Continued from Biggins / Cooper River Area (1)
Like most of the churches outside the Charleston area Biggins Church was directly involved with both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. And like most others the church was damaged/burned/destroyed a few times. Surprisingly the area suffered as much from the revolution as the US Civil War, which started down the road a few miles.
First during the Revolutionary War, British and Loyalist troops used the church and burned it with anything the Patriots could need when they retreated to Charleston. The revolution history here can get confusing real fast. It can seem like everybody was fighting everybody else. There were three side. The obvious British, also the Patriots, and just as important were the Loyalists. Not all of the population wanted the British to leave. Many in Charleston, and other big cities, were making money and living well.
A movie named ‘The Patriot’ with Mel Gibson (who played a real life local Patriot Francis Marion) shows what the revolution was like in South Carolina. It was filmed all around the Lowcountry.
The church was repaired and again in use until towards the end of the US Civil War. Federal troops marched on Charleston and surrounded much of the plantation areas damaging the Lowcountry towns.
Biggins Church never recovered. The population of the south used anything available to rebuild after the war. Much of Biggins was scavenged for materials to rebuild Moncks Corner, SC., and finally a forest fire burned what was left.
Biggins Church is only one piece of history that can be seen and photographed n this area. There were many smaller plantations on the Cooper River.
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It certainly is interesting reading about this area’s past, your photos are very evocative as well.
Thanks so much. There are so many stories, just around the Biggins area, that even a NY Times best seller was written. The detailed history that I’ve been told by native SC is fascinating.