Editing Camden, South Carolina (section)

=== American Revolution and antebellum era ===
[[File:British empire flag in Camden, SC.png|thumb|[[Flag of Great Britain]] in Camden, representing the city's connection to the Revolutionary War period.]]
May 1780 brought the [[American Revolution]] to [[Charleston, South Carolina]], when it fell under the Crown's control. Lord Charles [[Cornwallis]] and 2,500 of his Loyalist and British troops marched to Camden and established there the main British supply post for the Southern campaign. The [[Battle of Camden]], the worst American defeat of the Revolution, was fought on August 16, 1780, near Camden, and on April 25, 1781, the [[Battle of Hobkirk's Hill]] was fought between about 1,400 troops led by General [[Nathanael Greene]] and 950 Loyalists and British soldiers led by Lord [[Francis Rawdon]]. The latter battle was a costly win for the British and forced them to leave Camden and retreat to the coast. 

After the Revolution, Camden's prominence and wealth grew as a major interior trading town with direct ties to Charleston and the world. Regional products, augmented with goods from the interior of [[North Carolina]] and far lands to the west were transported from Camden to Charleston on flat-bottom riverboats that plied the adjacent Wateree River before the railroad arrived in 1842. An Episcopal seminary opened in the town in 1857, but the campus burned during Sherman's invasion. The school did not reopen.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meriwether|first=Colyer|title=History of Higher Education in South Carolina|publisher=The Reprint Company|year=1972|isbn=0871520974|edition=Reprinted from original|location=Spartanburg, South Carolina|pages=54–55|orig-year=1889}}</ref>