USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume II > Part 25
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1 Memoirs of the American Revolution, etc., vol. i. pp. 143, 144. New York. 1802.
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DESCRIPTION OF FORT SULLIVAN.
Notwithstanding these discouraging apprehensions and the dangers attendant upon his advanced position, Colonel Moultrie preserved the " easy temper habitual to him," inspiring his men with' confidence and infusing into their breasts a strong impres- sion of final victory. The traverse for the protection of the rear of the fort had been finished, but the work was in an incomplete condition when the British men-of-war opened their broadsides upon it. Dr. Drayton 1 furnishes the following description of the fort at the time of its memorable bombardment : "The fort was a square, with a bastion at each angle, sufficiently large to contain, when finished, one thousand men. It was built of pal- metto logs laid one upon the other, in two parallel rows, at six- teen feet distance, bound together, at intervals, with timber dove- tailed and bolted into the logs. The spaces between the two lines of logs were filled up with sand : and the merlons were walled entirely by palmetto logs, notched into one another at the angles, well bolted together, and strengthened with pieces of timber. They were sixteen feet thick, filled in with sand, and ten feet high above the platforms : and the platforms were sup- ported by brick pillars. The fort was only finished on the front or south-eastern curtain and bastions, and on the south-west cur- tain and bastion ; the north-eastern curtain and the north-western curtain and bastions were unfinished; being logged up only about seven feet high. Necessity, however, devised an expedient for making the unfinished parts tenable against an escalade by placing thick, long planks upright against the unfinished outside wall, but inclined and projecting over it, which raised the height ten or fifteen feet more, and through which loop-holes were cut for the use of rifles or musketry. The platform therefore, as fin- ished, only extended along the south-eastern front of the fort, and its south-western side. Upon these platforms the cannon were mounted. On the south-east bastion the flag-staff was fixed, bearing a blue flag with a white crescent on which was embla- zoned the word LIBERTY : and three 18 and two 9-pounders were mounted there. On the south-east curtain six 26 French pound- ers and three 18 English pounders were placed; and on the western bastion connected with it, three 26 French pounders and two Q-pounders were stationed. On the south-west curtain six cannon were mounted, 12 and 9-pounders. Connected with the front angle of each rear-bastion of the fort, lines of defense, called cavaliers, were thrown up for a small distance on the right
1 Memoirs of the American Revolution, etc., vol. ii. p. 290. Charleston. 1821.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
and left of the fort; and three 12-pounders were mounted in each of them. So that the whole number of cannon mounted in the fort and cavaliers on each side, was thirty-one; of which only twenty-five, at any possible time, could bear upon the enemy stationed in front of the fort; and even then four 9- pounders on the two inner sides of the front bastions could be scarcely used. Narrow platforms or banquettes were placed along the walls, where the plank was raised against them, for the men to stand upon and fire through the loop-holes. Such was the situation of Fort Sullivan on the 27th day of June; and its garrison consisted of the Second South Carolina regiment of in- fantry, amounting to 413 of all ranks, and a detachment of the Fourth South Carolina regiment of artillery of 22, amounting together to 435 : the whole being under the command of Colonel William Moultrie of the above second regiment."
Between the 4th and 8th of June, thirty-six of the enemy's vessels crossed the bar and anchored in Five-Fathom Hole. Si- multaneously Major-General Clinton effected a landing on Long Island with some three thousand infantry, and, under a flag of truce, sent a characteristic proclamation, dated June 6th, on board the Sovereign Transport, in which he exhorted an im- mediate return to duty, and offered in his majesty's name free pardon to all who would lay down their arms and submit to the laws. This proclamation was addressed to " the Magistrates of the Province of South Carolina, to be by them made public." It is scarcely necessary to state that this august document failed to produce the slightest impression upon the minds, or in any wise to modify the action of the patriots.
On the morning of the 28th of June, the British squadron bore down upon Fort Sullivan. Between ten and eleven o'clock the engagement was opened by the Thunder-Bomb ship, covered by the Friendship of twenty-six guns. Soon afterwards, the Active of twenty-eight guns, the Bristol and the Experiment of fifty guns each, and the Solebay of twenty-eight guns came into position and participated in the bombardment. The Syren and the Acteon, each carrying a battery of twenty-eight guns, and the Sphinx of twenty guns, forming a line parallel with and in rear of the first, and opposite the intervals, united in the heavy cannonade against the low-lying palmetto fort from which issued a deliberate, sure, and destructive return fire.
After a bombardment of more than an hour failing to silence the fort, the British commander ordered the Acteon, the Sphinx,
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BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SULLIVAN.
and the Syren to pass the work and occupy a position in Rebell- ion Road towards the cove of Sullivan's Island whence the front platforms of the southeast curtain and its two bastions, the fire from which had been particularly damaging to the attacking ships, could be enfiladed. Had this movement been accom- plished, there is little doubt but that the cannoneers would have been speedily driven from their guns, and the pieces themselves dismounted. In attempting, however, to stand well over towards the lower Middle-Ground opposite the fort, so as to pass clear of the front line of ships then closely engaged, these vessels became entangled on the shoal. There the Acteon remained immovably fixed in the sand, having first run foul of the Sphinx and caused the loss of her bowsprit. Freeing themselves from their danger- ous situation, the Syren and the Sphinx retired behind the line of battle and beyond the range of the fort's guns until they could fit themselves for a renewal of the contest. After throwing some fifty or sixty shells, which caused no material injury to the fort, the recoil of the heavily charged mortars so shattered their beds and endamaged the ship that the Thunder-Bomb became useless for further service. Meanwhile the engagement had been vigor- ously maintained at short range by the Active, the Bristol, the Experiment, and the Solebay. During the afternoon their fire was again reinforced by that of the Syren and the Friendship. Slackening with the setting sun, the cannonading on both sides ceased entirely at half past nine o'clock. Slipping their cables , at eleven o'clock, the British ships, their decks wet with blood and their hulls battered with the well-directed shots from the fort, silently and sullenly retired with the last of the ebb to their former station near Five-Fathom Hole. The native palmetto had withstood the assault of foreign oak. The new levies of an unformed republic had repulsed the attack of the boasted mari- ners of England. General Clinton, who purposed a descent upon the northeastern end of Sullivan's Island, defended by Colonel Thomson, supported by Colonel Muhlenberg, perceiving that his difficult advance would be stoutly disputed, abandoned his inten- tion and remained a passive spectator of the action.
The attention of the fort was mainly directed to the Bristol and the Experiment, both fifty-gun ships, and the former the flag-ship of Sir Peter Parker. They encountered a loss of one hundred and sixty-four in killed and wounded. Among the lat- ter was Sir Peter himself. But for the scarcity of powder in the fort, the damage inflicted upon the enemy would have been far
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greater. Officers and men behaved with the utmost coolness and courage.
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During the severest stage of the bombardment the flag-staff of the fort, formerly a ship's mast, from the head of which floated the garrison flag eagerly watched by the thousands who lined the battery in Charlestown, anxious spectators of the exciting scene, and by those who held the fortifications in the harbor, was shot away, and fell with the colors outside the fort. Ser- geant Jasper, perceiving the misfortune, sprang from one of the embrasures and, deliberately walking the entire length of the front of the fort until he reached the fallen colors on the extreme left, detached them from the mast, called to Captain Horry for a sponge-staff, and having with a thick cord lashed them to it re- turned within the fort and, amid a shower of balls, planted the staff on the summit of the merlon. This done, waving his hat, he gave three cheers, and then shouting " God save liberty and my country forever ! " retired unhurt to his gun,1 where he con- tinued to fight throughout the engagement. This flag so gal- lantly reinstated had been designed by Colonel Moultrie, and consisted of a blue field with a white crescent on which was em- blazoned the word LIBERTY. Its restoration revived the hopes of many at a distance who, ignorant of the cause of its disappear- ance, feared the fort had struck.
During the second day's bombardment,2 about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, while the Federal solid shots were battering the walls of Fort Pulaski, and mortar shells bursting above, within, and around, were scattering their fragments everywhere, the hal- yards of the garrison flag which floated from the staff planted upon the parapet just over the sally-port were carried away by a projectile and the colors fell. Lieutenant Hussey of the Mont- gomery Guards and Private Latham of the Washington Volun- teers, advancing along the parapet swept at all points by deadly missiles, and freeing the flag from its fallen and entangled posi- tion, bravely bore it to the northeastern angle of the fort, where,
1 Bancroft thus commemorates this oc- currence : " In the fort, William Jasper, a sergeant, perceived that the flag had been cut down by a ball from the enemy and had fallen over the ramparts. ' Colo- nel,' said he to Moultrie, 'don't let us fight without a flag.' 'What can you do ?' asked Moultrie; 'the staff is broken off.' "Then,' said Jasper, 'I'll fix it on
a halberd and place it on the merlon of the bastion next the enemy;' and leaping through an embrasure and braving the thickest fire from the ship, he took up the flag, returned with it safely, and planted it, as he had promised, on the summit of the merlon." History of the United States, vol. viii. p. 406. Boston. 1860. 2 April 11, 1862.
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SIR PETER PARKER RETIRES.
rigging a temporary staff on a gun-carriage, they again, amid the smoke and din of the conflict, unfolded in proud defiance the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy. After a lapse of more than three quarters of a century History repeated herself, and that right valiantly, on a kindred shore.
As Sergeant McDaniel, of Captain Huger's company, - his stomach and bowels carried away by a cannon shot, - lay dying at his gun, summoning his last energies he exclaimed : "Fight on, my brave boys ; don't let liberty expire with me to-day !"
Dr. Gordon1 tells us that Sergeant Jasper, when removing from the blood-stained platform the body of his dead compatriot, cried out to the powder-begrimed cannoneers, " Revenge this brave man's death."
Although the fort was struck by many shots, the spongy tex- ture of the palmetto logs received them without giving off splin- ters, and consequently less injury was experienced than would otherwise have occurred. Only twelve of the garrison were killed and twenty-five wounded.
More than forty years afterwards, perpetuating the impressions of this signal victory, Dr. Drayton 2 thus paints the scene : "The morning of the 29th of June presented a humiliating prospect to British pride. To the southwest of the fort, at the distance of near a mile, lay the Acteon frigate fast ashore on the Lower- Middle-Ground. Below the fort, about two miles and a half, the men of war and transports were riding at anchor opposite Morris' island, while Sir Peter Parker's broad pendant was hardly to be seen on a jury main-top-mast considerably lower than the fore- mast of his ship. And on the left General Clinton was kept in check by the troops under Colonels Thomson and Muhlen- burg. On the contrary, how glorious were the other points of view! The azure colors of the fort, fixed on a sponge-staff, waved gently on the winds. Boats were passing and repassing in safety from and to the fort and Charlestown, and the hearts of the people were throbbing with gratitude and the most exhil- arating transports."
Congratulations upon this important victory flowed in from every quarter. General Lee, on the 30th, reviewed the garrison and in person thanked officers and men "for their gallant defense of the fort." The wife of Major Barnard Elliott presented to the second regiment " an elegant pair of embroidered colors." They
1 History of the United States, vol. ii.
2 Memoirs of the American Revolution, p. 287. London. 1788.
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etc., vol. ii. p. 304. Charleston. 1821.
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were received by Colonel William Moultrie and Lieutenant Colo- nel Isaac Motte. In tendering them "as a reward justly due," she said, "I make not the least doubt, under Heaven's protec- tion, you will stand by them as long as they can wave in the air of liberty." Colonel Moultrie promised "that they should be honorably supported and never tarnished by the Second Regi- ment." He then handed one of them to Sergeant Jasper, who, smiling as he received the precious emblem, " vowed he would never give it up but with his life."1 How nobly he afterward redeemed this pledge the sequel will show.
On the 4th of July Governor Rutledge visited the fort and in the name of the young commonwealth tendered sincere thanks and congratulations. Publicly commending the heroie behavior of Jasper, he removed from his side his own sword, and presented it to him "as a reward for his bravery and an incitement to further deeds of valour."
The governor also then tendered him a commission which was modestly declined. " Were I made an officer," said he, "my comrades would be constantly blushing for my ignorance, and I should be unhappy feeling my own inferiority. I have no am- bition for higher rank than that of a Sergeant."
By authority of the president the name of Moultrie was con- ferred upon the fort, and on the 20th of July a resolution of thanks was passed by congress, then in session in Philadelphia.
Six days after this memorable victory, the United Colonies . were declared free and independent. Commingled with the ex- ultations which greeted this momentous proclamation was uni- versal joy at thought of this great success on the low-lying shores of Carolina. Among the incidents of that gallant defense none was more widely disseminated or more enthusiastically applauded than the replacement of the fort's colors by the intrepid Jasper.
So tardy were the means of communication when the electric telegraph and conveyance by steam were wholly unknown that the Declaration of Independence, sanctioned in Philadelphia on the 4th of July, 1776, was not heard of in Georgia until the 10th of August. On that day an express messenger delivered to President Bulloch a copy of that memorable document, aecom- panied by a letter from John Hancock, president of the Conti- nental Congress. The Provincial Council was at once assembled and to it did President Bulloch read aloud that historic utterance of the delegates of the thirteen colonies, concluding with the
1 Horry's Life of Marion, p. 43.
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THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
brave announcement, " We therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled, ap- pealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions do, in the name and by authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Indepen- dent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- solved ; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
Profound was the impression created by the reading of the document, and rapturously did the assembled councilors hail the elevation of a British Colony into the dignity of a free and inde- pendent State.
This ceremony concluded, the president and council repaired to the public square where, in front of the building set apart for the deliberations of the Provincial Assembly, the Declaration of Independence was again read, and this time amid the acclama- tions of the congregated citizens of Savannah. The grenadier and light infantry companies then fired a general salute. A procession was formed consisting of
The Grenadiers in front ; The Provost Marshal on horseback, with his sword drawn ; The Secretary, bearing the Declaration ; Ilis Excellency the President ; The honorable the Council, and gentlemen attending ; The Light Infantry ; The Militia of the town and district of Savannah ; and lastly, the citizens.
In this order they marched to the liberty pole, where they were met by the Georgia battalion. Here the Declaration was read for the third time. At the command of Colonel McIntosh, thirteen volleys were fired from the field-pieces and also from the small arms. Thence the entire concourse proceeded to the bat- tery, at the Trustees' Garden, where the Declaration was publicly read for the fourth and last time, and a salute was fired from the siege guns planted at that point.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
His excellency, the members of council, Colonel Lachan Mc- Intosh, many gentlemen, and the militia dined under the cedar- trees and cordially drank to the "prosperity and perpetuity of the United, Free, and Independent States of America."
In the evening the town was illuminated. A funeral proces- sion, embracing a number of citizens larger than had ever been congregated in the history of Savannah, and attended by the grenadier and light infantry companies, the Georgia battalion, and the militia, with muffled drums, marched to the front of the court-house where his majesty George the Third was interred in effigy, and the following burial service, prepared for the occa- sion, was read with all solemnity : -
" For as much as George the Third, of Great Britain, hath most flagrantly violated his Coronation Oath, and trampled upon the Constitution of our country and the sacred rights of man- kind : we, therefore, commit his political existence to the ground - corruption to corruption - tyranny to the grave - and op- pression to eternal infamy; in sure and certain hope that he will never obtain a resurrection to rule again over these United States of America. But, my friends and fellow-citizens, let us not be sorry, as men without hope, for TYRANTS that thus de- part - rather let us remember America is free and independent ; that she is, and will be, with the blessing of the Almighty, GREAT among the nations of the earth. Let this encourage us in well doing, to fight for our rights and privileges, for our wives and children, and for all that is near and dear unto us. May God give us his blessing, and let all the people say AMEN."
With similar joy was the Declaration of Independence wel- comed in the other parishes of Georgia. St. John's Parish, the home of Hall and Gwinnett, two of the signers, was most pro- nounced in its demonstrations of approval.
Now that Georgia had been formally recognized as a State by the highest congress known to the late provinces, and as it had been recommended by the Colonial Congress that governments should be provided in the several States adapted to the exigen- cies of the new order of affairs and conducive to the happiness and safety alike of the respective States and of the United States, President Bulloch issued his proclamation ordering a general election to be held between the 1st and the 10th of September for the purpose of selecting representatives to meet in convention in Savannah on the first Tuesday in October.
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THE CHEROKEES INCITED TO VIOLENCE.
He also directed that a circular letter should be addressed to the inhabitants of the parishes and districts of Georgia, congrat- ulating them upon the happy political outlook, reminding them of the important business to be transacted by the convention, and impressing upon them the necessity for selecting delegates of approved patriotism and of the highest character, - men whose friendship to the cause of freedom had been thoroughly proven, and whose political wisdom qualified them to frame the best constitution for the future government of the common- wealthı.
Another proclamation was issued for the encouragement of the recruiting service within the limits of the State. It was based upon a resolution of the Provincial Congress which provided that every one entering the army, who should serve faithfully for a period of three years, or until peace was concluded with Great Britain, should be entitled to a bounty of one hundred acres of land. It was further stipulated that if he perished in defense of his State his wife or family would be complimented with the land.
When it became apparent that the disagreements between Great Britain and her American colonies were likely to result in serious consequences, Georgia was careful to explain to the neigh- boring Indians the nature of the dispute and to exhort them to maintain a friendly correspondence. The rebel authorities of Carolina were equally solicitous to prevail upon the aborigines to take no sides in the impending contest. These efforts were, however, overruled by the royal superintendent of Indian affairs and by the Florida authorities, who were eager to enlist the red warriors in behalf of the Crown. The poverty of the colonies prevented them from complimenting the savages with presents sufficiently generous to perpetuate their good-will. Taking ad- vantage of the unsettled condition of affairs, and hearkening to the advice and the bribes of royal agents, the Cherokees, in vio- lation of established treaties, began depredating upon the fron- tiers of Georgia and the Carolinas. To these lawless and bloody acts were they largely incited by Captain Stuart, his majesty's superintendent of Indian affairs in the Southern Department, and by Mr. Cameron, his assistant. While the British forces were threatening Savannah and Charlestown it was impossible to with- draw the troops from the coast or to arrange any formidable ex- pedition for the punishment of the Cherokees. As an inevitable consequence, the frontier settlements were, for some time, sadly
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
harassed, and many were the atrocious massacres perpetrated by the inhuman enemy.
Upon the departure of the British fleet after its unsuccessful attack upon Fort Moultrie, opportunity was afforded for concen- trating a strong force for the chastisement of the savage invad- ers. To this end the concerted action of Georgia, the Carolinas, and of Virginia was directed. Colonel Williamson, of District Ninety-Six, was placed in command of the South Carolina troops, consisting of the sixth regular regiment, a part of the third, and a considerable body of militia. General Rutherford, with nine- teen hundred men from North Carolina, crossed the mountains and entered the Cherokee country. Two or three times was he vigorously attacked, but he finally succeeded in signally repulsing the savages. The Indian settlements to the northward were at the same time invaded by the Virginia militia commanded by Colonel Christie. Simultaneously, Colonel Jack led a column of Georgians, composed of five companies commanded respectively by Captains John Twiggs, John Jones, Leonard Marbury, Sam- uel Alexander, and Thomas Harris, and numbering in all about two hundred men, against the Cherokee towns on the head wa- ters of the Tugaloe and the Chattahoochee.
Thus assailed from every direction, the Cherokees were, in a short time, vanquished and compelled to sue for peace. Their cornfields were laid waste. Their towns were burned. Their cattle and horses were taken from them. Many were slain. · About five hundred of their number, pinched by hunger, sought refuge with Stuart, the Indian superintendent, in West Florida where, for a while, they were fed at the expense of the British government. Multitudes were driven into the mountains and compelled to subsist, as best they could, upon roots and native fruits.
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