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.
John Glover, a skilled fisherman and merchant from Marblehead, Massachusetts, played a crucial role in the American Revolution as the commander of the 14th Continental Regiment, known for their amphibious expertise, notably evacuating Washington's army at Long Island and famously crossing the Delaware River to Trenton.
Christopher Greene, a Rhode Island militia leader and cousin of Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene, served with distinction during the American Revolution, including defending Fort Mercer and commanding the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. He was killed in action during a 1781 battle at Pines Bridge, remembered for his valor and the role of Black soldiers in his regiment.
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.
Uncovering History
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.
Not far from Camden Battlefield, Goodale State Park is lined with cypress trees, a spring-fed lake that offers boating, fishing, and hiking opportunities.
Located along the banks of the Hudson, outnumbered Patriot forces quickly evacuated this site on November 20, 1776, as the British army advanced on their position.
Patriot Francis Marion earns his famous nickname — "The Swamp Fox”— after a futile chase by British Commander Banastre Tarleton
An architectural treasure in its own right, the South Carolina Historical Society Museum is housed in a National Historic Landmark building and features interactive exhibits on the people, places, and movements that shaped the state and nation.
After an eight-day siege, this strategic outpost fell to the Americans, who used an ingenious structure called Maham’s Tower to fire down into the fort and trap the enemy.
McLeroth and his 64th Regiment were escorting 200 recruits from Charleston to Camden when Marion, with about 700 men, surprised them at Halfway Swamp.
After the Siege of Charleston in 1780, the British established a headquarters at the Kershaw/Cornwallis House. Today the house and grounds are open to tours.
Eighteenth-century Moncks Corner was a crossroads settlement of stores and taverns at the intersection of the Cherokee Path (the Indian traders’ path) and the road from Charleston to Santee. A powder magazine was established in 1760 and the village was occupied as a store depot by the British during the Revolutionary War.
Fort Nonsense if one of four sites that compose Morristown National Historical Park. Atop a hill, it functioned as a defensive observation post for those encamped at Morristown.
This last major battle of the war in the South succeeded in driving the British out of rural South Carolina.
On May 29, 1780, British commander Banastre Tarleton engaged and overwhelmed a Patriot force under the command of Abraham Buford in a dreadful defeat for the Patriots.