USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume II > Part 51
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On the 4th of June, 1781, Captain Howell having entered the inlet of Sunbury learned from a negro that he had been sent out to catch fish for Mr. Kitchins, the collector of the port, with whom a party of British officers, both civil and military, were to dine that day, it being the king's birthday. Although Mr. Kitchins' house was within four hundred yards of the fort, now no longer called Morris but named by its captors George in honor of his majesty King George III., presuming that the assembled guests on this festive occasion would indulge freely and be found entirely off their guard, Captain Howell resolved upon their capture. Ascending the river with muffled oars and under cover of the night, the captain with twelve men passed the fort with- out attracting its notice, and, landing at Sunbury, surrounded the house about eleven o'clock and took the entire party, num- bering twelve persons, prisoners. Among the captured was Colo- nel Roger Kelsall, who had insulted and ill-treated Captain How- ell while he was a prisoner of war. Incensed at the recollection of these indignities, Captain Howell was on the eve of taking him out and drowning him in the river, when the prayers of the
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lady of the house induced him to spare his life. Exacting from his captives a pledge that they would not again take up'arms until regularly exchanged, Captain Howell repaired, without loss or molestation, to his privateer. Upon his return to the fort Kelsall observed that when he found himself in Captain Howell's power he anticipated early death. He admitted that he had no right to expect the lenient treatment which he received.
Manning his beats with twenty men from his privateer, Cap- tain Antony on the 12th of July proceeded up the Ogeechee River to capture a schooner laden with rice. He did gain pos- session of her, but before he could get her out he was intercepted by a British galley commanded by Captain Scallan. Taking to his boats Antony escaped to the shore with the loss of one man killed and another wounded. On the following night he rejoined his privateer. Two days afterwards Captain McCleur, within full view of the British armed vessels lying in Charlestown har- bor, took the sloop Brier, Captain William Roberts master, filled with West India produce, and carried her safely into a North Carolina port.
On the 18th of September the brigantine Dunmore, Captain Caldeleugh, mounting twelve guns, sailed from Sunbury for Ja- maica. She had no sooner crossed the bar than she was attacked by two American galleys, one of which was commanded by Cap- tain Braddock. A close contest ensued which lasted for four hours when the brigantine effected her escape. She was so much damaged that she was compelled to seek the port of Savannah for repairs. Upon resuming her voyage she was again attacked by Captain Braddock, but a second time succeeded in eluding him. In a gale of wind off Hilton Head the American galley Tyger, Captain McCumber, was capsized on the 20th of October. Two of her crew were drowned. Thirty of them, saved in open boats, joined Captain Howell the next day and assisted in the capture of two schooners freighted with rice, having thirty negro slaves on board, and bound for the West Indies. Before the schooners could be conveyed to a place of security Captain Scal- lan appeared in a galley with two boats and sixty men. Setting fire to the schooners, Captain Howell escaped with the negroes. Promptly taking possession of the schooners, the enemy saved them from the impending conflagration.
Trivial as these affairs, and others of like character, doubtless were, they will now be remembered as the best manifestations of activity on the sea which the patriots of Georgia in their im- poverished and enfeebled condition were capable of exhibiting.
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AFFAIR AT GREAT OGEECHEE FERRY.
In conducting his movement southward as far as Ebenezer Colonel Jackson had several skirmishes with the enemy who, as they retired, destroyed the bridges along his line of march and annoyed him wherever the cover of a thick wood afforded an opportunity.
To render secure the communication between Savannah and the lower counties the British maintained military posts at Great Ogeechee ferry and at Sunbury. General Twiggs, assisted by Jones, Irwin, Lewis, Carr, and others, had been very successful in rousing the patriotic ardor of the inhabitants and in swelling the ranks of the Revolutionists. He hoped soon to be strong enough to make an attack upon Savannah. From Burke County, late in October, he ordered Colonel Jackson, then at Ebenezer, with Stallings' dragoons, Mckay's riflemen, and Carr's volunteer dragoons, to attempt the surprise and reduction of the British post at Great Ogeechee ferry. While nearing that post on the 2d of November, Jackson fell in with a scouting party whom he captured without spreading any alarm, and actually appeared before the White House at the ferry before Captain Johnston, the English commander, was aware of his approach. So sud- denly did he fall upon this structure, which constituted the prin- cipal defense, that Captain Johnston agreed to surrender and was in the act of handing his sword to Colonel Jackson when Captain Goldsmith was killed by Captain Patrick Carr.1 Inferring from this unexpected and violent act that no quarter was to be given, Captain Jolinston sprang into the house and called upon his men to resume their arms and to sell their lives as dearly as possible. With so much vigor was the structure defended that "Jackson was not only compelled to relinquish what he deemed a certain conquest, but to retreat with the loss of Captain Grant and sev- eral of his men." At this juncture he was deserted by Mckay's riflemen who went off in quest of plunder.
Proceeding to Butler's house, distant a mile from the ferry, where were stationed fifteen loyalists under the command of Captain Howell who was lying sick abed, he carried that post which offered a stout resistance. Howell and five of his men were killed. Five others were captured.
In the vicinity was stationed Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, of
1 Ile was an Irishman by birth, a zeal- ous patriot, of great determination, but possessing a quick and ungovernable tem- per. With his own hand, during the
progress of the Revolution, he is said to have slain one hundred Tories. He was a terror to all loyalists.
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the British cavalry, with a portion of his regiment. When Jack- son retreated from the White House at the ferry, Johnston with his men and Captain Wylie with a detachment of Florida Ran- gers joined Campbell, thus swelling his ranks to an aggregate of eighty-five men. Jackson's command was now reduced to forty- nine dragoons officered by Stallings and Carr, and eight dis- mounted militiamen led by Captain William Greene.
About four o'clock in the afternoon the enemy advanced upon him. Placing his infantry in front he concealed his cavalry behind a hummock. As the British cavalry charged over this little body Jackson hurled his dragoons upon them, before whom they broke and fled for some distance. Finally they rallied behind a fence whence they could not be dislodged. Jackson in turn was forced to seek protection in an adjacent swamp. Under . cover of the night he retired toward Ebenezer.
In these skirmishes the Americans sustained a loss of six killed, five wounded, and five taken prisoners. Among the slain was Captain Greene, and among the captured Captain Bugg. The enemy lost two captains, one cornet, and nine privates killed, and thirty non-commissioned officers and privates wounded and captured.1
Upon his return to Ebenezer Colonel Jackson was reinforced so that his command numbered one hundred and fifty men. With this force he scoured the country, attacking the foraging parties of the enemy, and restoring to their former owners many negroes and much personal property which he found in the possession of the loyalists. Frequently did his command suffer for want of subsistence. Rations were limited to rice, and even this food was sometimes procured at great hazard and in small quantities. Corn was so scarce that every grain was husbanded to be used as seed. The country had been so trampled upon and plundered by the enemy that the barest necessaries of life were most difficult of procurement.
While General Twiggs 2 with his command was encamped in
1 See Charlton's Life of Jackson, Part general of the State's forces, and died at I. pp. 36, 37. Augusta. 1809. McCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii. pp. 393, 394. Savannah. 1816.
2 Famous was he among the partisan officers of Georgia during the war of the Revolution. Bravo, activo, intelligent, influential, he was a tower of strength, and a favorito leader of the patriots. Ilo subsequently roso to the rank of major-
his residence in Richmond County on the 5th of April, 1816. He lived to see his country triumph in two wars, and in time of peace filled various offices of trust and honor. Among them may be men- tioned tho positions of representative and senator in the General Assembly, and of trusteo both of Richmond Academy and of the University of Georgia.
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MURDER OF MYRICK DAVIES.
Burke County preparing for a demonstration against Savannah, he was diverted from his purpose by a body of loyalists and In- dians depredating upon the northwestern frontiers of the State. Falling upon them near the Oconee River he completely dispersed them, killing and capturing a number. On this expedition he was accompanied by Messrs. Myrick Davies, David Emanuel, and - Lewis, members of the executive council. About the middle of December, as his command was passing through Burke County, these gentlemen lagged behind. In an unguarded mo- ment they were set upon by a party of loyalists led by Captain Brantley. Emanuel and Lewis being mounted upon fleet horses effected their escape. Davies was overtaken and subsequently murdered by his inhuman captors.1 Too weak to hazard an as- sault upon the British lines around Savannah, General Twiggs hovered in the vicinity, driving back the foraging parties of the enemy, threatening their outposts, protecting the persons and property of such of the patriots as tarried in the region, and awaiting the arrival of reinforcements which General Greene promised to send so soon as they could possibly be spared.
In November the Cherokees, incited by Major William Cun- ningham of his majesty's service and a lawless set claiming him as commander, entered the northern settlements of Georgia, rob- bing and murdering as they journeyed. Taking advantage of this provocation, General Pickens, with three hundred men of his brigade and a hundred Georgians under Major John Cunning- ham, advanced into the Cherokee territory and burned every habitation and village south and cast of the mountains. IIe would have crossed the mountains, but was deterred by a deep fall of snow. Shortly after the return of this expedition the Cher- okees, associating some Creeks with them, entered upon another invasion of the Georgia territory. They were met beyond the Oconee River by Colonel Clarke, and Colonel Robert Anderson of Pickens' brigade, and were driven back.
It will be remembered that an act had been passed by the
1 White's account of this affair is some- what different. Ile states that after cap- ture by a party of loyalists under the command of Captain Brantley, Emanuel, Davios, and Lewis were conveyed to McBean's Creek where, upon consulta- tion, it was determined to shoot them. Brantley ordered a large fire to be kindled and compelled those gentlemen, disrobed 1855.
except as to their shirts, to stand before it. Three loyalists were detailed to shoot them. At the prisoners standing between them and the fire they discharged their weapons. Davies and Lewis fell dead, but Emanuel, unhurt, sprang over the fire and effected his escape. Historical Collections of Georgia, p. 221. New York.
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legislature of Georgia confiscating the property of sundry Roy- alists and adjudging the parties named guilty of high treason. Although the estates thus condemned had not yet been seized and sold, so confident were the republicans of ultimate success, and so pressing was the need of money, that the legislature which assembled in Augusta in January, 1782, anticipating the fund which was to be realized from the sale of those properties and pledging it in advance, authorized the issue of certificates to the amount of £22,100 sterling to meet the expenses requisite for the conduct of the government, and to the further amount of £15,000 to liquidate arrears due to tlie militia. These certificates were to be redeemed at par in gold and silver coin by the State after the sale of the confiscated property and from the moneys thence derived. Sad commentary upon the low ebb at which the public credit then stood! The truth is, unable to raise by taxation the necessary revenues, the General Assembly resorted to this, the only method it could devise, for satisfying demands the payment of which had long been deferred, and to provide for the emergencies of a present impecunious to the last degree.
" It is all over !" exclaimed Lord North with the deepest agita- tion and distress when the tidings of the surrender of Lord Corn- wallis first reached England. Fox heard with wild delight of the capitulation of Yorktown, and the speech of the king grew confused. " Give up all further attempts to reduce the revolted Colonies," urged Sir James Lowther, while the city of London entreated his majesty "to put an end to this unnatural and un- fortunate war." Lord George Germain was forced to retire from the cabinet. Edmund Burke wrote to Benjamin Franklin con- gratulating him upon the near advent of peace "between the two branches of the English Nation." Influences were at work which, before the lapse of many months, drew from Buckingham's ministry an assent to American independence.
The potent effect of this signal disaster upon the minds of the British soldiery in America, the junction of the auxiliary force under General St. Clair, and the recent successes of General Greene in South Carolina enabled that officer, in January, 1782, to re- deem his promise and turn his attention to the relief of Georgia. As he was on the eve of detaching General Wayne for this im- portant service he penned a letter to Governor Martin eminently wise, conservative, and replete with counsel most valuable. " I cannot help recommending to your Excellency to open a door for the disaffected of your Stato to come in, with particular excep-
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GENERAL WAYNE ENTERS GEORGIA.
tions. It is better to save than destroy, especially when we are obliged to expose good men to destroy bad. It is always danger- ous to push people to a state of desperation, and the satisfaction of revenge has but a momentary existence and is commonly suc- ceeded by pity and remorse. The practice of plundering which, I am told, has been too much indulged with you, is very destruc- tive to the morals and manners of the people. Habits and dis- positions founded on this practice soon grow obstinate and are difficult to restrain : indeed it is the most direct way of under- mining all government, and never fails to bring the laws into contempt, for people will not stop at the barriers which were first intended to bound them after having tasted the sweets of pos- sessing property by the easy mode of plunder. The preservation of morals and an encouragement to honest industry should be the first objects of government. Plundering is the destruction of both. I wish the cause of Liberty may never be tarnished with inhumanity, nor the morals of people bartered in exchange for wealth." The salutary influence of this communication was sub- sequently observed in the proclamations of Governor Martin and in the action of the legislature assembled to deal with problems connected with the restoration of republican power.
" To reinstate, as far as might be possible, the authority of the Union within the limits of Georgia " was the general mis- sion of the hero of Stony Point. He was accompanied by one hundred of Colonel Moylan's dragoons commanded by Colonel Anthony Walton White, and a detachment of field artillery. On the 12th of January he crossed the Savannah River in small boats, the cavalry horses swimming by their sides. His artillery was left behind until suitable transportation could be procured. He was soon joined by Colonel Hampton with three hundred mounted men from General Sumter's brigade. The infantry and cavalry of Jackson's legion then numbered only ninety men. McCoy's volunteer corps did not exceed eighty, all told. To these Governor Martin hoped to add three hundred Georgia militia.
So soon as the governor and General Assembly were notified of General Wayne's entry into Georgia, a committee of the executive council was appointed to wait upon him and devise measures for carrying into practical operation the suggestions contained in General Greene's letter to Governor Martin. This conference resulted in the preparation of two proclamations : one opening the door for the return of disaffected Georgians to re-
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publican ranks, and the other encouraging desertions from the enemy. The latter was particularly addressed to the Hessian troops who were already in sympathy with the Salzburgers at Ebenezer. These proclamations were not without decided effect, and excited no little dissatisfaction among the citizens and sol- diery in Savannah. " Many of the former citizens," says Ste- vens,1 " who had been compelled from various causes to take protection under the British Government and who had even joined the armies of the enemy, availed themselves of the door opened by the proclamation which had special reference to them, returned to their state allegiance, and joined the camp of Gen- eral Wayne, proving their sincerity by the most zealous efforts to merit the pardon and protection extended to them by the executive."
The duty assigned to General Wayne of keeping a close watch upon the enemy and, if the occasion presented, of attempt- ing the capture of Savannah by a nocturnal assault, was so effi- ciently discharged that predatory bands of soldiers and loyalists were seldom seen beyond the lines of that town. The customary intercourse of the Indians with the garrison was largely re- strained. That garrison, including the reinforcement recently sent by Lord Rawdon and a corps of one hundred and fifty negroes armed and enrolled as infantry and commanded by the notorious Brown, consisted of thirteen hundred regular troops and about five hundred loyal militia. The town itself was strongly fortified. Its land approaches were suitably defended by field and siege guns judiciously posted. Armed row-galleys and brigs covered the water front. So closely were these lines watched and so strictly were the British forces confined to their defenses that the gallant Jackson on more than one occasion demonstrated almost up to the town gates and picked off men and horses from the common.
As soon as the advance of the American forces under General Wayne was known in Savannah, Brigadier-General Alured Clarke, who commanded the royal troops in Georgia, " directed his officers, charged with his outposts, to lay waste the country with fire and to retire with their troops and all the provisions they could collect into Savannah." This order was rigidly executed and the circumjacent district was devastated. "In consequence whereof, Wayne found it necessary to draw his sub- sistence from South Carolina, which added to the difficulties
1 History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 273. Philadelphia. 1859.
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daily experienced in providing for the main army." General Henry Lee, in his " Memoirs," compliments in high terms Gen- eral Wayne's conduct during this period. " While in command before Savannah," so he writes, "his orders, his plans, his motions, all bespoke foresight and vigilance ; and although he played a hazardous game, he not only avoided detriment or affront, but added to the honor of our arms."
Writing to General Greene, under date of February 28, 1782, General Wayne conveys this impression of his situation and labors : "The duty we have done in Georgia was more diffi- cult than that imposed upon the children of Israel. They had only to make bricks without straw, but we have had provision, forage, and almost every other apparatus of war to procure without money : boats, bridges, &c. to build without materials except those taken from the stump : and, what was more difficult than all, to make Whigs out of Tories. But this we have effected, and have wrested the country out of the hands of the enemy, with the exception only of the town of Savannah. How to keep it without some additional force is a matter worthy of consider- ation."
Anxious to enlarge the limits of the civil authority, Governor Martin, so soon as General Wayne had permanently established his headquarters at Ebenezer, removed the seat of government to that town.
During this period of the practical investment of Savannah the enterprise, watchfulness, and intrepidity of Colonel Jackson were beyond all praise. For desperate adventures was he selected by his commander, and it was his ambition to strike the enemy whenever he presented a vulnerable point. At Cuthbert's saw- mill, on the 13th of February, 1782, he was attacked by Colonel Hezekiah Williams and came off victorious. Thirteen days af- terwards, with thirty dragoons, he succeeded by night in dislodg- ing the picket and in burning the rice barn upon Governor Wright's plantation situated only a half mile southeast of Sa- vannah. Major Barnwell was not so successful in his attempt to destroy the rice on Hutchinson's Island.
The savage ferocity displayed by the enemy on occasions may be inferred from the following communication penned by General Wayne, and dated Headquarters, Ebenezer, 26th of March, 1782 : "On receiving intelligence that the enemy were on the point of moving out in force, I determined to more than meet them, and to avail myself of circumstances and position, from a conviction
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that although our numbers were not so great as I could wish, yet we were not to be disgraced, and that if we could possibly pro- duce disorder in their ranks the enemy would have no reason to triumph from the encounter. Our advance guard fell in with a party of their dragoons three miles from Savannah, whom they immediately charged and drove into the lines, and then sounded a charge within the influence of their batteries. This temerity in the officer drew the enemy out in force, and, in falling back before them one of his dragoons was killed. However, as soon as they discovered that the advance was supported, they retired into their works, bearing off the scalp of the dragoon, with which they paraded the streets of Savannah, headed by the lieutenant- governor and other British officers who gave an entertainment to the Indians and had a dance on the occasion.
" Nor did their barbarity rest here. They mangled and disfig- ured the dead body in a manner that none but wretches inured in acts of cruelty would possibly be capable of, and ordered it to remain unburied. But the Ethiopians, more humanized, stole it away and deposited it in the ground ; for the commission of which crime a reward of five guineas is offered for the discovery of any person or persons concerned in that act of humanity."
Are we to believe that association with the red savage, a desire to conciliate his barbaric friendship, and a bitter hatred of the descendants of Englishmen struggling to be free had thus bru- talized the sensibilities and depraved the conduct of British sol- diery ?
Ever since Savannah passed into the hands of the enemy it had become a favorite resort of the Creeks and Cherokees. There were deputations entertained. There were royal presents distrib- uted, and there were hatched schemes for the annoyance of the republicans. Knowing that Indian parties were still visiting that town, and desirous of either winning them over to the American cause or of inducing them to remain neutral in the pending strug- gle, General Wayne dispatched Major John Habersham, accom- panied by Major Francis Moore in command of some South Car- olina cavalry and attended by some mounted militia led by Captain Patrick Carr, to intercept and conciliate them. Repre- senting himself to be Colonel Brown, with whose name and reputation the red nations were quite familiar, Major Habersham was at first successful in his efforts. His plan was subsequently foiled by the indiscretion and disobedience of a lieutenant who, with a portion of the mounted militia, slew several of the Indians
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and then, making a rapid descent upon Sunbury, killed eleven loyalists, residents of that town. Major Moore, too, learning that the Creek Indians had stolen some horses on the frontier of Liberty County, selecting fifteen men, went in pursuit of them. Overtaking them at Reid's Bluff, he attempted at first to circum- vent them by offers of amity. Undeceived by the stratagem, the savages sought the protection of a log house, and, in the skirmish which ensued, Moore was killed and Smith wounded. Captain Nephew, second in command, then ordered a retreat. Smith, upon the departure of his companions, was seized and put to death by the Indians. These and similar transactions defeated Habersham's mission. Henceforward the sword, and not diplo- macy, was needed to interrupt the relations existing between the British and the Indians. In April General Wayne was reinforced by one hundred and fifty Virginians, commanded by Colonel Posey. This accession was very opportune, as the terms of ser- vice of many of the Georgia and South Carolina militiamen had expired, and they required, in the language of the commanding general, " some respite from duty and fatigue which they had gone through with cheerfulness and fortitude becoming the vir- tuous citizens of America." These Virginians, having marched three hundred miles, were destitute of shoes, shirts, and overalls, and there were no stores at hand from which their wants could be supplied. Even the governor of the State and his family were dependent for subsistence upon rations issued by the commissary. Since his induction into office he had not received from the public treasury money sufficient to procure the necessaries of life. His poverty and the inability of the State to pay his salary evoked from the legislature on the 4th of May a resolution empowering Governor Martin to take ten negroes belonging to any person or persons who had forfeited the same, and appropriate the proceeds arising from their sale to the support of himself and family while he continued in the administration of governmental affairs. A committee of the House, having inspected certain articles for- warded by Captain Ignatius Few to the governor on public ac- count, found them to consist of seventy-five pounds of sugar, nine bushels of salt, and twenty-three gallons of rum. The following disposition of them was ordered: To the president of the coun- cil, two gallons of rum, ten pounds of sugar, and two quarts of salt; to each member of council one gallon of rum, five pounds of sugar, and one quart of salt ; to the messenger of the board, five pounds of sugar, a quart of salt, and a half gallon of
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