Musgrove Mill State Historic Site

On August eighteenth, seventeen eighty, a small band of Patriot militiamen won one of the most lopsided victories of the entire Southern campaign of the Revolutionary War at Musgrove Mill on the Enoree River. About two hundred mounted Patriot volunteers under colonels James Williams, Elijah Clarke, and Isaac Shelby set out to raid a Loyalist camp but found themselves outnumbered three to one by recently arrived British regulars and Loyalist militia. Rather than retreat, they built a quick horseshoe-shaped breastwork, lured the Loyalists into a frontal charge, and opened a devastating fire.

In fifteen minutes the Loyalists lost sixty-three killed and about seventy captured, against only four Patriots killed. The victory came just days after the disaster at Camden, South Carolina. It was a turning point in the guerrilla war for the Carolina backcountry, and the site is now preserved as a state historic site with walking trails along the river bluffs.