Chapter XXVII (2)

* In March, 1825, at a meeting of the citizens of Savannah, it was determined to take the occasion of the expected visit of General La Fayette to that city to lay the corner-stones of two monuments, one to the memory of Greene, in Johnson Square; the other in memory of Pulaski, in Chippewa Square. These corner-stones were accordingly laid by La Fayette on the twenty-first of March, 1825. Some donations were made; and in November, 1826, the State Legislature authorized a lottery, for the purpose of raising $35,000 to complete the monuments. The funds were accumulated very slowly, and it was finally resolved to erect one monument, to be called the "Greene and Pulaski Monument." The structure here delineated is of Georgia marble upon a granite base, and was completed in 1829. The lottery is still in operation, and since this monument was completed has realized a little more than $12,000.--Bancroft's Census and Statistics of Savannah, 1848. The second monument, a beautiful work of art, will soon be erected in Chippewa Square. Launitz, the sculptor, of New York, is intrusted with its construction.

* See M'Calfs History of Georgia, note, i., 34.

[[[Oglethorpe's Colonial Plan.--Charter for Georgia.--First Emigrants.--Interview with the Indian King.]]]

{721}of England. * He instituted an inquiry into their condition, which resulted in the conviction that their situation would be more tolerable in the position of a military colony, acting as a barrier between the Carolinians and their troublesome neighbors, than in the moral contamination and physical miseries of prison life.

The class of persons whom he designed to transplant to America were not wicked criminals, but chiefly insolvent debtors. Oglethorpe also proposed to make the new colony an asylum for the persecuted Protestants of Germany and other Continental states, and in this religious idea he included the pious thought of spiritual benefit to the Indian tribes. The Earl of Shaftesbury (the fourth bearing that title) and other influential men warmly espoused the scheme, and a general enthusiasm upon the subject soon pervaded the nation. A royal charter was obtained in 1732 for twenty-one years; ** large sums were subscribed by individuals; and in the course of two years, Parliament voted one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in support of the scheme. ****

Oglethorpe volunteered to act as governor of the new colony, and to accompany the settlers to their destination. Accordingly, in November, 1732, he embarked with one hundred and twenty emigrants, and in fifty-seven days arrived off the bar of Charleston. He was warmly welcomed by the Carolinians, and on the thirteenth of January he sailed for Port Royal. While the colonists were landing, Oglethorpe, with a few followers, proceeded southward, ascended the Savannah River to the high bluff, and there selected a spot for a city, the capital of the future state. With the Yamacraw Indians, half a mile from this bluff, dwelt _Tomo Chichi_, the grand sachem of the Indian confederacy of that region. Oglethorpe and the chief both desired friendly relations; and when the former invited the latter to his tent, _Tomo Chichi_ came, bearing in his hand a small buffalo skin, appropriately ornamented, and addressed Oglethorpe in eloquent and conciliatory terms. (v) Friendly rela-

* In 1728, Oglethorpe's attention was drawn to the condition of debtors in prison by visiting a gentleman confined in the Fleet Jail, who was heavily ironed and harshly treated. He obtained a parliamentary commission to inquire into the state of debtor-prisoners throughout England, of which he was made chairman. They reported in 1729, and efforts at reform were immediately made. The most popular proposition was that of Oglethorpe, to use the prison materials for founding a new state in America.

** This charter was unlike all that had preceded it. Instead of being given for purposes of private advantage, as a money speculation, it was so arranged that the administrators of the affairs of the new colony could derive no profit from it whatever; they acted solely "in trust for the poor." It was purely a benevolent scheme. They were to manage the affairs of the colony for twenty-one years, after which it was to revert to the crown. In honor of the king, who gave the scheme his hearty approval, the territory included within the charter was called Georgia. The seal of the new province bore a representation of a group of silk- worms at work, with the motto "Not for themselves, but for others."

*** James Edward Oglethorpe was born in Surrey, England, on the twenty-first of December, 1698. He entered the army at an early age, and served under Prince Eugene as his aid-de-camp. He was for many years a member of Parliament, and while in that position successfully advocated a scheme for colonizing Georgia. He founded Savannah in 1733. In prosecution of his benevolent enterprise, he crossed the ocean several times. He performed a good deal of military service in Georgia and Florida. He returned to England in 1743, and was married in 1744. In 1745, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier in the British army, and in 1747 to major general. He was employed, under the Duke of Cumberland, against the Pretender, during 1745. When General Gage went to England in 1775, the supreme command of the British army in North America was offered to Oglethorpe. His merciful conditions did not please ministers, and General Howe received the appointment. He died at Grantham Hall, on the thirtieth of June, 1785, at the age of eighty-seven years, and was buried in Grantham Church, Essex, where his tomb bears a poetic epitaph.

**** Graham, iii., 180-184.

* (v) "Here," said the chief, "is a little present; I give you a Buffalo's skin, adorned on the inside with the head and feathers of an Eagle, which I desire you to accept, because the Eagle is an emblem of speed, and the Buffalo of strength. The English are swift as the bird, and strong as the beast, since, like the former, they flew over vast seas to the uttermost parts of the earth; and like the latter, they are so strong that nothing can withstand them. The feathers of an Eagle are soft, and signify love; the Buffalo's skin is warm, and signifies protection; therefore, I hope the English will love and protect our little families."

[[[Founding of Savannah.--Progress of the Colony.--Methodists.--Defenses against the Spaniards.]]]

{722}tions were established, and on the twelfth of February[[1732]] the little band of settlers came from Port Royal and landed at the site of the future city of Savannah.

For almost a year the governor lived under a tent stretched upon pine boughs, while the streets of the town were laid out, and the people built their houses of timber, each twenty-four by sixteen feet in size.

In May following, a treaty with the Indian chiefs of the country was held; and on the first of June, it was signed, by which the English obtained sovereignty over the lands of the Creek nation, as far south as the St. John's, in Florida. Such was the beginning of one of the original thirteen states of our confederacy.

Within eight years after the founding of Savannah, twenty-five hundred emigrants had been sent out to Georgia, at an expense of four hundred thousand dollars. * Among these were one hundred and fifty Highlanders, well disciplined in military tactics, who were of essential service to Oglethorpe. Very strict moral regulations were adopted; ** lots of land, twenty-five acres each, were granted to men for military services, and every care was exercised to make the settlers comfortable. Yet discontent soon prevailed, for they saw the Carolinians growing rich by traffic in negroes; they also saw them prosper commercially by trade with the West Indies. They complained of the Wesleyans as too rigid, and these pious Methodists left the colony and returned home. Still, prosperity did not smile upon the settlers, and a failure of the scheme was anticipated.

Oglethorpe, who went to England in 1734, returned in 1736, with three hundred emigrants. A storm was gathering upon the southern frontier of his domain. The Spaniards at St. Augustine regarded the rising state with jealousy, and as a war between England and Spain was anticipated, vigilance was necessary. Oglethorpe resolved to maintain the claim of Great Britain south to the banks of the St. John's, and the Highlanders, settled at Darien, volunteered to aid him. With a few followers, he hastened in a scout-boat to St. Simon's Island, where he laid the foundations of Frederica, and upon the bluff near by he constructed a fort of _tabby_ *** the ruins of which may still be seen there. He also caused forts to be erected at Augusta, Darien, on Cumberland Island, and near the mouth of the St. Mary's and St. John's. Perceiving these hostile preparations, the Spanish authorities at St. Augustine sent commissioners to confer with Oglethorpe. They demanded the evacuation of the whole of Georgia, and even of the region north of the Savannah to St. Helena Sound. This demand was accompanied by a menace of war in the event of non-compliance. Thus matters stood for several months.

In the winter of 1736--7, Oglethorpe again went to England, where he received the commission of brigadier general, with a command extending over South Carolina as well as

* Among those who went to Georgia during this period were John and Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist sect. Also in 1733, quite a large body of Moravians, on the invitation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, left the Old Continent for the New, and pitched their tents near Savannah, after a long voyage. They soon made their way up the Savannah to a beautiful stream, where they settled down permanently, and called the creek and their settlement, Ebenezer, a name which they still bear. Whitfield came in 1740, and established an orphan-house at Savannah. He sustained it for a while, by contributions drawn from the people of the several provinces by his eloquence; but when he was asleep in the soil of New England, it failed. All Christians were admitted to equal citizenship, except Roman Catholics; they were not allowed a residence there.

** The importation of rum was prohibited, and, to prevent a contraband trade in the article, commercial intercourse with the West Indies was forbidden. The importation of negroes was also forbidden.

*** Tabby is a mixture of lime with oyster-shells and gravel, which, when dry, form a hard rocky mass.

**** This is from a sketch made by W. W. Hazzard, Esq., in 1851. Mr. Hazzard writes: "These ruins stand on the left bank or bluff of the south branch of the Alatamaha River, on the west side of St. Simon's Island, where the steamers pass from Savannah to Florida." This fort was a scene of hostilities during the war of the Revolution, and also that of 1812; and is one of the most interesting military relics of our country. Mr. Hazzard states that, in his field in the rear of it, his men always turn up "bomb-shells and hollow shot whenever they plow there." The whole remains are upon his plantation at West Point.

[[[Expedition against St. Augustine.--Return of Oglethorpe to England.--Georgia a Royal province.]]]

{723}Georgia. There he remained a year and a half, when he returned to his colony with a regiment of six hundred men to act against the Spaniards. England declared war against Spain in the latter part of 1739, and Oglethorpe immediately planned an expedition against St. Augustine. The St. Mary's was then considered (as it remains) the boundary between Georgia and Florida. Over that line Oglethorpe marched in May, 1740, with four hundred of his regiment, some Carolinians, and a large body of friendly Indians. He captured a Spanish fort within twenty-five miles of St. Augustine. A small fortress, within two miles of that place, was surrendered on his approach, but a summons to give up the town was answered by defiant words. The invaders maintained a siege for some time, when the arrival of re-enforcements for the garrison, and the prevalence of sickness in the camp, obliged them to withdraw and return to Savannah.[[July, 1740]]

In 1742, the Spaniards invaded Georgia. A fleet of thirty-six sail, with more than three thousand troops from Havana and St. Augustine, entered the harbor of St. Simons,[[July 16, 1742]] and a little above the town of the same name, erected a battery of twenty guns. Oglethorpe, with eight hundred men, exclusive of Indians, was then on the island. He withdrew to his fort at Frederica, and anxiously awaited re-enforcements from Carolina. He skirmished successfully with attacking parties, and arranged for a night assault upon the enemy's battery. A deserter (a French soldier) defeated his plan; but the sagacity of Oglethorpe used the miscreant's agency to his subsequent advantage, by bribing a Spanish prisoner to carry a letter to the deserter, containing information that a British fleet was about to attack St. Augustine. Of course the letter was handed to the Spanish commander, who arrested the Frenchman as a spy. The intelligence contained in Oglethorpe's letter alarmed the garrison, and the Spaniards determined to assail the English immediately, and then return to St. Augustine as speedily as possible. On their march to the attack of Frederica, they fell into an ambuscade. Great slaughter ensued, and they retreated precipitately. The place of conflict is called Bloody Marsh to this day. On their retreat, by water, they attacked Fort William, at the southern extremity of Cumberland Island, but were repulsed with loss. The expedition was disastrous to the Spaniards in every particular, and the commander was tried by a court-martial at Havana, and dismissed from the service in disgrace.

After ten years of service in and for the colony of Georgia, Oglethorpe returned to England, and his feet never again pressed the soil of America. His rule had been chiefly military. A civil government was now established,[[1743]] under the control of a president and council, who were instructed to administer it as the trustees should dictate. Prosperity did not yet gladden the settlers, and the colony had a sickly existence. At length the moral and commercial restrictions began to be evaded; slaves were brought from Carolina, and hired first for a few years, and then for a hundred years, or during life. This was equivalent to a purchase, and was so considered by the parties; for a sum, equal to the value of the slave, was paid in advance. Finally, slave ships came directly to Savannah from Africa; slave labor was generally introduced, and Georgia, like Carolina, became a planting state. In 1752, the trustees, wearied with the complaints of the colonists, resigned the charter into the hands of the king, and from that period until the war of the Revolution, Georgia was a royal province. * When the treaty of Paris in 1763 guarantied, as far as possible, general peace in America, the province, for the first time, began to flourish and take an important place among the Anglo-American colonies; and in the hostilities against the Indians on the frontiers its people performed their part well in furnishing provisions and men for the armies.

The inhabitants of Georgia first began to feel the hand of British taxation, when, in 1767, Governor Wright communicated his instructions from the king to require implicit obe-

* John Reynolds was the first royal governor. He was appointed in 1754. and was succeeded in 1757 by Henry Ellis. Sir James Wright, who was the last royal governor of Georgia, succeeded Ellis in 1760, and held the office until 1776.

[[[Political Agitation.--Committee of Correspondence.--Movements of the Sons of Liberty.--Their names]]]

{724}dience to the Mutiny Act. * They were compelled to acquiesce, but it was with reluctance They had not realized the practical iniquity of the Stamp Act; and when, in 1768, the Assembly at Savannah appointed Dr. Franklin an agent to attend to the interests of the colony in Great Britain, they had no formal special complaint to make, nor difficulties with government for him to adjust. They generally instructed him to use efforts to have the acts of Parliament repealed, which were offensive to all the colonies. To a circular letter from the speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly,[[1768]] proposing a union of the colonies, an answer of approval was returned. In 1770,[[Feb, 1770]] the Legislature spoke out boldly against the oppressive acts of the mother country, by publishing a Declaration of Rights, similar in sentiment to that of the "Stamp Act Congress" at New York. Governor Wright was displeased, and viewing the progress of revolutionary principles within his province with concern, he went to England[[1771]] to confer with ministers. He remained there about a year and a half. During his absence, James Habersham, president of the council, exercised executive functions.

The republicans of Georgia had become numerous in 1773, and committees of correspondence were early formed, and acted efficiently. A meeting of the friends of liberty was called in Savannah in the autumn of that year, but Sir James Wright, supported by a train of civil officers, prevented the proposed public expression of opinion. The wealthy feared loss of property by revolutionary movements, while the timid trembled at the thought of resistance to royal government. Selfishness and fear kept the people comparatively quiet for a while. In the mean time, a powerful Tory party was organizing in South Carolina and in Georgia, and emissaries were sent by the governors of these provinces among the Indians on the frontiers, to prepare them to lift the hatchet and go out upon the war-path against the white people, if rebellion should ensue. Such was the condition of Georgia when called upon to appoint representatives in the Continental Congress, to be held at Philadelphia in 1774. Half encircled by fierce savages, and pressed down by the heel of strongly-supported royal power in their midst, the Republicans needed stout hearts and unbending resolution. These they possessed; and in the midst of difficulties they were bold, and adopted measures of co-operation with the other colonies in resistance to tyranny.

On the fourteenth of July,[[1774]] the Sons of Liberty were requested to assemble at the liberty pole at Tondee's tavern, ** in Savannah, on Wednesday, the twenty-seventh instant, in order that publie matters may be taken under consideration, and such other _constitutional measures_ pursued as may then appear most eligible." *** The call was signed by Noble W. Jones (who in 1780 was a prisoner in Charleston), Archibald Bullock, John Houstoun, and George Walton. A meeting was accordingly held at the watch-house in Savannah.[[July 27, 1774]] where letters from Northern committees were read, and a committee to draft resolutions was appointed. **** These proceedings were published, and the governor, alarmed at the progress of rebellion around him, issued a countervailing proclamation.[[August]] He called upon the people to discountenance these seditious men and measures, and menaced the disobedient with the penalties of stern British law.

On the tenth of August another meeting was held, when it was resolved to concur with their sister colonies in acts of resistance to oppression. After strongly condemning the Boston Port Bill, they appointed a committee to receive subscriptions for the suffering peo-

* A proviso of this act, as we have elsewhere noticed, required the colonists to provide various necessaries lor soldiers that might be quartered among them.

** The first liberty-pole was erected in Savannah, on the fifth of June, 1775, in front of Peter Tondee's tavern. His house stood upon the spot now (1849) occupied by Smet's new stores.

*** M'Call, ii., 16.

**** John Glenn was chosen chairman of the meeting. The following-named gentlemen were appointed the committee to prepare the resolutions: John Glenn, John Smith, Joseph Clay, John Houstoun, Noble W. Jones, Lyman Hall, William Young, Edward Telfair, Samuel Farley, George Walton, Joseph Habersham, Jonathan Bryan, Jonathan Cochran, George M'Intosh, Sutton Banks, William Gibbons, Benjamin Andrew, John Winn, John Stirle, Archibald Bullock, James Seriven, David Zubley, Henry Davis Bourguin, Elisha Butler, William Baker, Parminus Way, John Baker, John Mann, John Benefield, John Stacey, and John Morel. These were the leading Sons of Liberty at Savannah in 1774.

[[[Contributions for Boston.--Tory Influence.--Whig Boldness.--Spiking of Cannon.--Tar and Feathers.]]]

{725}ple of that city, and within a few hours after the adjournment of the meeting, five hundred and seventy-five barrels of rice were contributed and shipped for Massachusetts. The governor assembled his friends at the court-house a few days afterward, and their disapprobation of the conduct of the Republicans was expressed in strong terms. Agents were sent throughout the province to obtain the signatures of the people to a printed denunciation of the Whigs; and by means of menaces and promises, an apparent majority of the inhabitants declared in favor of royal rule. * So powerfully did the tide of opposition against the Whigs flow for a while, that they did not appoint delegates to the Continental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia in September, and Georgia was not represented in that first Federal Republican council, ** yet they heartily approved of the measure, and by words and actions nobly responded to that first great resolution, adopted by the Continental Congress on the eighth of October, 1774, *** which approved of the resistance of Massachusetts.

The Republicans continued to assemble during the winter of 1774--5, and in May following they determined to anticipate an act on the part of Governor Wright similar to that of Gage at Boston. Accordingly, on the night of the eleventh of May,[[1775]] six of the members of the Council of Safety, **** and others, broke open the magazine, (v) took out the powder, sent a portion of it to Beaufort, South Carolina, and concealed the remainder in their garrets and cellars. The governor offered a reward of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the apprehension of the offenders, but the secret was never revealed till the patriots used the powder in defense of their liberties.

On the first of June, Governor Wright and the Loyalists of Savannah prepared to celebrate the king's birth-day. On the night of the second, some of the leading Whigs spiked the cannon on the battery, and hurled them to the bottom of the bluff. Nineteen days afterward, a meeting was called for the purpose of choosing a committee to enforce the requirements of the _American Association_, put forth by the Congress of 1774. (vi) The first victim to his temerity in opposing the operations of the committee was a man named Hopkins. He ridiculed the Whigs, and they, in turn, gave him a coat of tar and feathers, and paraded him in a cart through the town for four or five hours. About this time, a letter from Governor Wright to General Gage was intercepted by the vigilant Whigs of Charles-

* The only newspaper in the province (the Georgia Gazette, established in 1762) was under the control of Governor Wright, and through it he disseminated much sophistry, and sometimes falsehoods among the people.

** The committees of St. John's parish convened on the ninth of February, 1775, and addressed a circular letter to the committees of other colonies, asking their consent to the reception of a representative in Congress from that particular parish. Encouraged by the answer they received, they met again on the twenty-first of March, and appointed Dr. Lyman Hall to represent them. When he went to Philadelphia, he took with him, from Sunbury, one hundred and sixty barrels of rice, and two hundred and fifty dollars, as a present to the people of Boston.

*** The whole record of the proceedings of Congress on that day is as follows: "Saturday, October 8, 1774.--The Congress resumed the consideration of the letter from Boston, and, upon motion, Resolved, That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to the execution of the late Acts of Parliament; and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case, all America ought to support them in their opposition." The proceedings of that one day should be written in brass and marble; for the resolution then adopted was the first Federal gauntlet of defiance cast at the feet of the British monarch. The eighth of October, 1774, should be placed by the side of the fourth of July, 1776, as one of the most sacred days in the calendar of Freedom.

**** These were Noble Wimberly Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair, William Gibbons, Joseph Clay, and John Milledge.

* (v) The magazine was at the eastern extremity of the town. It was sunk about twelve feet under the ground, inclosed with brick, and secured by a door in such a way that the governor did not consider a guard necessary.

* (vi) This committee consisted of sixteen leading men of Savannah, among whom was Samuel (afterward General) Elbert, and George Walton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. M'Call (ii., 45) says that, after the meeting adjourned, "a number of gentlemen dined at Tondee's tavern, where the Union flag was hoisted upon the liberty-pole, and two pieces of artillery were placed under it." The Union flag, of thirteen red and white stripes, was not adopted until the first of January, 1776, when it was first unfurled in the American camp, near Boston.

[[[Intercepted Letter.--Seizure of Powder.--Imprisonment of the Governor.--His Escape.--A Traitor.]]]

{726}ton. It contained a request for Gage to send some British troops to suppress the rebellious spirit of the Georgians. *

The Republicans were exceedingly indignant; and when, a day or two afterward, it was known that Captain Maitland had arrived at Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savannah, with thirteen thousand pounds of powder and other articles for the British and Indians, it was determined to seize the vessel. The Georgia Assembly was then in session. ** The leading Whigs approved of the enterprise, and on the night of the tenth of July, thirty volunteers, under Commodore Bowen and Colonel Joseph Habersham, embarked in two boats, took possession of the ship, discharged the crew, and placed the powder in the magazine in Savannah, except five thousand pounds, which they sent to the army then investing Boston, under General Washington. ***

The Indian hostilities, which occurred at this time on the western Miles frontiers, we have considered in preceding chapters.

The spirit of resistance waxed stronger and stronger during the autumn of 1775. In January, 1776, it assumed a form of strength and determination hitherto unknown in Georgia. On the eighteenth of that month, Colonel Joseph Habersham, **** who was a member of the Assembly, raised a party of volunteers, took Governor Wright a prisoner, and paroled him to his own house, (v) before which a sentinel was placed, and forbid all intercourse between him and persons inimical to the Republican cause. On the night of the eleventh of February,[[1776]] during a storm, the governor escaped from a back window of his house, with John Muloyne, and went down the river five miles, to Bonaventure, the residence of that gentleman. There a boat and crew were waiting for him, and he was conveyed to Tybec Sound, and took shelter on board the armed ship Scarborough.

Royal rule had now actually ceased

* The Secret Committee at Charleston, who intercepted this letter, placed another in the cover, with Governor Wright's name counterfeited, and sent it on to Gage. In that letter they said (as if Governor Wright was penning it), "I have wrote for troops to awe the people, but now there is no occasion for sending them, for the people are again come to some order." Gage was thus misled.

** They met on the fourth of July. On the fifteenth, they elected Archibald Bullock, John Houstoun, John Joachim Zubley, Noble Wimberly Jones, and Lyman Hall, to represent that province in the Continental Congress. These were the first delegates elected by the representatives of the whole people, for Hall represented only the parish of St. John's. Fifty-three members signed their credentials. Zubley afterward became a traitor. While the subject of independence was being debated in 1776, Samuel Chase, of Maryland, accused Zubley of communicating with Governor Wright. Zubley denied the charge, but while Chase was collecting proof, the recusant fled.

*** One of the men engaged in this adventure was Ebenezer Smith Platt. He was afterward made a prisoner, and being recognized as one of this daring party, was sent to England, where he lay in jail many months, under a charge of high treason. He was eventually considered a prisoner of war, and was exchanged.

**** Joseph Habersham was the son of a merchant of Savannah, who died at New Brunswick, in New Jersey, in August, 1775. Joseph Habersham held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Continental army. In 1785, he was a member of Congress from Savannah; and in 1795, Washington appointed him postmaster general of the United States. He held that office until 1800, when he resigned. He was made president of the Branch Bank of the United States, at Savannah, in 1802, which position he held until his death, in November, 1815, at the age of sixty-five years. The name of his brother James, late President of the Council, appears upon the first bill of credit issued by the Provincial Congress of Georgia in 1776.

* ( v) Governor Wright's house was on the lot in Heathcote Ward, where the Telfair House now stands. The Council House was on the lot where George Schley. Esq., resided in 1849.

[[[Congressional Delegates.--Savannah Menaced.--British Repulsed.--Party Lines.--Lee's Expedition.]]]

{727}in Georgia, and the Assembly assumed governmental powers. They elected new delegates to the Continental Congress;[[1776]] passed a resolution to raise a battalion of Continental troops;[[Feb. 4]] and issued bills of credit in the form of certificates, and ordered them to be received at par in payment of debts and for merchandise.

Governor Wright wrote a letter to the Assembly[[Feb. 13]] very conciliatory in its tone, but receiving no answer, he resolved to allow the armed vessels at the mouth of the river to force their way to the town, and procure such supplies as they needed. Eleven merchant vessels, laden with rice, were then at Savannah ready to sail. These were seized by the war ships, and Majors Maitland and Grant landed, with a considerable force, upon Hutchinson's Island, opposite Savannah, preparatory to an attack upon the town[[March 6, 1776]] The patriots were on the alert, and sent a flag to Maitland, warning him to desist.

This flag was detained, and another was fired upon. Further parley was deemed unnecessary, and the next day two merchant vessels, lying in the stream, were set on fire by the patriots. Floating down to the one containing Maitland and Grant, with their men, great consternation was produced. Some of the soldiers jumped overboard and swam ashore; some stuck in the mud, and many lost their fire-arms; while the officers escaped in boats to Hutchinson's Island. At this critical moment, four hundred Carolinians, under Colonel Bull, arrived, and aided the Georgians in repulsing the assailants. Three of the merchant vessels were burned, six were dismantled, and two escaped to sea.

The breach between the Whigs and Tories was now too wide to be closed, and the line was very distinctly drawn by stringent measures on the part of the former. *** These tended to winnow the chaff from the wheat, and many Tories, possessed of no property, left Georgia and took refuge in East Florida, where Governor Tonyn was actively engaged in fitting out privateers to prey upon the infant commerce of the Southern colonists, and to ravage their coasts. The Tories there organized under the title of the _Florida Rangers_, and were led by Thomas Brown, the Augusta Loyalist, who afterward commanded the garrison at that place. A fort built by Governor Wright's brother, on the St. Mary's, was their place of rendezvous, whence they went out and levied terrible contributions, in the way of plunder, upon the people of Southern Georgia, who were thinly scattered over the country.

The war had now fairly commenced, and the flame of patriotism which burned so brightly at the North was not less intense in Georgia. The Declaration of Independence was received in Savannah with great joy. **** [[August 10, 1776]] Pursuant to the recommendation of the Continental Congress, the people turned their attention to the organization of civil government, upon the basis of independence, and in strengthening their military power. To weaken the British and Tories in the South, an expedition against St. Augustine (then in possession of the English) was planned, and General Charles Lee, then at Charleston, was invited to take the command of troops that might be sent. Lee perceived the advantages to be derived from such a measure, and acquiescing, he immediately ordered Brigadier Robert Howe to proceed to Savannah with troops. Howe had marched as far as Sunbury, at the mouth of the Midway River,[[August, 1776]] when sickness, want of artillery and

* Archibald Bullock, John Houstoun, Lyman Hall, Button Gwinnett, and George Walton.

** Lachlin Mflntosh was appointed colonel; Samuel Elbert, lieutenant colonel; and Joseph Habersham, major.

*** When the British first appeared in the attitude of assailants, the Committee of Safety appraised such houses in Savannah as were owned by Republicans, with the determination of applying the torch if they could not repulse the enemy. The houses of the Tories were not noticed; and therefore, in the event of a general conflagration, their property would not be accounted for.

**** Archibald Bullock, president of the council, convened that body, on the receipt of the Declaration (which came by express in thirty-five days from Philadelphia), when they ordered it to be publicly read in front of the council-chamber. There, under a military escort, the council proceeded to the liberty-pole, where they were saluted by thirteen cannon-peals and small arms from the first Continental battalion, under Colonel M'Intosh. Proceeding to the haltery, another salute of thirteen guns was fired. The people then partook of a dinner in a grove, where thirteen toasts were given. In the afternoon, there was a funeral procession, and the royal government was buried, with the customary ceremonies. In the evening, the town was brilliantly illuminated.--M'Call, ii., 90.

[[[Boldness of the Tories.--Organization of Civil Government.--M'Intosh and Gwinnett.--A Duel.]]]

{718}other necessaries for the campaign, caused Lee to abandon the enterprise. The effect of this movement was disastrous to the Whigs.

The Tories gained confidence; and on the seventh day of February, 1777, they attacked Fort M'Intosh. * The garrison was commanded by Captain Richard Winn, of South Carolina. After holding out for two days, he was obliged to surrender.

The officers and privates of the garrison were all paroled except two young officers, who were taken to St. Augustine and kept as hostages.

During the autumn of 1776, a convention was held in Savannah to form a state Constitution, with a bullet in the thigh. M'Intosh recovered; Gwinnett died, murder, at the instance of Gwinnett's friends, and was acquitted.

It was adopted on the 5th of February following: Button Gwinnett, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was chosen president of the council, an office equivalent in its functions to that of governor. In consequence of military rivalry, a serious difficulty arose between Gwinnett and Colonel M'Intosh, ** who had just been elected brigadier general of the Georgia Continental troops. A duel ensued, when both were wounded, each M'Intosh was tried for This quarrel produced a serious local agitation, which at one time menaced the Republican stability of Georgia, and the true friends of the cause were alarmed. To allay party feeling, General M'Intosh consented to accept of a station at the North; and Washington appointed him commander-in-chief of the Western Department, with his head-quarters at Pittsburg, where we have already met him. (See page 500.)

During the summer and autumn of 1777, Colonels Elbert, Scriven, Baker, and others, attempted to dislodge the Tories from East Florida, and several skirmishes occurred. These expeditions were fruitless of advantage to the patriots, and much suffering ensued. Frederica was attacked by the enemy; some Americans and negroes were captured, and considerable property was carried off. Often, during the autumn, predatory excursions were made

* This was a small stockade, one hundred feet square, with a block-house in the center, and a bastion at each corner. It was situated upon the northeast side of Saltilla River, in the present Camden county.

** Lachlin M'Intosh was born near Inverness, in Scotland, in 1727. He was the son of John M., who was at the head of the Borlam branch of the clan M'Intosh. He came to Georgia with General Oglethorpe in 1736, when Lachlin was nine years of age. His father being made a prisoner and sent to St. Augustine, Lachlin was left to the care of his mother at the age of thirteen years. His opportunities for education were small, yet his strong mind overcame many difficulties. Arrived at maturity! he went to Charleston, where, on account of his fine personal appearance and the services of his father, he commanded attention. He and Henry Laurens became friends, and he entered that gentleman's counting-room as clerk. He left commercial pursuits, returned to his friends on the Alatamaha, married, and engaged in the profession of a land surveyor. He made himself acquainted with military tactics, and when the War for Independence broke out, he was found, when needed, on the side of the Republicans. He was first appointed colonel, and in 1776 was commissioned a brigadier. He was persecuted by his rival, Button Gwinnett, until he could no longer forbear; and finally, pronouncing that gentleman a scoundrel, a duel ensued, and Gwinnett was killed. M'Intosh afterward commanded in the Western Department, and led an expedition against the Indians. (See page 500). He returned to Georgia in 1779, and was at the siege and fall of Savannah. He was with Lincoln at Charleston, where he was made prisoner. After his release, he went with his family to Virginia, where he remained until the close of the war. When he returned to Georgia, he found his property nearly all wasted; and in retirement and comparative poverty, he lived in Savannah until his death, which occurred in 1806, at the age of seventy-nine. General M'Intosh, when young, was considered the handsomest man in Georgia.

[[[Expedition to Florida.--Troops under General Howe.--His public Life.--Duel with Gadsden.]]]

{729}upon the southern frontiers of Georgia, the marauders frequently penetrating as far as the Alatamaha and even beyond, and the settlements suffered terribly.

During the winter and spring of 1778, the opponents of the new government became formidable, and indications of an invasion of Georgia, from Florida and from the Indian territory in the West, was perceived.

Tories gathered at Ninety-Six] and crossed the Savannah, while those of Florida, joined by the Indians, continued to scatter desolation along the southern frontier. Robert Howe, * of North Carolina, now promoted to the rank of major general, was in the chief command of the Southern army, and favored the yet cherished design to march into Florida and disperse the Loyalists. In fact, this measure had become a chief desideratum, for the gathering storm on the frontier of that state was pregnant with evil omens for the whole South. The Loyalists were gaining strength on the St. Mary's, St. John's, and at Pensacola, and re-enforcements of British troops were expected at St. Augustine.[[April, 1778]] Howe moved his head-quarters from Charleston to Savannah.

His regulars, who were in a condition to take the field, did not exceed five hundred and fifty men. These were joined by the commands of Colonels C. C. Pinckney, Bull, and Williamson. Governor Houstoun, of Georgia, who was requested to furnish three hundred and fifty militia, cheerfully complied.

Thus prepared, Howe marched toward the Alatamaha, when he was informed that a body of British regulars, under General Augustine Prévost, a large force of Loyalists, under Colonel Brown, and numerous Indians, were moving toward the St. Mary's for the purpose of invading Georgia. Already Colonel Elbert had been victorious at Frederica, ** and Howe felt certain of success, when, on the twentieth of May,[[1778]] he reached the Alatamaha, and learned how rumors of his expe-

* Robert Howe was a native of Brunswick, North Carolina. History bears no record of his private life, and his biography has never been written. He appears to have been one of the earliest and most uncompromising of the patriots of the Cape Fear region, for we find him honored with an exception, together with Cornelius Harnett, when royal clemency was offered to the rebels by Sir Henry Clinton, in 1776. He was appointed colonel of the first North Carolina regiment, and with his command went early into the field of Revolutionary strife. In December, 1775, he joined Woodford at Norfolk (see page 536), in opposition to Lord Dunmore and his motley army. For his gallantry during this campaign, Congress, on the twenty-ninth of February, 1776, appointed him, with five others, brigadier general in the Continental army, and ordered him to Virginia. In the spring of 1776, British spite toward General Howe was exhibited by Sir Henry Clinton, who sent Cornwallis, with nine hundred men, to ravage his plantation near old Brunswick village. He was placed in chief command of the Southern troops in 1778, and was unsuccessful in an expedition against Florida, and in the defense of Savannah. His conduct was censured, but without just cause. Among others whose voice was raised against him, was Christopher Gadsden, of Charleston. Howe required him to deny or retract. Gadsden would do neither, and a duel ensued. They met at Cannonsburg, and all the damage either sustained was a scratch upon the ear of Gadsden by Howe's ball. *

** Colonel Elbert, who was stationed at Fort Howe, on the Alatamaha, early in the spring of 1778, went with three hundred men to Darien, where he embarked on board three galleys, accompanied by a detachment of artillery on a flat-boat, and proceeded to attack a hostile party at Oglethorpe's Fort. He was successful. A brigantine was captured, and the garrison, alarmed, fled from the fort to their boats, and escaped, leaving Elbert complete victor. On board of the brigantine were three hundred uniform suits, belonging to Colonel Pinckney's regiment, which had been captured while on their way, in the sloop Hatter, from Charleston to Savannah.

* Major André wrote a humorous account, in rhyme, of this affair, in eighteen stanzas. Bernard Elliott was the second of Gadsden, and General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of Howe. The duel occurred on the thirteenth of August, 1778. After this affair, Howe and Gadsden were warm friends.

[[[March toward Florida.--Divided Commands.--Failure of the Expedition.--Minor Expeditions.]]]

{730}dition had alarmed the Tories of East Florida. His enterprise was exceedingly popular, and the sympathy of the whole Southern people, who were favorable to Republicanism, was with him. With scanty supplies, he pushed forward in the midst of many difficulties, to Fort Tonyn, on the St. Mary's,[[June, 1778]] which the enemy abandoned and partly demolished on his approach. Here he ordered a general rendezvous of all the troops, and of the galleys, under Commodore Bowen, preparatory to making an assault upon St. Augustine.

On the day of his arrival at Fort Tonyn, Howe was informed that twelve hundred men had marched from St. Augustine for the St. John's, and that two galleys, laden with twenty-four pounders, had been sent to the mouth of that river, to co-operate with the land force in opposing the Americans. He was also informed by a deserter that the whole force of the enemy was about fifteen hundred men fit for duty. Sudden, united, and energetic action was now necessary, but Howe experienced the contrary on the part of his compatriots. The governor of Georgia was at the head of his own militia, and refused to be commanded by Howe; Colonel Williamson (the imputed traitor) look the same course with his volunteers; and Commodore Bowen would not be governed by any land officer. The necessary consequence was tardy, divided, and inefficient operations.

Sickness soon prostrated almost one half of the troops, for, unprovided with sufficient tents, they slept exposed to the deadly malaria of the night air among the swamps; and Howe clearly perceived that failure must result in future movements unless the forces could be united under one commander. He called a council of war, and ascertained that Houstoun would not be governed by another, and that the army was rapidly melting away. A retreat was unanimously agreed upon. Pinckney and the remains of his command returned by water to Charleston, while Howe, with the remnants of his force, reduced by sickness and death from eleven hundred to three hundred and fifty, returned to Savannah by land. Thus ended an expedition upon which the South had placed great reliance. Howe was much censured, but the blame should properly rest upon those who, by proud assumption of separate commands, retarded his movements and weakened his power. No expedition was ever successful with several commanders.

The British, emboldened by this second failure of the Americans to invade Florida, and counting largely upon the depressing influence it would have upon the patriots, hastened to invade Georgia in turn. Savannah was the chief point of attack. It was arranged that a naval force, with land troops from the North, should enter the river and invest the city; while General Prevost, who commanded in East Florida, should march toward the same point from St. Augustine, with his whole motley band of regulars, Tories, and Indians, to awe the people in that direction, and by preliminary expeditions weaken the Americans. * Hitherto the British arms had been chiefly directed against the Northern and Middle States, but with little effect. The patriots had steadily maintained their ground, and the area actually out of possession of the Americans was very small. Sir Henry Clinton was master of New York city, but almost every where else the Americans held possession. To the South he looked for easier and more extensive conquests; and against Savannah, the apparently weakest point he directed his first operations. Lieutenant-colonel Campbell,

* Soon after the return of Howe, some regulars and Loyalists had made a rapid incursion into Georgia, and menaced the fort at Sunbury, at the mouth of the Midway River. The little garrison was commanded bv Lieutenant-colonel John M'Intosh (a brother of General Mflntosh). The enemy approached in two divisions, one with artillery, in boats, under Lieutenant-colonel Fuser; the other by land, under Lieutenant-colonel Mark Prévost, consisting of six hundred regulars. Fuser approached the fort and demanded its surrender. M'Intosh replied, "Come and take it!" The promptness and brevity of the reply indicated security, and Fuser withdrew, although he could easily have captured the fort. In the mean while, General Seriven, with others, were skirmishing with Colonel Prevost, who had been joined by a band of Tories, under M'Girth, in one of which the latter was mortally wounded. The invaders pressed forward until within three miles of Ogeechee Ferry, where they were confronted by Colonel Elbert and two hundred Continentals, at a breast-work thrown up by a planter named Savage. Unable to proceed further, they retraced their steps toward the Alatamaha, plundering and burning houses, and laying the whole country waste. Midway church was destroyed, rice barns were burned, and the people were made houseless.

[[[British Expedition against Savannah.--Preparations to receive them.--Landing of the British.]]]

{731}an efficient and reliable officer, sailed from Sandy Hook on the twenty-seventh of November,[[1778]] with more than two thousand land troops, * covered by a small squadron, under Commodore Parker. The fleet arrived at Tybee Island (see map, page 726), near the mouth of the Savannah, on the twenty-third of December. Six days afterward, the vessels and transports had crossed the bar, and the troops were landed at daybreak[[Dec. 29]] without much opposition, three miles below the town, above Five-fathom Hole, opposite Brewton's Hill. **

General Howe, whose army was now augmented to a little less than seven hundred men, was at Sunbury when intelligence was received at Savannah of the approach of the British fleet. Governor Houstoun immediately sent an express to Howe with the information. At the same time, another messenger arrived at Sunbury from the South, informing Howe that General Prevost, with all his force, was on his way from St. Augustine to invade Georgia. All was alarm and confusion when the latter intelligence reached Savannah. The governor sent the public records to Purysburg for safety, from whence they were afterward carried to Charleston. The small battery on the eastern extremity of the city was strengthened, and the people aided the soldiers in casting up intrenchments. ***

Howe hastened to his camp at Savannah to prepare for the invasion. His little army was encamped southeast of the town, near the eastern extremity of the present remains of the French works. There he anxiously awaited promised re-enforcements from South Carolina, under General Lincoln. The militia from the surrounding country came in very slowly, day after day; and on the morning of the battle which ensued, his whole force was about nine hundred men. Believing the British army to be really weaker than it appeared, he resolved to defend the town; and when, on the morning of the twenty-eighth, the fleet appeared at Five-fathom Hole, where Fort Jackson now is, he prepared for battle. On that morning, Colonel Elbert, perceiving the necessity of keeping the enemy from the advantageous position of Brewton's Hill, offered to defend it with his regiment; but Howe, believing they would march immediately toward the town, rejected the proposition. He placed his center at the head of the causeway; his left, under Colonel Elbert, fronted the rice-fields, and was flanked by the river: and his right, commanded by Colonel Isaac Huger, covered the morass in front, and was flanked by the wooded swamp and one hundred Georgia militia, under Colonel George Walton. Having made this disposition, he detached Captain J. C. Smith, of South Carolina, to occupy and defend Brewton's Hill. His little force proved inadequate; and soon after landing, the British took possession of that eminence. Howe now perceived the superiority of the British force, and at ten o'clock in the morning called a council of war to consider the expediency of abandoning the town. It was then too late to deliberate, for the enemy were forming for attack. It was resolved first to fight, and then to retreat, if necessary.

After Campbell had formed his army on Brewton's Hill, he moved forward, and took a position within eight hundred yards of the American front, where he maneuvered in a man-

* These troops consisted of the 71st regiment of foot, two battalions of Hessians, four of provincials, and a detachment of the royal artillery.

** From the landing-place (which was the nearest the ships could approach) a narrow causeway, with a ditch on each side, led through a rice swamp six hundred yards, to firm ground. The 7lst regiment of royal Scots led the van across the causeway, and was attacked by some Americans. Captain Cameron and two of his company were killed, and five were wounded. The Highlanders were made furious, and, rushing forward, drove the Americans into the woods.

*** More clearly to understand the nature of the attack, defense, and result, it is necessary to know the position of the town at that time. It is situated upon a high bluff of forty feet altitude, and then, as now, was approachable by land on three sides. From the high ground of Brewton's Hill and Thunderbolt on the east, a road crossed a morass upon a causeway, having rice-fields on the north side to the river, and a wooded swamp, several miles in extent, on the south of it. It was approached from the south by the roads from White Bluff, on Vernon River, and from the Ogeechee Ferry, which unite near the town; and from the westward by a road and causeway over the deep swamps of Musgrove's Creek, where, also, rice-fields extend from the causeway to the river on the north. From the western direction, the Central Rail-way enters Savannah. From the eastern to the western causeway was about three fourths of a mile.

[[[Battle.--Defeat of the Americans.--Disastrous Retreat.--The Loss.]]]