Ninety Six was the name of a trading post and then a town, fort and Revolutionary battle site in the back country of South Carolina. Nobody seems to know why it is called by that name. The best guess is that it was 96 miles to a nearby Indian village. All I know is that my ancestor Michael Eisan served in the Loyalist militia there during the American revolution. He was probably at the siege of the fort that took place in 1781.
Here are some enactors in front of the gift shop getting us into the spirit of the times.
My husband (who is 5 foot 9) standing beside the silhouette of a revolutionary soldier of average height. At the time of the siege all the trees would have been cut down to improve sight lines for the defenders of the fort.
This is part of the stockade fort. You can see the abbatis, or sharpened posts, in the foreground.
This is the original road to the fort showing the wagon ruts worn into it over time.
The red posts show the site of the communication trench from the fort to its only water source, a nearby creek. The dark figure is a silhouette of a woman carrying water buckets.
In my next blog post I’ll tell you more about the battle for the fort itself.