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1782 Tar Bluff Battlefield Located

Discussion in 'Military History' started by GRW, Aug 23, 2020.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Site of another two battles in the Civil War, apparently.
    "Archaeologists Locate the South Carolina Battlefield Where Patriot John Laurens Died

    The Revolutionary War officer was notoriously reckless and fought alongside George Washington and Marquis de Lafayette
    Today, the land is part of a private quail hunting preserve, so the archaeologists are surveying the site on a deadline—hunting season starts on November 23. The team found the spot where the Battle of Tar Bluff was fought by combining historical evidence like a hand-drawn map with modern technology like LIDAR and metal detectors. The site on the bank of the Combahee River was dotted with artifacts that allowed the archaeologists to retrace the battle, and find within ten yards where Laurens met his end. Now that the site has been discovered, the Trust can include it in the South Carolina Liberty Trail, a driving route that calls attention to sites in the state where battles and skirmishes of the American Revolution took place...
    Laurens was born in 1754 to a family made wealthy by the slave trade. He was educated in Switzerland and England before returning to America in 1777 and joining George Washington's "military family" as the general's aid-de-camp. There, he befriended Marquis de Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton...
    Laurens wasn’t supposed to be stationed at Tar Bluff. He was bedridden, possibly sick with malaria, when he received word of the upcoming skirmish. It was more than ten months after the Battle of Yorktown, and British troops were evacuating Charleston. But on their way out of town, they raided local rice fields and plantations. A contingent of the Continental Army led by Brigadier General Mordecai Gist planned to intercept them at a ferry crossing.
    “All during his military career, [Laurens] has shown reckless bravery,” archaeologist Mike Yianopoulos, who led the work at the Tar Bluff battlefield, tells the Post and Courier. “He loves the idea of fighting for the Patriot cause; he was not going to turn this opportunity down. So he leaves his sickbed to fight with Gist.”
    Gist sent Laurens and 50 men to secure the Combahee River 12 miles below the ferry. But while Laurens’ troops set up their howitzer artillery, a large-caliber cannon with a short barrel built to fire clusters of grapeshot, the British spotted them, according to a SCBPT statement. The British troops set up an ambush overnight. In the morning, Laurens and another soldier tried to set up the howitzer, but the British struck first. Laurens was killed and the howitzer captured."
    www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-locate-south-carolina-battlefield-where-patriot-john-laurens-died-180975626/?fbclid=IwAR1w1lt2ZmX8no5CsRrtj-92e_6wXXrwWTydZoYXgGaDykyna-qqsl-jI9w
     

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