According to its web site, Historic Camden, “the oldest existing inland town in South Carolina, was part of a township plan ordered by King George II in 1730. The frontier settlement, initially named Fredericksburg Township (later Pine Tree Hill), took hold by the 1750’s as Quakers and Scots-Irish emigrants and settlers from Virginia put down roots.
Joseph Kershaw, a native of Yorkshire, England arrived in 1758 and established a store for a Charleston mercantile firm. He prospered, and by 1768, the town was the inland trade center in the colony. At his suggestion, the town became Camden, in honor of Lord Camden, a champion of colonial rights.
In May of 1780, the American Revolution returned to Charleston, and the town fell to the British. Lord Charles Cornwallis and 2500 British troops immediately marched to Camden and set up the main British supply post for the Southern Campaign. For eleven months, the citizens of Camden understood the atrocities of war.
Two battles were fought near by. The Battle of Camden, the worst American battle defeat of the Revolution, was fought on August 16, 1780 nine mile north of our museum. Nearby, General Nathaniel Greene and approximately 1,300 Americans engaged 950 British soldiers commanded by Lord Francis Rawdon on April 25, 1781. It was a costly British win and forced the Redcoats to evacuate Camden.”
On November 4-5, 2012 Historic Camden celebrated its 42nd annual Revolutionary War Field Days. These are some pictures from the event.
We stayed once again at the beautiful Bloomsbury Inn in Camden, S.C. Katherine and Bruce Brown are the gracious innkeepers. This picture is a bit dark, but Katherine and I were enjoying a look at the old kitchen. She decorates this for the holidays, and their family enjoys this space. You will enjoy looking at the web site and joining them on Facebook. But most of all you will want to visit their historic home. You might have read the diary, written in book form called Mary Chestnut’s Civil War, and this was her home.
For you that enjoy coffee, you might want to try the Bloomsbury Inn coffee carried by our own Little River Coffee House in Spartanburg. It is delicious!
On the Bloomsbury Inn web site is a blog you will enjoy reading and a YouTube video that takes you on a tour of the house. For you that look for new recipes, Katherine kindly shares hers.
www.bloomsburyinn.com/
The pictures above tell the story, as the British soldiers await the American forces behind the gunfire they are hearing. They try to deter the rebel forces with their six pound cannons, but the Patriots resolutely continue to get closer and closer. It was exciting to watch the fleeing British soldiers being followed by the cavalry. Steadily, the Americans pushed their enemies until the skirmish was won.
Sheila Ingle 