THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR
IN LAURENS COUNTY

Finding Inspiration in Every Turn

Our County story begins.......

The former Revolutionary War Museum at 205 West Laurens Street has permanently closed. All American Revolutionary War artifacts and history details has been relocated to the Laurens County Museum at 116 South Public Square, Laurens. A permanent exhibit is being designed and built at the Museum with a grand opening of the full exhibit scheduled for the Statewide Sestercentennial Celebration in 2026.

Along with all of the planning and development, this page is also being developed and will expand in many ways. Please be patient.

The Revolutionary War Sites in Laurens County are coming to life. The State of South Carolina and accompanying County's are making plans to hold an American Revolutionary War Sestercentennial Celebration in 2026. The Laurens County 250 Committee is making sure that Laurens County will participate in this historical event first class.

In late September of 2021 the Laurens County Council agreed to support the program and a Laurens County REvolutionary 250 Committee was formed. Since that date, the Committee meets regularly to discuss the issues and needs at hand. To date there have been fourteen (14) plus battle / historical sites identified and along with that much research, archeological evaluations, site preparation and preservation, roadside markers and a variety of marketing tools has been implemented.

To help with this tremendous task, the Laurens 250 Committee has solicited several local agencies, along with State and Federal Grants, towards providing financial support to accomplish these detailed tasks at hand.

For the past several years, Durant Ashmore, a local Historian / Battleground Preservationist, has held many lectures on the identified sites, the local hero's and heroine's. Ground tours have been conducted on the following Saturdays following the site lectures. More tours and ribbon cuttings will be held in the future months to come.

Another venue, and a very important part of the Sestercentennial Celebration in 2026, is an attempt to identify Laurens County families that had family members that fought in this war. If anyone has any family information identifying the family, the solider and where they are buried or artifacts, by all means contact us at the Museum.

Culbertson’s Backcountry Settlement

Dicey Langston Homeplace

Duncan Creek Meeting House

Fort Lindley

Fort Ridgeway

Fort Williams

Hayes Station

Hollingsworth Mill

Hammond’s Old Store

Hurricane Meeting House

Kellett’s Blockhouse

Liberty Springs Presbyterian Church

The Battle of Mudlick Creek

Musgrove Mill

Rosemont Plantation

Rutledge Ford

The American Revolution was a rebellion and political revolution in the Thirteen Colonies when the Colonists initiated and successfully won the war for independence against the Great Britain Kingdom.

New England Colonies - New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut;
Middle Colonies – New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware;
Southern Colonies – Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

THE THIRTEEN COLONIES...

LAURENS COUNTY'S
IDENTIFIED REVOLUTIONARY WAR
HISTORICAL SITES

ROSEMONT PLANTATION

This is the home of Captain Patrick Cunningham, a Loyalist leader in the Revolution. It was the first house built from sawn lumber. Patrick Cunningham was the wealthiest man in Laurens County during this time. He was also the largest slaveowner, owning forty (40) slaves. An important highlight is Captain Cunningham’s granddaughter, Ann Pamela Cunningham, who saved Mt. Vernon from falling into destruction from neglect.

The Rosemont Plantation is a historic archaeological site located near the Town of Waterloo in Laurens County, South Carolina. The home and the lands is known to come into existence between 1750 and 1790. It was known as a cotton plantation during the second quarter of the 19th century, when it was occupied by the Cunningham family, whose descendants retained control. The main house of Rosemont burned in 1930. The Cunninghams sold it after that.

The present site is largely wooded, with architectural remains of several structures and some formal gardens. In the years of its glory, there were at least seventeen (17) buildings and activity areas, including vegetable and flower gardens, a race track, separate living quarters for the adult Cunningham daughter during the 19th century, along with other facilities.
An archeological survey was conducted in 1992 by Historic Landscape and Garden Design and The Chicora Foundation, Incorporated for the Laurens County Historical Society.

In the mid-19th century, it was the home of Ann Pamela Cunningham (1816-1875) who became an activist in historic preservation and lived here all her life. She founded the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which purchased Mount Vernon in 1859 for restoration and preservation.
The Rosemont Plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

OLD 96 FORT

MUSGROVE MILL

HAMMONDS OLD STORE

CULBERTSON'S BACKCOUNTRY SETTLEMENT

HAYES STATION

Hayes Station – Williams Road - Other than the churches, Hayes Station is the most sacred site in Laurens County. This is the site where Bloody Bill Cunningham on November 19, 1781 brutally murdered Colonel Joseph Hayes and 18 honorable men of the Little River Regiment after they had surrendered. The bodies of fourteen men are reported to be buried on the site in two common graves. The one acre site currently has a monument erected by the DAR in 1910. Ownership of the property is deeded to the South Carolina Battleground Trust.

LIBERTY SPRINGS

The legend of Liberty Springs holds that during the early part of the Revolutionary War, before the conflict became so bitterly ugly, two opposing armies were squared off on either side of the springs. These armies found themselves waylaid by a greater enemy than either one of them presented to the other. These armies were suffering from the effects of deadly smallpox. A truce was arranged. It was decided that if opposing forces needed the succor of the springs, if they laid down their weapons, they could have unfettered access to the healing waters. Alas, truces of this sort soon proved short lived, and the war became a bitter civil war with unspeakable atrocities. Liberty Springs became a fleeting period of grace during this very calamitous time.

FORT RIDGEWAY

MUDLICK CREEK

This battle was fought on March 2, 1781. After the victory at Cowpens, the Patriot Continental Army retreated to Virginia in the Race to the Dan to refit and resupply. The Backcountry of South Carolina was now unprotected, and the Loyalists reestablished their base at Fort Williams. Captain Benjamin Roebuck of the Spartan Regiment took notice of this reemergence of Loyalist activity, and attacked Fort Williams with 150 men. This action turned into a running gun battle along the length of Mudlick Creek, extending into Newberry County. Captain Roebuck was wounded and captured in this battle and is referred to as “Roebuck’s Defeat”, although it is generally regarded as a Patriot victory.

HOLLINGSWORTH MILL

FORT WILLIAMS

RUTLEDGE FORGE

KELLETT'S BLOCKHOUSE

FORT LINDLEY

DICEY LANGSTON HOME PLACE

HURRICANE MEETING HOUSE

DUNCAN CREEK MEETING HOUSE

GALLARY OF REVOLUTIONARY WAR LECTURES

The lecture series have been an ongoing, well attended lectures, collectively provided by the Laurens County Revolutionary War 250 Committee and the Laurens County Museum. Several of the speakers have been from the Speakers Bureau of the South Carolina State 250 Committee and Laurens County's own, Durant Ashmore. Mr. Ashmore is a known Battlefield Preservationist and Historian. Below you will find a series of the lectures and in some areas, the lecture videos as recorded by Museum Volunteers.