Snow Campaign

The Snow Campaign was a winter offensive by South Carolina Patriot militia under Colonel Richard Richardson that swept through the backcountry suppressing Loyalist uprisings. Following a summer and fall of rising tensions between Patriots and Loyalists in the South Carolina interior, Richardson assembled about 2,500 men and marched through the backcountry in bitter cold and heavy snow — giving the campaign its name.

The operation captured Loyalist leaders including Colonel Robert Cunningham, who had been a central figure in organizing Loyalist resistance, and dispersed the Loyalist militias that had been preparing to join British forces. Many Loyalists took oaths of loyalty to the Patriot government to avoid arrest.

The Snow Campaign secured Patriot control of the South Carolina interior for over a year — until the fall of Charleston in 1780 allowed the British to reassert authority in the backcountry. It demonstrated the effectiveness of rapid offensive operations against Loyalist networks before they could organize and established the pattern of partisan warfare that would dominate the southern theater throughout the war.