USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume II > Part 24
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Colonel McIntosh, with three hundred men, at once proceeded to Yamacraw Bluff where he hastily threw up a breastwork and posted three four-pounder guns bearing upon the shipping. Before opening fire, Lieutenant Daniel Roberts, of the St. John's Ran- gers, and Captain Raymond Demere, of St. Andrew's Parish, were dispatched under a flag of truce to demand the release of Rice and his boat's crew. Rowing across the river they boarded the vessel in which Captain Barclay and Major Grant then were. In utter disregard of the flag, Roberts and Demere, although un- armed and on a peaceful mission, were, by command of the British officers, arrested and detained as prisoners.
A half hour having elapsed and the commissioners not return- ing, the vessel was hailed through a speaking-trumpet, and the release of Rice, Roberts, and Demere peremptorily demanded. Insulting replies being received, two four-pounder shots were
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fired at the vessel, when it was answered that if the Americans would send on board two men in whom they most confided the British commander would treat with them. For this purpose Captain Screven, of the St. John's Rangers, and Captain Baker, of the St. Jolin's Riflemen, were detailed. Taking with them twelve men of the St. John's Rangers, they were rowed imme- diately under the stern of the vessel, where they demanded the return of the officers and of Rice. Incensed at an insulting re- mark, Captain Baker fired a shot at some one on board. This was answered by a discharge of swivels and small arms from the vessel which almost sank the boat and wounded one man in it. Screven and Baker retired, the fire upon them being kept up as long as their boat was within range. The battery at Yamacraw Bluff now opened. For the space of about four hours firing was maintained between it and the British troops on the merchant vessels.
The council of safety having convened, it was resolved to set fire to the shipping. Among the volunteers for this service were Captain Bowen, John Morel, Lieutenant James Jackson, Thomas Hamilton, and James Bryan.1 The Inverness, late Captain Mc- Gillivray, loaded with rice and deer-skins, was ignited and turned adrift in the river. " Upon this," writes President Ewen to the council of safety in South Carolina, " the soldiers in the most laughable confusion got ashore in the marsh, while our riflemen, and field-pieces with grape-shot, were incessantly galling them. The shipping was now also in.confusion. Some got up the river under cover of the armed schooner, while others caught the flame and, as night approached, exhibited a scene as they passed and repassed with the tide, which at any but the present time would be truly horrible, but now a subject only of gratitude and ap- plause. The Ships of Captains Inglis 2 and Wardell neither got up the river nor on fire. They were ordered on shore and now are prisoners of Capt" Screven in the country, and their vessels brought down close into a wharf. They were permitted to write to Captain Barclay in the evening to inform him of their situa- tion and to request an exchange of prisoners, which the latter peremptorily refused."
Responding to their promise to furnish aid, the South Carolina Council of Safety sent over one hundred and fifty volunteers from Charlestown, and three hundred and fifty of the country
1 See Charlton's Life of Jackson, Part
I. p. 8. Augusta, Georgia. 1809.
2 It was in his vessel that many of the British soldiers had been received.
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militia, under the command of Colonel Bull, who, arriving at the critical moment, assisted the Georgians in dislodging the enemy. Three of the merchant vessels were burnt, six were dismantled, and two escaped to sea.
Before the British resumed their station at Tybee Roads a detachment of marines went ashore on Skidoway Island to collect stores. It was driven off by a company of militia under the command of Lieutenant Hext. In a skirmish which occurred the same day at Cockspur, Lieutenants Oates and Laroach were killed.1
That the British forces were utterly foiled in their purpose may not be denied, although Governor Wright sought to convey a different impression of the affair. In his letter 2 of the 10th of March, addressed to Lord Dartmouth, he claims that the ex- pedition returned to Tybee Roads " with 14 or 15 merchant ships and vessels of one sort and another, having on board about 1600 barrels of rice." This is unquestionably an exaggeration. He further states that the troops sustained no loss, and that only four sailors were wounded.
Lieutenant Roberts and Messrs. Demere and Rice being still detained as prisoners by the enemy, the Georgia anthorities, as a retaliatory measure, arrested James Edward Powell, Anthony Stokes, Josiah Tattnall, John Mullryne, and such other mem- bers of the king's council as remained in Savannah. Several merchants, and parties peculiarly obnoxious to the "Liberty Boys," were compelled to leave the town. They sought refuge ' in the fleet. After various negotiations, about the 20th of March Messrs. Roberts, Demere, and Rice were released upon condition that the members of council under arrest should be set at liberty, with permission either to remain in Savannah upon parole that they should have " no connection with the King's ships or troops in this Province, and with the understanding that the safety of their persons and property should be secured so far as the same could be protected by the Council of Safety," or with liberty " to go on board the ships at Cockspur and take their apparel, provisions, and anything else they might think necessary for their voyage, if they were disposed to leave the Province."
Governor Wright, the officers of the fleet, and the soldiers were in the habit of going ashore on Tybee Island and utilizing,
1 MeC'all's History of Georgia, vol. ii. Scarborough, at Cockspur, in the river p. 68. Savannah. 1816.
2 Written on board his majesty's ship
Savannah. P. R. O., Am. & W. Ind., vol. cexxxvii.
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HEROISM OF THE GEORGIANS.
for their comfort and enjoyment, the houses there situated. This the council of safety determined to prevent in future by the destruction of those edifices. Accordingly, an expedition, - con- sisting of riflemen, light infantry, volunteers, and a few Creek Indians, - led by Archibald Bulloch, on the 25th of March made a descent upon that island and burned every house except one, in which a sick woman and several children were lying. Two marines from the fleet and a Tory were killed, and one marine and several Tories were captured. Although the Cherokee, man- of-war, and an armed sloop kept up an incessant fire, the party, consisting of about one hundred men, sustained no loss and re- turned safely, having fully executed the prescribed mission.
Apprehending that the British forces would, at an early day, renew the demonstration against Savannah, every effort was ex- pended by the council of safety in fortifying the town and in concentrating troops for its protection. The Rubicon had been passed. Blood had been shed, and resistance to the death offered on the part of Georgians to English dominion. The patriotism displayed by the citizens of Savannah and the manhood exhibited in the defense of their homes cannot be too highly commended. In commenting upon the resolutions of the council of safety, unanimously adopted, which provided that the torch should be applied to Savannah in every direction to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy, so that if its defenders were compelled to abandon the town the victors would become possessed of only a mass of smoking ruins, Captain McCall1 justly observes : " There are many instances of conflagration by order of a mon- arch ' who can do no wrong,' but there are few instances upon record where the patriotism of the citizen has urged him on to the destruction of his own property to prevent its becoming an asylum to the enemies of his country."
The same author intimates, in explanation of the remarkably few casualties sustained during this demonstration against Savan- nah, that the hostile disposition of the opposing parties had not then been fully roused; that some hope was still entertained of an amicable adjustment of the differences existing between Eng- land and America ; and that the inclination was rather to excite alarm by menace than to irritate by the shedding of blood. The suggestion is not without force, and is specially applicable to the conduct of the English troops.2
1 History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 60. Sa- vannah. 1816.
2 For a further account of the incidents connected with this demonstration against
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The forces furnished by South Carolina and present in Savan- nah during this period of alarm numbered about four hundred and fifty men, officers and privates. They were commanded by Colonel Stephen Bull, assisted by Major Bourquin. Some forty of them were posted at Ebenezer as a guard to the public records and surplus powder which had been removed from Savannah to that point as a place of greater security. Various were the de- tachments which composed this little army under Colonel Bull. In his general return, prepared at Savannah on the 15th of March, certified by Thomas Rutledge, adjutant, and- forwarded to Colonel Henry Laurens, then president of the council of safety in Charlestown, the following organizations are enumerated : the Charlestown Volunteers, the Charlestown Rangers, the Charles- town Light Infantry, the Charlestown Fuzileers, the Beaufort Light Infantry, the St. Helena Volunteers, the Euhaw Volun- teers, the Huspa Volunteers, the Light Horse or Pocotaligo Hun- ters, detachments from Oakety Creek, St. Peter's, Black Swamp, Pipe Creek, Boggy-Gut, New Windsor, and Upper Three Runs, and the Beaufort Artillery.1
After the affair of the 2d of March there still remained near the wharves the following vessels which had escaped destruction by fire and capture by the enemy: the ship Unity, Captain Wardell, with 700 barrels of rice on board; the ship Georgia Packet, Captain Inglis, with 500 barrels of rice ; the brigs Amity, freighted with ash and live-oak ; the Rebecca, Captain Ruther- ford, with a cargo of lumber ; the Sorick, Captain Steel, in bal- last ; the Beaufort, Captain Wood, also in ballast ; the Fair Lady, Captain Robertson, with 30 hogsheads of tobacco; and the schooner Race Horse, Captain Burch, in ballast. To prevent all possibility of their departure to sea the council of safety ordered their rigging to be brought ashore, and that their rudders should be "unhung." Colonel Bull was requested to superintend the execution of this order. As it was noised abroad by evil-dis- posed persons that the Carolinians had taken possession of Sa- vannah, Colonel Bull suggested that the matter had better be attended to by Georgia troops, and that he would be near with his command to render assistance in case resistance was offered by the captains and crews of the vessels. Lieutenant-Colonel Stirk, with forty of the Georgia militia, was therefore detailed to
Savannah, seo Drayton's Memoirs of the American Revolution, vol. ii. chap. xiv. Revolution, etc., vol. ii. p. 238. Charles. Charleston. 1821. ton. 1821.
1 Drayton's Memoirs of the American
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DISPOSITION OF GEORGIA FORCES.
dismantle these vessels. This service he performed in a satisfac- tory manner.
All danger of an immediate renewal of the attack by the enemy being now regarded as overpast, and there being no longer any ne- cessity for the retention, on Georgia soil, of the Carolina troops, Colonel Bull departed with his command. Having disbanded it in the lower part of South Carolina, he repaired to Charlestown where he rendered an account to the council of safety of all affairs which had been entrusted to him. Sensible of the valuable aid rendered by this officer and his companions to the colony in a trying hour, the Provincial Congress of Georgia on the 24th of March passed the following resolution : " That the thanks of the Congress be returned to Stephen Bull Esqr. of Sheldon, Colonel of the Granville County regiment of militia, for his important services in command of the Colony forces in Savannah ; and that he be desired to signify their thanks to the officers and men then under his command." 1
Upon the departure of the Carolina troops there remained for the protection of Savannah the Georgia battalion, under the com- mand of Colonel McIntosh, numbering only two hundred and thirty-six men. Of these not more than one hundred were pres- ent for duty. Along the Florida line was distributed a troop of sixty mounted men to prevent cattle stealing. A body of cavalry of like strength guarded the western frontier against the threat- ened invasion of the Indians. For the protection of the sea- coast, permeated with bays and inlets and infested by armed ves- 'sels of light draft, there was not a single ship. Such was the defenseless condition of the province. Evincing no alarm, how- ever, the patriots calmly and energetically organized their gov- ernment, accumulated warlike stores, and placed the militia upon the best possible footing. His excellency Archibald Bulloch, president and commander-in-chief, true to the high trusts con- fided to him, manifested " an ability suited to the occasion," and an "energy adequate to the crisis."
1 This expedition for the relief of Georgia cost the province of South Carolina £6,213 7s. 6d.
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CHAPTER XII.
EFFECT OF THE PROHIBITORY BILL. - EXPEDITION OF CAPTAIN JOHN BAKER AGAINST WRIGHT'S FORT ON THE ST. MARY'S RIVER. - GOVERNOR WRIGHT SAILS FOR ENGLAND. - SIR PETER PARKER'S DEMONSTRATION AGAINST FORT MOULTRIE. - CEREMONIES OBSERVED UPON THE PROMUL- GATION OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN SAVANNAH. --- PRES- IDENT BULLOCH CALLS A CONVENTION OF THE PEOPLE. - DEPREDATIONS OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS. - THEIR TERRITORY INVADED. - THE SAV- AGES ARE COMPELLED TO SUE FOR PEACE. - TREATY CONCLUDED AT DEWIT'S CORNER. - CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE GEORGIA COMMISSIONERS AND GENERAL CHARLES LEE. - THE REDUCTION OF ST. AUGUSTINE RE- SOLVED UPON. - THE EAST FLORIDA EXPEDITION A FAILURE. - THE CON- TINENTAL CONGRESS ASSISTS IN THE DEFENSE OF GEORGIA.
IF anything was needed to unify the inhabitants of Georgia in favor of independence, to consolidate the association of the col- onies, to silence the voices of the disaffected, to stimulate the purposes of the patriotic, and to dissipate all hope of clemency at the hands of the British Parliament, it was found in the passage of the Prohibitory Bill 1 which, among other severe provisions, cut off all trade with the American provinces, forfeited their ships, apparel, and cargoes, and rendered them liable to seizure and . condemnation at the pleasure and for the profit of their captors.
In utter disregard of the earnest protests of Edmund Burke and of Governor Johnstone, Georgia was entered in the "black catalogue " and marked for destruction with her sister colonies. A copy of this bill reached Savannah early in March while the public mind was still intensely excited over the hostile demon- stration made by Barclay and Grant. It was accompanied by a letter to Governor Wright (whose flight from Savannah to the king's vessels in Tybee Roads was then unknown in England), instructing him to confiscate the property of all Georgians who refused immediate and implicit obedience to the laws of the
1 Passed in December, 1775, entitled " An act to prohibit all trade and inter- course with the Colonies of New Hamp- shire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Three Lowor Countios
on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, during the continuance of the present re- bellion within the said Colonies respec- tively," etc.
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Crown, and who professed sympathy with the resolutions of the Continental Congress. While entirely inoperative, this official communication revealed the intentions of the ministry. No longer did advocates for reconciliation lift their voices. Remon- strances and petitions were things of the past. The present emergency called for resistance, and the people were for inde- pendence. Georgia had already framed her temporary constitu- tion and acted in anticipation of the event.
An express was immediately dispatched to Charlestown with copies of the Prohibitory Bill, and of the letter of instructions to Governor Wright. Within an hour after they had been read in the Provincial Congress of South Carolina an order was issued to seize, in the name and for account of the province, the Port Hen- derson, a Jamaica vessel loaded with sugar, which had put into Charlestown on her way to London. Only the day before she had obtained permission to pass the forts, and would have sailed the same afternoon on her intended voyage.1 The scale was turned. Moderate men who advocated delay and reconciliation were si- lenced. Carolina proceeded at once to frame and to adopt an independent constitution.
Commissioned by Governor Tonyn, of East Florida, privateers were cruising along the coast of the southern provinces, plunder- ing the inhabitants and robbing merchants of their ventures. In that province did the loyalists from Georgia and the Carolinas find a secure retreat. Organizing themselves into bands, known as Florida Rangers, and summoning to their aid parties of In- dians, they made predatory incursions into Southern Georgia, to the constant alarm and detriment of the inhabitants. Pillage, conflagration, and murder marked their footsteps. Restrained by no law, these freebooters feared neither king nor congress, and were wholly addicted to the occupations of plunderers and out- laws. Germyn Wright, a brother of the governor, had con- structed a fort on the St. Mary's River, which served as a point of rendezvous for these banditti and a place of deposit for their spoils .. Its destruction was greatly desired by the Georgians residing in that region.
With the hope of surprising and demolishing this fort, Captain John Baker, of St. John's Parish, collected seventy mounted vol- unteers and marched rapidly upon it. Observing the greatest secrecy, the party arrived within a short distance of the work
1 Rumsny's History of the Revolution of South Carolina, vol. i. p. 82. Trenton. MDCCLXXXV.
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without having been discovered. Believing that the capture could best be effected under cover of the night, Captain Baker halted his command in a dense wood and there awaited the ap- proach of darkness. He had been informed that a considerable body of Indians was encamped in the neighborhood, and that these savages, in association with the garrison of the fort, quite outnumbered his force. His only prospect of success, therefore, lay in surprising the fortification, his only safety in a rapid re- treat after its destruction. Unfortunately he was discovered by a negro, who at once gave the alarm. Three cannon-were fired from the fort, and these were answered by the schooner St. John, of eight guns, which was lying in the St. Mary's River about two miles below. Advancing to the attack, Captain Baker assailed the fort with musketry. No impression was produced. Antici- pating that reinforcements would be sent from the schooner, lie detached a portion of his command to occupy a landing below the fort. Three armed boats were soon descried ascending the river. Concealing themselves until they neared the shore, the men of the detachment then opened fire, by which several of the crew in the leading boat were killed and wounded. Calling for quarter, which was granted, that boat came ashore and its crew surrendered. Among the prisoners were Captain Barkup of the Navy and Lieutenant Bucher of the Army. The other boats made their escape under cover of the night. Information was received from one of the captives that a large body of In- dians was encamped on the opposite side of the river, not far · distant. Finding that all hope of capturing the fort was at an end, and apprehending an attack from the Indians, Captain Baker rapidly retreated for some eight or nine miles and then encamped.
During the night Daniel and James McGirth, who were on guard, stole most of the horses belonging to the command and deserted with them to the enemy. For this act of treachery the former was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Florida Rangers, commanded by Colonel Thomas Brown, and entered upon a ca- reer of rapine and murder in which he became quite notorious. James McGirth was rewarded with a captain's commission in the same corps. Baker returned to Georgia, mortified at the fail- ure of his expedition and chagrined at the loss entailed by the treachery of his own men.1
1 See MeCall's History of Georgia, vol. Johnson's Traditions of the American Rev- ii. p. 79. Savannah, 1816. Sco also olution, p. 172. Charleston, 1851.
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DEMONSTRATION AGAINST FORT SULLIVAN.
Having remained on board his majesty's ship Scarborough until the latter part of March, persuaded that the province of Georgia was irretrievably committed to the cause of the Revolu- tionists, and informed both by General Howe and Sir Henry Clinton that no military operations were at present contemplated against Savannah, Sir James Wright sailed for Halifax where he arrived on the 21st of April, 1776. He was availing himself of the leave of absence granted by the king, and was on his way to London.
On the first of June, 1776, Sir Peter Parker, with a fleet of more than fifty sail anchored a few miles to the northward of Charleston bar. The king was resolved to repossess himself of the colony of South Carolina which had always been reckoned among his most pleasant plantations. Hence this formidable demonstration. President Rutledge and General Armstrong re- paired in person to the harbor fortifications, calling everything into requisition, judiciously disposing men and materials of war for the protection of the city and its approaches, and urging every possible preparation to resist the threatened invasion. A general alarm was sounded. The militia from the interior was ordered to the coast, and aid invoked from sister colonies. So prompt and generous was the response that by the 11th of June forces aggregating six thousand five hundred and twenty-two men of all arms had been concentrated for the defense of Charles- town. On the caps of the officers and privates of the first South Carolina regiment appeared crescents with the words ultima ratio engraven thereon, while the word Liberty shone resplendent on the helmets of the men of the second.
The stores and warehouses on the wharves were leveled so as to uncover a defensive line along East Bay armed with musketry and cannon. The streets were strongly traversed. Leaden weights from the windows were freely given up to be run into musket balls. Masters and servants heartily united in the construction of fortifications, and all cannon which could be secured were mounted at convenient points whence their converging fire might most surely impede the advance of the enemy. At this trying moment the patriotism of the Carolinians was conspicuous.
Major-General Charles Lee, recently assigned to the command of this department and newly arrived, accompanied by Brigadier- General Howe and some other officers, shortly after the 4th of June made a careful inspection of the defenses at Haddrell's Point and on Sullivan's Island. At this time Fort Sullivan was
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finished only in front and on one side. Its rear was open, and the troops assigned to its occupancy were encamped behind the work " in huts and booths covered with palmetto leaves." The force on the island consisted of some twelve hundred men. Ten thousand pounds of powder had been there accumulated for the service of small arms and the heavy guns. So impressed was General Lee with the insecurity of the position that he openly declared Fort Sullivan "could not hold out half an hour." Its platform he pronounced " but a slaughtering stage." He even sug- gested to President Rutledge the advisability of evacuating both the fort and the island. This proposition, however, was indig- nantly rejected by that distinguished South Carolinian. Unwill- ing to assume the responsibility of ordering an abandonment, General Lee contented himself with diminishing the forces and withdrawing a considerable amount of the ammunition. IIad- drell's Point was strongly reinforced by continental and colonial troops under General Armstrong, and a bridge was thrown from that post, across the cove, to Sullivan's Island. A heavy trav- erse was ordered for the protection of the rear of Fort Sullivan. Evidently anticipating, in the event of an attack, the speedy re- duction of that work, General Lee directed his attention mainly to securing avenues of retreat for the forces disposed on that side of the harbor. His communications were all of a depressing character ; and, upon the mind of a weak-kneed lieutenant would doubtless have exerted a pernicious influence. Not so, however, with Colonel Moultrie, who, in his " Memoirs," writes as fol- lows : "Gen. Lee one day on a visit to the fort took me aside and said, 'Col. Moultrie, do you think you can maintain this post?' I answered him, 'Yes, I think I can !' That was all that passed on the subject between us. Another time, Capt. Lamperer, a brave and experienced seaman, who had been mas- ter of a man of war, and captain of a very respectable privateer many years ago, visited me at the fort after the British ships came over the bar. While we were walking on the platform looking at the fleet, he said to me, ' Well, Colonel, what do you think of it now ?' I replied . that we should beat them.' 'Sir,' said he, ' when those ships (pointing to the men of war) come to lay alongside your fort, they will knock it down in half an hour' (and that was the opinion of all the sailors). 'Then,' I said, ' we will lay behind the ruins and prevent their men from land- ing.'" 1
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