Diary of Orrin Brown—Feb 13, 1865

Diary of Orrin Brown, on Dean’s Swamp, outside Springfield, South Carolina

Monday–Feb. 13th

We were on the road again this morning at 7 Oclock, we marched across the river and went into camp with orders to fix up quarters for the day and at 12 Oclock we had orders to be ready to march at 1 PM and we marched out 5 miles and went into camp at about 3 PM on a large plantation. We had a freezing cold night but we have had a very nice day and it is cool again this evening. Jim Gifford went out after we got into camp and killed two good fat geese so we will live fine tomorrow. I read two Chapts. in the Testament today.

Dean’s Swamp, about where Aiken County, Barnwell County, and Orangeburg County, now meet near Salley, South Carolina, was the site of a skirmish in the Revolutionary War.  On 24 May 1782, Capt. Michael Watson & Capt. William Butler lead mounted militia on a surprise attack against a group of Loyalists camped with prisoners of war at “John’s Town” near Dean’s Swamp.  Instead, they were greeted with an ambush.  Two Patriot soldiers were killed and 8 wounded; unknown number of Loyalist casualties.

This may be as close as our story gets to the scenes of action in Mel Gibson’s movie, The Patriot.  Most of the movie never really happened anyway, as a loose agglomeration of less charismatic characters, such as Francis Marion the Swamp Fox, and completely fictional atrocities.  However, over 200 battles were fought in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War, apparently more than in any other state.

.

.

This entry was posted in Pursuit of Happiness and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to Diary of Orrin Brown—Feb 13, 1865

  1. Pingback: Diary of Orrin Brown—March 1, 1865 -JC Shepard(dot)com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.