Conservationists Protect Revolutionary War Site From The Herald, December 8, 2000, page 1. Andrew J. Skerritt CAMDEN - With the rapid residential and industrial development throughout the state, there is a race to save the state's Revolutionary War sites. Lancaster-based Katawba Valley Land Trust is teaming up with Bowater to preserve the site of one of the Continental forces' most disastrous defeats during the Revolution. The nonprofit group has signed a 50-year conservation easement with the major timber company to prevent residential and industrial development at the 290-acre Camden Battlefield. The easement allows educational, conservation, forestry and agricultural use of the land, located on Flat Rock Road between Heath Springs and Camden. "The land trust is assuming a lot of stewardship responsibilities," said Lindsay Pettus, chairman of the Katawba Valley Land Trust, which plans to create a Camden Battlefield advisory council to recommend ways to best use the site. "With help from historical groups in the Camden area, we will be able to achieve some nice goals," said Pettus, who estimates it will take a while before plans take shape. "This is a long process," he said. "This property has been there for 220 years." The Battle of Camden was fought on Aug. 16, 1780, and was one of a series of military setbacks suffered by American troops during the battle for independence. After the battle, there were questions about the behavior of the American commanding officer, Gen. Horatio Gates, and he was reassigned. Under the leadership of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, Gate's replacement, Continental forces were able to drive the British from South Carolina and Georgia within two years. Although the Continental forces lost at Camden, the battle is considered, along with Kings Mountain and Cowpens, one of the major revolutionary battles in the state. But while there are public parks at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, the Camden site is privately owned. "People have been trying to preserve this site since 1912," said Ken Driggers, executive director of the Palmetto Conservation Foundation. A six-acre portion of the battlefield on Flat Rock Road is now owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution, who have placed a historic marker there. Nearby stands a memorial to Baron DeKalb, a European officer who served under Gen. Gates and who died of his wounds several days after the battle. The site also is a National Historic Landmark. The Bowater section of the battlefield straddles Flat Rock Road. Preservation of the Camden Battlefield is part of the Palmetto Conservation Foundation's Cradle of Democracy initiative that interprets and makes available information concerning the Revolutionary War in South Carolina. The state Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism also participates in the project. Last month, the foundation announced plans to work with members of the S. C. Forestry Association to preserve battlefield sites across the state. At the same time, the Columbia-based organization signed an agreement with Willamette Industries of Fort Mill and International Paper Co. to preserve Blackstock Battleground in Union County. Timber companies own about 50 of the more than 250 Revolutionary War sites in South Carolina. The Camden Battlefield preservation easement will protect the historic, natural, ecological, open space, and scenic features of the land so that the historical landscape can be commemorated and interpreted. "We have certain stewardship responsibilities to try to protect historic, cultural and environmentally sensitive sites," said Bill Bartle, manager for Bowater's Woodland operations. Bowater, which controls about 175,000 acres of timberland in South Carolina, has owned the Camden site for more than 30 years. As the company harvests the timber on the site, they plan to replace the loblolly pines with long leaf pines, the kind of trees that were growing there in 1780. But the easement agreement goes further than protecting the site from residential and industrial development. The agreement clears the way for archaeologists to unearth the history buried at the site and to share the history with students and tourists. "The ultimate goal is to have an interpretive site and an education facility that will be open and used by the public," Bartle said.

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