Battle of the Combahee River

The Battle of the Combahee River took place during the American Revolutionary War on August 27, 1782, near Beaufort, South Carolina, one of many such confrontations after the Siege of Yorktown to occur before the British evacuated Charleston in December 1782. Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens, a 27-year-old Southern abolitionist, previously a diplomat and an aide-de-camp to George Washington, who was lauded as "one of the bravest and most gallant of the American officers," died during the confrontation.