As South Carolina and other states commemorate 250 years since the Revolutionary War, few places are closer to that history than the area served by the Upper Savannah Land Trust (USLT).
“We are within 50 miles of 100 Revolutionary War battles,” Durant Ashmore, historical consultant and battlefield preservationist, told those who attended the recent USLT annual meeting. "There's only one other place in America that can make that statement. And that's Charleston,” Ashmore said at the meeting held at Edgewood Community Center in Ninety Six.
Ashmore discussed several major battles within USLT’s main service area of Abbeville, Anderson, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry and Saluda counties.
The Land Trust has helped protect 60,140 acres of land with more than 150 easement projects in the region since its inception in 2000.
The annual meeting began in the afternoon when Ashmore led a walking tour of the Ninety Six National Historic Site where there were two battles, including the first land skirmish of the Revolution south of New England (1775) and the 28-day siege of Star Fort in May-June 1781. It was the longest battle in the entire Revolutionary War.
USLT Executive Director Wade Harrison also led an afternoon van tour, showing three land trust conservation easement projects adjacent to the Star Fort site, highlighting their historical, ecological and agricultural importance.
Another major battleground site in the region protected by the USLT is the Hammond’s Old Store property in Laurens County south of Clinton where the American Patriots scored a decisive victory on Dec. 29, 1780, which helped spark them to an even bigger triumph less than three weeks later at the Battle of Cowpens.
The 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War served as the theme for the annual meeting.
“The 250th anniversary being marked is not just July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence,” Harrison said. “It's the anniversary of a long conflict that began here in 1775 and continued for at least seven years.”
Harrison’s remarks were illustrated by a map of USLT’s conservation easements that fall within the Old Ninety Six District, on which 12 different Revolutionary War battles occurred either directly on or quite near an easement property.
“Great drama has played out on these lands over those Revolutionary War years. Combatants on foot and horseback traveled up and down old roads and trails, many of which we still use today. But others are but traces in the woods,” Harrison said. “Not only was blood spilled in battle ... but there were also councils held, treaties negotiated, pivotal decisions made in farmhouses, under tents, in sprawling encampments, in muster fields and battlefields that today are growing pine trees or peaceful pasture grass. So part of our mission at the USLT is to protect such places and to better preserve their stories.”
Ashmore said his trusted source “Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina” lists 500 battles, skirmishes and related events that occurred across the state.
“That's more than any state in the nation can claim,” Ashmore said. “There are 17 sites in Laurens County. I encourage every one of you to know where these battles were, these events that were in your own particular county and I want you to become caretakers of these battlefields and event locations as well. Because this is our legacy, folks.”
Ashmore said researchers are still discovering and interpreting battlefield locations across South Carolina, noting that sites such as Hammond’s Old Store were only identified in recent years. He credited ongoing field research efforts with continuing to uncover new locations.
“We did not know where Hammond’s Old Store was three years ago,” Ashmore said, crediting the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust. “The field research team spent five weekends investigating this site with their metal detectors. We found rifle balls, musket balls, shotgun pellets, buckles, buttons, all their crew accoutrements of a revolutionary war campsite. We are discovering new places on a very regular basis and we're actively searching for several of them, as we speak.”
During the business section of the meeting, USLT Associate Director Becky Brown described conservation easements totaling almost 1,700 acres closed by USLT in 2025. These included three in Greenwood County and two in Saluda County. Two of the five easements are working farmland, with another adding protection along an important section of Cuffeytown Creek.
