Siege of Savage's Old Fields

In the back country settlement of Ninety Six, South Carolina, Patriot and Loyalist fighters clashed during what became known as the siege of Savage's Old Fields, sometimes called the first siege of Ninety Six, from November 19 to 21, 1775. This clash marked South Carolina's first significant confrontation of the American Revolutionary War, coming after a series of bloodless takeovers of military strongholds throughout the province.

Major Andrew Williamson led Patriot troops into the region on a mission to reclaim gunpowder and ammunition meant for the Cherokee, supplies that Loyalists had confiscated. More than 500 men under Williamson built a stockaded fort close to Ninety Six, only to find themselves encircled by roughly 1,900 Loyalist fighters.

Because the conflict was still in its opening months, the guerrilla-style fighting in the southern back country had not yet reached the ferocity it would later acquire. As a result, the standoff unfolded half-heartedly and produced little more than a deadlock. The Loyalists pulled back after two days of fighting, having lost four men killed and twenty wounded, while the Patriots suffered one killed and twelve wounded. Williamson's men then retreated eastward toward the coast. Not long afterward, however, a large-scale Patriot campaign resulted in the capture or flight of nearly all the Loyalist commanders.

Background

The outbreak of fighting in Massachusetts in April 1775 did not produce unified feeling among the free inhabitants of the Province of South Carolina. Along the English coast, opinion tended toward neutrality or support for the uprising, whereas a considerable portion of backcountry settlers, many of German and Scottish descent, stood against it. Thomas Fletchall emerged as the leading Loyalist voice in the interior, working openly and forcefully against Patriot efforts to defy King and Parliament. As August 1775 arrived, the province's internal divisions had grown so severe that both factions had assembled substantial militia forces.

For a time the conflict stayed mostly free of bloodshed, apart from scattered incidents involving tarring and feathering, yet the atmosphere remained tense as each side vied for control of weapons and gunpowder. Early that August, the Council of Safety dispatched William Henry Drayton along with Reverend William Tennent to Ninety Six with the goal of building Patriot backing and curbing the rise of Loyalist support in that region. By September, Drayton had succeeded in brokering a fragile truce with Fletchall.

Patriot militia forces captured Fort Johnson on September 15, the key stronghold guarding Charleston's harbor. In response, Governor William Campbell disbanded the provincial assembly and, worried for his own safety, took refuge aboard the Royal Navy sloop HMS Tamar. With his departure, control of the provincial capital fell to the Patriot Council of Safety. The council then set about strengthening and enlarging the defenses along Charleston's coast, a process that eventually led to an exchange of cannon fire between Patriot batteries and Royal Navy vessels in the harbor on November 11 and 12, though no casualties resulted.

Tensions rose further when Loyalists intercepted a shipment of gunpowder and ammunition in October that the Council of Safety had sent for delivery to the Cherokee. In answer, the council organized a major expedition aimed at reclaiming the seized supplies. On November 8, it voted to dispatch Colonel Richard Richardson, who commanded the Camden militia, both to recover the munitions and to apprehend the Loyalist leadership responsible.

Siege

While gathering troops, Major Andrew Williamson, already engaged in enlisting men from the back country, got word of the seized gunpowder. On November 19, in the early hours, he reached Ninety Six with a force of 560. The town itself struck him as poorly suited to defense, so instead he set up camp on the plantation belonging to John Savage, positioning it to give his three swivel guns a clear line of fire. Work soon began on strengthening the position, including construction of a makeshift stockade. On the Loyalist side, recruitment efforts had gone even better: Williamson discovered that Captain Patrick Cuningham and Major Joseph Robinson were marching toward Ninety Six at the head of a substantial Loyalist body, thought to total roughly 1,900 men. That same day, Patriot commanders met in council and chose not to advance and confront the approaching Loyalists. The following day the Loyalists reached the area and encircled the Patriot encampment.

As representatives from both sides sat down to negotiate a resolution, the standoff broke down when Loyalists captured two Patriot militiamen just outside the stockade walls. Gunfire erupted as a result, continuing for roughly two hours. When morning came, the opposing forces once again exchanged shots from a distance. The Loyalists then tried setting fires to generate cover of smoke, hoping to use it to draw nearer to the stockade unseen, but damp ground foiled the plan. They subsequently built an oversized wooden shield meant to allow them to bring incendiary devices closer to the fort under its protection. According to one source, this effort backfired when they ended up "[setting] Fire to their own Engine themselves," and the structure proved unable to withstand Patriot gunfire regardless.

By the afternoon of November 21, the Patriots convened another council and settled on launching a nighttime sortie. As they made preparations near sunset, a Loyalist emissary appeared carrying a flag requesting parley. The exchange produced no immediate resolution other than an agreement to reconvene the following morning. At that later meeting, the two sides struck a deal: the Loyalists would pull back across the Saluda River, while the Patriots would dismantle their fortification. Each side committed to releasing prisoners held since November 2 and to refrain from disrupting the other's communications with their respective political authorities. Additionally, the Patriot commanders had to hand over their swivel guns, though these were given back three days afterward. The truce further addressed the matter of reinforcements arriving for either side, conditions which the Council of Safety insisted did not extend to Colonel Richardson's troops.

Aftermath

No one can say for certain why the Loyalists agreed to the truce. Governor Campbell attributed it to a lack of effective leadership among their ranks, while historian Martin Cann suggests that Colonel Richardson's preparations, or perhaps his very approach, may have been the deciding factor. Richardson had put 2,500 men into the field, a number that swelled past 4,000 by late November. With this force he swept through the back country, seizing or scattering nearly all of the Loyalist leadership. Snow brought the campaign to a close on December 22, when 15 inches (38 cm) blanketed the region. Caught without adequate provision for such weather, Richardson's men faced a grueling march back down to the lowlands.

A number of Loyalist leaders managed to slip past Richardson's men, Thomas Brown chief among them, and made their way to West Florida, where they threw in with British regulars and irregulars alike. With this, large-scale Loyalist resistance in the southern Appalachians came to a close, even as the broader conflict, in many respects a civil war, only grew harsher in the years that followed. After the siege of Charleston in 1780, Ninety Six passed into British hands as an outpost, and the following year it came under siege from forces led by Nathanael Greene. Greene ultimately had to abandon that siege when a relief force drew near, but the British themselves gave up Ninety Six not long afterward.