This post covers a trip on which I first explored a national park and then undertook a historical scavenger hunt. Feel free to accompany me on one or both of my adventures. The photo to the left is a cypress “swamp” view from Congaree National Park.
Clicking on the images in this post will enlarge them for a better viewing experience.
Recently, I visited the largest intact area of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the southeastern U.S. and learned about the critical role this environment played in defeating the British during the Revolutionary War.
Congaree National Park is located in central South Carolina. This region was the traditional home of the Congaree people who subsisted on the region’s vegetation and abundant fish and game until they were decimated by a smallpox epidemic brought by European settlers in the 1700s.
The rivers of South Carolina were once bordered by more than a million acres of old-growth hardwood floodplain forest.
European settlers found the land between the Congaree and Wateree rivers to have particularly rich soil that was ideal for farming.
The news of this rich resource brought increased settlement of the area resulting in the clearing of large tracts of forestland and the building of flood control dikes to accommodate farming and livestock raising.
In the late 1960s, timber prices rose sharply prompting area landowners to increase the logging of the dwindling old-growth. A group of local citizens, concerned that the last of this remaining natural resource would be lost forever, began a campaign to have the Congaree River floodplain forest protected. This protection came to fruition in 1976 when Congress established the Congaree Swamp National Monument. After creation, this monument earned a number of additional world-wide designations including International Biosphere Reserve (1983) and Globally Important Bird Area (2001). In 2003, Congress changed the monument’s designation, making Congaree the 57th U.S. national park. Today, only about 12,000 of that original million acres of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest remains with 11,000 of those acres preserved inside Congaree National Park.
The park occupies a 41 square mile area in the southern part of central South Carolina only 18 miles southeast of Columbia, the state’s capitol.
Of the 63 national parks in the U.S., Congaree ranks 57th in size at 26,692 acres.
The largest park in the system is Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve at 13.2 million acres (larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the country of Switzerland all combined!). The smallest park is Gateway Arch National Park in Missouri at 192.8 acres.
In 2022, Congaree National Park ranked 52nd in the number of people visiting at 204,522. Compare this with the over 12.9 million visitors at the most visited park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
This statistic is surprising since Congaree is not located in a remote area and is only 200 miles from Great Smoky Mountains NP.
Almost all of the ten parks less visited than Congaree are in remote locations or are challenging to access. Congaree’s lower visitation numbers make it an ideal place to go if you want to be away from the crowds. During my visit, I saw only six other people while exploring the park on the “most popular” trails!
When Congaree achieved national park status, the unappealing word “swamp” was removed from its name, and the number of visitors to the park increased significantly. The name change, however, was not just a way to make the park seem more attractive.
Technically speaking, Congaree is not a swamp. Rather, it is a floodplain forest. A swamp ecosystem contains standing water throughout most, if not all, of the year. Although, the Congaree and Wateree Rivers flood the forest about ten times a year, it does have periods of being dry. These floods carry nutrients and sediments that nourish the ecosystem giving it the rich soil that originally attracted settlers to the area. This nutrient-rich environment combined with the long, warm growing season have supported the growth of unusually large trees.
Although these trees do not rival the size of the redwoods and sequoias of the west, the trees in Congaree are some of the tallest in the eastern part of the country. This forest has one of the highest canopies of temperate deciduous forest found anywhere in the world.
Congaree is home to a long list of “champion” trees, those determined to be the largest of their species according to a point system formula incorporating trunk circumference, tree height and crown spread. The National Register of Champion Trees is a list of the “largest” trees of different species found in the United States. There is also a list of State Champion Trees. Of course, these lists change as trees die or new specimens are discovered. Congaree National Park is home to 6 National Champion Trees and 25 State Champion Trees (biggest trees in South Carolina). It is estimated that for every three square miles in the park, there are two champion trees.
The frequent flooding that occurs in Congaree makes it an ideal habitat for the bald cypress, a slow-growing, long-lived deciduous conifer. These large trees often reach heights up to 120 feet. They have massive, buttressed tapering trunks. The largest bald cypress in the park is the General Greene Tree (named after Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene) having a base circumference of 30 feet. Unfortunately, I did not get to see this tree as there is no official trail leading to it.
One unique feature of the cypress is its iconic woody projections called “knees” that extend above the surface of the water (foreground in the photo above). Although the function of these knees has not been definitively determined, it is thought that they provide extra stabilization and support for the tree.
The cypress develops both a taproot as well as a system of horizontal near-surface roots that extend outward 20-50 feet before growing downward. Unfortunately, cypress bark is thin and not very fire resistant. These trees produce cone fruits, packed with seeds, that serve as a food source for wild turkeys, waterfowl, wading birds and squirrels. The upper canopy of cypresses provide watering places for a variety of birds and mammals as well as breeding sites for frogs, salamanders and reptiles. The Spanish moss that often drapes from cypress trees provides a foraging place for some bird species.
One can explore the biodiversity of the park on about 25 miles of largely flat designated hiking trails as well as by paddling a canoe or kayak. The map to the right shows the hiking trails most accessible from the park entrance and visitor center. Those I hiked are highlighted in yellow. Unfortunately, I did not have time to kayak in the park.
The first thing you should do when exploring Congaree is to walk the 2.6-mile Boardwalk Trail that begins near the visitor center. As the name implies, it is an accessible boardwalk route through cypress and tupelo trees that are often growing in a “swamp-like” environment. Be aware, however, that during some flooding events, sections of the boardwalk may become submerged.
The Weston Lake Trail is a moderately-rated 4.5-mile trail that skirts Weston Lake and Cedar Creek through an old-growth cypress and tupelo forest. This trail provides an excellent environment for seeing wildlife such as deer, raccoons, wild hogs, woodpeckers and snakes. I did see several woodpeckers, and fortunately, I ran into no snakes!
Otters, wading birds and turtles frequent the lake, and if you are lucky, you might spy a wood duck on Cedar Creek. Although I was unsuccessful at finding a wild hog, I did watch a snapping turtle and this yellow-bellied slider as they swam in Weston Lake.
The following is an excellent NPS video that will show you the park through the eyes of local veterans who find serenity and healing when kayaking the park’s waters.
If you are ever in the vicinity of Congaree National Park, I recommend that you take the opportunity to visit even if you have only a few hours. If you have an entire day, you can experience quite a bit of the park.
*Read on if you wish to join me on my journey through history*
This trip to Congaree was not my first time to visit South Carolina. In fact, as a child, we drove through South Carolina a couple of times a year on our way to visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in southern Florida. Today, you can travel from Canada to Miami via the longest north-south interstate highway, I-95, but that was not the case back then.
In the 1950s and 60s, the main north-south route on the eastern seaboard was U.S. 301. This was a somewhat famous route as evidenced by the brochure above although it was never as famous as the iconic Route 66. When my family was traveling this route, neither Congaree National Park nor even the national monument existed. I was quite fond of the drive between Manning and Orangeburg in South Carolina on this route because a television series that I particularly enjoyed took place in this area.
In 1959-60 Walt Disney Studios aired an eight episode miniseries called the Swamp Fox as part of the weekly show Walt Disney Presents. The show starred Leslie Nielson as the hero Francis Marion. I was really young when this show aired, but, for some reason, I still clearly remember being fascinated by it and its hero. I’ve embedded a segment from the introductory episode for your viewing enjoyment. The entire series can be watched on Keeping Walt in Disney on YouTube.
After visiting Congaree, I spent part of a day touring along U.S. 301 (yellow highlighted route on the today’s map above) from north of Manning to Orangeburg. It turns out that I have more of a connection to this region than just enjoying a TV show!
One of my hobbies is tracing my genealogical roots. My maternal ancestors settled in Quebec during the 1600s while my paternal ones came to the southern American colonies about 1700. It is one branch of my paternal ancestors that inspired me to learn about the crucial role this region of South Carolina played in determining the outcome of our fight for independence.
A Little Historical Background
In 1598 King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes which ended the French Wars of Religion granting official tolerance for Protestantism. Henry IV had been a Calvinist but converted to the predominant Catholicism after his ascent to the throne. In 1655, King Louis XIV revoked the edict depriving French Protestants of civil and religious liberties and subjecting them to unrestricted persecution by the Roman Catholic Church. This caused at least 400,000 Huguenots (the French Calvinists) to flee from France including my 7th great-grandfather Claude Philippe de Richebourg, a Huguenot minister, who escaped to Great Britain before migrating to the Santee River region in the South Carolina colony.
Claudius Richebourg, the youngest of Claude Philippe’s five sons and my 6th great-grandfather, fought in the Indian War of 1759-60. His service allowed him to receive one of the earliest land grants in St. Mark’s Parish. This property was at the headwaters of Jack’s Creek which is a branch of the Santee River (the Congaree and Wateree Rivers converge to form the Santee).
Claudius became a “planter” who at the time of his death owned about 1,200 acres in the Jack’s Creek area. One of his sons, John Richbourg Sr. who was born August 23, 1747, is the direct ancestor from whom my journey through history and this post sprouted. Note: name spellings often changed throughout history.
The Revolutionary War: What I Didn’t Learn in School
Fighting in the Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord in 1775 and ended with the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
In school, I learned about the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s ride (one if by land; two if by sea…), the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Battles of Saratoga, Washington crossing the Delaware, etc., all of which occurred in the northern colonies.
The Battle of Saratoga in 1777 was the first major victory for the Continental Army and is often considered the turning point of the war. This is what I learned in school.
The Crown’s Saratoga setback turned the war in the north into a stalemate between the British and Colonial forces. This along with the fear of the French entering into the conflict (yep, learned about Lafayette and the French connection in school) caused the British to turn their attention to a “Southern Campaign”. They felt that they could exploit political, economic and racial divisions that were present in the south to garner strong Loyalist (aka Tory) support. They also believed they could persuade the people enslaved on the plantations of rebels to join their cause. In 1779, the British offered freedom to any slaves who would leave patriot plantations with the intent of damaging the economy of the south while simultaneously increasing the size of the British/Tory forces. Although it sounds like the British were being altruistic, they were not. They forced thousands of the enslaved people they captured to serve in the army and sometimes sold them for funds to buy provisions.
Maintaining British control of the southern colonies was particularly desirable because of the agricultural products grown there. Goods exported from the northern colonies were not unique and could be obtained from other sources while those from the south could not. Tobacco, rice, and indigo were particularly prized. Combining exports from the Carolinas and Georgia with the West Indian sugar trade was highly profitable for British merchants.
A humorous note: there was some sentiment in Britain that the “hotbed of sedition”, New England, was not worth the effort to control while the riches of the south were!
The city of Charleston was the fourth largest and richest city in North America. It was the most important southern port. This made Charleston the first major target of the Southern Campaign.
The British master plan was to first subdue Georgia and South Carolina, then advance northward into the mid-Atlantic while British forces from the north moved southward. The ultimate goal was to subdue all but the most northern colonies with a pincer-like “Chesapeake Squeeze” strategy.
The war in the south was very different from that which was being fought in the north where patriots battled troops of predominantly British regulars. In contrast, the southern war was very much a civil war with neighbor fighting neighbor and brother fighting brother as Loyalists made up a significant portion of the British fighting forces. Point in fact, my ancestor John Richbourg Sr. fought as a Patriot while his brother Henry changed sides after the Fall of Charleston to command a Loyalist light horse brigade.
Over 200 battles were fought in South Carolina, more than in any other colony. Almost a fifth of battlefield deaths and a third of the wounds for the entire war occurred there with a very high percentage of them resulting from colonist-against-colonist rather than that of colonist-versus-British fighting.
Although the battles fought in the south were not as iconic as those of the north, it was actually the fighting there that determined the outcome of the war. I did not learn this in school!
The Southern Campaign started off well for the British. They surrounded Charleston laying siege to the city for about six weeks until the patriots surrendered. This was undoubtedly the worst defeat of the entire war for the Continental Army. With 5,266 captured, the surrender severely crippled the army in the South. My ancestor, John Richbourg was among those captured and became a POW confined to his plantation.
The fall of Charleston provided a base of operations for launching the Southern Strategy. Three more quick and decisive victories that eliminated most of the southern Continental Army gave the British confidence that the south would be easily theirs.
Fortunately, this British strategy was thwarted because they overestimated the strength of Loyalist sentiment in the South, underestimated the logistical problems that would occur when their army was inland away from the supplies brought by their navy, and their reliance on conventional battle strategies.
For the most part, patriot commanders avoided committing their forces to all-out conventional battles. Instead, they continually drew the British deeper into the backcountry away from their supply stores forcing them to forage and seize livestock and other goods from the local people to sustain themselves. British commanders condoned and even encouraged atrocities their troops committed against patriots and non-combatant civilians such as rape, torture, executions, church burnings, and theft of property. To be fair, the Patriots also committed atrocities against Tories who they believed were traitors. These actions demonstrated that the British were unable protect civilians and their property. The atrocities and the appropriation of commodities without reimbursement were the final straws that encouraged many colonists, who were either neutral or were waiting to see which side would provide them better opportunities, to take up arms, mostly in favor of the patriots. I did not learn this in school!
Rebel militias, such as those led by Francis Marion, employed guerrilla tactics learned during the Indian wars. They hid behind trees and other objects, struck quickly and then disappeared like ghosts into the “swamps”.
These guerrillas often engaged in nighttime attacks and hit-and-run raids on the British supply trains and outposts.
Each of my male Richbourg ancestors fought in the war of his time: Claudius, the Indian War; John Sr., the Revolutionary War; John Jr, the War of 1812 and Ephraim Richburg, my 3rd great-grandfather, died in the Civil War. Amazingly, you can often find military service details of your ancestors by doing a little research.
Late in his life, John Richbourg Sr. applied for a pension stemming from his service in the Revolutionary War. I was able access his application which gave a lengthy sworn statement documenting the details of his military activities throughout the war. The image below is a short excerpt from his 33-page pension file which contains John’s sworn deposition along with those of a number of witnesses.
From his file, I learned that, after being paroled from his stint as a POW, he rejoined a Patriot militia and served under General Francis Marion (highlighted). This spurred me to find out more than what I had learned in school and from a childhood television show about Marion’s role, and that of those under his command, in winning the war.
Discovering Francis Marion on the Swamp Fox Mural Trail
The Swamp Fox Mural Trail Society was formed to commission a series of murals in Clarendon County (formerly St. Mark’s Parish), South Carolina. One can go on a scavenger hunt to find each of the twenty murals spread among the towns of Turbeville, Manning, Paxville, and Summerton. The murals were painted by a variety of artists, and many of the murals are composed of multiple panels. They are located on the sides of various buildings around the towns. I found the mural below on a wall next to the Sub Station II sandwich shop in Manning, SC.
Each mural and the associated plaque tells the story of a specific event or depicts life in the area during the Southern Campaign in South Carolina. Often Francis Marion, the local hero, is featured in some form.
In the time I had available, I was able to find and view a number of these wonderful murals.
The Citizen Soldier 220 Years Ago mural is found on the wall of the Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store in Manning, SC. The artist is Dayton Wodrich of Brenham, TX.
This mural gives you insight into the type of person who did the majority of the fighting for the Patriots during the Southern Campaign. The background for this plaque was a poor choice as it made the inscription hard to read. A transcription is below.
“(National Guard & Reserves of 1780) During the American Revolution, the militia like Marion’s Brigade was totally dependent on a man with a horse and a gun who tended his farm and responded to Marion’s call to arms. Marion rides this horse before battle at Black Mingo. Marion and Oscar summon the farmer-soldier from his crops. These farmer-soldiers cut the supply lines, intimidated the Tories from Charleston to Camden, and thwarted and embarrassed the British from the Pee Dee to the Santee River.”
The Elusive Francis Marion 1780-1781. This mural is found in Summerton, SC on South Church Street (U.S. 15) near the intersection of U.S. 301 (Main Street). Marion knew the backroads and impassable swamps of this region well allowing his militia to strike and hide.
Ox Swamp. This mural is found on the west wall of the Manning Fire Station. After the fall of Charleston, Francis Marion and his group of unconventional fighters carried out guerrilla raids and destroyed supply routes where they would strike and then disappear like ghosts into the swamps and forests of rural South Carolina. This so infuriated British General Cornwallis that he ordered Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton (known for being cruel and ruthless) to hunt down Marion and either capture or kill him.
Marion was warned of Tarleton’s impending attack and led the British on an approximately 26-mile meandering chase from Jack’s Creek (remember Jack’s Creek?) toward Benbow’s Ferry where he was lying in wait to engage the British troops.
In his effort to catch Marion’s unencumbered brigade, Tarleton drove his supply wagons and two pieces of artillery at such a pace that horses dropped in their tracks. Soldiers whose horses succumbed were forced to run after the unit until they also dropped from exhaustion. When Tarleton reached Ox Swamp, his scouts reported that Marion had disappeared into the virtually impassable swamp. Tarleton abandoned the chase allegedly declaring “as for this damned old fox, the devil himself could not catch him!”. This is how Marion’s monicker “Swamp Fox” was born.
Of note, Tarleton was so incensed at not catching Marion that he took retribution on the inhabitants of the region by burning homes and crops, not discriminating between patriots and loyalists as targets. His cruelty turned many people who either had not chosen a side or had been loyalists into actively supporting the rebel cause.
Battle of Wyboo Swamp. While the actual site of this battle is now under the waters of Lake Marion, a mural depicting it is found on the wall of the IGA Grocery Store in Manning, SC. I was particularly interested in this mural since my ancestor, John Richbourg fought at Wyboo Swamp as part of Marion’s militia. His brother Henry Richbourg led the light brigade of Loyalists in the charging of the causway as part of the British troops in this skirmish.
When Marion learned from a spy that the British were coming to try to eliminate him, he set up an ambush on the Santee River Road at Wyboo Swamp. The two armies faced off on the causeway that crossed the swamp.
Although there was no decisive victory for either side, these types of small attacks by Marion’s militia eventually wore down the enemy. Gavin James was a private who singlehandedly dispatched three of Watson’s pursuing men as the rest of the rebels disappeared into the swamp.
Chase at Richbourg’s Mill. This mural is found in Paxville, SC. Unfortunately, I did not find this mural on my scavenger hunt. I hope to return to finish the hunt as this mural depicts an event that took place at the property of my Richbourg ancestors.
Image of mural and plaque from memorialdayfoundation.org.
During my trip, I was able to visit thirteen of the twenty Swamp Fox murals but have only given you a taste of them here. In addition to the mural trail, there are many other war monuments and several statues of Francis Marion located throughout the region. Francis Marion’s tomb can be visited on a site that was once his brother’s plantation. Some battle locations and the land that was once Francis Marion’s own plantation are forever hidden under the waters of Lake Marion, a reservoir formed from the Santee River near the confluence of the Congaree and Wateree Rivers to provide hydroelectric power to the region. I enjoyed learning how important the freedom fighters in the south were to determining the outcome of our war for independence, and the role my ancestor played in it.
Francis Marion Reflections. I leave you with one last mural which is found on the wall of CitiTrends in Manning, SC. Look carefully at the reflection (make sure to click the image to enlarge it).
What do you see?
Thanks for sharing this journey with me.
And now you know the rest of the story!
For further information about Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox:
John Oller’s book published in 2016, The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved The American Revolution, is a wonderful biography that provides well-researched details of the military actions of Marion and his band of militia freedom fighters as well as insight into the man himself. This is the book I read while on my trip to South Carolina, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.
Great history lesson! It’s very cool your ancestors were a part of it!