The Battle of Kettle Creek, fought here on February 14, 1779, was one of the most important battles of the Revolutionary War in Georgia. At that time, the state was almost completely under British control. Col. Boyd, leading 600 British sympathizers known as Loyalists or Tories, crossed the Savannah River into present-day Elbert County on the way to the British Army at Augusta. Patriot forces under Col. Andrew Pickens with 200 S.C. militia and Col. John Dooly and Lt. Col. Elijah Clark with 140 Georgia militia marched to overtake them. On the morning of February 14, Boyd and his men were camped at a bend in the then-flooded Kettle Creek, with their horses grazing, sentries posted, and most of the men slaughtering cattle or searching for food. The Patriots tried to surprise the camp but failed, and a desperate battle raged on both sides of the creek for three hours before the Loyalists finally broke and fled. Boyd and 20 of his men were killed and 22 were captured, while Pickens and Dooly lost seven killed and 14 or 15 wounded. Pickens later wrote that Kettle Creek was “the severest check and chastisement, the Tories ever received in South Carolina or Georgia.”