MONCKS CORNER — Here, nestled among the trees near the headwaters of the Cooper River, the British army settled in for the long haul.
The siege of Charleston was underway, and Loyalist forces during the spring of 1780 wanted a staging ground north of the city where they could regroup, strategize, care for the wounded, deploy troops and, if necessary, seek a secure retreat.
Fair Lawn Plantation was perfect. It was a huge property owned by Peter Colleton, eldest son of John Colleton, one the original Lord Proprietors of the Carolina colony and a British sympathizer. The grand residence was fortified and a square earthen redoubt was constructed with the river on one side and an important crossroads on the other.
Fort Fair Lawn would guard Colleton Castle, which had been converted into a hospital and armory. It would protect British troop maneuvers and communication lines, and it would keep rebel Patriots at bay along Congaree Road and a coastal road. It would also assist with the siege, providing the British with a stronghold about 30 miles north of Charleston.
Today, the fort, likely constructed by enslaved people and low-ranking British functionaries, is remarkably intact and protected in perpetuity thanks to a years-long effort by the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust. It will become part of a new public heritage site featuring nearly 2 miles of new trails, a pavilion, historic interpretation and access to Old Santee Canal Park and the Berkeley County Museum.
More than 30 forts were constructed during the American Revolutionary War in South Carolina. Only two remain in their original condition: the Ninety-Six National Historic Site in Greenwood County and Fort Fair Lawn.
A group of history buffs was part of a private tour of Fort Fair Lawn on July 23, 2021. The fort has been secured by the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust. Adam Parker/Staff
The site is one of five to be developed during the first phase of The Liberty Trail, a project spearheaded by the American Battlefield Trust with key support from the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust, an independent affiliate.
“We’re eager to get residents and visitors onsite to experience the history that shaped our nation’s independence,” Doug Bostick, executive director of the Battleground Preservation Trust, said in a statement.
The Liberty Trail eventually will connect and interpret 30 sites in South Carolina, from Charleston to Eutaw Springs to Hanging Rock and Waxhaws and beyond.
Fort Fair Lawn is part of a cluster of important Revolutionary War-era sites in Berkeley County that includes the former Mepkin Plantation (now an abbey), the Avenue of Cedars, Wadboo Bridge, the void that once was Colleton mansion and the ruins of Biggin Church.
Within the white line is the conserved land that includes Fort Fair Lawn. The yellow lines mark the trails that will be constructed, and that will connect the fort to the Old Santee Canal Park. Adam Parker/Staff
Time and money
It took years, as it often does, to secure the land.
The Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust, which will turn 30 in 2022, is one of several land trusts active in the Lowcountry that, together, have protected 1 million acres of private holdings in South Carolina, about 5 percent of the entire state.
The Lord Berkeley Trust’s specific contribution, so far, is 41,000 acres, according to Executive Director Chris Vaughn. It has 10,000 more acres in the pipeline.
Land trusts typically negotiate with property owners who either transfer the deed as a result of a donation, or who agree to a conservation easement — a legally binding contract that forbids certain uses in perpetuity, including real estate development.
Conservation easements became the tool of choice in the 1990s when several environmental groups worked to protect the ACE Basin. That project has served as a model ever since.
Chris Vaughn is executive director of the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust, which now is working with the S.C. Battleground Preservation Trust to provide public access to Fort Fair Lawn in Moncks Corner. Adam Parker/Staff
The Lord Berkeley Trust set the gears turning to acquire the 80-acre Fort Fair Lawn tract in 2007 and obtained it, finally, in 2016. The surrounding area had been slated for a housing development, but those plans fell through, according to the trust’s former director, Raleigh West.
It took $1 million in funding from the South Carolina Conservation Bank, $500,000 in hydrology mitigation funding from the State Ports Authority, and $500,000 from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program.
This is the first of its properties the trust will open to the public.
At first, the fort is difficult to discern among the verdant foliage. One steps across a tiny bridge that spans what appears to be a creek. It’s not a creek. It’s part of the moat that was 9 feet high, with 6 feet of water (enough to cover the heads of anyone who fell in).
These bricks are what remains of a kiln used by the British at the fort during their occupation of Fair Lawn Plantation in Moncks Corner. Adam Parker/Staff
Inside, careful to avoid snakes and nesting wasps, one can ascend a small mound — the remains of a cannon terreplein.
In the center of the fort are some loose bricks that once were part of a kiln the British used to forge weapons and ammunition. From this location the fort’s earthen walls, now eroded and overgrown mounds, are easier to see.
Beat the retreat
Fort Fair Lawn was manned by garrisons ordered to protect British interests, and to make it easier to move troops, said David Reuwer, who called it a key crossroads, a sort of “Union Station.”
It was a base from which the British lay siege on Charleston, and the place to which the British retreated after the bloody Battle of Eutaw Springs in September 1781, the last big confrontation of the Revolutionary War in the Carolinas.
This is an archaeological rendering of what Fort Fair Lawn looked like originally. Adam Parker/Staff
By then, the British had been worn down by the guerrilla tactics of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and other Patriots. To maintain their occupation of Charleston, the British resorted to launching raids in the countryside to forage for supplies, food and other useful materials. But the Americans often scuttled their efforts, or worse.
The occupation proved unsustainable, largely because of these constant skirmishes and battles.
Moncks Corner 1780. This was an active British staging ground during the American Revolutionary War. This illustration is housed at the Berkeley County Museum. Adam Parker/Staff
The Fair Lawn staging ground was the British base during the Battle of Moncks Corner on April 14, 1780. Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton and his Loyalist fighters defeated S.C. Brig. Gen. Isaac Huger, consolidating British command over the area.
In the weeks following the Eutaw Springs confrontation, when British troops were recovering at Fair Lawn, Marion and Lt. Col. Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, and Col. Wade Hampton harassed the post. On Nov. 17, 1781, Marion dispatched Col. Hezekiah Maham and Col. Isaac Shelby, each with around 200 men, to attack Fair Lawn.
The British, taken by surprise, did not resist as the Patriots took possession of weapons, supplies and about 150 prisoners. When the British evacuated later that month, they burned the buildings on the property.
Wadboo Swamp, Aug. 29, 1782, very near Fair Lawn, was the location of the last of the fighting in Berkeley County. On Dec. 14 that year, after 32 months of occupation, the British evacuated Charleston, and the war in the South drew to a close.
At Old Santee Canal Park, visitors to Fort Fair Lawn were treated to a Revolutionary War confrontation between a Red Coat and a couple of Patriots. Adam Parker/Staff
New houses soon will be constructed on a large tract near Fort Fair Lawn. Once they’re built, the fort, its trails and the Old Santee Canal Park will be largely surrounded.
But it could have been worse, with homes butting up against the fort and preventing its linkage to the park. Now, thanks to the efforts of the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust and its several partners, future visitors to the site can admire the tactics and ingenuity of 18th century warfare and contemplate South Carolina’s contributions to the birth of the nation.
–postandcourier.com
