Daniel Island resident Kenneth Scarlett will lead a new task force to erect a Patriots Memorial Wall at Liberty Square in Charleston to honor the estimated 7,500 men and women in South Carolina who died during the Revolutionary War.
Scarlett said he wants the wall to be a national wall similar to the Vietnam Veterans Wall in Washington, D.C., and “serve as the glue of patriotism that unites us as Americans.” If all goes well, it will be unveiled July 4, 2026, when America observes its 250th anniversary.
The South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission (SC250), which met recently at Wofford College in Spartanburg, agreed to spend $12,000 for a design and construction process for the wall that could cost $1 million in public and private contributions.
A SC250 staff member said the task force will determine a lot of the details before a secondary vote by the commission is required to build the wall.
The S.C. General Assembly created the commission earlier this year to help organizations throughout the state celebrate the state’s Revolutionary War legacy.
Scarlett, who is a member of the SC250 commission, was assigned to lead a task force to study the idea that will be the commission’s “signature project.”
During the recent meeting, the commission awarded 11 grants totalling $2.6 million to government agencies and nonprofit groups.
Wall to list S.C. patriots
The wall will list the names of men and women of all races, nationalities and colonies who supported the cause of American patriotism and died in South Carolina from 1775 to 1783. The wall will be inscribed: “Freedom is the light for which many have died in darkness so we may enjoy the fruits of liberty today. Remember and honor their sacrifice.”
Scarlett told the commissioners the wall will stand on a significant site in South Carolina’s colonial history at Liberty Square, part of the former site of Gadsden’s Wharf where the last British troops occupied Charlestown before withdrawing on Dec. 14, 1782.
Collecting the names of people to place on the wall will require a widespread research effort to partner with historians, archives and history organizations, Scarlett said. He is the former president of the Nathanael Greene Freedom Monument Foundation that produced a life-sized statue of Greene, a Revolutionary War general, that stands in Greenville (formerly spelled “Greeneville”), his namesake.
“We want to have full community participation,” Scarlett said. The task force, which will be made up of volunteers, will “take all the steps [toward] community involvement,” he added. “We want this to be a South Carolina project for everyone.”
Scarlett said the thousands of people who died in South Carolina in “pursuit of political and economic independence from Britain deserve to finally be honored during our nation’s 250th anniversary.”
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