August, 1782: The Death of John Laurens during the Battle of the Combahee River

In the early morning hours of August 27th, 1782, Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens met his death on the banks of the Combahee River. Since his enlistment in the Continental Army five years earlier, many people had commented on his rashness during battle. Often accused of charging headlong into danger without any regard for his own safety, Laurens behaved no differently this morning. He led 50 men in an assault against a detachment of 150 British soldiers, despite being ill and having the option to wait for nearby reinforcements. The effects were disastrous; likely informed by Loyalist spies of the intent of Continental forces to attack at daybreak, the British soldiers were ready for Laurens’ assault and immediately opened fire. Before the volleys concluded, 19 of Laurens’ soldiers were wounded, three were missing, and two had been killed in the action—including Laurens himself. Laurens was only 27 years old.

Born on October 28th, 1754, in Charleston, John Laurens was the son of wealthy merchant, slave trader, and planter Henry Laurens and his wife, Eleanor Ball. John was the fourth child born to the couple, but the first to survive well beyond infancy. Henry and Eleanor would go on to have several more children until Eleanor died in 1770 of complications from childbirth.

Until the onset of the American Revolution, John and his siblings enjoyed privileged lives as children of one of the wealthiest men in the American colonies. They often split their time between their town house in the Ansonborough neighborhood of Charleston and their 3,000-acre family seat in the countryside known as Mepkin Plantation. In 1771, Henry moved John and his two brothers to Europe to further their education. John attended school in Switzerland for two years before relocating to London, where he planned to study and enter the practice of law.

Portrait of John Laurens from the Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society.

However, John was soon distracted as tensions between the American colonies and Great Britain boiled over into war. Instantly aligning himself with the “sacred Cause of Liberty,” John became an avid supporter of America’s rebellion against Great Britain and wanted to return home to fight for his country. Henry Laurens, who wanted John to remain in London to finish his education and focus on his future career, heavily protested his son’s wish.

After trying many times to listen to his father and ignore his desire to be part of the revolution in America, John resolved to return home and departed from London in December of 1776. In the process, he completely abandoned his studies and even left behind the young woman he had recently married, Martha Manning, and their unborn child. Manning would later give birth to a daughter, Frances Eleanor Laurens, but John would never meet his daughter or see his wife again.

After arriving in Charleston in early 1777, John seemingly made amends with his father. The two journeyed to Philadelphia together later that year, where Henry assumed his role as a representative for South Carolina in the Second Continental Congress and John finally fulfilled his desire to fight for his country by joining the Continental Army as an aide-de-camp to George Washington. John quickly became very popular in Washington’s camp and, as famously depicted in the Broadway musical Hamilton, formed particularly close friendships with two of his fellow staff officers: Alexander Hamilton and Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette.

Laurens also quickly gained his reputation for reckless bravery on the battlefield. In a letter now held by the South Carolina Historical Society, the Marquis de Lafayette is quoted as saying about Laurens’ behavior during the Battle of Brandywine: “it was not his fault that he was not killed or wounded[,] he did every thing that was necessary to procure one or t’other.” As the conflict continued, Laurens experienced some of the most significant events and military action of the American Revolutionary War, including the winter encampment of Washington’s army at Valley Forge, the Battle of Monmouth, the failure of southern forces to recapture Savannah, the fall of Charleston, and, ultimately, the surrender of British forces at Yorktown.

Among the most intriguing aspects of John Laurens’ life and involvement in the American Revolution were his efforts to raise a Black regiment. Since his time in Europe, Laurens had openly expressed opposition to slavery. Believing that Americans could not fight for liberty without granting the same to the people they enslaved, Laurens aspired to end slavery in the new nation he was fighting to create. In 1778, he proposed having enslaved men earn their freedom by serving in the Continental Army. Laurens wrote about his desire to raise a Black regiment in multiple letters to his father, many of which are also now held by the South Carolina Historical Society. While Henry would initially dismiss the idea and point out the many challenges that John would have to overcome, he eventually offered his support and introduced a resolution in the Continental Congress to urge South Carolina and Georgia to arm and recruit Black soldiers. The resolution passed in Congress, but South Carolina and Georgia refused to comply with the resolution, thus causing John’s idea to go unrealized.

While the British surrender at Yorktown signaled an unofficial end to the war for many, this was not the case for John Laurens. Evidently restless and still eager to prove himself on the battlefield, Laurens requested a transfer from Washington’s army to General Nathanael Greene’s army in the Carolinas, where British troops still occupied Charleston and intermittent skirmishes continued to occur in the Lowcountry.

Despite pleas from his friends and family to quit fighting, Laurens joined the light infantry brigade under Mordecai Gist and was tasked with stopping the British from conducting foraging raids in the areas around Charleston. It was under these circumstances that Laurens attempted to assault the detachment of British soldiers near the Combahee River and met his death.

Laurens was one of the last fatalities of the Revolutionary War, and his death was mourned by many of his contemporaries. Initially interred at a plantation near the Combahee River, he was later re-interred by his family at Mepkin, where his gravestone can still be viewed today with its transcription: Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori, or “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

The South Carolina Historical Society holds many materials relating to the life and career of John Laurens. Many are in the process of being digitized, and can be viewed by searching for “John Laurens” on the Lowcountry Digital Library or by clicking the link below: https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/?f%5Bcontrib-facet%5D%5B%5D=South+Carolina+Historical+Society&q=John+Laurens