USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 11
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In the warmest part of the contest the flagstaff was severed by a cannon-ball, and the flag fell to
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SERGEANT JASPER.
the bottom of the ditch on the outside of the works : this accident was considered by the anx- ious inhabitants of Charleston as putting an end to the contest by striking the American flag to the enemy.
The moment Jasper made the discovery that the flag had fallen, he jumped from one of the embrasures, and seizing the colours, which he had tied to a sponge-staff, supported them on the parapet until another flag was procured. His subsequent activity and enterprise induced Colo- nel Moultrie to give him a sort of a roving commission to go and come at pleasure ; confi- dent that he was always usefully employed.
He was privileged to select such men from the regiment as he should choose to accompany him in his enterprises. His parties consisted gene- rally of five or six, and he often returned with prisoners before Moultrie was apprized of his ab- sence. Jasper was distinguished for his humane treatment when an enemy fell into his power. His ambition appears to have been limited to the characteristic of bravery, humanity, and useful- ness to the cause in which he was engaged.
When it was in his power to kill but not to capture, it was his practice not to permit a single prisoner to escape. By his sagacity and enter- prise, he often succeeded in the capture of those who were lying in ambush for him. In one of his excursions, an instance of bravery and hu-
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
manity is recorded by the biographer of General Marion, which would stagger credulity, if it were not well attested.
While he was examining the British camp at Ebenezer, all the sympathy of his breast was awakened by the distresses of Mrs. Jones, whose husband, an American by birth, had received the king's protection, and had been confined in irons for deserting the royal cause after he had taken the oath of allegiance. Her well-founded belief was, that nothing short of the life of her husband would atone for the offence with which he was charged.
Jasper secretly consulted with his companion, Sergeant Newton, whose feelings for the distressed female were equally excited with his own, upon the practicability of releasing Jones from his im- pending fate.
Though they were unable to suggest a plan of operation, they were determined to watch for the most favourable opportunity, and make the effort. The departure of Jones and several others (all in irons) to Savannah, for trial, under a guard con- sisting of a sergeant, corporal, and eight men, was ordered upon the succeeding morning.
Within two miles of Savannah, about thirty yards from the main road, is a spring of fine water, surrounded by a deep and thick under- wood, where travellers often halt to refresh themselves with a cool draught from the pure
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RESCUE OF AMERICANS.
fountain. Jasper and his companion considered this spot the most favourable for their enterprise. They accordingly passed the guard, and concealed themselves near the spring.
When the enemy came up, the corporal, with his guard of four men, conducted the prisoners to the spring, while the sergeant, with the other four, having grounded their arms near the road, brought up the rear. The prisoners, wearied with their long walk, were permitted to rest themselves on the earth. Two of the corporal's men were ordered to keep guard, and the other two to give the prisoners drink out of their canteens.
The last two approached the spring where our heroes lay concealed, and resting their muskets against the tree, dipped up water; and having drunk themselves, turned away, with replenished canteens, to give the prisoners also. "Now, Newton, is our time !" said Jasper. Then burst- ing from their concealment, they snatched up the two muskets that were rested against the tree, and instantly shot down the two soldiers that kept guard.
By this time the sergeant and corporal, a couple of brave Englishmen, recovering from their panic, had sprung and seized up the two muskets which had fallen from the slain : but before they could use them, the Americans, with clubbed guns, levelled each at the head of his antagonist the final blow. Then securing their weapons,
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
they flew between the surviving enemy and their arms, grounded near the road, and compelled them to surrender.
The irons were taken off, and arms put in the hands of those who had been prisoners, and the whole party arrived at Purysburgh the next morn- ing and joined the American camp. There are but few instances upon record where personal ex- ertions, even for self-preservation from certain prospect of death, would have induced a resort to an act so desperate of execution.
After the gallant defence at Sullivan's Island, Colonel Moultrie's regiment was presented with a stand of colours by Mrs. Elliot, which she had richly embroidered with her own hands; and as a reward for Jasper's particular merit, Governor Rutledge presented him with a very handsome sword. During the assault against Savannah, as previously stated, two officers had been killed, and one wounded, endeavouring to plant these colours upon the enemy's parapet of the Spring Hill redoubt; when, just before the retreat was ordered, Jasper endeavoured to replace them upon the works, and while he was in the act, received his mortal wound and fell into the ditch. When a retreat was ordered, he recollected the honour- able conditions upon which the donor presented the colours to his regiment, and among the last acts of his life, succeeded in bringing them off.
Major Horry called to see him soon after tho
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COUNT PULASKI.
retreat, to whom it is said he made the following communication : " I have got my furlough. That sword was presented to me by Governor Rutledge, for my services in the defence of Fort Moultrie : give it to my father, and tell him I have worn it in honour. If the old man should weep, tell him his son died in the hope of a better life. Tell Mrs. Elliot that I lost my life supporting the colours which she presented to our regiment. Should you ever see Jones, his wife and son, tell them that Jasper is gone, but that the remem- brance of that battle, which he fought for them, brought a secret joy into his heart when it was about to stop its motion for ever." He expired a few moments after closing this sentence.
Count Pulaski, who fell mortally wounded dur- ing the same assault, was a native of Poland, whose king, Stanislaus, had been raised to the throne, not by the customary voices of the people, but by the influence of the Empress of Russia.
Indignant at this innovation on the elective franchise, a number of patriotic nobles, among the foremost of whom was Pulaski, confederated together to rescue their country from foreign in- fluence by force of arms. Pulaski, for his high character and military enterprise, was elected their general.
Finding the force and resources of the confe- derates unequal to the objects they had in view, Pulaski applied to France for assistance, and was
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
secretly encouraged and supplied with money. A number of French officers also engaged as vo- lunteers in his service ; but the numbers that joined his standard were not sufficient to enable him to achieve more than partial success.
At length, the confederates determined to seize on the person of the king. A party selected for that purpose attacked and wounded him in the streets of Warsaw. They succeeded in bearing him off a prisoner ; but the guard deserted, and suffered Stanislaus to escape to his palace. Shortly after this, Russia, supported by Prussia and Aus- tria, sent troops into Poland, and under the plau- sible pretext of aiding Stanislaus in the recovery of his rights, stripped him of the greater part of his territories. The confederates sued for peace and pardon : Pulaski, and others of the chiefs, fled to France. The American ministers, to whom he was made known at Paris, recommended Pu- laski to the consideration of Congress, from whom he received, on his arrival, the appointment of brigadier-general of cavalry.
The remainder of Pulaski's life was devoted to the service of the United States ; and it may be truly said, that on all occasions when he had an opportunity to act, " he sought the post of dan- ger, as the post of honour ;" welcomed every op- portunity of being engaged with the enemy, and was always foremost in the day of battle.
After being wounded in the attack on Savan-
193
DEATH OF PULASKI.
nah, the vessel in which he was being conveyed to Charleston having a long passage, he died at sea, and his body was launched and sunk beneath the waves. The funeral rites were performed in Charleston with military honours. The death of that gallant officer was greatly lamented by all the Americans and French who had witnessed his valour or knew how to appreciate his merits.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Sufferings of the Georgians-Mrs. McIntosh-The forged let- ter-Skirmish at Ogechee Ferry-Siege and surrender of Charleston-Removal of the Georgia records-Governor Howley-Defection of Brigadier-general Williamson-Mur- der of Colonel Dooley-Inhuman treatment of Mrs. McKay -Defeat of the loyalists by Jones-Skirmish at Wafford's Iron-works-Clarke defeats the British at Musgrove's Mill.
NOTHING could exceed the deplorable condition of Georgia after the repulse of the allied forces before Savannah. Flushed with the hope of ex- pelling the enemy, many patriotic men, regard- less of the danger to which their families would be exposed, had joined the standard of Lincoln, and were now to suffer the fearful calamities which always attend disastrous issues.
Future protection was not to be expected ; and nothing remained for them but the halter and confiscation from the British, or exile for them- selves, and poverty and ill-treatment, by an inso-
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
lent enemy, for their wives and children, who were ordered forthwith to depart the country without the means for travelling, or any other means, but a reliance on charity for subsistence on their way.
The families of McIntosh, Twiggs, and Clarke, with numerous others, experienced hardships and distresses of the most afflicting character. That of Colonel Twiggs, while removing under the protection of a flag, was fired upon and a young man killed who was of the party.
The family of General McIntosh was reduced from affluence to extreme want. On reaching Virginia, Mrs. McIntosh was obliged to apply to Governor Jefferson for relief from absolute want. He furnished her with ten thousand dollars in continental money, but so greatly was its value depreciated, that it required seven hundred dol- lars to purchase a single pair of shoes.
The house of Colonel Clarke was pillaged and burned, and his family ordered to leave the state, With no other means of conveyance than a pony of little value, Mrs. Clarke and her two daugh- ters set out for the north. Poor as it was, the horse was soon wrested from them, and the un- fortunate females compelled to traverse on foot an enemy's country, thinly inhabited, and with- out any means of subsistence.
After Savannah had fallen into the hands of the enemy, the legislature dispersed without ap-
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ATROCIOUS FORGERY.
pointing a governor for the ensuing year. John Werreat, esquire, president of the council, acting as governor, issued on the 4th of November, 1779, a proclamation representing the necessity of convening the legislature, and fixing the second Tuesday of the same month for the elec- ' tion of members, who were to meet at Augusta without delay. 1
Fearful, however, that the British would seize upon Augusta before the authorized election could take place, a number of gentlemen, chosen from the county of Richmond alone, formed themselves into a body under the name of the general assembly; by whom William Glascock was chosen speaker, and George Walton, esquire, governor of the state.
During the session of this legislature a letter was forged in the name of William Glascock, the speaker, and sent to the President of Congress. This letter, written by some rancorous enemy of General McIntosh, falsely stated that his pre- sence in his native state gave neither satisfaction to the militia nor the confederated patriots ; and strongly urged upon Congress to select some dis- tant field for the exercise of the abilities of that officer. .
Fortunately, a copy of the letter was forwarded to General McIntosh and, instantly enclosed to Mr. Glascock, by whom, and by the body over which he presided, its contents were indignantly
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
disavowed, and the attorney-general ordered to search out and prosecute its author.
In the mean time, the Georgians whose pro- perty had been confiscated were active in devising means for its recovery and removal to places of security. On the other hand, the loyalists were as energetic in their attempts to intercept it. Skirmishes and reprisals occurred continually, and with various success. Colonels Twiggs, Dooley, Clarke, Few, and Jones were still engaged in par- tisan warfare ; sometimes on the frontiers against the Indians, and sometimes in attacking the de- tached parties of the British.
To repress these outbreaks, General Provost ordered Captain Conklin, with a force of sixty- four men, to proceed to Governor Wright's plan- tation and disperse the Americans who were col- lected, to the number of sixty, at that place.
At the Ogechee Ferry, Conklin was discovered while in the act of crossing over, but was suf- fered by Pickens and Twiggs to pass the river without interruption ; they encouraged the ad- vance of the enemy by exhibiting only twenty militia dragoons, under the command of Captain Inman. In th. early part of the skirmish which ensued, Captain Conklin received a mortal wound. Lieutenant Roney, finding his situation critical, resorted to the bayonet, with which he made a desperate charge, and was also wounded. En- sign Supple's detachment was pressed closely by
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CHARLESTON TAKEN.
Captain Inman's dragoons, and compelled to retreat through the swamp in a rice-field, where he knew the dragoons could not carry the pur- suit. He rejoined his party, and ordered the wounded to be carried to the boats. He kept up a retreating fire until he reached the river, which he recrossed. Of the enemy, two pri- vates were killed and seven wounded : among the latter were the first and second officers in the command.
Finding that the impressions made upon the northern states were but transitory, the British. generals determined to subjugate those of the south. Accordingly, on the 1st of April, 1780, Charleston was invested by land and blockaded by sea. The siege was continued until the 12th of May, when the works being considered no longer tenable, General Lincoln surrendered the city to the British army and navy.
By the fall of Charleston, General McIntosh, with the remnant of the Georgia brigade, all the other continental troops in the southern depart- ment, several thousands of the militia, and the residue of the ordnance and military stores in the southern states, fell into the hands of the enemy.
The situation of the Governor of Georgia at Augusta being no longer safe, he retreated with part of his council, and a number of his civil officers to North Carolina, and narrowly escaped capture by the way.
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
Colonel Heard, president of the council, with several other members, retired to Wilkes county, where the semblance of a government was still kept up.
The records of the state had been previously removed to Charleston; they were now sent to North Carolina. Upon the passage of the British army through the latter state, the Georgia records were carried to Maryland, where they remained until the close of the war.
During the brief administration of Governor Howley, the gay and joyous temperament of that gentleman, and of his secretary of state, sustained the spirits of the fugitive council from sinking into gloom and despondency.
The value of paper money was at that time so depreciated, that the governor dealt it out by the quire for a night's lodging for his party ; and if the fare was any thing extraordinary, the land- lord was compensated with two quires, the gover- nor gravely signing a draft upon the treasurer made out in due form for the delivery of the same.
Public opinion about this time was strongly agitated in reference to the eccentric movements of Brigadier-general Williamson. He was en-
camped with three hundred men, near Augusta, and by his continual prevarications and delays induced many influential persons to suspect that Williamson was by no means averse to being captured by the enemy.
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WILLIAMSON'S TREACHERY.
1
The editor of the Royal Gazette of Georgia boldly charged Williamson not only with having the king's protection in his pocket, but that he had agreed to accept a colonel's commission from the same source. The result justified the charge. Williamson did, soon after, encourage the sur- render of his brigade; infamously accepted the proffered commission of a royalist colonel, and until the close of the war, warmly advocated the re-establishment of the government of the crown. Almost simultaneous with the defection of Wil- liamson, Colonel Brown, with a detachment of royalist forces, took military possession of Au- gusta.
But there were, even in these desperate times, a few noble hearted patriots who would not de- spair of eventually saving their country. Colonel Elijah Clarke had embodied three hundred men in Wilkes county, and Colonels Jones and Few, commanding two detachments of a similar de- scription, as soon as they were advised of the treachery of Williamson, retreated across the country and joined their forces to those already collected by Clarke. Immediately after occupy- ing Augusta, Colonel Brown despatched emis- saries into the country, with authority to give protection and administer the oath of allegiance to the British crown. One of these parties en- tered the house of Colonel John Dooley at a late hour of the night, and barbarously murdered him
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
in the presence of his wife and children. The loss of so energetic a partisan as Colonel Dooley, was severely felt among the patriots, and was one among the many causes of those terrible measures of retaliation which were afterward enforced.
Previous to the murder of Colonel Dooley, a detachment was sent by McGirth into the neigh- bourhood of Captain McKay, in South Carolina. In two days seventeen men were massacred on their farms, and the whole of a flourishing coun- try of thirty miles in length, and ten in breadth, was desolated by these banditti.
Disappointed in their expectations of getting possession of McKay's person, they resorted to the torture of his wife to extort from her a know- ledge of the place of his concealment. The mode of inflicting the torture was by taking a flint out of the lock of a musket, and putting her thumb in its place. The screw was applied, until the thumb was ready to burst. While under this new species of torture, which would have disgraced the most savage nation in the world, in addition to the questions put to her respecting her hus- band, she was required to disclose the secret deposit of his most valuable property, which they alleged had been removed and hidden in the woods. If McKay was afterward charged with inhumanity to those whom he captured, the gross outrage just narrated must be admitted as afford- ing at least some palliation for his conduct.
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NANCY HART.
It was at this bloody period of the war that the well-known incident occurred, which, though va- riously related, has never been so well told as in the following account by Mrs. Ellet :-
" In a portion of Wilkes-now Elbert county -called by tories, "The Hornest's Nest," on account of the number of whigs among the in- habitants, a stream named ‹ War-woman's Creek,' joined Broad River. It was so called on account of a zealous tory-hating heroine who lived on its
banks. On the occasion of an excursion from the British camp at Augusta, into the interior for the purpose of pillage and murder, five loyalists separated from their party, and crossed the river to examine the neighbourhood and pay a visit to their old acquaintance, Nancy Hart. When they arrived at her cabin, they unceremoniously en- tered it, and informed her they had come to learn the truth of a story, that she had secreted a noted rebel from a party of ' king's men,' who, but for her interference, would have caught and hung him. Nancy undauntedly avowed her agency in the fugitive's escape. She had heard at first, she said, the tramp of a horse, and then saw a man on horseback approaching her cabin. As soon as she knew him to be a whig flying from pursuit, she let the down the bars in front of her cabin, and motioned him to pass through both doors and take to the swamp. She then put up the bars, entered the cabin, and closed the doors.
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
Presently some tories rode up to the bars, calling vociferously for her. She muffled up her head and face, and opening the door, inquired why they disturbed a sick, lone woman. They said they had traced a man they wanted to catch near to her house, and asked if any one on horseback had passed that way. She answered no, but that she saw some one on a sorrel horse turn out of the path into the woods, two or three hundred yards back. ' That must be the fellow !' said the tories ; and asking her direction as to the way he took, they turned about and went off, ' well-fooled,' concluded Nancy, 'in an opposite course to that of my whig boy, when, if they had not been so lofty-minded, but had looked on the ground inside the bars, they would have seen his horse's tracks up to that door, as plain as you can see the tracks on this floor, and out of t'other door down the path to the swamp.'
" This bold story did not much please the tory party, but they contented themselves with order- ing her to prepare them something to eat. She replied that she never fed traitors and king's men if she could help it-the villains having put it out of her power to feed even her own family and friends, by stealing and killing all her poul- try and pigs, ' except that one old gobbler you see in the yard.' ' And that you shall cook for us,' said one who appeared to be a leader ; and raising his musket he shot down the turkey, which
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NANCY HART.
another brought in and handed to Mrs. Hart to be cleaned and cooked without delay. She stormed a while, but seeming at last disposed to make a merit of necessity, began with alacrity the arrangements for cooking, assisted by her daugh- ter, a little girl ten or twelve years old.
" The spring-of which every settlement had one near-was just at the edge of the swamp ; and a short distance within the swamp was hid among the trees a high snag-topped stump, on which was placed a conch-shell. This rude trumpet was used by the family to convey information, by va- riations in its notes, to Hart or his neighbours, who might be at work in a field or 'clearing' at hand-to let them know that the ' Britishers' or tories were about-that the master was wanted at the cabin-or that he was to keep close, or ' make tracks' for another swamp. While cook- ing the turkey, Nancy sent her daughter to the spring for water, with directions to blow the conch in such a way as should inform her father there were tories in the cabin; and that he was to keep close with his three neighbours until he should again hear the signal.
" While the men, who had become merry over their jug of liquor, were feasting upon the slaugh- tered gobbler, Nancy waited on the table, and occasionally passed between them and their mus- kets. She had contrived that there should be no water in the cabin; and when it was called for,
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
despatched Sukey a second time to the spring, with instructions to blow such a signal on the conch as should call up Hart and his neighbours immediately. Meanwhile she had managed by slipping out one of the pieces of pine which form a ' chinking' between the logs of a cabin, to open a space through which she was able to pass to the outside two of the five guns. She was detected in the act of putting out the third. The men sprang to their feet, when, quick as thought, Nancy brought the piece she held, to her shoul- der, declaring she would kill the first man who approached her. The men arriving from the field, the tories were taken prisoners, and, sad to relate ! received no more mercy than had some of the whigs at the hands of their enemies."
During the month of June, Colonel Clarke was actively engaged in collecting additional troops, and in concerting with the authorities of South Carolina the plan of a campaign against the enemy.
Agreeably to appointment, on the 11th of July, one hundred and forty men, well mounted and armed, reached the rendezvous at Freeman's Fort; but as the British and loyalists were in force in his front, Clarke proposed to disband his men for a time, and wait until a more favourable opportunity occurred for carrying out his designs.
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