USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II > Part 16
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Such, in brief, were the specifications upon which the town was built. It commanded the rice crops from the adjacent swamps, together with large supplies of indigo from Bermuda Island. The principal trade was with the West Indies and with the Northern colonies. On being made a port of entry, Thomas Carr was appointed col- lector, John Martin, naval officer, and Francis Lee, searcher. The growth of the town was rapid. Schemes for public improvement were projected on quite an im- pressive scale, and it was proposed, among other things, to construct a canal through the marshes to Colonel's Island. But the dream dissolved into thin air with the . outbreak of hostilities; and, after the struggle for inde-
*History of Georgia, Edition of 1909, Vol. 1, p. 177.
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pendence was over, Sunbury seems to have declined in commercial importance and to have become more of an educational centre-in which respect it continued for years to enjoy an undisputed leadership.
1
According to tradition, the first Masonic lodge ever organized in Georgia was instituted under an old oak tree at Sunbury by Oglethorpe himself. It was more than twenty years before the town was located at this point, and when the founder of the colony was reconnoitering along the southern coast. The Society of St. George, now the Union Society, of Savannah, is said to have held a meeting under the same tree, by virtue of which its char- ter was saved, and the incident caused the old landmark to be designated in after years as the Charter Oak. It was during the troublous days of the Revolution; and, among the prisoners of war brought to Sunbury were Mordecai Sheftall, John Martin, John Stirk and Josiah Powell, all of whom were members. The charter of the organization provided for its own forfeiture, in the event meetings were not held annually; and here, under the walls of Fort Morris, in order to save the charter from extinction, these prisoners of war met and elected officers, and thus one of the noblest organizations of the State was spared for future usefulness. Today, the Union Society is the legatee and guardian of Whitefield's Orphan Home, at Bethesda. In the family of the Shef- talls a piece of the old oak tree is still preserved.
It was at Sunbury that some of the most noted men in the Colony of Georgia resided. Here lived Dr. Lyman Hall, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Georgia, a Governor of the State, and a patriot who, single and alone, represented the Parish of St. John in the Continental Congress, at Philadelphia, before the
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Province at large could be induced to join the federation. Here Button Gwinnett, another patriot whose name is on the immortal scroll of freedom, spent most of his time officially, while a Justice of the Peace for St. John's Parish, though he resided on St. Catharine's Island. Here George Walton, the last member of the illustrious trio who represented Georgia, was brought a prisoner of war, upon the fall of Savannah; and here he remained for months until the wound which he received in defence of the city was healed and his exchange was negotiated. Both Walton and Gwinnett were also Chief Magistrates of the Commonwealth.
There also lived here Richard Howley and Nathan Brownson, both Governors; John Elliott and Alfred Cuthbert, both United States Senators, and John A. Cuthbert, a Member of Congress. Here also was the home of Major John Jones, who was killed by a cannon- ball, at the siege of Savannah; and here John E. Ward, the first Minister to China, was born. Commodore Me- Intosh, his sister, Maria J. McIntosh, the famous novel- ist, Judge William E. Law and many others of note, were also natives of Sunbury. On February 1, 1797, the town having commenced to decline, the county seat was changed to Riceboro, a point which was nearer the centre of population. Two hurricanes, one in 1804 and one in 1824, hastened the final hour of doom for the once popu- lous seaport; malarial disorders multiplied amid the wreckage, and, in 1829, Sherwood gave the town a pop- ulation of only one hundred and fifty inhabitants. Twen- ty years later it was completely extinct.
CHAPTER XX
Fort Morris : The Last to Lower the Colonial Flag
0 CCUPYING an eminence somewhat to the south of old Sunbury, on lands belonging to the Calder estate, are still to be seen the ruins of the old, stronghold which played such an important part in the drama of independence: Fort Morris. Large trees are today growing upon the parapets. Even the foot- paths which lead to it, through the dense thickets, are obscured by an undergrowth of weeds and briars, be- speaking the desolation which for more than a century has brooded over the abandoned earth-works. But the massive embankments of the old fort can still be dis- tinctly traced. It commands the entrance to the Midway River, from which, however, both the sails of commerce and the ironclads of war have long since vanished.
To one who is in any wise familiar with' the history of the Revolution in Georgia, it is pathetic to witness the wreckage which time has here wrought; but the splendid memories which cluster about the precincts, like an ever- green mantle of ivy, are sufficient to fire the dullest imagination. There is little hope for the Georgian who can stand unmoved upon these heroic heights. It was here that General Charles Lee assembled his forces for the expedition into Florida. It was here that Colonel Samuel Elbert, under executive orders from Button Gwinnett, embarked his troops for the assault upon St. Augustine. It was here that Colonel John McIntosh, refusing to surrender the fort to an overwhelming force
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of the enemy, sent to the British commander his defiant message : "Come and take it !"
But what invests the old fort with the greatest in- terest perhaps is the fact that when the State of Geor- gia was overrun by the British, consequent upon the fall of Savannah, it was the very last spot on Georgia soil where the old Colonial flag was still unfurled. Even an order from General Howe, directing an abandonment of the stronghold, was disregarded by the gallant officer in command, who preferred to accept the gage of battle. It was not until beleaguered and stormed and overrun by superior numbers that it finally yielded to the terrific onslaught; and the next memorial erected by the patri- otic women of Georgia should be planted upon these brave heights to tell the world that when Savannah and Augusta were both in the power of the British there was still waving from the ramparts of the old fort at Sun- bury the defiant folds of an unconquered banner.
According to the Midway records, it was as early as 1756 that a number of the residents of the district, at the suggestion of Jonathan Bryan, one of the members of his Majesty's Council of Safety, began to take steps looking to the erection of a fort at some point in the im- inediate neighborhood along the exposed coast. It also appears that batteries were erected on which eight can- non were mounted and that when Governor Ellis made his tour of inspection in 1758 he was pleased to find the work completed, in connection with the fortifications around Midway Church. But whether reference is here made to the historic stronghold is uncertain. The need of adequate protection at this strategic point, which guards the approach to the Midway settlement, must have been apparent from the start. The rumor of an Indian invasion reached the settlers soon after arriving in Geor- gia, only to be succeeded by the dread of French priva- teers; and there was constant danger due to an unfor-
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tified ocean front. It is safely within the bounds of his- toric inference to state that the famous earthworks must have been constructed at some time prior to the Revo- lution. There was probably at least an excellent begin- ning made for the future stronghold on this identical spot.
At any rate, the structure which came to be Fort Morris was erected chiefly by the residents of Bermuda, now Colonel's, Island, who, in building it, employed al- most exclusively the labor of slaves. It was called Fort Morris, in honor of the captain who here commanded a company of Continental artillery raised for coast de- fence, on the eve of hostilities with England. The old fort was located about three hundred and fifty feet out- side the southern limits of Sunbury, at the bend of the river. Though an earthwork, it was most substantially built and enclosed fully an acre of ground. It was two hundred and seventy-five feet in length on the water front. The two sides were somewhat irregular in shape and were respectively one hundred and ninety-one and one hundred and forty feet in length. The rear wall was two hundred and forty feet in length. The parapets were ten feet wide and rose six feet above the parade of the fort, while the superior slope of the embankment toward the river was twenty-five feet above high water. There were seven embrasures, each about five feet wide. Surrounding the pile was a moat ten feet wide at the bottom and twenty feet wide at the top. The sally port was in the rear or western wall.
Says Dr. Stacy : "The guns have all been removed. One was carried to Hinesville when the place was first laid off sixty years ago, and has been often and long used on Fourth of July and other public occasions and may still be seen there in the court-house yard. Two of them were carried to Riceboro during the late war between the States, but no use was made of them. Two more were taken by Captain Lamar and, after being used as signal guns at Sunbury, were transported to
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Fort Bartow at Savannah and fell into the hands of the Federals. Two more were left lying half buried in the soil of the parade ground, and still another in the old field half way between the fort and the site of the town. These have all since been removed. At least the writer did not see them when he visited the spot. One of the two carried to Riceboro was removed by- the late Colonel Charles C. Jones in 1880 to his home on the Sand Hills near Augusta, and now adorns the lawn in front of the residence which has passed into the hands of his son, Charles Edgeworth Jones. Like the one at Hinesville, it is undoubtedly genuine: one of the number which took part in the defence of Georgia soil in Revolutionary time."*
During the War of 1812, the famous old fortification at Sunbury was remodeled by the local Committee of Safety and called Fort Defence, but the name soon passed. Captain John A. Cuthbert organized a company of citizens, some forty in number, while Captain Charles Floyd commanded a body of students, in readiness for an attack. But the enemy failed to appear.
*James Stacy, in History of Midway Congregational Church, pp. 232-238; Charles C. Jones, Jr., in Chapter on Sunbury, in Dead Towns of Georgia.
CHAPTER XXI
New Inverness: The Story of the Scotch Highlanders
O N the, banks of the Altamaha River, twelve miles above St. Simon's Island, on the site today occu- pied by the town of Darien, was planted the ear- liest Scotch settlement in Georgia. There was need of an outpost at this point. The Spaniards to the south were very unpleasant neighbors, and the clouds of war were beginning to gather upon the horizon. The trained eye of Oglethorpe perceived the need of fortifications with which to repel an expected invasion. But he also realized the need of stout arms and brave hearts with which to man these defences; and in casting about for colonists of sturdy mettle his gaze was attracted to the
little country north of the Tweed. He invited the High- landers to come to Georgia. It was a day dark with fate for hundreds of these plucky men of the mountains when they agreed to accept. Few of them escaped the peril- ous scourge of war, which almost completely obliterated the hamlet in which they settled; but they proved them- selves in the ordeal of battle to be worthy countrymen of Robert Bruce. They saved the day for Georgia, and they enriched with fresh traditions of valor the bonnie blue flag of Scotland.
But the tragic story must not be anticipated. At the earnest request of the Trustees of Georgia, whose prayer was supplemented by an appeal from South Carolina, the sum of 26,000 pounds sterling was appropriated by the
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English Parliament for the purpose of safeguarding the exposed frontier. The treasury thus replenished, an ef- fort was made by the Trustees to secure settlers for the new outposts in the danger-infested wilderness. They is- sued a commission to Captain Hugh Mackay, then a lieu- tenant, who was authorized to gather recruits among the Highlands. The well-known Jacobite sympathies of Oglethorpe were doubtless instrumental in arousing wide- spread interest in the proposed scheme of colonization.
There was no attempt made to overpaint the charms or conceal the hazards of life in Georgia. The situation of affairs was well understood. But the rugged moun- taineers were inured to hardships; and to men who touched elbows with peril every day of the world and who took little counsel of fear there was an element of zest added to the prospect of adventure in an unknown world. John Mohr McIntosh, a chief of one of the most powerful clans of Scotland, whose support of the Pretender cost him the forfeiture of his estates, was one of the first to enlist; and he induced many of his kindred to accom- pany him. Not less than one hundred and thirty High- landers, with fifty women and children, were enrolled at Inverness; and these, together with some who held spe- cial grants and who went without expense to the Trust- tees, sailed from Inverness, October 18, 1735, on board the Prince of Wales, commanded by Captain George Dunbar.
Three months were consumed by the voyage. They carried a clergyman, the Rev. John McLeod, a native of the Isle of Syke, to minister to them in sacred things, and he became the pioneer evangel of Presbyterianism in Georgia. Most of the emigrants were soldiers; but some of them, like the Cuthberts, the Bailies, the Mac- kays, and the Dunbars, went in the capacity of free- holders. They were accompanied by servants and were possessed of titles to large tracts of land.
In due season, the vessel entered the mouth of the Savannahi River; and the new arrivals, after a period of
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rest spent in the village to which they were given a cor- dial welcome by the inhabitants, were transported in rude canoes through the various inlets and up the Alta- maha River, to the appointed place of settlement selected. by Oglethorpe. The alluvial bottoms of the low-lying region which they reached at length bore little resem- blance to the hills of heather which they left behind them; and the homesick Highlanders must have experi- enced a chill of disappointment when they disembarked upon the monotonous stretch of level ground on which they were henceforthi to dwell.
But they wasted no time in vain regrets. At a point which was best adapted to defensive purposes, they at once erected a fort, mounted four pieces of cannon, built a guard-house, a store, and a chapel, and constructed huts for temporary accommodation, preparatory to erect- ing more substantial structures. Dressed in plaids and equipped with broad-swords, targets, and firearms, the Scotch soldiers presented quite a unique and novel ap- pearance on this remote belt of the savage wilderness, separated by three thousand miles of water from the familiar highlands which now smiled upon them only in the sad retrospect of the past. In honor of the town from which they sailed they gave to the young settlement the name of New Inverness, while to the military post and to the outlying district they gave the name of Darien.
To the colony of Oglethorpe, the arrival of these sturdy Highlanders proved an important acquisition. They were more than mere sinews of war. They were representatives of the thriftiest and best elements of the Scotch population. They brought with them the highest ideals of citizenship and the profoundest reverence for divine truth. Says Dr. Stevens :* "They were not reck-
*History of Georgia, by Wm. Bacon Stevens, Vol. I, pp. 126-127, New York, 1847.
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less adventurers or reduced emigrants, volunteering through necessity or exiled by insolvency and want. In fact, they were picked men. They were commanded by officers most respectably connected in the Highlands, and the descendants of some of them have held and still hold high offices of honor and trust in the United Kingdom."
According to Colonel Jones, the Scotch emigrants, while in Savannah, were told by some Carolinians that they were foolish to interpose themselves between Sa- vannah and Florida, that it was perilous in the extreme thus to court danger on the frontier, and that the Span- iards, from the secure forts in which they dwelt on the border, would shoot them upon the very spot which they were expected to defend. But the Scotch Highlanders were in no wise intimidated, and they replied by saying that they would beat the Spaniards out of the forts which they occupied and would thus find houses ready built in which to live. Such an answer was well in keeping with the record which they were destined to make as courageous fighters. It was full of the spirit of Ban- nockburn, and to men like John Mohr McIntosh, Captain Hugh Mackay, Ensign Charles Mackay, Colonel John McIntosh, General Lachlan McIntosh and others of the same heroic stock, Georgia, both as a Colony and as a State, owes a debt of gratitude which time cannot dimin- ish.
At an early date, Captain Hugh Mackay, with the as- sistance of Indian guides furnished by Tomo-chi-chi, located a road between New Inverness and Savannah, and the same route is today followed by the splendid highway which runs between Savannah and Darien. The town which was settled by the Highlanders began to prosper. It was beautifully situated on a bluff of the river, in a grove of wide-spreading live oaks, while around it for miles stretched the level forests of Georgia. In after years it was destined to become an important com- mercial seaport; but before this time arrived it was fated to suffer almost complete annihilation. The High-
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landers at New Inverness were the chief dependence of Oglethorpe in the Spanish hostilities which ensued; and while they saved Georgia from destruction, it was at grim cost to themselves.
Most of the gallant band were either killed in battle or taken prisoners. The greatest fatalities occurred during the disastrous assault upon St. Augustine. It seems that Colonel Palmer, who commanded a force of Highlanders at the time of the seige, disregarded the in- structions of Oglethorpe, only to be surprised by the enemy at Fort Moosa, with tragic results. The High- landers fought like tigers, but fell in great numbers. Those who survived were afterwards permitted to taste the sweets of victory when the Spanish power was over- thrown at the battle of Bloody Marsh. But the remnant was pathetically small, some moved to other localities, and the little town of New Inverness finally passed into other hands, to emerge eventually into the modern city of Darien .*
*Charles C. Jones, Jr., in History of Georgia, Vol. I; Stories of Georgia, by J. Harris Chappell, Chapter V; Stevens, McCall, Evans, Smith, etc.
CHAPTER XXII
The Acadians in Georgia
T HERE is nothing sadder in the Colonial annals of America than the story of the unfortunate Aca- dians : the original French settlers of Nova Scotia, some of whom sought refuge in Georgia when driven out of Canada by the cruel edict of the English. These Aca- dians called the country in which they settled Acadie. It was a bleak region, in the cold latitudes of the far North, but to them it was home, and by industrious cul- tivation they gave to it many of the charms of beauty. But, in 1713, under the treaty of Utrecht, the Acadians were forced, after various wars and changes, to relin- quish these lands to the Crown of England; and, though speaking the French language and professing the Cath- olic faith, they were required at its cession to Great Brit- ain to take the oath of allegiance to the English monarch. It was a harsh exaction. But the Acadians consented to take this oath, provided they were not required to sever relations with friendly Indian allies or to take up arms against France. The Governor acquiescing in this pro- viso, the oath was registered in due form; but the action of the local authorities was overruled by the court, a decision of which required an unconditional oath or im- mediate expatriation. The Acadians refused to comply with these demands, but, as a body, maintained a neutral position; and, thus matters remained unsettled until 1755, when radical measures were adopted.
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Bishop Stevens* has given us a graphic picture of these Acadians. Says he: "They were an agricultural and pastoral people-tilled the lands with great art and industry-reared large flocks and herds-dwelt in neat and convenient houses-subsisted upon the varied stores gathered from sea and land, and, with few wants and no money, lived in peace and harmony under the mild juris- diction of elders and pastors. The Abbe Raynal has de- scribed them in terms too eulogistic for human nature, representing a state of social happiness more consonant with the license of poetry than with the fidelity of truth. It cannot be denied, however, that they presented a pic- ture, full of charming scenes and lovely portraits, simple manners, guileless lives, scrupulous integrity and calm devotion. But the eye of English envy was upon them. The uprooting of this people was entrusted to Lieuten- ant-Colonel Winslow, commanding the Massachusetts forces, a gentleman of great moral and military worth, whose strict ideas of obedience alone induced him to consent to undertake the task.
"By a proclamation, so artfully framed that its de- sign could not be discovered, yet requiring compliance by penalties so severe as prevented any absence, the at- tendance of the male Acadians was required at a speci- fied time and in a specified place. At Grand Pre, where Colonel Winslow commanded, over four hundred men met on the appointed day, September 5, 1755, at 3 p. m., in the village church, when, going into their midst, he revealed to their astonished ears, the startling resolutions of the Governor and Council. The late happy, but now wretched, inhabitants, eighteen thousand in number, were appalled by the magnitude of the calamity which thus suddenly burst upon them. No language can describe their woes : turned out of their dwellings, bereft of their stock, stripped of their entire possessions, the bright hopes of the future blasted in a single hour, the labor of years wrested from them by a single effort, and torn
*Wm. Bacon Stevens, M. D., D. D., in History of Georgia, Vol. I.
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from each and every association which binds the heart to its native fields, they were declared prisoners, though guiltless of any crime, and were destined to expatriation only because English blood flowed not in their veins and English speech did not dwell upon their lips. To make it impossible for them to remain, their houses were burnt down, their fields laid waste, their improvements de- stroyed-everything in one general conflagration.
"Forced to embark at the point of the bayonet, crowded into small vessels, provided with neither com- forts nor necessaries, broken up as a community into many fragments-wives separated from husbands-chil- dren from parents-brothers from sisters-they were stored on board like a cargo of slaves, and guarded like the felons of a convict ship. Thus they were hurried away and scattered like leaves by the ruthless winds of autumn, from Massachusetts to Georgia, among those who hated their religion, detested their country, derided their man- ners, and mocked at their language. This was English policy, outraging English humanity. It was an act, blend- ing fraud, robbery, arson, slavery and death, such as his- tory can scarcely equal. English philanthropy planted Georgia; English inhumanity uprooted the Acadians. How can we reconcile the two? The one was prompted by the mild spirit of peace ; the other by the stern councils of war. It was a detachment of this persecuted people whose arrival in Savannah recalled Governor Reynolds from Augusta to the seat of government.
"But what could the Governor do with such a body of strangers? It was one of the express conditions upon which Georgia was settled, that no Papist should be per- mitted in it; yet here were four hundred in one body, set down in its midst. It was also of the greatest importance to break up French influence on the frontier, but now nearly half a thousand French were consigned to the weakest and most exposed of all the thirteen colonies. On account of the lateness of the season and the destitute condition of the exiles, they were distributed in small
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