CHAPTER XIV pages 273-287 By Charles C. Jones Volume II - Revolutionary Epoch, 1888 Submitted by: Dena Whitesell Upon the departure of General McIntosh, Colonel Samuel Elbert succeeded to the command of the continental troops in Georgia. But little progress was made by recruiting officers in filling up the ranks of companies attached to the battalions authorized by the Continental Congress. The bounty and pay allowed by the general government for a whole year's service were not equal to the sums offered by militiamen for substitutes to take their places for only three months. Those disposed to enter the army preferred enlistment for a short term with the militia, where they could act pretty much as they pleased and remain most of the time near their homes, to being mustered into the regular service for a period of three years, when they would be subjected to the strict rules of discipline and find themselves liable to duty in distant fields. The paper currency, too, which, for a little while, was accepted at par in defrayal of the expenses connected with the war, was now rapidly depreciating in value. Although congress and state legislatures subjected to prescribed penalties individuals who refused to receive it at par with gold and silver when offered in purchase of commodities exposed to sale, and denounced as enemies to the cause of freedom all those who attempted to lessen its value, the large volume put upon the country, the poverty of the public revenue, the inability of the general government and of the respective States to redeem in coin, and the impossibility of providing by taxation for the sure payment of these rapidly multiplying issues, begat a feeling of distrust in the public mind, and soon demonstrated the visionary basis upon which such a circulating medium was founded. Patriotic impulses are potent and may be relied upon. Privations in the cause of right and honor and country will be, for the while, endured by citizens conscious of their privileges and earnest in their preservation. But there is a limit to all voluntary exhibitions of devotion and self-sacrifice. History teaches that armies, the most enlightened and patriotic, must be properly fed, clothed, and paid, to insure contentment within and satisfaction at home. In the estimation of the soldier duty to country is supplemented by no less binding obligations to family. While surrendering his occupation and personal liberty in the fulfillment of the one, he may justly expect to be at least measurably assisted in discharging the other. Hence, in a general appeal to the arms-bearing population of any community for enlistment, the recruiting officer must be prepared to tender substantial inducements in addition to a mere invocation to a display of manhood and an exhibition of love of country. When the storm has been for some time raging, when men have learned the dangers and the disagreeablenesses of war, and when the prospect for an early conclusion of the struggle appears uncertain, many come to take a practical view of the situation and are not easily influenced by considerations which, at the outset, were recognized as most potent. As the was- progressed the scarcity of provisions and the knowledge that the monthly pay was to be had only in a paper currency which was constantly and rapidly depreciating in its accepted value deterred many from enlisting in (the continental battalions. The recruiting officers in Georgia were disappointed in their expectations. The southern frontier being most exposed, the commanding officer directed that all recruits, as rapidly as they were enlisted, should be forwarded to the posts on the Alatamaha. Twenty of these, on their way to Fort Howe, while within two miles of their destination, were set upon by one hundred and fifty loyalists and Indians. The attack was made while the party was crossing a thick bay swamp. Only six of the men, and Lieutenants Brown and Anderson in command, escaped. Fourteen were slain. Advised of the disaster, Colonel Screven, collecting the southern militia and summoning Lieutenant-Colonel John Mc-Intosh and his regulars from Darien, repaired to the scene of action. The dead lay unburied, scalped, their bodies ripped open, their intestines scattered about on the ground, and their faces so mangled that they were in most instances incapable of recognition. The enemy having passed over the river at Reid's Bluff in their retreat upon St. Augustine were already beyond reach. On the night of the 31st of July a party of Indians crossed the Ogeechee River near Morgan's Fort, rushed into the house of Samuel Delk, who was not at home, killed and scalped his wife and four children, and led his eldest daughter, a girl of fourteen, into miserable captivity. On the 10th of August, 1777, some boats from a British armed vessel lying in St. Andrew's Sound landed on St. Simon's Island. Their crews captured and carried away Captain Arthur Carney, five citizens, several negroes, and as much household furniture as could be conveyed in the barges. Carney had been appointed to the captaincy of the fourth company in the first continental battalion of Georgia troops. After his capture, he espoused the royal cause, and proved himself not only an active Tory but a great cattle thief. Such was the warfare to which Georgia was subjected, and such the character of the enemy desolating her borders. Late in 1776 the General Assembly of South Carolina adopted a resolution to the effect that a union between that State and Georgia would tend to promote their strength, wealth, and dignity, and insure mutual liberty, independence, and safety. Commissioners were sent to Savannah to treat of the matter, and the Honorable William Henry Drayton seems to have been the chairman, as he certainly was the spokesman, of the committee. Arriving in Savannah in January, 1777, Mr. Drayton addressed his arguments to various leading citizens. " I found," said he in a letter written to Humphrey Wells of Augusta, dated Snow Hill, South Carolina, June 8, 1777, in which he gives the full details of his mission, " that every gentleman in public office with whom I conversed was strongly against a union. However, I had the pleasure to find some gentlemen of fortune, though not in office or convention, who heartily approved the measure." He was still in Savannah when the convention assembled. At his earnest solicitation he was accorded an audience. For quite an hour he addressed that body, arguing that although Carolina and Georgia, originally one, were now under separate governments, nature, climate, soil, productions, and kindred interests all demanded that the union should be restored; that if they remained apart jealousies and rivalships would spring up to the prejudice of internal improvements, common productions, and foreign commerce; dangerous disputes would arise respecting boundaries and the navigation of the Savannah River; and that the value and security of property would be seriously imperiled. A union established, all rivalries and dangers would cease; agriculture, internal trade, and foreign commerce would rapidly increase; the expenses of government would be lessened, and the stability of the consolidated commonwealths be confirmed. To Georgia especially would the suggested union prove most beneficial. Carolina planters would be encouraged to cross the river and fill the land with substantial improvements. Georgia currency, hitherto inferior in value, would be put on a par with that of Carolina. The Savannah River would be cleared of all obstructions, and the commerce of the town of Savannah be rapidly and vastly enhanced. While Georgia would lose the seat of government, her prosperity would be so essentially promoted that this trifling circumstance would be speedily forgotten. Should Georgia decline to accede to the proposition, the Carolinians, who possessed both intelligence and wealth, would speedily build a city opposite Savannah which, attracting to itself the commerce, both internal and foreign, of the region, would quickly work the ruin of that town. With these and similar arguments did Mr. Drayton endeavor to persuade the convention to sympathize in the views of the South Carolina legislature. The members heard him patiently, respectfully, but rejected the proffered union. President Gwinnett, Dr. Noble W. Jones, and all the leading spirits were radically opposed to the scheme on grounds both material and constitutional. The effort of South Carolina to swallow up Georgia signally miscarried. Mortified at their failure, the Carolinians sought to compass indirectly what they had been unable to accomplish by political correspondence and diplomacy. Petitions and broadsides, prepared in Carolina, were freely distributed in Georgia, heaping odium upon Governor Treutlen and his council, magnifying existing grievances, creating dissatisfaction in the masses, and urging the people to take such action as would eventuate in the union of the two States as the surest means of self preservation and political existence. Perceiving the malign influence exerted and the unrest engendered by these inflammatory documents, and persuaded that their circulation was prejudicial to the welfare and peace of the State, the executive council, on the 14th of July, requested Governor Treutlen to issue a proclamation offering a reward for the apprehension of Mr. Drayton and of those associated with him in the conduct of this unlawful project. Accordingly the governor, on the following day, thus responded to the wish of the council: — " GEORGIA - By his Honour John Adam Treutlen, Esquire, Captain-General, Gover-nour, and Commander-in-Chief in and over the said State. A PROCLAMATION Whereas it hath been represented unto me, that William Henby Deayton, of the State of South Carolina, Esq., and divers other persons, whose names are yet unknown, are UNLAWFULLY endeavouring to POISON the minds of the good people of this State against the Government thereof, and for that purpose are, by letters, petitions, and otherwise, daily exciting animosities among the inhabitants, under the pretence of redressing imaginary grievances, which by the said William Henby Dbayton it is said this State labours under, the better to effect, under such specious pretences, an union between the States of Georgia and South Carolina, all which are contrary to the Articles of Confederation, entered into, ratified, and confirmed by this State as a cement of union between the same and the other United and Independent States of America, and also against the resolution of the Convention of this State in that case made and entered into: THEREFORE, that such pernicious practices may be put an end to, and which, if not in due time prevented, may be of the most dangerous consequences, I HAVE, by and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council of this State, thought fit to issue this Proclamation, hereby offering a reward of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS, lawful money of the said State, to be paid to any person or persons who shall apprehend the said William Henry Drayton, or any other person or persons aiding and abetting him in such unlawful practices, upon his or their conviction: And I DO hereby strictly charge and require all magistrates and other persons to be vigilant and active in SUPPRESSING THE SAME, and to take all lawful ways and means for the discovering and apprehending of such offender or offenders, so that he or they may be brought to condign punishment. Given under my Hand and Seal in the Council Chamber at Savannah, this fifteenth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven. John Adam Treutlen. By his Honour's Command, James Whitefield, Secretary. To this proclamation Mr. Drayton, on the 1st of August, penned a defiant, scornful, and discourteous reply, in which he taunts the governor with injustice done to George Mclntosh, and with a total disregard of the rights of the people over whom he was called to preside. Criticising the conduct of his excellency and of the executive council in the administration of public affairs, he adds: — "I am inclined to think you are concealed Tories, or their tools, who have clambered up, or have been put into office in order to burlesque Government — and I never saw a more extravagant burlesque upon the subject than you exhibit — that the people might be sick of an American Administration, and strive to return under the British domination merely for the sake of endeavouring to procure something like law and order. I respect the people of Georgia; but, most wise rulers, kissing your hands, I cannot but laugh at some folks. Can you guess who they are?" The laugh was hollow. The scheme and the Animus of its supporters had been laid bare, and all hope of destroying the autonomy of Georgia was at an end (Of the antecedents of Governor Treutlen but little is known, so far as our inquiry extends. Among the early advocates of liberty he wan, in Georgia, recognized as a trusted and influential leader. During that troublous period when South Carolina attempted to extend dominion over her younger sister, he battled bravely for the integrity of his State. The tradition lives among his descendants that he was, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, inhumanly murdered by Tories. His grave is unmarked, and Georgia, in naming her counties, has neglected to perpetuate his virtuous and patriotic memory). As allusion was made to the case of George Mclntosh, and as the circumstances connected with his arrest, incarceration, and subsequent release attracted much comment, it may not be out of place to review them here. We present the facts as they have been handed down to us by Captain McCall. At the commencement of the contest between Great Britain and her American colonies, George Mclntosh, a brother of General Lachlan Mclntosh, a native of Savannah and a gentleman of considerable wealth, was residing and planting on Sapelo River in St. Andrew's Parish. So earnest was he in his support of the American cause against the encroachments of Parliament that he was chosen a member of the committee of safety of St. John's Parish. In May, 1776, William Panton — late a merchant in Savannah, but then chiefly engaged at an Indian trading post which he had established on St. John's River, in East Florida— brought into Sunbury a quantity of goods such as cloths, osna-burgs, salt, sugar, etc. Finding that these commodities were in great demand, he solicited and obtained permission from the committee of safety to sell them and to purchase rice in return, upon condition that he would give bond and security, in accordance with the resolution of the Continental Congress, that the rice and other produce should not be landed at any port subject to the dominion of England, Mr. George McIntosh, Sir Patrick Houstoun, and Mr. George Bailie had purchased goods of Panton to a considerable amount. Having previously received from the committee of safety a license to ship a quantity of rice, of which they were joint owners, to Surinam, with the understanding that the provisions of the non-intercourse acts should not be violated, they gave to Panton, in payment for the commodities purchased of him, bills of exchange on their consignee in* Surinam. Panton also became interested in some of the rice. Regular clearances were obtained for the vessels conveying the rice, from the officer of customs in the port of Sunbury, and they set out for Surinam. When in the mouth of Sapelo River, they were boarded by William Panton who claimed that the cargoes belonged to him and ordered that the destination of the vessels should be changed. The brig was directed to proceed to the West Indies, the schooner to St. Augustine, and the sloop to St. John River. The masters of these vessels subsequently deposed that, although these orders were in contravention of the instructions of the shippers, on being informed that Panton held bills of exchange drawn against the proceeds of the cargoes, they finally consented to obey his directions. A letter written by Governor Tonyn of East Florida, and addressed to Lord George Germain, was intercepted at sea and transmitted to the president and council of Georgia. In it he suggests that, in the recent procurement of rice from Georgia, Mr. Panton " had been greatly assisted by Mr. George McIntosh who is compelled to a tacit acquiescence with the distempered times." ? informed," continued the writer, "that his principles are a loyal attachment to the king and constitution. He would, my lord, be in a dangerous situation was this known." On the 8th of January, 1777, McIntosh was seized by order of the president and council and lodged in the common prison. Gwinnett was then president, and gladly availed himself of the opportunity thus aflEorded to mortify General Lachlan Mclntosh and vent his wrath against him upon his brother. For some time the power of the judiciary to intervene by habeas corpus was questioned by the executive, who, alleging that the offense was against the laws of the Confederated States, claimed that the judge of a State could in no manner take cognizance of it. When interrogated by the friends of McIntosh, Panton confessed that George Mclntosh was a man of honor, that he believed him to be "sincerely attached to the rights and liberties of America" and that he was not chargeable with the deviation in the voyages of the vessels. Many depositions were taken before Judge Glen, in behalf of McIntosh, to invalidate the suggestions contained in Governor Tonyn's letter to Lord George Germain. Bailie and Houstoun were both " placed upon the bill of confiscation and banishment,"and Mclntosh was "rigorously prosecuted." While he was in confinement awaiting a trial, his property was dissipated. When admitted to bail he set out to lay his case before the Continental Congress. In passing through North Carolina he was pursued and arrested by a party, under the command of Captain Nash, who had been directed to overtake and conduct him as a prisoner to the Continental Congress. He did not arrive at the seat of government until the 9th of October. Upon submitting his memorial, fortified by many affidavits and commendatory letters from Jonathan Bryan, John Wereat, Henry Laurens, and other prominent individuals who believed in his innocence and regarded his prosecution as inspired and urged by the enemies of his brother, General Lachlan McIntosh, congress appointed Messrs. Adams, Duane, and Williams to examine into the matter and report their conclusions. In the execution of the duty thus devolved upon them the committee, on the ensuing day, reported that after investigation they were satisfied no sufficient cause had been shown to warrant the detention of Mr. McIntosh. He was thereupon discharged, and so the matter ended. Notwithstanding his harsh treatment, his losses, and the suspicions set afloat impugning his loyalty to the American cause, McIntosh sought only to purge himself of the calumnies which had been heaped upon him, and invoked neither protection nor redress under the shadow of the British flag. In consequence of the constant employment of the militia, provisions, especially bread-stuffs, became quite scarce in Georgia, so much so that Governor Treutlen found it necessary to issue a proclamation forbidding the exportation of corn, rice, flour, and other commodities requisite for the subsistence of the inhabitants and the support of the troops in the field. So rapidly were the state bills of credit depreciating on the market that he deemed it proper to issue another proclamation threatening penalties upon all who should be found undervaluing them. As, however, no provision had been made for the ultimate redemption of these promises, they, day by day, were held in less efcteem by the public. An act of the assembly was published proclaiming the binding force of such statutes passed by royal legislatures as were not in conflict with the provisions of the constitution, or at variance with the subsequent state legislation. A land office was opened and inducements were offered to all who would come in and settle upon vacant territory. It was resolved to raise two battalions of minutemen for the defense of the frontier. The term of enlistment was fixed fit two years, and large bounties were offered, in the name of the State, to both officers and men. Previous to placing these battalions in the field, the protection of the western division of the State had been confided to Colonel Marbury, commanding a regiment of dragoons. Subsequently this force was distributed south of the Alatainaha to guard cattle and to repel the oft-repeated incursions of the Tory Colonel McGirth. For the immediate protection of Sunbnry a fort was built just below the town upon the point where the high ground ended and the wide, impracticable marshes between the main and Bermuda Island commenced. A small defensive work may have existed here at an earlier date. The Record Book of Midway Church discloses the fact that in 1756 a letter was received from the Honorable Jonathan Bryan, one of his majesty's council for the colony, conveying the intelligence that the Indians were much incensed at several of their people having been killed by some settlers on the Great Ogeechee River in a dispute about cattle, and cautioning the Midway Congregation, with expedition, to construct a fort for their protection. "People," continues the journal, "are very much alarmed with the news, and consultations were immediately had about the building and place for a forty and it was determined by a majority that it should be at Captain Mark Carrlow down, and upon the river near the sound, at about seven or eight miles distance from the nearest of the settlement of the Society, which accordingly was begun on the 20th September, 1756." On the 11th of July following, apprehending an attack from a French privateer, the Midway people were summoned to Sunbury where they " raised a couple of batteries and made carriages for eight small cannon which were at the place." These were probably nothing more than field-works thrown up on the bluff just in front of the town. It is to these little forts that Governor Ellis alluded when, upon his second tour of inspection through the southern portion of the province, he was pleased to observe that the inhabitants of the Midway District had enclosed their church within a defence, and had erected a battery of eight guns at Sunbury in a position to command the river". It will be remembered that when, in July, 1776, the Continental Congress resolved to raise two battalions to serve in Georgia and authorized the construction of four galleys for the defense of her sea-coast provision was made for the enlistment of two artillery companies, of fifty men each, to garrison the two forts which were to be erected, one at Savannah and the other at Sunbury. It may, we presume, be safely asserted that the inclosed earthwork just south of Sunbury was laid out and builded about the period of the commencement of the Revolutionary War. If any fort existed there prior to that time it was then so modified and enlarged as to completely lose its identity. The names of those who were specially charged with the construction of this fort have not been perpetuated, but it lives in tradition that the planters of Bermuda Island and of the Midway District and the citizens of Sunbury contributed mainly to its erection. It was built chiefly by slave labor, and was armed with such cannon as could be procured on the spot or obtained elsewhere. That its armament was by no means inconsiderable will be conceded when it is remembered that twenty-five pieces of ordnance were surrendered by Major Lane when he yielded up this work. These guns, however, were small, consisting of 4,6, 9,12, and 18 pounders, with perhaps one or two 24-pounders. It was called by the Americans Fobt Morris;8 but, upon its capture by Prevost, its name was by him changed to Fort George. At the inception of the Revolutionary War the coast defenses of Georgia were in a most dilapidated condition. All her forts were in ruins, or nearly so. On the 20th of September, 1773, Sir James Wright, who makes no mention of any defensive work at Sunbury, reports Fort George on Cockspur Island, which was built in 1762 of mud walls faced with palmetto logs with a cap-oniere inside to serve for officers' apartments, as " almost in ruins, and garrisoned only by an officer and three men just to make signals, etc." Fort Halifax, within the town of Savannah, constructed in 1759 and 1760, and made of plank filled in with earth, with the exception of two of its caponieres, was totally down and unfit for use. Fort Frederick, at Frederica, erected by General Oglethorpe when his regiment was stationed there, had been without a garrison for upwards of eight years, and although some of its tabby walls remained the entire structure was fast passing into decay. Fort Augusta, in the town of Augusta, made of three-inch plank, had been neglected since 1767 and was rotten in every part. Fort Barrington on the Alatamaha River was in like condition. Of the fort at New Ebenezer, of Fort William on the southern extremity of Cumberland Island, of Fort Argyle, and of the other minor defenses erected in the early days of the colony scarce a vestige remained. Located some three hundred and fifty yards due south of Sunbury, and occupying the bluff where it first confronts Midway River as, trending inward from the sound, it bends to the north, Fort Morris was intended to cover not only the direct water approach to the town, but also the back river by means of which that place might be passed and taken in reverse. Its position was well chosen for defensive purposes. To the south stretched a wide-spread and impracticable marsh permeated by Pole-haul and Diekerson creeks, two tributaries of Midway River, whose mouths were commanded by the guns of the fort. This marsh also extended in front of the work, constituting a narrow and yet substantial protection against landing parties, and gradually contracting as it approached the southern boundary of Sunbury. This fortification was an inclosed earthwork, substantially constructed. Its walls embraced a parade about an acre in extent. The eastern face, fronting the river, was two hundred and seventy five feet in length. Here the heaviest guns were mounted. The northern and southern faces were respectively one hundred and ninety-one and one hundred and forty feet in length, while the curtain, looking to the west, was two hundred and forty-one feet long. Although quadrangular, the work was somewhat irregular in shape. From the southern face and the curtain no guns could be brought to bear upon the river. Those there mounted served only for defense against a land attack. The armament of the northern face could be opposed to ships, which succeeded in passing the fort, until they ascended the river so far as to get beyond range. It also commanded the town and the intervening space. The guns were mounted en barbette, without traverses. Seven embrasures may still be seen, each about five feet wide. The parapet, ten feet thick, rises six feet above the parade of the fort, and its superior slope is about twenty-five feet above the level of the river at high tide. Surrounding the work is a moat at present ten feet deep, ten feet wide at the bottom, and twice that width at the top. Near the middle of the curtain may be seen traces of a sally-port or gateway, fifteen feet wide. Such is the appearance of this abandoned work as ascertained by recent survey. Completely overgrown by cedars, myrtles, and vines, its presence would not be suspected, even at a short remove, by those unacquainted with the locality. Two iron cannon are now lying half buried in the loose soil of the parade, and a third will be found in the old field about midway between the fort and the site of the town. During the recent war between the States, two 6-pounder guns were removed from this fort and carried to Riceboro. No use, however, was made of them. Two more, of similar calibre, of iron, and very heavily reinforced at the breech, were taken by Captain C. A. L. Lamar, whose company was then stationed at Sunbury, and temporarily mounted on the bluff to serve as signal guns. Notwithstanding their age and the exposure to which they had so long been subjected, these pieces were in such excellent condition that they attracted the notice of the ordnance department, and were soon transported to Savannah. There they were cleaned, mounted upon siege carriages, and assigned to Fort Bartow, where they remained, constituting a part of the armament of that work, until upon the evacuation of Savannah and its dependent forts by the Confederate forces in December, 1864, they passed into the hands of the Federal army. S anbury was occupied by the Revolutionists as a military post, and its fort garrisoned at a very early period in the colonial struggle for independence. Fort Morris was the most important military work constructed by Georgians during the war of the Revolution. The Assembly convened in Savannah in January, 1778, and on the 10th of that month elected John Houstoun governor. A son of Sir Patrick Houstoun, a gentleman of liberal education and strong character, he was among the first in the colony to counsel resistance to British aggressions. Twice had he represented Georgia in the Continental Congress; and but for the defection of the Reverend Mr. Zubly, which necessitated his presence in Georgia at the trying moment, his name would have been affixed to the Declaration of Independence. He was a member of the Executive Council when he was called to the gubernatorial chair. The other state offices within the gift of the House of Assembly were thus filled: John Glen was made chief justice; William Stephens, attorney-general; William O'Bryan and Nehemiah Wade, joint treasurers; James Maxwell, secretary; and Thomas Chisholm, surveyor-general. James Jones was appointed collector for the port of Savannah, and David Reese for that of Sunbury. Ambrose Wright was commissioned as Commissary General of the State and Superintendent of Public Buildings in the County of Chatham. At a meeting of the executive council, held on the 16th of April to consider the attitude of affairs both civil and military, an extraordinary political act was committed. It was nothing less than investing the governor with almost dictatorial powers. In a preamble and resolutions the executive council declared the situation of Georgia so truly alarming that only the most spirited and vigorous exertions could suffice to defeat the machinations of the enemy, and that " in such times of danger it might happen that everything would depend upon instantaneous measures being embraced, which could not be done should the governor wait for calling a council." Having then recorded their favorable opinion of the constitutionality of the measure they proposed to adopt, the members proceeded to sanction the following unusual and dangerous policy: "The Council therefore, impressed with a sense of the calamitous situation of this State, and apprehending it as an unavoidable expedient, do request that his honor, the Governor, will be pleased to take upon himself to act in such manner as to him shall seem most eligible; and to exereise all the executive powers of government appertaining to the militia or the defence of the State against the present danger which threatens it, or in annoyance of the enemy, independent of the Executive Council and without calling, consulting, or advising with them unless when and where he shall find it convenient, and shall choose to do so. And they pledge themselves to support and uphold him in so doing, and to adopt as their own the measures which he shall embrace; and that this shall continue during the present emergency, or until the honorable House of Assembly shall make an order or give their opinion to the contrary." To this remarkable exhibition of personal confidence Governor Houstoun replied: He was exceedingly unwilling to do any act without the approbation of the Council: but that, as he found by experience, during the present alarm, the impossibility of at all times getting them together when too much, perhaps, depended upon a minute; and further, that as the Council had given it as their opinion that the proceeding was justifiable under the Constitution, and as the meeting of the Assembly was so near at hand and alarms and dangers seemed to thicken on all sides, he agreed to act in the manner the Council requested, during the present emergency, or until the honorable House of Assembly shall make an order or give their opinion to the contrary. While such a delegation of authority may not have been prohibited in terms by the constitution of 1777, it is very questionable whether the framers of that instrument ever contemplated such a cession on the part of the members of the executive council who were constituted the special advisers and coadjutors of the governor in the exercise of the executive powers of government. The threatening aspect of affairs on the southern frontier and the general alarm pervading the State caused this abnormal action on the part of the executive council. Early in April, 1778, a band of loyalists from the interior of South Carolina, led by Colonel Seophol (he is described by General Moultrie as an illiterate, stupid, noisy blockhead. His name also appears as Scovil, and sometimes as Scophal, and his adherents were denominated Scopholities, Scophalites, or Scovilites.), assembled near Ninety-Six and, moving thence, crossed the Savannah River about forty miles below Augusta. Here they were joined by a party from Georgia, entertaining like sentiments and commanded by Colonel Thomas. Seizing some boats conveying corn and flour from Augusta to Savannah, they supplied themselves with such provisions as they needed, burning the rest and sinking the boats. Numbering between five and six hundred, these outlaws marched rapidly for Florida plundering and destroying everything which came in their way as they passed through Georgia. The sparsely populated districts were incapable of offering resistance. Reaching Florida in safety, these Scopholites joined the enemy and strengthened their purposes for an early and a formidable invasion of Georgia. BACK TO HISTORY INDEX   ©Genealogy Trails