USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 37
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Another eall was now issued for the patriots to meet in Savannah. It was signed by the same old advance guard of liberty, with the excep- tion that George Walton's name was substituted for John Walton's, and the meeting was held on June 22d following. Besides designating an ad interim Council of Safety, which included such representative men of the colony as William Ewen. Edward Telfair, George Walton. Joseph IIabersham, Samuel Elbert. John Glen, William Le Conte, and others, it was deeided to summon the whole province together in conventional assembly on July 4th ensuing. There now remained but little trace of the conservative sentiment which had hitherto kept Georgia from send- ing delegates to Philadelphia. The most intense excitement prevailed : and the signs in the sky caused the royal governor to shudder with pain-
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ful forebodings as he anxiously surveyed the distant horizon and noted the dusky banners of the fast oncoming storm.
This was the status of affairs in the midst of which Georgia's first secession convention, on July 4, 1775, met at Tondee's Tavern in Savan- nah. An eloquent sermon from Dr. Zubly solemnized the patriots for the serious business which was soon to be transacted, and, with Archi- bald Bulloch in the chair and George Walton at the secretary's desk, the historic assemblage was ready to proceed. The first duty was to choose an executive council in which to lodge the government of the province, and the members appointed were: George Walton, president; William Ewen, Stephen Drayton, Noble W. Jones, Basil Cooper, Edward Telfair, John B. Girardeau, John Smith, Jonathan Bryan, William Gib- bons, John Martin, Oliver Bowen, Ambrose Wright, Samuel Elbert, Joseph Habersham and Francis H. Harris. To the Continental Con- gress five delegates were elected : Noble W. Jones, Lyman Hall, John Houstoun, Archibald Bulloch and John J. Zubly. But only three attended the adjourned session of the Continental Congress, Dr. Jones and Dr. Hall being detained at home. All of the parishes were represented in the notable convocation. Indeed, no subsequent assembly was ever more harmonious; and, if the Sons of Liberty, according to Governor Wright, acted like drunken men, they were intoxicated with the Pentecostal wine of the new freedom. The die was cast. Georgia's first secession ordi- nance was written, and the colonial gem, which bore the name of the Brunswick prince, was now transferred from King George's coronet to Young Liberty's brow.
But the convention, which remained in session for several days, was not unmindful of the steps which were needed to insure Georgia protec- tion. It was necessary to provide the sinews of war. A schooner was commissioned by the Congress and put in command of two stout patriots, Oliver Bowen and Joseph Habersham, who were already in possession of information which promised to yield substantial results; and, within the next few days, 9,000 pounds of powder fell to Georgia's share in a haul which the officers made in connection with some adventurous South Carolinians. It was the first capture made by the first vessel commis- sioned for naval warfare in the Revolution.
However, this was not the powder which Governor Wright was ex- pecting from the British depot of supplies. The helpless condition of the royal cause had induced the governor to send dispatches both to General Gage and to Admiral Graves asking for immediate re-enforce- ments. But the letters were intercepted by good Whigs who suspected the character of the contents, and who, using the same envelopes, sub- stituted fictitious letters stating that the situation in Georgia was per- fectly tranquil. Though the letters in due time reached the proper des- tination, there was naturally no response; and Governor Wright was puzzled for an explanation until years afterwards, when he chanced to meet General Gage in London.
For the military defense of the state, the First Battalion of Georgia troops was constituted with Lachlan McIntosh as colonel, Samuel Elbert as lieutenant-colonel, and Joseph Habersham as major. In the course
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of time other battalions were added and Colonel MeIntosh eventually became General MeIntosh. But au unfortunate duel with Button Gwin- nett, in which the latter fell, induced General Melntosh to seek an assign- ment to service in another field, and Colonel Elbert succeeded him at the head of the Georgia troops. However, General MeIntosh returned to Georgia in the course of time to aid in the recapture of Savannah, and was second in command to General Lincoln. Ile achieved marked dis- tinetion in the Revolution, especially under General Washington, but at home he was unfortunately the vietim of divided sentiment, though an impartial sifting of the evidenee shows that he was not the party at fault. Colonel Elbert was made brigadier-general at the battle of Briar Creek. Though the engagement was disastrous to the Americans, due largely to the strategie blunders of General Ashe, it brought honors to the brave Georgian, every member of whose command was either killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Just before the fall of Savannah, Colonel Elbert urged General Howe to fortify Brewton Hill; but the command- ing officer overruled the suggestion, and, sad to relate, Brewton Hill, in grim confirmation of the Georgian's foresight, furnished the precise spot on which the British troops landed. In 1785 General Elbert was made governor.
But the fortunes of war were destined to bring other Georgians to the front. Gen. James Sereven, who was killed at the battle of Midway Church, was an able officer, to whose memory the United States Congress voted a monument, but the shaft was long delayed. Gen. Elijah Clarke* was an illiterate man who lived on the northern frontier of the state; but he was an unterrified dealer in buckshot. He waged relent- less warfare against the Tories, and at the battle of Kettle Creek he is eredited with the victory which overcame the noted ringleader of the band, Colonel Boyd. Subsequently, when Augusta fell for the second time into the hands of the British, he conducted the defenseless wives and children of the Broad River region to an asylum of safety in Ken- tueky ; and the effort of Cornwallis to thwart him gave rise to the battle of King's Mountain. His son John, who afterwards became governor of Georgia, participated in some of the border campaigns, though at the time only an immature youth. Gen. John Twiggs was another distin- guished soldier of the Revolution, whose services the state will always remember. Like General Clarke, he, too, lived on the upper frontier near Augusta, but he was an accomplished man, refined and polished, though largely self-educated. He married a sister of David Emanuel; and, coming to Georgia from Maryland some time before the Revolu- tion, he was not long in winning the spurs of knighthood. He fought few engagements in which he was not successful; and in this respect was perhaps unequaled by any Georgian. Indeed, he is said to have been the nightmare of the dreaded Tarleton. Gen. David E. Twiggs was his son, and Judge H. D. D. Twiggs, of Savannah, is one of his descendants. Both General Clarke and General Twiggs distinguished themselves after the Revolution in campaigns against the Indians.
* Though General Clarke was an illiterate man, the county which includes the classic city of Athens with the State University and the Lucy Cobb Institute, and which is therefore the Georgia Attica, bears the name of the rustic rifleman.
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Maj. James Jackson first came to the front at the battle of Cowpens. During the last years of the war he commanded an independent legion similar to the partisan bands which were led by General Clarke and General Twiggs; and he aided in the recapture of the two principal strongholds of the state: Augusta and Savannah. In 1780 he met Lieutenant-Governor Wells on the field of honor, inflieting mortal wounds, but receiving no serious hurt; and at the siege of Augusta he barely escaped assassination at the hands of an insubordinate British deserter who belonged to the legion. Perhaps not one of the Revolution- ary patriots experienced more hairbreadth escapes that the adventurous young offieer who was destined to attain to the very highest eivie honors, and to link an already glorious name with the expurgation of the Yazoo fraud.
Like the heroes of faith, the brave men who illustrated Georgia in the dark days of the Revolution are too numerous even to be catalogued ; but, among the gallant host of true and tried Georgians whose names appear on the bloody scroll are: Col. John Dooly, Col. Thomas Dooly, Maj. John Berrien, Col. William Glascock, Capt. John Baker, Ignatius and Benjamin Few, Stephen Heard, Thomas Glaseock, John MeIntosh and David Emanuel.
It is only fair to the martial prowess of the brave troops who guarded the home soil to say that Georgia, in the fore part of the struggle for independence, was the victim of incompetent generalship on the part of the commanding officers who were put in charge of the Southern depart- ment. To possess St. Augustine had been Georgia's darling ambition since the first outbreak of hostilities. The Florida border had always been a thorn in the side of the colony; and, between the outlaws and the savages, it was destined to furnish additional complications. In the hands of the English, St. Augustine proved an almost invincible base of operations, but the town could easily have been taken by an early assault. Gen. Charles Lee recognized the strategie importance of pos- sessing St. Augustine, but he was called to New York before the eam- paign could be undertaken. General Howe sent an expedition against the stronghold, but it was wholly inadequate and disaster followed. General Howe also committed fatal blunders in the defense of Savannah, which was both defectively and insufficiently garrisoned ; and he barely escaped being courtmartialed for the slaughterhouse tragedy which opened the sea-gates of Georgia to the British invaders and inaugurated the bloody earnival whose butcheries were to redden the farthest hills. Of course, Georgia will always be grateful to Gen. Benjamin Lineoln for the gallant defense which he made of the state, especially in the ever- memorable siege of Savannah, in which Count Pulaski and Sergeant Jasper fell mortally wounded. But he was largely to blame for the igno- minious defeat of General Ashe at Briar Creek, and it was not until Gen. Nathanael Greene was put in charge of the Southern department that the British were finally expelled from Georgia soil. He sent Gen. Light-Horse Harry Lee and Gen. Andrew Piekens to aid Clarke and Twiggs and Jackson in the recapture of Augusta, and Gen. Anthony Wayne to take charge of the operations around Savannah. They came in good time to the relief of the well-nigh drenched and exhausted state whose overpowered defenders were still bravely fighting the combined
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Tories and Blueeoats ; and they rendered efficient serviee to Georgia, for which they received due recognition. In the final capitulation of Savan- nah, Maj. John Habersham bore the negotiations and Gen. James Jack- son was deputed to receive the keys of the city.
Not long after the adjournment of the famous convention, Governor Wright was arrested and imprisoned in the executive mansion by the same daring party of volunteers who had broken into the powder maga- zine in the early summer. In spite of the most vigilant effort to eapture the raiders, Governor Wright was himself captured by the very patri- ots whose punishment he sought. Walking up to the surprised viear of royalty, who was surrounded at the time by several members of the king's couneil, Maj. Joseph Habersham, the leader of the patriotie posse, quietly said :
"Sir James, you are under arrest."
Taken wholly unawares, Sir James was probably for the first time in his life bereft of the king's English. But he soon found himself at the same moment quite as helplessly abandoned by the king's couneil. For, the sage advisers of the administration, applying the prudent max- ims of wisdom to the practical ends of self-preservation, happened to remember that they had pressing engagements elsewhere in Savannah, and, without eeremonious adieus, left Sir James to entertain the unan- nounced arrivals.
Supposing that Major Habersham was heavily supported by military re-enforcements in the background, the royal governor offered no resist- ance to the interesting program arranged by the eaptors. The fortunes of war had converted the executive mansion into the colonial bastile. But, luckily for Sir James, he subsequently eseaped and took passage for England, leaving Georgia to work out her own salvation, which she proceeded to do with orthodox zeal.
However, on the fall of Savannah into the hands of the British, in 1778, Sir James reerossed the Atlantic and resumed onee more the reins of government. The first aet of the returning chief magistrate was to offer amnesty to all who were willing to renounce the Whig eause; and the temporary sueeess of the Redeoats resulted in the manufacture of Tories in wholesale quantities. At one time when the state was com- pletely overrun by the British, it looked as if the flag of England was again to become the imperial guardian of Georgia soil, but gradually the fortunes of war restrieted ineh by ineh the domain of the royal governor until he found himself onee more impaled within the boundaries of Savannah. In vain he summoned the Rump Parliaments and issued the executive ediets to punish the rebellious subjects of King George. The shadow of Yorktown was beginning to fall aeross the royal arms.
Towards the last, disasters multiplied thiek and fast about the old vieegerent, whose splendid estates one by one fell into the hands of the Amerieans, and whose numerous official titles heeame at last the grim- mest of mockeries. He could see from his open window the smoke of his burning barns. He could feel the tightening cordon. He could hear the approaching tramp of the victorious eohorts. But he hore himself like one of the prinees of the blood, and Georgians in unaffeeted admira- tion for Sir James eannot fail to be proud of the fact that the name of the colony is indissolubly associated with the name of the English noble- Vol. 1-18
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man who, amid the direst perils of the Revolution, was so unflinchingly steadfast in his allegiance to the House of Brunswick.
Georgia's delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence were: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall and George Walton. This event took place in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. But such were the primitive means of communication in colonial times that it was not until August 10, 1776, that Georgia was apprised, either by official report or by oral rumor, of what had taken place in Philadelphia. On the day in ques- tion, a copy of the Declaration of Independence was brought to Savan- nah by a courier mounted on horseback, who also bore a letter from John Hancock. Without delay Archibald Bulloch convened the execu- tive council and in formal session read the glorious document which severed the last links between the Crown and the colonies. It was not inappropriate that the old patriot who, on July 4, 1775, had called Geor- gia's first secession convention to order should have been accorded this high honor.
Together with the executive council, he then repaired to the public square and read the document again to the assembled populace of Savan- nah. It was received with acclamations of great enthusiasm. But still again the document was read, ere the sun intoxicated by the musical accents lit the western horizon into sympathetic flames. This time it was read to the Georgia battalion at the Liberty Pole in front of Tondee's Tavern, the historic rendezvous of the patriots. It fired the hearts and steeled the nerves of the soldier boys, who were soon to make the lusty echoes ring on the battlefield. At the command of Colonel McIntosh thirteen volleys were fired indicative of the fair sisterhood of sovereign states which comprised the Continental Union. Later in the day the tables were spread in the open air and the dignitaries dined under the cedars.
But the final ceremonies took place after nightfall, when the bonfires were kindled and the mortal ashes of King George were consigned in effigy to the dust. The red glare of the torch, the sharp flash of the bayonets and the struggling moonbeams' misty light, recalled the burial of Sir John Moore. It was an evening never to be forgotten. But Archi- bald Bulloch soon fell asleep ; and the Declaration of Independence sealed the lips of the old patriot who presided over Georgia's first secession convention.
GEORGIA'S FIRST SECESSION CONVENTION .- " Memorable in the political annals of the colony were the proceedings of the Provincial Congress, which assembled at Savannah on the 4th of July, 1775. Every parish was represented, and the delegates were fitting exponents of the intelligence, the dominant hopes, and the material interests of the communities from which they respectively came. This was Georgia's first secession convention. It placed the province in active sympathy and confederated alliance with the other twelve American colonies, practically annulled within her limits the operation of the obnoxious acts of Parliament, questioned the supremacy of the realm, and inaugurated measures calculated to accomplish the independence of the plantation and its erection into the dignity of Statehood."
The following members submitted credentials and came together at Tondee's Long Room :
Town and District of Savannah .- Archibald Bulloch, Noble Wymberley Jones,
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Joseph Habersham, Jonathan Bryan, Ambrose Wright, William Young, John Glen, Samuel Elbert, John Houstoun, Oliver Bowen, John MeClure, Edward Telfair, Thomas Lee, George Houstoun, Joseph Reynolds, John Smith, William Ewen, John Martin, Doctor Zubly, William Bryan, Philip Box, Philip Allman, William O'Bryan, Joseph Clay, Seth John Cuthbert.
District of Vernonburgh .- Joseph Butler [declined to take his seat], Andrew Elton Wells, Matthew Roche, Jr.
District of Acton .- David Zubly, Basil Cowper, William Gibbons.
Sea Island District .- Colonel Deveaugh, Colonel Delegall, James Bulloch, John Morel, John Bohun Girardeau, John Barnard, Robert Gibson.
District of Little Ogeechee .- Francis Henry Harris, Joseph Gibbons, James Rob- ertson [declined to take his seat ].
Parish of St. Matthew .- John Stirk, John Adam Treutlen, George Walton, Edward Jones, Jacob Wauldhauer, Philip Howell, Isaac Young, Jenkin Davis, John Morel, John Flert, Charles MeCay, Christopher Cramer.
Parish of St. Philip .- Colonel Butler, William LeConte, William Maxwell, James Maxwell, Stephen Drayton, Adam Fowler Brisbane, Luke Mann, Hugh Bryan.
Parish of St. George .- Henry Jones, John Green, Thomas Burton, William Lord, David Lewis, James Pugh, John Fulton.
Parish of St. Andrew .- Jonathan Cochran, William Jones, Peter Tarlin, Lachlan MeIntosh, William MeIntosh, George Threadcraft, John Wereat, Roderick MeIntosh, John Witherspoon, George McIntosh, Allan Stewart, John MeIntosh, Raymond Demere.
Parish of St. David .- John Cuthbert Seth, William Williams, Sr.
Parish of St. Mary .- Daniel Ryan.
Parish of St. Thomas .- John Roberts.
Parish of St. Paul .- John Walton, Joseph Maddock [declined to take his seat], Andrew Burns, Robert Rae, James Rae, Andrew Moore, Andrew Burney, Leonard Marbury .- "Georgia's Laudmarks, Memorials and Legends," by L. L. Knight, Vol. II.
GUNPOWDER FOR BUNKER HILL .- Perhaps it may have been too small an item for the historians of New England to chronicle, but the State of Georgia made a con- tribution to the battle of Bunker Hill * which was deemed to be of very great value at the time to the cause of independence and which undoubtedly influenced in no slight degree the subsequent fortunes of the Revolution. On the 10th of May, 1775, there came to Savannah, by special conrier, the first tidings of the battle of Lexing- ton. It stirred the patriots to the highest pitch of excitement, and some of the bolder spirits of the colony hastily devised a plan of action which was destined to startle the royal Governor. Near the eastern extremity of the town was the maga- zine. It was built of brick and buried some twelve feet under ground. Within this subterranean vault there were large supplies of ammunition, which Governor Wright deemed it unnecessary to protect because of the substantial character of the struc- ture. But he little suspected the resourcefulness of the Revolutionists.
Though Georgia was still nominally within the British allegiance, the necessity of securing the contents of this magazine for future operations became urgent; and Dr. Noble Wymberley Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair, William Gibbons, Joseph Clay, John Milledge and several others, most of whom were members of the Council of Safety, organized themselves into a band and at a late hour on the next evening broke into the magazine and removed therefrom about 600 pounds of gun- powder. Governor Wright soon caught wind of the affair and issued a proclamation offer- ing £150 sterling for the arrest of the offenders; but the raiders were not betrayed. Some of the gunpowder was sent to Beaufort, S. C., for safe-keeping; and the rest was concealed in the garrets and cellars of the houses of the captors; but some of it was later on sent to Boston, where, in the battle of Bunker Hill, it illuminated the opening drama of hostilities .- Ibid., Vol. II.
GEORGIA COMMISSIONS THE FIRST WARSHIP .- Another gunpowder incident is well authenticated. On the 4th of July, 1775, the Provincial Congress met in Savannah
* "History of Georgia," by Wm. B. Stevens, Vol. II. "History of Georgia," by Chas. C. Jones, Jr., Vol. II.
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to sever the tie of allegiance between the colony and the Crown; and, after choosing delegates to the Continental Congress, in Philadelphia, the next step was to fortify the state against assault by providing the necessary sinews of war. To this end a schooner was commissioned and put in charge of two stout patriots, Oliver Bowen and Joseph Habersham, who, it appears from subsequent events, were already in possession of information which promised to yield substantial results.
This Stone is placed by Fraternal affection, to the Memory of Commodore OLIVER BOWEN a Native of the State of Rhode Ifland where he fprang from an honourable Stock He departed this Life July the 11thA.D 1800. in the 59'1 Year of his Age.
A Patriot of 1775- he was among the firft in this State who fteped forth in Vindication of our Rights His life equally with his property were often rifqued in the Caufe.
His Widow his Relations and his many Friends. will ever regret the departure of the Benevolent and Honeft Man
COMMODORE OLIVER BOWEN'S GRAVE SLAB
Notified of the fact that a ship was en route to Georgia, having on board a supply of powder for the use of the Royalists, the Committee of Safety, at Charles- ton, South Carolina, resolved to capture the vessel. Accordingly forty men were selected for the hazardons enterprise; and, embarking in two barges, they proceeded to the mouth of the Savannah River and encamped on Bloody Point, in full view of Tybee Island. Whether directly or indirectly, word reached Savannah of what was in the air, and the Provincial Congress decided to reinforce the South Carolinians and to
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participate in the haul. The Georgia schooner took a position beyond the bars and some distance in advance of the two barges, where it quietly lay in wait. On the fifth day, a vessel was sighted above the horizon. It proved to be Captain Maitland's ship, with the powder on board, for which the patriots were looking, but the captain, observing the Georgia schooner, suspected at once some evil design, and, without trying to enter the river, he turned around and put back to sea. Instantly Captain Bowen started in pursuit. He was an experienced sailor, the schooner was eom- paratively light, and, under his skillful manipulation, it ent the waters like an arrow. The fugitive vessel was soon overtaken; and, with the help of the South Carolinians, the military stores on board were seized.
Georgia's share of the prize was 9,000 pounds of powder, a quantity which was none too large for her needs, in view of her exposed water front; but, importuned by the Continental Congress, she sent over half of the amount to Philadelphia to meet the needs of the northern colonies and to be distributed among the embryo armies which were then being organized to protect them. It has often been said to the disparagment of Georgia that she was the last of the original thirteen colonies to lower the English flag. But she was the youngest member of the sisterhood; she was in need of the mother country's protection against threatened troubles with the Indians; she possessed an excellent chief-magistrate in Governor Wright, and she bore the favorite name of the House of Brunswiek. There was much to justify her in holding back until the last moment. But, having espoused the cause of freedom, it was in no sulky mood that she entered the struggle; and Georgia must be eredited with the first capture made by the first vessel commissioned for naval warfare in the Revolution.
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