NINETY SIX To ABOUT YOUR VISIT Ninety Six was designated a national historic National Historic Site • S.C. site on August 16, 1976. While there Is much archaeological and historical study, planning and INDIANS AND COLONIAL TRAVELERS, A development yet to be done In this new area of CAMPSITE ON THE CHEROKEE PATH the National Park System, we welcome you to Ninety Six and Invite you to enjoy the activities which are now available. FRONTIER SETTLERS, A REGION OF RICH This powder horn is illustrated with the only known LAND, A TRADING CENTER AND A FORT map of Lieutenant Colonel Grant's 1761 campaign The mile-long Interpretive trail takes about FOR PROTECTION AGAINST INDIAN against the Cherokees. Although it is unsigned, the one hour to walk and Includes several strenuous ATTACK elaborate detail and accuracy of the engraving indicate that the powder horn was inscribed by a soldier, grades. The earthworks and archaeological probably an officer, who marched with the expedition. remains here are fragile. Please do not disturb or damage them. RESIDENTS OF THE NINETY SIX DISTRICT, A Grant, leading a force of 2,800 regular and provincial COURTHOUSE AND JAIL FOR THE ADMINI­ troops, marched from Charlestown northwestward along The site abounds In animal and plant life, STRATION OF JUSTICE the Cherokee Path to attack the Indian towns. An including poisonous snakes, poison oak and Ivy. advanced supply base was established at Ninety Six. We suggest that you stay on the trail. The Grant campaign destroyed 15 villages in June and July, 1761. This operation forced the Cherokees to sue The Ninety Six National Historic Site Is located PATRIOTS AND LOYALISTS IN THE REVOLU­ for peace, thus ending the French and Indian War on the on Highway S.C. 248, two miles south of Ninety TION, A BONE OF CONTENTION Carolina frontier. Six, South Carolina. The site Is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. dally except December 25. LORD CORNWALLIS, THE KEY TO THE Illustration courtesy BACKCOUNTRY; TO GENERAL NATHANAEL of the Museum of the Cherokee. GREENE, A THWARTED SIEGE THE POST-REVOLUTIONARY WAR COMMU­ NITY, A NEW TOWN, A NEW NAME, A NEW BEGINNING BEFORE THE REVOLUTION Captain George Chicken, returning pathe" to a this theft precipitated a series of attacks and raids from Keowee, camped near Ninety Six trail along the that summer. Hostilities broke out again In 1759 where his men "killed a boflow" In Savannah River. when Cherokee warriors, probably Influenced by The explorer, Hernando De Soto, was one of the 1716. Striking southward the Captain Chicken's French agents, attacked and burned many Isolated first Europeans to travel through the Ninety Six next day, the party marched route may mark the farmsteads. Answering pleas for help, the royal region. The Spaniards marched from the Savannah "throw the woods, noe beginning of the fork governor marched on the Cherokee towns with River to the Cherokee towns In May, 1540. A part In the path which 1300 troops. At Robert Gouedy's plantation, the of their route followed a "hlghway"-probably the contributed to the expedition constructed Fort Ninety Six - "a true trail later called the Cherokee Path. commercial and military American Fort, a pitiful Palisade thrown round a Importance of Ninety Six. Bam." The fort withstood two Indian attacks In February and March, 1760, and served as a supply Over a century passed before the English The Carolina frontier was depot for later campaigns against the Cherokees founded a permanent colony at Charlestown In pushed westward from the Low who sued for peace In the fall of 1761. 1670. The colonists explored the Interior, Country as population Increased. establishing contact and trade with the Indians From 1735 until the Revolution, Settlement of the backcountry Increased during the late 1600's. settlers took up land, carved farms dramatically after the end of the "Cherokee and plantations from the hardwood Troubles." English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, French forests around Ninety Six and and German Immigrants came to farm or ply their Trade with the Cherokees, a large and powerful established ferries and mills on nearby trades. Indian nation In the Southern Appalachians, streams. became vital to South Carolina's prosperity within a few decades after the colony was settled. The Robert Gouedy opened a store here about main route to the Cherokee towns was the path The region, however, was still a frontier where 1752 after trading among the Cherokees who which ran northwestward from Charlestown to "squatting, poaching, and sneak thievery" were considered him a hard bargainer. Gouedy not only the mountains. commonplace and outlaw gangs committed served as a storekeeper, but also as a wholesaler, larceny, robbery and even murder with Impunity. money lender and planter. His store grew to be Consequently, in 1769, Ninety Six was established the largest In the backcountry, providing goods of Colonists who traveled Into the Carolina as the seat of one of seven Judicial districts every description - from needles to muskets - to backcountry gave descriptive names to landmarks created to more conveniently administer Justice In settlers and Itinerants alike. along the way and often used creeks as mile the province. A courthouse and jail were markers. Ninety Six received Its name because It constructed shortly thereafter. On the eve of the lay on a stream ninety-six miles down the Relations between the settlers and Indians were Revolution, these public buildings stood at the Cherokee Path from Keowee, the major Cherokee tolerable at best. A band of frontiersmen stole 331 center of a small, thriving village destined to be town In the Blue Ridge foothills. deerskins from a Cherokee hunting camp In 1751; caught up In the coming war. DURING THE REVOLUTION commanded by Joseph Robinson. The three-day patriot army routed the British force on January AFTER THE REVOLUTION battle, the first major engagement in the South, 17, 1781. Colonial Ninety Six lay in ruins during the final ended with an inconclusive truce, but a patriot Trouble between Great Britain and her American months of the Revolution. A new town, however, campaign in December 1775 destroyed all A few weeks later General Nathanael Greene colonies erupted at the end of the French and was laid out a short distance west of the original organized loyalist resistance in South Carolina. began his campaign against the British outposts Indian War in 1763. Many Americans resented in Carolina which lasted throughout the spring. site in 1783, the same year that the British British efforts to tax the colonies. The Tea Act of Greene laid siege to Ninety Six from May 22-June formally recognized our independence. Many 1773 brought open rebellion in Boston, Annapolis Patriot control of the province was not 19, 1781 with about 900 Continental and militia residents of this community [renamed Cambridge and Charlestown. When Parliament reacted with threatened again until 1780 when the British troops from Delaware, Maryland, the Carolinas in 1787] were newcomers, replacing the loyalists political and military force, the American turned their attention to the Southern colonies. and Virginia. Under the direction of Lieutenant who had fled as refugees. Revolution began. After the fall of Charlestown in May, 1780, Colonel Thaddeus Kosciuszko, siege trenches and British and loyalist forces quickly seized control a mine were dug and artillery and rifle batteries Cambridge boasted a population of lawyers, As Great Britain and the colonies drifted toward of South Carolina. raised. On June 18 Greene ordered an assault on doctors, teachers, merchants, shopkeepers and war, American sentiments were divided. Those the Star Redoubt and a vigorous push against the skilled tradesmen to serve the surrounding farms colonists who favored independence were "stockade fort on the right." The attack failed and and plantations. The town flourished under the patriots; others who opposed a break with Lord Charles Cornwallis regarded Ninety Six as Greene, threatened by a British relief column of new republic until it was stripped of its England and supported the King were loyalists. the key to the backcountry, stating that it "must 2,000 regulars under Lord Francis Rawdon, courthouse in 1800. Cambridge began to decline, be kept at all events and I think no reasonable withdrew toward Charlotte. losing business and trade to rival communities. expense should be spared-besides Georgia An epidemic struck in 1816 and the town gained a Although the Ninety Six grand jury adopted depends entirely upon it." Consequently, Ninety reputation as a unhealthy place to live. Within a resolutions critical of British policy, many Although the American siege was thwarted, Six was heavily fortified and garrisoned by loyalist decade or two Cambridge was little more than a residents of the area were "quite comfortable Ninety Six was isolated, and Lord Rawdon ordered veterans from New York, New Jersey, and South memory. under British rule" and were "passively, if not the post evacuated. The garrison burned the Carolina. actively disaffected from the Patriot cause." village, destroyed the fortifications, assembled Militia Colonel Thomas Fletchall, Major Joseph loyalist refugees and marched for Charlestown. As you walk the trail through the site, think of Robinson, Robert Cunningham, and Thomas The post was used as a recruiting depot for The last British stronghold in the interior was those who lived and worked here almost two Brown emerged as leaders of the backcountry loyalist militia commanded by Major Patrick abandoned. centuries ago. Remember that despite their loyalists. Ferguson. Marching to join Cornwallis in courage and perseverance, the community they Charlotte, Ferguson's loyalist command was The next and final siege of the war took place established disappeared. The memory of the The arrest of Robert Cunningham by South crushed in the Battle of King's Mountain on four months later at Yorktown.