Dog days Campaign
In South Carolina, the "dog days" of summer are down-right hot. Labeled the Dog Days Campaign, this chapter ends with a total rift between Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter.
1) Georgetown and Ninety-Six had fallen and so two significant outposts remained slightly inland, Monck's Corner 30 miles north of Charleston and Dorchester 20 miles northwest of Charleston. The British army was basically in Charleston, in these outposts and then one army in the field at Orangeburg. Sumter convinced Greene that he should take out the two outposts cutting off the Brit army in Orangeburg from Charleston, using Lee's and Marion's forces of course. Greene's objective was to get the Brits stuck on the coast in a land siege and then pray the French Navy could bottle them up in Charleston.
3) July 12th 1781 marks the day that Marion followed orders and took his 180 man force to Monck's Corner while Lee and his 150 man force moved on Dorchester. Sumter remained in the rear with his 200 infantry and one six-pounder. Marion's force had just went through some leadership changes with Hugh Giles retiring, a 27 year old John Ervin taking his place and Greene's commissioning of Peter Horry and Hezekiah Maham to lead two dragoon forces IN the Continental Army which meant signing on for one year. Complicating the matter was that both promotions were dated the same day AS WELL AS who they really reported to .. Greene OR Marion. This was NEVER made clear.
4) Monck's Corner British force of 500-600 redcoats from 19th Regiment of Foot was led by Lt. Col James Coates as well as 100-150 provincial cavalry under Major Fraser (SC Royalists) which were remnant forces from SC Rangers and Queen's Rangers, all native SC men who knew the back-country as well as Marion and Sumter. Sumter wanted to surround Coates cutting off his escape routes and any reinforcements from Orangeburg. Lee easily pushed the British out of Dorchester and so upon hearing this Coates surprises the patriots by moving five miles northeast to Biggin Church (a structure with three foot thick walls and where Marion himself worshiped as a boy). As the patriots adjusted to Coates new position, Maham was sent to destroy Wadboo bridge so Coates would not have an easy time getting to Charleston, unfortunately, Coates men were able to repair if overnight and were all set to escape down the Cooper River if and when they needed to. With insignificant skirmishing on July 16th at 4am the next morning the Biggin Church was ablaze and Coates had a head start toward Charleston. As the patriots chased Coates they found the Wadboo bridge had been destroyed by the British and so they had to ford the river farter upstream wasting valuable time. The Brits went 18 miles south and settled briefly at a vacant plantation of patriot Col. Thomas Shubrick. They posted a howitzer at Quinby Bridge to guard the crossing and started tearing up the planks when Lee, Wade Hampton and some of Marion's cavalry arrived. Some of the men crossed the creek and started their assault on the British forces, Lee himself chose not to send his cavalry across the 20-yard wide creek due to the muddy bottom. On the other side there was a causeway that led to deadly hand-to-hand combat. Many of the green recruits of the 19th Foot threw down their weapons and fled only to realize how few patriots made is across the creek. The Brits were able to fight their way back to the plantation for cover. Fraser's Brit cavalry left for Charleston for reinforcements. Lee and Marion saw the plantation to well fortified and chose to wait for Sumter and his six-pounder. When Sumter arrived WITHOUT his cannon he decided to attack anyway against Lee and Marion's advice. Marion's men had to advance across open field and then finding Taylor's men facing a bayonet charge (no bayonets on patriot rifles) diverted on an oblique to save Taylor and his men but took a lot of causalities. Forty minute battle was finally called off by Sumter whose troops as well as Lee's remained in reserve. Fifty killed or wounded, mainly from Marion's men was the result.
5) Taylor let it be known that he would not fight alongside the Gamecock Sumter again, putting his men at risk for a poor objective and with no backup. No post battle comments are on record from Marion to Sumter but to Greene he implied that he too was sent on a fools errand. Most evident of Marion's true feelings was that he and Lee left the night of the battle and went 15 miles away to camp without informing Sumter. All but 100 of Marion's men left at this point and Marion internally knew he was done with Sumter.
6) Greene later told Lafayette that the Dog Days Campaign had some success but admitted it was far short of what needed to be accomplished. Driving the British out of Monck's Corner and Dorchester only lasted a few weeks before the Brits were back. On the plus side, 140 prisoners, 200 horses and ammunition were to be had. Another detail that made the rift between Sumter and Marion final was that 720 guineas (gold coins) were found and distributed to Sumter's men and some of Lee's men BUT not Marion's. Sumter's 10-month enlistees were on their way home at this point, dissatisfied with Sumter's Law. Sumter tried to plunder more by going near Georgetown and seizing slaves, horses, indigo and salt from the Tories there and the British retaliated on August 1st by bombarding Georgetown from a warship with many innocent people caught in the crossfire. Gov. Rutledge generally favored harsh treatment of Tories BUT finally started seeing this from Marion's point of view as that practice usually gave significant blowback. On August 5th Rutledge signed a proclamation strictly forbidding plundering for any purpose essentially nullifying Sumter's Law. Sumter took this personally and resigned but Greene talked him into staying on but that would old last a few months as Sumter had fought his last battle. Now, twelve months into this phase of the Revolutionary War Marion would now been the supreme commander of the South Carolina militia.
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