CHAPTER XII pages 232-251 By Charles C. Jones Volume II - Revolutionary Epoch, 1888 Submitted by: Dena Whitesell If anything was needed to unify the inhabitants of Georgia in favor of independence, to consolidate the association of the colonies, to silence the voices of the disaffected, to stimulate the purposes of the patriotic, and to dissipate all hope of clemency at the hands of the British Parliament, it was found in the passage of the Prohibitory Billl (Passed in December, 1775, entitled An act to prohibit all trade and intercource with the Colonies of New Hampshire, masaachusetts-Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Three Lower Counties on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, during the continuance of the present rebellion within the said Colonies respectively," etc.) which, among other severe provisions, cut off all trade with the American provinces, forfeited their ships, apparel, and cargoes, and rendered them liable to seizure and condemnation at the pleasure and for the profit of their captors. In utter disregard of the earnest protests of Edmund Burke and of Governor Johnstone, Georgia was entered in the " black catalogue " and marked for destruction with her sister colonies. A copy of this bill reached Savannah early in March while the public mind was still intensely excited over the hostile demonstration made by Barclay and Grant. It was accompanied by a letter to Governor Wright (whose flight from Savannah to the king's vessels in Tybee Roads was then unknown in England), instructing him to confiscate the property of all Georgians who refused immediate and implicit obedience to the laws of the Crown, and who professed sympathy with the resolutions of the Continental Congress. While entirely inoperative, this official communication revealed the intentions of the ministry. No longer did advocates for reconciliation lift their voices. Remonstrances and petitions were things of the past. The present emergency called for resistance, and the people were for independence. Georgia had already framed her temporary constitution and acted in anticipation of the event. An express was immediately dispatched to Charlestown with copies of the Prohibitory Bill, and of the letter of instructions to Governor Wright. Within an hour after they had been read in the Provincial Congress of South Carolina an order was issued to seize, in the name and for account of the province, the Port Henderson, a Jamaica vessel loaded with sugar, which had put into Charlestown on her way to London. Only the day before she had obtained permission to pass the forts, and would have sailed the same afternoon on her intended voyage. The scale was turned. Moderate men who advocated delay and reconciliation were silenced. Carolina proceeded at once to frame and to adopt an independent constitution. Commissioned by Governor Tonyn, of East Florida, privateers were cruising along the coast of the southern provinces, plundering the inhabitants and robbing merchants of their ventures. In that province did the loyalists from Georgia and the Carolinas find a secure retreat. Organizing themselves into bands, known as Florida Rangers, and summoning to their aid parties of Indians, they made predatory incursions into Southern Georgia, to the constant alarm and detriment of the inhabitants. Pillage, conflagration, and murder marked their footsteps. Restrained by no law, these freebooters feared neither king nor congress, and were wholly addicted to the occupations of plunderers and outlaws. Germyn Wright, a brother of the governor, had constructed a fort on the St. Mary's River, which served as a point of rendezvous for these banditti and a place of deposit for their spoils. Its destruction was greatly desired by the Georgians residing in that region. With the hope of surprising and demolishing this fort, Captain John Baker, of St. John's Parish, collected seventy mounted volunteers and marched rapidly upon it. Observing the greatest secrecy, the party arrived within a short distance of the work without having been discovered. Believing that the capture could best be effected under cover of the night, Captain Baker halted his command in a dense wood and there awaited the approach of darkness. He had been informed that a considerable body of Indians was encamped in the neighborhood, and that these savages, in association with the garrison of the fort, quite outnumbered his force. His only prospect of success, therefore, lay in surprising the fortification, his only safety in a rapid retreat after its destruction. Unfortunately he was discovered by a negro, who at once gave the alarm. Three cannon were fired from the fort, and these were answered by the schooner St. John, of eight guns, which was lying in the St. Mary's River about two miles below. Advancing to the attack, Captain Baker assailed the fort with musketry. No impression was produced. Anticipating that reinforcements would be sent from the schooner, he detached a portion of his command to occupy a landing below the fort. Three armed boats were soon descried ascending the river. Concealing themselves until they neared the shore, the men of the detachment then opened fire, by which several of the crew in the leading boat were killed and wounded. Calling for quarter, which was granted, that boat came ashore and its crew surrendered. Among the prisoners were Captain Barkup of the Navy and Lieutenant Bucher of the Array. The other boats made their escape under cover of the night. Information was received from one of the captives that a large body of Indians was encamped on the opposite side of the river, not far distant. Finding that all hope of capturing the fort was at an end, and apprehending an attack from the Indians, Captain Baker rapidly retreated for some eight or nine miles and then encamped. During the night Daniel and James McGirth, who were on guard, stole most of the horses belonging to the command and deserted with them to the enemy. For this act of treachery the former was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Florida Rangers, commanded by Colonel Thomas Brown, and entered upon a car reer of rapine and murder in which he became quite notorious. James McGirth was rewarded with a captain's commission in the same corps. Baker returned to Georgia, mortified at the failure of his expedition and chagrined at the loss entailed by the treachery of his own men. Having remained on board his majesty's ship Scarborough until the latter part of March, persuaded that the province of Georgia was irretrievably committed to the cause of the Revolutionists, and informed both by General Howe and Sir Henry Clinton that no military operations were at present contemplated against Savannah, Sir James Wright sailed, for Halifax where he arrived on the 21st of April, 1776. He was availing himself of the leave of absence granted by the king, and was on his way to London. On the first of June, 1776, Sir Peter Parker, with a fleet of more than fifty sail anchored a few miles to the northward of Charleston bar. The king was resolved to repossess himself of the colony of South Carolina which had always been reckoned among his most pleasant plantations. Hence this formidable demonstration. President Rutledge and General Armstrong repaired in person to the harbor fortifications, calling everything into requisition, judiciously disposing men and materials of war for the protection of the city and its approaches, and urging every possible preparation to resist the threatened invasion. A general alarm was sounded. The militia from the interior was ordered to the coast, and aid invoked from sister colonies. So prompt and generous was the response that by the 11th of June forces aggregating six thousand five hundred and twenty-two men of all arms had been concentrated for the defense of Charlestown. On the caps of the officers and privates of the first South Carolina regiment appeared crescents with the words ultima ratio engraven thereon, while the word Liberty shone resplendent on the helmets of the men of the second. The stores and warehouses on the wharves were leveled so as to uncover a defensive line along East Bay armed with musketry and cannon. The streets were strongly traversed. Leaden weights from the windows were freely given up to be run into musket balls. Masters and servants heartily united in the construction of fortifications, and all cannon which could be secured were mounted at convenient points whence their converging fire might most surely impede the advance of the enemy. At this trying moment the patriotism of the Carolinians was conspicuous. Major-General Charles Lee, recently assigned to the command of this department and newly arrived, accompanied by Brigadier-General Howe and some other officers, shortly after the 4th of June made a careful inspection of the defenses at Haddrell's Point and on Sullivan's Island. At this time Fort Sullivan was finished only in front and on one side. Its rear was open, and the troops assigned to its occupancy were encamped behind the work " in huts and booths covered with palmetto leaves." The force on the island consisted of some twelve hundred men. Ten thousand pounds of powder had been there accumulated for the service of small arms and the heavy guns. So impressed was General Lee with the insecurity of tfte position that he openly declared Fort Sullivan u could not hold out half an hour." Its platform he pronounced " but a slaughtering stage." He even suggested to President Rutledge the advisability of evacuating both the fort and the island. This proposition, however, was indignantly rejected by that distinguished South Carolinian. Unwilling to assume the responsibility of ordering an abandonment, General Lee contented himself with diminishing the forces and withdrawing a considerable amount of the ammunition. Haddrell's Point was strongly reinforced by continental and colonial troops under General Armstrong, and a bridge was thrown from that post, across the cove, to Sullivan's Island. A heavy traverse was ordered for the protection of the rear of Fort Sullivan. Evidently anticipating, in the event of an attack, the speedy reduction of that work, General Lee directed his attention mainly to securing avenues of retreat for the forces disposed on that side of the harbor. His communications wero all of a depressing character ; and, upon the mind of a weak-kneed lieutenant would doubtless have exerted a pernicious influence. Not so, however, with Colonel Moultrie, who, in his "Memoirs," writes as follows : " Gen. Lee one day on a visit to the fort took me aside and said, 'Col. Moultrie, do you think you can maintain this post?' I answered him, 'Yes, I think I can !' That was all that passed on the subject between us. Another time, Capt Lamperer, a brave and experienced seaman, who had been master of a man of war, and captain of a very respectable privateer many years ago, visited me at the fort after the British ships came over the bar. While we were walking on the platform looking at the fleet, he said to me, 'Well, Colonel, what do you think of it now ?' I replied that we should beat them. ' Sir,' ; ' said he, 'when those ships (pointing to the men of war) come to lay alongside your fort, they will knock it down in half an hour' (and that was the opinion of all the sailors). * Then, I said, we will lay behind the ruins and prevent their men from landing.' Notwithstanding these discouraging apprehensions and the dangers attendant upon his advanced position, Colonel Moultrie preserved the "easy temper habitual to him," inspiring his men with confidence and infusing into their breasts a strong impression of final victory. The traverse for the protection of the rear of the fort had been finished, but the work was in an incomplete condition when the British men-of-war opened their broadsides upon it. Dr. Drayton furnishes the following description of the fort at the time of its memorable bombardment: " The fort was a square, with a bastion at each angle, sufficiently large to contain, when finished, one thousand men. It was built of palmetto logs laid one upon the other, in two parallel rows, at sixteen feet distance, bound together, at intervals, with timber dovetailed and bolted into the logs. The spaces between the two lines of logs were filled up with sand: and the merlons were walled entirely by palmetto logs, notched into one another at the angles, well bolted together, and strengthened with pieces of timber. They were sixteen feet thick, filled in with sand, and ten feet high above the platforms: and the platforms were supported by brick pillars. The fort was only finished on the front or south-eastern curtain and bastions, and on the south-west curtain and bastion; the north-eastern curtain and the north-western curtain and bastions were unfinished; being logged up only about seven feet high. Necessity, however, devised an expedient for making the unfinished parts tenable against an escalade by placing thick, long planks upright against the unfinished outside wall, but inclined and projecting over it, which raised the height ten or fifteen feet more, and through which loop-holes were cut for the use of rifles or musketry. The platform therefore, as finished, only extended along the south-eastern front of the fort, and its south-western side. Upon these platforms the cannon were mounted. On the south-east bastion the flag-staff was fixed, bearing a blue flag with a white crescent on which was emblazoned the word Liberty : and three 18 and two 9-pounders were mounted there. On the south-east curtain six 26 French pounders and three 18 English pounders were placed; and on the western bastion connected with it, three 26 French pounders and two 9-pounders were stationed. On the south-west curtain six cannon were mounted, 12 and 9-pounders. Connected with the front angle of each rear-bastion of the fort, lines of defense, called cavaliers, were thrown up for a small distance on tbe right and left of the fort; and three 12-pounders were mounted in each of them. So that the whole number of cannon mounted in the fort and cavaliers on each side, was thirty-one; of which only twenty-five, at any possible time, could bear upon the enemy stationed in front of the fort; and even then four 9-pounders on the two inner sides of the front bastions could be scarcely used. Narrow platforms or banquettes were placed along the walls, where the plank was raised against them, for the men to stand upon and fire through the loop-holes. Such was the situation of Fort Sullivan on the 27th day of June; and its garrison consisted of the Second South Carolina regiment of infantry, amounting to 413 of all ranks, and a detachment of the Fourth South Carolina regiment of artillery of 22, amounting together to 485: the whole being under the command of Colonel William Moultrie of the above second regiment." Between the 4th and 8th of June, thirty-six of the enemy's vessels crossed the bar and anchored in Five-Fathom Hole. Simultaneously Major-General Clinton effected a landing on Long Island with some three thousand infantry, and, under a flag of truce, sent a characteristic proclamation, dated June 6th, on board the Sovereign Transport, in which he exhorted an immediate return to duty, and offered in his majesty's name free pardon to all who would lay down their arms and submit to the laws. This proclamation was addressed to " the Magistrates of the Province of South Carolina, to be by them made public." It is scarcely necessary to state that this august document failed to produce the slightest impression upon the minds, or in any wise to modify the action of the patriots. On the morning of the 28th of June, the British squadron bore down upon Fort Sullivan. Between ten and eleven o'clock the engagement was opened by the Thunder-Bomb ship, covered by the Friendship of twenty-six guns. Soon afterwards, the Active of twenty-eight guns, the Bristol and the Experiment of fifty guns each, and the Solebay of twenty-eight guns came into position and participated in the bombardment. The Syren and the Acteon, each carrying a battery of twenty-eight guns, and the Sphinx of twenty guns, forming a line parallel with and in rear of the first, and opposite the intervals, united in the heavy cannonade against the low-lying palmetto fort from which issued a deliberate, sure, and destructive return fire. After a bombardment of more than an hour failing to silence the fort, the British commander ordered the Acteon, the Sphinx, and the Syren to pass the work and ocoupy a position in Rebellion Road towards the cove of Sullivan's Island whence the front platforms of the southeast curtain and its two bastions, the fire from which had been particularly damaging to the attacking ships, could be enfiladed. Had this movement been accomplished, there is little doubt but that the cannoneers would have been speedily driven from their guns, and the pieces themselves dismounted. In attempting, however, to stand well over towards the lower Middle-Ground opposite the fort, so as to pass clear of the front line of ships then closely engaged, these vessels became entangled on the shoal. There the Acteon remained immovably fixed in the sand, having first run foul of the Sphinx and caused the loss of her bowsprit. Freeing themselves from their dangerous situation, the Syren and the Sphinx retired behind the line of battle and beyond the range of the fort's guns until they could fit themselves for a renewal of the contest. After throwing some fifty or sixty shells, which caused no material injury to the fort, the recoil of the heavily charged mortars so shattered their beds and endamaged the ship that the Thunder-Bomb became useless for further service. Meanwhile the engagement had been vigorously maintained at short range by the Active, the Bristol, the Experiment, and the Solebay. During the afternoon their fire was again reinforced by that of the Syren and the Friendship. Slackening with the setting sun, the cannonading on both sides ceased entirely at half past nine o'clock. Slipping their cables at eleven o'clock, the British ships, their decks wet with blood and their hulls battered with the well-directed shots from the fort, silently and sullenly retired with the last of the ebb to their former station near Five-Fathom Hole. The native palmetto had withstood the assault of foreign oak. The new levies of an unformed republic had repulsed the attack of the boasted mariners of England. General Clinton, who purposed a descent upon the northeastern end of Sullivan's Island, defended by Colonel Thomson, supported by Colonel Muhlenberg, perceiving that his difficult advance would be stoutly disputed, abandoned his intention and remained a passive spectator of the action. The attention of the fort was mainly directed to the Bristol and the Experiment, both fifty-gun ships, and the former the flag-ship of Sir Peter Parker. They encountered a loss of one hundred and sixty-four in killed and wounded. Among the latter was Sir Peter himself. But for the scarcity of powder in the fort, the damage inflicted upon the enemy would have been far greater. Officers and men behaved with the utmost coolness and courage. During the severest stage of the bombardment the flag-staff of the fort, formerly a ship's mast, from the bead of which floated the garrison flag eagerly watched by the thousands who lined the battery in Charlestown, anxious spectators of the exciting scene, and by those who held the fortifications in the harbor, was shot away, and fell with the colors outside the fort. Sergeant Jasper, perceiving the misfortune, sprang from one of the embrasures and, deliberately walking the entire length of the front of the fort until he reached the fallen colors on the extreme left, detached them from the mast, called to Captain Horry for a sponge-staff, and having with a thick cord lashed them to it returned within the fort and, amid a shower of balls, planted the staff on the summit of the merlon. This done, waving his hat, he gave three cheers, and then shouting " God save liberty and my country forever! " retired unhurt to his gun, where he continued to fight throughout the engagement. This flag so gallantly reinstated had been designed by Colonel Moultrie, and consisted of a blue field with a white crescent on which was emblazoned the word Liberty. Its restoration revived the hopes of many at a distance who, ignorant of the cause of its disappearance, feared the fort had struck. During the second day's bombardment, ( April 11, 1862) about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, while the Federal solid shots were battering the walls of Fort Pulaski, and mortar shells bursting above, within, and around, were scattering their fragments everywhere, the halyards of the garrison flag which floated from the staff planted upon the parapet just over the sally-port were carried away by a projectile and the colors fell. Lieutenant Hussey of the Montgomery Guards and Private Latham of the Washington Volunteers, advancing along the parapet swept at all points by deadly missiles, and freeing the flag from its fallen and entangled position, bravely bore it to the northeastern angle of the fort, where, rigging a temporary staff on a gun-carriage, they again, amid the smoke and din of the conflict, unfolded in proud defiance the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy. After a lapse of more than three quarters of a century History repeated herself, and that right valiantly, on a kindred shore. As Sergeant McDaniel, of Captain Huger's company, — his stomach and bowels carried away by a cannon shot, — lay dying at his gun, summoning his last energies he exclaimed: " Fight on, my brave boys ; don't let liberty expire with me today! " Dr. Gordon tells us that Sergeant Jasper, when removing from the blood-stained platform the body of his dead compatriot, cried out to the powder-begrimed cannoneers, "Revenge this brave man's death." Although the fort was struck by many shots, the spongy texture of the palmetto logs received them without giving off splinters, and consequently less injury was experienced than would otherwise have occurred. Only twelve of the garrison were killed and twenty-five wounded. More than forty years afterwards, perpetuating the impressions of this signal victory, Dr. Drayton thus paints the scene: " The morning of the 29th of June presented a humiliating prospect to British pride. To the southwest of the fort, at the distance of near a mile, lay the Acteon frigate fast ashore on the Lower-Middle-Ground. Below the fort, about two miles and a half, the men of war and transports were riding at anchor opposite Morris' island, while Sir Pqter Parker's broad pendant was hardly to be Been on a jury main-top-mast considerably lower than the foremast of his ship. And on the left General Clinton was kept in check by the troops under Colonels Thomson and Muhlen-burg. On the contrary, how glorious were the other points of view! The azure colors of the fort, fixed on a sponge-staff, waved gently on the winds. Boats were passing and repassing in safety from and to the fort and Charlestown, and the hearts of the people were throbbing with gratitude and the most exhilarating transports." Congratulations upon this important victory flowed in from every quarter. General Lee, on the 30th, reviewed the garrison and in person thanked officers and men " for their gallant defense of the fort." The wife of Major Barnard Elliott presented to the second regiment " an elegant pair of embroidered colors." They were received by Colonel William Moultrie and Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Motte. In tendering them "as a reward justly due," she said, " I make not the least doubt, under Heaven's protection, you will stand by them as long as they can wave in the air of liberty." Colonel Moultrie promised "that they should be honorably supported and never tarnished by the Second Regiment." He then handed one of them to Sergeant Jasper, who, smiling as he received the precious emblem, "vowed he would never give it up but with his life." * How nobly he afterward redeemed this pledge the sequel will show. On the 4th of July Governor Rutledge visited the fort and in the name of the young commonwealth tendered sincere thanks and congratulations. Publicly commending the heroic behavior of Jasper, he removed from his side his own sword, and presented it to him "as a reward for his bravery and an incitement to further deeds of valour." The governor also then tendered him a commission which was modestly declined. " Were I made an officer," said he, " my comrades would be constantly blushing for my ignorance, and I should be unhappy feeling my own inferiority. I have no ambition for higher rank than that of a Sergeant." By authority of the president the name of Moultrie was conferred upon the fort, and on the 20th of July a resolution of thanks was passed by congress, then in session in Philadelphia. Six days after this memorable victory, the United Colonies were declared free and independent. Commingled with the exultations which greeted this momentous proclamation was universal joy at thought of this great success on the low-lying shores of Carolina. Among the incidents of that gallant defense none was more widely disseminated or more enthusiastically applauded than the replacement of the fort's colors by the intrepid Jasper. So tardy were the means of communication when the electric telegraph and conveyance by steam were wholly unknown that the Declaration of Independence, sanctioned in Philadelphia on the 4th of July, 1776, was not heard of in Georgia until the 10(ih of August. On that day an express messenger delivered to President Bnlloch a copy of that memorable document, accompanied by a letter from John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress. The Provincial Council was at once assembled and to it did President Bulloch read aloud that historic utterance of the delegates of the thirteen colonies, concluding with the brave announcement, " We therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions do, in the name and by authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly pablish and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." Profound was the impression created by the reading of the document, and rapturously did the assembled councilors hail the elevation of a British Colony into the dignity of a free and independent State. This ceremony concluded, the president and council repaired to the public square where, in front of the building set apart for the deliberations of the Provincial Assembly, the Declaration of Independence was again read, and this time amid the acclamations of the congregated citizens of Savannah. The grenadier and light infantry companies then fired a general salute. A procession was formed consisting of: The Grenadiers in front; The Provost Marshal on horseback, with his sword drawn ; The Secretary, bearing the Declaration; His Excellency the President; The honorable the Council, and gentlemen attending ; The Light Infantry ; The Militia of the town and district of Savannah ; and lastly, the citizens. In this order they marched to the liberty pole, where they were met by the Georgia battalion. Here the Declaration was read for the third time. At the command of Colonel Mclntosh, thirteen volleys were fired from the field-pieces and also from the small arms. Thence the entire concourse proceeded to the battery, at the Trustees' Garden, where the Declaration was publicly read for the fourth and last time, and a salute was fired from the siege guns planted at that point. His excellency, the members of council, Colonel Lachan Mo-Intosh, many gentlemen, and the militia dined under the cedar-trees and cordially drank to the "prosperity and perpetuity of the United, Free, and Independent States of America." In the evening the town was illuminated. A funeral procession, embracing a number of citizens larger than had ever been congregated in the history of Savannah, and attended by the grenadier and light infantry companies, the Georgia battalion, and the militia, with muffled drums, marched to the front of the court-house where his majesty George the Third was interred in eflBgy, and the following burial service, prepared for the occasion, was read with all solemnity: — " For as much as George the Third, of Great Britain, hath most flagrantly violated his Coronation Oath, and trampled upon the Constitution of our country and the sacred rights of mankind : we, therefore, commit his political existence to the ground — corruption to corruption — tyranny to the grave — and oppression to eternal infamy; in sure and certain hope that he will never obtain a resurrection to rule again over these United States of America. But, my friends and fellow-citizens, let us not be sorry, as men without hope, for Tyrants that thus depart — rather let us remember America is free and independent; that she is, and will be, with the blessing of the Almighty, great among the nations of the earth. Let this encourage us in well doing, to fight for our rights and privileges, for our wives and children, and for all that is near and dear unto us. May God give us his blessing, and let all the people say Amen." With similar joy was the Declaration of Independence welcomed in the other parishes of Georgia. St. John's Parish, the home of Hall and Gwinnett, two of the signers, was most pronounced in its demonstrations of approval. Now that Georgia had been formally recognized as a State by the highest congress known to the late provinces, and as it had been recommended by the Colonial Congress that governments should be provided in the several States adapted to the exigencies of the new order of affairs and conducive to the happiness and safety alike of the respective States and of the United States, President Bulloch issued his proclamation ordering a general election to be held between the 1st and the 10th of September for the purpose of selecting representatives to meet in convention in Savannah on the first Tuesday in October. He also directed that a circular letter should be addressed to the inhabitants of the parishes and districts of Georgia, congratulating them upon the happy political outlook, reminding them of the important business to be transacted by the convention, and impressing upon them the necessity for selecting delegates of approved patriotism and of the highest chai-acter,— men whose friendship to the cause of freedom had been thoroughly proven, and whose political wisdom qualified them to frame the best constitution for the future government of the commonwealth. Another proclamation was issued for the encouragement of the recruiting service within the limits of the State. It was based upon a resolution of the Provincial Congress which provided that every one entering the army, who should serve faithfully for a period of three years, or until peace was concluded with Great Britain, should be entitled to a bounty of one hundred acres of land. It was further stipulated that if he perished in defense of his State his wife or family would be complimented with the land. When it became apparent that the disagreements between Great Britain and her American colonies were likely to result in serious consequences, Georgia was careful to explain to the neighboring Indians the nature of the dispute and to exhort them to maintain a friendly correspondence. The rebel authorities of Carolina were equally solicitous to prevail upon the aborigines to take no sides in the impending contest. These efforts were, however, overruled by the royal superintendent of Indian Affairs and by the Florida authorities, who were eager to enlist the red warriors in behalf of the Crown. The poverty of the colonies prevented them from complimenting the savages with presents sufficiently generous to perpetuate their good-will. Taking advantage of the unsettled condition of affairs, and hearkening to the advice and the bribes of royal agents, the Cherokees, in violation of established treaties, began depredating upon the frontiers of Georgia and the Carolinas. To these lawless and bloody acts were they largely incited by Captain Stuart, his majesty's superintendent of Indian affairs in the Southern Department, and by Mr. Cameron, his assistant. While the British forces were threatening Savannah and Charlestown it was impossible to withdraw the troops from the coast or to arrange any formidable expedition for the punishment of the Cherokees. As an inevitable consequence, the frontier settlements were, for some time, sadly harassed, and many were the atrocious massacres perpetrated by the inhuman enemy. Upon the departure of the British fleet after its unsuccessful attack upon Fort Moultrie, opportunity was afforded for concentrating a strong force for the chastisement of the savage invaders. To this end the concerted action of Georgia, the Carolinas, and of Virginia was directed. Colonel Williamson, of District Ninety-Six, was placed in command of the South Carolina troops, consisting of the sixth regular regiment, a part of the third, and a considerable body of militia. General Rutherford, with nineteen hundred men from North Carolina, crossed the mountains and entered the Cherokee country. Two or three times was he vigorously attacked, but he finally succeeded in signally repulsing the savages. The Indian settlements to the northward were at the same time invaded by the Virginia militia commanded by Colonel Christie. Simultaneously, Colonel Jack led a column of Georgians, composed of five companies commanded respectively by Captains John Twiggs, John Jones, Leonard Marbury, Samuel Alexander, and Thomas Harris, and numbering in all about two hundred men, against the Cherokee towns on the head waters of the Tugaloe and the Chattahoochee. Thus assailed from every direction, the Cherokees were, in a short time, vanquished and compelled to sue for peace. Their cornfields were laid waste. Their towns were burned. Their cattle and horses were taken from them. Many were slain. About five hundred of their number, pinched by hunger, sought refuge with Stuart, the Indian superintendent, in West Florida where, for a while, they were fed at the expense of the British government. Multitudes were driven into the mountains and compelled to subsist, as best they could, upon roots and native fruits. Severely scourged, they sued for peace. Within less than three months the war was ended. So crippled was the Cherokee nation that for some time it was rendered incapable of annoying the frontiers. The American loss did not exceed fifty men. To the savages, thus humbled, impoverished, and decimated, a miserable repose was accorded. Articles of a definitive treaty of peace were subsequently concluded, and, on the 20th of May, 1777, signed at Dewit's corner, between the States of South Car-olina and Georgia on the one part and the Cherokee nation on the other. By this treaty Carolina acquired considerable territory; and Fort Rutledge, with a garrison of two independent companies, was established at Seneca. Friendly intercourse was resumed which, for several years, remained uninterrupted. The enemy having retired from the Carolina coast, General Charles Lee, then in command of the Southern Department, directed his attention to concerting measures for the protection of the States of South Carolina and Georgia. Through President Rotledge he requested the council of safety in Savannah to send two of their number to Charlestown that they might u confer with him upon the state of Georgia and the mode of putting it in the best posture of defence against all enemies external and internal." Jonathan Bryan, John Houstoun, and Colonel Lach-lan Mclntosh were deputed to wait upon the general. They arrived in Charlestown while the city was still rejoicing over the defeat of the British fleet before the palmetto-covered walls of the fort on Sullivan's Island. To them was prompt and attentive audience accorded. The venerable patriot, Jonathan Bryan, spoke for his committee and the people of Georgia. After recounting the numerous depredations committed on the southern and southwestern frontiers by lawless bands swarming from Florida, and the desolation wrought along the coast by privateers commissioned by Governor Tonyn, he suggested a plan of operations by which these banditti might be slain or dispersed and the town of St. Augustine captured. The defenseless condition of the State and the immediate want of assistance were earnestly pressed upon the attention of the general. "Not one of the thirteen United Colonies," said the committee, "is so weak within or so exposed from without. To the east the inhabitants suffer the ravages of British cruisers. Their negroes are daily inveigled and carried away from their plantations. British fleets may be supplied with beef from several large islands, well stocked with cattle, which line their coasts, and round which large ships may sail. To the south they have the Province of East Florida, the inhabitants and soldiery of which must of necessity make inroads upon Georgia for the article of provision with which they have been heretofore chiefly supplied. Georgia here stands as a barrier to South Carolina and effectually secures that Province against the like depredations." The presence of British troops in St. Augustine, the proximity of Indian nations capable of placing in the field fifteen thousand gun-men and supplied with ammunition from East and West Florida, the existence of a large slave population liable to be tampered with and incited to deeds of violence, and the great advantages which would accrue to England from the conquest of Georgia, aside from the inability of the inhabitants to provide for their security, were all suggested as arguments to induce the General and the Continental Congress to undertake the protection of the State by furnishing at least six battalions of infantry, by supplying guard-boats, erecting forts at strategic points, and by purchasing cattle with which to compliment the Indians and secure their friendship. Moved by the representations of the committee, Greneral Lee at once resolved upon an expedition for the reduction of St. Augustine. Assembling the troops from North Carolina and Virginia, who were still on duty in Charles-town, he informed them that he had planned a secret expedition which, although it involved but little danger, promised large success and abundant booty. He further stated that he would not personally participate in the spoils, but would surrender his share to the volunteers who engaged in the enterprise. These troops responded favorably to his appeal and volunteered for the service. By the 6th of August four hundred and sixty men, " drawn from the first, second, third, and fourth regiments of infantry, rangers, and artillery," were contributed by the Carolina authorities. What further befell this project, upon the successful accomplishment of which the Georgians had confidently fixed their hopes, is thus succinctly told by Dr. Drayton: " From the 8th to the 15th of August, in the most unhealthy season of the year, when the constitution is severely tried with heat and moisture, and the effluvia of the flowed rice fields is scattering sickness through the land, did General Lee march off on this expedition with the Virginia and North Carolina troops and some of the Colony troops, without necessaries being provided, without even a field-piece or a medicine chest. The rest of the Colony troops, with artillery and such necessaries as could be obtained on the emergency, were sent on by water on the 8th of August, and, going through the inland navigation by the way of Beaufort, they arrived at Savannah on the 17th of that month. General Howe and Colonel Moultrie followed soon after, and General James Moore of North Carolina was left in command at Charlestown. " On the 18th of August General Lee reviewed, on the green at Yainacraw, every corps, as well the Georgia battalion as the troops which had arrived from South Carolina; and, about the 22d of August a part of the South Carolina troops and Colonel Muhlenburg's regiment marched for Sunbury. After this, troops were detached from Savannah and stationed at Skiddeway island, Ogechie, Ausabaw island, and other places betwixt Savannah and Sunbury; while the remainder were quartered in Savannah and its vicinity. The hopes which General Lee had encouraged, in consequence of bis conversation with Mr. Bryan, had not been realized, as neither boats, provisions, nor stores were to be procured sufficient for the exigencies of the expedition. There was scarce an officer of the South Carolina troops who had not a violent fit of illness; and those of the other corps suffered in an equal degree, while fourteen or fifteen men were buried each day at Sunbury; unfortunate sacrifices to so inclement a season. " During all this time the expedition had not proceeded farther than Sunbury, as, from a want of stores, General Lee had sent to Augusta to have a list of articles procured which Colonel Moultrie had given in as necessary. At this time General Lee may be fairly said to have been in check not by the enemy but by his own hasty and improvident movements, and the force which he had with him was every day becoming less able to carry on the expedition against Florida or to cope with the enemy. From all this, however, he was fortunately relieved by a recall to the northward where General Howe, having taken New York, was becoming very formidable. General Lee accordingly left Savannah early in September, ordering the Virginia and North Carolina troops to follow him, and leaving the troops much greater sufferers by his conduct than by the arms of the enemy. And in this manner ended the East Florida expedition." In arranging the details of, and in suitable preparation for this expedition General Lee was seriously at fault. Flushed by the recent victory in Charlestown harbor, and acting precipitately upon the suggestion of others, he began his movement without reflection and in the absence of requisite supplies and needful transportation. The affair too was planned and inaugurated at a season of the year when, to unacclimated troops, a hot sun and marish grounds were enemies far more dangerous than the weapons of the foe against whom their energies were to be directed. It is singular that a soldier of General Lee's training and reputation should have been guilty of such neglect. Colonel Moultrie, to whom the immediate command was tendered, declined to assume the offensive until he should be furnished with at least eight hundred men and such supplies as he then enumerated.1 Doubtless the general was encouraged to immediate action by the eager Georgians who were chafing under the indignities and losses to which they had been subjected by the Floridian banditti. With them the wish was father to the thought, and they yearned to see the nest destroyed in which such foul birds were sheltered. Jonathan Bryan and Nathan Brownson reflected the general sentiment of the community when, in answer to certain questions propounded by General Lee, they responded: "that an irruption into the Province of East Florida will be attended with the most salutary consequences to this Province, and of course render service to the whole continent." The failure of the expedition was a grievous disappointment to Georgia. Its abandonment, in the language of McCall, "gave confidence to the enemy and induced many to join them who had previously been inactive." Of the defenseless condition and needs of Georgia the Continental Congress was not unmindful. Sixty thousand dollars were appropriated to defray the charge of enlisting two additional battalions (one of them to consist of riflemen) to serve in that State. The legislatures of Virginia and of the Carolinas were requested to allow recruits for these organizations to be obtained within their borders. Four galleys were ordered for the protection of the coast, and two artillery companies, of fifty men each, were to be raised as garrisons for the two forts to be erected, one at Savannah, and the other at Sunbury. Meanwhile, however, Georgia was neither tardy nor parsimonious in devising measures for her self-protection. Captain Bowen was accredited to the governor at Cape Francois for the purpose of purchasing armed vessels, warlike stores, and medicines necessary for troops in the field. Captain Pray was, on the 18th of October, 1776, directed by the council of safety to proceed to St. Thomas and there procure seamen, small arms, ammunition, and swivels. He was empowered to mount on the vessel engaged to transport his cargo to Georgia as many carriage guns as she could conveniently bear. For the defense of the southern frontier all available troops were posted at Darien, at Fort Howe, at Beard's Bluff (while Lieutenant Bugg with a detachment was marching to this point he was surprised by a party of Indians concealed in the Swamp of Beard's Creek. Three of his men were killed, and his detachment was put to flight. Subsequently Captain Chesley Bostwick was ordered to that post, with his company. He there built a small stockade fort. ) , and at Fort Mclntosh. Thus did Georgia, by every means at command, prepare for battle. BACK TO HISTORY INDEX   ©Genealogy Trails