USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. II > Part 16
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Colonel Clarke, though disappointed in making his desired stand at Freeman's Fort, and though compelled
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almost to disband his troops, could not long remain idle, or give up the contest. By great efforts, he suc- ceeded in reassembling most of his regiment; and, striking upwards into the mountainous regions, he joined Colonel Jones at a point where Georgia and the Carolinas intersect each other. They were shortly reinforced by a body of mountaineers from the neigh- borhood of Holstein River, under Colonel Shelby ; and now, feeling themselves sufficiently strong for action, they entered South Carolina, penetrated through Wil- liamson's settlement, fighting their way at almost every step, until, being joined by some Carolina whigs, under Colonel Williams, they resolved to attack a party of the enemy posted at Musgrave's Mills, on the Ennoree River.
Colonel Clarke, as commander of the whole, made a most judicious selection of his ground, and formed his troops with great advantage. The British, under Colonel Jones, advanced to the attack with much courage; but, after sustaining for a few moments a very galling fire, and seven out of the nine officers being either killed or wounded, a retreat was ordered, and the enemy were pursued until they reached Mus- gave's Mill, being severely annoyed by the fire in flank and rear from the pursuing Americans. In this action Colonel Jones was wounded, sixty-three were killed, and one hundred and sixty were wounded and taken prisoners ; while the party under Clarke had but four men killed (among them Captain Inman), and nine wounded, among whom were Colonel Clarke,-who received two sabre cuts on his head and neck,-and Captain John Clark.
This action was so decisive, and its influence upon
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the spirits and hopes of the friends of liberty was so elevating, that Colonel Clarke now turned his atten- tion towards the recovery of Augusta from the hands of the loyalists. The present feeble state of the garri- son, which had been weakened by the withdrawal of several detachments of troops to join the Earl Corn- wallis, near Camden, seemed to hold out some promise of success ; and, therefore, in conjunction with Colonel McCall, he resolved to raise soldiers for the enterprise, believing that between them they could muster at least a thousand troops. But when they met at the ap- pointed rendezvous on Soap Creek, in Lincoln County, instead of a thousand men, they had not one-half that number; yet, unwilling to defer longer so important an attempt, Colonel Clarke resolved to march to Au- gusta; and on the 14th September, 1780, the little army reached the scene of action. The troops were formed into three divisions, and they advanced severally along the middle, lower, and upper roads, and were not dis- covered by Colonel Brown, until the left division, under Major Samuel Taylor, attacked the Indian camp near Hawk's Creek, when the Indians after a short resist- ance gave way, and fell back towards the town.
The firing at the Indian Camp induced Colonel Brown to order Grierson to support Captain Johnston, who, with a company of King's Rangers and Indians, had taken post at Seymour's white house, which stood over a mile distant from the town. Brown, himself, followed Grierson with the main body of his troops ; and, while they were thus engaged with the division of Taylor, the centre and right divisions, commanded by Colonels Clarke and McCall, entered the town by the other road, and surprising the drained garrison,
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took possession of Augusta. Hastily placing his prisoners and booty,-consisting of all the Indian presents about to be distributed by the English go- vernment to their dark-skinned allies,-under a proper guard, Clarke marched to the aid of Major Taylor, now endeavoring to capture Colonel Brown, who, with Grier- son and Johnston, had thrown themselves into Sey- mour's white house.
The firing was kept up with more or less spirit during the day, but without dislodging the occupants. The Indians, unable to crowd into the house with the Rangers, fought outside, according to their irregular mode of warfare, crouching under the edge of the river's bank, concealing themselves in the shrubbery, and hiding behind trees and fences, and from these places, secure themselves, they delivered their effective discharges against the Americans.
During the night, Brown sought to retreat, but the strong guard posted around the house prevented him, and his only hope was so to secure himself, as to hold out until he could receive the relief which, at the first alarm, he had sent for from Lieutenant-Colonel Cruger, then at Ninety-Six.
Accordingly, himself and Rangers labored with all diligence to make the white house gun-proof, by filling up the spaces between the logs, and barricading the windows with boards ripped up from the floor ; and, as the house was loop-holed for muskets, the assailants dared not approach, for the Rangers could take delibe- rate aim, while, at the same time, they were them- selves comparatively secure.
On the morning of the 15th September, two pieces of cannon were drawn up from Fort Grierson ; but they
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were only mounted on trucks, and were so badly served, owing to the want of artillerists, that they proved of little service, and that little was soon lost by the killing of Captain Martin, the only artillerist in Clarke's army. Had these been field, instead of fort pieces, and been well manned, they would soon have compelled Brown to surrender, or battered down the house over his head ; as it was, another day was spent in fruitless efforts to dislodge the enemy. Brown was shot through both thighs, the wounded were suffering for want of medical attention, and their distresses were increased on the 16th, by the Americans charging upon the Indian allies, who, the night before, had been reinforced by fifty Cherokee warriors, and completely driving them from the river, thus cutting off all supply of water to the besieged.
Notwithstanding their distressed condition, the many wounded in the house, and the suffering of the Rangers for lack both of food and water, Brown still refused to surrender, though twice summoned by Clarke to do so; haughtily rejecting the summons, with the warning to Clarke, that he would retaliate the calami- ties of this siege upon the inhabitants of western Georgia, and declaring his intention to defend himself to the last extremity.
Four days of confinement, privation, and suffering, reduced Brown and his party to the very verge of abandoning his defence, and surrendering to the Ameri- cans. Still, however, he deferred this humiliating act, in the hope, faint indeed, but yet tenaciously clung to, of relief. Each hour he waited with extreme impatience the appearance of Colonel Cruger; and, as they slowly passed without his coming, he was on the point of
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sending out a white flag, to settle the terms of capitula- tion, when the head of the column of British troops was seen emerging from the woods on the other side of the Savannah River, and their appearance was hailed by the despairing Rangers with wild expressions of joy. Had Colonel Clarke a properly organized or well-disciplined force, he could have easily prevented Cruger from crossing the river ; but such was the weak- ness of the Americans, occasioned by the loss of men in the action, and the desertion of others who had joined the army for plunder, rather than patriotism ; and such his want of confidence in the men who served under him, that, by ten o'clock, two hours after the appearance of the English troops on the opposite bank of the river, Clarke raised the siege, and, knowing his inability to meet so large a force of regulars, hastily retired, leaving nearly thirty of his wounded men in the town to the mercy of the British commander. How well that mercy was exercised, may be learned from the treatment which these men received, for Brown caused Captain Ashby and twelve of the wounded, to be hung on the stair-case of the white house, so that he could see them swing off as he lay in his sick bed. The other prisoners and wounded men were delivered up to the Indians, who practised on them the refinements of savage cruelty, satiating their revenge by ingenious expedients to prolong the misery of their hapless vic- tims,-seeking, by the horror of their death agonies, to make propitiation to the manes of the seventy warriors who had fallen by the American arms.
Colonel Cruger crossed the river, and entered Augusta without opposition, and the English flag again waved from the fort.
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Brown, smarting in body and mind, under painful wounds and remembered indignities, and true to a nature which gloated in revenge, immediately spread around Augusta detachments of troops and Indians, to pick up stragglers from the American army; to surprise such small parties as might still hover near; to seek out every friend of liberty, and ascertain who had relatives among the rebel troops; and these, whether aged men or helpless women, quiet citizens or defenceless children, were visited with cruel treat- ment; their houses were burned, their plantations laid waste; the men driven off to filthy prisons, under a driver's lash, or at the point of the bayonet; the women abused, dishonored, and, with the children, left to be the sport of the ferocious royalists, whose tender mercies were cruel. No wars exhibit such horrors as those which enlist friends and neighbors in opposing interests and arms. The sudden displacing of kind feelings by political enmity ; the hardening influence of such a transition ; the private piques and feuds which are engendered; the personal acrimony which embitters the contest; the covetous desires fostered by the easy confiscation of estates; the little value placed upon human life; the intense selfishness which is cherished; these, added to the hardening influences of camp life, and the license accorded to the victor,. conspired to make the partizan warfare in Georgia one of the darkest spots in the history of the American Revolution. The minute record of these cruelties is too heart-sickening to be transcribed. War with a foreign power, in well-pitched battles, with disciplined troops, to decide great principles or to enforce great rights, may have in it something noble and stirring, to
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relieve the dark features of the bloody field, the sacked town, the wasted life; but the social feuds of civil war-the hand-to-hand contests of neighbors-the mutual jealousy of adjoining hamlets-the embittered strife of once bosom friends; and the murders, assassin- ations, ravishments, burnings, thefts, and barbarities of the most revolting kind, which daily result from such partizan warfare, can be painted by no pencil, written by no pen, told by no tongue; for each case of outrage would, if properly portrayed, fill a large canvas with its sickening details : yet, until each case can be considered in all its bearings, and all these cases, with their various ramifications, be fully spread upon the historic page, we cannot form a true picture of the horrors, or obtain a true idea of the distress, which filled Georgia with blood, and ashes, and tears, during the years of its revolutionary history.
To attempt any further defence of Georgia, was now considered useless; and Colonel Clarke, after collect- ing such men and families as were unwilling to remain, led them over the Alleghanies, on the northern edge of Georgia, to the borders of Tennessee and Kentucky, where they were welcomed by the hospitable but hardy inhabitants, and where, for a brief season, they rested from their toils; though it was a repose purchased by the sacrifice of all their property, and by enduring sufferings which baffle the most graphic pencil.
From this time until the opening of the next year, the Georgians who kept the field were found doing good service in the adjoining States; and at Black- stock's, and King's Mountain, and Fish-dam Ford, and Long-Cane, the soldiers of our State fought with zeal, and gained unfading honor. In this last battle, Colonel
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Clarke was borne from the field severely wounded, and was not able to return to his command for several months. Without a leader, under whom all could rally, the refugee Georgians were broken up into small parties, and acted without concert, as circumstances suggested, keeping up a sort of guerilla warfare against the British. To remedy this defect, by which so much strength and efficiency was wasted, for want of co-operation, General Morgan, from his camp on the Pacolette River, addressed to them, on the 4th January, 1781, the following letter :-
"TO THE REFUGEES OF GEORGIA.
" GENTLEMEN-Having heard of your sufferings, your attachment to the cause of freedom, and your gal- lantry and address in action, I had formed to myself the pleasing idea of receiving in you a great and valu- able acquisition to my force. Judge, then, of my disap- pointment, when I find you scattered about in parties, subjected to no orders, nor joining in any general plan to promote the public service. The recollections of your past achievements, and the prospects of future laurels, should prevent your acting in such a manner for a moment. You have gained a character; and why should you risk the loss of it for the most trifling gratifications. You must know that, in your present situation, you can neither provide for your safety, nor assist me in annoying the enemy. Let me then entreat you, by the regard you have for your fame, and by your love to your country, to repair to my camp, and subject yourselves to order and discipline. I will ask you to encounter no dangers or difficulties, but what I shall participate in. Should it be thought advisable
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to form detachments, you may rely on being employed on that business, if it is more agreeable to your wishes; but it is absolutely necessary that your situation and movements should be known to me, so that I may be enabled to direct them in such a manner that they may tend to the advantage of the whole.
" I am, gentlemen, with every sentiment of regard,
" Your obedient servant,
" DANIEL MORGAN."
In consequence of this appeal, many of them rallied around his standard, and were present at the battle of Cowpens, on the 17th January, 1781. On this me- morable day, the Georgians were under the immediate command of Major Cunningham, of Clarke's regiment, and were incorporated into the brigade of General Pickens,-James Jackson being Brigade Major.
Major Jackson greatly distinguished himself on this occasion by capturing the colors of the 71st Regiment, and by taking prisoner Major McArthur, the commander of the infantry of Tarlton's Legion; and he received the thanks of General Morgan on the field for his gal- lant conduct.
The overthrow of Fergusson at King's Mountains, the defeat of Tarlton at the Cowpens, and the march southward of General Green, who had superseded Gates in the command of the Southern Department, revived the flagging spirit of the Americans; and, under the impulse of that rekindled energy, it was determined to make another effort to wrest Augusta, the key of the whole up-country of Georgia, from the hands of the Tories.
Lord Rawdon had not only been held in check, but
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had been turned back towards the seaboard by General Green. The outposts of Forts Watson, Motte, Granby, and Orangeburg, had successively yielded to the Ame- rican arms; and the troops therein had either been taken prisoners, or were withdrawn; and, when the American army reached the Congaree River, its Gene- ral viewed, with great satisfaction, the successive fall of the advanced British posts, and the rising patriotism of the people, and resolved to press his march with such vigor as to compel the enemy to surrender or retire from the whole interior of Carolina and Georgia, and confine themselves to the seaports of Charleston and Savannah.
On the 16th of May, Lieutenant-Colonel Lee, of the legion, received orders to advance upon Augusta ; and, fearing that, in the general abandonment of interior posts, Colonel Cruger would evacuate Ninety-Six, and join Colonel Brown at Augusta, he pushed on with great celerity, relieving the tired infantry by making them occasionally exchange with the dragoons, or mount behind them, and reached Augusta on the 19th.
While Lee was thus pressing on, as the van of General Green's army, on the one side, Colonel Clarke, having again rallied a band of faithful Georgians around him, was prepared to join the expected forces of Pickens and Lee in the reduction of Augusta. As Clarke ap- proached this place on the South, he learned that the boats, laden with the annual presents for the Indian tribes, and with supplies for the garrison, were then ascending the river; and, posting his men among the thick trees which skirted its banks, he so commanded the passage that the boats, unable to ascend without being captured, took shelter at Fort Galphin, or Dread-
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nought, at Silver Bluff, twelve miles below Augusta, on the north side of the river. While thus engaged in watching these boats, Lee was requested by General Pickens to reduce this post, which was a stockade fort, manned with two companies of infantry. It being important to make the attack at once, as it was evident that neither of the commanding officers at Augusta and Fort Galphin knew of the arrival of Pickens or Lee, Lee, to whom the affair was intrusted, detached a com- pany of infantry and a troop of horse, under command of Major Rudolph, who, by a forced march, reached the pine barrens, in the vicinity of the fort, on the morning of Monday, the 20th of May. Being strength- ened here by a strong detachment of Georgia and Caro- lina militia, under Colonel Clarke, Lee attacked the Fort ; and continued the attack with such spirit during the day, that, evening drawing on, and it being impossible to hold out much longer, Captain Roath surrendered the fort by capitulation ; and thus, without losing a man, and having only eight or ten wounded, the Americans made one hundred and twenty-six prisoners; and gained a large amount of powder, balls, small arms, blankets, salt, and other articles greatly needed by the army, and of many of which they had been completely destitute.
On Wednesday, the 23d of May, Colonel Clarke formed a junction with Pickens and Lee, near Augusta, and prepared to invest the town. Augusta was then defended by the Forts Grierson and Cornwallis. The former, commanded by the Colonel whose name it bore, was situated near the site of the new market, and was defended by two pieces of artillery and eighty men; and the latter was located half a mile to the
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east and south, on the spot now occupied by St. Paul's Church. In Fort Cornwallis there were several pieces of cannon, and it was garrisoned by four hundred men, in addition to two hundred negroes, who did duty in the fort. Both forts, as indeed the whole British force in Upper Georgia, were commanded by Colonel Thomas Brown, who had so bravely resisted the former siege under Colonel Clarke.
The first object of the combined forces was to cut off communication between the forts. Pickens, there- fore, to whom the honor of conducting these move- ments was confided, erected field-works on the plain, which equally commanded both forts. This battery opened its fire of artillery on the morning of the 24th, and it was determined, under cover of this fire, to fall upon and destroy Fort Grierson ; and then, if possible, take Fort Cornwallis. The troops, destined for the attack on Fort Grierson, were divided into two por- tions ; one, under Pickens and Clarke, being ordered to attack the fort on the north and west; the other, under Majors Eaton and Jackson, was to approach it simul- taneously on the south. To prevent any succor being sent to Grierson by Brown, Lieutenant-Colonel Lee, with the infantry and artillery, menaced Fort Corn- wallis; while the dragoons, under Eggleston, were so placed, under cover of a neighboring wood, that they could, at a moment's signal, fall upon the rear of Brown, should he attempt a sortie for the rescue of Fort Grierson.
Colonel Grierson finding himself galled by the fire of the American field-works, and fearing that he would be entirely cut off, resolved to abandon the fort, and retreat, under shelter of the river bank, to Fort Corn- VOL. II. 17
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wallis. As soon as this movement was perceived, he was intercepted, and attacked with such vigor, that he lost his second in command, two field-pieces, thirty men killed, and forty-five wounded or taken prisoners. Grierson and a few others only, escaped to Fort Corn- wallis.
In a moment of desperation, at the anticipated cap- ture of Fort Grierson, Brown sallied forth with a body of troops to the aid of his brother commander ; but he was promptly met and repulsed by Lee, who drove him back to his fort.
Fort Grierson having fallen into the hands of the assailants, their combined force was now directed upon Fort Cornwallis. Brown, unwilling to surrender, though summoned to do so, exerted himself to the utmost to place the fort in a defensible state by strengthening every assailable part, and resolving to hold out to the last extremity. The peculiar nature of the ground not permitting an assault, it was resolved to invest it by regular approaches, and at these the troops labored with commendable diligence, occasion- ally interrupted by sallies from the fort, which all resulted in loss to the British. The level plain afforded no eminence from which the besiegers could command the fort by their artillery, and in this emergency, Colonel Lee proposed the plan,-adopted, with, so much success, by Lieutenant Mayham, at Fort Watson,-of erecting a square tower of rough logs, about thirty feet high, filled in with fascines, earth, stone, brick, &c., to give it solidity, sufficiently platformed to sustain a six- pounder, and so loopholed as to make it effective, both as an artillery and rifle battery. It was begun on the
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evening of the 30th of May, under cover of a frame house, which concealed the laborers from the view of the fort, and, by the Ist of June, was raised to a level with the enemy's works.
Brown's attention was now directed to counteracting this novel mode of warfare, and he accordingly erected a platform in the angle of his fort, opposite the May- ham tower, upon which he mounted two of his heaviest pieces, and opened their fire at once upon the besiegers. Not trusting to this alone, and feeling, in the desperate condition of affairs, that he must make a bold and sudden strike, if he would either dislodge or intimidate his foes, Brown resolved to make a general sortie; and, for this purpose, divided his band into two parts, one of which was to attack the American works on the river quarter, as a feint ; while the other party, led by Brown himself, was to fall directly upon the troops in front, and gain, if possible, possession of the tower, with a view to burn it down. Shortly after midnight, on the 1st June, the sortie was made; but the British found the Americans prepared to receive them, and they were repulsed, in both attacks, after a long, close, and very bloody conflict, with a steadiness and gal- lantry worthy of all praise. From this time Brown gave up all such attempts, and sought to do by strata- gem what he had failed to do by force.
The Mayham tower being completed, and a six- pounder mounted on its platform, it was pointed and fired with such effect, that before mid-day the two pieces in the angle of Fort Cornwallis, nearest the tower, were dismounted, and the inside of the fort was raked by its balls.
"It was now," says Colonel Lee, who relates the
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circumstance,2 " that Lieutenant-Colonel Brown deter- mined to put in execution his concealed stratagem. In the course of the night a deserter from the fort was sent to Lieutenant-Colonel Lee. He was a Scot, with all the wily sagacity of his country, and a sergeant of the artillery. Upon being questioned upon the effect of our cannonade, and the situation of the enemy, he answered, that the strange log-house, lately erected, gave an advantage which, duly improved, could not fail to force surrender; but, that the garrison had not suffered so much as might be presumed; that it was amply supplied with provisions, and was in high spirits.
" In the course of the conversation which followed, Lee inquired, in what way could the effect of the cannonade be increased ? Very readily, replied the crafty ser- geant; that knowing the spot where all the powder in the fort was deposited, with red hot balls from the six pounder, directed properly, the magazine might be blown up. This intelligence was received with delight, and the suggestion of the sergeant seized with avidity, although it would be very difficult to prepare our ball, as we were unprovided with a furnace. It was pro- posed to the sergeant, that he should be sent to the officer commanding our battery, and give his aid to the execution of his suggestion, with assurances of liberal reward in case of success. This proposition was heard with much apparent reluctance, although every dispo- sition to bring the garrison to submission was exhibited by the sergeant, who pretended that Brown had done him many personal injuries in the course of service. But he added, it was impossible for him to put himself
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