Battle of Fishing Creek

The Battle of Fishing Creek was fought on the same day as Musgrove Mill — one of the most dramatic examples of the war's simultaneous triumphs and disasters in the Carolina backcountry. Thomas Sumter had been conducting highly effective raids and had accumulated about 800 men along with 150 British prisoners and a supply train captured from the British. The army was resting in the midday heat, sentinels posted carelessly, men bathing in the creek, horses unsaddled.

Tarleton had been pursuing Sumter since Camden. He pushed his cavalry with characteristic reckless speed, covering 23 miles in 90-degree heat. When he approached Sumter's position, he captured a patrol without raising the alarm and launched an immediate surprise attack. The effect was total. Sumter himself was in his shirtsleeves resting under a wagon. He escaped on a saddled horse — one of very few who got away. The rest were killed, captured, or scattered. The 150 British prisoners were recaptured. The supply train was retaken.

Sumter's army, painstakingly built over months, was destroyed in minutes. Yet 'Old Wagoner' Sumter was famously resilient. Within weeks he was rebuilding his force and conducting raids again — demonstrating the partisan spirit that ultimately wore down British power in South Carolina more effectively than any single pitched battle.