Francis Marion, The Swampfox
We have done a lot of RV traveling in the West, where you can literally drive for 2 days and still be in the same state. On our first leg from home to South Carolina, we drove through 3 states in about 5 hours. The only mishap was that I had estimated our MPG at 9 and created a list of gas stops for our driving legs. Right off the bat we found out we wouldn’t make the first planned stop at Costco in Pooler Georgia, just west of Savannah. I thought for sure I had outsmarted my range anxiety, and now I’m left with the mystery of figuring out why we only get 7mpg when towing when we can easily get upward of 20mpg “weightless”. I’m gonna have to do some re-thinking about the contents and weight of the rig when we finish this trip.
Our first stop was Palmetto Shores RV Resort in Summerton SC. They do a good job of marketing the property on their website, and the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, but none of those things does real justice to the actual place. It is stunning, even from a resort standpoint. Wide open spaces with solid utilities, a large property to sprinkle the different “neighborhoods” of spaces (ours was the Lakefront), spacious and clean cabins on the lakefront itself, with about 400’ of sandy beachfront and a marina. They even have a Snack Shop where you can rent water gear and buy ice cream (real hand-dipped stuff, not popsicles). Even though there are plenty of shade trees at most of the sites, I was able to get one that had plenty of open sky to keep the Starlink (and therefore myself) happy.
There are 2 pools, one specially built with a super shallow end for toddlers, a second “regular” pool for adults, and a lazy river for some relaxing tubing. A water splash park tops all that off, with both a well-reviewed restaurant and lakeside bar on tap as well. The park wasn’t well occupied during our stay, but we understand that there are music festivals and other events frequently that fill it to capacity. Check your calendar!
Summerton is a typical small southern agricultural town that has likely seen its best days commercially. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of color to be found, and there are local heroes from the area that played decisive roles in the RevWar. Most famous, and also most likely to be found in the history books, is Francis “The Swampfox” Marion, who raised a guerilla army to fight the British in and around the plantations of the Low Country. He got his cool nickname from his practice of attacking out of the swamps (there are plenty!) and disappearing back into them just as quickly. Local geographic knowledge of indigenous defenders, a prized military asset that can neither be copied nor stolen, is very frequently the single factor in determining ultimate victory over an invading force.
There were others, too, like Thomas Sumter. Sumter initially opted to sit the war out, taking neither side and hoping his plantation would survive the battles and that the financial impact to him would be minimal. Unfortunately, a British army detachment chose a path to Charleston that ran right through his plantation and found his wife at home alone in her wheelchair while marching through. They wheeled her out into the front of the house and then burned it to the ground in front of her. Thomas returned from his fields to find the aftermath, and that pissed him off sufficiently to form his own guerilla militia that proved to be a sincere thorn in the side of the redcoats when they didn’t manage to overcome Charleston enough to protect their rear flank. We put Francis and Thomas in these pages out of gratitude for those brave patriots who did the right thing, and enough of it, to produce the freedom that we still enjoy today.
A key battle that opened the gates to the end of the war was fought just down the road from our RV resort at Fort Watson. An ancient Indian burial mound at that site formed the foundation of an outpost garrisoned by the British to control the primary road and waterway to Charleston. Francis Swampfox Marion fashioned an attack on that fort that was repelled. But the importance of opening the road and river to colonial military traffic was great, so a second attack was planned. In this second attack, the Swampfox surrounded the fort with his guerillas and the help of Lt. Colonel Henry Lee and his troops while yet another patriot, Major Hezekiah Maham, scavenged saplings from the forest and built a log tower higher than the walls of the British fort which was used to fire down into the garrison and undermine their position, causing them to surrender. This was the first British fort to fall in the south, and it cascaded into a domino of failures for the Brits that ultimately ended in the British surrender by Cornwallis at Yorktown.
We followed our Fort Watson foot-tour with a visit to Sumter where we found the astonishing Swan Lake Iris Gardens. A wealthy local magnate, Hamilton Carr Bland, constructed a private fishing lake and wanted to build an adjacent Japanese Iris Garden. The foreign bulbs did so poorly that he instructed his landscaper to tear them out and throw them in the lake. They thrived in the shallow shoreline, and the lake and surrounding land have subsequently been turned into a private, free garden. A few swans took residence and now over 60 swans of all 8 North American species call the lake home.
Our second day we opted to drive to Columbia to see the South Carolina State House. It is, indeed, a very stately building, and the tour was fascinating. We were peppering the guide for tidbits of RevWar details when she informed us “y’all should just go to Camden, it’s only 30 minutes up the road.” We took her advice, after partaking of some extremely good Carolina ribs and red flannel cake at Railroad Barbeque.
Camden is the center of the RevWar universe for South Carolina, and maybe for much of the south as well. It began as an inland colonial township laid out in the 1730s and later developed into an important trading center on the Wateree River. It was originally known as Fredericksburg before being renamed Camden in 1768 after Lord Camden, a British supporter of colonial rights. During the Revolutionary War, Camden became a major British interior post and the site of two key battles: the Battle of Camden in 1780 and Hobkirk Hill in 1781.
Neither of the battles were won by the attacking colonial armies, but the stress they put on the British soldiers and their supplies later resulted in the British abandoning the town, which opened up major transportation lanes to feed the battle for Charleston, a key event in hastening the end of the war.
The city of Camden set aside 100 acres called Historic Camden to recreate the original town to showcase what life was like in the early 18th century. As you can guess, this is quite a moment for them with July 4th right around the corner. The Historic Camden website (https://www.historiccamden.org) says it best: “Camden was like no other town in the southern colonies—it was a microcosm of the turbulent times of the last half of the 18th Century. Its citizens—free and enslaved—experienced firsthand the unimaginable change brought about by global colonization, and the agricultural, industrial, and American revolutions.”
Here you can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with history; the feel of the era is palpable.
Historic Camden is a village recreation of the original townsite of Camden at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. It features many original and reproductions of homes and buildings, including a typical outdoor kitchen for the Bonds Conway house.
Camden is a story not of military victory, but of the perseverance of the patriots and their families and the displays contain many of their stories. The town patriarch was a man named Joseph Kershaw, a wealthy landowner and benefactor to many of the residents. Although his majestic house above the town was burned to the ground, Historic Camden has reconstructed a replica on the original foundation, fortunate that the house itself was originally a replica of another house in Charleston.
Bonds Conway, too, was highly influential in Camden’s history. Bonds was the first black man in Camden to buy his own freedom, the outcome of a deal by his original owner and a local military colonel that “purchased” him and then let Bonds buy his freedom by reimbursing the purchase. It sounds simple, but this was an astounding feat in the colonial south. Bonds was an entrepreneur and accomplished carpenter and built his family a house in Camden, along with many others in town. Note the kitchen, commonly built outdoors to save the house from burning down during the inevitable kitchen fire. His ancestors still come as a group every couple of years for a reunion and to visit his house. His work ethic and quest for freedom are emblematic of the patriots of his time. When many of the towns’ men were occupied with the war, Bonds served a vital function keeping the townspeople housed.
Although we didn’t directly visit Cowpens SC, it’s worth mentioning The Battle of Cowpens (January 17, 1781). In yet another story of small-town RevWar, this battle was a significant and strategic win for the American forces as they positioned for better advantage against the redcoats. The site, known as “Hannah’s Cowpens” for its use as a grazing pasture, was a 500 square yard field that was chosen by the American General Daniel Morgan as advantageous to an outnumbered American force against the local controlling British army. There were many of these types of battles or skirmishes that were useful not in obtaining victories against the British forces, but more designed to continually degrade the morale and abilities of the army in advance of larger, more decisive battles that would result in gained ground or wholesale surrender of forces and/or supplies. Many of the larger battles that are detailed in our history books would not have been possible without the grit and sacrifice expended in these smaller battles, conducted by names we’ve likely not heard and in places that many people travel through every year without realizing their historical significance.
We next travel to Asheville North Carolina.
Onward!
MUDDSCAPE 