Combahee Ferry, South Carolina

COMBAHEE FERRY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 27 August 1782. Also known as the battle at Chehaw Point. During the final stage of operations, the light brigade of General Mordecai Gist, which had been organized to oppose British attempts to forage for their besieged garrison of Charleston, was ordered from Stono Ferry to attack the enemy force on the south side of the Combahee (about forty miles southwest of Charleston). Around Combahee Ferry the British had about eighteen sailing craft of various sizes, three hundred regulars, and two hundred Loyalists. Gist placed a howitzer at Chehaw Point, twelve miles below the ferry, to cut off any retreat down-river. When Gist learned that the enemy planned to move down the river under cover of darkness, he ordered Colonel John Laurens to march quickly to Chehaw Point with his infantry element of the light brigade (comprising Lee's infantry, the two remaining companies of Delaware Continentals, one hundred men from other Continental units, and the dismounted dragoons of the Third Virginia). The British in their turn learned of Laurens's advance; they then landed three hundred men on the north bank above Chehaw Point and formed an ambuscade in the tall grass. Marching straight into this trap, Laurens was killed and twenty of his men wounded. The American advance guard fell back on the rest of Gist's advancing column, and the British followed. Gist was unable to drive the enemy from the line it then formed in the woods, since his cavalry could not operate in the rough, wooded terrain and the American infantry lacked the strength for a successful attack without cavalry support. (The cavalry element of Gist's light brigade, which was commanded by Colonel George Baylor, was drawn from Lee's Legion and the Third and Fourth Virginia.) The enemy withdrew without loss and continued its foraging. Gist later attacked two armed galleys at Port Royal Ferry, capturing one and driving off the other. His corps then rejoined the main army.

SEE ALSO Southern Campaigns of Nathanael Greene.

                              revised by Michael Bellesiles