In November 1775, the American Revolution violently arrived in the South Carolina backcountry. The First Battle of Ninety Six wasn't fought by British regulars, but by neighbors staring down the barrels of long rifles at men they had known for years. Trapped on the plantation of John Savage, 560 Patriot militiamen hastily built a makeshift stockade out of fence rails, barn wood, and beef hide. They were completely cut off from water and surrounded by nearly 2,000 Loyalists who had transformed the town's brick jail into an impenetrable redoubt just 250 yards away. From the theft of Cherokee gunpowder to the use of a heavy wooden "mantelet" war machine, discover how a fragile backcountry erupted into a three-day siege that changed the Southern colonies forever.
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Timestamps:
0:00 - The Spark in the Backcountry
1:31 - The Treaty of Ninety Six & Stolen Gunpowder
4:27 - Cornered at Savage's Old Fields
6:06 - The Siege Begins
7:40 - Fire, Water, and the Loyalist Mantelet
10:30 - A Desperate Truce