Battle of Ash’s Point Site

Location: Daufuskie Island, Beaufort District (Modern-day Beaufort County)

The Action

In the late summer of 1779, a force of local Patriot militia launched a daring waterborne raid against a British picket post situated at Ash’s Point on Daufuskie Island. Utilizing the element of surprise, the Patriots descended upon the encampment, which housed a combined force of British regulars and Loyalist militia.

The initial encounter was swift and violent; a British picket (sentry) was killed in the opening moments of the raid. While the death of the sentry effectively broke the camp’s immediate security, the noise of the struggle served as an unintended alarm. This allowed the majority of the Loyalist and British forces to retreat into the dense maritime forest of Daufuskie, escaping capture despite the Patriots successfully seizing the ground and driving the enemy from their position.

The “Bloody Legion” Context

The raid at Ash’s Point was a key chapter in the bitter feud between the Patriots of Hilton Head Island and the Loyalists of Daufuskie Island. Often led by figures like Captain John Leacraft and associated with the feared “Bloody Legion,” these Hilton Head-based partisans viewed Daufuskie as a “nest of Tories.”

This engagement was not a formal battle of maneuver, but rather a targeted strike designed to disrupt British surveillance of the inland waterways and to retaliate for Loyalist raids on Hilton Head plantations. It highlights the brutal, personal nature of the war in the Lowcountry, where control of a single point of land could mean the difference between a secure home and a midnight raid.