Christian Riddlespurger (also spelled Riddlebarger or Retelsberger) was born around 1715 in Germany. He immigrated to Pennsylvania in September 1733 aboard the ship Pink Mary from Rotterdam, arriving as a Palatine settler. By 1742, he had migrated south along the Great Wagon Road, settling in Saxe-Gotha Township, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, where he received a royal grant for 100 acres along the Congaree River. A planter and tavern owner, he acquired additional lands in the Four Hole Swamp area near present-day Rosinville, along the old Charleston Road (now SC Route 178). His plantation appears on Henry Mouzon’s 1775 map of the Carolinas. Riddlespurger married Ann Struck after 1740; she died after 1759. He later married Elizabeth Uldrick around 1770 in Charleston. An elder in the German Reformed Church and Dissenting Protestants along the Congaree River, he conveyed land for the Indian Field Methodist Campground. He died in November 1790 in St. George’s Parish, Dorchester County, South Carolina, and is buried at Indian Field Methodist Church Cemetery in Saint George.
During the Revolutionary War, Riddlespurger’s tavern played a supporting role in the Patriot campaign. As General Nathanael Greene’s army advanced southward in late 1781, it followed a horse trail near Eutaw Springs (now SC Highway 15, part of the Indian Field Trail) to the Orangeburgh-Charleston Road. On December 3, Greene’s main force—under Colonel Otho Holland Williams—camped at “Riddlespurger’s Tavern.” Greene himself led a “flying party” of 400 dragoons and mounted infantry, supported by General Francis Marion, to expel British forces from Fort Dorchester, which they successfully did.
Williams’ contingent included about 800 Continentals and up to 1,000 militia, plus camp followers and wagons. This encampment suggests Riddlespurger’s sympathy for the Patriot cause, as Williams ordered troops not to “burn rails”—prohibiting the use of his fences for firewood. The army consumed six head of cattle (2,100 pounds of beef), for which Riddlespurger was compensated 26 pounds and 19 shillings. A receipt bearing his distinctive “CR” mark also records payment of 3 pounds, 3 shillings, and 3 pence for supplying state troops with one grown hog, three bushels of potatoes, and 3 pounds for feeding a loyalist or patriot. By providing provisions and land access, Riddlespurger aided Greene’s operations, contributing to the eventual British evacuation of Charleston on December 14, 1782.
Riddlespurger’s actions exemplify the vital civilian support that sustained the Southern Campaign. His legacy endures in Dorchester County’s history, tied to the Fort Dorchester siege and the Indian Field area.
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