Extended Weekend Getaways 
By Kathleen Walls
AmericanRoads.net Publisher
By 1778, the British focused on the southern colonies, believing that large numbers of Loyalists would support them. They believed that by capturing the South, they could march north and defeat the Patriots. Take a road trip through four counties to discover Revolutionary War history.
Kershaw County
Camden is South Carolina’s oldest inland town. It witnessed many of the events leading to the birth of our country. The old town played host to Revolutionary notables including Nathaniel Greene, Francis Marion, Marquis de Lafayette, and George Washington, and unwillingly to Lord Cornwallis and his British troops.
Revolutionary War Visitor Center
Camden is their newest museum, and the first dedicated to the Southern Campaign’s pivotal role in the American Revolution. You’ll find exhibits that explain the Southern Campaign.
Historic Camden
A living history site and outdoor museum that tells the story of the battles fought there in the Revolution.
On my guided tour, my first stop was the Joseph Kershaw Mansion. Joseph Kershaw was a businessman from Charleston who came to Camden around 1758 and opened a mill in the new settlement then called Pine Tree Hill, which became Camden. After the Patriots’ defeat in June 1780, it was occupied by Cornwallis’s British troops until May 1781.
The mansion is an authentic reconstruction based on old photos and built on the actual foundation of the original home. The original home was burned during the Civil War either by Sherman’s men or the Confederates to keep it from falling into enemy hands.
The Battle of Camden was a great Patriot defeat when Patriot troops led by General Gates accidentally met with Cornwallis’s much larger army on the Great Wagon Road. Patriot militia broke and ran, but the Continental Army’s Maryland & Delaware men stood their ground as long as possible. Gates ran and escaped capture but faced disgrace because of his cowardice. He was replaced by General Nathaniel Greene.
You can walk on the actual battlefield. The Southeast Redoubt earthworks are under restoration, and the center is building a replica blockhouse. There will be a working British 3.5 Howitzer and a working French 6-pounder called “La Populaire” both on field carriages.
You’ll find several later era buildings here, including the 1830 Cunningham House, the 1785 John Craven House, two early 1800s log cabins, and McCaa’s Tavern.
The Old Presbyterian Graveyard is now the final resting place of 12 Continental soldiers killed at the Battle of Camden whose remains were discovered and re-interred with full military honors on April 22, 2023.
Lancaster County
Just a few miles from downtown Lancaster, I visited the site of Bufford’s Massacre, also known as the Battle of Waxhaws, a Revolutionary battle fought on May 29, 1780 between Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton British troops and a Patriot militia, led by Colonel Abraham Buford. Tarlton refused to treat surrendered Patriots as prisoners of war, and it ended with 113 patriots killed, 150 wounded, and 53 captured. The dead Patriot soldiers are buried here in a long trench. “Remember Waxhaws!” became the rallying cry for the Patriots.
Roadtrip exhibit at Andrew Jackson State Park Museum.
It also drew a young man usually associated with a later war into the fray. Did you know Andrew Jackson grew up in South Carolina? Andrew Jackson State Park has a museum and interactive exhibits that chronicle Jackson’s boyhood on his uncle James Crawford’s plantation near Waxhaw Creek, where he lived until he was 17 years old.
The museum tells about Jackson’s life during the Revolution. He fought in the Revolution as a teenager and was taken prisoner. Young Jackson and his family helped care for the men wounded at Buford’s Massacre.
York County
Historic Brattonsville began in the 1760s when three brothers, William, Robert and Hugh Bratton, settled here. The Brattons were wealthy slave owners. The living history village has over 30 colonial and antebellum structures, including two house museums, an 800-acre plantation, a nature preserve, and a Revolutionary War battlefield site.
After the British took Charleston, they went after Patriots in the backcountry, including Colonel William Bratton. They sent Captain Christian Huck, known for brutality, after Bratton. He was with his troops away from home and thanks to a warning from a young, enslaved man named Watt sent by Bratton’s wife, Bratton was alerted and defeated the British the next morning. A stone monument called “The Battle of Huck’s Defeat Marker” tells about the battle. Brattonsville was one of the filming locations of the movie The Patriot.
Cherokee County
Cherokee County Museum Exhibit
Kings Mountain Battlefield National Park in Blacksburn commemorates the battle between American and Loyalist militias. The only trained soldier was British Major Patrick Ferguson, charged with recruiting the Loyalist troops. Fought on October 7th, 1780, the Battle of Kings Mountain was the first major patriot victory after the British captured Charleston and is considered a turning point in the war.
The Visitor Center has a museum and outside you can hike a one-and-a-half-mile paved trail with markers and monuments. There’s a marker for Fergerson’s grave who was killed in this battle. Battlefield tours are usually held on Saturdays and Sundays and last about an hour and a half.
Ask at the Visitor Center about Howser House. It’s an 1803 stone house in a remote area of the park built by Henry Howser, a Revolutionary War veteran. It’s only open to the public a few times a year.
One of the most important battles in the Revolution occurred at Cowpens National Battlefield. Daniel Morgan led his Patriot mixed militia and Continental Soldiers against Banastre Tarleton’s British army on January 19, 1781. He set a successful trap and defeated the British regulars. If the Patriots hadn’t won the Battle of Cowpens, the southern part of the United States might still be English territory.
Before you walk the battlefield, watch the video, “Cowpens: A Battle Remembered,” at the Visitor Center. It tells the story from the journal of a 17-year-old militiaman who fought there. The video portrays him telling his little grandson, Sammy, what took place on that battlefield. The other is a map explaining the tactics Morgan used. After the video, I walked the battlefield with a better understanding of the placards and metal sculptures telling of the battle.
Cherokee County Museum of History and Art has exhibits from the Revolution to modern wars and ones telling Cherokee history from colonial days to the present. The Cherokee County Museum was recently named the Upstate Gateway to the SC Liberty Trail. Among the museum’s Revolutionary War exhibits, you’ll find an exhibit about women’s place in the war, a 90-foot Revolutionary War Mural, a Grasshopper Cannon, a lightweight type of cannon that was used by both sides,
The new Immersive Theater Teleporter Experience lets you “travel back in time” to view the battles, and more. In 2014, the museum acquired Thicketty Fort and restored it. The fort was the site of a 1780 standoff between Patriots and Loyalists.
