It has a handsome court-house and jail, and is regularly laid out. The old jail, which the British fortified while they occupied the place, was built of brick, in 1770, and stood upon the crown of the gentle hill, a few yards northwest of the old court-house (represented in the picture), which is yet standing. The court-house is a frame building, and was used for a blacksmith's shop when I was there. The two trees seen on the left are venerable Pride-of-Indias, choice shade-trees of the South. This edifice exhibited several bullet-marks, the effect of Sumter's assault in 1781. After sketching this—the only remaining relic of the Revolution at Orangeburg, except some vestiges of the works east up by Rawdon, half a mile westward, near the Edisto—I hired a horse and gig to visit Eutaw Springs, about forty miles distant, near the south bank of the Santee. It was with great difficulty that I could ascertain their probable distance from Orangeburg; and the person from whom I procured a conveyance supposed it to be twenty-five or thirty miles. His price was determined by the distance, and he was agreeably surprised, on my return, to learn that I had traveled eighty miles. Before departing on this journey, let us consider for a moment the Revolutionary events which distinguish Orangeburg.
Orangeburg was one of the chain of military posts established by the British after the fall of Charleston.May 1780 The jail was fortified and garrisoned by about seventy militia and a dozen regulars. Sumter, when marching to join Greene at Camden, according to orders, conceived a plan for capturing Fort Granby, and therefore did not re-enforce his general. He began the siege successfully, when, learning the fact that Raw-don had ordered the evacuation of Orangeburg, he left Colonel Taylor, with a strong party, to maintain the siege of Fort Granby, while he should strike the garrison at the former place, before it should retire. By a rapid march he reached Orangeburg on the morning of the eleventh of May,1780 and, after one or two volleys, the garrison surrendered themselves unconditional prisoners of war. Paroling his prisoners, Sumter hastened toward Fort Granby; but before his arrival, Lee had invested and reduced it, allowing, as we have seen (page 689), the most favorable terms. Sumter was incensed at the conduct of Lee, for he felt that he had not only snatched from him the laurels he had almost won, but that he had hastened the capitulation, and allowed favorable terms, in order to accomplish the surrender before Sumter could arrive. No doubt the garrison would have surrendered unconditionally, if besieged a day or two longer. Sumter sent an indignant letter of complaint to Greene, inclosing his commission. Greene, knowing his worth, returned it to him with many expressions of regard, and Sumter, sacrificing private resentment for the good of the cause, remained in the army.
On the day after Rawdon's arrival at Orangeburg, he was joined by Lieutenant-colonel Stewart, with the third regiment from Ireland, called the Bulls, whom Rawdon had ordered from Charleston. The retirement of Greene to the high hills of Santee, and the rendezvous there of the several corps of Marion, Sumter, and Lee, indicating a present cessation of hostilities, Lord Rawdon proceeded to Charleston, and embarked for Europe, for the purpose of recruiting his health. * The command of all the troops in the field now devolved
* While Rawdon was in Charleston preparing to sail for Europe, the execution of Colonel Hayne occurred. This foul stain upon the character of Rawdon and Colonel Balfour, the commandant at Charleston, we shall consider hereafter.
Movements of the two Armies toward Eutaw.—Journey thither.—Four-hole Swamp.—General Sumner.
upon Colonel Stuart. That officer soon left Orangeburg, and, moving forward, encamped upon the Congaree, near its junction with the Wateree. The two armies were only sixteen miles apart by air line, but two rivers rolled between, and they could not meet without making a circuit of seventy miles. Stuart's foraging parties soon spread over the country. Marion was detached toward the Combahee Ferry, and Washington went across the Wateree to disperse them. Many brisk skirmishes ensued. In the mean time, Greene was re-enforced by a brigade of Continental troops from North Carolina, under General Sumner. * Intent upon the recovery of South Carolina, he determined, with his augmented strength, to attack the enemy. He left the Santee Hills on the twenty-second of August,1781 with about twenty-six hundred men (only sixteen hundred of whom were fit for active service), crossed the Wateree at the Camden Ferry, and made rapid marches to Friday's Ferry, on the Congaree. There he was joined by General Pickens, with the militia of Ninety-Six, and a body of South Carolina state troops recently organized, under Colonel Henderson. On hearing of Greene's approach, Stuart decamped from Orangeburg, and pitched his tents at Eutaw Springs, forty miles below, vigorously pursued by the Americans. Thither let us proceed, where we shall meet the two armies in terrible conflict.
I left Orangeburg for Eutaw Springs at eleven o'clock.Jan. 26, 1849 The day was so warm that the shade of the pine forests was very refreshing. My horse was fleet, the gig light, the road level and generally fine, and at sunset I arrived at the house of Mr. winger (Vances's Ferry post-office), thirty miles distant. About fourteen miles from Orangeburg I crossed the Four-hole Swamp, ** upon a narrow causeway of logs and three bridges. The distance is about a mile, and a gloomier place can not well be imagined. On either side was a dense undergrowth of shrubs, closely interlaced with vines; and above, draped with moss, towered lofty cypresses and gums. At two o'clock I passed one of those primitive school-houses, built of logs (for portrait, see next page), which the traveler meets occasionally in the South. It stood in the edge of a wood, and in front was a fine Pride-of-India-Tree, under which the teacher sat listening to the efforts of half a dozen children in the science of orthography. The country is very sparsely populated, and many of the children, living four or five miles away from the school-house, are conveyed on horseback by the negro servants. I stopped a moment in conversation with the pedagogue, who was a Vermonter, one of those New England people described by Halleck as
"Wandering through the Southern countries, teaching
The ABC from Webster's Spelling-book;