History on the Strip: The November the Backcountry Went to War

By Barbara LeForge, Golden Strip News Editor

Drive down Fork Shoals Road on a gray November morning, and it’s hard to picture anything but pasture, pines, and the slow, quiet bend of the Reedy River. But 250 years ago, this southern corner of Greenville County sat on the raw edge of an American frontier that was about to split clean in two.

There was no Golden Strip back then. No Highway 276, no Mauldin, Simpsonville, or Fountain Inn. In their place were Cherokee trading paths, red-clay wagon tracks, and scattered family farmsteads. And the neighbors working that land were about to find out exactly where each other stood.

A Fort of Fence Rails and Cowhides

It started over gunpowder. In the fall of 1775, Loyalists seized a Crown shipment of powder that South Carolina Patriot leaders had intended as a diplomatic gift to the Cherokee. Backcountry Patriot leader Major Andrew Williamson mustered roughly 500 local militiamen at Ninety Six—the region’s judicial hub and trading post—determined to reclaim it.

He was severely outnumbered. On November 19, nearly 2,000 Loyalist fighters encircled the settlement. Williamson’s men hastily fortified a barnyard using whatever they could drag into place: split-rail fences, bales of hay, and raw cowhides. For three tense days, the two sides traded rifle fire across the dirt. It marked the first major land battle of the Revolutionary War in the South—and the first blood shed for independence in the region.

A negotiated truce brought the siege to an end, but neither side expected the peace to hold. The Carolina backcountry could no longer pretend to remain neutral. Neighbors who had cleared timber and raised barns side by side now answered to new, bitter names: Whig and Tory.

The Hideout on the Reedy River

Within weeks, the conflict reached our own backyard. Thousands of Patriot troops swept into the Upcountry to clear out lingering Loyalist resistance. Seeking cover, Loyalist commander Patrick Cunningham led his men into the thickest sanctuary he could find: a dense cane brake along the Reedy River, roughly seven miles southwest of modern-day Simpsonville.

At dawn on December 22, 1775, Patriot forces surrounded the cane thicket and attacked. The Loyalists broke under the assault, scattering into the woods while more than 130 were taken prisoner. Almost immediately, an unrelenting blizzard moved in. The militia endured a brutal, freezing march home through deep snow, leaving many with severe frostbite—an ordeal that earned the expedition its legendary name: the Snow Campaign.

That clash, the Battle of Great Cane Brake, remains the only Revolutionary War engagement ever fought on Greenville County soil. Its battleground rests on the grounds of Historic Hopkins Farm along Fork Shoals Road, where the Sons of the American Revolution still gather each year to commemorate the men who stood in those freezing woods.

November 1780: Turning the Tide on the Broad and the Tyger

Five years later, the war swept back through the Upcountry—this time with relentless, scorched-earth fury. The British had captured Charleston and routed Continental regulars at Camden. Lord Cornwallis set his sights on subjugating the backcountry interior, prioritizing the capture of General Thomas Sumter. Nicknamed the “Gamecock,” Sumter and his fast-moving partisan militia continually struck supply lines and vanished before British regulars could pin them down.

• Fishdam Ford (November 9): British Major James Wemyss—one of the most reviled officers in the Carolinas—set out to ambush Sumter’s encampment along the Broad River under cover of darkness. Impatient to strike, Wemyss launched his raid at 1:00 a.m. instead of daybreak. Sumter’s pickets were alert, holding their ground and opening a devastating fire. The skirmish lasted barely twenty minutes. When the gunsmoke cleared, Wemyss lay wounded and captured by the very militia he had aimed to surprise.

• Blackstock’s Farm (November 20): Eleven days later, Lt. Col. Banastre “Bloody Ban” Tarleton—the Crown’s most feared cavalry commander—pursued Sumter up the Enoree toward the Tyger River in Union County, roughly twenty miles east of present-day Fountain Inn. Sumter selected his defensive ground masterfully, placing his main line atop a ridge at William Blackstock’s farm while concealing sharpshooters in outbuildings and along the woodline. To reach them, Tarleton’s men had to charge uphill across open ground, fences, and a creek bed.

The British cavalry charged straight into a disciplined wall of rifle fire. Tarleton’s elite Legion suffered heavy casualties while the Patriots lost only a handful of men. Though Sumter was seriously wounded during the fight, his militia accomplished what regular armies had failed to do: they broke Tarleton’s Legion. Later that night, the Patriots left their campfires burning as decoys and slipped across the river into the dark.

Two months later, backcountry militia met Tarleton again just up the road at Cowpens—and shattered his force for good.

Walking on Revolutionary Ground

When the dust settled and independence was won, the state compensated many of its citizen-soldiers with Upcountry land grants. Scores of those veterans cleared homesteads across what is now southern Greenville County, raised their children along our creek banks, and were laid to rest in quiet family plots and churchyards across the Golden Strip.

If your family’s local roots run deep, there is a strong chance an ancestor answered the call during the freezing marches of 1775 or held the tree line on that hillside at Blackstock’s Farm.

This November, as the autumn canopy turns along the Reedy River, take a moment to look at the roads, fields, and waterways we pass every day. Long before this corridor was named the Golden Strip, it was defended by ordinary neighbors who stood their ground and helped shape the destiny of a nation.

About the Author

Barbara LeForge is a passionate storyteller, dedicated community leader, and active participant in the Mauldin community, where she serves as her neighborhood’s HOA board president. A former educator, Barbara now homeschools her four amazing children, balancing daily lessons with the vibrant chaos of a busy home. When she isn’t running community meetings or editing local news, you can find her tending to her backyard oasis as an experienced gardener or working on her next literary project as a published author. She loves sharing her practical tips, local insights, and a little Southern humor with her neighbors through her regular column space.