USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. II > Part 14
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nation of the assailants. What was the preparation of the British to receive them ?
At the first approach of d'Estaing there were but ten cannon mounted upon the works; now, through the almost incredible exertions of Major Moncrief, the number exceeded one hundred and eighteen. The defences in every respect were ample and effective ; every pass and avenue to the city was vigilantly guarded and covered. The Germain, the only ship that had not been dismantled, was carried above the town, and commanded every approach through the low grounds bordering on Musgrove Creek. The troops were well trained, disciplined, and faithful; the guns were well served and judiciously planted, and what- ever military science or experience could do in its defence was done by the zealous and able officers in command.
But there was one advantage which served them above all this. As soon as the plan of attack had been agreed upon by the American and French commanders, James Curry, a clerk of Charlestown, but who had been made Sergeant-Major of the volunteer company of grenadiers from that city, deserted to the enemy, with the entire programme of operations ; by which the British were apprised of the intended feint, the real attack, and the disposition, strength, and nature of the army, as had been agreed upon by the allied Generals. Of this desertion the French and Americans knew nothing until after the attack.
At 2 o'clock, on the morning of the 9th October, the troops were paraded under arms; and, soon after, the whole force of nearly three thousand French and Ame- ricans, in one solid column, marched up to the front of
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the wood, when, wheeling into their appointed places, they proceeded to their several duties. Unavoidable hindrances had prevented their appearing before the enemy until it was clear daylight, whereas, they had designed to have attacked before the break of day. Now they were easily seen, as they deployed into seve- ral columns, and the enemy, knowing from Sergeant Curry, that the attack of Colonel Huger on the left was a mere feint, concentrated all their strength upon the Spring Hill redoubt, on the right of their lines, on the road leading to Ebenezer, where the French com- mander, d'Estaing, sword in hand, was gallantly leading up his troops.
Count Dillon, who had orders to lead his column under cover of the night round the swamp and gain the rear of the Ebenezer Road redoubt, mistook his way through the darkness, and did not reach his posi- tion till day discovered him to the besieged, who drove him back with a galling fire. The near approach of d'Estaing also drew upon his troops a most destructive cannonade-the guns loaded with grape, chain, and cannister shot; and the muskets of the Hessians, Gre- nadiers, and Loyalists, made awful havoc amidst those well-drilled troops. They fell like grass before the mower. But animated by their officers, they still rallied to the front, pressed onward to the attack, and still hoped for a victory. Amidst all this slaughter they gained the abatis, while the other columns of French troops having mostly lost their way by the darkness of the night, were crowded together in a morass to the west of the city, and exposed to the deliberate and galling fire of the redoubt and a cross fire from the Germain and its associate gallies.
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Colonel Laurens at the head of the Light Infantry, _ the Second South Carolina Regiment, and the First Battalion of Charleston Militia, also attacked the re- doubt, and the colors of the Second South Carolina Regiment, which had been presented to it by Mrs. Elliott, of Charleston, were for a moment planted on the berm by Lieutenants Hume and Bush, who being killed, Lieutenant Grey advanced to their support, but he being wounded, Serjeant Jasper rushed forward, and though mortally wounded, brought off his colors at the expense of his life. Count Pulaski, with his cavalry, followed the attacking columns with the view of charg- ing in the rear of the redoubts at the first vulnerable point ; but, finding the front of d'Estaing's troops thrown into confusion by the deadly fire of the British, he left his command to the care of Colonel Horry, and with Captain Bentalou hastened on his black charger to animate by his presence the wavering spirits of the soldiers, and carry out the plans of d'Estaing now twice wounded, and borne from the field. He dashed on, heedless of danger, and anxious only to retrieve the discomfiture into which the head columns had been thrown; he penetrated to the Spring Hill redoubt, the scene of the greatest carnage, and, endeavoring to rally the disordered troops, was struck by a grape-shot from the last gun of the bastion ; he reeled upon his horse, which, unguided, plunged madly forward, until his noble rider fell into the arms of his comrades, and was by them borne back from the murderous conflict.
But nothing human could stand before the terrible cannonade from the enemy's lines. Troops the bravest, soldiers the most disciplined, hearts the stoutest, quailed before the Angel of Death, as he seemed to spread out
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his wings upon that blood-covered plain. When the second American column under McIntosh reached the Spring Hill redoubt, the scene of confusion was dread- ful. They marched up over ground strewn with the dead and the dying, and seldom has the sun of a warm October morning looked down upon a scene so mourn- ful and appalling. The smoke of the muskets and cannon hung broodingly over the place, gathering denseness and darkness from every discharge; and the roar of artillery, the rattling of small arms, the calling bugle, the sounded retreat, the stirring drum, and the cries of the wounded blended startlingly together.
Colonel Huger marching through the low rice grounds on the east, reached his appointed post, and was received with music, and a brisk discharge, which killed twenty- eight of his men, and compelled him to retreat. Only the column of General McIntosh was now fresh and ready for action. But the fate of the day was decided ; the French and Americans had been slain and wounded by hundreds, and their bodies lined the redoubts and ditches. They had left their camp in anticipation of decisive victory, blood-bought and toil-earned, indeed, but yet victory, and expected to plant the standards of the army over the prostrate ensigns of England ; but the betrayal of their plan of attack, and the losing of their way, with the consequent detention till daylight, revealed their position to the enemy, changed the for- tunes of the day, and, though bold, valiant, and perse- vering, they were repulsed and slaughtered. For one hour they had stood gallant and undaunted before the murderous connonade, which struck down rank after rank, and sent dismay by its sweeping fury, into every column; until, finding further attempt but a useless
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sacrifice of life, a retreat was ordered, and the remains of that gallant army were drawn off the field.
With the exception of Bunker Hill, no battle of the Revolution was more sanguinary or destructive. The British marched into the engagement at Bunker Hill with about 3500 men, and their killed and wounded amounted to 1054. Even at the battle of Minden, one of the bloodiest ever fought in Europe, where the English sustained for a long time the whole force of the French army, the killed and wounded were but 1328; but at this assault of Savannah, there were brought into action not quite 4000 men; and yet the killed and wounded were 1100, or nearly one-third of the army. Of these, 640 were French, and 469 Ame- ricans. The loss of the British was about 100.
General Lincoln, with the reserve, covered the retreat ; and, notwithstanding the terrible volleys of grape and ball shot, and a sortie in their rear, they were brought off with but little loss. Count d'Estaing . was twice wounded,-in the arm and thigh; Vicomte de Fontanges, Vicomte de Bethizy, Baron de Steding, Count Pulaski, and the Chevalier d'Eronville, were also wounded ; four majors, two captains, four lieute- nants, and several other subalterns, were killed; one major, nine captains, and eleven lieutenants, were among the wounded. About ten o'clock, the allies requested a truce to bury their dead and remove the wounded. It was granted for four hours, and within certain distances; and this most melancholy duty was performed by the comrades of the fallen, with the silence befitting the mournful task.
All hopes of taking Savannah were now extin- guished. In a few days, d'Estaing re-embarked his
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troops, artillery, &c .; but they had hardly got on board, and received the order of d'Estaing, for seven ships of the line to repair to the mouth of the Chesa- peake, before the long-dreaded hurricane rose upon them, scattered their ships, and but one vessel, com- manded by the Marquis de Vaudreuil, reached its destination.
General Lincoln, immediately after the battle, re- treated to Ebenezer Heights, and, on the 19th October, crossed over into Carolina, and repaired to Charleston, from which place he addressed the following letter to Congress :
" CHARLESTON, October 22, 1779.
SIR-In my last, of the 5th ult., I had the honor of informing Congress that Count d'Estaing was arrived off Savannah.
" Orders were immediately given for assembling the troops. They reached Zubly's Ferry and its vicinity on the 11th, and some were thrown over. The 12th and 13th were spent in crossing the troops and bag- gage, which was effected, though not without great fatigue, from the want of boats, and badness of the roads, through a deep swamp of near three miles, in which are many large creeks. The bridges over them the enemy had broken down. We encamped upon the heights of Ebenezer, twenty-three miles from Sa- vannah, and were there joined by troops from Augusta, under General McIntosh. The 14th, not being able to ascertain whether the Count had yet landed his troops, though several expresses had been sent for that purpose, we remain encamped. On the 15th, being advised that the Count had embarked part of his troops, that he would that night take post nine miles
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from Savannah, we moved, and encamped at Cherokee Hill, nine miles from the town. The 16th, we formed a junction before Savannah. After reconnoitering the enemy's works, and finding the town well covered, and knowing their determination to defend it, it was deemed necessary to make some approaches, and try the effects of artillery. From the 18th to the 23d, we were employed in landing and getting up the ordi- nance and stores ; a work of difficulty, from the want of proper wheels to transport them, the cannon being on ship-carriages. On the evening of the 23d, ground was broken; and on the 5th instant, the batteries of thirty-three pieces of cannon and nine mortars were opened on the enemy, and continued, with intervals, until the 8th, without the wished-for effect. The period having long since elapsed, which the Count had assigned for this expedition, and the engineers inform- ing him that much more time must be spent, if he expected to reduce the garrison by regular approaches, and his longer stay being impossible, matters were reduced to the alternative of raising the siege imme- diately, and giving up all thoughts of conquest, or attempting the garrison by assault: the latter was agreed on ; and on the morning of the 9th, the attack was made; and it proved unsuccessful, and we were repulsed, with some loss.
" When the Count first arrived, he informed us that he would remain on shore eight days only. He had spent four times that number; his departure, there- fore, became indispensable ; and to re-embark his ord- nance and stores claimed his next attention. This was completed on the 10th. The same evening, hav- ing previously sent off our sick, wounded, and heavy
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baggage, the American troops left the ground, reached Zubly's Ferry the next morning, recrossed, and en- camped that night in Carolina.
" The French troops encamped, on the night of the 10th, about two miles from Savannah. They were, after twenty-four hours, re-embarked at Kincaid's Landing.
" Our disappointment is great, and what adds much to our sense of it, is the loss of a number of brave officers and men, among them the late intrepid Count Pulaski.
"Count d'Estaing has undoubtedly the interest of America much at heart. This he has evinced by coming to our assistance, by his constant attention during the siege, his undertaking to reduce the enemy by assault, when he despaired of effecting it other- wise, and by bravely putting himself at the head of his troops, and leading them to the attack. In our service he has freely bled. I feel much for him; for while he is suffering the distress of painful wounds, he has to combat chagrin. I hope he will be consoled by an assurance that, although he has not succeeded ac- cording to his wishes and those of America, we regard with high approbation his intentions to serve us, and that his want of success will not lessen our ideas of his merit."
The lower part of Georgia was now in the possession of the British, rejoicing in their signal deliverance from a superior force, and by almost a miraculous succor. The Governor's council at the suggestion of Sir James Wright, appointed Friday, 29th October, as a day of public and general thanksgiving-the Governor observ-
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ing to the Board, that " he considered the late delive- rance and preservation of the town, garrison, and in- habitants, from the formidable combined force of French and rebel enemies who came against it, as an act of Divine Providence," and therefore worthy of public acknowledgment.
Looking back upon the siege of Savannah, and taking in all its operations at one survey, we are astonished at the number of errors which seemed to mark the contest. The first great error was in the French fleet passing by Beaufort, without capturing Colonel Maitland and his eight hundred men. The overwhelming force of the French could easily have effected this, but the Charleston pilots refused to take the ships over Port Royal bar. Had this regiment been captured, the fate of the city would have been reversed. The second error was in the hasty summons of the city to surrender to the arms of the King of France before d'Estaing had been joined by Lincoln. The joint summons of these generals, backed by the presence of their joint armies, would have produced a different answer from the English commander. The third great error-the fatal error-was in the French General granting a truce for twenty-four hours. That truce saved the city. It was highly impolitic when a sudden impression was desired ; it was almost culpable, when the American General was not present, but was hourly expected, to concede such a privilege without his approval. D'Estaing was too much flushed with his late victories at Grenada and St. Vincents to be cautious. Lincoln had been too long schooled in dis- asters not to be wary and vigilant.
The English officers themselves acknowledged that had the combined armies marched to Savannah at their
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first junction, they could easily have taken it, so poorly defensible was it at the beginning of the siege. The ignorance of their guides, and the betrayal of their plan of attack, completed the series of misfortunes which resulted in their overthrow.
The season of the year both for land and sea opera- tions was the most improper which could have been chosen. Who that is at all acquainted with our coast does not know its peculiar exposures to the equinoxial gales of September ? and who that knows our climate, is not aware of the almost certain sickness which during our fall months attacks the stranger, particularly at that period, when camping near swamps and ditches ? The consequence was, that the French officers and troops, both at sea and on land, were continually anxious, restive, longing to depart, fearing the miasma on shore and the hurricane on the ocean. Both came to them too soon, but the destruction of neither, equalled the carnage of the battle. There was a vauntingness at times in the language of d'Estaing, which rendered it too haughty to be brave. His words at his sum- mons ;- " I have not been able to refuse the army of the United States uniting itself with the king" is a strange piece of diplomacy, for it implies that he had endeavored to prevent it, when his very purpose in coming to Georgia was to effect it. The conduct of the French troops during the siege was exemplary and praise- worthy. A generous emulation, and nothing more, pervaded both armies; and the bravery of the allies needs no greater comment than the number of dead and wounded they left upon the field of battle. Wash- ington, writing to General Lincoln two months after this attack, concerning its failure, thus alludes to the
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army : " While I regret the misfortune, I feel a very sensible pleasure in contemplating the gallant behavior of the officers and men of the French and American army ; and it adds not a little to my consolation to learn that instead of the mutual reproaches which too often follow the failure of enterprises depending upon the co-operation of troops of different nations, their confi- dence in and esteem for each other are increased."
Among the English and French officers at the siege of Savannah, were several of historical or family emi- nence, who deserve more than a passing notice.
Major-General Augustine Prevost, who commanded the British troops, was a native of Geneva, Switzer- land, who had settled in England; and entering the army, rose gradually to his high position. His wife was the daughter of the Chevalier George Grand, of Amsterdam. General Prevost died in 1786, leaving four children ; the eldest, George, was created a baronet in 1805, was colonel of the 16th regiment, and Gover- nor-General and Commander-in-chief of North America. The second son, James, became a captain in the royal navy. The third son, William Augustus, rose to the rank of a major-general in the English service, and commander of the Bath.
The Commander of the Perseus, at Savannah, in 1779, was George Keith Elphinstone, the son of Charles, the tenth Baron Elphinstone in the Peerage of Scot- land. He attained the rank of Post-Captain, in 1775; Rear-Admiral, 1794; and the next year, as Vice- Admiral, conducted the naval part of the successful expedition against the Cape of Good Hope. For his services, on this occasion, he was created, in 1797, Baron Keith of Stonehaven, Ireland. In 1801, he VOL. II.
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became Admiral of the Blue; obtained, in 1803, the Barony of Keith, in Dumbarton, Scotland; and, in 1814, was created Viscount Keith. His Lordship died in 1823.
Count Arthur Dillon was the son of Henry, the eleventh Viscount Dillon, in the Peerage of Ireland. His father was a Colonel in the French service. His grandfather, Arthur, went into the army of France, and commanded an Irish regiment after his father. Theo- bold, the seventh Viscount, was outlawed, in 1690, by reason of his attachment to the falling fortunes of James II. The grandfather of Count Dillon was, in 1705, made Marshal of the Camp, and Governor of Toulon ; and, subsequently, a Lieutenant-General of France. Dillon's regiment was commanded, after the death of Marshal Dillon, by his son James, a Knight of Malta; and when he fell at the head of this regi- ment, at Fontenoy, his brother Edward succeeded to his command; and it was this regiment which the young Count Arthur led into action at the siege of Savannah. He was involved in the troubles of the French Revolution, and suffered under the guillotine, in 1794. His daughter, Fanny, was married to Count Bertrand, who adhered so closely to the fortunes of the Emperor Napoleon ; and Lady Bertrand was distin- guished by her fidelity to the Emperor, during his long imprisonment at St. Helena.
Charles Hector Compte d'Estaing was born in Au- vergne, in 1729. He was of an old and distinguished family : being early advanced, he commenced his military career as a Colonel of Infantry; and soon, becoming a Brigadier-General, he was sent under Count de Lally to serve in the East Indies.
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Being taken a prisoner at the siege of Madras, in 1759, he was set at liberty by the English on his parole. This parole he violated; was unskilful enough to be again taken; and, was, according to the laws of war, in imminent danger of his life. After a painful con- finement, however, in the hulks at Portsmouth, Eng- land, he was released ; and then took an oath of eternal hatred to the English, which he rigidly kept.
After the peace of 1763, he was made Lieutenant- General of the naval forces. But this appointment gave great dissatisfaction to the navy, and he never obtained even a partial popularity in that service.
In 1778 he was sent, as Vice-Admiral, with twelve ships to aid in establishing American independence ; but misfortune mostly attended his movements. Con- trary winds kept him back until Lord Howe, with a much smaller squadron in the Delaware, had re-em- barked his troops and landed them in New York. Before Rhode Island, he was about to attack Howe, now reinforced by some vessels from Lord Byron's squadron, when a fearful storm separated the hostile fleets, dismasting d'Estaing's ship, and putting both fleets, for the time, hors du combat.
Later, however, pursuing the enemy to the West Indies, he attacked and beat Admiral Byron ; and, was only deterred from pursuing his victory by the preva- lence of contrary winds. After his fruitless expedition to Georgia, he returned, in 1780, to France.
In 1783 he was intrusted with the command of the combined fleets of France and Spain, assembled at Cadiz, and was ready to set sail when the treaty of peace put an end to the expedition.
He threw himself with zeal into the movements
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which led to the French Revolution ; and, in 1789, was made commandant of the National Guards at Versailles. His revolutionary course, however, is not without some grievous stains ; and, in April, 1794, he expiated, under the guillotine, the crime of being a counter- revolutionist.
In the fleet of Count d'Estaing, was La Perouse, the famous navigator. Entering the French navy at the age ยท of fifteen, he served with distinction in several parts of the world, and particularly in the East Indies. After the peace of 1783, he was appointed to command a scien- tific expedition to the Pacific and Chinese seas. With superior ships and a better corps of scientific men, he followed the track of Captain Cook, and made many valuable discoveries and observations. From the 7th February, 1788, the date of his last communication from Botany Bay, to 1827, a mystery hung over the fate of this distinguished navigator. It was unex- pectedly cleared up by the accidental discovery that, both his ships, the Boussole and the Astrolabe, were lost on one of the islands of the New Hebrides group.
The death of Count Pulaski threw a deep gloom over the ill-fated siege of Savannah. Descended from a noble house in Poland ; educated under the eye of a father who was one of the ablest jurists in the kingdom ; associating with the noble and influential ; he early showed his hatred of Russian intrigue, and his oppo- sition to the efforts to place upon the throne of Poland the celebrated Poniatowski, as Stanislaus Augustus, whom he regarded "as a Russian viceroy, rather than as the chief of an independent nation."
Engaging with ardor in the plans devised by his father, for freeing Poland from the chains of its north-
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ern oppressor; Casimir Pulaski soon became the most famous chief in his native country for his military suc- cesses, his bold daring, and his intense ardor in the cause of freedom. The record of his battles and his struggles evinces courage, skill, and energy worthy of the sacred cause to which his father, his brothers, and him- self, had pledged their lives and fortunes. "In those con- federacies which were soon formed in various parts of the country, to defend and vindicate its insulted sove- reignty, the ardent patriotism of the Count, his impla- cable hatred of foreign usurpation, his indefatigable zeal, his unshaken constancy, his heroic intrepidity- in short, his towering genius and his stoical and truly republican virtues, rendered him the scourge and terror of the Russians." "During eight succeeding years of a bloody war," says a writer who has eloquently de- scribed the situation of Poland in those calamitous times,1 " the operations of Pulaski were such as almost to challenge belief. Sometimes vanquished, much oftener victorious-equally great in the midst of a - defeat, as formidable after victory, and always supe- rior to events, Pulaski attracted and fixed the atten- tion of all Europe, and astonished her by his long and vigorous resistance. Obliged to abandon one province, he made incursions into another, and there performed new prodigies of valor. It was thus that, marching successively throughout all the palitinates, he signal- ized in each of them that eternal hatred which he had sworn against the enemies of Poland. It was Pulaski who, in 1771, conceived and organized the bold design of forcibly carrying off Stanislaus from Warsaw, and bringing him to his camp; not indeed to assassinate
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