Ninety Six National Historic Site

After we left Marietta, Georgia, on June 22nd, we headed into South Carolina. We were getting closer to our goal of getting to North Carolina to visit family.  Our first stop in South Carolina was Ninety Six National Historic Site.

I had no idea what Ninety Six was so I was curious to find out.  It was actually a Revolutionary War site and called The Siege of Ninety Six in 1781.  On May 12, 1780, American loyalists (to British interests) captured Charleston, America's 4th largest city and commercial capital of the south.  In the fall of that same year, American patriots turned the war against Cornwallis and the battles of King Mountain and Cowpens occurred (both places we visited last summer).  During 1781, the hamlet of Ninety Six was a political and economic center in the South Carolina back country and was garrisoned by 550 American loyalists and led by Col. John Cruger.  He used loyalist soldiers and slaves from nearby farms to reinforce the walls of the town's stockade and built an earthen fortification called Star Fort to fortify the town of Ninety Six.  Gen. Nathanael Greene and Col. Kosciuszko of the Continental Army with 1,000 regulars and few militia arrived at Ninety Six on May 21, 1781 and saw that Greene lacked heavy artillery and decided only a siege could take the fort.  Greene's men started to dig parallel trenches.  It was tough going with the heat, mosquitoes and cannon fire from the fort.  Three tunnels were built and were now in musket range of the loyalists.  During the night, Greene's men built a 30-foot log tower close to the fort, hoping to suppress loyalist cannon and musket fire from it's top but he also learned that 2,000 British Troops were marching to Cruger's aid.  He resolved to storm the post before he was trapped between the two forces.  Despite having more troops, Greene was unsuccessful in taking the town and was forced to life the siege when Lord Rawdon approached from Charleston with British troops and was forced to lift the siege to allow the town folk leave.  These people were relocated to Rawdon, Nova Scotia.

This is a clip from the NPS movie (Web Photo)
The Star Fort is in the center surrounded by pickets.
The trenches are outside the fort.

So, now that you know the history, let's tour the walking tour and finish up with the Visitor Center.  There are 9 stops on the tour around the Star Fort and trenches.

Stop 1 is Spring Branch.  This is the stream - back then free-flowing in 1781 and was the loyalists' source of water during the siege.  Today, it's dried up.

Stop 2 was the Island Ford Road.  From this location your are parallel to the original colonial road of the day.  So much travel on the road cut the road to today's width.

Stop 3 is where General Greene's Continental Army came along Island Ford Road. on May 21, 1781.

Stop 4 is the Loyalist Fortification where Col. Cruger was made the reinforcements by digging ditches and building and building Star Fort.  Slaves did much of the work.

Stop 5 is the Siege Trenches built by Col. Kosciuszko conducted siege operations by the manual with zig zag approaches.  From the 3rd trench, they also built a mine shaft with a tunnel to the fort planning to blast it open and charge into the fort, but the siege ended before they could do this.  They also built a rifle tower to shoot into the fort.

Stop 6 was the location of the attack with all the earth works.  50 Patriots died; 30 Loyalists died.  Greene halted the final attack.

Stop 7 is the Star Fort.  The earthen mounds are the remains of the fort today.  During the siege, the walls were 14 feet tall above the ditch.  There were communication trenches leading from the fort to the town of Ninety Six and the stockade fort.

Brochure Photo
A great angle of the earthworks and fort

Stop 8 is the town of Ninety Six.  It's thought that this town was named Ninety Six because it was 96 miles exactly from the Cherokee Village who came and traded with them.  Today, all that remains is a higher grassy area outlining the town.  A two-story brick jail was built here in 1772.  The town with dozen wooden houses, courthouse and jail were fortified against attacks by the British.  During the siege, many Loyalist families in the backcountry feld Greene's advance and took refuge in the town.  After the siege, Cruger decided Ninety Six was too far from Charlestown and too deep in hostile terriroty to be of any further value, so they burned the town to the ground in July 1781 and resettled the villagers in Rawdon, Nova Scotia.

As you head to Stop 9, you see the original Cherokee Trail to Ninety Six for trading along the Charleston Road.

Stop 9 is the Stockade Fort.  Loyalists built a stockade around James Holmes' home to guard the town's water supply.  On June 18th, Col. Henry Lee (father of Robert E. Lee) who was nicknamed "Light-horse Harry" captured the fort but held it only until Greene ended the attack.

By this Stockade Fort is a burial marker belonging to James Birmingham of the Long Cane Militia.  He is considered the first Patriot killed in the South during the Revolution.  Two attacks occurred in Ninety Six during the Revolutionary War.  The first was on Nov. 19-21, 1775 when Birmingham was killed - he was the only Patriot killed.  It's believed he lived on Penny's Creek of Long Cane Creek (present day Abbeville County).

And, also on this spot after the Revolutionary War, the government confiscated land that belonged to prominent Loyalist.  On this location was a new town called Cambridge was located with a College in 1787, but by the early 1800s the town was beginning to decline and by 1806 it was nothing more than a snug little village of 15-20 houses on a small hill (where the VC is now).  By 1850, it has disappeared altogether.  Why did it disappear?  Since, in 1800, the judicial seat was moved to Abbeville and the railroad was not on the Cambridge main line, the closest depot was 2 miles north.  The modern town of Ninety Six today was closer to this line and greater in size than in colonial times.  In 1856, the courthouse in Cambridge was razed, the post office closed in 1860 and Cambridge was extinct.  Only the Star Fort remained.

As you head back to the visitor center, the Logan Log House still stands from this time frame.  It's a two-story house dating to the late 1700's and build by Andrew Logan in what is now Greenwood, SC and later relocated to this site in 1968.  This structure is furnish like a tavern.  I took photos of the inside through the glass as the building isn't open to the public.

The Visitor Center was very nice.  It had a greeting area, small bookstore and one-room small exhibit where their weekly "story and activity time" for children was being done, so I just went in and quickly took photos of the artifacts - impressive as they were.

Now, a note on parking at the VC.  There is ample parking for big rigs and so don't hesitate to venture out to Ninety Six.  It's a tiny bit tight exiting, we I did it with our 40' and dually, so you should be fine.  It was a nice park with a nice 1 mile walk around the battlefield and through the beautiful forested area.  The park is small enough to thoroughly enjoy everything it has to offer and children of all ages could enjoy even the walk.