Battle of Bloody Point / Philippa Affair

The seizure of the Philippa, often referred to as the Philippa Affair, stands as one of the first instances of large-scale, armed conflict between British and Patriot forces in South Carolina. In late April 1775, the South Carolina Council of Safety received intelligence that the Philippa—formerly the Magna Charta, the ship involved in the “second Charleston Tea Party”—was transporting a massive cargo of arms and 16,000 pounds of gunpowder intended for British Indian allies in St. Augustine to be used against Georgia and South Carolina. In response, Colonel Stephen Bull of the Beaufort District Militia commissioned Captains John Joyner and John Barnwell to lead two scout boats to intercept the vessel near the Savannah River.

On July 9, 1775, the Philippa was cornered off Bloody Point on Daufuskie Island in a coordinated strike between the Beaufort scout boats and the Georgia-refitted schooner Liberty. After the Liberty fired shots across her bow and the scout boats cut off her seaward withdrawal, nearly 300 Georgia and South Carolina militiamen surrounded the vessel. Despite the protests of Captain Richard Maitland, the Patriots successfully confiscated the entire munitions cargo at gunpoint. The 16,000 pounds of gunpowder was split equally between Georgia and South Carolina, with South Carolina’s share famously concealed in the Bull family burial vault at the Prince William Parish Church (Old Sheldon).

The impact of this “Southern Plunder” extended far beyond the Lowcountry, providing a “Northern Providence” for the Continental Army. By mid-August, in response to an urgent call for arms from the Continental Congress, 3,500 pounds of the captured gunpowder and half of the other munitions were shipped from Charleston to Philadelphia and eventually to Fort Ticonderoga. These supplies arrived at a critical moment for George Washington’s army during the Siege of Boston, which at one point had only 36 barrels of powder remaining. Transported overland by Henry Knox, this captured cargo played a decisive role in sustaining the siege, enabling Washington to reclaim the strategically vital port and preventing the British from overwhelming the American army in its infancy.