Routes from Fort 96 to Charlestonⁱ

Express Riders, the fastest travelers, “routinely made the 300-mile journey between Charleston and Fort Prince George in six or seven days, and the additional 150 miles over the mountains to Fort Loudoun in a further five to seven days, depending on the weather.” So, 50 miles per day on flat terrain, 25 miles per day through the mountains.

i Route – 96 to Charleston

After resting briefly at Fort Ninety Six and collecting official dispatches for the governor, Abraham saddled his horse (the one stolen from Keowee or perhaps a fresh mount) and continued his southeastward journey to Charleston. Within a couple of hours he would have covered about twenty miles and reached the little settlement called Saluda Town (in modern Saluda County).

At this small fortified outpost, Abraham probably stopped to exchange news and enjoy some refreshments. Departing from Saluda, he faced a fork in the road. On the one hand, he could have continued due east approximately forty-three miles along what is now Highway 378 to another colonial fort at a place called the Congarees, an important trading post on the west bank of the Congaree River now occupied by the town of Cayce.

Alternatively, Abraham could have continued southeasterly along what is now Highway 178 about seventy-four miles to another small, fortified settlement at Beaver Creek, near the modern town of North in Orangeburg County. Published reports of Abraham’s later movements confirm that he stopped at one or the other of these sites on various journeys, but it’s not clear which route he followed during his first solo run in February of 1760.

If he stopped at the Congarees, Abraham would have then continued southeastward to Moncks Corner, along a route similar to the present Highway 176. If he set out from Beaver Creek, he would have continued along a path that is now Highway 178 and 78, from Orangeburg to Dorchester.

Either way, Abraham would have seen more and more white colonists and enslaved people as he traversed the flat coastal plain. Closer to his destination, both routes converged at a point marked by a tavern called the Six Mile House in what is now the city of North Charleston, at the northern boundary of the parish of St. Philip. From that point, Abraham followed the “Broad Path” that meandered down the center of the peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers.

Just north of the town boundary, the Broad Path terminated at the gate of a newly-constructed fortification that guarded the entrance to Charleston. The walls of the “Horn Work,” so called because of its two north-projecting half-bastions, stretched several hundred feet to the east and west of the road. In the center of its high curtain wall, which was constructed of oyster-shell tabby, stood a large archway that framed a heavy wooden gate. If Abraham arrived during daylight hours, he would have found the broad doors open. If he arrived after sunset, he would have found the gate closed and the post guarded by members of the town’s military night watch until sunrise. W

Nineteen days after passing through the snow-covered gate of Fort Loudoun, and seven days after leaving Fort Prince George, Abraham rode into Charleston at a “moderate trot” (the urban speed limit at the time) on Wednesday, February 13th.[8] According to the local weather report, it was a mild, cloudy day in the capital of South Carolina, with a morning low of 60 degrees Fahrenheit and an afternoon high of 71.

The unpaved, sandy streets would have been filled with pedestrians and horse-drawn carts as people went about their daily business. . . .

Abraham’s instructions were to deliver messages directly to Governor Lyttelton, the highest-ranking man in the colony—but how did he know where to find the man? Having worked with his master, Samuel Benn since the mid-1750s, if not longer, Abraham had likely visited Charleston numerous times as the two men drove a train of pack horses carrying trade goods between the port city and the Overhill Cherokee town of Tanasi.

It’s doubtful that he ever had cause to visit the governor on any previous occasion, but Abraham probably had a decent knowledge of the town’s layout. The governor’s office was fairly easy to find; it was in a prominent public building called the Council Chamber, a two-and-a-half-story brick structure perched within a half-moon-shaped fortification at the intersection of Broad and East Bay Streets. (Today that site is occupied by the Old Exchange Building, completed in 1771.) The ground floor of the Council Chamber building served as the headquarters and holding cells of the town’s night watch, while the governor and his council of advisors occupied the more elaborate state room above.