USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume II > Part 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
On the 20th of April General Lincoln, with two thousand light infantry and cavalry, set out for Augusta. His baggage and artillery were ordered to follow. From Silver Bluff, where he arrived on the 22d, he directed General Moultrie to send forward to that place the continental troops, with the exception of the second and fifth South Carolina regiments, and all the artillery save one two-pounder gun. All possible dispatch was enjoined. Should the royal forces manifest an inclination to move towards Charlestown, General Moultrie was instructed to possess himself of the important passes in their front and to interpose every obstruction so that General Lincoln might have an opportunity of coming up.1
On the 23d a party of Indians and white men disguised as Indians, numbering about thirty, crossed the, Savannah River at Yemassee, four miles below Purrysburg, and surprised the Amer- ican guard. Pursued by Colonel Henderson, they took refuge in the swamp and succeeded in making their escape.
Two days afterwards General Prevost put his troops in motion for Carolina. Some crossed the Savannah River at other points, but the heaviest column was thrown over at Purrysburg, whence an effort was made to surprise General Moultrie at Black Swamp. That officer, with a command of not more than a thou- sand men, retired in the direction of Charlestown, disputing, as opportunity offered, the advance of Prevost who pressed on with an army of two thousand regulars and seven hundred loyalists and Indians. General Lincoln, from his headquarters at Silver Bluff, as late as the 2d of May was apparently in doubt whether Prevost contemplated a serious attack upon Charlestown or was merely demonstrating to draw him off from his purposed advance into Georgia.2 Soon becoming convinced that the capital of South Carolina was in serious peril he abandoned for the present his scheme for the relief of Georgia and marched rapidly for the protection of Charlestown. With the military operations in the vicinity of that city we have at present no special concern, save to state that they resulted in a complete discomfiture of the plans
1 See Letter of General Lincoln to Gen-
2 See his letter to General Moultrie, eral Moultrie, dated " Mr. Galphin's, April dated " Headquarters Silver Bluff, May 22, 1779."
2,1779."
359
PREVOST PLUNDERS CAROLINA.
of the enemy. Retreating by the sea islands, Prevost returned to Savannah, having established a post at Port Royal where he left Lieutenant-Colonel Maitland and a detachment of eight hundred men. General Lincoln, with the continental forces, es- tablished his headquarters at Sheldon. While General Prevost failed to capture the city of Charlestown, by this invasion of South Carolina he completely thwarted the purposes of General Lincoln and inflicted upon the Americans losses and demoraliza- tions grievous and well-nigh insupportable. Behold the picture painted by Dr. Ramsay : 1 " This incursion into South Carolina and subsequent retreat contributed very little to the advance- ment of the royal cause, but it added much to the wealth of the officers, soldiers, and followers of the British army, and still more to the distresses of the inhabitants. The forces under the com- mand of General Prevost marched through the richest settle- ments of the State, where there are the fewest white inhabitants in proportion to the number of slaves. The hapless Africans, allured with hopes of freedom, forsook their owners and repaired in great numbers to the royal army. They endeavored to recom- mend themselves to their new masters by discovering where their owners had concealed their property, and were assisting in carry- ing it off. All subordination being destroyed, they became inso- lent and rapacious, and in some instances exceeded the British in their plunderings and devastations. Collected in great crowds near the royal army, they were seized with the camp-fever in such numbers that they could not be accommodated either with proper lodgings or attendance.
"The British carried out of the State, it is supposed, about three thousand slaves, many of whom were shipped from Georgia and East Florida and sold in the West Indies : but the inhabit- ants lost upwards of four thousand, each of whom was worth, on an average, about two hundred and fifty Spanish dollars.
" When the British retreated, they had accumulated so much plunder that they had not the means of removing the whole of it. The vicinity of the American army made them avoid the main land and go off in great precipitation from one island to another. Many of the horses which they had collected from the inhabitants were lost in ineffectual attempts to transport them over the rivers and marshes. For want of a sufficient number of boats a considerable part of the negroes was left behind. They
1 History of the Revolution of South Carolina, etc., vol. ii. pp. 31 et seq. Trenton. MDCCLXXXV.
一
A
3
-
٠
٢
360
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
had been so thoroughly impressed by the British with the expec- tations of the severest treatment and even of certain death from their owners in case of their returning home that in order to get off with the retreating army they would sometimes fasten them- selves to the sides of the boats. To prevent this dangerous prac- tice, the fingers of some of them were chopped off, and soldiers were posted with cutlasses and bayonets to oblige them to keep at proper distances. Many of them, labouring under diseases, afraid to return home, forsaken by their new masters, and desti- tute of the necessaries of life, perished in the woods. Those who got off with the army were collected on Otter Island, where the camp-fever continued to rage. Without medicine, attendance, or the comforts proper for the sick, some hundreds of them expired. Their dead bodies, as they lay exposed in the woods, were de- voured by beasts and birds, and to this day the island is strewed with their bones.
" The British also carried off with them several rice-barrels full of plate, and household furniture in large quantities, which they had taken from the inhabitants. They had spread over a consid- erable extent of country, and small parties visited almost every house, stripping it of whatever was most valuable, and rifling the inhabitants of their money, rings, jewels, and other personal or- naments. The repositories of the dead were in several places broken open, and the grave itself searched for hidden treasure. What was destroyed by the soldiers was supposed to be of more value than what they carried off. Feather-beds were ripped open for the sake of the ticking. Windows, china-ware, looking-glasses, and pictures were dashed to pieces. Not only the larger domes- tick animals were cruelly and wantonly shot down, but the licen- tiousness of the soldiery extended so far that in several places nothing within their reach, however small and insignificant, was suffered to live. For this destruction they could not make the plea of necessity, for what was thus killed was frequently neither used nor carried off. The gardens, which had been improved with great care and ornamented with many foreign productions, were laid waste, and their nicest curiosities destroyed. The houses of the planters were seldom burnt, but in every other way the destruction and depredations committed by the British were so enormous that should the whole be particularly related, they who live at a distance would scarcely believe what could be at- tested by hundreds of eye-witnesses."
Although the planters on the Georgia coast were not as rich as
الذ المحافيالمدن
1.
361
ACTIVITY OF TIIE REPUBLICANS.
their Carolina neighbors, the losses inflicted upon them were pro- portionately just as serious. The ever-present greed of the vic- tors, permanently established in their neighborhood, stripped such of the inhabitants as were pronounced disloyal to the royal cause not only of the luxuries but even of the bare necessaries of life, engendering extreme poverty and suffering. The demoralization of the slave population was also pronounced and annoying.
While General Lincoln was defending Carolina against the incursion inaugurated and maintained by Prevost for her subju- gation, Colonels Dooly and Clarke, with watchful eyes and tire- less arms, were protecting the frontiers of Georgia about which hostile Indians and treacherous loyalists were constantly hover- ing. Colonels Twiggs and Few and Jones hung about the out- posts of the enemy, cutting off their supplies, attacking whenever a forced opportunity presented itself, and encouraging the inhab- itants with the hope of ultimate deliverance. Private armed vessels, flying the American flag, cruised along the coast, guard- ing the exposed plantations, capturing marauding parties, and occasionally overhauling merchantmen in the service of the king.
Ascertaining that some British officers had accepted an invita- tion from Mr. Thomas Young to dine with him at Belfast on the 4th of June, 1779, Captain Spencer, commanding an American privateer, determined to surprise and capture the party. For this purpose, proceeding up Midway River in the evening, he landed between eight and nine o'clock at night, and, with twelve of his men, entering the house, made Colonel Cruger and the English officers at the table prisoners of war. Intending to carry off some negroes Captain Spencer kept his prisoners under guard until morning when, having taken their paroles, he permitted them to return to Sunbury. Colonel Cruger was soon after ex- changed for Colonel McIntosh who had been captured at Brier Creek.
Colonel Twiggs, with seventy men, marched down the south side of the Great Ogeechee River and halted at the plantation of Mr. James Butler, called Hickory Hill. On the 28th of June he received information that Captain Muller, with forty mounted grenadiers conducted by three militia guides, was advancing to attack him. Major Cooper of Marbury's dragoons, and Captain Inman with thirty men, were thrown forward to meet the enemy. Forming across a rice dam along which Captain Muller was ap- proaching, their first fire was so well delivered that several Brit- ish saddles wero emptied. Shot through the thigh, the British
MOST !
362
THIE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
commanding officer bravely supported himself by means of his sword as he formed and encouraged his men. Soon, however, he was knocked over by a ball which, passing through his arm, lodged in his body. Within a few moments Lieutenant Swan- son, second in command, was prostrated by a wound. Observing the confusion occasioned in the ranks of the enemy by the fall of their officers, Colonel Twigg's ordered ten men to gain their rear and cut off their retreat. This was done, and of the entire detachment the three militia guides, who fled at the first fire, were the only ones who escaped. Seven of the British were killed and ten wounded. Colonel Maybank and Captain Whit- aker were wounded on the part of the Americans.
The wounded requiring assistance, and Savannah being the nearest point where the services of a surgeon could be secured, William Myddleton was sent thither with a flag. While he was in General Prevost's quarters a British officer requested him to narrate the circumstances attending the skirmish. Having done so, the officer responded that "if an angel was to tell him that Captain Muller, who had served twenty-one years in the King's Guards with his detachment, had been defeated by an equal number of rebels, he would disbelieve it." Myddleton requested the officer's address, and observed that although they were not then on equal terms he hoped to have it in his power at some future time to call him to account for his rudeness. Colonel Pre- vost rebuked his officer for using such improper language to the bearer of a flag. Captain Muller died of his wounds before the arrival of the surgeon.1
While this affair was transpiring on the Great Ogeechee, Major Baker, with thirty men, attacked and defeated at the White House, near Sunbury, a party of Georgia Royalists under the command of Captain Goldsmith, killing and wounding several of them. Among the slain was Lieutenant Gray whose head was almost severed from his body by a sabre wielded by the daring Robert Sallette.2
1 Sce McCall's History of Georgia, vol.
ii. p. 235. Savanah. 1816.
2 " Ile appears to have been a sort of roving character, doing things in his own way. The Tories stood very much in dread of him; and well they might, for never had they a more formidable foe. On one occasion, a Tory, who possessed considerable property. offered a reward of one hundred guineas to any person
who would bring him Sallette's head. This was made known to our hero, who provided himself with a bag, in which he placed a pumpkin, and proceeded to the house of the Tory and told him that, having understood he had offered one hundred guineas for Sallette's head, ho had it with him in the bag (nt the same time pointing to the bag), and that he . was ready to deliver it, provided the
T
1
363
PARTISAN EXPLOITS.
On the 3d of August Captain Samuel Spencer sailed into Sapelo Sound. He was attacked by one of the enemy's vessels armed with six guns. After an engagement of fifteen minutes he succeeded in boarding and capturing her.
McGirth and his followers finding no field for their operations in the eastern portion of the State commenced pillaging the western settlements. Assembling one hundred and fifty men, Colonel Twiggs started in pursuit of these land pirates. Over- taking them at Isaac Lockhart's plantation on Buckhead Creek, he charged upon and fought them so stoutly that within a quarter of an hour they were put to flight, with a loss of nine killed, an equal number wounded, and four captured. McGirth, shot through the thigh, escaped into a neighboring swamp, thanks to the fleetness of his horse.
Although overrun by the enemy and paralyzed by the onerous regulations imposed by the British, it is nevertheless true that Georgia did not wholly cease from resistance. It was by these and kindred partisan exploits that the English troops and Tories were held in check at various points, and the drooping spirits of the oppressed inhabitants revived from time to time.
money was first counted out for him. The Tory, believing that the bag con- tained Sallette's head, laid down the money, upon which Sallette pulled off his hat, and, placing his hand upon his head, said, ' Here is Sallette's head.' This
answer so frightened the Tory that he immediately took to his heels, but a well- directed shot from Sallette brought him to the ground." - White's Historical Col- lections of Georgia, p. 537. New York. 1855.
3
أم السا هـ
CHAPTER XIX.
DEPRECIATED CONDITION OF THE CURRENCY. - POLITICAL STATUS. - AN OLIGARCHIICAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHIED. - CONSTITUTION OF A SUPREME EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. - POWERS CONFIDED TO IT. - JOHN WEREAT CHOSEN PERMANENT PRESIDENT. - ABNORMAL CONDITION OF AFFAIRS. - GENERAL LACHLAN MCINTOSHI RETURNS TO GEORGIA. - GENERAL WASHINGTON'S LETTER TO CONGRESS. - COMMUNICATION FROM TIIE SUPREME EXECUTIVE COUNCIL TO GENERAL LINCOLN. - ROYAL GOVERNMENT IN GEORGIA. - GOVERNOR WRIGHT'S DISPATCH TO LORD GEORGE GERMAIN. - POLITICAL DISTRACTIONS OF GEORGIA.
UPON the capture of Savannah, in December, 1778, by Lieu- tenant-Colonel Campbell, the Executive Council designated Au- gusta as the seat of government. So rapidly, however, did that officer push his column up the Savannah River, and so quickly did he occupy Augusta with his troops, that until his evacuation of that place, late in February, 1779, it existed but in name as the capital of Georgia. During this period the republican gov- ernment of the State was peripatetic. In such a condition was it frequently found during the continuance of the Revolutionary struggle. The public records had been sent out of the State for safe keeping. Until the close of the contest the proceedings of the Executive Council consisted of little more than insignificant orders and letters, a meagre journal of its convocations, hasty deliberations and adjournments, and a scant memorandum of its principal acts touching the general safety. The treasury was empty. There was not even an attempt made to levy and collect taxes. Paper bills of credit, issued upon the faith of the State, had depreciated in value to such an extent that they possessed scarcely any purchasing power. All sorts of shifts were resorted to in order that the troops in the field might be supplied with food and clothing. Of payment in money for military services rendered there was often none, especially in the case of the mili- tia. The currency employed in paying off troops enlisted in the continental service was almost as valueless as were the promises to pay circulated by the State. Not infrequently, the confiscated property of Royalists was utilized in discharging the obligations incurred in the purchase of necessaries for the soldiers in the
365
AN OLIGARCHIICAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
field.1 Simple in the extreme was the machinery of government. The affairs of state were administered by a council of safety who did the best they could in the disjointed and impoverished condi- tion of the country. Legislative convocations and enactments were suspended, and the courts were closed. Silent leges inter arma.
When Augusta again passed into the hands of the republicans the members of council convened there at the residence of Mat- thew Hobson to select a president and transact such business, demanded by the emergency, as lay within their power. They represented the State, and for the time being all legislative and executive functions were exercised by them. Matters wore on in this way until the time designated for the meeting of the General Assembly arrived. So disturbed was the condition of the com- monwealth, and so thoroughly occupied by British troops were the lower counties, that only twenty-five members convened in Augusta in July, 1779. Too few to organize and conduct gov- ernmental affairs in accordance with the provisions of the consti- tution, and yet impressed with the necessity of devising some plan and providing some machinery by which the integrity of the State might be conserved and the administration of its business facilitated, on the 24th of July they assented to and promulgated the following document by which an oligarchical form of govern- ment was practically inaugurated.
"STATE OF GEORGIA, RICHMOND COUNTY.
" Whereas, from the invasion of the British forces in this State great evils have arisen and still exist to disturb the civil government of the said State, and which, in a great measure, have prevented the Constitution of the land from being carried into such full effect as to answer the purposes of government therein pointed out : And whereas, it becomes incumbent and in- dispensably necessary at this juncture to adopt such temporary
1 In illustration of this, let the follow- ing suffice : ---
" IN COUNCIL, April 30th, 1782. " CAPTAIN HARRIS.
"SIR, - As you are appointed Agent for the County of Richmond to collect all sequestered property, you will please im- mediately to take in your possession two negroe wenches, the property of Curtis Colwell, in possession of Greenbury Lco and Simon Beckum, and two negroes, n Boy and a Girl, in possession of W" Few,
Senr, the property of Simon Nichols, de- ceased.
" You will please, after taken the above in possession, to deliver the said Negroes to Captn Ignatius Few, they being ap- praised by M' Simon Beckum ; the State having purchased some necessarys from Captn Few, the said Negroes are to be re- ceived in payment for the articles pur- chased.
STEPHEN HEARD, Pres : Cot."
.
1
PorT!
الدرك الأن
366
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
mode as may be most conducive to the welfare, happiness, and security of the rights and privileges of the good people of the said State, and the maintenance and existence of legal and effective authority in the same as far as the exigence of affairs requires, until a time of less disquiet shall happen and the Con- stitution take its regular course; to the end therefore that gov- ernment may prevail and be acknowledged, to prevent as far as may be anarchy and confusion from continuing among us, and fully to support the laws of the land derived under the Constitu- tion thereof: We therefore, the representatives of the people of the Counties of Wilkes, Richmond, Burke, Effingham, Chatham, Liberty, Glynn, Camden, and other freemen of the State, having convened and met in the County of Richmond in the State afore- said for the purposes of considering the present disturbed situ- ation of the State, and for applying as far as is in our power some remedy thereto, and having maturely and seriously con- sidered the same, do recommend that the following persons be appointed by the good people of this State to exercise the su- preme authority thereof, who shall, before they enter on the execution of their office, take the following oath, viz: I, A. B., elected one of the Supreme Executive Council of the State of Georgia, do solemnly swear that I will, during the term of my appointment, to the best of my skill and judgment, execute the said office faithfully and conscientiously, without favor, affection, or partiality ; that I will, to the utmost of my power, support, maintain, and defend the State of Georgia, and use my utmost endeavors to support the people thereof in the secure enjoyment of their just rights and privileges ; and that I will, to the best of my judgment, execute justice and mercy in all judgments: so help me God.
" And we, and each of us, on our parts, as free citizens of the State of Georgia aforesaid, do for ourselves nominate, authorize, empower and require you, John Wereat, Joseph Clay, Joseph Habersham, Humphrey Wells, William Few, John Dooly, Seth John Cuthbert, William Gibbons, senior, and Myrick Davies, Esquires, or a majority of you, to act as the Executive or Su- preme Council of this State: and to execute from Tuesday, the twenty-seventh instant, to the first Tuesday in January next, un- less sooner revoked by a majority of the freemen of this State, every such power as you, the said John Wereat, Joseph Clay, Joseph Habersham, Humphrey Wells, William Few, John Dooly, Seth John Cuthbert, William Gibbons, senior, and My-
8
J
P
العلامة الناشر حوابـ
367
EXECUTIVE OR SUPREME COUNCIL.
. rick Davies, Esquires, or a majority of you shall deem necessary · for the safety and defence of the State and the good citizens thereof : taking care in all your proceedings to keep as near the spirit and meaning of the Constitution of the said State as may be.
" And you the said John Wereat, Joseph Clay, Joseph Haber- sham, Humphrey Wells, William Few, John Dooly, Seth John Cuthbert, William Gibbons, senior, and Myrick Davies, Esquires, or a majority of you hereby have full power and authority, and are authorized, empowered, and required, to elect fit and discrete persons to represent this State in Congress, and to instruct the delegates so chosen in such matters and things as will tend to the interest of this State in particular, and the United States of America in general : the said delegates taking care, from time to time, to transmit to you, the said Council, or other authority of the State for the time being, an account of their proceedings in Congress aforesaid : to regulate the public treasury of the said State, to borrow or otherwise negotiate loans for the public safety : to regulate the militia, and appoint an officer, if neces- sary, to command : to appoint, suspend, and discharge all civil officers if it shall be found expedient : to demand an account of all expenditures of public money, and to regulate the same, and, where necessary, order payments of money : to adopt some mode respecting the current money of this State, and for sinking the same : to direct and commission the Chief Justice of the State, or assistant Justices, or other Justices of the Peace, and other offi- cers of each County : to convene courts for the trial of offences cognizable by the laws of the land in such place or places as you shall think fit: always taking care that trial by Jury be pre- served inviolate, and that the proceedings had before such courts be in a summary way so that offenders be brought to a speedy trial and justice be amply done as well to the State as to the in- dividuals.
" You, or a majority of you, the said Council, have full power and hereby are requested, on conviction of offenders, to order punishment to be inflicted extending to death : and when objects deserving mercy shall be made known to you, to extend that merey and pardon the offence, remit all fines, mitigate corporal punishments, as the case may be, and as to you or a majority of you shall seem fit and necessary. And you, the said Council or a majority of you, at all times and places when and where you shall think fit. have hereby full power and competent authority
?
1
368
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
to meet, appoint your own President, settle your own rules, sit, consult, deliberate, advise, direct, and carry in execution all and every act, special and general, hereby delegated to you, and all and every such other acts, measures, and things as you or a ma- jority of you shall find expedient and necessary for the welfare, safety, and happiness of the freemen of this State.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.