The Battle of Eutaw Springs was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, and was the last major engagement of the war in the Carolinas. In early 1781, Major General Nathanael Greene of the Continental Army began a campaign to end British control over the South Carolina backcountry. His first major objective was the capture of the British controlled village of Ninety Six. On May 22, Greene laid siege to the fortified village. After nearly a month, Greene became aware that reinforcements under Colonel Francis Rawdon were approaching from Charleston. Forces under Greene's command assaulted Ninety Six on June 18, but were repelled. To avoid facing the force commanded by Rawdon, Greene retreated toward Charlotte, North Carolina. Rawdon pursued Greene for several days, but was compelled to abandon the pursuit because his men were exhausted by days of forced marching and he lacked sufficient supplies to continue. Despite the fact Ninety Six was the only remaining inland British outpost after the fall of Augusta, Georgia, Rawdon decided to burn and abandon it, and withdrew the garrison to Charleston. In poor health, Rawdon sailed for England in late August, leaving Charleston under the command of Colonel Alexander Stewart.

In order to make up for a shortage of bread in his supplies, Stewart had been sending out foraging parties each morning to dig up yams, unarmed except for a small guard detail. At around 8 am on September 8, Captain John Coffin and a detachment of his South Carolina Loyalist cavalry were reconnoitering ahead of Stewart's main force when he encountered a mounted American scouting party under Major John Armstrong. Coffin pursued Armstrong, who led him into an ambush. Attacked by Henry Lee's 2nd Partisan Corps, Coffin escaped but left 4 or 5 of his men killed and 40 more captured. The Americans then came across Stewart's foragers and captured about 400 of them. According to Otho Williams, some plundering of the British camp occurred, while an attack on the British left by Lee's cavalry failed. At this point, Greene ordered a retreat with all of the wounded. Greene's army was then able to march back to Burdell's Plantation in column formation, with a cavalry picket covering the orderly retreat. On September 9, rain prevented a continuation of battle. Despite winning a tactical victory, the British lost strategically. Their inability to stop Greene's continuing operations forced them to abandon most of their conquests in the South, leaving them in control of a small number of isolated enclaves at Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah.