Battle of Mudlick Creek, 1781 (Fort Williams, Laurens County, SC)

The Battle of Mudlick Creek
Also called the second battle of Fort Williams, or “Roebuck’s Defeat”
March 2, 1781
Williams’s Fort and Mudlick Creek, on the Laurens–Newberry line, South Carolina

Line drawing of a Patriot rifleman advancing through the woods past a fallen soldier
“Battle of Mudlick Creek: Roebuck’s Defeat”, drawing by Jorge Perez-Rubio for the South Carolina Liberty Trail.

At a Glance

  • Date: March 2, 1781.
  • Where: Williams’s Fort, the fortified plantation of the late Col. James Williams near the Little River, and along Mudlick Creek. The fighting may have run over the line into what is now Newberry County.
  • Patriots: Col. Benjamin Roebuck of the Spartan Regiment, with Lt. Col. Henry White and about 150 militia riflemen.
  • Loyalists: the garrison that had moved back into Williams’s Fort. Their commander’s name has not come down to us.
  • Result: Roebuck’s men drew the garrison out into an ambush and broke its hold on the neighborhood. But Roebuck himself ended up a prisoner, and one of his captains was mortally wounded.

On This Page

Williams’s Fort

Col. James Williams, founding commander of the Little River Regiment, turned his plantation into a fort. After he was killed at Kings Mountain in October 1780, Loyalists under Brig. Gen. Robert Cunningham held it. Durant Ashmore counts six times that Williams’s Fort changed hands during the war.

On December 31, 1780, the day after Hammond’s Old Store, Col. Joseph Hayes and the Little River men moved on the fort. Cunningham’s men slipped away in the night, and the Patriots burned what was left. Durant Ashmore tells that story in Battle of Fort Williams.

Two months later the Loyalists were back. After Greene’s army left South Carolina for North Carolina, a Loyalist force moved into the fort again and raided the farms around it.

The Battle

Roebuck had fewer men than the garrison, so he set a trap.

  • Lt. Col. Henry White took about 150 riflemen up in front of the fort to provoke the garrison into chasing them.
  • The Loyalists came out after White, and he led them back into the ambush Roebuck had laid.
  • The fight surged back and forth for about an hour along Mudlick Creek, until the Loyalists broke and fled back toward the fort.
  • White was badly wounded but recovered. Capt. Robert Thomas was mortally wounded, and William Thomas was also hit. Loyalist losses were called “considerable”, but nobody counted them.

Accounts disagree on what happened to the fort afterward. Ripley says it was burned. But on April 8 Gen. Andrew Pickens wrote to Gen. Nathanael Greene that Loyalists had fallen back to the fort for safety, so it may still have been standing.

What Happened to Roebuck?

This is where the sources part ways.

  • Wounded and captured in the battle. Carolana says Roebuck was shot in the shoulder and captured. Duncan (1999), Life, Liberty, Laurens and the South Carolina 250 Commission say the same.
  • Captured eight days later. Joseph McJunkin’s memoir and the Samuel Smith account say Roebuck came through the battle unhurt. They say he was taken prisoner on the night of March 10 near his home. McJunkin called the whole affair a defeat, which may be where the name “Roebuck’s Defeat” comes from.

Either way, the Spartan Regiment lost its colonel, which makes the usual “Patriot victory” label a little less tidy than it sounds.

Visiting

  • Historical markers for both Fort Williams battles stand at Hayes Station, 455 Williams Road, Clinton, SC 29325. Park in the gravel lot by the kiosk; the Hayes Station monument is a short walk away.
  • Please note: the monument sits on a one-acre lot inside a private hunt club. Stay on the public parcel, and do not visit during deer season, October 1 to January 1.
  • The exact site of Williams’s Fort is on private land and has not been studied.
  • See the Site Guide for more places to visit.

Sources and Resources

Open Questions

  • When and where was Roebuck captured? In the battle, or on March 10 near his home?
  • Who led the Loyalists? No source we have found names him.
  • Laurens or Newberry? Where exactly on Mudlick Creek was the fighting?
  • Were Little River men there? Did any men on the Honor Roll serve under Roebuck that day?

How You Can Help

Does a pension application in your family mention Mudlick Creek, Williams’s Fort, or Roebuck in March 1781? Please get in touch.

Related pages: Battle of Fort Williams · Hammond’s Old Store · Hayes Station · Blackstock’s · Little River Regiment · Honor Roll · Site Guide · Timeline