Burch's Mill:
South Carolina’s First Civil War Nears It’s End
In South Carolina, the Revolutionary War had many of the characteristics of a civil war, with those who supported independence, (the Whigs or Patriots) fighting against neighbors and kinsfolk who remained loyal to the King (the Tories or Loyalists). Both sides commandeered food, supplies, horses, and livestock from the rural population, while most of the people ~ black, white, and red ~ probably just wanted to be left alone.
Late in the spring of 1782, with the British military efforts in South Carolina collapsing, a treaty between Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and Pee Dee Loyalist leader, Maj. Micaiah Ganey, was soon to expire. On June 2 Marion wrote Ganey that they should come to a new agreement in order to prevent the “effusion of blood and distress of the women and children.” Marion invited him to meet near here at Burch’s Mill, site of a farming settlement, grist mill, and river ferry ~ and a well known stopping place for Whig, Tory and British forces alike.
On June 8, 1782, after an intense negotiation, Marion and Ganey signed a new treaty in which the loyalist agreed to lay down their arms, return civilian property where possible, and serve in he Patriot Militia for six months. The agreement signaled the end of partisan warfare in the Pee Dee region.
Marker is on Mill Branch Road.
Courtesy hmdb.org
