Revolutionary Camden

“Camden seems to have an evil genius about it. Whatever is attempted near that place is unfortunate.” These words were spoken by American Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene just days after his defeat at the battle of Hobkirk Hill. With the war at a stalemate in the north, the British had turned their attention to the southern provinces with renewed vigor, and in 1780, the frontier village of Camden, South Carolina, found itself at the bloody epicenter of the American Revolution.
This book is a history of Camden during the Revolutionary War, where it functioned as a keystone stronghold in the Crown’s plan to quell the rebellion in the Carolinas and Georgia.The scene of two major battles and more than a dozen lesser clashes, Camden represents a brutal yet fascinating chapter in the history of the American Revolution.

Derek Smith was a crime reporter in Savannah, Georgia, for almost ten years and has written extensively on the Civil War. He lives in Bishopville, South Carolina.

Derek Smith
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 300
Bibliographic Info: appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9616-4
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5379-2
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1
Notable Events and Dates in Camden’s Revolutionary War Timeline 5
Introduction 7
1. Camden’s Beginnings 11
2. “To win over the wavering” and the Gathering Storm 17
3. A Scarlet Hurricane Roars Ashore: 1780 32
4. “I have cut 170 Off’rs and Men to pieces” 37
5. “The Carolinas have been conquered” 48
6. “Our Army is like a dead whale upon the Sea Shore” 62
7. “I resolved … to attack the rebel army” 77
8. “The most tremendous firing I ever heard” 93
9. “A perfect scene of horror and confusion” 105
10. “The firmest troops in the field” 113
11. “A prisoner of war … with one of my legs quite broke by a musket ball” 119
12. “We made our retreat like lost sheep” 133
13. Dance of the Devils 145
14. “The late affair has almost broke my heart”: 1781 156
15. “To the plains of Zama” 166
16. “In the flush of victory and pursuit”: Hobkirk Hill 176
17. “Camden” Has “an evil genius about it” 190
18. “He conquers by magic” 200
19. The Leaders in the Postwar Period 213
20. “Loud and long were the cheers of the multitude” 224
21. Women “Reapers” of the Camden Region: 1780 231
22. African Americans at Camden and Beyond 233
23. DeKalb’s First Grave: “in the ‘custom of knighthood’” 236
24. DeKalb, Major Benjamin Nones and the “Hebrew Legion” 239
Appendix: Beyond the Battles: Camden Military Lore 243
Chapter Notes 249
Bibliography 273
Index 283