Its most important accomplishment is proving to the locals, Tory and Whig alike, that the American army was strong enough to bring the war right up to the gates of Charleston.

02:12 PM EDT on Tuesday, July 18, 2006

BY GERALD M. CARBONE
Journal Staff Writer

In the summer of 1781, Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene gave most of his troops a cooling rest in the High Hills of the Santee -- but not all of them.

Greene detached Light-Horse Henry Lee's Legion and most of his other cavalry to rendezvous with 1,100 militiamen under the command of the partisan Gen. Thomas Sumter. Their mission -- now known as "The Dog Days Expedition" -- was to run the last of the Loyalists out of lowland swamps below Orangeburg into the garrisoned city of Charleston, S.C.

Greene believed Sumter could have done a better job of deploying his troops, but the Dog Days Expedition did succeed in capturing a couple of small British posts, more than 141 men, nearly 200 horses and a few wagons, one loaded with ammunition and another holding bags of coins that Greene split among the troops.

The most important accomplishment of the Dog Days Expedition was proving to the locals, Tory and Whig alike, that the American army was strong enough to bring the war right up to the gates of Charleston.

Besides the garrison at Charleston, the British still had an army in the field on the Congaree River, about 16 miles from Greene's camp.

From his canvas marquee tent pitched on the High Hills, Greene turned his attention to that army; if he could capture it, the British would have no force in the field outside of Virginia.

Greene's aide, William Pierce, noticed recruits riding into camp almost daily; he wrote home to Virginia:

"We are gathering a respectable force together, and perhaps before many weeks shall pass away, we shall again be struggling in some bloody conflict. Mischief is a-brewing by the general, who keeps us in constant hot water, and never fails to make us fight."

Pierce was right; on Aug. 23, Greene broke down his "camp of repose" in the High Hills and ordered the army to march.

Battle of Eutaw Springs

Lord Rawdon, Greene's adversary at Hobkirk's Hill and in the final days of the Siege of Ninety-Six, fell sick in the Southern sun; he set sail for England, relinquishing his command of the field forces in the South to a lieutenant colonel named Alexander Stewart.

At age 40, Stewart was just a year older than Greene, but he had 20 more years of military experience, having joined the army as an ensign at age 14.

Stewart caught Greene's attention when he moved his troops from Orangeburg up the Congaree River. Greene wanted to attack, but:

The great Rains that fell soon . . . has rendered it very difficult crossing the Rivers, Greene wrote from Camden on Aug. 25, 1781, and we are obliged to come thus far up the Wateree to cross it [at Camden] . . . the swamps below being so full of Water, that, there was no possibility of passing, the Water being up to a Horses Belly for Miles together in the low grounds.

From Camden, Greene marched his troops up Wildcat Creek, where in his orders book he demanded the greatest cleanliness observed in camp. He also wrote in his orders:

If there is any person with the Army who understands the printing business, he is desired to report himself to Head Quarters.

Greene desperately wanted a printer to publish a newspaper in the Carolinas (A printing press is exceedingly wanted, he'd written to a South Carolina delegate; to a printer he'd written, I think you will render an essential service to your Country if he'd open a newspaper).

Dr. Benjamin Rush, a former surgeon general, wrote to Greene on Sept. 4, 1781:

"I hear you have written for a parson and a printing press, both material engines in moving the world. A newspaper in South Carolina in the present State of their Affairs would be equal to two Regiments" -- more than 1,000 armed men.

The day before Rush wrote that letter, Greene reached Stewart's camp on the Congaree -- and found it abandoned. The British had fallen back 40 miles to a place called Eutaw Springs.

Here the two veteran armies would soon fight the action with the highest casualty rate of any battle in the American Revolution, the bloody Battle of Eutaw Springs.

gcarbone@projo.com / (401) 277-7434

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sources consulted for today's installment:

Conrad, Dennis M. ed. The Papers of Nathanael Greene, vol. IX. The University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1997.

Scheer, George F., and Rankin, Hugh F. Rebels & Redcoats. Da Capo Press Inc.: United States of America, 1987. copyright The World Publishing Co., 1957.

A continuing series.