Dunham’s Bluff: Control of the Rivers

Dunham’s Bluff: Control of the Rivers. . From the time Col. Francis Marion took control of the Williamsburg Militia in August 1780 until the following spring, a network of camps in the area where the Great Pee Dee, Little Pee Dee, and Lynches Rivers meet formed a base of operations for his campaign to undermine the British occupation of South Carolina. From here, Marion attacked vital supply lines between Charleston and Camden and worked to neutralize the area’s loyalist militia forces., Sometime in early 1781, Marion ordered Col. John Ervin, a leader of the Whig militia on Britton’s Neck, to construct a redoubt, or earthen fortification, here at Dunham’s Bluff. The redoubt served as a lookout post to monitor traffic on the Great Pee Dee and as a defensive position against light opposition. A large campsite located a short distance from here housed a garrison of militiamen., A generation after the Revolutionary War, South Carolina’s official geographer wrote that “by having control of the rivers, [Marion] could be abundantly supplied with provisions, and his post completely inaccessible except by water.” While probably exaggerating the extent of Marion’s strength, the statement does reflect the way he attempted to use the natural environment to his advantage ~ and the strategic importance of the area’s river “highways” to all sides of the conflict in the South Carolina Lowcountry.