South Carolina – Musgrove Mill

The Musgrove Mill State Historic Site in Clinton, South Carolina preserves and interprets the Battle of Musgrove’s Mill, which took place August 19, 1780 (a month-and-a-half before the Battle at Kings Mountain). The Visitor Center contains an exhibit that explains the battle using a topographical map with red and blue lights showing the Loyalist and Patriot troops’ locations during the battle.

The battle map is under glass and hard to photograph.

This image from the web is slightly clearer than our picture.

THE BATTLE

Patriot militia commanders Isaac Shelby, James Williams and Elijah Clarke with their 200 mounted militiamen intended to attack a Loyalist camp with about 200 troops guarding the ford of the Enoree River at Musgrove’s Mill. They sent out scouts who were spotted by a small Loyalist patrol resulting in a skirmish. Meanwhile the Patriots got word that the 200 Loyalists had been reinforced the previous night by an additional 100 Loyalist militia and 200 Provincial Regulars. That meant the 200 Patriots were actually up against 500 – not good odds. To attack their camp seemed like a dumb idea and to retreat with their wearied horses also seemed like a bad plan. They instantly developed another strategy. They rushed to build a make-shift defensive barrier of logs and brush along a ridge a half mile from the ford. The majority spread out along this 300-yard long, semi-circular line with the horses hidden from view, while about 25 mounted men headed toward the camp to entice the Loyalists back to the Patriots’ line.

1 square ~ 25 men

It worked. The unsuspecting Loyalists fell for the trap.

The fighting resulted in 67 British dead, many wounded, and 70 taken prisoner. The Patriots ended up with 4 dead and 12 wounded.

It wasn’t until at the end of the battle that they learned of the devastating loss for the Colonial troops at Camden just three days previous, but their success here may have fueled their will to fight two months later at Kings Mountain.

THE STATE PARK’S BATTLEFIELD TRAIL

Being a very hot day we opted for just one of the two trails at the State Park: the one through the battle area. Signs described the battle along this mostly wooded path.

The trail also passes a little waterfall called Horseshoe Falls.

We had a nice walk in the woods while we learned about this Revolutionary War battle.

South Carolina – Ninety Six

On a day off we visited Ninety Six, a National Historic Site in Ninety Six, SC.

Yes. That’s the name of the town! No one knows for sure how the town got its name, but one theory proposes that traders thought this intersection of roads was 96 miles from the Cherokee trading village of Keowee. In 1751 Robert Gouedy opened a successful trading post here. Later when tensions developed with the Cherokees, they built a stockade around Gouedy’s barn which became Fort Ninety Six.

By the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Ninety Six was a prosperous frontier village with people swearing allegiance to both sides of the Loyalist vs. Patriot divide. Then on November 19, 1775 approximately 1,900 Loyalists attacked 600 Patriots starting the Revolution’s first Southern land battle. Days of fighting led to a truce and established this as a Loyalist stronghold, but incidents of tension continued throughout the War.

British commander Lt John Cruger took command of Fort Ninety Six in 1780 improving its defenses by making it into a star shape and reinforcing the earthen walls.

this depiction on a sign shows

the star fort & the square village behind

In May 1781 General Nathanael Greene, commander of the southern Continental Army, started what ended up a 28-day siege on this well-fortified fort. They devised a trench system to draw nearer to the fort and one night they erected a tower that could look down on part of the fort, but the fort was impenetrable and Loyalist support troops were approaching. A last minute attempt to breach the fort led to Continental casualties and the siege was aborted. Later the Loyalists abandoned the fort and town and burned it so the Continental Army couldn’t use it.

Now all that remains are the earthworks showing the shape of the fort and some reconstructed replicas.

image from www.nps.gov/nisi/learn/historyculture/the-star-fort.htm

The park has a video, tiny museum, and several trails. We took the one-mile Walking Trail that passes the fort and town sites.

tower replica

At the time of the Revolution their frontier town was fortunate to have a courthouse and brick jail to take care of bandits that roamed the territory.

the Logan Log House, a typical 18th century home

 

We had an interesting outing learning the history of Ninety Six.

South Carolina – Kings Mountain – Eclipse

South Carolina is one of the states that experienced the path of totality for the solar eclipse.

Kings Mountain National Military Park is about an hour’s drive from the path and we happened to be scheduled to work that day.

The week before the eclipse people called our park looking for eclipse glasses and the park gave them out until their supply got low and they had to save the remainder for the actual day of the eclipse. Also there were lots of extra visitors on the weekend before the eclipse that were stopping by on their way to the path of totality. Two parks in the path, Ninety Six National Historic Site and Musgrove Mill State Historic Site, had eclipse programs that booked up long before the event.

The eclipse coverage was 98% in our park, so some people chose to come here rather than deal with the traffic in the path of totality.

This one guy made a viewer using a tripod and a Pringles can and his wife had a perfect shirt for the day.

Here Wilma and Ranger Katherine try out an activity where a hole in a cut-out of the shape of South Carolina shows the eclipse shape.

If you look carefully, you might be able to see the hole that projects the eclipse image as this guy tries it out.

Even the shadows created a cool pattern.

South Carolina – Kings Mountain – Passes and Glasses

We arrived at Kings Mountain National Military Park ready to start our new adventure volunteering.

 

Kings Mountain National Military Park’s Visitor Center

We started out working in the Visitor Center, which has been very busy for two main reasons: passes and glasses.

SENIOR PASSES

The National Parks offer several types of passes. 

US citizens 62 years old or older are eligible to purchase the Senior Pass, a lifetime pass that enables the card holder to wave entrance fees at many parks. Recent legislation upped the fee from $10 to $80 effective August 28, 2017. This made national news and people are flocking to their nearest park to obtain a Senior Pass while it’s still $10. The parks are barely keeping up with demand for these passes and Kings Mountain National Military Park ran out of cards. When they ran out, they took down names and phone numbers of some 200 people. So Barbara’s first job at Kings Mountain was to call people on the list telling them a shipment of cards came in and Bill’s first job was directing the steady stream of seniors as they came in the door. It’s a great deal if one plans to visit parks with fees.

ECLIPSE GLASSES

We’ve also had a steady stream of visitors for eclipse glasses. 

The path of the total solar eclipse on Monday, August 21, 2017 goes through South Carolina about an hour away from Kings Mountain. Kings Mountain National Military Park ordered a large supply of glasses, but did not anticipate the overwhelming demand. Evidently someone posted on their personal Facebook page that Kings Mountain had glasses and it went viral, so more people came to the park then were anticipated.

So despite thinking we arrived at a quiet time, many people have come to the park and we have been busy.

Massachusetts – Kings Mountain in Massachusetts

Barbara stopped by the local library for the first time in our new town in Massachusetts. The old, classic library with stained glass, tall wooden shelves and no air conditioning seems to have a small collection of books. 

A handful of books were propped for display. Barbara did a double take when she noticed one of the books which was titled King’s Mountain. She picked it up thinking it can’t be the same Kings Mountain that we’re heading for in 8 days, but when she read the back of the book she realized it indeed was. The book by Sharyn McCrum is a historical fiction account of the battle. 

Barbara checked out the book and read it. It’s hard to believe that this book that was not a #1 NY Times best seller and was not a famous historical event and did not happen anywhere near Massachusetts and wasn’t even one of those beachy summer reading books happened to be one of the few featured books in the library! In fact, we are pretty sure the book isn't even in print any longer.

We are indeed heading to Kings Mountain National Military Park in South Carolina in just a few days for a three month volunteer stint. We visited the park back in April and wrote about that visit in a previous post. Now in the midst of getting settled in to our new home, we are also preparing for our time at Kings Mountain.

The National Park rangers lent us some books on the battle which we read.

They included a concise summary of the battle, a collection of eyewitness accounts, and what is considered the classic historical account, a well-researched history written in the 19th century.*  Interestingly the author of the historical fiction book used the latter two books for her research. Barbara also read through our friends’ blog posts on their experience volunteering at Kings Mountain (one of their posts), which offered invaluable insight into the area, the history, and volunteering.

In the meantime we’ve scrambled to get things completed with the house. We closed on the house three weeks before our scheduled departure, so most of our focus has been on moving, unpacking and setting things up. We tried to schedule all remaining work on the builders’ punch list to be completed before we left. Hopefully all will be in place before we leave.

among other things, Bill installed the mailbox & blinds,

Barbara watered bushes,

and the contractor replaced the damaged toilet

Now we need to buy some Dockers and hiking boots. Our Kings Mountain adventure is about to begin.

[On a side note: we added the ability to have email notifications when this blog is updated. See “Follow by Email” at the bottom of our right column and submit your email address if you would like to receive notifications.]

* Wilma Dykeman, With Fire and Sword; The Battle of Kings Mountain 1780, Robert M. Dunkerly, The Battle of Kings Mountain Eyewitness Accounts, and Lyman C. Draper, Kings Mountain and Its Heroes.

Massachusetts – A New House Part 2

It’s official. We own a house.

FINAL CONSTRUCTION  

When we put an offer on the house it had 4 weeks to completion, so we tagged on a few last minute features. 

a patio

a concrete pad for our trailer

We scrambled to pick out appliances, find mirrors, and complete the needed paperwork while the contractor scrambled to finish the house by our closing date.

THE HOUSE  

The house is a 3-bedroom ranch with one-floor living, master bedroom on the opposite side of the house as the other bedrooms, and an open great room with a kitchen, eating area, and living room.

the floorplan

(the actual house varies slightly)

Had we designed the house ourselves we would have done a few things differently, but for the most part the house meets our needs and seems to be a good plan for this stage of our lives. We also appreciate the workmanship. Much new construction seems shoddy, but this contractor did quality work with nice features.

The location isn’t quite as convenient to our daughters and friends, but we can still visit them in a day trip and we now have a new area to explore: the Pioneer Valley (the valley formed by the Connecticut River). We’re also close to Amherst with its colleges.

MOVING  
Most of our possessions sat for a year in two storage units: a large 15x30’ unit and a small 5x5’ climate-controlled unit. We purged quite a bit before putting things in storage, but it still seemed like a lot when we made trips back and forth to the storage unit. Bill moved most everything on his own with some help from Barbara and a little ingenuity. He rented a UHaul trailer (cheaper than a truck), carried what he could, made a ramp, and used a dolly and hand truck for heavier items.

ramp & dolly

Then for the few remaining very heavy things we got help from our friends, Matt and Melissa. What a welcome sight to see the storage unit empty.

our storage unit before and after

SETTLING IN 

Now we are unpacking boxes, cleaning everything, putting furniture in place, and installing things like a mailbox and shower rods, transforming what was a construction zone to a comfortable home. Lots of work, but it’s shaping up.

On our first morning in our house, Barbara spotted a fox in the backyard. The next day she saw two deer with antlers and a hawk. A nice welcome from the local residents! We also met a few of our human neighbors.

 

Our first overnight guest was Kate’s dog, Tina, who we watched while Kate and her boyfriend traveled. I think she liked the place.