Dean Hunt, teacher at Crayton Middle School, points to Columbia from the site of Rebecca Motte’s home.
By Warner M. MontgomeryWarner@TheColumbiaStar.com
The Siege of Ft. Motte (May 8- 12, 1781) was a signal event in the American Revolution. On March 31, 2007, the characters, the sounds, and the sights of that battle between the Patriots of Gen. Francis Marion and the Redcoats of Lt. McPherson came alive thanks to the Congaree Trust and the Wannamakers of Calhoun County.
Luther Wannamaker, co- owner of the land on which the battle took place, explained to the 40 Revolutionary War buffs on hand that his grandfather bought the property soon after the DAR placed a monument to the battle at the site of Rebecca Motte’s home in 1905. His family has respectfully maintained the land ever since.
After a musket salute by Ashby Morton and a delightful lunch under the supervision of Doraine Wannamaker, author and storyteller Christine Swager took the podium. She gave a brief analysis of the events leading up to the Siege of Ft. Motte.
Jane Clarke of the Congaree Trust steps easily into the Devil’s Track.
Realizing they were losing the war, the British decided to reinforce their position in S.C. Cheraw, Camden, Ninety Six, Granby, and Ft. Watson were fortified. Directed by Gen. Nathaniel Greene, Gen. Francis Marion took Ft. Watson to cut off British supply lines from Charleston and prepared to move north.
The British under Lt. McPherson took possession of Rebecca Motte’s home on the bluff overlooking McCord’s Ferry on the Congaree River in January 1781. They dug trenches around the house and waited for the Swamp Fox.
Steven Smith, historian and archaeologist who recently completed an investigation of the battlefield, then explained the siege itself. When Marion arrived May 8, Rebecca was allowed to leave her home and go to the caretaker’s house on the next hill. On May 12, the British surrendered to Gen. Marion because the Patriots had set fire to their “fort,” Rebecca Motte’s home.
Luther Wannamaker stands at the archaeological dig that uncovered the British trench at Ft. Motte.
The historical question, according to Smith, is who lit Rebecca Motte’s house on fire? Was it
1. Scatter shot from Marion’s cannon?
2. Flaming arrows from Rebecca’s own collection of bows and arrows? or
3. Flaming arrows shot from Marion’s rifles?
The answer is still under discussion; however, the Patriot victory led to Cornwallis’s retreat from S.C. and his eventual surrender to George Washington at Yorktown.
The finale to the event was a story by Dick Banks, Calhoun County’s favorite historian. It seems just before the Revolution, a dark, courtly stranger stopped at the Lloyd home near Rebecca Motte’s. At dinner, John Lloyd began to utter extreme profanities. The stranger’s feet turned into hooves and began to smoke. Knowing her husband was being tempted by the Devil, Rachel Lloyd hurriedly read the Bible backwards.
The Devil fled the room, jumping to a rock on top of the hill, then springing across the swamp into oblivion. To prove the tale, Banks led the group to the hill and to the Devil’s footprint. Jane Clarke, director of the Congaree Trust, stepped comfortably into the Devil’s Track proving once and for all her own heritage.
A copy of Steven Smith’s Fort Motte History and Archaeology , is available for $15 from the S.C. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1321 Pendleton St., Columbia, SC 29208.
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