Fort Motte (Fort Motte Station) was a plantation commandeered by the British as a temporary military outpost in what is now South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War. Later, it was considered as a possible location for the capitol for the newly formed state of South Carolina (before Columbia was chosen).
British forces occupied and converted into a stockade the recently built Mt. Joseph plantation home of Miles Brewton, whose business was located in Charleston, South Carolina. The site is near a strategic river crossing of the Congaree River that would allow the British an important chain of transport from Charleston to points north and west.
By May 1781 Fort Motte was a small but imposing wood and earth fortification of palisades (9' tall), ramparts (10-11' wide), with a 6' deep ditch in front; and 20-30' from the ditch a row of abatis. Defending the fort were 184 British regulars, Hessians, and Provincials under the command of Capt. Lt. Donald McPherson. Later that month, General Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion captured the location after the Siege of Fort Motte.
Mt. Joseph became known as Fort Motte after General Marion's siege due to Rebecca Brewton Motte, sister of Miles Brewton. Rebecca was living at Mt. Joseph with her children at the time of the British occupation. During General Marion's siege, Rebecca famously helped in shooting flaming arrows into her family home in order to drive the British from it.
The Cherokee Path is nearby. It is also roughly in the area of an early town (1735) known as Amelia Town, South Carolina. There were several other less well-known forts in the area. Before the forts were established, there were sites which served as trading posts.
The South Carolina Department of Archives and History, the South Caroliniana Library, and the University of South Carolina have the earliest extant maps for this area.
Other articles related to "fort motte, fort, motte":
... The Siege of Fort Motte was a military operation during the American Revolutionary War ... set out to capture the British post at Fort Motte, strategically located at the confluence of the Congaree and Wateree Rivers ... The fort was not much more than a mansion owned by Rebecca Brewton Motte, but was garrisoned by roughly 175 British soldiers under Lt ...
Famous quotes containing the word fort:
“‘Tis said of love that it sometimes goes, sometimes flies; runs with one, walks gravely with another; turns a third into ice, and sets a fourth in a flame: it wounds one, another it kills: like lightning it begins and ends in the same moment: it makes that fort yield at night which it besieged but in the morning; for there is no force able to resist it.”
—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)