force of cavalry and infantry made up of Northern-born American Loyalists from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania commanded by British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, to pursue Buford's force while he marched the rest of the army to Camden and being the task of establishing British outposts in the upcountry to maintain order for the Crown's forces.

Tarleton's command included 40 British cavalry regulars of the 17th Dragoons, 130 of his British Legion Cavalry, and 100 men of the British Legion's Infantry detachment - riding double with a cavalryman on horseback for this occasion. A total of 270 men overall.

British Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton wearing the
green uniform of the British Legion that earned
him the romantic nickname: "The Green Dragoon".
The actions of his men at the Waxhaws on May 29, 1780
would earn him several less flattering nicknames
such as: "Bloody Ban" or "Butcher Tarleton".
Painting by British painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.

At about 10 AM on Sunday, May 28th, then 11-year-old Thomas Sumter Jr., the young son of Colonel Thomas Sumter, was riding his horse through the High Hills of the Santee River when a neighbor rode past in full gallop, crying that British cavalry was on its way. Tom rode his horse home to inform his father what he had heard. Sumter called to Soldier Tom, his African-American manservant, and ordered him to saddle their horses. After donning his old uniform of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment, Sumter bid farewell to Tom and his wife, Mary, and headed to North Carolina with Soldier Tom only a few hours ahead of the British Legion. 

Although Sumter had retired from active military service in September 1778, he was well known to the British and Loyalists in South Carolina as a prominent Continental officer. Tarleton dispatched Captain Charles Campbell of the Legion to bring in Sumter. Campbell's detachment arrived at Sumter's plantation home to find Sumter had already alluded them. The British Legion soldiers then plundered the home and put it to the torch, leaving Sumter's family homeless. 

The destruction of Sumter's home would be just one of several mistakes the British Legion would make in the next two days that would have major long-term repercussions in derailing their overall Southern strategy.

That evening Tarleton reached Camden and wasted no time in setting off after Buford. He departed the town at about 2 AM the next morning on Monday, May 29th.

Buford's forces, along with Governor Rutledge, were camped at a place called Hanging Rock, a small creek overhung by a huge conglomerate boulder just 20 miles north of Camden.

A copy of the terms offer to Buford by Tarleton
on the afternoon of May 29, 1780 prior to the
Battle of the Waxhaws.
Courtesy of the Museum of the Waxhaws collection.

Governor Rutledge decided to ride on ahead to Charlotte, North Carolina with a small escort leaving Buford's force behind to continue on to Salisbury at double time. The men were already footsore and slowed with wagons and two cannons. Early Monday morning they reached the fork where the Great Wagon Road went toward Charlotte to the left and the more direct cutoff straight to Salisbury through thickly forested, lightly inhabited country, to the right. Buford headed right though the area of modern-day Lancaster County known as the Waxhaws after the Native American people that once largely inhabited the area.

Around midday an officer of the British Legion, Captain David Kinloch, under a banner of truce, came upon Buford's force with a message from Tarleton -- who by that time was at Barkley's tavern on the road less than an hour behind Buford. The message was clear, Buford could surrender on generous terms -- about the same given by Clinton to Lincoln at Charleston -- or, as Tarleton boldly phrased it in his message: "If you are rash enough to reject them, the blood be upon your head."

Buford and his junior officers conferred. They claim by Tarleton in his message of having 700 men, they guessed correctly, was a lie. In fact, Buford's Virginians actually outnumbered the British Legion detachment close to 3 to 1. Buford believed that the whole thing might be a ruse to bluff them to surrender. Buford declined the offer to surrender with a one sentence reply: "Sir, I reject your proposals, and shall defend myself to the last extremity."


The Battle of the Waxhaws

Virginia Continental Soldier.
Artwork by Don Troiani.

Buford continued to march toward North Carolina in an effort to put the British Legion forces behind him, with his cannons and wagons in the lead.  

Sometime around 3 PM that afternoon, a bugle sounded behind them, and Tarleton's 170 cavalrymen, sabers swinging, charged the Virginian's read guard, commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Pearson.  

In 18th century warfare, cavalry charges against infantry were a terrifying experience for the men on foot. Psychologically such an attack is meant to play on the nerves and strike terror into infantry soldiers. The sight of being attacked at high speed by a screaming, sword-wielding enemy riding a large horse, or other beast, is almost more than most people can stand up to.

Some of the Virginians ran, others dropped to the ground to avoid the British sabers. Lieutenant Pearson himself was not so fortunate. He was mounted himself and was knocked from his horse by a saber blow and then slashed across the face, the sword cutting his nose and lips in half and killing him instantly.

Buford halted his main column and ordered the Continentals to turn and form on the side of the road under the trees facing the enemy. In haste to do so, Buford either had no time to order the wagons to be used as an obstacle, nor get his two cannons in place. Tarleton deployed his men into three elements of combined cavalry and infantry, then attacked from about three hundred yards. The British Legion Cavalry charged the front and flanks of the Virginians.

British Legion Infantry Soldier.
Artwork by Don Troiani.

As they charged, Buford gave what was perhaps a fatal order: hold fire until the enemy was ten paces in front of the line. By that time the cavalry was charging the line at full gallop and could not be stopped. The Continentals got off one volley of shots before the Legion's cavalry crashed into the line, British sabers went to work on the now all-but helpless Virginia infantry who had no time to reload their muskets. The two flanking units of the British line then all but surrounded the Continentals. By that point the charging Legion Infantry joined in jabbing anything that moved with their 15 inch bayonets.

British Legion Cavalry Trooper.
Artwork by Don Troiani.

During the volley, Tarleton's horse was shot out from under him and he fell to the ground with his dead horse on top of him, pinning him down for the next few moments. The Legion's soldiers seeing their young commander shot down and believing him to be dead turned on the Virginians and began to literally hack them to pieces, some even as they tried to surrender.

Buford himself did not wait to see the final outcome of the battle knowing that defeat was inevitable. He galloped away towards Salisbury on horseback with a few survivors leaving the infantrymen to their fate.

Colonel Tarleton -- now mounted onto a fresh horse -- finally urged his officers to get the men under control. This took some time in the heat and confusion of battle with tempers flared and adrenaline pumping. The battle became a bloody melee with the Legion Cavalry slashing at survivors with sabers and the infantry stabbing with bayonets in hand-to-hand combat. Some were hacked to death, or wounded when they raised their hands and tried to surrender.

When the smoke cleared, 113 of the Virginia Continental soldiers were dead -- many of which would die later from wounds -- 150 men were wounded and 53 were captured. Only a handful escaped with Buford. Of the British Legion, 5 men lay dead (probably from the volley by the Virginians) and 12 wounded. 

The entire battle took less then fifteen minutes.

British Legion Cavalry charging down Buford's Virginian Continentals.

The Bloody Aftermath

Tarleton ordered that the 53 Continentals still standing be transported to Camden where Cornwallis was setting up command of South Carolina. The 150 men that lay wounded -- some too badly to be moved any great distance -- were "paroled" which largely meant in many cases leaving them on the field to die.

By nightfall the British Legion camped closed to the battleground. Tarleton sent messengers over to the nearby Waxhaw community thirteen miles away to inform the residents of the battle. At a distance from the Legion's fires, dead and wounded still lay on the earth, the later screaming in torment. Tarleton sent for surgeons from Camden and Charlotte to help assist the wounded. His own Legion's doctor was busy helping with the fourteen wounded men of the Legion and did not bother with helping the enemy, the Hippocratic Oath notwithstanding.

Marker outside the Waxhaw Presbyterian Church,
site of Waxhaws Meeting House in 1780.

The local population of scattered Scotch-Irish settlers in the upcountry came to the scene to help with the wounded. What they found on Buford's bloody battlefield horrified them. Most of the wounded were so badly mangled suffering mostly from bayonet and saber wounds -- some with a few as four and many others with more than a dozen -- that they died where they lay. Others were pressed into service to bury the dead in a long mass grave that remains on the site. Some of the wounded that could be carried by cart were taken several miles away to Waxhaw Meeting House and nearby homes to be cared for. Some of those men died and are buried in the now historic Waxhaw Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

Among the local Waxhaw residents who helped with caring for the badly wounded Virginian Continentals was a local widow named Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson and her 13 year old son, Andrew Jackson -- the future 7th President of the United States -- who would later join with local patriots under Thomas Sumter's command to fight against the British and Loyalists in the upstate. 

 

Conclusion: "Tarleton's Quarter"

To the local residents, the sight of so much bloodshed, and young men literally cut to pieces was a scene of horror none of them would ever forget. For the people of upstate South Carolina up until then the Revolutionary War was only know to them from family and neighbors who went off to fight far away through letters or second hand accounts.

For the first time since South Carolina declared her sovereign independence, eighteenth century warfare finally arrived literally in the back yards of the people of the South Carolina upcountry. These people now witnessed first hand the type of war and brutality practiced their new British masters.

In the aftermath of the Battle of the Waxhaws -- or "Buford's Massacre" as its still called in upstate South Carolina to this day -- both frightened and angered many backcountry Patriots, many of whom believed that Tarleton deliberately ordered his men to slaughter Buford's Continentals. The fact that Tarleton himself played up the one-sided battle and encouraged the stories of his men's slaughter of the Virginians would not help to dispel these perceptions.

The one-sided battle earned the young English Colonel the nickname he would forever be known in South Carolina history: "Bloody Ban" Tarleton.

To the upcountry Patriots, the name Tarleton and the green-coated British Legion would be synonymous with terror. Worse for the British and their Loyalist allies, it would plant the seed of defiance in the hearts of Southern Patriots and a determination to expel an enemy capable of such wanton cruelty.

The bloody melee at the Waxhaws would be the prelude to nearly three years of bloody partisan fighting in the South Carolina backcountry, a civil war between Patriots and Loyalists that would reach it's peak from Buford's bloody battleground to the top of Kings Mountain five months later.

"Remember Tarleton's Quarter" would also become a rallying cry for a new wave of defiance in upstate South Carolina among Patriots waiting for the opportunity to strike back against the British and their Loyalist allies.

One of the very first acts of retaliation would come just over a week later at a placed called Alexander's Old Field in modern-day Chester County, which this blogger will tell you about in the next chapter of this series.

The mass grave site of many of Buford's Virginia Continentals
on the site of the Battle of Waxhaws, May 29, 1780.
Others are buried in nearby local cemeteries.
The mass grave is located at the corner of SC 9 and Rt. 522
about 9 miles east of Lancaster, South Carolina.

For more information about the Battle of the Waxhaws please consult the following sources that were used to help with this blog post: 

The Day It Rained Militia by Michael C. Scoggins (2005) ISBN 1-59629-015-3

The Museum of the Waxhaws at their website: www.museumofthewaxhaws.org/

The South Carolina Society Sons of the American Revolution (SC SAR)

and the outstanding organization Friends of the Buford Massacre Battlefield at their website: www.friendsofbufordmassacrebattlefield.com/.

U.S. Memorial Day Is NOT Just A Three-Day Weekend

Ten U.S. Navy sailors being laid to rest at sea aboard the USS Intrepid (CV-11) following a
Japanese kamikaze attack on October 27, 1944.

Fallen U.S. soldiers from Omaha Beach following the Operation
Overlord (D-Day) June 6, 1944 waiting for burial.

Just remember while y'all are enjoying your day off today that U.S. Memorial Day isn't just about having a three-day weekend, or barbecues and family gatherings, or watching war movies.

Its about the men and women in those graves that fought and paid that ultimate sacrifice so y'all can have the freedom to enjoy those activities, as well as the freedoms and liberties granted to us by God, our U.S. Constitution, and by our Constitutional Republic -- all in that order.

So take time out today to remember and reflect on those lives while you enjoy your grilling and your celebration of the federal holiday honoring their memories.

Remember them. Never forget!

God Bless Y'all and Happy U.S. Memorial Day today!

Monday Meme: Saturday Morning Cartoons & Kinks

Visiting Florence National Cemetery & The Grave Of Florena Budwin

After attending the Confederate Memorial Day service at Mount Hope Cemetery in downtown Florence, South Carolina (mentioned in my previous blog post) I drove about a half-mile down the road to visit the Florence National Cemetery -- as well as visit a specific grave on the site.

Florence National Cemetery is a 25 acre U.S. National Cemetery that contains the graves of over 12,000 U.S. military soldiers and veterans from various American wars. The National Cemetery is administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Florence National Cemetery began its history as a burial site for Union prisoners of war interred at the nearby Florence Stockade during the War Between The States (1861-1865).

Florence Stockade was built in late September of 1864 by the Confederate military. Most of these were Union prisoners transferred to the site by rail from the infamous Camp Sumter (better known to history as Andersonville after the nearby town in Georgia) ahead of Union General William T. Sherman's March To The Sea. The rest were either Union soldiers, or sailors, captured in actions at Charleston and the North Carolina coastal regions.

Of the estimated 12,000 to 18,000 Union prisoners of war held at Florence Stockade around 2,300 died of various camp diseases and harsh camp conditions during the five month period the stockade was in service. These prisoners were buried in 16 trenches half-a-mile from the stockade's boundaries on what would become the site of the National Cemetery. The Florence Stockade was abandoned by the end of February 1865, with most of the remaining prisoners being transferred north to the POW camp in Salisbury, North Carolina until the end of the War two months later.

The site of the burial trenches became a National Cemetery in 1865 with the remains of other Union soldiers from nearby American Civil War battlefield cemeteries were transferred and reburied there, bringing the number of Union war dead buried on site to around 3,000 men -- and one woman.

The woman buried among the Union dead is known to history as Florena Budwin.

According to the accounts of her story, Florena was a young woman possibly born about 1844 from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who dressed up as a Union soldier so she could find and serve with her husband, a Union army officer. The couple supposedly served briefly together before he was either killed in battle, or dying in prison at Camp Sumter in mid-1864.

Budwin was then shipped by train with other Union POWs to Florence Stockade where she became ill with pneumonia and the camp physician, Doctor Josephus Hall, discovered her gender. She was provided with separate quarters and women in town provided her with women's clothing. Florena recovered and chose to remain near the stockade to help the local women nurse the sick prisoners and prison guards at the adjacent Wayside Hospital.

Sadly, Florena Budwin again fell ill and died at the Wayside Hospital on Wednesday, January 25, 1865. She is buried at the site of the Union trenches (Section D, Site 2480 of the National Cemetery), with her lone gravestone in the middle of one of the two large bare patches of land marking the site of the trenches. Her grave is a simple Union soldier's grave marker that bears her name and the date of her death.

Florena Budwin is believed to be the first woman to be buried in a U.S. National Cemetery.

The following are the photos I took of my visit to Florence National Cemetery. 

The grave of Private Florena Budwin listing the date of her death.
Note the copper pennies on top of her marker -- a show of respect
for her service.

I would like to add one more interesting story and connection between the Florence National Cemetery and your favorite blogger personally.

On the Roll of the Known Confederate Dead of Chester County, South Carolina which I reposted for this year's Confederate Memorial Day (May 10th) in memory of the 375 men and boys from my home county who did not survive the War Between The States, at number 362 you will find the name Private Theodore D. Wise. He was from Chester and served as in Company E, 3rd Battalion SC Reserves -- which served as camp guards at Florence Stockade during its existence. Many of the guards were members of the reserve units who were aged 15 to 17 years old.

Sadly, Private Wise would contract measles during an outbreak at the Stockade and pass away at the Wayside Hospital on Monday, December 26, 1864 at the age of 15 -- the youngest Confederate soldier from Chester County to die in the War. Theodore Wise place of burial is unknown -- although he's possibly buried in the mound at nearby Mount Hope Cemetery with the other Unknown Confederate Dead.

Theodore Wise died at the same hospital where Florena Budwin served as a nurse ministering to the sick before her own tragic death from disease a month later. It makes me wonder: did they know each other in that time? Did she offer him comfort as a nurse as he passed away? We can never truly know. Still, its interesting the way threads of history seem to intertwine along with the lives of those who lived it.

I went to Florence to honor and remember the sacrifices and services of both the Confederate dead honored on Confederate Memorial Day (May 10th) and the Union dead who will be honored later this month on U.S. Memorial Day (May 26th this year) -- all of them our American dead.

None of them are forgotten.

From The Waxhaws To The Cowpens: The Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War In Upstate South Carolina 1780 - 1781

Southern Whigs (Patriots) facing British Provincials (Loyalists) at the Battle of Kings Mountain on
Saturday, October 7, 1780.

 

From The Waxhaws To The Cowpens 
The Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War
In Upstate South Carolina 1780 - 1781

By: C.W. Roden

This series honoring the 245th anniversary of the American Revolutionary War's Southern Campaign in upstate South Carolina is dedicated to the memory of my friend, Mr. Michael Charles "Mike" Scoggins (1953-2019) of the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County (SC), historian and author who provided much of the research for this series. 

When people talk about the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783) many Americans today still erroneously believe that it was a largely northern war fought in the north and won by Northern-born patriots and French allies.

The War for American Independence certainly began in the north, and while its true that most of the prominent battles in the early part of the war were fought in New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; its also true that American independence from Great Britain was largely won in battles down here in the American South -- particularly in my home state of South Carolina -- in the years 1780 - 1781.

In many American history books, the battles of the Southern Theater of the war sometimes only read as mere footnotes on the path to the final American victory at the siege of Yorktown, Virginia in October 1781. There is a huge irony to this since nearly all of the American Revolution's southern battlefield sites are protected as national, or state parks, while many of the larger and more famous battlefields of the north like: Bunker and Breed's Hill, Long Island, Harlem Heights, White Plains, Germantown, Trenton, and much of Brandywine, are all chiefly lost to urban growth, or lie largely unprotected. 

Other Revolutionary War sites have been unintentionally obscured by land development, much of this largely due to their owner's lack of awareness of the historical significance of these locations. Here in South Carolina we owe a huge debt to the local chapters of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and other local historical societies who placed granite markers on the local sites.

Battlefield tourists visiting the Carolinas and Virginia are very fortunate. Today one can visit every major southern battlefield site from Ninety-Six and Moores Creek, to Camden, Cowpens, Guliford Court House, Hobkirk's Hill, and Yorktown and still see the land much as it was during the late 18th century. Much of this preservation is partially due in large part to the South's traditional respect for its cultural and military historical heritage and its significance.

The first major skirmish of the war fought outside of New England took place in the rugged hills of the South Carolina backcountry on Sunday, November 19, 1775, when the tension between American Loyalist and Patriot militias erupted into three days of indecisive armed conflict at the Cherokee trading town of Ninety Six in modern-day Greenwood County. This would be the beginning of what would be referred to as the Snow Campaign (a reference to the heavy snowfalls that took place during the later half of the campaign).

The result of the Snow Campaign was the first major victory for South Carolina's Patriots at the Battle of Great Cane Break on Friday, December 22, 1775, but the conflict would later foreshadow the partisan militia conflicts that would erupt into an ugly civil war across South Carolina's backcountry later in the war.

The Battle Of Sullivan's Island in Charleston Harbor
on Friday, June 28, 1776.

On Tuesday, March 26, 1776, the South Carolina Provisional Congress in Charleston (then called Charles Town) declared independence and approved its own State constitution. The Provisional Congress renamed itself the South Carolina General Assembly. This made South Carolina one of the first of the former British Colonies to declare itself an independent State. The General Assembly elected John Rutledge as President, Henry Laurens as Vice President, and John Huger as Secretary of State to govern South Carolina and prepare defenses against British attack. 

Eight months after the Snow Campaign, the first major battle of the American Revolution's Southern theater took place at Sullivan's Island near the mouth of Charleston harbor on Friday, June 28, 1776 where a small force of Continental soldiers and South Carolina militia manning a hastily-built shallow fort made of sand, soil and Palmetto logs successfully defended and fought off a large British armada attempting to invade and occupy the city of Charleston.

Less than a week later, the Declaration of Independence would be ratified by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thursday, July 4, 1776. South Carolina and twelve other American colonies declared themselves free and sovereign independent -- yet United -- States of America, effectively ending over 250 years of rule by the British Crown. 

After the Battle of Sullivan's Island, the war in the Southern Theater largely quieted down, with the exceptions of the capture of and later Siege of Savannah, Georgia and a few other minor skirmishes in the South Carolina low country. For the next four years following Sullivan's Island, the people of South Carolina would be more concerned with border skirmishes with the Cherokee Nation while the British military forces would instead be largely focused on destroying George Washington's Continental Army and other Patriot forces in the rebellious colonies in the north.

 All of that would suddenly change in the year 1780. 

Over the course of a year and a half, between the summer of 1780 till the fall of 1781, over 250 separate battles and skirmishes would be fought in South Carolina during the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution, more than any other single State in the entire war. Most of these battles would be bitter struggles between small forces of Patriot partisans against British garrisons and Loyalist militia forces, with only a few pitched battles involving Continental units.

Many of the leaders of these partisan bands would become legends in the Carolinas: Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion, Thomas "Gamecock" Sumter, Andrew "Wizard Owl" Pickens, William Richardson Davie, Isaac Shelby, and John Sevier. After the war, grateful citizens would name counties and towns after them.

While many today are somewhat familiar with the guerrilla exploits of the partisan band led by Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion in the South Carolina lowland region, much of the war in the South Carolina backcountry were fought by leaders whose names were soon largely forgotten: John McClure, William "Billy" Hill, William Bratton, Andrew Neel, Edward Lacey and Richard Winn.

They led fewer men, participated in seemingly less significant battles, or simply lacked talented storytellers to spread their fame. Yet these Patriot partisan leaders had the same effect as Sumter or Marion, though perhaps on a smaller, though no less important scale.

They kept the Loyalists at bay, disrupted British supply lines, never allowing the invading redcoats the time needed to implement the British southern strategy and bought this new confederation of independent States the time they needed to regroup and fight back.

Growing up in South Carolina's upcountry I was very fortunate indeed to be surrounded by so much Southern and American history -- much of which played a large part in helping to secure the independence of the nation that I live in today. Some of the most significant battles of that Southern campaign took place within 30 to 50 miles of where I live. 

The major role that defiant Scotch-Irish Presbyterian settlers and Southern-born American patriots played in upstate South Carolina in the year between the summer and fall of 1780 keeping the British and Loyalist occupation forces off balance helped turn the tide of the American Revolutionary War from a standstill in the north to the final victory against British invasion and occupation of the thirteen original American States.

In this chronological series, I will share with y'all a series of stories about some of those small but important battles and campaign that took place in the South Carolina upcountry -- particularly in modern-day York, Chester, Lancaster, Kershaw, Fairfield, Union and Cherokee counties -- between the summer and fall of 1780 till the winter of 1781 and their overall significance in the Southern Campaign.

The following are the chapters detailing the most significant battles and engagements in the area, the links to which will be added as the series continues:

(1) The Massacre At The Waxhaws: The Revolutionary War Arrives In The South Carolina Backcountry -- Monday, May 29, 1780 
(2) Defiance At Alexander's Old Field: The Backcountry Resist The Crown -- Tuesday, June 6, 1780 
(3) The Raid On Mobley's Meeting House: The Loyalists Routed -- Thursday, June 8, 1780 
(4) The Burning Of Justice Gaston's Home: The Loyalists Strike Back -- Sunday, June 11, 1780
(5) The Destruction Of Hill's Ironworks: Huck's Reign Of Terror Continues -- Saturday, June 17, 1780
(6) The Battle Of Williamson Plantation: Huck's Defeat In The South Carolina Backcountry -- Wednesday, July 12, 1780 
(7) The Battle Of Rocky Mount: Sumter Goes On The Offensive -- Tuesday, August 1, 1780
(8) The Battle Of Hanging Rock: Patriot Victory In Lancaster County -- Sunday, August 6, 1780
(9) The Battle Of Camden: Cornwallis Defeats Gates -- Wednesday, August 16, 1780 
(10) The Battle Of Fishing Creek: "Bloody Ban" Routes Sumter -- Friday, August 18, 1780 
(11) The Battle Of Musgrove's Mill: The Prelude To Kings Mountain -- Saturday, August 19, 1780
(12) The Battle Of Kings Mountain: The Turning Point Of The Southern Campaign -- Saturday, October 7, 1780
(13) The Battle Of Fishdam Ford: Sumter Returns -- Thursday, November 9, 1780
(14) The Battle Of Blackstocks: The Fighting Gamecock Routes Tarleton -- Monday, November 20, 1780
(15) The Battle Of Cowpens: Continental Victory In The Backcountry -- Wednesday, January 17, 1781

 
Important Writer's Note: This series has been reposted from its original publishing dates back in 2020, which was unfortunately not completed at the time due to several personal factors. In honor of the 250 anniversary of the American Revolutionary War (2025-2033) this series will be published in its entirety here over the course of 2025-2026 on the dates each battle took place. Thank y'all for your patience and I hope y'all enjoy this series as much as I've enjoyed writing and sharing this important part of history for you.