The first major armed conflict in South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War, establishing early Patriot-Loyalist tensions in the southern backcountry.
Key Facts
- Dates
- November 19–21, 1775
- Patriot force size
- Over 500 soldiers
- Loyalist force size
- Approximately 1,900 soldiers
- Loyalist casualties
- 4 killed, 20 wounded
- Patriot casualties
- 1 killed, 12 wounded
- Outcome
- Stalemate; both sides withdrew
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Loyalists in the South Carolina backcountry seized a shipment of gunpowder and ammunition intended for the Cherokee Nation, prompting Patriot authorities to dispatch Major Andrew Williamson with a force of over 500 men to recover the supplies and assert control over the region in the early months of the American Revolutionary War.
Williamson's Patriot force established a stockaded fort near Ninety Six, where it was surrounded and besieged by approximately 1,900 Loyalists from November 19 to 21, 1775. Fighting was sporadic and inconclusive, resulting in light casualties on both sides before the Loyalists withdrew, leaving the engagement effectively a stalemate.
Both sides withdrew following the siege, but a subsequent major Patriot expedition resulted in the arrest or flight of most Loyalist leadership in the backcountry, significantly undermining organized Loyalist resistance in South Carolina in the early phase of the war.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Major Andrew Williamson.
Side B
1 belligerent