Ambush at McCord's Creek

Front inscription

On Dec. 7, 1781, British Loyalists under command of Capt. John Crawford ambushed a Patriot wagon train near this site. The convoy was escorted by Capt. Moses Liddell and had been sent to resupply soldiers and families sheltering at Gen. Andrew Pickens’s blockhouse in present-day Abbeville. Crawford’s men attacked as the wagons ascended a hill on the east side of McCord’s Creek (1/2 mi. W).

Reverse inscription

Crawford was in the Long Cane area to district from Pickens’s pursuit of Maj. Williams Cunningham and Col. Hezekiah Williams during Cunningham’s “Bloody Scout” campaign. His men destroyed the wagons, killed several Patriot soldiers, and took the rest of the party prisoner, carrying them into Cherokee territory where more were executed. Among the casualties was Pickens’s brother John.