Parkers Ferry, South Carolina

PARKERS FERRY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 13 August 1781. Colonel William Harden commanded a body of rebel troops near this place, some thirty miles west northwest of Charleston, when British Major Thomas Fraser was sent with 200 dragoons to support an uprising of some 450 Loyalists. Harden called for help, and General Nathanael Greene called on General Francis Marion to respond as he thought fit. Leaving his base in the Santee Hills, Marion led two hundred picked men on a remarkable march of about one hundred miles, moving only at night and undetected by the enemy. He reached Harden on 13 August and immediately set up an ambuscade on the causeway leading to Parkers Ferry. He then sent a party of his fastest horsemen to lure Fraser into the trap. Fraser took the bait and charged in to take a surprise fire of buckshot at fifty yards range. Courageously, Fraser rallied his men, launched another attack in the face of a second volley, and was hit by a third when his horsemen again came parallel to the hidden partisans. Marion estimated that his forces had killed or wounded one hundred of the enemy without losing a single man. Because Marion's ammunition was almost exhausted, he could not exploit this success by pursuing the enemy and so returned to his base. After covering a total of four hundred miles, he rejoined Greene in time for the major engagement at Eutaw Springs.

                          revised by Michael Bellesiles