Siege of Fort Motte

During the American Revolutionary War, forces loyal to the Patriot cause laid siege to a British-held outpost known as Fort Motte, a plantation house that had been converted into a fortified depot because of its position where the Congaree and Wateree rivers meet. General Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion and Lieutenant Colonel "Light Horse" Harry Lee commanded the effort to seize this post from the British, who held it with about 175 troops under Lieutenant Daniel McPherson.

Word reached Marion and Lee that Lord Rawdon was pulling back toward Fort Motte following his engagement at Hobkirk's Hill, so the two officers hoped to take the position before he could arrive there. Their troops surrounded the fort on May 8. Two days after that, Marion demanded that the British yield the garrison, but McPherson turned down the request. On the following day, Lee approached Mrs. Motte and warned her that he planned to burn her home in order to drive the defenders out.

By May 12, 1781, American troops had dug in close enough to the house that they could send flaming arrows onto its roof. Mrs. Motte, herself sympathetic to the Patriot side, agreed to Lee's proposal and even supplied arrows of her own for the task. Flames soon engulfed the mansion, and combined with the pressure of Marion's artillery bombardment, the situation grew untenable for the defenders. McPherson surrendered his garrison to the Patriot forces by one o'clock that same afternoon.

Background

In the wake of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, Britain's southern strategy for subduing the rebellious colonies seemed, on the surface, to be bearing fruit. General Lord Cornwallis had bested General Nathanael Greene on that field, yet his troops were low on supplies and had taken heavy losses in the process. This pushed him toward Wilmington, North Carolina, where he hoped to restock and rebuild his forces. Greene, though he had yielded the ground, kept his army whole and functioning. For a while he trailed Cornwallis's movements, but he eventually pivoted southward, setting out on a campaign meant to wrest South Carolina and Georgia back under Patriot influence. British and Loyalist strength in that region was stretched thin, leaving many small garrisons exposed to strikes from Greene's larger units or from the militia leaders operating in the area.

Greene's first move was to instruct Colonel Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee to keep tracking Cornwallis, providing cover for his own march southward. Once he had crossed into South Carolina, however, he directed Lee to break off from Cornwallis and instead unite with militia Colonel Francis Marion in the state's eastern reaches. The two commanders came together on April 14, setting their sights first on Fort Watson, a modest stockade on the Santee River's eastern bank, which surrendered after a brief siege. They then pursued John Watson, the post's regular commander, who had marched out with a detachment hunting for Marion but found himself thrown onto the defensive once Lee arrived on the scene.

With that objective secured, Lee and Marion turned their attention to Fort Motte, a vital British depot for supplies and communications situated near where the Congaree and Wateree Rivers meet. The British had seized Mount Joseph Plantation for this purpose, a property belonging to Miles Brewton but at the time home to his widowed sister, Rebecca Brewton Motte, and her children, all of whom had fled Charleston. Around the main house, British forces had raised palisades, ramparts, trenches, and abatis for defense. Manning this position was a garrison of about 175 men, a mix of British regulars, Hessians, and Provincial troops, under the command of Lieutenant Daniel McPherson.

Siege

On May 8, Lee and Marion reached the position and quickly closed off the fort from every side. The stronghold centered on the Motte family's two-story dwelling, held by roughly 140 British and Hessian regulars serving under McPherson. Once the Americans drew near, McPherson's men forced Rebecca Motte out of her own home, sending her to live in the overseer's house just beyond the fort's boundaries.

Because Watson and Rawdon commanded forces still capable of marching to the garrison's aid, speed became essential for Marion and Lee in ending the standoff. They had previously built a tower at Fort Watson to allow gunfire down into the enemy position, but the terrain and circumstances here made that same method impractical. Someone then proposed burning the structures inside the fort's defenses instead. Rebecca Motte, who seemed to favor the American cause, herself supplied the arrows used to set the roof ablaze on May 12. British and Hessian defenders attempting to reach the rooftop and douse the flames found themselves under fire from a six-pound cannon, forcing them back down. Not long afterward the garrison capitulated, and American troops rushed to extinguish the blaze before it could consume the entire residence.

Aftermath

After the surrender, the men who had defended the post were paroled and sent back toward Charleston. Before their departure, Mrs. Motte hosted a shared meal that brought together officers from both the American and British sides. From there, General Marion moved on toward the port of Georgetown, only to discover that its British defenders had already pulled out. Meanwhile, Greene directed Lee elsewhere, ordering him to lend his efforts to the effort of taking back Augusta, Georgia.