Siege of Ninety - Six The Siege of Ninety Six was a siege late in the American Revolutionary War . From May 22 to June 18 , 1781 , Continental Army Major General Nathanael Greene led 1 , 000 troops in a siege against the 550 Loyalist s in the fortified village of Ninety Six , South Carolina . The 28 - day siege centered on an earthen fortification known as Star Fort . Despite having more troops , Greene was unsuccessful in taking the town , and was forced to lift the siege when Lord Rawdon approached from Charleston with British troops . Background . The British Army ' s " southern strategy " for winning the American Revolutionary War hit a stumbling block in March 1781 , when General Lord Cornwallis defeated Continental Army General Nathanael Greene at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in Greensboro , North Carolina . In spite of being victorious , Cornwallis suffered significant casualties and subsequently moved his army to Wilmington , North Carolina . Greene , whose army was still largely intact after that battle , took advantage of Cornwallis ' move to march into South Carolina and begin operations to eliminate the British from that state . With the assistance of militia commanders Thomas Sumter , Francis Marion , and Andrew Pickens , a number of British outposts in the backcountry of South Carolina fell or were abandoned to Patriot forces . By mid - May , the only places with significant British influence in the state were at Ninety Six , in the northwestern part of the state , and the port of Charleston nearly 200 miles southeast on the coast . British defenses . The British outpost at Ninety Six was garrisoned by 550 experienced Loyalist s formed into Provincial regiments ( regular army troops that had been recruited from Loyalists in New York , New Jersey , and South Carolina ) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Cruger . Occupied by the British since 1780 , the defenses consisted of a palisade surrounded by a deep ditch and abatis ( felled trees with sharpened branches facing out ) . A large redoubt called the Star Fort provided a place for defenders to enfilade attackers on two of the stockade walls , and a smaller redoubt provided similar cover for the remaining walls and the water supply . Cruger had three small ( three pound ) field piece s . Siege . Greene and about 1 , 000 men arrived outside Ninety Six on May 22 , the same day that Andrew Pickens and Henry " Light - horse Harry " Lee began to besiege nearby Augusta , Georgia . They immediately began siege operations , targeting the Star Fort , under their chief engineer , the Pole Col . Thaddeus Kosciuszko . Cruger did what he could to interfere with the siege works , frequently sending out parties at night to harass the workers . In one notable incident , not only did he drive the workers away but he also captured some of the digging tools . By June 3 Greene ' s men had a trench within of the Star Fort . They then used a tactic similar to one used by Gen . Marion to capture Fort Watson , whereby they constructed a wooden Maham Tower , about tall , with a protected platform at the top . Under this elevated cover , American sharpshooters would have a clear firing line into the fort . At first , the crack Riflemen in the tower were able to pick off a number of Cruger ' s artillerymen . Cruger quickly countered by using sandbags to raise the height of the parapet , giving enough cover so his own marksmen could fire on the tower through slats in between the bags . He also attempted to set the tower on fire with heated shot , but was unable to get the balls hot enough for this to be effective . The attackers then fired flaming arrows into the fort ( a tactic that had worked when Fort Motte was captured ) , in order to set anything flammable within the fort on fire . Cruger had work crews remove the roofs off the buildings in the fort to prevent them from burning . On June 7 Lord Rawdon left Charleston with 2 , 000 men to relieve the siege . The next day , Pickens and Lee arrived , having successfully captured Augusta on June 6 . Greene did not learn of Rawdon ' s move until June 11 . With the situation becoming critical , Greene decided to attempt an assault on the fort . ( Cruger learned of Rawdon ' s approach the next day when the messenger , posing as a Patriot , got close enough to the fort to race the remaining distance on his horse . ) Assault . Greene ' s plan of attack was have one party capture the smaller redoubt , while a larger attack force went after the Star Fort , where some men would pull down the sandbags to expose the defenders to fire from the tower . When the attack began on June 18 , all went to plan at first — the smaller redoubt was taken , and men successfully penetrated the abatis and were able to pull down the sandbags . At this point , Cruger launched a counterstrike with a pair of sortie s to strike at the flanks of the attacking party . In a fierce battle dominated by bayonet s and the use of muskets as clubs , the leaders of the attack were killed and their men forced to retreat back to their trenches . With the failure of the attack , and Rawdon only away , Greene called off the assault and ordered a retreat . Aftermath . Greene ' s losses amounted to 150 men , while Cruger ' s were under 100 . Greene retreated toward Charlotte , North Carolina , allowing Rawdon to join forces with Cruger . Rawdon sent a sizable force after Greene , but heat and the toll of the long forced marches took their toll . The force was recalled to Ninety Six , which Rawdon then abandoned . General Greene blamed the failure of the operations against Ninety Six in part on Sumter and Marion , who failed to act in support of his operations in a timely manner . Later , other officers blamed Greene and Lee for failing to cut off the defenders ' water supply at the Spring Branch . Lee , writing in his memoirs , singled out Col . Kosciuszko for much of the defeat . This may be due to the engineer ' s mistake of beginning the first parallel too close to the Star Fort , as well as underestimating the lengthy amount of time his undermanned and ill - equipped sappers needed to excavate the rock - hard soil enough for the siege to work . Though these issues did indeed contribute to the failure of the operation as a whole , Greene commended Kosciuszko ' s efforts in carrying out his orders , noting that given more time , his chief engineer ' s plan may well have succeeded . Regardless of the spread of blame , when Greene learned of Rawdon ' s retreat from Ninety Six , he tried to pull all of the elements of the Patriot military forces together to attack Rawdon before he reached Charleston , but failed once again because of Sumter ' s and Marion ' s apparent tardy movements . Greene rested his men for most of July and August in the High Hills of the Santee before engaging the British again outside Charleston at Eutaw Springs , the last major battle in the South , on September 8 , 1781 . Legacy . Ninety Six National Historic Site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973 . The Loyalists who were saved in the siege eventually settled in the Rawdon , Nova Scotia . They named the township after Lord Rawdon for rescuing them .