Colonial, Revolutionary & 1812 Wars

South Carolina & Southern Campaign of the Revolution National Heritage Corridors

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These are two obscure heritage areas in the Carolinas, but none of the state or national park employees I spoke with had heard of either. While the South Carolina NHC has historic sites, plantations and gardens, the parks included—like Pinckney, Sumter, and Overmountain Victory—are unrelated. And while the Revolution NHC includes Moores Creek, it excludes many other important battles in the Carolinas and neighboring states. Don’t waste time following these confusing corridors, but instead start with an overview at historic Camden.

Here’s the story of the Revolutionary Campaign in the southeast, focusing on national sites and affiliates. Virginians Henry, Jefferson and Washington led their colony into rebellion, in concert with the north. Virginia colonial governor Lord Dunmore called in troops, organized loyalists and even formed a regiment of liberated slaves. Echoing Bunker Hill, Patriot militia fought well at Great Bridge in 1775, prompting Dunmore to order the shelling of Norfolk Virginia. Echoing Concord, the Patriots cut down a broadsword charge at Moores Creek North Carolina in 1776. And at the end of 1778, the Patriots took Savannah, followed up with a victory at Kettle Creek Georgia in early 1779.

But in May of 1779, the British sacked Portsmouth in Virginia, kicking off their southern campaign in earnest. In late 1779, the British returned to Savannah, capturing it after a siege. In early 1780, they took Charleston SC after another siege. Next, they turned their attention inland, hoping to sway more loyalists, keep their large southern colonies, and then take the fight back to the northeast. In 1780 the British fought over a dozen battles around Charleston and Camden (see Cornwallis’ HQ below) in South Carolina, consolidating their control over the colony.

But the British were ruthless in the south, revoking pardons, burning homes & farms, and imprisoning or hanging those who wouldn’t sign loyalty oaths. The most infamous example happened in May 1780 at Waxhaws—named after a local tribe—, when Banistre Tarleton massacred Patriots, inspiring further rebellion. Popular resentment against the tyrannical British grew, especially among the Scots-Irish settlers. After Gates lost his leadership position after failing at Camden, Nathaniel Greene began a much more effective guerrilla campaign in the back country.

The Patriots didn’t win all their battles, but many of the British victories were Pyrrhic, causing them to cede territory even after eking out technical victories. The back country belonged to the Patriots, especially when reinforcements crossed the Appalachian Mountains on the Overmountain Victory Trail. The Patriots won at Kings Mountain in late 1780, then again at Cowpens in January 1781.

Even though the British subsequently won at Petersburg VA, Ninety-Six in SC, and at Guilford Courthouse NC, clearly, they were not winning the broader campaign. Cornwallis brought his troops north to Virginia. After a close battle near Camden, the remainder of the British forces retreated for Charleston, with the last battle in the southeast fought at Eutaw Springs in September 1781. The denouement was set for Yorktown.

Eutaw Springs Battlefield

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This was one of the final battles for inland South Carolina, in September 1781. Nathaniel Greene’s Patriots were battle hardened and his forces included Francis Marion, Andrew Pickens, and William Washington. The British were equally disciplined veterans. What unfolded was a brutal battle between evenly matched sides that descended into hand-to-hand combat. Finally, the British line broke, and the Patriots entered their encampment.

While it seemed that the day was won, the British formed a defensible position between a stout brick house still marked by a garden gate and the Santee River, now Lake Marion behind the trees below. Stymied, Greene was forced to back off and wait. Both sides claimed victory—technically the British held the field at the end—, but clearly it was a strategic loss for the British, who lost more troops, were forced to withdraw to Charleston and never again advanced in the back country.

Historic Camden

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This privately managed affiliate site is one of the best revolutionary war sites in the Carolinas. On over 100 acres of battlefield and early townsite, they have reconstructed Cornwallis’ HQ, one of the redoubt forts (above), a historic tavern, and many other buildings that bring life to history. While separately managed, there’s also a visitor center next door that explains the whole course of the war in the Carolinas, which I will cover in a separate post next month.

Camden was on the Kings Road from Charleston across the low country into the back country. Here it joined with Native American trading routes and the Great Wagon Road from the northeast to Georgia. The British were determined to manage their colonies inland, and not just occupy coastal cities. They also wanted to control trade, tax the rich, hire Native Americans to fight for them, and raise militias of loyalists. Cornwallis fortified Camden as his supply hub.

General Gates, of Saratoga fame, was tasked with attacking Cornwallis. The Battle of Camden in August 1780 was a disaster for the Patriots. Gates put inexperienced troops on his left, who were wholly unprepared to meet the best British troops Cornwallis put on his right, as usual. The French General Baron de Kalb fought to his death at Camden. Gates withdrew to North Carolina. He was later replaced by Nathaniel Greene.

Many of the losses were due to diseases like dysentery, and there’s a detailed exhibit in Cornwallis’ HQ, where a docent answered my various questions. Captured prisoners from British victories in the area were often initially held in Camden and then marched to Charleston where they were imprisoned on ships in dangerously unsanitary conditions.

In 1781, Nathaniel Greene, having recruited Catawba warriors and run a cross country guerrilla campaign disrupting the British, returned to Hobkirk’s Hill near Cambden in April for a rematch. While the British won the day, they decided they could no longer defend Cambden and retreated to Charleston. Cornwallis had already moved north on his way to establish a new base at Yorktown.

All War of 1812 Parks

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Traditional historians have generally argued that the War of 1812 was about defending US maritime rights, especially of US citizens who were involuntarily ‘impressed’ into the British Navy. Jefferson had certainly left some trade issues with Britain, but such disputes rarely go to war. During the war, the northeastern states continued trading with Britain, and the treaty at the end of the war did not change the maritime rights status quo legally. Americans worked harder at getting compensation for slave owners whose slaves were freed by the British than for US citizens impressed into the British Navy. So that whole explanation for the war is obviously wrong.

More enlightened historians have argued that the War of 1812 was about expanding US territory at a time when the British were busy fighting Napoleon, as stated by the dominant party in Congress and President Madison, who called acquiring Canada “a collateral benefit”. During the war the US invaded Canada 10 times, took land in the southeast including in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, and took land in the then northwest including Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Most of the US territorial expansion around the time of the war was from Native American lands, regardless of whether they fought for the British or the Americans. So that whole ‘expansion’ explanation checks out.

If we think about the war at all, most Americans view the War of 1812-1815 as about nationalism, patriotism and rallying around our flag, perhaps because we did not achieve any of our objectives, failed to take Canada and had our national capital burned. Canadians tend to view the war more as a heroic defense against our ill-conceived and unpopular aggression, as after all, the Americans burned York—their capital of ‘Upper Canada’ in Ontario province—first. The truth is always more complicated, as you can see comparing the capital burnings. After the British general retreated from York, local militia started fires to prevent the Americans from seizing their supplies, and the resulting gunpowder magazine explosion killed the American general along with ~200 other casualties. The American troops, not under official orders, burned public buildings and businesses. When the British seized Washington DC, they burned most public buildings, including the White House, under orders. Which gives you a sense of the animosity at the time.

Fort McHenry, Fort Washington and the Star Spangled Banner trail focus on the dramatic events around DC and Baltimore, but there are other US park sites that tell more of the story. Along with failing to continue Washington’s peaceful tactics and trade agreements with Britain, the expansionist Jefferson hired Albert Gallatin to reduce the national debt, and Gallatin cut the military budget, leaving successor Madison the contradictory problems of war and a weak military. The US could not match the British Navy in the Atlantic, except for the USS Constitution: Old Ironsides. So the British blockaded the US ships along the eastern seaboard, except for smugglers in New England. So, technically port forts like Monroe and those guarding Mobile Bay had roles in this war, but their primary historical importance is based on events of other times.

The old Northwest Territories around the Great Lakes were long contested by the Americans, British, Native Americans, French and Spanish. River Raisin, near Detroit, is a good place to learn how we provoked the War of 1812 to take native lands. The Americans had two great naval victories during the war, first in 1813 on Lake Erie, where Perry broke the British inland fleet and cut off their supply lines to their western forts, and second in 1814 on Lake Champlain, where Macdonough thwarted a British invasion via the Hudson. The Americans made several incursions into Canada, but were unable to hold territory north of the Great Lakes and even lost their poorly manned Old Fort Niagara in New York, returned by treaty. The war encouraged the French and British in Canada to join together for common defense, eventually forming Canada in 1867. The military stalemate clearly defined the eastern border between Canada and the US, contributing to our long peaceful history since.

In the American southeast, the more consequential war was the simultaneous Creek War and related actions. At Horseshoe Bend Andrew Jackson used Cherokee and Creek allies to defeat other Creeks, even as his allies took lands from both sides. When Napoleon abdicated, the British no longer needed to kidnap American sailors to fill their fleet, and they were able to turn their full attention to their former colony. The American diplomats, led by John Q. Adams along with Gallatin and others, wisely negotiated a peace treaty. But before the news arrived stateside, Andrew Jackson took New Orleans, with the help of the French pirate Jean Lafitte in a story told here. Jackson leveraged his victory to win the White House and used office to enforce the Trail of Tears. He also invaded Florida in 1818, convincing the Spanish to sell the territory to us in 1819. While the Native Americans lost the most in the lead up, during the war and in its aftermath, many African Americans took the opportunity to escape to Canada along the Underground Railroad.

Often overshadowed by the Revolution and the Civil War, the War of 1812 offers many lessons of popular patriotism driving greedy expansionism, reckless militarism and brutally unfair racist policies, with costly, unforeseen consequences. Rather than simply look at flags or teach our kids one heroic story, we should think critically about history so we can make better decisions in the future.

Niagara Falls National Heritage Area

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About 15 scenic miles north of Niagara Falls on the US side of the Niagara River is Old Fort Niagara overlooking Lake Ontario. The fort is run by a non-profit licensed by New York State, and it preserves the 17th century stone building, ramparts, drawbridge, cannon and the various accoutrements of French, British and American soldiers who served there from before the Revolution till after the War of 1812. The British took the French fort in a siege in 1759, and then they took it again from the Americans in 1813, bayoneting around 6 dozen. Otherwise the fort changed hands by treaties. The visitor center, fort and grounds make a pleasant, educational diversion from the falls if you’re in the area.

But if you’re interested in forts and war history, I recommend crossing the Niagara River border and visiting Old Fort Erie in Canada. That British fort predates the US and was the site of the bloodiest battle of the War of 1812. Hotly contested for control of the area during that war, the Americans took the fort in 1813, relinquished it, took it again in 1814 and held it against a ferocious siege where each side had over 1000 casualties. While not part of the US Niagara Falls NHA, it is a highlight of Niagara Parks right over the bridge in Canada.

Adirondack Biosphere & Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership

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Much of upstate New York belongs to the Adirondacks, with old mountains, lakes, forests, wildlife and scenery. Two of the more famous tourist spots are the High Falls Gorge (above) and the Ausable Chasm (below), both on the Ausable River—from the French ‘au sable’ meaning ‘sandy’—which is fed from Lake Placid and flows down to Lake Champlain. Since they’re well developed old trails, walking along the secure walkways and overlooks costs about $20 each, but I think they’re still worth it, though neither is quite the scale I imagined for the ‘Grand Canyon of the East’.

Lake Champlain is part of the water route from New York City to Quebec, so several key battles were fought in the area, including at Saratoga and during the War of 1812. The British were winning in 1814, having sacked DC, but Thomas Macdonough won the Battle of Lake Champlain aboard his ship, the USS Saratoga, thwarting a British invasion down the Hudson in 1814.

This National Heritage Area preserves both history and beautiful nature, including Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller in Vermont. The Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere is also recognized by UNESCO for its forests, wetlands and mountains in both upstate NY and about 1/2 of Vermont. Unfortunately, the Trump administration ended the only other UNESCO Biosphere in the North Atlantic Region at New Hampshire’s Hubbard Brook hardwood forest research. Still, there are many other fascinating places to visit in this diverse heritage area, such as the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton New York on the St Lawrence River, as well as the scenic homelands of the Algonquin and Iroquois people near the Canadian border.

Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site

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The much disputed western frontier was once here in Ohio, where the British Fort Miamis guarded the crossing point and last navigable stretch of the Maumee River to Lake Erie, backed by their confederation of Native American allies. George Washington sent General Wayne (above center) here after his previous general had been defeated. In 1794, Wayne’s troops met over 1,000 native warriors in battle, and prevailed, resulting in much native land being ceded to the US.

In 1811, Indiana Governor William Henry Harrison provoked the natives into fighting again. When the War of 1812 broke out, the British reforged their native alliances and used their naval power to reoccupy Fort Miamis. Now General Harrison—later the 9th President—built a new fort on the other side of the Maumee River and held it against attack. The fighting then moved north, where Harrison’s troops killed the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and defeated the British on the Canadian side of Lake Erie, ending both the British occupation and native land ownership in most of the northwest.

The site is affiliated with the NPS and managed by Toledo. Due to an early mistaken account of where the battle occurred, the statue above is neither on nor facing the battlefield, which is behind them over a bike bridge in the woods. There are plenty of bike trails connecting different riverside parks, and there’s an Audubon island with heron in the middle of the river. The earthworks of Fort Miamis are still clearly visible overlooking the Maumee. History and nature await us.

Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial

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Captain James Lawrence was shot by the crew of a British ship blockading Boston in June of 1813. Dying, his last command was “don’t give up the ship”, but his ship was captured. Three months later, his friend Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry commanded the USS Lawrence under the flag “DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP” against the British for control of Lake Erie and access to the western Great Lakes. Despite balky support from the USS Niagara, Perry sailed up close under long range fire to bring his short range big guns to bear. The Lawrence suffered 80% casualties, was disabled, and Perry withdrew, taking command of the Niagara. He returned to the middle of the battle, pummeled the British ships and won the day. His fleet then ferried US troops across Lake Erie, where they forced a British retreat. US negotiators leaned heavily on these victories when negotiating peace, making Perry’s victory here perhaps the most consequential of the War of 1812 and for determining the US border with Canada today.

One of Perry’s younger brothers, Matthew, commanded the ‘Black Ships’ that sailed into Tokyo Bay and forced the internationally isolated Japanese Shogunate to open its country to the West in 1854. There are several ferry options for visiting the touristy island town of Put-In-Bay, and Perry’s monumental tower—the world’s largest Doric column—has great views of the surrounding islands, part of the longest undefended international border in the world, and the naval battlefield. Three British and three US officers are interred in the memorial, and the regular sailors killed were sewn up in their hammocks and committed to Lake Erie. Please take some time this Memorial Day weekend to remember those who gave their lives for our country.

Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail

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Although his namesake bridge collapsed in Baltimore, Francis Scott Key is best remembered for capturing the spirit of renewed patriotism that grew out of the War or 1812, as he penned his description of the defense of Fort McHenry (above) that became our National Anthem. The War of 1812 was a national low point in many ways, as Congress had ended Alexander Hamilton’s National Bank, and Albert Gallatin’s budget cuts had eviscerated the military. The trail traces the British advances on land and sea, leading up to the siege of Baltimore. Many of the DC area sites are part of this trail, including Fort Washington, Greenbelt Park, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, the National Mall, Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House, the George Washington Parkway, and the Potomac Heritage Trail, but there are lesser known battlefields, forts, museums, plantations, gardens, parks, the Pride of Baltimore II, the house of Mary Pickersgill, who made the flag, and more throughout Maryland.

Dolley Madison may have been our greatest First Lady—especially compared to the feckless Congress and Cabinet, often only barely loyal to the US and open to surrender—, but Dolley did everything she could to support her husband and her country. She invented the Inaugural Ball, hosted Native American Chiefs, smoothed quarrels between European and African envoys, and, in our hour of need, stood fast in the White House, even as the marauding British Troops approached in 1814 and as her husband tried to rally the local militia to defend the Capitol. At the last possible moment, she evacuated, with the President’s papers, the curtains, china, an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, and a famous portrait of George Washington, torn from its immovable frame. The British burned the White House to the ground. Dolley’s famous diplomacy helped convince Congress not to abandon Washington DC and to rebuild the White House and the Capitol. And through the news reports of her defense of our country, the nation rallied, shocked that the British would burn down DC’s public buildings.

However, in the war’s aftermath came a new sense of national identity, including our national flag and national anthem, setting the foundation for a more aggressive and stronger nation. That nationalism was fatal to many Native Americans, as the British had tried to enlist them and as the USA became more assertive and expansionist. And today, there are self-proclaimed ‘nationalists’ who support the second attack on the Capitol.

Governors Island National Monument

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Three different forts on this New York City island, part of harbor defenses including the star fort base of the Statue of Liberty (above left), were built just before the war of 1812, so the British didn’t invade the city again. Great.

But the amazing part is the rest of the island, which is both extremely close to and completely different from the city. The view above from a replanted woody hill extends around the whole harbor. While many military buildings are still empty waiting for renovations and more ideas, most public spaces are wonderful. There are hammocks, Adirondack chairs, picnic tables, grills, bike rentals, a day spa with pools facing the skyline, an excellent Neapolitan pizza place, a cafe, a patio bar, an oyster bar, and a taco truck with unimpeded views of the Brooklyn Bridge. And there are lots of birds! And an oyster shell recycling operation that builds new oyster beds, and a solar powered plastic recycling 3D printing enterprise. And there’s space and art and no crowds and the ferry only costs $4. Perfect side trip while passing through Manhattan!