Revolutionary War & Colonial History

Those Who Fought for Liberty On Both Sides

In 1775, the people of Charleston were on the verge of eight years of revolution and war. They were bitterly divided. For Charlestonians, the War for Independence was a civil war, as some favored independence and some were Loyalists. Many on both sides contributed greatly to the war effort. They were famous and obscure, rich and poor, women and men, Black and white. Contrary to popular opinion, people on both sides appealed to patriotism and fought for liberty. For the enslaved majority, the war represented an opportunity to gain their freedom—by siding with the British. In telling the stories of a spectrum of participants, Peter McCandless recovers a history at odds with public memory, encrusted with layers of forgetfulness and myths.

Those who Saved South Carolina

In May 1780, Charlestown surrendered to the British army, and an ominous, dark cloud descended over the spirit of independence in South Carolina. More than five thousand Patriots of the Continental army and militias conceded their arms and declared an oath as true and faithful subjects to His Majesty, the king of Great Britain, or otherwise faced prison or exile. That left the volunteers of the state’s militia as the best line of defense for the state. More than two hundred skirmishes and battles in the state provide testament to the passion and dedication with which South Carolinians defended their state. Brian Eleazer details the behind-the-scenes story of how South Carolina survived.

Small armies of men waged a ferocious series of battles in the southern theater, changing the outcome of the Revolutionary War. When the British effort to subdue the Colonies moved to the southern provinces, the men of Appalachia sought to protect their homes and families. In the winter of 1780-81, the turning point of the southern war occurred in the Carolina back country. A trio of battles occurred at Kings Mountain, Cowpens, and Guilford Court House. These clashes proved pivotal to American independence, destroying British army capability in the south and facilitating the American victory at Yorktown.

In December 1780, former Quaker turned general Nathanael Greene took command of the entire Southern Department. He reported only to George Washington himself. Leadership of the southern states to that point in the American Revolution had failed, as the British held all major southern cities, including the important port city of Charleston. Greene faced the British in several key battles in South Carolina in 1781 and ultimately was able to rid the state of the British and free Charleston, but not until 1782, long after the victory at Yorktown. Join author and historian Leigh Moring as she tells the forgotten story of General Nathanael Greene and the liberation of the Lowcountry at the end of the American Revolution.

Discover how Huck's Defeat spurred on the South Carolina militiamen to future victories during the Revolutionary War.

In July of 1780, when the Revolutionary War in the Southern states seemed doomed to failure, a small but important battle took place on James Williamson's plantation in what is now York County, South Carolina. The Battle of Williamson's Plantation, or Huck's Defeat as it later came to be known, laid the groundwork for the vicious partisan warfare waged by the militiamen on the Carolina frontier against the superior forces of the British Army, and it paved the way for the calamitous defeats that the British suffered at Hanging Rock, Musgrove's Mill, Kings Mountain, Blackstock's Plantation and Cowpens, all in the South Carolina backcountry. In this groundbreaking new study, historian Michael C. Scoggins provides an in-depth account of the events that unfolded in the Broad and Catawba River valleys of upper South Carolina during the critical summer of 1780. Drawing extensively on first-person accounts and military correspondence, much of which has never been published before, Scoggins tells a dramatic story that begins with the capture of an entire American army at Charleston in May and ends with a resounding series of Patriot victories in the Carolina Piedmont during the late summer of 1780-—victories that set Lord Cornwallis and the British Army irrevocably on the road to defeat and to surrender at Yorktown in October 1781.

On the foggy morning of August 16, 1780, American and British armies clashed in the pine woods north of Camden, South Carolina, in one of the most important and influential battles of the Revolutionary War. An American victory would quash British plans to subjugate the southern colonies and virtually guarantee the independence of the fledgling United States. A victory for the British would pave the way for the conquest of North Carolina and Virginia.

After nearly an hour of frenzied, bloody combat, the British army emerged victorious, and American morale plummeted to its lowest point of the war. The rout at Camden was not a total loss, however, as Patriot forces eventually came away with a renewed determination to resist British advances, and the lessons from the defeat were applied to secure future victories that finally allowed the Patriots to triumph in the South.

This engaging new book presents the Battle of Camden as never before: through the eyes and words of American and British participants and contemporary observers. The events leading up to the conflict, the combat itself and the consequences of Camden are all described in striking detail. The cunning strategies of both American Major General Horatio Gates and British Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis are revealed, as are a number of battlefield reports from soldiers on both sides. In addition to these compelling first-hand accounts, The Battle of Camden includes analysis of the battle and its effects in America and Europe from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Lord George Germain. With this landmark text, author and historian Jim Piecuch offers a comprehensive consideration of a vital Revolutionary battle and its effects on the war for American independence.

From the rocky slopes of Kings Mountain to the plains of Hannah's Cowpens, the Carolina backcountry hosted two of the Revolutionary War's most critical battles

On October 7, 1780, the Battle of Kings Mountain utilized guerilla techniques - American Over Mountain Men wearing buckskin and hunting shirts and armed with hunting rifles attacked Loyalist troops from behind trees, resulting in an overwhelming Patriot victory. In January of the next year, the Battle of Cowpens saw a different strategy but a similar outcome: with brilliant military precision, Continental Regulars, dragoons, and Patriot militia executed the war's only successful double envelopment maneuver to defeat the British. Using firsthand accounts and careful analysis of the best classic and modern scholarship on the subject, historian Robert Brown demonstrates how the combination of both battles facilitated the downfall of General Charles Cornwallis and led to the Patriot victory in America.

On a pleasant morning in June of 1848, writer and historian Benson J. Lossing was traveling by carriage between the towns of Greenwich and Stamford, Connecticut. Along the path, Lossing happened upon an elderly veteran of the Revolutionary War. Although quite old, the man was thoughtful and pleasant, and he spent the afternoon regaling Lossing with tales of his experiences in the war. The veteran turned out to be General Ebenezer Mead, a former soldier of both the Connecticut militia and the Continental army. For Lossing, the experience was profound. He realized at once that very few men and women who had lived through the days of the Revolution were still alive, and that soon, if he did not act, their stirring stories would be lost. His mind was made up, his mission clear: "I felt an irrepressible desire to seek and find such mementos of the great conflict for freedom and independence, wherever they might exist, and to snatch their lineaments from the grasp of Decay before it should be too late." Before reaching Stamford, Lossing commenced drawing plans for an epic pilgrimage across the United States to seek out and interview these few surviving Americans who had born witness to the start of our great nation. These are the fruits of his labor. First published in 1889, this intriguing volume preserves for the ages the stories of a wide variety of Americans who lived through these tumultuous times. Included is the story of Rebecca Motte, a heroine from South Carolina who helped Francis Marion's soldiers set her own house ablaze to drive out British troops. Also present is the account of Uzal Knapp, the last remaining veteran of General George Washington's Life Guards. Lossing goes to great lengths to capture the tales of Americans from many walks of life, including that of Eleanor, one of Washington's many slaves, and Frances Slocum, who was abducted and raised by a tribe of Delaware Indians. This fascinating collection, with a new, insightful introduction by Michael C. Scoggins, is a triumph of preservation and a treasure for history-conscious

As the most significant eighteenth-century estate assembled in the British American colonies still in existence, Drayton Hall is an icon of American history, design and preservation.

Its story is told through archaeological artifacts, architectural research and documentary investigations, with a focus on the inhabitants and their connections to the wider Atlantic world. A multitude of scholars contributed to our understanding of Drayton Hall as the first complete example of Palladian architecture in North America, its placement at the intersection of the European Enlightenment and America's slave society and as a family home where extraordinary events became landmark historic moments. Today, Drayton Hall is valued as the most authentic pre-Revolutionary southern plantation that helps examine the creation of American identity.