Despite British successes in South Carolina for much of 1780, there were troubling signs ahead for the Redcoats and their Tory allies. Partisan leaders under the leadership of Thomas Sumter, Francis Marion, Andrew Pickens, and others were striking supply lines and, in some cases, beating the enemy in stand- up battles and skirmishes. The conflict was turning into a civil war with neighbor against neighbor - looting, house burnings and hangings were all too common.

The year ended on an up note with the great Patriot victory at Kings Mountain in October. And in December 1780, Washington sent his favorite general, Nathanael Greene, to take over the Southern Campaign. Greene had a tough job, not only in having to fight the British and the Tories, but also keeping a hard- bitten band of Partisan fighters - used to doing their own thing and reluctant to take orders - under his control. But Greene had the personality, temperament, military skills, and patience to prevail.

The real turning point of the War in the South was in January of 1781 at Cowpens in upstate South Carolina. Later that spring and summer there was much activity in and around the COWASEE Basin. In April, Francis Marion and his men took the British outpost, Fort Watson, on the east side of the Santee River where the Santee National Wildlife Refuge is now located. Marion then retired for a brief respite to the High Hills of the Santee at Capt. William Richardson's Bloom Hill Plantation, near the present day Manchester State Forest.

Mrs. Rebecca Motte provides bow and arrows to the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, which will be used to burn the British out of her plantation house on the south bank of the Congaree River. In May 1781, Marion and Continental officer Lt Col. Henry "Light- horse Harry" Lee of Virginia, George Washington's favorite cavalry officer, lay siege to another British outpost at Fort Motte on the south side of Congaree River.

The Battle of Fort Motte could have been scripted by Hollywood. I can still remember my 8th grade history teacher at Crayton School, Mrs. Fortson, describing how Rebecca Motte, owner of the plantation home the Brits had turned into a fort, gave permission to Francis Marion to burn the Redcoats out by shooting flaming arrows onto the wooden- shingled roof. The roof caught fire, the Brits surrendered, both sides helped put the fire out, and Mrs. Motte entertained British and American officers for supper. But the chivalry was short- lived because later that night some of Lee's men began hanging Tory prisoners. Francis Marion, the tough guerrilla fighter, could not abide cruelty and injustice, and threatened bodily harm to the next man that laid a hand on a prisoner. The hangings stopped.

This is the approximate location of McCord's Ferry on what used to be the Congaree River but is now an oxbow lake called Bates Old River near US Highway 601. The ferry was important to both sides during the Revolution and used by such notables as Nathanael Greene, Francis Marion, Light- horse Harry Lee, and Thomas Sumter. Shortly after Fort Motte, General Greene and Francis Marion met for the first time. Greene had camped the night before on the north side of McCord's Ferry (near where US 601 crosses the Congaree River), crossed McCord's Ferry the next day, and met with both Marion and Lee. Lee was dispatched immediately to take Fort Granby on the west side of the Congaree a little below present day Columbia. Greene by now had great admiration for the exploits of the Swamp Fox, who was dispatched down the Santee River.

During the hot summer of 1781, Greene took his army back into the High Hills of the Santee in the heart of the COWASEE Basin where he and his men had a month of R&R, probably at Bloom Hill Plantation. His opponent, Col. Stewart, was camped opposite him in the High Hills on the south side of the Congaree in present- day Calhoun County.

Greene broke camp in the High Hills and came after Stewart. He crossed the Congaree at Howell's Ferry, abandoned shortly after the Revolution and located a little north of the present- day Congaree National Park, and moved down the west side of the Congaree. But Stewart wasn't caught napping and headed southward toward Nelson's Ferry, thus setting the stage for Battle of Eutaw Springs in September, the last major battle of the Revolution in South Carolina.

After Eutaw Springs, General Greene moved his Army back into a camp of "repose in the cool and pleasant" High Hills of the Santee. In November he left the High Hills for the last time. Cornwallis had surrendered in October at Yorktown and although the Revolution that had turned into a civil war in South Carolina would continue for another year, the War of Independence had essentially been won.

(Next week: Commodore Gillon)