"Obstinate and Strong"

"Obstinate and Strong". . , Brigadier General Francis Marion and Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee arrived at Fort Motte (Mt. Joseph Plantation) on May 6, 1781. Similar to what had previously occurred 20 miles to the southeast at Fort Watson, they were faced with an outpost that would be challenging to capture. Defended by 184 British, Hessian (German), and royalist soldiers, the outpost was described by General Marion as "obstinate and strong" in a letter to Major General Nathanael Greene later that day. Knowing a headlong rush would likely end in a disastrous failure, Marion and Lee opted for a lengthy siege., Over the next several days, patriot riflemen kept up a constant fire on the "fort" while enslaved workers from nearby plantations were forced to dig siege trenches. Finding it necessary to keep their heads down due to the rain of bullets from Marion and Lee's forces, the fort's defenders were unable to return fire. On May 10, with the trenches just a few yards from the fort's walls, Lee called on the British commander Captain Donald McPherson to surrender. McPherson refused. With the offer rejected, both sides expected the siege to drag on. However, both sides soon received word that British reinforcements were coming down from Camden. That evening, with enemy campfires visible in the distance, Marion and Lee realized that they needed a new strategy to end the stalemate., On May 11, the two American commanders went to the nearby house where Rebecca Motte had been staying since the beginning of the siege. There, Lee told Mrs. Motte their plan: in order to force the British to surrender, they would need to set fire to her home. To their surprise, not only did she give the plan her blessing, but she also gave them the means to put their plan into action. Using arrows Mrs. Motte had in her possession, the Americans were able to set fire to the roof of her home. With the roof ablaze and accurate patriot rifle fire making it impossible for the British to extinguish the fire without getting shot, the fort's defenders were out of options. On May 12, 1781, exactly one year to the day after Charleston fell to the British, the defenders surrendered Fort Motte, helping to loosen the British grip on South Carolina. After this victory, Mrs. Motte prepared a meal in her newly liberated home and invited the American and British officers to dine with her., (caption) , Legend states that Rebecca Motte, a devoted patriot and supporter of the American Revolution, provided Marion and Lee with a bow and arrow to set her house on fire. While several accounts agree that arrows were indeed used, they differ on how they were launched. Most likely a musket, fired like a mortar, was used to launch the arrow towards the fort to set the house ablaze. The fire on the roof caused the British defenders to surrender so quickly that once hostilities ceased, the flames were put out and there was little lasting damage to the house. A few months following the siege of her home, Rebecca Motte decided to move to another of her plantations located along the Santee River.