Old Unity Cemetery

Old Unity Cemetery, also known as the Revolutionary Graveyard, is the final resting place of at least eight Patriots of the American Revolution. Unity Presbyterian Church established the cemetery. Local tradition holds that the earliest burials were in the northeast corner and marked with wooden headstones. Within these stone walls lie some of the first settlers of what is now Fort Mill – men and women who helped secure America’s independence. They lived alongside the Catawba Indians, who shared land, survival, skills, and crops, and fought beside them during the war. Many early community leaders are buried here.
After the original church was destroyed by fire in 1804, a second Unity Presbyterian Church was built beside the cemetery walls. The Town of Fort Mill listed Old Unity Cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
From 1780 to 1781, this region saw fierce fighting. Engagements included Waxhaws, Fishing Creek, Hill’s Iron Works, Stallion’s Plantation, Brattonsville, Flat Rock, Hanging Rock, Fishing Creek, Wahab’s Plantation, Bigger’s Ferry and King’s Mountain.
In October 1780, Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis retreated from Charlotte and camped just south of here, waiting for floodwaters at Nation Ford on the Catawba River to recede.
Those flood waters were caused by the Great Hurricane of 1780 – the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record. Torrential rains delayed the British crossing and also devastated British and French fleets in the Atlantic and Caribbean, influencing the course of the war.
The Patriots of the Revolutionary War interred here include: ● Samuel Dinsmore ● William Elliot ● Alexander Faires ● Robert Harris ● Captain Richard Springs ● Captain Theodorick Webb ● John White ● Captain Joseph White

This marks the site of Inity Presbyterian Church and Graveyard. 1785.