USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 23
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" 'Three days after our arrival in Georgia we were alarmed by sev- eral small Vessels being seen off the Harbour which we took to be Span- iards. The General sent his Privateer Schooner to Fort William which lyes to the Southward of our Harbour to help to defend that Place in case of being attacked, and the next day (being the 22nd of June) sent out his own Barge to make discovery if the Enemy had landed. They returned in the afternoon with Account that the Enemy with eleven Galleys were in the Sound called Cumberland, about 20 miles to the Southward of St. Simon's, where we lay. Upon which the General put two Companies of Soldiers in three Boats and went along with them himself to the relief of Fort William, so that crossing Cumberland Sound the Galleys, full of men, bore down upon them. He began the Engage- ment himself with his own Boats' Crew, and exchanged several Volleys with one of the Galleys. In the mean time two Galleys engaged one of the General's Boats where was 50 Soldiers commanded by one Toulson, who thinking himself hard set, bore away and left the General with the other two Boats engaged, but they bravely fought their way through with the loss only of one man, and got to Fort William. Toulson got clear and afterwards came to St. Simon's. That night we heard several great Guns fired, and volleys of small arms to the Southward, so that we got all ready for an attack; next day heard nothing of the General, which put everybody under great concern. The Day after saw a Sail off the Bar which proved to be the General's Schooner with himself aboard, and a Company of Soldiers, who brought account of all being well at Fort William, and that they had beat off 9 Galleys which thought to surprise them. The General came ashore and was saluted by us with 31 Guns, and by the Fort. He confined Mr. Toulson for leaving him, and sent for Captain Thomson, and advised him to send his Goods to Town, and get all ready for defence, for he thought of being attacked at St. Simon's. And soon after we had an Account that there were 32 Sail hoisting Spanish Colours where they lay in the same place for 5 days without making the least attempt, but sent out their small Vessels to
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sound the Bar. July the 4th, they got under sail and came to in the right way off the Channel so that we expected to be attacked next day. The General came on board of us and made a very handsome Speech encouraging us to stand by our Liberties and Country. For his part he was resolved to stand it out, and would not yield one inch to them tho' they appeared so formidable. IIe was convinced they were much superior in Numbers, but then he was sure his men were much better, and did not doubt (with the favour of God) but he would get the better. We having but 10 seamen on board, the General sent us 100 Soldiers, and being well provided with warlike stores, were ready for twice the number of Spaniards. There were several Vessels in the Harbour which we (as Commodore) placed in the following order, viz :--
" 'The Success, captain Thomson, 20 guns, 100 men, with springs upon our cable.
" 'The General's Schooner, 14 guns, 80 men, on our starboard bow.
" 'The St. Philip Sloop, 14 guns, 50 men, on our starboard quarter.
" '8 York Sloops close in Shore with one man on board each in case of being overpowered, to sink or run them on shore.
"'July 5th. The Spanish Vessels got all under Sail and stood in. They sent two Quarter Galleys carrying 9 Pounders, and one Half Galley with two 18 Pounders in her bow to begin the Attack which were warmly received by the Fort, which exchanged several Shot with them. The Wind and Tide both serving, they soon came up with us and fired upon us, which we returned very briskly. They attempted to come up under our stern, upon which I run out two 6 Pounders at the Stern Ports (they being the Guns I commanded) and fired upon her which made them lye upon their Oars, and drive with the Tide. The Admiral came next and was saluted with our whole broad-side, then by the Schooner and Sloop, which made him sheer off from us. In short we received all their Fire and returned the same very briskly, having fired near 300 Shot out of our Ship, they coming on one by one just gave us time to load, so that I believe there was not one Ship but had some Shot in her. They fired at the York Sloops which had run aground. After, they came to anchor and landed a great many men, of which they had great Plenty.
" 'The General sent us off Thanks for our brave Resistance and ordered his men ashore and us with what other Vessels could go to make the best of their way to Charles Town or anywhere to save the Vessels; upon which, we gott ourselves in train for going to sea, and cutting our Cable dropped down with the Tide. The Schooner and Prize Sloop followed us, next morning got over the Bar, and said 4 Galleys standing after us, we got all ready for a second engagement, and having sea- room, would have made a market of them, but they did not care to come over the Bar.
"' All that night saw several fires, and a sloop blow up, which proved the General destroying all that might be of service to the Enemy, intend- ing to march all his men to frederica and there hold it out.
"'July 7th. Got all into Charles Town. Captain Thomson peti- tioned the Assembly for assistance to the General, and to have his own Ship manned to go against the Enemy with the Man of War and what
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other Merchantmen they can fit out, which they have taken into con- sideration.
" 'The Flamborough, Man of War, and two Sloops, with a Galley, have been gone from this place a fortnight, and been drove to the North- ward by a Gale of Wind. They yesterday came abreast of this place and had account how the General's Affairs stood : upon which they made sail for the Southward.
" 'I wish our Fleet had been ready to have gone with them, and I dare say we would have catcht them all. Every minute appears an age to me till we can assist our Friends to the Southward and 'till I have Satisfaction for being left naked: They have got my all amongst them : not having one shirt but as I borrow. I hope next opportunity to write you better news. In the mean time remember me to all our Friends.'
"On the 28th of June, 1742, thirty three Spanish Vessels appeared off the Bar. The General staid at St. Simon's taking all possible measures for the Defence of the Harbour, and opposed them in such a manner that they could not become Masters of the Bar 'till 5th instant when they entered the Harbour in line of Battle ahead. The General's Dis- position of the Land Troops prevented the Spaniards from Landing. The General's three Vessels, with Captn Thomson's Ship, fought stoutly. The Officers and Men in the Merchant Service, as well as those of the Regiment behaved with the greatest courage. After three hours' fight by the Land Batteries as well as the Vessels, the Spanish Fleet broke all through and made for Frederica, but in a very Shatter'd condition, which obliged the General immediately to send the Regiment for the defence of that Place, and followed in the rear himself, and before he would leave St. Simon's, had all the Cannon, Magazines, &c., burst and destroyed, and sent out such Vessels as were on float to sea, the Harbour having been left open by the Spaniards running up the River. The loss is very considerable, and chiefly owing to the want of Artillery, En- gineers, good Gunners, and Ships of Force,-the Officers of the Regi- ment, Sailors, Indians, &c., having done all that men could do for their numbers. The General himself was everywhere but chiefly at the Main Battery and Shipping, Major Herpn being with the Regiment on Shore, and Col. Cook at Charles Town, by leave of Absence by reason of sick- ness, on his way to England. The General is preparing to make the best defence he can in this Place.
"General Oglethorpe being arrived on the 6th of July by day break, without the loss of a man, having brought up all the wounded on his horses, he dismounted and marched on foot himself and gave his own Horse to me. He immediately gave Orders for the Defence of this Place, sending our Scouts on all sides and, supplying the broken and lost arms &c., ordered all the Companies to be paraded on the afternoon of the same day. The Creek Indians brought in five Spanish Prisoners on the 7th day: On which day about the hour of ten, the Rangers who had been on the Scout came chased in by the Spaniards, giving an ac- count that the Enemy was within a mile of this Place where they had kill'd one Small. The General leaped on the first Horse and immedi- ately marched the Highland Company, who were then under arms a parading, and ordered sixty from the Guard to follow. He himself
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galloped with the Indians to the Place which was just within the Woods about a Mile from hence, where he found Captain Sebastian Santio, and Captain Magaleeto with 120 Spanish Troops and forty five Spanish In- dians. Captn Grey with his Chickesaws, Capt. Jones with his Tomo- hetans, and Tooanahowi with his Creeks, and the General with six High- land Men, who outran the rest, immediately charged them. Captn. Mageleeto was killed, Captn. Sebastian Santio taken, and the Spaniards entirely defeated. The General took two Spaniards with his own Hands. Captn Mageleeto Shot Toonahowi in his right arm as he rushed upon him. Toonahowi drawing his Pistol with his left Hand, shot him through the Head. The General pursued the Chace for near a mile, when halt- ing at an advantageous Piece of Ground, stayed till the Guard came up, and then posting the Highlanders on the right, and the guard upon the left of the Road,-hid in a Wood with a large Savannah or Meadow in their Front over which the Spaniards must pass to come to Frederica,- the General returned and ordered the Regiment, Rangers and Com- panies of Boatmen to mareh. Whilst they were preparing, we heard Platoons firing. The General immediately got on Horseback, and rid- ing towards it met three Platoons on the Left coming back in great dis- order, who gave him an account they had been broke by the Spaniards who were extremely numerous. Notwithstanding which, he rallied them and he himself rode on, and to his great satisfaction found Lieut. Suth- erland and the Platoon of the Regiment under his command, and Lieut. Mackay with the Highlanders had entirely defeated the Spaniards who consisted of two Companies of Grenadiers, making 100 Men and 200 Foot. Don Antonio Barbara, who commanded them, was Prisoner, but was mortally wounded; they also took several other Grenadiers and the Drum. The General ordered all the Troops to march from Frederica to him. As soon as they arrived he pursued the Enemy four Miles. In the two Aetions there were one Captain, one Corporal, and sixteen Spaniards taken, and about 150 killed: the rest are dispersed in the Woods, for the General halted all night at a Pass through the Marshes over which they must go in their return to their Camp, and thereby intercepted them. The Indians are out, hunting after them in the Woods and every hour bring in Scalps.
"July 8. Before daybreak the General advanced a Party of In- dians to the Spanish Camp at St. Simon's who found they were all retired into Ruins of the Fort, under the Cannon of the Men of War. Upon which the General marched back and arrived here about Noon. About the same time a Party which the General had drawn from Fort William arrived, notwithstanding the Spanish Fleet lyes between us to secure us from that Place.
"July 9. This day was spent in going on with the Works."
On July 23. 1743. Oglethorpe returned to England, leaving Colonel William Stephens as deputy-general of the colony and Major Horton as military commander at Frederica. Despite the signal victory achieved by Oglethorpe over the Spaniards, he was not given the cordial recep- tion in England which had signalized his former returns, due partly to a decline of popular interest in the colony itself and to a coldness
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between Oglethorpe himself and the trustees touching financial matters. Because of this estrangement, Oglethorpe ceased to manifest the same interest in the affairs of the trust and to attend with anything like his former regularity upon its meetings; but he retained his commissions as governor down to 1752, when the charter of Georgia was formally surrendered to the Crown. The nature of these frictional troubles be- tween Oglethorpe and the Trustees will be given more at length in a subsequent chapter. The illustrious founder returned no more to Geor- gia but in England he continued to mold events. For more than a decade, we find him a power in Parliament. His marriage in 1745 to an heiress, Elizabeth Wright, daughter of Sir Nathan Wright, a baro- net, brought him a long rent roll and served to enlarge his influential family connections. Ten years later he became the official head of the Royal Army, with the full rank of general. In the most brilliant eoterie of the Eighteenth Century, a group of intellects which ineluded the great lexicographer, Dr. Samuel Johnson, with Boswell at his elbow ; the renowned artist, Sir Joshua Reynolds ; the celebrated poet, Dr. Oliver Goldsmith ; and the foremost orator of his time, Edmund Burke; we find in this select company of immortals the tall figure of General Ogle- thorpe. He was too old, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary struggle, to accept the command of the British forees in America, but he was the ranking soldier of Great Britain .* It is also a faet of some interest to note that his sympathies were upon the side of the Colonies. Boswell, in his "Life of Johnson," makes frequent allusion to General Ogle- thorpe, and the great soldier's biography was to have been written by no less renowned a pen than Doctor Johnson's, but for some reason the author of "Rasselas" failed to execute this task. The portrait of Ogle- thorpe painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds was lost in the destruction by fire of his famous country seat, Cranham Hall. Alexander Pope, in a famous couplet, extolled the great philanthropist. Hannah More, in a gossipy letter, refers to him with some degree of gusto as her new ad- mirer. Thomson, in his poem on "Liberty," pays him a fine tribute, and, in his most famous production, "The Seasons," he alludes still further to his humane experiment. The hardships of the Georgia col- onists are also rehearsed at some length in Goldsmith's "Deserted Vil- lage." The friend of Bishop Berkley, the patron of John Wesley, and the eolleague of Horace Walpole, the great man who founded Georgia was a personality of Titanic proportions. Royal favor was not bestowed upon Oglethorpe because of the well-known attachment of his ancestors to the House of Stuart. According to an old account, he was himself a foster-brother to the pretender. This explains why England failed to knight the first man of his age. But there was little need for England to lay the accolade of her chivalry upon one of God's noblemen.t Gen-
* "The assertion has frequently been made, though the authority for it is not conclusive, that being the senior of Sir William Howe there was offered to him the command of the forces to subjugate America in the War of the Revolution, but that he declined the appointment, assuring the ministry that he knew the Americans well, that they would never be subdued by force of arms, but that obedience would be secured by doing them justice." History of Georgia, by Wm. B. Stevens, p. 207, New York, 1847.
t The following Oglethorpe bibliography may be helpful to students: "Memoirs of General James Edward Oglethorpe," by Robert Wright, London, 1867; "Life of
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eral Oglethorpe died at the patriarchal age of ninety-seven. He lived to see the Colony which he founded an independent commonwealth and to meet John Adams, the first ambassador from the United States to the Court of St. James. He was buried at Cranham Church, in Essex County, England, where his last resting place commands an outlook upon the North Sea.
General Oglethorpe," by Henry Bruce, New York, 1890; "James Oglethorpe, the Founder of Georgia, " by Harriet C. Cooper, New York, 1904; "James Edward Ogle- thorpe, " an address at the Annual Banquet of the Georgia Society of Sons of the Revolution, at Savannah, February 5, 1894, by Judge Emory Speer, included in a volume of speeches on "Lee, Lincoln, Grant," etc., New York and Washington, 1909; and Judge Charlton's oration at the unveiling of the Oglethorpe monument in Savannah, November 23, 1910.
BLOODY MARSH: WHERE A BATTLE WAS FOUGHT IN WHICH SPAIN LOST A CON- TINENT .- Between the lighthouse at St. Simon's and the old citadel of Frederica there stretches a low plain on which was staged a war drama, the far-reaching effect of which upon the subsequent fortunes of America hardly admits of a parallel in the history of the New World. Here, on July 7, 1742, was fought the historic battle of Bloody Marsh. To quote an authority whose opinion is universally respected, Thomas Carlyle, "half the world was hidden in embryo under it; " and this wisest seer and clearest thinker of the nineteenth century further adds: "The Yankee nation itself was involved, the greatest phenomenon of these ages." * The renowned White- field declared that Georgia's deliverance from the Spaniards at this time was to be paralleled "only by some instances out of the Old Testament."t Said he: # "Certain it is that this battle, though well nigh forgotten, is one of the most glorious and decisive in the annals of our country. It determined that North America should be left to the exploitation of the Anglo-Saxon, the Celtic and the Teutonic races. Had success attended the Spaniards, they would have advanced upon the more northern settlements." To quote an eminent jurist of this State,* "General Oglethorpe re- ceived from the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vir- ginia, and North Carolina special letters, congratulating him on his success and expressing gratitude to the Supreme Governor of Nations for placing the affairs of the Colonies under the direction of a General, so well qualified for the important trust." In the ancient Spanish burial ground near Frederica lie the remains of some of the hapless victims who fell in this engagement, but the sacred area is choked with briars and brambles while, amid the damp undergrowth, hisses the vengeful snake. The disappearance of the Spanish flag, on January 1, 1899, from the whole upper half of the Western Hemisphere, when the independence of Cuba was recognized by the government of Madrid, merely served to record the final issues of the great victory achieved by Oglethorpe when, with a force of six hundred men, he inauguarated the era of Spain's downfall and gave the whole continent of North America to English civilization. Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, L. L. Knight, Vol. I.
* Judge Emory Speer, in a speech delivered at the annual banquet of the Georgia Society of Sons of the Revolution, at Savannah, on February 5, 1894, and incor- porated in a volume entitled "Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and Other Biographical Ad- dresses, " pp. 130-131, New York and Washington, 1909. In this same work, Judge Speer reproduces the "Official Report of Don Manual Montiano, Spanish Commander of the Expedition against Georgia, " a document of very great value to historians.
t McCall, Stephens, Jones.
# Judge Speer in the work; above mentioned, pp. 130-131. Also an address de- livered by Judge Walter G. Charlton, at the unveiling of the Oglethorpe monument in Savannah, November 23, 1910.
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FORCES ENGAGED .- Tho following is an estimate of the forces engaged :*
SPANISH TROOPS
One Regiment of dismounted Dragoons. 400
Havana Regiment
500
Havana Militia
1,000
Regiment of Artillery
400
Florida Militia
400
Battalion of Mulattoes
300
Black Regiment
400
Indians
90
Marines
600
Seamen
1,000
Total
5,090
GENERAL OGLETHORPE'S COMMAND
His Regiment .472
Company of Rangers. 30
Highlanders 50
Armed Militia 40
60
Total
652
MEMORIAL OF BLOODY MARSH .- During the summer of 1913, the historic battle- field of Bloody Marsh, on St. Simon's Island, was marked by a handsome granite memorial, unveiled under the auspices of two patriotic organizations: the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of America, and the Georgia Society of Colonial Wars. Hon. Richard D. Meader, of Brunswick, Chancellor of the latter society, delivered the principal address, in which he discussed the far-reaching significance of this decisive battle, on the Georgia coast. Said he, among other things:
"The entire population of Georgia in 1750, eight years after Bloody Marsh, was only 5,000, whereas South Carolina at the same time had 68,000, North Carolina 80,000 and Virginia 275,000. In 1742 Georgia probably did not number more than 4,000 inhabitants, so that we have the spectacle of a small army of 650 men, less than a modern regiment, defending more than 300,000 people against the attack of a powerful enemy without any assistance from those people. Assuming that Georgia's population was 4,000 in 1742, it is not probable that the adult male pop- ulation was more than one-third that number, so that we see another unusual spec- tacle, that of one-half the entire male population being engaged in one force, a proportion which I doubt has ever been equalled in the world's history. Had this small army of 650 men been killed or captured by the Sapniards, there could have been no effective resistance from the other parts of the colony, and Georgia as an English colony would have ceased to exist, while South Carolina and the more northern colonies would have had to fight for their existence.
"Oglethorpe, knowing the overpowering strength of the Spanish and his own weakness, realized the desperate straits he was in and made repeated but fruitless calls for additional troops upon the more northern colonies. Finally realizing that he must rely upon what force he had, in the face of great and impending danger he wrote those brave and memorable words which appear above his name on the monument that we are dedicating today."
Embedded in the monument is a neat tablet of bronze on which the following inscription is lettered :
"We are resolved not to suffer defeat. We will rather die like Leonidas and his Spartans, if we but protect Georgia and the Carolinas and the rest of the Americans from desolation."- Oglethorpe.
Erected on the battlefield of Bloody Marsh-by the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of America and the Georgia Society of
* See MeCall's History of Georgia, Vol. I, p. 196, Savannah, 1811.
Indians
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Colonial Wars in memory of the great victory won over the Spaniards on this spot July 7, 1742. Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, L. L. Knight, Vol. II.
FORT FREDERICA : 1735 .- On the west side of St. Simon's Island, at a point which commands the entrance to the Altamaha River, stands an ancient pile, the origin of which can be traced to the days of Oglethorpe. It is the oldest of Georgia's historic ruins. Some of the very guns which were used to expel the Spaniards may be seen upon its moss-covered ramparts; and not only the earliest but the bravest memories of Colonial times cluster about its dismantled walls. Except for the part which it played in checking the haughty arrogance of Madrid, an altogether different sequel might have been given to the subsequent history of North America, for here it was that the Castilian power in the Western Hemisphere was for the first time challenged and the march of Spain toward the North halted by an overwhelming victory for the English Colonies.
Only some twelve miles distant from the beach, an automobile brings the visitor in less than half an hour to the picturesque old ruin and puts him in touch with the romantic life of two centuries ago.
RUINS OF FORT FREDERICA
The road to Frederica winds through splendid forests of live-oak, weirdly and gloomily draped with pendant mosses. It skirts the historic battle ground of Bloody Marsh, passes underneath the famous Wesley oak, and commands a view of Christ Church, within the sacred precincts of which there are a number of tombs wherein repose the dust of the old planters, whose elegant homes and fertile acres have long since been abandoned.
If the visitor prefers he can make the trip to Frederica by water.
But time has spared only the barest remnant of the ancient citadel which saved the continent of North America from Spanish domination. Only the walls of the old fort have been spared. Not a vestige of the town survives. Says one who has often visited the historic spot *: "It is a shame to think how the blocks of tabby were carted away to build the lighthouse and the negro quarters, so that nothing remains of the old town of Frederica. I remember when a child seeing a house on the ruins of the old battery and I can recall how I peeped down with awe at the magazine below. If our patriotic societies had been earlier founded how much might have been saved from vandal hands. But we are thankful to save even this remnant,
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