- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(guns blasting) (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Five years into the Revolutionary War, amongst a forest of longleaf pines near Camden, South Carolina.

- [Rick] This was an unbelievable instance in warfare.

- [Narrator] American and British forces clash at the Battle of Camden.

The British forces decimate the American ranks.

- [Rick] Camden has a reputation as being the worst tactical defeat of a continental army in the American Revolution.

- [Narrator] More than two centuries later, a team methodically excavates several shallow graves of 14 soldiers killed during the fight.

- [Stacey] I felt I had a responsibility to take care of them.

- [Narrator] During the Revolutionary War, the soldiers weren't the only ones faced with immense hardship.

- [Kendall] Life was really hard for these women.

- [Stacey] When the men folk were gone fighting the war, it was up to the women to keep the house running, to keep food on the table.

- [Narrator] Coming up, dive into the Battle of Camden with a trip to the battle's annual reenactment.

- [Tom] This is the largest force on force reenactment of Revolutionary War soldiers in the United States.

- [Narrator] See how the history community recently honored those who gave their all and explore historic Camden.

All that and more on this episode of "Trail of History."

(upbeat music) (mellow acoustic music) Welcome to Camden, South Carolina.

Founded in 1732, if you look in just about any direction, there's a good chance you'll find something historically significant, from colonial era homes to Revolutionary War battlegrounds.

Visitors travel from across the country and around the world to take in what the area has to offer.

One of the biggest draws, the annual Battle of Camden Reenactment, hosted by the non-profit Southern Campaigns 1780.

- [Tom] We're doing this to promote our history in South Carolina, more than anything else.

- [Narrator] For three days each fall, several thousand dedicated reenactors and enthusiastic spectators converge on this farm outside Camden.

- [Tom] Think a lot of them are military, lot of them are history people, lot of them are curious about it.

I talked to some lady who came from Texas to see it.

- [Narrator] For the participants, it's a chance to dress the part, take part in military drills, cook over an open fire, and sleep like Revolutionary War soldiers or camp followers.

During the weekend, they leave the 21st century behind and immerse themselves in 18th century life, mostly.

- I used to sleep on the ground.

As I've aged, that got to not be such a good thing, and I'm on a cot now.

- [Narrator] It's retired contractor Steve Owens's second trip to the Battle of Camden event.

- [Steve] I'd rather do this than eat.

I love this.

Cook and eat during the day, reenact battles, shoot black powder, it's just a lot of fun.

- [Tom] The revolutionary era period, people are happy to have spectators.

People walk around and talk and listen and teach.

They like doing that and they like to have their battle so that they can experience for themselves, because to them it's a hobby.

- [Narrator] Even on a rainy day, there's lots to see at the Battle of Camden.

Spectators get a chance to watch military drills, blacksmithing demonstrations, and learn about open fire cooking.

- [Sheri] We cook various types of 18th century foods the 18th century way, and then of course, that's our supper.

That's what we're cooking, we're cooking our supper, but we show that to the public and explain to them what we're doing.

- [Narrator] Now in order to look the part, reenactors like Kendall Kendrick often spend hours and hours preparing.

- [Kendall] It's a very long process to make these clothes, and I do everything by hand using historically accurate methods, as close as possible of course.

- [Narrator] Sheri Davis says by taking part in living history, she feels closer to those who came before.

- Oh, it makes you really appreciate what they had to go through just in their daily survival, and then what they had to go through during the war period.

- [Narrator] The women who take part in events like the Battle of Camden are representing the important, yet very often overlooked role that women played during the American Revolution.

- [Kendall] It's really meaningful for me to be a representative of women during that time, because they don't have a voice.

There's so little written about them.

To be able to share their story, to learn about them, to talk about their lives, especially in the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War, really primarily what their lives were like in the Southeast, I feel like it's absolutely my life's work to be able to share their stories because we do know so much about the men of the Revolutionary War.

And it's important to know those stories because it's history, but the untold stories are just as important.

- [Narrator] Another aspect for Kendall Kendrick, encouraging more women into the history space.

- [Kendall] I try to really encourage young women to come into this sphere that has been very male dominated for such a long time.

And as we approach the semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of America, it is important now more than ever that we make this a roomy and broad space for all to be part of America's story.

- Rise, wheel!

- [Narrator] Whether you're a reenactor taking part in marching drills or a spectator strolling amongst the American and British encampments, you start to get a sense for camp life during the Revolutionary War.

But what most have come for, the battle.

- [Tom] Right now, this is the largest force on force reenactment of Revolutionary War soldiers in the United States.

It starts slow, but that's the way the battles went.

What they do, they start off by the pickets, trying to see who can fire the fastest, kind of scare the other side off.

And then they figured they'd find a weakness, and they'd go for it.

And in this case, the Americans, which they thought they had found a weakness, didn't find a weakness, and they...

They lost the battle.

- [Narrator] And when the smoke clears, Tom Oblak says- - [Tom] I talk to the kids.

I say, "Did you have a great time?"

And the parents answer, "Yes, it was great.

We had a wonderful time."

(tense percussive music) - [Narrator] On April 19th, 1775, the first shots of the American Revolution were fired at the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Initially, most of the fighting took place in the northern colonies, but eventually British and American forces were at a stalemate.

A stalemate which led two opposing armies here under the longleaf pines eight miles north of Camden.

- [Rick] If we can go back to August 16th, 1780, you would've had basically a cathedral type experience here.

Huge longleaf pines.

They said that three men could put their arms around one tree.

- [Narrator] Military historian Rick Wise works for the South Carolina Battlefield Preservation Trust, an organization dedicated to preserving historic battlefields and military sites across the Palmetto state.

- [Rick] If you could've been back here with these soldiers, you could've seen through the woods probably about 600 yards, and it would've been just an unbelievable experience.

- [Narrator] An experience set in motion when Lord Charles Cornwallis set his sights north after the British took Charleston in May of 1780.

- [Rick] The British were trying to gather supplies and have a jumping off point because their next objective in their southern strategy was to go into North Carolina.

So that was why Camden was important to them.

- [Narrator] With the British in Camden, American General Horatio Gates headed south.

- [Rick] Gates realized that if he could drive the British out of Camden, he would probably be able to drive them back into Charleston.

- [Narrator] On August 15th, 1780, in order to avoid the summer heat, Gates ordered his troops towards Camden at night.

When Cornwallis learned Gates was on the move, he had to make a choice.

- It was one of those situations that Cornwallis realized, though he was outnumbered, he just couldn't give up Camden.

He decided instead of retreating that he would attack.

- [Narrator] According to Wise, at about 2:30 in the morning of August 16th- - [Rick] They made contact with their calvary, sharp short engagement of about 15 minutes.

Both armies backed off.

What happened next?

The British attacked at dawn, two thirds of the militia ran away.

There was a very strong fight over on Gates's right flank.

Major General Baron Johann de Kalb commanded the Continentals over there.

They held up the attack of the British a pretty good while.

He was leading counterattacks where his men were using bayonets.

At the end of the battle, he had suffered 11 wounds.

He had eight bayonet or saber wounds and three gunshot wounds.

When he was taken prisoner, took him back to Camden, took him three days to die.

This was an unbelievable instance in warfare.

- [Narrator] For General Gates, it was a massive blunder.

- [Rick] Camden has the reputation as being the worst tactical defeat of a continental army in the American Revolution.

- [Narrator] As a result of the Battle of Camden, General Gates lost his command and was replaced by General Nathanael Greene.

But the victory for Lord Cornwallis was short-lived.

Over the remaining 14 months of the war, several key battles took place across the south, which led to the eventual British surrender at Yorktown on October 19th, 1781.

The war officially ended when the United States and England ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 20th, 1783.

(mellow acoustic music) Today you can visit and explore the Camden battlefield.

It's owned and operated by the Historic Camden Foundation.

When you walk the trails, it's hard not to think about those who were killed or wounded at the Battle of Camden.

For many of those killed, this tract of forest became their final resting place.

Archeological surveys over the years have identified multiple grave sites, many just a few inches below the ground.

- [Rick] Steve Smith and Jim Legg with the South Carolina Archeological Institute, they, in conjunction with Doug Bostick and others, realized that some of these graves that were located seemed to be suffering.

- [Narrator] Wise says, with specific burial sites endangered, a decision was made to excavate the graves.

- [Rick] We have now recovered 14 soldiers.

- [Narrator] Through further forensics, it was determined that there were at least three teenagers, a man believed to be Native American, and another man who was part of the British Highlanders.

- [Rick] Highlander was buried almost 30 inches deep, which for here is a very proper burial.

He was perfectly laid out, had his hands draped in front of him and that sort of thing.

And so that really looked like he had been buried by his compadres.

- [Narrator] Not all, however, were originally buried with the same dignity.

- [Rick] Most of the individuals here that were continental soldiers, to include the one militiamen that we think we have here, buried very shallow.

We're talking probably less than 10 inches of dirt on top of them.

- [Narrator] But during the excavation, all were treated with respect.

- [Rick] We came to a grave that was supposed to be one, and it turned out to be five.

And to see these professionals work the way they did with the respect that they gave to the individuals in these graves, to the time and patience they have is unbelievable.

- [Narrator] From the battleground, the remains were taken to a lab for continued forensics.

- I got to be out there and help with the dig, and then help with the anthropologists in the lab as they prepared the soldiers for reinterment.

And myself and a few other veterans, they asked us to come in and to place the bones in the coffin, which we were honored to do.

- [Narrator] In honoring the fallen, almost no detail was overlooked, and craftspeople at Historic Camden played a vital role.

- [Stacey] They were boxed up in 18th century style coffins, which our master woodworker made, and our blacksmith made the nails for them.

- [Narrator] For three days in April at Historic Camden, the flag-draped caskets laid in repose inside the Kershaw House, giving the public a chance to pay respects.

- [Stacey] We had active duty military folks that were standing watch over the soldiers as they lay in repose.

- [Narrator] Then on April 22nd, 2023- - [Stacey] The Army Old Guard came in to render honors.

They went by funeral cortege to Bethesda Presbyterian Church, which is where General Johann de Kalb is buried.

And then shortly thereafter, they went up to the battlefield, and that was the battlefield ceremony.

- [Cary] There was one Highlander.

The Royal Regiment of Scotland didn't send a burial party over.

They sent active duty men that have lost brothers to bury that guy.

- [Kendall] And we were all there together to pay tribute to these fallen people.

And of course, it wasn't just the people that were there in the coffins at that time, it was all of those people who perished that day.

And so it was a very emotional experience.

- [Narrator] For Wise, a veteran himself, taking part of the burials and spending time at the battleground has special meaning.

- [Rick] When I come out here, this is real, particularly with us being able to recover these soldiers.

These men sacrificed that we can all be here today in liberty, that we can have a free country.

When I come out here, it's these men, particularly these men that are still occupying these unmarked graves out here on this battlefield.

They made a sacrifice, not for themselves, but for us.

(warm acoustic music) - [Narrator] Camden's roots date to the 1730s, and its historical significance goes deeper than the battle bearing its name.

- [Cary] You're in Camden, South Carolina, which is the oldest inland settlement in South Carolina.

In 1750, it was formed as a township and put on a map as early as the 1730s.

But the reality is, the first full-time European settlement was a group of Irish Quakers.

They immediately, within two years, had a sawmill, a flour mill going.

They were starting to export.

Within eight years, they had two flour mills, two sawmills, and they were literally shipping stuff as far as the West Indies.

And at that point, they really got noticed.

- [Narrator] Noticed indeed.

- [Cary] A group of wealthy merchants in Charleston got together and sent their clerk here.

- [Narrator] Their clerk's name, Joseph Kershaw.

- [Cary] He laid out a town on his land, which is literally where we are now.

- [Narrator] Now to start as a clerk, Kershaw didn't have a lot of his own money.

- He moves up here and that all changes.

- [Narrator] But in a relatively short time, Kershaw goes from clerk to entrepreneur.

- [Cary] Joseph did have the foresight to buy, as they came available, the mills.

He got control of all the power sources, the two major creeks.

- [Narrator] With his newfound wealth, Joseph Kershaw started construction of a large mansion in 1777, two years into the war for independence.

And with it spreading across the colonies, Kershaw, a patriot, would have to wait to move in thanks to a certain British general.

- [Cary] In 1777, he started the house.

In 1780, it was almost done when Cornwallis moved in, and he was exiled.

Then he got back here in late 1781 after the British had been pushed out.

He came back and he lived in the house for 10 years, from 1781 to 1791, when he passed away.

- [Narrator] The Kershaw House at Historic Camden isn't the original one.

The first house burned to the ground during the Civil War.

Fortunately though, in 1858, a traveling photographer took this early picture of the original house, and a century later- - [Cary] In the late '60s, the 200th birthday was coming up.

And with that, what is Camden gonna do?

We have a great colonial past, but we don't have anything.

So with that, in the early '70s, they rebuilt the house on the hill.

So it's over 50 years old now.

- [Narrator] According to their website, Historic Camden opened in 1970, and with the help of a federal grant, the year-long reconstruction of the Kershaw House began in 1976.

But Historic Camden is more than just buildings.

- [Stacey] You can just feel the history around you all the time when you walk into a building, an old building such as this, and you say, "What has happened?

What has this room seen in its 200-year history?"

There was people just like me who lived here and died here and had families.

What kind of tribulations did they go through?

You really connect with those people in history when you're here.

(airy rustic music) - [Narrator] Preserving traditional crafts and trades is a key part of Historic Camden's mission.

- [Cary] We do everything from scratch.

So if you go to our pottery, instead of just seeing someone throwing pots, we actually dig clay up, process clay using 18th century methods out of clay pits that were first used in 1752.

- Okay, little slower.

- [Narrator] Potter Marti Wallace actually fell in love with making pottery as a child coming to Historic Camden.

Now she demonstrates the process, while at the same time sharing a bit of local history.

- [Marti] The setup is based on John Bartlam, who was an English potter that first came to the Carolinas in the 1760s and opened a pottery factory in Cainhoy, Charleston, outside of Charleston.

He eventually ended up in Camden with the help of Joseph Kershaw and opened a factory here.

The wheel is very unusual because it is a reproduction of the type of wheel he used in a manufacturing setting.

And a local woodworker was able to look at some of the historical drawings and pictures of some of the old ones and reproduce one using the same 18th century methods that were used at the time.

- [Barbara] This has been quite the experience to watch from the beginning of a ball of clay to a beautiful vase that she has made in literally five minutes, to say the least.

And she's had a helper here that has spun the wheel for her, which I did not have a clue.

I always thought that it was done just manually by their feet.

(metal clanking) - [Narrator] Next to the pottery shop, you'll find the fully functional blacksmith shop.

- [Jack] A lot of what we do is a demonstration of the various capabilities of the forge.

One of the best things that we make here is the Ram's head poker, which I have made several.

- [Narrator] Beyond demonstrations, the craftspeople often play an important role by using their skills for actual projects at Historic Camden.

- [Jack] We've made hinges, we've made hooks.

Right now we're working on a big series of heavy duty spikes, which will be in the heavy door of the strong room, which is over in the redoubt, just to the side of the Kershaw House.

- [Narrator] On the same campus as Historic Camden, you'll find the Revolutionary War Visitor Center.

It's run by the city of Camden with county and state funds.

Inside you'll find a museum dedicated to the Southern campaign.

(warm acoustic music) Both Camden's and South Carolina's early economic prosperity would not have been what it was without the institution of slavery.

- [Cary] During the American Revolution, Camden was the wealthiest of the inland settlements by far.

It was the first in the Midlands to have huge plantations that date before the American Revolution.

And with that, it had a lot of the enslaved that were in the back country, were centered around the Camden area.

- [Narrator] It's a story Historic Camden continually works to accurately interpret and share the contributions made by African Americans in the early years of the nation.

During the time of slavery, there were very rare moments where the enslaved were given the opportunity to purchase their freedom.

Here at the site, visitors get a chance to learn the story of one such man and see the home he built for his family.

- [Cary] Bonds Conway was the first enslaved person to buy their own freedom in 1792.

The house that's on the property he built in 1811.

He also built homes for his children and was a very successful carpenter in Camden.

- [Narrator] For the folks at Historic Camden, in the end, it's all about sharing the town's unique history with its visitors.

- [Cary] We are definitely working hard to interpret not just the history of Camden, but the colonial history of the back country.

- [Stacey] So I think the most important thing that visitors can take away from here is how did we get where we're at right now as a country or government?

We take for granted that as long as we've all been alive, we've lived in the oldest democracy in the world, and things mostly work most of the time.

But we don't think very much about what it took to get there.

- [Narrator] Both Historic Camden and the folks at the Battle of Camden Reenactment make educational programs core parts of their missions.

- [Stacey] One of the activities we do, we have a bunch of colonial games.

So we'll teach, it's usually fourth graders, and we'll teach them colonial games.

And I'm always fascinated at how much they do love it.

And I would expect to hear, oh, this is boring and this isn't any fun.

- [Jack] I'll come in two or even three times a week because the school kids really, really wanna see the blacksmith.

I was a historian all my adult life, so I love being out here.

I love talking to the children, even the adults.

The adults are often as fascinated as the children are.

And gives me a chance to teach a little bit.

- [Narrator] Back at the Battle of Camden Reenactment, proceeds from the event and grants help fund a program called Liberty Live that targets fourth and eighth graders throughout South Carolina.

- [Sheri] Liberty Live is a mobile field study, field experience that we take out to the schools.

It covers American Revolutionary War history in South Carolina and also the back country history during the American Revolution.

- [Narrator] Besides the in-school programs, the Friday of each Battle of Camden event is reserved for student field trips, giving students a chance to dive deep into Revolutionary War history.

- [Sheri] In schools, they have so much history to cover in such a short span of time that sometimes they don't get to hit the American Revolution.

- [Narrator] Across South Carolina, there are numerous ways to experience America's Revolutionary War history from reenactments to sites like Historic Camden.

Another way is to take a road trip across South Carolina to enjoy the Liberty Trail, a project by the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust.

- [Rick] In the current plan, there's about 80 different Revolutionary War battlefields and sites here across South Carolina.

There are a lot of folks that think of South Carolina as a Civil War state.

South Carolina is a Revolutionary War state.

There were over 200 battles and engagements here, and I will challenge people to study South Carolina in the American Revolution, and not come away with the strong idea, like I have, that the war was won here in this state from 1780 to 1782.

- [Narrator] As the American Revolution and fight for independence continues to drift further into the past, it takes organizations like Historic Camden, Southern Campaign 1780, and the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust to keep history in the forefront.

- The story of Camden and the Battle of Camden are really special, the Southern campaign, all these things, and they're really untold stories.

- [Tom] We fought for liberty a long time ago, taxation without representation, to be able to live our lives the way we wanted to.

- [Cary] The involvement this year at the battlefield and seeing and starting to understand the Southern campaign and how important Historic Camden is, not just to the people of Camden or South Carolina, but nationally, this is the turning point of the American Revolution.

We like to say it is Cowpens 'cause it was a victory.

The reason Cowpens was a victory was the slaughter that happened at our battlefield.

- It's really important to know our history, to understand our past.

If we don't understand our past, then how do we go forward?

- [Narrator] Thank you for watching this episode of "Trail of History."

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.