Steven and I left Columbia last September and headed a bit reluctantly toward Raleigh, North Carolina, as we'd so enjoyed our visit in and around the South Carolina capital city. As we were in no rush, we stopped in Camden, SC, the state's oldest inland town. There, we admired the Bethesda Presbyterian Church which was designed in 1822 by Robert Mills, the architect of the Washington Monument in DC. The granite monument in front honored Baron DeKalb, a Revolutionary War soldier of Austrian descent.
In the town's Memorial Park which actually spanned four separate adjacent squares just like a major park in Asuncion, Paraguay, there was a monument that had been unveiled in 1883 to Kershaw County's Confederate War dead. The cornerstone had been laid with a Masonic trowel once used by the Revolutionary War General, the Marquis de Lafayette. The address was delivered by Wade Hampton III, the former SC governor, and general in the Confederate Army.
After first established by Watersee and Catawba Indigenous Americans, Camden's modern roots dated to the 1730s with Irish Quakers arrived two decades later. Camden emerged by the 1760s as the trade center of the backcountry. The town's name was changed from Fredericksburg in 1766 to honor Lord Camden, a friend of the colonies. During the Revolutionary War, Camden was the center of British activity in the region with more than a dozen battles fought within just thirty miles of Camden.
Another monument honored Lt. Col. James Polk Dickinson (1816-1847) who served in the state legislature and served with Kershaw volunteers in the Seminole Indian Wars in Florida and in the war with Mexico. He appealed for volunteers at the church's DeKalb monument, saying "I want a place in the picture near the flashing of the guns!"
We then spent some time at the Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site, the 476-acre battlefield that was located at the town's original site. and the location of the Battle of Camden. On August 16, 1780, more than 2000 British and Loyalist troops under Lt. General Lord Cornwallis met and defeated over 4,000 American troops commanded by General Horatio Gates.
The Battle of Camden was the worst patriot defeat of the American Revolution. The aftermath of the battle saw the southern Continental Army in total disarray while the British Army and Loyalists controlled the colony. Camden became a fortified garrison for the British and the future for the patriot cause in the South was bleak.
Citizen-soldiers: We learned that during America's colonial period, all able-bodied men from teenagers to those in their 60s served in the militia, a local force that turned out for military service in times of emergency. The training was often a social occasion with the men going to taverns after brief drills. Militia duty became more serious with the beginning of the Revolution. Patriot militia often fought against the British, and after South Carolina was occupied in 1780, a Loyalist militia was organized. The Loyalists in the Camden District guarded the town and fought against the American partisans in the battles of Camden and Hobkirk's Hill.
African-Americans Choose Sides: At the beginning of the Revolution, the number of slaves in South Carolina was over 100,000 compared to 70,000 white people. Most slaves toiled on coastal plantations with just 6,000 living in the backcountry. Slaves in the Camden area assisted in building and fortifying the town's powder magazine in 1780. When the British occupied Camden, slaves constructed an elaborate network of defenses. As most slaves hoped they would gain their freedom from the British, they risked harsh retribution from rebel masters by assisting the King's army as spies, wagon drivers, and gathering provisions. The British armed African Americans to help defend Camden during the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill.
These 18th-century field cannons saw service with the British at Camden. One was a British six-pound (named for their ball weight). Two were French four-pounders that were captured at the 1758 Siege of Louisbourg during the French and Indian War. Each of the canons was spiked, i.e. sealed at the touch hole and abandoned when the British evacuated in 1781.
Thankfully, the pillory was normally used as a punishment for less than a day for crimes including arson, cheating, wife-beating, quarreling, forgery, and lying. The offenders' ears were often nailed to the board and torn off. The accused were often pelted with stones, spoiled food, rotten animal corpses, sometimes resulting in death.
Petty thieves, Sabbath-breakers, drunkards, and gamblers were left in the stocks for days, even weeks, regardless of the weather. It has documented that the stocks were still in use as late as 1843.
Camden physician Dr. John McCaa (1793-1869) used this property that had been built circa 1800 as his office and residence when it was located a few miles away. As the clapboard house was a mixture of Georgian and Federal styles, it was uncommon for the area. When the home was reinterpreted as a late 18th-century Carolina Backcountry tavern in 2015, it became the only 18th-century multi-room tavern restoration in the state.
During Camden's colonial era, such a tavern would not only be a place to eat and drink but where a traveler could sleep, church services could be held before churches were built, and circuit courts were held again before courthouses were constructed.
The British Evacuation: When the Americans captured Fort Watson on the Santee River in 1781, the supply line from Charleston on the coast to inland Camden was cut. The commander of the British garrison, Lord Rawdon, admitted he was "completely dependent ... for subsistence, for military stores, for horses, for arms" on Charleston. Rawdon, knowing he would be surrounded and forced to surrender if he tried to hold Camden, destroyed the British supplies his men couldn't carry, partially leveled the fortifications, and evacuated Camden in the middle of the night. Left behind were some American prisoners and wounded British soldiers. Many Loyalist refugees accompanied the army.
From Camden, we headed to the small town of Bishopville, twenty miles away, to tour the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden. On arriving at this suburban home, we were less than wowed, to put it mildly as it appeared the garden had obviously seen better days or years!
However, other homes on the same street had taken more pride in their gardens, perhaps having been inspired by what the Fryar Topiary Garden had once looked like.
Next post: The Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Posted on May 15th, 2021, from our home in Denver as Steven and I continue to look at all sorts of different travel destinations for the fall. At the beginning of this year, ever hopeful that the pandemic would have mostly run its course by this fall, we spent countless hours making reservations for a four-plus month trip to Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and French Polynesia only to come to the hard truth recently that any trip to Asia is looking less and less like a real possibility. A month-long trip to the Yucatan area of Mexico is now looking like a distinct possibility. Adding on a side trip to Belize and perhaps the Tikal ruins in Guatemala also sounds exciting. But then it looks like Italy will open up to vaccinated Americans this summer so I wonder whether we'll pivot to that part of the world as Steven and I have never visited Italy together and the prospect of a month or more motoring up and down Italy's spine sounds like a dream. Stay tuned in the next few months as hopefully one of these dreams becomes a reality for us! In the interim, please stay safe and healthy, and take care of your loved ones.
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