Just a heads up, my favorite website is roadside America. It has the craziest places to stop on the road to see. Some not worth the time, some very hard to find (even with directions), and some you just scratch your head.
Today’s stops were graves and statues. The Statue I had a hard time finding it but it is pretty cool looking. I found the town very quaint and I definitely want to go back and just walk around the town, exploring more.
So King George II decreed 1732 this town and it was named Fredericksburg, but in 1758 it changed its name to Pine Tree Hill until Joseph Kershaw changed the it to Camden in honor of Charles Pratt, Lord Camden, and early advocate of the colonies in the Parliament. Joseph Kershaw established a branch office of a Charleston mercantile firm. Later he became its first mayor. Guess he was a big deal because they named the county after him.
By the Time the Revolutionary, Camden was booming both economically and culturally. After Cornwallis captured Charleston he established Camden as principle supply post for all British operations in the south. He took over Kershaw’s house while he was exiled.
August 16, 1780 the Battle of Camden. Where to begin…. The battle was a devastating defeat for the colonists. Though it did cause major changes in leadership that helped turnt he war around in southern campaigns. I’m not going to go into the whole thing but it was messy. Many loses on both sides. One was Major General Baron de Kalb. He was mortally wounded during the battle when he and his men were left holding the bag while Major General Horatio Gates and his men fled.
The Camden Oak circa 1790. I believe it represents that it survives like the town.
Agnes of Glasgow is buried in the old Presbyterian burying ground. The legend of Agnes is that during the Revolutionary War her fiancé was a English Soldier, Lt. Agnes McPherson. She stowed away in a ship coming to the colonies. Once here in Charleston, she heard he was in Camden. She never found him but she became ill and died. Sorry goes that in the night Chief Haiglar and his men buried her. As any good ghost story she can be seen roaming around the cemetery looking for her fiancé.
Also I this burying ground is Col. Henry Nixon after he was fatality wounding during a dual with Major Thomas Hopkins. The reason for the dual was Thomas felt that Henry disrespected his honor. Henry’s father placed his son in a grave and built a stone fence with a gate entrance. To this day he is the only one buried there.
Just up the street is the Old Quaker Cemetery. In the cemetery there is a headstone that was used for target practice for the dual that I wrote about it. Also is the confederate doctor who also is Abraham Lincoln’s brother-in-law. Than there is a female confederate spy, civil war generals, marker for the original meeting house, and Richard Kirkland who is known as “Angel of Marye’s Heights.” He was confederate soldier who gave water to dying Union soldiers. I need to go back because I didn’t look close enough next time I go.
I’m going to end it with the tying to find the statue of King Haglar, chief of the Catawba Nation, and General Kershaw. They fought in the French Indian War. King Haglar was known as the “Patron saint of Camden County.” It is a monument remembering being early defenders of peace and liberty. Sadly King Haglar was killed by a band of Shawnees.
See you at the next bend in the road,
Kelli
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