Camden Battlefield, Revolutionary War battlefield in Kershaw County, South Carolina.
Camden Battlefield is a Revolutionary War battlefield located north of the town of Camden in Kershaw County, South Carolina. The grounds cover open fields and patches of woodland, much of which remains farmland today, crossed by roads that divide the area into sections.
In August 1780, British forces under General Cornwallis defeated the Continental Army led by General Horatio Gates here in one of the worst American losses of the southern campaign. The defeat forced the Continental forces back and gave Britain firmer control over the southern colonies for a period.
The battlefield sits on a mix of private and public land, and visitors can walk along marked trails through the same fields where the two armies once faced each other. Interpretive signs placed around the site help make sense of how the fighting unfolded across the open ground.
The site can be explored on foot or by car, since roads pass through the grounds and connect the main marked positions. Wearing comfortable shoes is a good idea, as some of the best viewpoints require a short walk across uneven ground.
The night before the main battle saw both armies marching toward each other in the dark, colliding unintentionally around 2 AM in an unplanned skirmish. This chance encounter in the dark shaped how both sides positioned themselves for the fight the following morning.
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