Tiller's Ferry

Front: In 1760 Joseph Tiller received a grant for 100 acres on Lynches River, including this crossroads. James Tiller operated a ferry across the river 1 mi. N before 1806. He operated a toll bridge near the ferry, on the Stagecoach or Camden Road, beginning in 1830. A post office opened at Tiller’s Ferry in 1838, with James Tiller as its first postmaster; it closed in 1903. Reverse: In 1865, as Gen. W.T. Sherman’s Federal army advanced NE, Gen. John A. Logan’s XV Corps found its way blocked by a flooded Lynches River. Logan camped and foraged nearby February 25-March 2 before crossing into Darlington County. A skirmish on the other side of the river on February 26 cost Logan’s infantry and Gen. M.C. Butler’s Confederate cavalry a few minor casualties each.