The Battle of Kettle Creek, fought on February 14, 1779, was one of the
most important battles of the Revolutionary War in Georgia. At that
time, the State was almost completely under British control. Col. Boyd
with 600 British sympathizers (Loyalists or Tories) crossed the
Savannah River into present-day Elbert County enroute to the British
army then at Augusta. Patriots Col. Andrew Pickens, with 200 South
Carolina militia, and Col. John Dooly and Lt. Colonel Elijah Clark, with
140 Georgia militia, marched to overtake the Loyalists. On the morning
of the 14th, Boyd and his men were camped at a bend in the then
flooded Kettle Creek. Their horses were grazing, sentries were posted,
and most of the men were slaughtering cattle or searching for food. The
Patriots attempted to attack the Loyalist camp by surprise but failed and
a desperate battle raged on both sides of the creek for three hours before
the Loyalists finally broke and fled. Col. Boyd and 20 of his men were
killed and 22 captured. Pickens and Dooly lost seven men killed and 14
or 15 wounded. Pickens later wrote that Kettle Creek, "was the severest
check and chastisement, the Tories ever received in South Carolina or
Georgia."