In an era when stories travel faster than facts, historian Dr. Jim Piecuch has spent three decades slowing the narrative down one footnote at a time.
Last month, the Camden scholar received the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor, for a lifetime of research that challenges myths and corrects the record of America’s founding battles.
Piecuch, whose work focuses on colonial and Revolutionary America, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of New Hampshire and his doctorate from the College of William & Mary. Piecuch has written extensively on the Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution and the people who shaped them. His books include Three Peoples, One King: Loyalists, Indians, and Slaves in the Revolutionary South, 1775–1782; Cavalry of the American Revolution; The Battle of Camden: A Documentary History; South Carolina Provincials, Loyalists in British Service During the American Revolution and The Blood Be Upon Your Head: Tarleton and the Myth of Buford’s Massacre.
Colleagues say Piecuch has done as much as anyone in recent decades to clarify the story of the American Revolution’s Southern Campaigns, revisiting familiar accounts with fresh evidence to see the past from all sides. His work has helped reshape how South Carolina understands its central role in the fight for independence.
The award was presented Oct. 16 at the historic Robert Mills Courthouse in Camden, during a program hosted by the South Carolina American Revolution Trust (SCART). Friends, family, fellow historians, and elected officials filled the old courtroom as Rep. Cody Mitchell presented the honor on behalf of Gov. Henry McMaster, joined by state senators and local leaders.
“When it comes to events like this, I think this is one of the most important things that we do,” Mitchell told the audience, noting that South Carolina remains one of the fastest-growing states in the country. “We have to know where we’ve been before we get where we’re going.”
The Order of the Palmetto is reserved for South Carolinians whose lifetime service and achievements have had a significant statewide impact.
The ceremony opened with an invocation from Rev. Dr. Paul Wood, himself a historian and author, who framed Piecuch’s career as a calling to seek truth, not comfort. He prayed that those gathered would honor Piecuch’s “quest to dispel untruth and to discover and share the realities of the past, no matter how unpleasant they might be,” and asked that his example inspire others to become “the best historians we might become according to our gifts and graces.”
Wesley Herndon, executive director of the South Carolina American Revolution Trust, told the audience that Piecuch is donating a large part of his private research library to SCART, ensuring future scholars can continue the work.
The common refrain among those who spoke was that Piecuch’s legacy rests not just on the stories he tells, but also the facts he proves.
“You’ve taught us the meaningful use of primary source material in action,” said historian and preservation attorney David Reuwer, who offered one of the afternoon’s most detailed tributes. Reuwer described Piecuch as a scholar defined by rigor, range, and courage, and said his influence could be summed up from three perspectives: expert research, intellectual breadth, and the courage to seek accuracy beyond the myth.
Reuwer noted that Piecuch’s work spans topics from Nathanael Greene to the Waxhaws, supported by dozens of peer-reviewed articles and hundreds of public lectures.
“Real history does not scare you,” Reuwer said, adding that Piecuch’s commitment to disciplined research has “raised all our boats.”
The award comes at a time when Piecuch is still actively contributing to the field. He told the audience he recently completed a first draft — more than 500 pages — of a new manuscript on the 1779 British campaign in which General Augustine Prevost crossed the Savannah River and threatened Charleston, a critical but often underexplored episode in the war. The book is now moving toward peer review with the University of South Carolina Press.
When Piecuch spoke, he downplayed the praise and focused instead on the work itself.
“My advisor told me early on that this is a lonely profession,” he said. “Researching and writing is something you do as an individual. You don’t do it as a group.”
He described years of research trips, budget motels, and long days in archives, first with card catalog drawers and microfilm machines and later with digitized collections.
“At the David Library of the American Revolution, I went through dozens of reels of the Cornwallis papers,” he said. “The incoming letters were in one set of reels and the outgoing letters scattered across others. You take notes for days before you can even start matching up his replies.”
For Piecuch, that effort is about fairness as much as accuracy. He noted that many older histories of the Southern Campaigns leaned almost entirely on American memoirs and recollections.
“You can’t tell just half the story,” he said. “If you want to understand the Revolution, you have to look at it from all sides.”
