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Not Civil war but still interesting.
The following was in the Lancaster News today. There were dozens of Rev War Battles within 70 miles of Lancaster and many within 25 miles such as the battle of Camden, Hanging Rock, Fishing Creek and the Buford Massacre. My ggg uncle raised funds for the Buford Massacre Monument in 1860 while he was Clerk of Court. I live within 3 miles of the Waxhaw Church Cemetery were many of the victims were buried. I remember picking up a 36 cal ball over one of those graves (I had permission from the Pastor of the Church) who was a victim of the battle.
Claude Sinclair
From the Lancaster News:
Don’t be fooled.
The plastic yellow pin flags in a cow pasture across the road from the Buford Battleground don’t indicate the route of underground utilities leading to the Dollar General store now under construction on Pageland Highway.
Photos and story by Gregory A. Summers
gsummers@thelancasternews.com
Those markers don’t have anything to do with intersection improvements, either.
Those small flags have everything to do with the three historical markers that are directly across Rocky River Road (S.C. 522).
Archaeologists have found the actual battlefield of the Buford Massacre.
“The most remarkable thing of all is that we have found an undisturbed battlefield that is totally intact,” said archaeologist Scott Butler of Brockington and Associates of Atlanta. “I don’t think you know how unusual a find like this is.”
Butler should know. He is an expert when it comes to the archaeology of forts, battlefields, military encampments and the tactics, equipment and weapons that were used at these sites.
A metal detector survey at the site by the S.C. Department of Transportation uncovered musket and rifle balls, part of a British musket and other items in a privately owned pasture directly across the road from the Buford Battleground Park and monuments.
The metal detector survey was completed as the first part of a plan to make upgrades to the Buford Crossroads intersection. The upgrades have been in the works for several years.
The monument property is owned by Lancaster County.
For years, many have speculated that the battle took place in a pasture due west of the monuments, but based on what’s been found, that’s not the case.
“They’ve definitely got something,” said David Reuwer of the American Revolution Association.
“If you want the big deal, this is certainly it. All this stuff coming out of the ground in the last three weeks is pretty exciting,” Reuwer said.
SCDOT archaeologist Wayne Roberts said based on the most recent findings, the intersection plan has been modified so the battleground won’t be adversely affected.
The site is listed on the National Register for Historic Places.
DOT officials, along with the staff from the state’s Environmental Management Office and representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, were at the site Thursday. A media tour was held at the site late Saturday to show off some of the artifacts.
Roberts, who has more than 35 years of experience, calls this one of the top finds in his career.
“It’s definitely in the top five,” Roberts said. “So many of these battlefields have been plundered and apparently, this one has not.
This should go a long way in helping reconstruct some of the activities that took place there. You can tell this site has been protected to some extent.”
The battle
What took place there, on May 29, 1780, has become a mixture of history and mystery.
After traveling more than 100 miles in 54 hours, British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s Green Dragoons caught up with American Col. Abraham Buford’s Virginia Regiment in eastern Lancaster County.
Buford’s troops were headed to Charles Town (Charleston) to reinforce colonials when they got word the city had fallen. They turned around and started back north.
Tarleton’s cavalry caught up with Buford’s troops on the Camden-Salisbury Highway (U.S. 522) near where the Buford battle monuments are today.
Butler said the metal detector survey has found Ground Zero, where Buford’s troops formed in a vain effort to quell Tarleton’s attacking cavalry.
“We have found an almost straight line of artifacts,” Butler said. “Based on the positioning, I’d say the line was about 10 paces from the cavalry when the shooting started.”
The fighting was bloody and confused, but records show 113 Americans were killed, 150 were wounded and 53 were captured. Only five British soldiers were killed and 12 wounded.
According to American Revolution archives, an American officer who saw the injured said the wounded soldiers who fought there had an average of 16 wounds each.
Roberts said traditional archaeological approaches don’t work on battlefields. Since it wasn’t an occupation site, Roberts said, you don’t dig down looking for signs of a home.
“Right now, they’ve just been recovering things,” Roberts said. “They’re going to have to clean, analyze, identify and then plot all these things using GPS (Global Positioning System).”
Roberts said what you find isn’t as critical as where you find it.
“Human behavior is not random,” Roberts said. “It’s very patterned and archaeology seeks out those patterns. Artifacts can tell us there was a battlefield, but those locations can help us reconstruct what happened.”
Roberts said finding both small-caliber rifle balls and musket balls at the site is significant. He said rifle balls – used by volunteer militia troops instead of soldiers – are proof that a Patriot unit was involved in the battle. That finding, he said, was unexpected.
“That aspect had sort of gotten overlooked in the traditional telling of the story,” Roberts said.
Reuwer said he hopes the archaeological find will back up the historical and anecdotal accounts of the Battle of the Waxhaws.
“When you put the three together, the story begins to come alive,” Reuwer said. “That’s not to say that anyone has a good handle on the interpretation of what that means, at least, not yet.”
Reuwer said Tarleton’s own account mentions sweeping in from the south and moving to the right of the road.
“We’ve always thought to look across the road because of Tarleton’s report,” Reuwer said. “We don’t know where the road is. We know where it is in 1900 and in 2010, but as historians, we never assume to know where the road is.”
After the battle, the wounded were loaded into wagons and taken to Waxhaw Presbyterian Church on Riverside Road. Among the nurses tending the soldiers was Elizabeth Jackson and her son, 13-year-old Andrew Jackson, who grew up to become the nation’s seventh president.
Tarleton’s exploits at the Battle of the Waxhaws earned him the nickname “Bloody Ban.” He gloried in the massacre, writing British Commander Lord Cornwallis, saying, “I have cut 170 officers and men to pieces.”
However, the massacre became the turning point in the American Revolution, energizing fence-riding settlers and many Loyalists to the point that the phrase “Remember Tarleton’s Quarter” became a battle cry in the Carolina Backcountry.
“What happened right here that day was the turning point in the American Revolution,” Butler said. “It made us who we are.”
The following was in the Lancaster News today. There were dozens of Rev War Battles within 70 miles of Lancaster and many within 25 miles such as the battle of Camden, Hanging Rock, Fishing Creek and the Buford Massacre. My ggg uncle raised funds for the Buford Massacre Monument in 1860 while he was Clerk of Court. I live within 3 miles of the Waxhaw Church Cemetery were many of the victims were buried. I remember picking up a 36 cal ball over one of those graves (I had permission from the Pastor of the Church) who was a victim of the battle.
Claude Sinclair
From the Lancaster News:
Don’t be fooled.
The plastic yellow pin flags in a cow pasture across the road from the Buford Battleground don’t indicate the route of underground utilities leading to the Dollar General store now under construction on Pageland Highway.
Photos and story by Gregory A. Summers
gsummers@thelancasternews.com
Those markers don’t have anything to do with intersection improvements, either.
Those small flags have everything to do with the three historical markers that are directly across Rocky River Road (S.C. 522).
Archaeologists have found the actual battlefield of the Buford Massacre.
“The most remarkable thing of all is that we have found an undisturbed battlefield that is totally intact,” said archaeologist Scott Butler of Brockington and Associates of Atlanta. “I don’t think you know how unusual a find like this is.”
Butler should know. He is an expert when it comes to the archaeology of forts, battlefields, military encampments and the tactics, equipment and weapons that were used at these sites.
A metal detector survey at the site by the S.C. Department of Transportation uncovered musket and rifle balls, part of a British musket and other items in a privately owned pasture directly across the road from the Buford Battleground Park and monuments.
The metal detector survey was completed as the first part of a plan to make upgrades to the Buford Crossroads intersection. The upgrades have been in the works for several years.
The monument property is owned by Lancaster County.
For years, many have speculated that the battle took place in a pasture due west of the monuments, but based on what’s been found, that’s not the case.
“They’ve definitely got something,” said David Reuwer of the American Revolution Association.
“If you want the big deal, this is certainly it. All this stuff coming out of the ground in the last three weeks is pretty exciting,” Reuwer said.
SCDOT archaeologist Wayne Roberts said based on the most recent findings, the intersection plan has been modified so the battleground won’t be adversely affected.
The site is listed on the National Register for Historic Places.
DOT officials, along with the staff from the state’s Environmental Management Office and representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, were at the site Thursday. A media tour was held at the site late Saturday to show off some of the artifacts.
Roberts, who has more than 35 years of experience, calls this one of the top finds in his career.
“It’s definitely in the top five,” Roberts said. “So many of these battlefields have been plundered and apparently, this one has not.
This should go a long way in helping reconstruct some of the activities that took place there. You can tell this site has been protected to some extent.”
The battle
What took place there, on May 29, 1780, has become a mixture of history and mystery.
After traveling more than 100 miles in 54 hours, British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s Green Dragoons caught up with American Col. Abraham Buford’s Virginia Regiment in eastern Lancaster County.
Buford’s troops were headed to Charles Town (Charleston) to reinforce colonials when they got word the city had fallen. They turned around and started back north.
Tarleton’s cavalry caught up with Buford’s troops on the Camden-Salisbury Highway (U.S. 522) near where the Buford battle monuments are today.
Butler said the metal detector survey has found Ground Zero, where Buford’s troops formed in a vain effort to quell Tarleton’s attacking cavalry.
“We have found an almost straight line of artifacts,” Butler said. “Based on the positioning, I’d say the line was about 10 paces from the cavalry when the shooting started.”
The fighting was bloody and confused, but records show 113 Americans were killed, 150 were wounded and 53 were captured. Only five British soldiers were killed and 12 wounded.
According to American Revolution archives, an American officer who saw the injured said the wounded soldiers who fought there had an average of 16 wounds each.
Roberts said traditional archaeological approaches don’t work on battlefields. Since it wasn’t an occupation site, Roberts said, you don’t dig down looking for signs of a home.
“Right now, they’ve just been recovering things,” Roberts said. “They’re going to have to clean, analyze, identify and then plot all these things using GPS (Global Positioning System).”
Roberts said what you find isn’t as critical as where you find it.
“Human behavior is not random,” Roberts said. “It’s very patterned and archaeology seeks out those patterns. Artifacts can tell us there was a battlefield, but those locations can help us reconstruct what happened.”
Roberts said finding both small-caliber rifle balls and musket balls at the site is significant. He said rifle balls – used by volunteer militia troops instead of soldiers – are proof that a Patriot unit was involved in the battle. That finding, he said, was unexpected.
“That aspect had sort of gotten overlooked in the traditional telling of the story,” Roberts said.
Reuwer said he hopes the archaeological find will back up the historical and anecdotal accounts of the Battle of the Waxhaws.
“When you put the three together, the story begins to come alive,” Reuwer said. “That’s not to say that anyone has a good handle on the interpretation of what that means, at least, not yet.”
Reuwer said Tarleton’s own account mentions sweeping in from the south and moving to the right of the road.
“We’ve always thought to look across the road because of Tarleton’s report,” Reuwer said. “We don’t know where the road is. We know where it is in 1900 and in 2010, but as historians, we never assume to know where the road is.”
After the battle, the wounded were loaded into wagons and taken to Waxhaw Presbyterian Church on Riverside Road. Among the nurses tending the soldiers was Elizabeth Jackson and her son, 13-year-old Andrew Jackson, who grew up to become the nation’s seventh president.
Tarleton’s exploits at the Battle of the Waxhaws earned him the nickname “Bloody Ban.” He gloried in the massacre, writing British Commander Lord Cornwallis, saying, “I have cut 170 officers and men to pieces.”
However, the massacre became the turning point in the American Revolution, energizing fence-riding settlers and many Loyalists to the point that the phrase “Remember Tarleton’s Quarter” became a battle cry in the Carolina Backcountry.
“What happened right here that day was the turning point in the American Revolution,” Butler said. “It made us who we are.”
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