Winter is a great time to visit many of these sites, as the foliage and vegetation in the other seasons makes it difficult to see the landscape clearly. We met up on a rainy Saturday morning, with clearing skies just in time for our gallivanting. Be sure to check out the separate post on our interesting meet up location in Great Falls, SC, at the Nitrolee Access Park. History is everywhere!
I drove up from the south east part of South Carolina, taking backroads through Camden and north. I took the Thomas Sumter highway for a portion of the trip, fittingly. Doing research later, I was sad to see a listing for a missing historical marker that should be marking the highway at the Historical Marker Database. If anyone has it or knows where it is, it needs to be restored.
Our guide and interpreter for the day was noted historian and battlefield preservationist, Durant Ashmore. Worth a drive from anywhere, there were folks who came from as far away as Atlanta, here to learn more about these historic places and stories. Many spent the whole day with us, as we caravanned from site to site. There is nothing like learning about these events at or near the actual site they occurred. There is a feel to a place that can’t be captured in a classroom.
I did not capture everything, as I get too immersed, and then I forget to keep track. I learn something new on every visit, even it I have been to some of these spots in the past.
Battle of Waxhaws, Buford’s Massacre
A video treat, if you don’t mind the amateur videographer (me), the road traffic noise, sniffles, and coughing, etc. Below is the entirety of Durant’s talk at the site of the Battle of the Waxhaws:
Old Waxhaws Cemetery
The following text is taken from the Presbyterian Historical Society website:
Scotch-Irish immigrants from Pennsylvania and Virginia established Old Waxhaw Church in the early 1750s. The first building, erected at least by 1755, was used as a hospital during the Revolution and burned by the British in1781. The fourth and present structure was erected in 1896. The Presbytery of South Carolina was organized here on April 12, 1785. Many famous persons were buried in the cemetery, including the father and brothers of President Andrew Jackson; Colonel James H. Witherspoon; and William R. Davie, Revolutionary War General, Governor of North Carolina, and founder of the University of North Carolina. James Henley Thornwell, Southern Presbyterian patriarch, served his first pastorate here.
Source: Old Waxhaws Presbyterian Church – The Historical Marker Database
William Richardson Davie and some of his family members are buried here. We learned about his role in the Revolutionary War, as well as about his service as Governor of North Carolina.
More photos at the National Register of Historic Places website here
The Waxhaw Cemetery is probably the most significant site remaining related to the Revolutionary War Era figures Andrew Jackson, William Richardson Davie, and Andrew Pickens, who contributed to the early development of the state and nation. The cemetery also contains noteworthy examples of eighteenth and nineteenth century tombstones. Many of the eighteenth century tombstones are marked with bas-relief carvings illustrating the lives of the deceased. These stones are flat, vertical tombstones with rounded or scrolled tops. Much of the lettering is clearly carved and is still legible. The vertical eighteenth century stones are distinguishable from the flat, horizontal nineteenth century slabs and massive monuments. Listed in the National Register September 11, 1975.
If you get a chance to attend one of these events, GO! The history of South Carolina is fascinating, as are the people of South Carolina. Get out there and experience it.