Photo courtesy of the S.C. Battleground Preservation Trust
American and British forces in South Carolina clashed at about 250 locations throughout the Revolutionary War. Many of those battle sites, have been lost to history as the land was farmed, sold into private hands or simply neglected. But as the United States Semiquincentennial (250-year anniversary) draws closer, two organizations are working to acquire and preserve the remaining battlegrounds for future generations.
“We are buying and preserving these battle sites and turning them into parks,” says Doug Bostick, CEO of the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust. “Most of these battlefields are unprotected historic sites, and that means they are not preserved in any manner.”
Bostick says his organization is working with the American Battlefield Trust to preserve some 2,500 acres across the state and develop more than 80 locations where fighting between British and Americans occurred.
More than 30 already preserved sites are now connected by an interpretive path called the Liberty Trail. Various tools are available to make visits to battlefields more engaging, including a new smartphone app offering self-guided battlefield tours with maps, photos, audible narrations and augmented reality features. Released in February 2021, the app is now available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.
In Camden, plans are underway to build an open-air pavilion at the Camden Battlefield Preserve and install 20 audio recordings of actors portraying men such as British Gen. Lord Charles Cornwallis, American Gen. Horatio Gates, as well as privates and noncommissioned officers.
“We call it ‘Voices of Camden.’ We have taken first-person accounts and have had actors play those roles,” says Bostick. “It’s thrilling to be able to share incredible places where it feels possible to touch the past.”
For more on the Liberty Trail, visit battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/libertytrail. To follow the work of the South Carolina Battleground Preservation trust, visit scbattlegroundtrust.org.
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