And Then There Were Thirteen with Dr. Henry Lumpkin was an instructional series debuted by SCETV in the mid-1970s. The 20-episode series featured lectures by Dr. Henry Lumpkin of the University of South Carolina Department of History filmed on actual battle sites and campaign areas of the American Revolution in South Carolina.
After the battle at Ninety Six, the British fell back along the coast, taking with them many of the loyalists. Georgetown was destined to fall to Francis Marion. Fort Watson and Fort Motte had already fallen. Fort Granby (Columbia, SC) had been taken by the Americans and Orangeburg was also in American hands. Camden had been evacuated, and the professor observed that the war now moved onto the coast and the population possibly with a victory in view, began to rally to the standards of the American commanders. Nathanael Greene was to become the strategic victor.
The next battle was at Eutaw Springs with the British watching their supply chains to Charleston, attempting to stop an American advance which was destined to win. Only Savannah and Charleston remained in British hands. The American forces under Nathanael Greene were pressing in from all sides and in the North, the Yorktown campaign was already underway. Thomas Sumter, Francis Marion, Elijah Clarke and all of the great partisans were working throughout the South and into the Upcountry, behind Nathanael Greene.
Once more Professor Lumpkin takes us on a field trip to the past, reviewing the topography, identifying lines on the battlefield, the positioning of field artillery, and progress of the military machine in play at the time of the battle. He described the veritable who's who among the leaders of the various legions and battalions and their roles in the hotly contested and bloody three-hour battle. To learn more about them as well as their British adversaries, see Side Notes.
Again, it was a strategic win for the Americans. After the British destroyed the stores (including the remaining rum) and artillery at their camp and leaving behind most of their seriously wounded, the army under Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stuart raced off to Monck's Corner falling back to the safety of Charleston. Watch and listen as Professor Lumpkin brings the story to life!
Side Notes
- Nathanael Greene and the Southern Campaign. (PBS)
- Francis Marion's campaigns. Walter Edgar and Ken Burns.
- Thomas Sumter served his country under four presidents. He died June 1, 1832 at his home in Statesburg, SC and was the last surviving General of the American Revolution.
- Elijah Clarke - Among the few heroes of the Revolutionary War from Georgia, Elijah Clarke (sometimes spelled “Clark”) was born in 1742, the son of John Clarke of Anson County, North Carolina. He married Hannah Harrington around 1763. As an impoverished, illiterate frontiersman, he appeared in the ceded lands, on what was then the northwestern frontier of Georgia, in 1773.
- Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stuart On the morning of September 8 British Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stuart, along with two thousand tough and able troops, was camped in a handsome North Carolina plantation near the twin sources of a river called Eutaw Creek. Greene advanced on Stuart’s camp with about twenty-two hundred men, most of them tested Continental soldiers every bit as resilient as Stuart’s regulars. Marching with Greene and in charge of the North and South Carolina militia as well as his own brigade was Francis Marion, “The Swamp Fox,” who had agreed to use his guerrilla fighters as line troops in the coming action.
- William Richardson Davie (1756–1820) was one of early America's most influential yet often overlooked Founding Fathers. Born in England, he emigrated with his family to the colonies as a child, settling in the Waxhaws region of South Carolina. Davie would grow up in a time of rising tension between the colonies and Great Britain, and he soon found himself at the heart of America’s fight for independence. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1776, just as the Revolutionary War was gaining momentum. After his studies, Davie joined the Continental Army and became a captain in a cavalry unit. Known for his bravery and leadership, he fought in several key Southern campaigns, including battles in the Carolinas. Despite being wounded in 1779, he returned to the battlefield and eventually rose to the rank of colonel.
- James Armstrong, revolutionary officer, was a resident of Pitt County during the Revolution and until his death. Little is known of his ancestry or his family, but he was apparently a well-to-do planter and leader in his community. He was elected a major in the Pitt County militia in September 1775. On 30 Nov. 1776 he was appointed colonel of the Eighth Regiment of North Carolina Continental troops.
- François Lellorquis de Malmédy (c. 1750–November 1781), the Marquis de Malmédy, (also known as François Malmédy-Gray), possibly a son of Charles-François de Gray de Malmédy and his wife Marie Charlotte Sébastienne Le Masson de Vandelincourt, was a sous lieutenant of cavalry in the French Army prior to 1776 and a Continental Army officer during the American Revolution after he arrived in the American colonies in 1776. He was reported to be descended from a Scottish family named Gray that settled in France. September 1781, commanded the North Carolina Light Dragoons Regiment at Battle of Eutaw Springs.
- Andrew Pickens - Eight-minute biography of the life of American Revolution militia leader and US Congressman, General Andrew Pickens. Through the use of available archival materials, scholar interviews, and historical illustrations this program details Pickens' military contributions, leading up to, during and following the War of Independence.
- Brigadier Jethro Sumner (1733 –1785) When Nathanael Greene came south in December 1780 to assume command of the Southern Department, he sought Sumner's help in the rehabilitation of the North Carolina Continentals. Sumner recruited in North Carolina until June 2, 1781, when he was ordered to join Greene in South Carolina; shortly after 1 August he reached the Southern army with three small regiments of 350 raw Continentals. On September 8th, Sumner's brigades were stationed on the right of the second line at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, where they fought well. During the remainder of the war Sumner was in charge of military forces in North Carolina.
- Richard Campbell There is no dignity in being forgotten. A case in point is Virginia Lt. Col. Richard Campbell, a Continental officer who died bravely for his country but lies today in an unmarked grave far from his home. “Killed near the end of the battle at Eutaw Springs,” wrote the authors of a 2017 study of that battle, “he is virtually unknown today.” In his own day, however, Nathanael Greene called him a “brave, active, and intrepid Soldier.” Light Horse Harry said he was an “excellent officer” who was “highly respected and beloved.” In 1832 one of his soldiers still remembered him as “the brave Col. Campbell.”
- Otho Holland Williams
- William Washington (1752 - 1810) By March of 1781 Washington and his light dragoons experienced another bout of action at the Battles of Guilford Court House. Shortly after, they were led into battle at Hobkirk’s Hill in April. This series of defeats continued at Eutaw Springs, where the then Colonel Washington was severely wounded in the process of leading a charge. Following his injury he was led into British captivity, which ended his military service in the Revolution. As a captive, Washington spent the rest of the war in Charleston, South Carolina.
- John Eager Howard - After Howard was wounded at the Battle of Eutaw Springs (1781) he left military service and returned to law in Baltimore County. In 1787, he sat in uniform wearing his Society of the Cincinnati badge for a portrait by Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). In 1846, Michael Laty (1828-1848) painted a second version of the Peale portrait for Howard's children. James Howard (1797-1870) and Charles Howard (1802-1869), two of the colonel's sons, donated the painting to the Maryland Center for History and Culture in 1846.
- William Henderson Greene had organized his force into two lines, the first comprising militia and the second Continental troops. Lee and his legion covered the Patriots’ right flank while Col. William Henderson and his company of mounted South Carolina state troops covered the left. Lt. Col William Washington’s legion, as well as two companies of Delaware Continentals, formed the reserve corps in the rear.
- Colonel George Baylor was exchanged by October 31, 1781, Colonel George Baylor set about to refitting his command from Petersburg, Virginia, in preparation for rejoining the main body of the regiment in South Carolina. He arrived in General Nathanael Greene’s camp in the early summer of 1782, but his poor state of health forced him to return to Virginia after only a few months of duty. He continued to be plagued by past wounds of war and, seeking relief in the Caribbean, George Baylor died on November 9, 1784, at Bridgetown, Barbados.
- John Harris Cruger (1737 -1807) After the siege at Ninety Six, Cruger went on to fight in the Battle of Eutaw Springs.
- John Majoribanks - Major in the 19th regiment of Foot of his Majesty's Army killed at the battle of Eutaw Springs.
- Major General Wade Hampton I ( 1750 – 1835) was an American military officer, planter, and politician who served in the American Revolutionary War and War of 1812. Sitting in the United States Congress for two terms, Hampton was one of the wealthiest planters and largest slaveowners in the United States at the time of his death. In addition to suppressing the 1811 German Coast uprising, a slave rebellion in Louisiana, he is also known for leading American forces to defeat at the 1813 Battle of the Chateauguay.
- Robert Kirkwood - Kirkwood's journals testify to his service and action at major battles of the Revolution
- Lawrence Manning (1756–1804) a captain in Lee's Legion within the Continental army, was distinguished by his gallantry at the Battle of Eutaw Springs under General Nathanael Greene. He settled in South Carolina after the war and became an adjutant general in the state militia.
- National Park Service - Southern Campaigns of the Revolutionary War - Phase II: Research in Great Britain. Final Report. PDF
