Battles & Skirmishes
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Raid & Execution at Bloody Point
By December 1781, the war in the Sea Islands had devolved into a series of cold-blooded "blood feuds." The death of Patriot Charles Davant in the October ambush…
Loyalist Occupation of Beaufort
By March 1782, the British "Southern Strategy" was in a state of terminal collapse. Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown months prior, and the British high command in Charleston…
The Saltketchers Skirmish
On May 25, 1782, a detachment of Patriot militia intercepted a British and Loyalist force at a crossing in the Saltketchers.
Battle of Tar Bluff (Battle of the Combahee River)
The Battle of Tar Bluff, fought on August 27, 1782, stands as one of the most tragic and unnecessary engagements of the American Revolution.
Old House Plantation Encampment
In late April 1779, the high ground of Old House Plantation—the secondary estate of Declaration signer Thomas Heyward Jr.—was transformed from a civilian sanctuary into a vital nerve…
Battle of Fort Sullivan (Fort Moultrie)
The Battle of Fort Sullivan, fought on June 28, 1776, was one of the most decisive early Patriot victories of the American Revolution. This engagement saw a technologically…
Fishpond Bridge
As the British army under General Augustine Prevost continued its relentless push through the Lowcountry in May 1779, the local landscape became a series of tactical hurdles. Fishpond…
Bear Island
In the cold winter of 1780, the partisan conflict in the Lowcountry took a personal and bloody turn at Bear Island. Following the fall of Charleston earlier that…
Capture of HMS Sally
The Capture of HMS Sally, occurring on August 16, 1778, was a significant maritime ambush off the Beaufort coast. This naval action demonstrated the increasing reach and aggression…
Ambush at Parson’s Plantation
By August 1781, the British occupation of the Lowcountry had devolved into a series of desperate "tit-for-tat" raids. The British and their Loyalist allies, pinned back toward Charleston, were launching increasingly violent incursions into the surrounding…
Skirmish at Godfrey’s Savannah
In late August 1781, the focus of the partisan war returned to the marshy borderlands near the Savannah River. Godfrey’s Savannah—an open, grassy wetland area located near the Salkehatchie and Combahee river systems—served as a crucial…
Ambush at Parker’s Ferry
While small skirmishes had occurred here earlier in the year, the engagement on August 31, 1781, was one of the most brilliant tactical ambushes of the Revolutionary War. General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox," had moved…
Capture of the HMS Dispatch
In August 1781, the war for the Lowcountry wasn't just being fought in the swamps—it was being won on the water. As Colonel William Harden’s land forces squeezed British outposts inland, Patriot "marines" and local privateers…
British Occupation of Jacksonborough
By 1781, as the Patriot "Swamp Fox" and Harden’s Rangers reclaimed the deep woods of the Lowcountry, the British military was forced to consolidate its power into a few fortified "safe zones." Jacksonborough (modern-day Jacksonboro), situated…
Ambush at Broad Creek
By October 1781, while the world’s attention was fixed on the British surrender at Yorktown, a localized and bloody "civil war" continued to tear through the Sea Islands. On Hilton Head Island, the conflict was intensely…
Touch the Stones of Liberty: The Historic Sites of the Southern Lowcountry
Step off the beaten path and onto the hallowed ground where the fate of the Southern Department was decided. The Historic Sites of the Beaufort, Jasper, and Colleton Districts are more than just ruins; they are the silent witnesses to a decade of upheaval. From the defiant tabby ruins of Stoney-Baynard on Hilton Head to the charred, skeletal remains of Old Sheldon Church—burned by the British in 1779—these locations map the geography of a revolution.
Explore the strategic river bluffs at Purrysburg, once the nerve center for the Continental Army, or walk the grounds of White Hall, the home of Declaration signer Thomas Heyward Jr. Whether you are navigating the dense maritime forests where the “Bloody Legion” once prowled or standing amidst the colonial grid of Jacksonborough, the provisional capital of a state in exile, these sites offer a tangible connection to the past. Here, the “partisan war” wasn’t fought on distant maps, but in the very doorsteps, chapels, and rice fields you can visit today.
