USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. II > Part 12
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A second proclamation soon followed, offering " a reward of ten guineas for every Committee or Assem- bly man taken within the limits of Georgia, and two
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TREATMENT OF PRISONERS AT SAVANNAH.
guineas for every lurking villain"-(for thus cour- teously did it style the patriots of the Revolution)- " who might be sent from Carolina to molest the in- habitants." This was done, with the ostensible pretext of "establishing public security, and checking every attempt to disturb the peace of individuals."
The prisoners taken in the capture of Savannah, met with severe and cruel usage. A few enlisted in the enemy's ranks; but those who refused, after being alternately threatened and coaxed, were hurried on board ships in the river-crowded together like slaves -tyrannized over by every petty officer-stinted in provisions and every necessary of life, and treated with savage barbarity, so that four or five died every day. Nor was this treatment confined to common soldiers alone : civilians of standing and property were thrown indiscriminately into these prison-ships ; and in some instances officers, who had a military right to different treatment, were-as in the case of Mordecai Sheftall, Commissary-General of the Georgia Line, and Sheftall Sheftall, his assistant, and the Rev. Moses Allen, Chaplain-thus immured.
The spirit which then animated the English officers, was often very alien to that high sense of honor and gentlemanly bearing, of which they so loudly boasted; and painfully, at times, did the atrocious spirit of war glut itself, in revenge of a personal and most malig- nant kind.
Nothing of the American army now remained in Georgia, save the garrison at Sunbury, under the command of Major Lane, which Colonel Campbell "thought too insignificant for early attention ;" but
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GEORGIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
which he now purposed to subdue, though, as he was about starting on the expedition, he learned that it had been reduced by Colonel A. Prevost, then on his way to Savannah. As soon as Colonel Prevost heard of the arrival of the troops from the north, he col- lected all the soldiers who could be spared from St. Augustine, and, agreeably to the instructions of Gene- ral Sir Henry Clinton, marched to join Lieutenant- Colonel Campbell, and assume the command. Being retarded in his movements by the difficulty of finding conveyance for his artillery and ammunition, he sent on before him his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel James Mark Prevost, who, by a forced march in the night, surrounded the town of Sunbury; and the remainder of the troops soon coming up, they regularly invested the place ; and after three days' resistance, during which the besieged had a captain and two men killed, and three wounded, Major Lane surrendered at discretion ; while the British had only one private killed, and three wounded. Two hundred and twelve officers1 and soldiers, two galleys, forty pieces of ordnance of various sizes, and some shot and small arms, were surrendered with the fort to Colonel Prevost, who, changing its name to Fort George, settled in it a garrison, to secure the dependence of that portion of the country.
In defending this post, Major Lane went contrary to the commands of General Howe; for on the day of the capture of Savannah, he despatched Lieutenant Aaron Smith, of the 3d South Carolina Regiment, to Major Lane, ordering him to evacuate his post at Sunbury, retreat across the country, and join him at Sister's
1 Colonel Prevost's Letter, in Gentleman's Magazine, 1779.
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GENERAL LINCOLN TAKES COMMAND.
Ferry. His refusal caused the loss of his command and the loss of his commission; for he was tried by a court-martial, and dismissed the army, for disobeying the orders of the commanding general.
On the arrival at Savannah of Colonel Prevost, he took the command of the combined forces from Florida and New York, and on the 24th of February he was gazetted major-general.
The Province of Georgia having been mostly re- duced by the King's troops, civil government was re-established, on the 4th March, 1779; and on the 13th of July following, Governor Wright and the other crown officers, who had taken refuge in England, re- turned to Georgia, and entered anew upon the admi- nistration of their several offices.
General Lincoln relieved General Howe in the com- mand of the Southern Department, and reached Purysburg on the 3d January, 1779, five days after the capture of Savannah. The loss of Howe's army was a more severe blow than the loss of the capital ; its dispiriting influence on the soldiers themselves, and its disheartening effect upon the State, did much to prostrate its energies, and rob it of the strength and confidence which were necessary for its very existence.
General Lincoln found the army in anything but a gratifying condition. It numbered five hundred Con- tinentals and seven hundred North Carolinians; and so near were they encamped to the enemy's posts, that they could hear their drums beat every morning, and the challenge of the sentinels. In a few days after- wards, this force was doubled ; but many of the troops were exceedingly restive, as their time was nearly
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expired-all the State levies refused to come under Continental regulations-military obedience was reluc- tantly yielded -discipline was feebly enforced, and "the greatest military crime they could be guilty of, was only punishable by a small pecuniary fine."
The enemy, in the mean time, had stretched their posts along the Savannah; six hundred being stationed at Sister's Ferry, two hundred at Zubly's Ferry, while the main body of the army, under Colonel Campbell, took post at the little village of Abercorn, six miles below the American camp. Notwithstanding so many took protection, or enrolled themselves in the British troops, yet a few resolute spirits, in Burke and Rich- mond Counties, took the field, and, with a mere hand- ful of Continentals, called in the militia to their aid, and roused the upper district of Georgia in its defence.
A party of royalists, under Colonel Brown, consist- ing of four hundred mounted men, was ordered to form a junction, at the jail in Burke County, with Colonel Thomas, the commander of the militia of the county, who, with many of his men, had sided with the enemy. Colonels Benjamin and William Few hastily gathered the Americans, and being joined by Colonel Twiggs, numbering in all about two hundred and fifty, fell suddenly upon Brown, after a forced march, and defeated him, with a small loss; but, ex- pecting that the royalists would be reinforced, Colonel Twiggs thought it prudent to retire, and wait another opportunity, when, by another dashing movement, he could secure a more brilliant victory. The opportunity was not long wanting. Major Harry Sharp and two other Tory majors from South Carolina, raised a parti- san corps, by which they greatly distressed the inhabi-
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COLONEL CAMPBELL TAKES AUGUSTA.
tants of Burke County and its vicinity. Having watched them for some time, they were at length observed to encamp in such a position as would allow them to be very advantageously attacked; when Colonel Twiggs and Captain Joshua Inman rushed upon and totally defeated them. This sudden onset cost Captain Inman his life-not, however, until he had killed all three of the British majors with his own hands.2
This complete discomfiture of the Tories gave a tem- porary peace to the long-harassed residents of that vicinity ; though it did not arrest the upward march of Colonel Campbell, who reached and took possession of Augusta by the close of January. Stopping but a few days in Augusta, he marched up some thirty or forty miles in the interior; and his presence, together with the fall of Augusta and Savannah, caused many of the inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance and come under the British protection. Those who de- clined, finding themselves insulted, pilfered, threat- ened-in terror by day and by night-their effects taken before their eyes-their children slain in their yards-their stock slaughtered or driven off to the English -their crops ruthlessly destroyed - their houses burnt over their heads-gathered what few things they could save from the general ruin, and moved across the river. The few who remained faithful to the American cause, after securing, as they hoped, the safety of their families, reassembled, at the earnest call of Colonel John Dooly, at a point on the Savannah River, five miles above the line of McGirth,
2 Jackson's MS. Notes on Ramsey.
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GEORGIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
who, with three hundred loyalists, had encamped at a creek, for the purpose of watching the movements of the Americans and intercepting their passage across the river. By crossing a few miles higher up, Dooly effected a landing in Georgia; but only to retire again, before a detachment under Major Hamilton, who pur- sued him so closely, that the rear of Dooly's party and the van of Hamilton's were within musket distance when the Americans recrossed the Savannah River. Dooly remained upon the Carolina banks, anxiously watching another opportunity to fall upon his antago- nist, and at the same time rousing up the Whigs in the vicinity to join him in expelling the marauders from their once happy homes.
Colonel Pickens, with about two hundred and fifty men of his regiment, promptly responded to the call; and joining Dooly, who, though the senior officer, waived the command in favor of Pickens, the united force marched to the attack of Hamilton, then supposed to be encamped in security about three miles below Cowan's Ferry. Hamilton, however, not anticipating any movement on the part of the Americans, had marched off on a few days' tour, for the purpose of bringing all within his military district under the oath of strict allegiance, and of changing the garrisons in the several small forts scattered through the neigh- boring country. The two little armies met at Carr's Fort; and a detachment of the Americans, under Captain William Freeman, having, by an act of daring bravery, secured a new log-house, which commanded the spring by which the fort was supplied with water, the British were locked in without food and water. Their horses and baggage were captured, and nothing
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SKIRMISHES WITH BOYD'S LOYALISTS.
but the humane desire of Colonel Pickens to save the few women and children in the fort, deterred the as- sailants from setting fire to the fort and compelling instant submission. But while the Americans waited for a more tardy, yet apparently certain surrender, news was brought to Colonel Pickens of the advance of the notorious royalist Boyd; who, just returned from a conference with Sir Henry Clinton at New York, had, under a commission, organized a partisan corps in the upper district, and was now, with a body of eight hundred loyalists, on his desolating march towards Georgia. This induced an instant abandonment of the fort, though within a few hours it must necessarily have yielded; and raising the siege, the Americans recrossed the Savannah; while Major Hamilton, re- joicing in his unexpected fortune, retreated to Wrights- borough, and thence, in a few days, to Augusta, where he joined Colonel Campbell, losing nine killed and three wounded during the siege.
Boyd, aware of their intention to attack him, and unwilling at this juncture to hazard a battle, changed his route; but Captain Anderson, with about a hun- dred men, who had been detached to watch his move- ments, ascertained his point of fording the river, and stationing his few troops in the thick canebrakes, poured a destructive fire upon the main body, as it crossed the river, and continued the havoc until a por- tion of the enemy, which had crossed a little higher up, came suddenly upon his rear, and compelled a retreat, with the loss of thirty-two killed, wounded, and taken prisoners, while Boyd's loss was three times this number.
The enemy having effected a passage into Georgia,
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GEORGIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
Pickens and Dooly, now joined by Colonel Clarke, re- solved to follow; and they accordingly crossed the . Savannah on the 12th February, and the following night encamped within four miles of the enemy. Forming the line of march in the order of battle, the Americans now prepared once more, at a great disad- vantage of numbers, to contest with the Tories for the supremacy in Upper Georgia. Much depended on this battle. If Boyd should be successful in driving back the Americans, under such men as Pickens, and Dooly, and Clarke, he might rest assured that no farther mo- lestation, at least for a very long time, would follow, and all would yield to the British power; while, on the other hand, should the Americans be successful, it would not only crush the Tory power, already so galling to the people, but protect them from further insult, and give a stimulus to American courage, which a long series of disasters made especially necessary ; it was a moment big with the fate of Upper Georgia.
Boyd, with a carelessness evincing great lack of military skill and prudence, had halted, on the morn- ing of the 14th, at a farm near Kettle Creek, in Wilkes County, having no suspicion of the near approach of the Americans, and his army were dispersed in various directions, killing and gathering stock, cooking, and other operations. Having reconnoitred the enemy's position, the Americans, under Pickens, advanced in three divisions : the right under Colonel Dooly, the left under Clarke, the centre led by the commander himself, with orders not to fire a gun until within at least thirty-five paces.
As the centre, led by Pickens, marched to the attack, Boyd met them, at the head of a select party,
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BATTLES OF KETTLE CREEK AND BRIER CREEK.
his line being protected by a fence filled in with fallen timber, which gave him great advantage over troops displaying in his front. Observing this half-formed abatis, Pickens filed off to a rising ground on his right, and thence gaining the flank of Boyd, rushed upon him with great bravery-the enemy fleeing, when they saw their leader shot down before them. Sustained in this charge by Dooly and Clarke, the enemy, after fighting with great bravery, retired across the creek; but were rallied by Major Spurgen, on a hill beyond, where the battle was again renewed with fierceness ; but Colonel Clarke, with about fifty Geor- gians, having discovered a path leading to a ford, pushed through it, though in doing so he encountered a severe fire, and had his horse shot down under him, and, by a circuitous route, rose upon the hill in the rear of Spurgen, when, opening a deadly fire, the enemy, hemmed in on both sides, fled, and were hotly pursued by the victors, until their conquest was com- plete. For one hour and a half, under great disad- vantage, and against a force almost double, had the Americans maintained the unequal contest, and though once or twice it seemed as if they must give way, especially when the Tories had gained the hill, and were re-formed under Spurgen; yet the masterly stroke of Clarke, with his few brave Georgians, turned the scale, and victory, bloody indeed, but complete, was theirs.
Pickens and Dooly lost thirty-two killed and wound- ed, while Boyd and seventy of his men were killed, and as many more wounded and taken prisoners. Not two hundred and fifty, however, of his party ever reached Augusta,-the rest fled in every direction ;
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some cast themselves on the mercy of the Whig govern- ment, some were hung as traitors and miscreants, whose barbarities entitled them to the most horrid deaths, and some skulked among the mountain passes of North Carolina. The Tory force was broken, and only in small parties and petty skirmishes, did they again take the field. This victory was one of the most important in Georgia, and secured, for a time, the Whig ascendency in all that section. A few hours' delay in making this attack might have proved fatal to the Americans, as a party of five hundred men, under McGirth, was even then on its march to join Boyd, at Little River ; but, the intelligence of his defeåt and death, and the confusion it produced among the loyal- ists, determined him to return at once to Augusta, lest they also should fall before the victorious Americans.
The success of the Americans at Kettle Creek gave new vigor to their cause, and nerved the arms of the officers and soldiers to deeds of daring and bravery. Some feat of arms was almost daily performed, and generally resulted in advantage to the Americans. One of these consisted in the surprise of the British post at Herbert, consisting of seventy regulars, by a party of militia under Colonels Twiggs, McIntosh, and Hammond, killing and taking prisoners the entire corps. Another deed of valor was performed by Cap- tain Cooper and twelve dragoons, who charged upon a reconnoitring party of the British Rangers, twenty in number, commanded by three officers, as they were advancing upon Brownsburg, and took them all prisoners. Instances of individual valor were of daily occurrence. One only need be related here. While the American troops lay near Augusta, General Elbert,
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BATTLES OF KETTLE CREEK AND BRIER CREEK.
anxious to obtain an accurate notion of the force and situation of the British, sent Lieutenant Hawkins to spy out their post. He departed alone; but, as he neared their camp, he was overtaken at the Bear Swamp by three men whom he knew to be noted Tories, and to avoid them was now too late. Resolutely advancing towards them, he demanded who they were, and whither they were going. They answered, to join Colonel Daniel McGirth. Hawkins, who had on an old British uniform, told them that he was McGirth, and did not believe a word that they said, that they were rebels, and he would hand them over to his party that were near. They protested to the contrary; when Hawkins told them that if what they said was true, to ground their rifles and hold up their right hands. As they did this, he advanced with cocked pistols, and, taking up their rifles, ordered them to march, and the first one that turned round he would shoot. Thus preceded, he arrived at the camp, and delivered his three prisoners to the General.
Finding the Tories thus defeated and dispersed, and all his hopes of help from these insurgents disappointed ; and being unable, with any degree of safety, to occupy so long a chain of military posts, General Prevost aban- doned Augusta, and all his line north of Hudson's Ferry, twenty-four miles above Ebenezer.
On the retreat of Campbell from Augusta (for such his precipitate departure may well be termed), his rear was harassed by parties of Americans, and a more vigorous pursuit was prevented only by his burning or breaking down all the bridges on his route until he got within supporting distance of Colonel J. M. Prevost, VOL. II.
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GEORGIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
who marched up a little distance from Hudson's Ferry, to conduct him within the lines.
The Americans had now a large force along the Savannah River, distributed in several camps. At Au- gusta there were twelve hundred troops under General Williamson; at Black Swamp, seven hundred under General Rutherford; at Brier Creek, two thousand three hundred under General Ash; and at Purys- burg, where General Lincoln had his head-quarters, were between three and four thousand men,-making, in all, a force of between eight and nine thousand. At a consultation, held at General Rutherford's camp, it was resolved by General Lincoln, and the principal officers, to march the army from Purysburg (leaving, however, a strong guard there to watch the enemy) to General Rutherford's, at Black Swamp,-there to cross the river and join General Ash, at Brier Creek. The position occupied by General Ash at the creek, was deemed by him perfectly secure, and he even believed that the enemy, having magnified his numbers, were afraid to cope with the troops under his command. On the other hand, the British commander, anticipating that the troops at Brier Creek might soon be joined by the main army, and feeling the ill effects which their presence had upon his movements, shutting him up so closely within his lines, he deemed it advisable to strike at General Ash before he could be reinforced, and thus prevent the attack which General Lincoln designed to make with his whole force upon the British at Hudson's Ferry and Ebenezer.
The plans of the enemy were secretly, but most effectively laid. To draw off attention from the main attack, which it was designed should be on the Ameri-
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BATTLES OF KETTLE CREEK AND BRIER CREEK.
can front, Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost, with the 2d battalion, took a circuitous route of fifty miles to cross the creek above them, as if to turn their flank and gain the rear of the Americans; while, to keep General Lincoln in ignorance of their main design, General Prevost made a feint on the river bank, as if he pur- posed crossing the stream. The attacking columns found some difficulty in getting into their proper posi- tion, owing to the swollen current and the absence of bridges which they themselves had previously destroy- ed; but, on the morning of the 3d they were ready for action. Three grenadier companies of the 60th regi- ment ; one of light infantry, under Sir James Baird ; the 2d battalion of the 71st regiment ; a troop of light dragoons, a body of provincial rangers, &c., with five pieces of artillery, numbering in all one thousand, moved on to the scene of slaughter.
General Ash was not prepared for such an encoun- ter, encamped as he was in a place totally unfitted for defence. On his right was a deep lake, made by the overflowing of the surrounding streams into the low and matted swamp. On his left was Brier Creek, swollen, rapid, and impassable by recent rain; and his rear was bounded by the Savannah, with not a boat to cross it; while his only means of exit from this trap, into which, with entire lack of military skill, he had led his troops, was by an open field in front, and even this he had failed adequately to se- cure. Not suspecting his danger, he had sent off two detachments, one under Major Ross, of 300 dragoons, to reconnoitre the enemy at Hudson's Ferry; and the other under Colonel Marbury, to watch the upper pass of Brier Creek. This latter officer discovered the van
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GEORGIA IN THE REVOLUTION.
of Prevost's army, and exchanged a few shots with them at Paris's Mills. He instantly sent an ; express to inform Ash of the near approach of the enemy, but the rider was captured, and it was only by a vague rumor, transmitted to the General by General Elbert, that he had any idea of their proximity. The enemy had then advanced almost to the picket guard at the bridge, about a mile from the main body, and when the drum sounded to arms, as that body of one hun- dred fled before the British van, not a soldier or piece of artillery had been served with cartridges, and not a plan of any kind had been formed for action. The confusion of the camp may well be imagined. Ash attempted to rally his troops under three divisions, but, as he confessed, they did not stand fire five minutes, and most of them shamefully fled, the Gene- ral at full speed leading the way. The only portion of this ill-fated army that did stand their ground was the left division, under Elbert, which fought so gal- lantly that the English reserve were ordered up to support the line of attack : not until then, when there was no escape, and resistance was hopeless, did Elbert order his men to ground their arms, and surrender themselves prisoners of war.
The surprise and defeat of the Americans were com- plete. The enemy pursued the routed troops with a vengeance worthy of savages, and the order of Sir James Baird to his light infantry was, that "every one who took a prisoner should lose his ration of rum," and thus many, who on their knees implored mercy, were bayoneted by the brutal soldiery, who would not lose their allowance of grog. The loss of the Ameri- cans in battle was about 340, killed, wounded, and
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BATTLES OF KETTLE CREEK AND BRIER CREEK.
prisoners, one-half of whom fell dead on the battle- field, or were drowned in the neighboring waters. They lost also one thousand stand of arms. The Bri- tish loss was very trifling, being only sixteen killed and wounded. A few of the fugitives, including Gene- rals Ash and Bryant, and Colonel Pickens, reached Mat- thews's Bluff that evening; and that night, as many as could, crossed over into Carolina.
A court of inquiry sat a week after, at the request of General Ash, to investigate the conduct of this officer at this battle; and while, in its finding, the court ac- quitted General Ash of any want of personal courage, it declared its opinion that he had not taken all neces- sary precautions to secure his camp, and obtain timely notice of the movements and approach of the enemy.
But what shall we think of a General who, with an enemy so near at hand, and with two hundred dragoons in camp, should allow himself to be so surprised that not fifteen minutes elapsed from the alarm to the at- tack ? Indeed it is fully evident that General Ash was deficient in almost every requisite of a commanding officer, having neither judgment, skill, foresight, nor self-reliance ; and, notwithstanding the judgment of the court, wanting in personal bravery. It was more than suspected by many that he had betrayed his army and his place of encampment. The disposition of his troops and defence, his dilatory movements, and his precipitate flight, certainly gave strength to a report which obtained a very general credence. How unfor- tunate was it for Georgia that she should have had in her armies as her defenders such men as Howe and Ash, men totally incapacitated for their responsible duties, and whose errors and cowardice brought dis-
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