Preservationists are working to extend the life of a rare Revolutionary
War 'witness tree'
[August 25, 2026]
By ALLEN G. BREED
EUTAW SPRINGS, S.C. (AP) — Standing beneath the spreading branches of a
massive live oak, historian Garrison Marcoux tries to imagine what this
scarred, struggling tree saw 245 years ago.
Did one of the British soldiers encamped at this South Carolina
crossroad near the end of the Revolutionary War sit in the oak's shade
to recuperate from the series of attacks in American Maj. Gen. Nathanael
Greene's “war of posts?” Did he or his comrades take cover behind its
then slender trunk and fire at the onrushing Continental Army?
Perhaps a soldier took his last breath beneath its canopy, watering its
roots with his blood.
“I’m a spiritual person,” Marcoux, with the South Carolina Battlefield
Preservation Trust, said as workers clamber among the limbs above. “To
say that a place that experienced a lot of violence and intense emotion
and things like that doesn’t hold some kind of energy is probably not
likely. I think that energy exists where something like this happened.”
This is a “witness tree.” And it now faces its own fight for survival.
After multiple attempts to stave off its death over the decades, it is
being choked by the chains and cables meant to support it.
Preservationists are working to save this unique, living reminder of an
oft-overshadowed chapter in U.S. history.
What the oak witnessed during the Revolutionary War
Arborists estimate that the tree was about 50 years old on Sept. 8,
1781, when British and colonial forces clashed during the Battle of
Eutaw Springs — considered by historians to be the last open field
engagement of the American Revolution.
“It’s very rare to have a witness tree, especially from the
Revolutionary War,” Marcoux said on a recent sultry morning as gnats and
mosquitoes buzzed around his head. “To have the tree that witnessed this
battle and still standing is short of a miracle.”
Among the officers were famous names like Lt. Col. Henry “Light-Horse
Harry” Lee and Brig. Gen. Francis Marion, better known as the “Swamp
Fox.”
About 2,500 Americans attacked the roughly 2,000 British and Loyalist
troops camped around a fortified brick house. Greene, who had a horse
shot out from under him during the battle, called Eutaw Springs “by far,
the hottest action I ever saw, and the most bloody for the numbers
engaged.”
Lt. Col. Alexander Stewart, the British field commander that day, later
wrote to Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis, “I assure you the Action was
bloody and obstinate.”
There were 1,461 killed, wounded, captured or missing. Both sides would
claim victory.
“That tree probably took a few lead balls itself,” says arborist Aron
Landsaw.
The combatants would move on. The oak remained — and faced several more
battles of its own.
The supports to help the tree are now choking it
Hung with swaying Spanish moss, its branches festooned with bright-green
resurrection fern, the tree reaches 45 feet (13.7 meters) into the sky,
its canopy spreading about 130 feet (40 meters). Its trunk is 72 inches
(1.83 meters) in diameter at breast height.
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The sun rises behind a Revolutionary War "witness tree" at the
Battle of Eutaw Springs, S.C., historic site on Thursday, Aug. 13,
2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
The twin springs that gave the Revolutionary War battle its name are
no more, inundated by the 1940s project that flooded the Santee
River basin for hydroelectric power and flood control. Development
in the 1960s swallowed up much of what the lake project spared.
The tree survived it all.
Then, about 50 years ago, lightning struck the oak’s crotch,
splitting the tree nearly in two. Workers lashed the broad branches
together with steel cables and chains.
But the mechanisms that saved the oak are now slowly killing it.
As the tree grew, the metal bands cut into the trunk and branches,
in some places disappearing beneath a scar-like covering of bark.
“The chains and cables are actually choking it out,” says Landsaw.
“It can’t pull nutrients up from the soil.”
Preservationists hope to reverse that.
A super sonic air tool and a kelp mixture offer a lifeline
South Carolina 250 and the American Battlefield Trust joined forces
to hire New York state-based SavATree for the project as the U.S.
marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of
Independence.
Crews recently used a supersonic air tool to de-compact the ground
around the tree’s roots, then injected a kelp mixture to add
nutrients to the soil. The day of Marcoux’s visit, SavATree workers
hammered little blunt lightning rods into the main branches,
connecting them with shiny copper cables that converge on a longer
copper rod pounded deep into the ground about 10 feet (3 meters)
from the trunk.
“If lightning does hit it, it’ll run down the copper cables and
dissipate into the ground,” says Landsaw, a consulting arborist with
SavATree.
Next, workers will install new cables, bolted into the five main
branches, to stabilize the tree before removing the old supports.
“There’s going to be a center hub in the middle that connects all
these cables and allows the tree to sway with the wind and move
around when it needs to,” Landsaw explains.
Landsaw says this is the most significant project he's ever worked
on.
While he can't promise the tree will live another three centuries,
Landsaw is confident it will be around to inspire new generations of
Americans.
“We’re focusing on another 100 years at least,” he says. “Hopefully
longer.”
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