Halfway Swamp-Singleton's, South Carolina

HALFWAY SWAMP-SINGLETON'S, SOUTH CAROLINA. 12-13 December 1780. When the newly promoted General Francis Marion learned that the easygoing British Major Robert McLeroth with his Sixty-fourth Regiment was escorting some two hundred recruits of the Seventh Regiment of Foot from Charleston toward Winnsboro, he assembled seven hundred mounted men and moved to intercept this force. Some twenty miles northwest of Nelson's Ferry on the Santee River, just above Halfway Swamp, Marion made contact. The British pickets were driven in and their rear guard was attacked while McLeroth took up a defensive position. His path now blocked, McLeroth sent a flag to protest the shooting of pickets and daring Marion to meet him in the open. Marion replied that so long as the British burned houses and continued their raids, he would continue to shoot pickets. As for the fair fight in the open, Marion countered with the suggestion that teams of twenty men should fight it out. This archaic challenge was accepted, a field was selected, and the contest was organized. Marion named Major John Vanderhorst team captain and carefully picked twenty men. The rebels decided to hold their fire until they were within fifty yards. One man was designated to notify Vanderhorst when the range was right, and Marion's men, each one eyeing his target, moved forward. The deadly game was not played out, however: on orders from its officers, the British team marched off the field, and it became apparent that McLeroth had merely been stalling for time, as he expected reinforcements at any minute.

Captain James Coffin was moving with 140 mounted men to join McLeroth, but when he got word of Marion's presence, he declined to come forward to attack. Around midnight McLeroth slipped away from his burning campfires and headed toward Singleton's Mill. Learning of this maneuver, Major John James beat the British to Singleton's, took position on the hill, delivered one volley at the approaching British, and then, to the amazement of the latter, fled. In fact, the rebels took flight when they discovered that the Singleton family was down with smallpox. Marion withdrew toward Nelson's Ferry while Coffin joined McLeroth near Singleton's, and on 16 December the British column reached Winnsboro.

                          revised by Michael Bellesiles