At the Battle of Camden, British General Lord Cornwallis routed Gates’s army and captured nearly 1,000 men, including their supplies, baggage, and artillery. There was no organized retreat, and Gates rode near 170 miles north in three days to flee. It destroyed his reputation and his new southern army.
Soon after Greene took command of the southern theater, the tide of war began to turn in favor of the Patriots. Greene and his men turned south to reconquer the South Carolina backcountry. Throughout 1781, Greene steadily drove the British back to Charleston, which they abandoned the following December.
Drury Harris, a free Black man, served as a private in the 3rd South Carolina Regiment during the American Revolution, fighting in key battles like Savannah, Charleston, and Cowpens, where he was wounded; after the war, he settled in South Carolina, married, and was later granted a pension, living until 1834.
Peter Harris, a Catawba Indian who survived a devastating smallpox epidemic as a child, served bravely in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, fighting in key battles like Stono Ferry and Rocky Mount; despite his contributions, he later petitioned South Carolina for a pension, poignantly describing himself as "one of the lingering embers of an almost extinguished race," and was granted $60 a year just before his death in 1823.
Uncover History in South Carolina
We invite you to visit the preserved locations along the Liberty Trail and to immerse yourself
in the extraordinary events that determined the fate of a nation.
William Moultrie died in 1805 and was buried in the family cemetery. In 1977, his remains were moved to Sullivan's Island within Fort Moultrie.
The Old Stone Church is located on the grounds of Clemson University. Early membership included Revolutionary War heroes Andrew Pickens and Robert
Anderson.
This battleground was the site of three British camps, attacked by Patriot troops on August 6, 1780. It was a fight primarily between countrymen.
Established in 1767 by the Patriot supporting Moore family. Local militia gathered at Walnut Grove prior to the Battle of Cowpens. Visitors may take guided tours of the house and grounds.
The Francis Marion is a forest literally steeped in history. Marion, dubbed the “Swamp Fox” by the British troops whose supply lines he disrupted with surprise attacks from the swamps.
This historic house museum was the home of Thomas Heyward, Jr., one of four South Carolina signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Patriot Francis Marion earns his famous nickname — "The Swamp Fox”— after a futile chase by British Commander Banastre Tarleton
The Battle of Camden was a devastating defeat suffered by the Americans in the British military offensive in the South.
Former Plantation of Henry Laurens: Merchant, Slave Trader, South Carolina Statesman, and Father of Revolutionary War Soldier John Laurens.
The plantation & gardens bears witness to 350 years of American history. Learn about the Europeans who colonized South Carolina, and the enslaved people who worked in the rice fields and gardens.