Camden County History

During the Revolution, Camden County furnished more soldiers to the cause of freedom than any other Northeastern county ... 416 officers and men. Brigadier-General Isaac Gregory was wounded and his horse shot from under him at the battle of Camden in South Carolina. His services to his state did not end with the war. He was elected once to the House of Commons and re-elected successively to the State Senate for the next eight years.

At the beginning of the war, the task of organizing and assembling troops of the continental army in Eastern North Carolina was assigned to Colonel Gideon Lamb, who also saw much active service around Brandywine and Germantown. His son, Abner, a lieutenant, was wounded at the battle of Eutaw Springs. Colonel Selby Harney served gallantly throughout the war and was severely wounded at the siege of Charleston. And Captain John Forbes, leading a company of Camden men, was killed at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781.

Other distinguished men of this period were Colonel Peter Dauge, Joseph Jones, Colonel Dempsey Burgess, and the Rev. Henry Abbott. Colonel Dauge performed valuable service in assembling supplies for the colonial troops. Jones, Abbott, and Burgess were influential figures in the state legislature during the Revolution. Colonel Burgess and his brother-in-law, Lemuel Sawyer, have the distinction of being the only Camden natives serving as representatives in the U.S. Congress. Colonel Burgess is also remembered locally because he donated the site on which historic Shiloh Baptist Church now stands.