In September 1780, Francis Marion returned to South Carolina after a short tactical retreat into the swamps of eastern North Carolina. Hearing that British and Loyalist forces were burning the homes of Whig militiamen in Williamsburg District, Marion moved to challenge their control of the area. He marched his men across the Great Pee Dee and Lynches Rivers to strike a Tory detachment at Sheppard’s Ferry on Black Mingo Creek. About fifty Tory militiamen under Capt. John Coming Ball were stationed at Patrick Dollard’s tavern less than a mile downstream from the trading village of Willtown and guarded the ferry crossing. Arriving at night, Marion crossed Black Mingo on a bridge at Willtown. The sound of the horses’ hooves on the wooden planks roused the Tories, who formed a line in a clearing opposite Dollard’s tavern. Marion divided his force into three detachments in an attempt to surround them. The brief but bloody fight sent most of the Tories fleeing into the nearby swamps and left the Whigs with a considerable store of much-needed weapons, ammunition, and horses. After the destruction of many homes in Williamsburg, the victory at Black Mingo gave an important practical and psychological boost to the Patriot cause in eastern South Carolina.