Saving the Ground Where History Turned: Battle of Kettle Creek, Washington, GA

Kettle Creek in Washington, Georgia, is a surprisingly quiet place for a battlefield that once shook the backcountry. On February 14, 1779, amid rolling hills and hardwood forests, one of the most important Patriot victories of the Revolutionary War unfolded here when a South Carolina and Georgia militia force defeated a regiment of Loyalists.

Nearly 250 years later, the story of Kettle Creek is still emerging through new research and scientific tools.

In 2015, the Kettle Creek Battlefield Association employed an ingenious tool. They brought in cadaver dogs to try and locate unknown burials. These dogs identified several potential burial sites that were later confirmed with archaeological investigation that revealed anomalies consistent with shallow graves and even traces of mitochondrial DNA in the soil where the remains of Patriot and Loyalist soldiers now lie. In these quiet patches of Georgia soil, the long lost resting places of Kettle Creek’s fallen soldiers were finally found and the story of this pivotal battle continues to unfold.