#combahee river

1. The Americans are holding position at the ferry. Laurens starts from this location and circles around down river to catch the British in an ambush.

2. Stock's Plantation house, when Laurens spends the night (apparently quite ill and/or entertaining ladies; our boy contains multitudes).

3. At 3am, Laurens sets off again towards Tar Bluff.

4. This is probably the road that's now referred to as Laurens' Run, on the final approach.

A letter from Otho Holland Williams to Gen. Nathanael Greene on Oct 2,1782, mentioned our dear Laurens. It’s misspelled as Laurence, which wasn’t uncommon. 

Isn’t it lovely, all alone?

Heart made of glass, my mind of stone

Tear me to pieces, skin to bone

June 2, 1863: Harriet Tubman Led Armed Raid, Rescued Over 700 Slaves

June 2, 1863: In the early morning hours, Harriet Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore. Once ashore, the Union troops set fire to the plantations, destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies. (more…)

“Kosciuszko was disgusted when he saw the rebel soldiers strip Laurens’s dead body of valuables and divide the possessions among themselves. The Pole wrote to Greene saying that it was “mean, low thinking,” to take Laurens’s belongings, and that “the Devil himself would not take from him.” Kosciuszko followed up with another letter to Greene suggesting that Laurens’s clothes be given to his black aides because the “two negroes belonging to L.C. Laurence … are nacked they want shirts, jackets, Breeches and their skin can bear as well as ours good things.“

John Laurens, Combahee River, August 27, 2017 1782

On August 27, 1782, one of the last fights in the Revolutionary War took place along the Combahee River. The British made an attempt at foraging, which the Americans, headed by General Gist and Colonel John Laurens opposed. Laurens, the son of Henry Laurens, a former president of the Continental Congress, died in the action.