Ninety Six National Historic Site

We decided to make the most of Mac’s long weekend and drove up to Ninety Six National Historic Site in South Carolina. Ninety Six was the site of the first Revolutionary War battle in the South (in 1775). It was also the setting for the longest (and ultimately unsuccessful) siege in the American Revolution.

Address and Location

You’ll find Ninety Six at 1103 Highway 248 South in Ninety Six, South Carolina.

Cost

Exploring the site is free!

What to do

We stopped in the Visitors’ Center to get our stamp and to grab a map. The Visitors’ Center has a very small museum with artifacts excavated from the site and a movie available on request. The park sits on a mile-long trail that loops from the Visitors’ Center. Start there and walk through a section of woods and over a road bed from the 1700s.

Ninety Six preserves the earthworks built by the Colonial army and the star-shaped fort defended by the Loyalists during the month-long siege. You follow the trail through the Patriot positions and wind around into the fort itself. From there, you walk a few hundred feet to the original town of Ninety-Six. The path then heads uphill to the very first fort built on the site by Patriot militia in 1775. It’s currently undergoing some reconstruction, so you detour back to the main route.

Ninety Six is a really unique National Historic Site, and I enjoyed it. And, for once, I was able to give Mac a military history lesson because I know a surprising amount about Nathanael Greene and the Southern Campaign. This spot is a must-see for military history and American Revolution history buffs, and I’m glad we made the stop.