A County forged in Fire: Darlington’s War Legacy
A map of the Cheraws District, 1775. Courtesy of Darlington County Historical Commission and Museum.
By Stephan Drew, Editor
Long before South Carolina’s red clay became hallowed ground for the well-known battles of the Revolutionary War, Darlington County was already writing its own chapter of defiance, sacrifice, and unbreakable resolve. While history books often turn their gaze toward Charleston and Camden, the rolling fields and riverbanks of the old Cheraws District tell a story just as vital — one of neighbor against neighbor, ferryman against empire, and ordinary men who became legends for refusing to bow.
Nearly two years before the nation’s founders gathered in Philadelphia to declare independence, the people of Long Bluff — near what is now Society Hill — had already drawn their line in the sand. On November 15, 1774, a Petit Jury convened at the local courthouse and issued a presentment of grievances against the British Crown, a document so bold in its rejection of royal overreach that historians regard it as one of the earliest formal declarations of colonial rights in all the American colonies. While the rest of the country waited, Darlington had already spoken.
After Charleston fell to the British in 1780, Major James Wemyss marched his forces through the Pee Dee region on a scorched-earth campaign, burning Patriot homes and crushing resistance wherever he found it. It was here, on the banks of Black Creek, that a humble ferryman named Adam Cusack made a choice that would echo through generations: he refused to ferry British officers across the water.
For that single act of defiance, Cusack was hanged in Society Hill. But the British misjudged the cost of their cruelty. Rather than silencing the Patriot cause, Cusack’s death lit a fire in the hearts of the people of the Cheraws — driving many who had stayed on the sidelines straight into militia ranks. Today, a marker stands at the intersection of Main Street and Depot Street in Society Hill, ensuring his sacrifice is never forgotten.
Few figures embody the brutal, personal nature of the war in the Cheraws District like Colonel Abel Kolb. As commandant of the Cheraws District Regiment, Kolb fought alongside the cause of General Francis Marion — the legendary “Swamp Fox” — defending the Pee Dee River region from Loyalist incursion with a ferocity that earned him a fearsome reputation among his enemies.
That reputation made him a target. On the night of April 27–28, 1781, a band of Tories led by Captain Joseph Jones descended on Kolb’s home. Surrounded and outnumbered, Kolb made the ultimate sacrifice — surrendering himself to spare his family — only to be murdered in cold blood as his home burned behind him. He was the son of Peter Kolb and grandson of Johannes Kolb, part of an early Welsh settler family, and left behind his wife, Sarah James Kolb, and their three children.
More than two centuries later, Colonel Kolb still rests in his historic tomb on Kolb’s Tomb Road, west of US 15-401 near Society Hill — a solemn, weathered monument that draws history lovers and folklore enthusiasts alike, even as it has weathered the indignity of vandalism over the years. It remains one of the most evocative Revolutionary War sites in the entire state.
Holding the line through years of guerrilla warfare was Colonel Lamuel Benton (1754–1818), commander of the Cheraw Militia. Unlike the grand, formal battles fought elsewhere in the colonies, the war in Darlington County was fought in ambushes, raids, and relentless skirmishes — a deeply personal conflict where Patriot and Loyalist neighbors clashed for the soul of their community. Benton’s leadership through this brutal partisan campaign, particularly through the harrowing years of 1780–1781, cemented his place among South Carolina’s most resilient wartime leaders.
Standing alongside him in the fight was Samuel Bacot, who served as a lieutenant under General Francis Marion in 1782 and made his home in the Darlington area. A marker on McIver Road honors his service to this day.
The Revolutionary spirit of Darlington County wasn’t carried by soldiers alone. The St. David’s Society, founded in Society Hill in 1777, and its academy stood as a beacon of education and community even as war raged around it — proof that the people of the Cheraws refused to let conflict extinguish their pursuit of knowledge and civic life. The Welsh Neck Baptist Church, too, stood as a pillar of the community, its congregation woven into the fabric of revolutionary sentiment that defined the region.
Today, Darlington County’s Revolutionary War history lives on through a network of historical markers scattered across its towns and back roads — at the Adam Cusack execution site, along McIver Road in honor of Samuel Bacot, and throughout the “Old Cheraws” sites surrounding Long Bluff and Society Hill. This rich and often overlooked history is chronicled in depth in Gregg’s seminal History of the Old Cheraws, a work that captures just how intimate, brutal, and personal the fight for independence truly was in this corner of South Carolina.
From a courthouse declaration that predated the nation’s own by nearly two years, to a ferryman who chose death over collaboration, to a colonel who gave his life to protect his family — Darlington County’s Revolutionary War story is not one of distant battlefields, but of ordinary people who turned their homes, their rivers, and their faith into a frontline for freedom. It is a legacy the county continues to honor — and one that deserves to stand proudly alongside the more celebrated chapters of America’s founding struggle.