Skirmish at Mathew’s Plantation on the Stono River

During the night of May 20th, 1779, British troops attacked and routed a Patriot militia force guarding the Stono River plantation of Capt. John Raven Mathews, the future governor of South Carolina. The British gave no quarter to the Patriots and slaughtered them. During this attack, Patriot Lt. Col. Robert Barnwell was left for dead with seventeen bayonet wounds, but he survived and eventually led his men at the Siege of Charles Town the following year.