Monday, February 13, 2012

Seeking forgotten fort on Ashley


Seeking forgotten fort on Ashley

Potential park site might hold key

BY BO PETERSEN
Monday, February 13, 2012


SUMMERVILLE -- The slight rise above the Ashley River takes on an eeriness as Steven Steele speaks about it: 300 horses, hundreds of men and an earthen redoubt with a field of fire that could turn artillery against attack from upstream or down.
This could be the spot where "Swamp Fox" Francis Marion camped and trained militia, where he guarded the bridge between Round O and the White Meeting House that was the social hub of Colonial Dorchester. It could have been the sneak backwoods river crossing to attack Dorchester and Charleston's less protected rear during the Revolutionary War.
This spot might just have held Gen. William Moultrie's "lost fort," one of the most significant regional sites from the period still to be located. And the property is in negotiations to become the next Dorchester County park.
County leaders are beginning to realize just how historically important a park there might be -- an inland counterpoint of Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, the national monument whose palmetto log walls withstood a British bombardment and became a state emblem. The promise quickly has become one of the reasons for the purchase, said council Chairman Larry Hargett.
To save the history for the county, as Steele says bluntly.
"This was Charleston's 'hanging flank.' Whoever controlled this crossing had the flank of Charleston," Steele says as he looks around the wooded rise. "This is a major site for Revolutionary War, win, lose or draw, especially for Dorchester County. We're within 50 feet of it right now."
The property is near today's Bacon's Bridge on Bacon's Bridge Road outside of Summerville. Steele is a local historian who specializes in the period and posts the Swamp Fox Brigade blog. He suspected the 83-acre tract might hold the site, and asked county leaders to give him access when they toured it. He and County Councilman David Chinnis, both Revolutionary War re-enactors who have studied battle strategies, reached the rise at the river's edge, stopped and stared.
"This bump in the river gives you a 180-degree field of fire," Chinnis said. "That's what you want. You want the artillery out in front." He's found other indications.
The "bump," it turned out, also sits along a high ground corridor from the Ashley River Road straight to the White Meeting House on Dorchester Road, the common sense route to run a wagon road through wetland bottoms. It sits roughly across the river from an historic cemetery and what archaeologists think might be the site of a fortified frontier settlement of a century earlier.
Steele says the place fits descriptions from Marion's and Moultrie's letters. The flat ground behind it is expansive enough to have held an Army camp that would have included everything from drill grounds and graves to latrines -- unlike other locations nearby. And the contour of the land has a sculpted quality that is different than anything upstream or down.
Steele wants to do core samples and other tests to try to confirm his assessment. The samples could turn up soil evidence or even artifacts from a fort in the period. If he's right, a park there could become one of those places history buffs come to see.
Bacon's Bridge is one of the more under-appreciated pieces of history in the region anyway, a place where skirmishes, ambushes and hairs-breadth escapes took place between Patriot and British fighters during the Revolution, among two centuries of lore.
"It's a very, very important staging area at very strategic crossing on the Ashley River," said Ashley Chapman, manager of the Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site two miles down the river.
Locating the redoubt and the camp would create an opportunity for people to learn about a missing link to the history that includes Colonial Dorchester and its tabby fort, the river plantations and other toured spots. "We're all connected."
Reach Bo Petersen at 937-5744.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

General Moultrie's Lost Fort


Most people know the story of General Moultrie’s fort on Sullivan's Island that was named for him after he lead the forts defense against the British on June 28th in  1776. This fort becomes the symbol of resistance in Charlestown against the crown after its walls of palmetto logs were able to with stand the bombardment of the British Navy and Col. Thomson at the other end of Sullivan's Island was able to keep the British troops on Long Island (Isle of Palms) from crossing Breech Inlet and attacking the fort by land.
General Moultrie’s forgotten fortification can be found in Dorchester County on the Ashley River. This is the earth redoubt that he built to guard the access to Charlestown near Summerville, SC. This was an important crossroad for the defense of Charlestown 28 miles up the Ashley River. This was the bridge that leads across the Ashley River to White House Meeting House named in the honor of Reverend White, which the British burned under General Provost during his raid against Charlestown in 1778 and to Dorchester Road which was the main road leading directly to Charlestown. This fortification was built between January and February of 1780 to block any British advance coming up from Savannah that were going to link up with the British General Clinton who had landed on Johns Island and was already moving his forces to James Island under the protection of the Royal Navies big guns.  At this fortification he had over 300 hundred horseman that were used as a reconnaissance force and or a rapid response force should the British appear at other crossings to impede their crossings. This cavalry force was composed of the 1st Continental Dragoons under the command of Lt. Col. Anthony White and the 3rd Continental Dragoons under the command of Lt. Col. William Washington, Col. Daniel Horry’s South Carolina Light Dragoons and other mounted troops from the local militia and unattached cavalry. This group of cavalry was put to good use in late March of 1780 by checking a British Calvary force consisting primarily of the British Legion and the 17th Light horse under the command of Col. Tarlton who had yet to earn his American nickname Bloody Tarleton.  The infantry force was composed of the 2nd South Carolina with around 250 men who defended the palmetto fort on Sullivan’s under Moultrie’s command in 1776 and whom at this time were under the direct command of his second in command at Fort Moultrie, Francis Marion. Marion’s other role at Bacon's Bridge was to form the local militia from the surrounding parishes and have them ready to defend Charlestown. This was no easy task because the locals were in fear of the British burning their homes while they were away.
Once General Lincoln, who was in total command of the defenses of Charlestown realized the British planned to cross at Stono Ferry he began to pull all his available forces to Charlestown proper  and General Moultrie’s position on the Ashley River was abandoned as his forces reported to Charlestown.  
This did not end the importance of this site since Marion would returned under the command of General Lincoln as a General in the South Carolina Militia and with a well earned nickname “The Swamp Fox”. Marion would come back to the site several times to check possible British advances or passing through to other areas of operations.
Today the spot where the fortification was located has been located and is now in the process of being protected for future generations so they won’t forget Moultrie’s lost fort as previous generations have.