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November 18-21, 1775
The American Revolution Comes to the South
Six Years Before the Star Fort Siege There Was Williamson's Fort
You are standing at the site of the first southern land battle of the Revolutionary War. The men fighting here were all Americans. The Loyalists supported British rule; the Patriots wanted independence from the Crown.
The location of Ninety Six at the junction of several major routes between the interior backcountry and the coast made it a strategic post during the American Revolution. The battle here in 1775 was precipitated by Loyalists, who seized a shipment of gunpowder intended as a gift of friendship from the Provincial Congress to the Cherokee Indians. In response to this hostile act, Patriot Major Andrew Williamson mustered 500 troops at Ninety Six and prepared to meet the enemy. His men built a makeshift fort in this field. The simple square structure was made of fence rails, baled hay, and beef hides and enclosed a barn and outbuildings.
On November 19, 1775, Loyalist commanders Captain Patrick Cunningham and Major Joseph Robinson arrived with 2,000 men. Though greatly outnumbered, the Patriots in the fort would not surrender. Several days of fighting followed, leaving several wounded on both sides and one Patriot dead. James Birmingham was the first Patriot killed in the South in the American Revolution. A Loyalist officer, Captain Luper, also died. Days later a truce was arranged.
The fort you see now is not an original structure but a partial reconstruction of the 1781 Stockade Fort. |