In May, 2001, my friend, Heather, and I spent several days touring Revolutionary War sites in South Carolina with Holley and Janie. Charleston is one of my favorite cities and I've been there several times, but I had never before visited the up country.

Holley and Janie met us at the Atlanta airport, where we climbed aboard Holley's brand new and amazingly comfortable BMW SUV, and set off on a whirlwind multi-day tour of Cowpens, King's Mountain, Brattonsville, Waxhaws, Camden, General Richardson's family plot, Drayton Hall, Middleton Place and ended up in Charleston. Sort of a Tarleton-eye view of the Carolinas, but in reverse. (And I'm sure we came away with far more positive memories, having encountered friends, good food and nice people instead of yellow fever, malaria, supply problems, flooded rivers and seriously inhospitable residents.)

After years of reading about these places, it was fun to see what the landscape really looks like, and try to fit it to the written descriptions. Since most books on the campaign don't come with pictures, I thought I'd share a few holiday snaps. (Some of the following pages have four or five images, and so may take a few seconds to load.)

Our tour started at Cowpens.