1781 1782 1783 The Battle of the Combahee River took place during the American Revolutionary War on August 27, 1782, near Beaufort, South Carolina, one of many such confrontations after the Siege of Yorktown to occur before the British evacuated Charleston in December 1782.

Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens, a 27-year-old Southern abolitionist, previously a diplomat and an aide-de-camp to George Washington, who was lauded as "one of the bravest and most gallant of the American officers," was killed during the confrontation.

To oppose the British forays, Greene placed a 300-man light brigade of infantry and cavalry under the command of General Mordecai Gist of Maryland.

Colonel John Laurens, who had just arrived on August 26 from his station outside Charleston, requested that Gist give him orders to take an additional small force further downriver to man a redoubt at Chehaw Point, where they could fire on the British as they retreated.

Before Laurens's detachment could reach the redoubt, 140 British soldiers had already prepared an ambush about one mile from Chehaw Point, concealing themselves in tall grass along the road.