Battle of the Great Savannah

The Battle of the Great Savannah

Perhaps the greatest single order that General Gates gave prior to his ignoble defeat at Camden was to appoint Francis Marion as the Brigadier General of the South Carolina Militia.  

Following up on his orders, Marion departed from Gates at Rugeley’s Mill above Camden. He then headed south to raise a Brigade of militia and play havoc on the British supply lines.  

Gates  was preparing for his appointment with Cornwallis.  

While burning boats and raising an army on his way towards the Santee, Marion learned of Gate’s demise on August 16, 1780.  He declined to tell his men in his command in the hopes that they would not quit the mission. 

After the battle of Camden the British began marching prisoners in groups of 150 to Charleston along the present day Old State Road 261.  (The King's Highway is the by-way of old that ran from Charleston to Camden.  It cut through the High Hills of the Santee, which was a hideout and way-point for Patriots under Sumter and Marion.)

The British decided to stop for the night at Sumter’s plantation before heading on to Charleston (Sumter having fled to Charlotte after his defeat at Fishing Creek). 

General Sumter’s plantation, during the Revolution, was across from Nelson’s Ferry on the Santee River in Clarendon County.  It now lies at the bottom of the man-made lake and is occupied by all sorts of marine life; including but not limited to the alligators.  The closest that one can get to the site of the battle (short of scuba diving) is to explore the Santee National Wildlife Refuge.  Fort Watson is nearby and offers the history buff even more to discover and learn.

   
The Red Coat guard of 38 soldiers rested and stacked their arms for the night, feeling confident in their wins against Gates and Sumter and believing the area was secure so far behind the lines of conflict. 

Marion and Major Hugh Horry approached the house on August 25th.  A sentry fired a shot and the skirmish commenced with Horry and his men taking the front of the house while Marion and his men rushed the rear.  When the smoke cleared and the yelling had stopped, 22 British were killed or captured.

However, these Continental soldiers of the Maryland and Delaware lines were not willing to be freed.  Marion and his men must have been dumfounded when these men chose to continue as prisoners. Most of these soldiers, despite the mismanagement of General Gates, had fought bravely under DeKalb at Camden.  In a letter to Governor Rutledge, General Otho Williams would write,  “Of the 150 men retaken by Marion only about 60 rejoined their corps -- some were sick but most of them just departed."

For the British, Camden was a gift that kept on giving. 

It is a dire situation when the State militia launch a battle to free their fellow Patriots, only to realize they don’t want to be rescued. 

These were times that tested men’s souls.  Slavery or Liberty.  Servitude or Freedom.  Serfdom or self-government.  These hung in the balance in August of 1780 in South Carolina. Here, high minded speeches and thoughts of Freedom met bullet and blade.  

Along the back-roads over grown and passed by, the government that we now take for granted was born in the cauldron of despair.  Patriot fervor waned at the fall of Charleston, and was almost snuffed out at the defeat at Camden.  All along the frontier  (at Ninety Six, Camden, Cheraw, Hanging Rock, and Rocky Mount) loyalists were swooning over the arrival of Cornwallis, Tarleton, Wemyss and Ferguson.  Many a Patriot quit and resigned themselves to the fate of the conflict.  Merchants in Charleston and Savannah were filling their coffers with English coin from British contracts.  The Southern Strategy was working and it would be a matter of time before Britain was master of the colonies once more.

Or so they thought.

 

Marion was in the field.  Sumter had escaped.  A secret army was being raised.  

A reckoning is coming! Freedom Reigns!

Parker's Guide to the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

https://revolutionarywar.us/year-1780/battle-great-savannah/#.W3qgeOhKjIU

http://web.ftc-i.net/~gcsummers/revolution.htm

Musgrove Mill

Ferguson was frustrated.

 

At the Battle of Wofford’s Iron Works (Spartanburg) on August 8, 1780 American Col. Isaac Shelby and his frontiersmen played cat and mouse with Cornwallis’ man and eluded his British force with taunts and jeers on a hillside out of musket range.(1)  This came just a little over a week after Loyalists surrendered to Col. Shelby’s Indian fighters at Thicketty Fort without firing a shot.

 

That frustration would mount as on August 19th the Patriot bands of warriors under Shelby, SC militia Col. James Williams and Patriot Col. Elijah Clarke slipped in behind Ferguson's lines during a night-time ride and engaged Loyalists at Musgrove Mill (present-day southern, Spartanburg County) that morning.  The American Revolutionaries numbered about 300 men at arms. 

After halting in an open Indian field about a mile from the Ford of the Enoree River, scouts were sent out to gain intelligence on the enemy just before dawn.  Shots were fired and the scouts, though some wounded, made it back to camp and reported enemy numbers to be over twice the anticipated force of 200.

Sometime during the night reinforcements, intended for Col. Ferguson, had arrived at the British camp and were anticipating joining up with the left wing of the Red Coat army on their march northward.  Among these in camp at Musgrove Mill were two hundred Provincials from New York under the command of Colonel Alexander Innes.  

Shelby was outnumbered, his horses were spent, and his enemy would be reinforced by Ferguson soon. 

Shelby needed to draw again from his tactical skills forged in the furnace of Indian wars.  He chose to fight. He ordered his men to build breastworks of fallen logs and brush across the expanse of the open field in a rough semi-circle.  His plan to use cover and concealment during the battle would equal the playing field to the benefit of his men, as the British would be attacking a more fortified position without cover of their own.  Shelby and his contingent of frontiersmen under the bold Josiah Culbertson were on the right. Williams and his South Carolina militia were in the center. Clarke’s courageous Georgia troops were on the left.  Reserve troops were within earshot and hidden nearby; while the horses were staged in the rear.

The trap was set.

Now for the bait.

Looking up towards the British encampment

British Colonel Innes urged his reluctant peers in the war council to make haste and give fight to the rebel band who he had little regard for.  Some in the council wished to finish their breakfast and wait for Ferguson, but Innes was insistent.  As they made ready, Patriot Captain Inman and 25 men sallied in towards the King's camp and fired at the British from across the river, enticing them to give chase.  Innes did not hesitate nor disappoint.  

Innes’s whole force, save one hundred in reserve at the house, followed down and then up the hill on the heels of Inman and his party of Whigs; whom they believed represented the whole of the rebel band.  Unknown to them, Josiah Culbertson's party were concealed on their flank as they moved up the hill.(2)  The loyalists, answering the bugle calls, drums and shouts of their leaders, formed up and advanced to within 70 yards of the breastworks, bayonets at the ready.

Looking up towards the Patriot breastworks

Suddenly a deadly accurate fire was unleashed at the British just when they had let out a “Huzzah for King George!”  The attacking British staggered but for a moment.  They checked their lines and resumed their march.  Disciplined and steady, they came on with bayonet and determination.  The Patriot riflemen were much slower in their reloads than the British soldiers and their muskets. To make matters worse, the British cold steel was pressing in.  These anxious moments were observed by Shelby and Clarke and orders were given with haste.

The forty men in reserve were called up and filled the ranks of the riflemen who were being pressed hard.  At this critical juncture, Colonel Innes was killed by one of the Over the Mountain men and in the ensuing moments the tide changed for the advancing British.  

The frontiersmen let out an Indian war cry and rushed into the fray of smoke and powder and into close quarter combat.  The screams, the gun fire and the battle yell of charging wild warriors were all mixed with the smoke that made it impossible to see beyond 20 yards.  

The loyalist militia in front of Clarke gave way and began to fall back. Soon it was a full-blown retreat as the British ran back down the road from which they had come.  The dead and wounded lay scattered along the route as the Patriots were in hot pursuit and continuing to engage their enemy, even into the river ford.

One of the Tories, still bold despite the retreat, decided to drop his trousers and show his mooned cheeks to his pursuers as he made his way up the opposite hill.  He was paid in full with a bullet to his pasty white backside and carried off in shame and discomfort.(3)

In just about an hour of heavy fighting the smoke clears, and Shelby is the victor.  He has now beat the enemy three times in the field under less than favorable conditions, all within 3 weeks time. 

The victory is short lived as an express rider comes in from Colonel Davie at the Waxhaws informing the victors of the defeat of Gates at Camden, SC. 

Davie, who was riding to help in the battle at Camden, had observed Gates fleeing northward. Davie adjusted his own orders and turned back. He then prudently sent out messages to leaders still in the field, to include Thomas Sumter and Shelby's command structure.  Sumter suffers defeat at Fishing Creek above Great Falls, SC and flees to Charlotte.  Shelby and his army dispersed and seemingly vaporize into the mountains with their prisoners above present day Rutherford, NC.  The reality is Shelby would not let them rest till they were safely in the mountain passes and many of his warriors were starving and fatigued when they got home.

 

As Ferguson arrives too late to assist in the battle it is evident that Shelby has eluded the British Colonel once again.  His subsequent pursuit into the North State is met with equal results.(3,4)

But South Carolina is without a formal army to oppose the British and Cornwallis has his sights set on Charlotte and beyond.  Cornwallis sends Ferguson into the mountains where he imprudently threatens to lay waste to Scots-Irish Patriot homes and hang their leaders.  

General Washington sends Nathaniel Greene and Daniel Morgan south to raise an army and continue the fight.  

The Over the Mountain men begin raising their own army and are helped in recruitment by the bold and aggressive talk of Ferguson.

A reckoning is coming! 

Freedom Reigns!

(1)King’s Mountain and It’s Heroes: History of the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7^th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It, Draper, Allaire
(2)http://sc_tories.tripod.com/battle_of_musgrove_mill.htm

(3)Before They Were Heroes at King’s Mountain, Randell Jones

(4)Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker

Fishing Creek

Two ladies loyal to the King helped Tarleton put another jewel in his Crown while the “Gamecock” was saved by cattle, sheep and a low hanging branch.

On August 15, 1780, the day before Camden fell, Col. Sumter won at Cary’s Fort.  Guarding the Wateree crossing, Cary’s Fort was located on the west side of the Wateree River in the general area of where I-20 crosses it. After the battle “The Gamecock” Sumter had the task of transporting 100 prisoners, over 40 wagons loaded with supplies and 300 head of cattle (and sheep) north towards the State line.  Just on the other side of the river the Battle of Camden raged and was lost by Gates. 

Sumter was in a precarious situation and he posted a rear guard as they slowly made their way towards Charlotte, hoping to go undetected.  But Tarleton was sent by Lord Cornwallis to find his captured Loyalist men and supplies. Soon Tarleton and his Dragoons were able to observe Sumter’s camp fires from across the river.  They caught up with them on August 18, 1780 just north of the present-day Fishing Creek Dam off Hwy 21 in Chester County.  Sumter had managed to travel roughly 40 miles since his battle at the Wateree crossing.

Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s Dragoons were in no mood to play nice. They had been riding, marching and fighting for days without rest when they came upon Sumter’s force of over 800 men.  Now they rode two to a horse to bring enough men to the fight.  Aided by information from two Tory ladies, Tarleton was able to know Sumter’s location and disposition of the rebel forces. These ladies of the Crown also informed him of alternate avenues of approach to the Whig camp by way of some secondary roads. 

They found Sumter and he had let his guard down!  Sumter had stopped to rest in the rolling green hills along the banks of the Catawba river just above the Great Falls.  The Patriot force had stacked their arms around noon and were bathing, eating, shaving and foraging. Indeed, some of the militia had found the rum in the wagons and were too drunk to fight.  Two of Sumter’s men guarding the rear approach of the Patriot force were found and killed by saber, without drawing attention to the British Legion’s presence.

Tarleton, extremely outnumbered, boldly charged with his 100 mounted dragoons, augmented with but 60 foot soldiers. Whether by design, wisdom or chance he had played upon the psychology of the Patriot loss at Camden just two days before.

The cows and sheep grazed away as the human conflict flared.  Sumter was caught by surprise as he was observed sleeping when the battle commenced. Sumter quickly took in the situation and yelled, "Let every man take care of himself!” Leaving his coat and boots behind he jumped on an unsaddled wagon horse and rode out of camp in a flash. Riding furiously through the woods he was knocked from the horse by a low hanging limb and lay unconscious for some time after the battle.  

Col. Bratton and a small band of Partisans fought valiantly as the rest of the militia ran in all directions.  

Tarleton quickly inherited the shackles of baggage and livestock that Sumter had been relieved of. He could not pursue his foe for fear of losing that which he had just liberated. He turned his attention to his prisoners and spoils and turned south. 

In the confusion of the round up and trek back to Cornwallis, several Patriot prisoners were able to make good their escape.   

While Tarleton returned to Camden with added jewels to his crown, Sumter limped to Charlotte to regroup.

Thus our “Gamecock” though beaten by two ladies, a keg of rum and Tarleton, was saved by cattle, sheep and a low hanging branch!

With Gates and Sumter whipped in a matter of days and all his supplies intact, Cornwallis felt pretty confident.  The British army seemed invincible.  But rumors were in the air of a Loyalist defeat to the west. It was an omen that would haunt Cornwallis and a harbinger of things to come!

Freedom Reigns!

                                 

                                            General Thomas Sumter

https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/800818-fishing-creek/

Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker

Before They Were Heroes at King’s Mountain, Randell Jones

History of the Upper Country of S.C., Logan

Battle of Camden

1777 Northern Theater of American Revolution

“Too Cautious” was the description of General Gates by his subordinates at the battles at Saratoga. Indeed, Benedict Arnold’s ultimate treason of the American cause had much to do with his dissatisfaction of General Horatio Gates; who he called ‘the greatest poltroon in the world and many other genteel qualifications.’  Major General Nathaniel Greene would write a similar, eloquent negative concerning Gates.  And even though Greene went on to praise Generals Lincoln and Benedict Arnold for the successes in that Northern theater, it was now the summer of 1780 and things had changed since the war had moved south. Lincoln had lost Charleston and Arnold was convalescing from his wounds and planning treason at West Point.  Gates, who had been honored with accolades from the new Congress, was Washington’s choice to counter the enemy’s advance in the south. ⁽¹⁾

1780 Southern Theater of American Revolution

So General Gates marched from the area of Greensboro, NC on July 25, 1780 with intentions to retake Camden, 150 miles to the south. Camden had become the staging area for General Cornwallis in the Southern theater of the war.  It was only a month and a half since Charleston had fallen.  Gates took over General DeKalb’s command and added troops that trickled in as they marched over the next 17 days. Many of these troops had come tardy to Charleston, but now found themselves in a position to avenge the loss of the “Holy City” of the South.⁽²⁾ 

Gates took a more direct route against the advice of his Generals, who wished a more westerly route. They counseled this to take advantage of a population more favorable to the cause who could feed the troops along the way.  They could also avoid some swamps and marshes that would slow them down. 

However, they marched with supplies and baggage wagons across the Piedmont plain of the Carolinas where the July sun and humid heat hung heavy on the head and shoulders of each soldier. Green apples, molasses (instead of the usual rum) and bad food combined to cause an epidemic of dysentery that swept through the ranks on the eve of battle. ⁽³⁾ 

Then, Gates dithered and failed to follow up on his skirmish with Lord Rawdon about 7 miles above Camden on August 11th, despite his advantage of 4 to 1 odds in manpower.  Gates' vacillation allowed Cornwallis to come up 5 days later and the two armies surprised each other at 2 a.m. 

Skirmishers were taken prisoner on both sides and debriefed. Both armies realized they were face to face.  Gates called another council of war seeking input from his officers, but once more failed in his administration of a battle plan by misplacing his militia on the battle lines.  

The Red Coats fixed bayonets, charged and decimated the militia.  Cornwallis then turned on the flank of the Continentals still fighting on the field under DeKalb.  DeKalb, a brave and noble warrior who had fought with honors in Europe during the Seven Years War,  received 11 wounds and was last seen fighting bravely while surrounded by the Red Coat onslaught.  Cornwallis’ physicians cared for DeKalb and he died a few days later in Camden. 

Though Gates would be credited by some as attempting to rally the troops, his backside was seen fleeing the battle lines while its decision was still in question. In an irony of war, Dekalb, whose command was turned over to Gates weeks before the battle, was the one deserving of honors. He was heard to declare while near death in the British camp,  "I thank you sir for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for: the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man."(4)

                                                                                               

Battle of Camden.Dean.USMA.edu.history.gif

The Retreat and more Foreign Patriots

French Lt. Col. Armand was at the head of a Patriot cavalry contingent made up of Foreign volunteers, Hessian deserters and Frenchmen.  Remnants of other companies joined up with him  near the end of the ignoble battle.  He and his men fought a rear-guard action and found themselves fending off an assault by Col. Banastre Tarlton’s Green Dragoons just north of the main battlefield. As the Colonial army attempted to make good their escape, Armand’s men stoutly gave battle to buy precious time for the troops retreating north.  

The scene of this rear-guard action is unceremoniously known only to have occurred near the bridge over Grannies Quarter Creek on Flat Rock Rd. in Kershaw County, SC.  Many of the final resting places of the foreign soldiers who died in defense of our liberty are sadly unknown to history and their remains were left in the fields and creek beds of the rural landscapes of our South State.  Their noble deeds known only to the Great Creator who, we pray, has given them due credit for their defense of Freedom. (5)

After the Battle

Gates was humbled at Camden and labeled a coward by many.  Lt. Colonel Armand remarked “I will not say that we have been betrayed, but if it had been the purpose of the general to sacrifice his army, what could he have done more effectually to have answered that purpose.”(6)

Cornwallis basked in the glory of what he thought was the last full measure of large resistance in South Carolina. As the Continental Army was defeated at Charleston and now at Camden, he set his sights on Charlotte. His troops were left with chasing the “Gamecock” Sumter and the “Swamp Fox” Marion.  Cornwallis contented himself in believing that these partisan bands were inconsequential in the whole.  

But, Cornwallis had now pushed up against the Catawba River Valley, and things were about to change in 52 days.  Freedom Reigns!

    (1)    http://www.historynet.com/benedict-arnold-general-in-the-battle-of-saratoga.htm  

    (2)    King’s Mountain and Its Heroes: History of the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7^th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It, Draper and Allaire

    (3)    https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/800816-camden/
    (4) The Life of General Francis Marion: A Celebrated Partisan Officer in the Revolutionary War, Mason Weems
     (5) Parkers Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker
(   (6)    Washington and the Generals of the American Revolution, J.B. Lippincott