In March 1781, Lord Francis Hastings Rawdon, the British commanding officer in Charleston, designed a two-pronged assault against the forces of General Francis Marion. From Camden, Col. Welbore Ellis Doyle and the Volunteers of Ireland moved east and south to destroy Marion’s camp at Snow’s Island, while from Fort Watson, Col. John Watson and a combined British and Loyalist force moved along the Santee River towards Marion’s main force near Nelson’s Ferry. The series of engagements that followed between Watson and Marion is known as Watson’s Chase or the Bridges Campaign.Marion and Watson first clashed on March 6 on the quarter-mile-long causeway over Wyboo Swamp (today submerged under the waters of Lake Marion), where Marion had set up an ambush. The opposing cavalry fought several times on the causeway, and Marion’s men were initially able to hold back Watson’s advance.
When two British cannons arrived, however, Marion ordered a retreat down River Road (now Patriot Road, behind you) to John Cantey’s plantation.
After the battle at Wyboo Swamp, Patriot sympathizers in the area told and retold the story of Gavin James.
A
private in Marion’s Bridage, James faced down enemy
soldiers advancing across the causeway with only his
musket, felling one with a shot and two more with his
bayonet.
(Education • Patriots & Patriotism • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
