[Illustration: 9719]
HE rail-way journey from Orangeburg to Augusta was extremely monotonous
in scenery and incident. At Branchville, on the banks of the Edisto,
where the rail-way from Charleston connects, the immobility into which
the passengers were subsiding was disturbed by the advent among us of a
"turban'd Turk," in full Oriental costume. His swarthy complexion, keen
eye, flowing black beard, broad turban, tunic, and trowsers, made him
the "observed of all observers," and kept the passengers awake for an
hour, for "Yankee curiosity" was too busy to allow drowsiness. "Whence
I came, and whither I go, ye know not," were as plain as a written
phylactery upon his imperturbable features, and I presume the crowd
who gathered around him in the street at Augusta knew as little of his
history and destiny as we. It is pleasant sometimes to see curiosity
foiled, even though=
```"It came from heaven--it reigned in Eden's shades--
```It roves on earth, and every walk invades:
```Childhood and age alike its influence own;
```It haunts the beggar's nook, the monarch's throne;
```Hangs o'er the cradle, leans above the bier,
```Gazed on old Babel's tower--and lingers here."
`````--Charles Sprague.=
The scenery by the way-side alternated between oozy swamps embellished
with cypresses, cultivated fields, and extensive forests of oak and
pine, garnished occasionally by a tall broad-leaved magnolia. The country
was perfectly level through Barnwell District, until we passed Aiken
into Edgefield, and turned toward Silver Bluff, on the Savannah River, *
when we encountered the sand hills of that region. These continued until
we reached the termination of the road at Hamburg, on the northern
bank of the Savannah, opposite Augusta.' There we were packed into huge
omnibuses, and conveyed to the city across Schultz's bridge.[[January
24, 1849]] It was sunset--a glorious sunset, like those at the north in
September--when we reined up at the _United States_. A stroll about the
city by moon-light that evening, with a Northern friend residing there,
was really delightful; for the air was balmy and dry, and the moon and
stars had nothing of the crisp, piercing, and glittering aspect which
they assume in a clear January night in New England.
Early on the following morning we rode over to Hamburg, and ascended to
the summit of Liberty Hill, a lofty sand bluff, three fourths of a mile
from the river. Flowers were blooming in the gardens on its brow; and
over its broad acres green grass and innumerable cacti were spread. The
view from this eminence was charming. At our feet lay the little village
of Hamburg, and across the shining Savannah was spread out in panoramic
beauty the city of Augusta--the queen of the inland towns of the South.
Like a sea in repose, the level country extended in all directions; and
city, river, forest, and plain were bathed in the golden haziness which
characterizes our Indian summer at the North. From that point the eye
could survey the whole historic arena around Augusta, where Royalists
and Republicans battled, failed, and triumphed during our war for
independence. While the spirit is charmed with associations awakened by
the gleanings of sensuous vision, let us for a moment open the tome of
history, and give inquiring thought free wing.
* For an account of the capture of Fort Galphin or Dreadnought, at
Silver Bluff, see page 690.
** This village was projected by a German named Schultz, who called it
Hamburg, in honor of the "free city" of that name in his native land.
He also built the noble bridge across the Savannah at that place,'
delineated on page 715.
[[[Local History of Augusta.--Growth of Democratic
Principles.--Republican Legislature and Governor.]]]
{710}Augusta has a history anterior to the Revolution. Her local
historians have preserved but little of it which is of general interest,
and its records do not bear date back to that period. It was founded in
1735, under the auspices of Oglethorpe; and in 1736, a small garrison
was stationed there, in a stockade fort, as a protection for the
settlers against any enemy that might appear. Warehouses were built, and
quite an extensive trade was opened with the friendly Indians upon the
Savannah and its tributaries. Fort Augusta became a general resort for
the Indian traders; and there, and at Fort Moore, on the bluff near
Sand-bar Ferry, all the Indian treaties were held, down to the year
1750. In 1751, several Quaker families settled there and at a place
called Quaker Springs. When French emissaries, about 1754, stirred up
the Indian tribes against the English, the fort was strengthened, its
magazine was well supplied, and the men were "mustered and drilled for
service." Nothing of importance occurred to disturb the quiet of the
people, and the settlement flourished. Living in almost unrestrained
freedom, far away from the sea-board and its varieties, the agitations
wrought throughout the colonies by the Stamp Act and kindred measures,
scarcely elicited a thought from the quiet people of this region; but
when, month after month, intelligence arrived that chains were forging
to fetter their free spirits, they were aroused, and all through the
region between the Alatamaha and Savannah Rivers, and especially in the
vicinity of Augusta, the Tree of Liberty budded and blossomed, green,
vigorous, and beautiful as the native magnolia. Although Georgia was not
represented in the first Continental Congress, yet her children were not
less alive to the teachings of the spirit of liberty; and the _American
Association_ was early approved, and its operations efficiently
established. The lines between Whigs and Tories were distinctly drawn,
and the requirements of the association were promptly enforced. *
When the British attacked Savannah, in March, 1776, the Legislature,
a majority of which was inimical to the royal government, adjourned
to Augusta, where the people were generally friendly. On the fall of
Savannah, in 1779, the Legislature was dispersed. John Wereat, then
president of the executive council, issued a proclamation, ordering an
election of legislators, who were to assemble at Augusta. That town now
became the center of Republican power in Georgia, and thither the most
active friends of the patriot cause at Savannah fled. George Walton, one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was chosen governor
under the Constitution (adopted in 1777), ** notwithstanding Sir James
Wright had now[[1779]] re-established royal rule in the province.
William Glascock was chosen speaker, and the Legislature transacted
business without reference to the existence of any other power in the
state. ***
For the encouragement and support of the Loyalists in the interior,
and to awe the Republicans in that quarter after the fall of Savannah,
Colonel Campbell, who commanded at
* At about mid-summer in 1775, Thomas Brown and William Thompson having
openly reviled the cause of the Whigs, and at a dinner-party gave toasts
in which the friends of that cause were ridiculed, the Parish Committee
of Safety ordered their arrest. Thompson escaped into South Carolina,
but Brown, who attempted to flee with him, was captured and brought
back. He was tried, and sentenced to be tarred and feathered, and
publicly exposed in a cart, to be drawn three miles, or until he was
willing to confess his error, and take his oath that he would espouse
the cause of the Republicans. He chose the latter course; but he was not
a very warm Republican long. His course illustrated the fact that
"He who's convinced against his will,
Remains to be convinced still."
for he joined the British army, was made lieutenant colonel, and
afterward, while commandant of Augusta, fiercely retaliated upon the
Whigs.
** John Adam Trueitlen was chosen the first governor under the new
Constitution. He was succeeded in 1778, by John Houstoun; and after the
fall of Savannah, Sir James Wright, the last of the royal governors,
re-established British rule in the state.
*** A curious legislative act occurred during this session. A resolution
was passed censuring Governor Walton for having transmitted a letter
to the President of Congress, "containing unjust and illiberal
representations respecting General M'Intosh." The attorney general was
ordered to prosecute the governor. On the day preceding the passage
of these resolutions, the same Legislature had elected Governor Walton
chief justice of Georgia. He was thereby made president of the only
tribunal competent to try him! To have condemned himself would have been
an exercise of "Roman virtue" hardly to be expected.
[[[Tories under Colonel Boyd.--Augusta in possession of the
British.--Partisan Skirmishes.--General Elbert.]]]
{711}the siege of that city, was ordered by General Prévost to advance
with about two thousand regulars and Loyalists,[[Jan. 1779]] upon
Augusta.' Already he had sent emissaries among the South Carolina Tories
to encourage them to make a general insurrection; and he assured them
that, if they would cross the Savannah and join him at Augusta, the
Republicans might be easily crushed, and the whole South freed from
their pestilential influence. Thus encouraged, about eight hundred
Loyalists of North and South Carolina assembled westward of the Broad
River, under Colonel Boyd, and marched along the frontier of South
Carolina, toward the Savannah. Like a plundering banditti, they
appropriated every species of property to their own use, abused the
inhabitants, and wantonly butchered several who opposed their rapacious
demands. While these depredators were organizing, and Campbell was
proceeding toward Augusta, General Elbert ** crossed the Savannah,
joined Colonels Twiggs and Few, and skirmished with the British
van-guard at Brier Creek and other places, to impede their progress.
They effected but little, and on the twenty-ninth of January[[1779]]
Campbell took possession of Augusta, and placed the garrison under
Lieutenant-colonel Brown, the Loyalist just mentioned, who, with
Lieutenant-colonel M'Girth, had preceded him thither. Campbell then
proceeded to establish military posts in other parts of Western Georgia.
[Illustration: 9721]
The Whigs who could leave with their families crossed the Savannah
into Carolina. The oath of allegiance was every where administered;
the habitations of those who had fled into Carolina were consumed; and
Georgia seemed, for the moment, permanently prostrate at the feet of
the invaders. The quiet that ensued was only the calm before a gathering
storm. Colonel John Dooly collected a body of active militia on the
Carolina shore, thirty miles above Augusta, while Colonel M'Girth,
with three hundred Loyalists, was watching him on the other side. Dooly
crossed over into Georgia, and these partisans had several skirmishes.
Finally, Major Hamilton, an active officer under M'Girth, drove Dooly
across the Savannah, a short distance below the mouth of Broad River,
and encamped at Waters's plantation, about three miles below the present
town of Petersburg, in Elbert county. Dooly took post opposite to
Hamilton, where he was joined by Colonel Pickens. Their united forces
amounted to about three hundred and fifty men.
Colonel Pickens, who was the senior officer, assumed the command of
the whole, and with Dooly crossed the river at Cowen's Ferry, to attack
Hamilton.[[Feb. 10, 1779]] That officer had broken up his encampment and
marched to Carr's Fort, not far distant, to examine its condition and
administer the oath of allegiance to the surrounding inhabitants. The
Americans besieged the fort, and were confident of capturing it, having
cut off the supply of water for the garrison, when, at ten o'clock at
night, a message came to Colonel Pickens, from his brother, informing
him of the march of Boyd and his banditti through the district of
Ninety-Six. Unwilling to distress the families who had taken shelter
within the fort, Pickens declined a proposition to burn it, and raising
the siege, he hastened to confront Boyd, the more important foe. He
crossed the Savannah near Fort Charlotte, when Boyd, hearing of his
approach, hastened toward the Cherokee Ford. At that ford was a redoubt,
garrisoned by eight men, with two swivels. They successfully disputed
the passage of Boyd,
* General Prévost had come from St. Augustine, captured the fort at
Sunbury on the way, and, with Campbell's troops, had a force of about
three thousand regulars and one thousand militia.
** Samuel Elbert was born in South Carolina in 1740. He became an orphan
at an early age, went to Savannah, and there subsequently engaged in
commercial pursuits. He joined the Continental army in Georgia early
in 1776, as lieutenant colonel, having been a few months previously a
member of the Savannah Committee of Safety. He was promoted to colonel
in the autumn of 1776, and in May, 1777, commanded an expedition against
the British in East Florida. In the following year he was actively
engaged in the neighborhood of Savannah, and behaved bravely when it
was attacked by Campbell at the close of December. He was promoted to
brigadier, and was with Colonel Ashe at Brier Creek, where he was made
prisoner. After his exchange, he went to the North, joined the army
under Washington, and was at the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
At the close of the war, he was commissioned a major general. He was
elected governor of the state in 1785. General Elbert died at Savannah,
on the second of November, 1788, at the age of forty-five years. His
remains were buried in the family cemetery on the mount, at Rae's Hall,
five miles above Savannah. Elbert county, in Georgia, was named in honor
of the general.
[[[Dispersion of Boyd's Tories.--Alarm of Campbell.--Ashe ordered to
Brier Creek.--General Williamson.]]]
{712}and he marched five miles up the river, crossed on rafts, and
pushed on toward Augusta. He was pursued by a detachment of Americans,
under Captain Anderson, who attacked him in a cane-brake. A severe
skirmish ensued. Boyd lost one hundred men in killed, wounded, and
missing; the Americans lost sixteen killed, and the same number taken
prisoners.
Boyd hastened forward, and on the morning of the thirteenth[[Feb. 1779]]
crossed the Broad River, near the fork, in Oglethorpe county, closely
pursued by Pickens, with about three hundred militia. The latter
marched in battle order. Colonel Dooly * commanded the right wing;
Lieutenant-colonel Clark the left; and Colonel Pickens the center. Boyd,
ignorant of the proximity of his pursuers, halted on the north side
of Kettle Creek, turned his horses out to forage upon the reeds of a
neighboring swamp, and proceeded to slaughter cattle for his army. In
this condition he was attacked[[Feb. 14]] by the Americans. The Tory
pickets fired, and fled to the camp. The utmost confusion prevailed,
and Boyd and his followers began to retreat in great disorder, while
skirmishing with the assailants. The contest lasted almost two hours.
About seventy of the Tories were killed, and seventy-five were made
prisoners. The Americans lost nine killed and twenty-three mortally
wounded. Colonel Boyd was severely wounded, and expired that night. His
whole force was scattered to the winds. The seventy prisoners were taken
to South Carolina, tried for high treason, and condemned to death. Five
of the most active ones were hanged, the remainder were pardoned. **
This was one of the severest blows which Toryism in the South had yet
received.
Encouraged by this success, General Lincoln, then in command of the
Southern army, determined to drive the British from their posts in the
interior, back to Savannah. He formed encampments at Black Swamp, and
nearly opposite Augusta, while small detachments of militia took post at
various points on the Savannah, above Augusta. Lincoln ordered General
John Ashe, then in the neighborhood of Purysburg, to march up the
easterly side of the Savannah with about fifteen hundred North Carolina
militia, and the remains of the Georgia Continentals, to re-enforce
General Williamson opposite Augusta. Ashe arrived at Williamson's camp
on the evening before the defeat of Boyd.[[Feb. 13, 1779]] This imposing
display opposite Augusta, and intelligence of the close pursuit of Boyd,
alarmed Campbell, and he speedily decamped that same night with all
his force, and hastened toward the sea-coast. He left behind him a
considerable quantity of provisions, ammunition, and some arms. At
Hudson's Ferry, fifty miles below Augusta, Lieutenant-colonel Prevost
had constructed a fortified camp and mounted some light artillery.
There Campbell halted, with the determination to attempt to regain
the advantage he had just lost, but finally continued his retreat to
Savannah.
General Lincoln, who was then encamped at Purysburg, in Beaufort
District, about twenty-five miles above Savannah, with three thousand
men, sent orders to Colonel Ashe[[Feb. 16]] to cross the Savannah, and
proceed as far as Brier Creek in pursuit of Campbell. At this time,
General Rutherford, of North Carolina, was encamped at Black Swamp,
on the Carolina side of the Savannah, a few miles above the mouth of
Ebenezer Creek, with seven hundred men; and General Williamson, *** with
twelve hundred men, was opposite
* Colonel John Dooly entered the Continental army in Georgia, as
captain, in 1776, and, rising to the rank of colonel, was very active
in the neighborhood of the Savannah, until 1780, when a party of Tories,
sent out from Augusta by Colonel Brown, entered his house, in Wilkes
county, at midnight, and barbarously murdered him in the presence of his
wife and children.--M'Call, ii., 306.
** See M'Call's History of Georgia, i., 190-203.
*** We have already noticed the services of this gentleman while colonel
of militia in the District of Ninety-Six, against the Indians. (See page
647.) Andrew Williamson was born in Scotland, and when young was taken
by his parents to Ninety-Six, in South Carolina. He was a very active
lad, and it is believed that he attended Montgomery in his expedition
against the Indians in 1760. He was with Colonel Grant in a similar
expedition in 1761. He early espoused the Whig cause, and, as we have
seen, was active in opposition to the Cunninghams and other Tories. He
was promoted to brigadier, and in that capacity was employed in opposing
the inroads of Prévost from Florida into Georgia. After the fall of
Savannah, he was engaged in watching the movements of the enemy upon the
Savannah River. He took possession of Augusta when Campbell retreated
from it, and was for some time engaged against the Tories in that
vicinity, in co-operation with General Elbert. He was afterward engaged
in the battle at Stono Ferry, below Charleston, and was at the siege
of Savannah when D'Estaing aided the Americans. After that, his conduct
awakened suspicions that he was becoming unfriendly to the American
cause. When Lincoln was besieged in Charleston, he withheld efficient
aid; and when that city surrendered, he accepted a British protection.
Williamson was called the "Arnold of the South," in miniature. It is
generally conceded that he was a double traitor; for while he was with
the British in Charleston, he communicated valuable information to
General Greene. The time and place of his death is not certainly
known. He lived in obscurity and poverty after the war.--See Johnson's
Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution, 144: Charleston, 1851.
[[[The Americans at Brier Creek.--Preparations for Battle.--The
Attack.--Retreat of the Carolinians.]]]
{713}Augusta. General Ashe crossed the river on the twenty-fifth, and
proceeded toward Brier Creek, a considerable stream, which flows into
the Savannah in Severn county, about forty-five miles below Augusta.
He reached Brier Creek on Saturday morning, the twenty-seventh,[[Feb.
1779]] and discovered that the bridge across the stream (which is there
skirted with a deep swamp three miles wide) was completely destroyed by
the enemy.
General Rutherford, with part of his brigade, was at Mathew's Bluff five
miles above, on the opposite side of the Savannah; and Colonel Marbury,
of the Georgia horse, lay a few miles up Brier Creek. Ashe's force
consisted of General Bryan's brigade, Lieutenant-colonel Lyttle's light
infantry, and some Georgia Continentals; in all about twelve hundred
men. His artillery consisted of one four pound brass field-piece, and
two iron two pound swivels, mounted as field-pieces. Bryant and Elbert
were instructed to form the camp, while Ashe crossed the river to confer
with General Lincoln. A guard was dispatched to conduct the baggage
across to Mathew's Bluff, in case it was found necessary to retreat;
and other guards were stationed at the fords of the creek above, while
fatigue-parties were detailed to construct bridges, and to make a road
to the river for the passage of Rutherford's troops with two brass
field-pieces.
Ashe returned on the evening of the third,[[March 1779]] and was
chagrined at not finding the bridge which Campbell had destroyed,
repaired. Early the following morning workmen were employed in that
duty, but it was too late, and the Americans were quite unprepared for
offensive or defensive operations. While in this exposed situation,
intelligence came from General Williamson, then on his march from
Augusta, that the enemy, under the general command of Prevost, was
within eight miles of the American camp above, approaching in full
force. Already Marbury, with his dragoons, had encountered the British
van, but his express to Ashe had been intercepted. Reconnoitering
parties had approached the American pickets, yet they produced neither
apprehension nor vigilance. That indifference proved fatal. Prevost,
with about eighteen hundred men, had crossed Brier Creek, fifteen miles
above Ashe's camp, made a wide circuit, and, unperceived, had gained his
rear. To retreat was now impossible. The drums immediately beat to arms;
the troops were formed for action, and cartridges were distributed among
them. * They then advanced about a quarter of a mile; General Elbert and
his command, with Colonel Perkins's regiment, forming the advance. The
British formed their line when within one hundred and fifty yards of
the Americans, and at the moment of their advance, Elbert and Perkins,
opened a severe fire upon them. The Georgians, after delivering two or
three rounds, unfortunately inclined to the left, by which the fire
of the advancing Newbern regiment was impeded. At the same moment, the
Edenton regiment, moving to the right, left a vacancy in the line. This
the enemy perceived, and pushed forward on a run, with a loud shout. The
Halifax regiment on the left, panic-stricken, broke and fled, without
firing a gun. The Wilmington regiment, except a small part under
Lieutenant-colonel Young, advanced and delivered two or three volleys,
wheeled, and retreated. The Newbern and Edenton regiments followed their
example, and in a few minutes the whole of the North Carolina troops
were flying to the coverts of the swamps. The Georgia Continentals
maintained their
* M'Call and others censure General Ashe for not having the soldiers
served with cartridges much sooner. Ashe in his letter to Governor
Caswell on the seventeenth of March, says, that "prudence forbade
a distribution of cartridges until they were wanted; for, lacking
cartouch-boxes, the men had already lost a great many." He says that
when they marched to meet the enemy, some carried their cartridges
"under their arms; others in the bosoms of their shirts; and some tied
up in the corner of their hunting-shirts."--MS. Letter of General Ashe
to Governor Caswell.
[[[Defeat of the Americans.--The Loss.--Ashe Censured.--Acquitted by
Court martial.--His Public Life.]]]
{714}ground gallantly for some time; but they, too, were finally
repulsed, and General Elbert and a large number of his men were
made prisoners. General Ashe tried in vain to reach the front of the
fugitives and rally them. They had scattered in all directions; took
shelter in the swamps; and, on reaching the Savannah, escaped across
it, some by swimming, and others upon rafts. In this retreat many
were drowned, and others were lost in the swamps. General Ashe reached
Mathew's Bluff in safety, and afterward collected the remnants of
his little army at Zubley's Ferry,[[March 16, 1779]] two miles above
Purysburg. The loss of the Americans in this action was estimated at
one hundred and fifty killed and drowned; twenty-seven officers, and one
hundred and sixty-two non-commissioned officers and privates, were taken
prisoners; and seven pieces of artillery, a quantity of ammunition,
provisions, and baggage, with five hundred stand of arms, were either
lost or fell into the hands of Prevost. The British lost only one
commissioned officer, and fifteen privates killed and wounded. *
General Ashe" was much censured by contemporary opinion and early
historians; and modern compilers have repeated those censures, because
he allowed himself to be surprised. Viewing the whole affair from this
remote point, and in the light of calm judgment, he appears no more
censurable than most other men who were losers instead of winners. Had
he succeeded in becoming a victor, his alleged remissness would never
have been mentioned; the unfortunate are always blamed. Conscious of
having exercised both courage and vigilance, General Ashe appealed
from the voice of public opinion to a court-martial, of which General
Moultrie *** was president.[[March 9, 1779]] The court acquitted him
of every charge of cowardice and deficiency of military skill, but gave
their opinion that he did not take all necessary precautions to secure
his camp and watch the movements of the enemy. It was an unfortunate
affair, for it deprived Lincoln of about one third of his available
force, and opened a free communication between the British, Indians, and
Tories, in Florida, Western Georgia, and the Carolinas.
We have observed that after the fall of Charleston,[[May 12, 1780]]
and the dispersion of Lincoln's army, royal power in South Carolina and
Georgia was fully established. The Republican governor of Georgia and
part of his council fled into North Carolina, and narrowly escaped being
captured on the way. Lieutenant-colonel Thomas Brown, whom Campbell
placed in command of Augusta early in 1779, now proceeded to that place
and
* MS. Letter of General Ashe to Governor Caswell; Ramsay, ii., 16;
Gordon, ii., 415; M'Call, ii, 206.
** John Ashe was born in England in 1721. He came to America with his
father in 1727, who settled on the Cape Fear River, in North Carolina.
He served his district in the Colonial Legislature for several years,
and was speaker of the Assembly from 1762 to 1765. He warmly opposed
the Stamp Act in 1765, and, with others, announced to Governor Tryon
his determination to resist its operations. Assisted by General Hugh
Waddell, Ashe, then colonel of the militia of New Hanover, headed an
armed force, and compelled the stamp-master to resign. He accompanied
Tryon against the Regulators in 1771; but when royal rule became odious,
and he saw the liberties of his country in peril, he was one of the
most zealous advocates, in the North Carolina Assembly, of Republican
principles. As a member of the Legislature, and of the Committee of
Correspondence and of Safety at Wilmington, he was exceedingly active
and vigilant. He was one of the first projectors of a Provincial
Congress, and became the most aetive opponent of Governor Martin, for
he was exceedingly popular as a man. With five hundred men, he destroyed
Fort Johnston in 1775, and was denounced as a rebel against the crown.
He was a member of the first Provincial Congress, convened that year.
When he returned home, he raised and equipped a regiment at his own
expense; and throughout the whole region around Wilmington, his eloquent
words and energetic acts inspired the people with burning patriotism.
In 1776, the Provincial Congress appointed him a brigadier of Wilmington
District. He was actively engaged in military and civil duties in his
district, until the close of 1778, when he joined Lincoln in South
Carolina, with regiments from Halifax, Wilmington, Newbern, and
Edenton. After his surprise and defeat at Brier Creek, he returned
home. Wilmington became a British post in 1781, and Colonel Ashe and
his family suffered much at their hands. He was made a prisoner,
and suffered a long confinement, during which time he contracted the
small-pox. He was released on parole while sick, and died of that
disease in October, 1781, at the age of sixty years, while accompanying
his family to a place of quiet, in Duplin county.
*** The other members of the court were General Rutherford, Colonels
Armstrong, Pinckney, and Locke, and Edmond Hyrne, deputy adjutant
general.--See Moultrie's Memoirs, i., 338.
[[[Cruelty of Brown.--Forts Cornwallis and Grierson.--March toward
Augusta, of Clark and M'Call.]]]
{715}garrisoned the fort with a strong force. Brown, as we have seen
(page 710), was an early victim of Whig indignation at Augusta, his
native place, and he used his power, while in command there, with a
fierceness commensurate with his wrath. He sent out detachments to burn
the dwellings of patriots in his vicinity, and dispatched emissaries
among the Indians to incite them to murder the inhabitants on the
frontier. * His command at Augusta consisted of two hundred and fifty
men, of several corps, principally of Florida rangers; two hundred and
fifty Creek and fifty Cherokee Indians; in all, five hundred and fifty.
The defenses consisted of a strong fort, situated on the northwest side
of the town, upon a bank about one hundred yards from the river.
[Illustration: 9725]
This was the main work, and was called Fort Cornwallis. A little less
than half a mile westward of Fort Cornwallis, was a swampy ravine
extending up from the river, with a stream running through it. On the
western margin of this lagoon, between the present Upper Market and the
river, was a smaller work called Fort Grierson, so named in honor of the
militia colonel who commanded its garrison.
About the first of September,[[1780]] Colonel Elijah Clark, a brave
partisan of Wilkes county, Georgia, and Lieutenant-colonel M'Call, made
efforts to raise a sufficient force to capture the fort at Augusta, and
drive the British from the interior of the state to the sea-coast. These
were the brave partisans who fought at the Cowpens a few months later.
Clark recruited in his own county, and M'Call went to the district
of Ninety-Six and applied to Colonel Pickens for aid. He wanted five
hundred men, but procured only eighty. With these he marched to Soap
Creek, forty miles northwest of Augusta, where he was joined by Clark,
with three hundred and fifty men. With this inadequate force they
marched toward Augusta. So secret and rapid were their movements, that
they reached the outposts before the garrison was apprised of their
approach.[[Sep. 14, 1780]] The right was commanded by M'Call, the
left by Major Samuel Taylor, and the center by Clark. The divisions
approached the town separately. Near Hawk's Creek, on the west,
Taylor fell in with an Indian camp, and a skirmish ensued. The Indians
retreated toward the town, and Taylor pressed forward to get possession
of a strong trading station called the
* Brown's authority was a letter which Cornwallis had sent to the
commanders of all the British outposts, ordering that all those who had
"taken part in the revolt should be punished with the utmost rigor; and
also that those who would not turn out should be imprisoned, and their
whole property taken from them or destroyed." Every militia-man who had
borne arms in the king's service, and afterward joined the Whigs, was to
be "immediately hanged." This letter was a foul stain upon the character
of Cornwallis. It was a "lash of scorpions" in the hands of cruel men
like Brown. "Officers, soldiers, and citizens," says M'Call (ii., 319),
were brought up to the place of execution, without being informed
why they had been taken out of prison. The next morning after this
sanguinary order reached Augusta, five victims were taken from the jail
by order of Colonel Brown, who all expired on the gibbet.
** Fort Cornwallis occupied the ground in the rear of the Episcopal
church, now a grave-yard. This view is from within the inclosure,
looking northeast, and includes a portion of Schultz's bridge, the
Savannah River, and Hamburg upon the opposite bank. In the foreground is
seen portions of the church-yard wall, and upon the brink of the river
below are negroes employed in placing bales of cotton upon the wharves
for transportation, to the sea-coast. The wharves are two stories in
height, one to be used at low water, the other when the river is "up."
There were remains of the ditch and embankments of the fort within the
grave-yard when I was there; and the trench leading to the water-gate,
where the "Pride-of-India" tree is seen, was very visible.
[[[Skirmish at the White House.--Brown wounded.--Defeat of the
Americans. Fate of Prisoners.]]]
{716}White House, a mile and a half west of the town. The Indians
reached it first, and were joined by a company of King's Rangers, under
Captain Johnson. Ignorant of the approach of other parties, Brown and
Grierson went to the aid of Johnson and the Indians. While absent, the
few men left in garrison were surprised by Clark and M'Call, and Forts
Cornwallis and Grierson fell into their hands. A guard was left to take
charge of the prisoners and effects in the fort, and Clark, with the
remainder, hastened to the assistance of Taylor. Brown and Grierson,
perceiving their peril, took shelter in the _White House_. The Americans
tried in vain to dislodge them. A desultory fire was kept up from eleven
o'clock in the morning until dark, when hostilities ceased. During the
night the besieged cast up a slight breast-work around the house,
made loop-holes in the building for musketry, and thus materially
strengthened their position. Early in the morning,[[Sept. 15]] Clark
ordered field-pieces to be brought from Grierson's redoubt, to be
placed in a position to cannonade the _White House_. They were of little
service, for Captain Martin, of South Carolina, the only artillerist
among the besiegers, was killed soon after the pieces were brought to
bear upon the building.
No impression was made upon the enemy during the fifteenth. On that
morning, before daylight, the Americans drove a body of Indians from the
river bank, and thus cut off the supply of water for those in the house.
Colonel Brown and others had been severely wounded, and now suffered
great agony from thirst. On the night of the fifteenth, fifty Cherokee
Indians, well armed, crossed the river to re-enforce Brown, but were
soon repulsed. Little was done on the sixteenth, and on the seventeenth
Clark summoned Brown to surrender. He promptly refused; for, having sent
a messenger to Colonel Cruger at Ninety-Six, on the morning when the
Americans appeared before Augusta, Brown confidently expected relief
from that quarter. Nor was he disappointed. On the night of the
seventeenth, Clark's scouts informed him of the approach of Colonel
Cruger with five hundred British regulars and Loyalists, and on the
morning of the eighteenth this force appeared upon the opposite side of
the river. Clark's little army was greatly diminished by the loss of men
who had been killed and wounded, and the desertion of many with plunder
found in the forts. At ten o'clock he raised the siege, and departed
toward the mountains. The American loss on this occasion was about sixty
killed and wounded; that of the British is not known. Twenty of the
Indians were killed. Captain Ashby and twenty-eight others were made
prisoners. Upon these Brown and his Indian allies glutted their thirst
for revenge. Captain Ashby and twelve of the wounded were hanged upon
the stair-way of the _White House_, so that the commandant might have
the satisfaction of seeing their sufferings. Others were given up to the
Indians to torture, scalp, and slay. Terrible were the demoniac acts
at Augusta on that beautiful autumnal day, when the white and the red
savage contended for the meed of cruelty!
The British remained in possession of Augusta until the spring and
summer of 1781, when their repose was disturbed. After the battle at
Guilford Court House, and when the determination of Greene to march into
South Carolina was made known, Clark and M'Call proceeded to co-operate
with him by annoying the British posts in Georgia. M'Call soon afterward
died of the small-pox, and Clark suffered from the same disease. After
his recovery, he, with several other partisans, were actively engaged at
various points between Savannah and Augusta, and had frequent skirmishes
with the British and Tory scouts. In an engagement near Coosawhatchie,
in Beaufort District, South Carolina, where Colonel Brown then
commanded, the Americans were defeated; and several who were taken
prisoners were hanged, and their bodies given to the Indians to scalp
and otherwise, mutilate. *
* Among the prisoners taken on this occasion was a young man named
M'Koy, the son of a widow, who, with her family, had fled from Darien,
in Georgia, into South Carolina. She went to Brown and implored the life
of her son, who was only seventeen years of age. The miscreant's heart
was unmoved, and the lad was not only hanged, but his body was delivered
to the Indians to mutilate by scalping and otherwise. All this occurred
in the presence of the mother. Afterward, when Brown, as a prisoner,
passed where Mrs. M'Koy resided, she called to his remembrance his
cruelty, and said, "As you are now a prisoner to the leaders of my
country, for the present I lay aside all thoughts of revenge, but if you
resume your sword, I will go five hundred miles to demand satisfaction
at the point of it for the murder of my son.--See M'Call's Georgia, ii.,
365; Garden's Anecdotes.
[[[Siege of Augusta.--Colonel Pickens.]]]
{717}This was Brown's common practice, and made his name as hateful at
the South as that of "Bloody Bill Cunningham."
On the sixteenth of April,[[1781]] the Georgia militia, under Colonels
Williams, Baker, and Hammond, Major James Jackson (afterward governor of
the state), and other officers, assembled near Augusta, and placed the
garrison in a state of siege. Williams, who had the general command
during Clark's sickness, encamped within twelve hundred yards of Forts
Cornwallis and Grierson, and fortified his camp.
[Illustration: 8727]
Colonel Brown, who was again in command at Augusta, deceived respecting
the numbers did not attack them; and in this position the respective forces
remained until the middle of May, when Clark came with one hundred new
recruits and resumed the command. About that time, Major Dill approached
Augusta with a party of Loyalists to force the Americans to raise the
siege.
A detachment of Carolina mountaineers and Georgians, under Shelby and
Carr, sent by Clark, met them at Walker's bridge, on Brier Creek, killed
and wounded several.
Pickens could not immediately comply, for the Indians having recommenced
hostilities on the frontiers of Georgia and Carolina, he had sent part
of his force in that direction. Perceiving the importance of seizing
Augusta, Pickens informed Greene of the situation of affairs there.
That general, then advancing upon Ninety-Six, immediately ordered
Lientenant-colonel Lee, with his legion, to join Pickens and Clark in
besieging Augusta. The rapid march of Lee, the capture of Fort Galphin
and its stores, and his arrival at Augusta, have been noticed on page
691.
The capture of Fort Galphin[[May 21, 1781]] was an important prelude
to the siege of Augusta. Other little successes made the Americans at
Augusta feel so strong that Clark determined to attempt an assault. An
old iron five pounder, which he had picked up, was mounted within four
hundred yards of Fort Grierson, and other dispositions for an attack
were made. Powder was scarce, and he sent a message to Colonel Pickens,*
who was maneuvering between Augusta and Fort Ninety-Six, asking for a
supply.
* Andrew Pickens was born in Paxton township, Pennsylvania, on the
nineteenth of September, 1739. His parents were from Ireland. In
1752, he removed, with his father, to the Waxhaw settlement, in South
Carolina. He served as a volunteer in Grant's expedition against the
Cherokees, in which he took his first lessons in the art of war. He
beeame a warm Republican when the Revolution broke out, and, as we have
seen in preceding pages of this work, he was one of the most active of
the military partisans of the South. From the close of the war until
1794, he was a member of the South Carolina Legislature, when he was
elected to a seat in Congress. He was commissioned major general of the
South Carolina militia in 1795, and was often a commissioner to treat
with the Indians. President Washington offered him a brigade of
light troops under General Wayne, to serve against the Indians in the
northwest, but he declined the honor. He died at his seal in Pendleton
District, South Carolina--the scene of his earliest battles--on the
seventeenth of August, 1817, at the age of seventy-eight years. His
remains lie by the side of his wife (who died two years before), in the
grave-yard of the "Old Stone Meeting-house" in Pendleton. In 1765, he
married Rebecca Calhoun, aunt of the late John C. Calhoun, one of the
most beautiful young ladies of the South. Mrs. Ellet, in her Women of
the Revolution (iii., 302), gives some interesting sketches of this lady
and her life during the Revolution. Her relatives and friends were very
numerous, and her marriage was attended by a great number. "Rebecca
Calhoun's wedding" was an epoch in the social history of the district in
which she resided, and old people used it as a point to reckon from.
[[[Junction of American Troops before Augusta.--Plan of Attack.--Maykam
Tower.--The Garrison subdued.]]]
{718}Colonel Brown was deprived of a considerable body of reserved
troops and of valuable stores.
[Illustration: 9728]
The latter were of great importance to Greene, then approaching
Ninety-Six. After the capture of this redoubt, Lee allowed his troops
to repose a few hours, and then ordered Major Eggleston, with Captains
O'Neal and Armstrong, to cross the Savannah with the cavalry, a little
below Augusta, and join Pickens and Clark. On the same evening, Lee,
with the field-piece of Captain Finley, crossed the river, and on the
morning of the twenty-third joined the besiegers.
Eggleston, on his arrival, summoned Brown to surrender, at the same time
informing him of the approach of a strong force from General Greene's
army. Brown did not credit the information, treated the flag with
contempt, and declined giving a written answer. Lee had now arrived,
and an immediate assault on Fort Grierson was determined upon. The first
measure attempted was to cut off his retreat to Fort Cornwallis. Pickens
and Clark were to attack Fort Grierson on the northwest, with the
militia; Major Eaton's battalions and some Georgia militia, under Major
Jackson, were to pass down the river and attack it on the northeast;
while Lee, with his infantry, took a position south of the fort, so as
to support Eaton, or check Brown if he should make a sortie in favor of
Grierson. In the skirt of the woods south of Lee, Eggleston, with the
cavalry, was stationed. When Brown discovered the peril of Grierson,
he made a sortie with two field-pieces, but was soon checked by Lee.
Grierson, at the same time, endeavored to evacuate his redoubt, and
attempt to throw his command into Fort Cornwallis. Passing down the
ravine on the margin of the lagoon, some of the garrison effected their
purpose; but thirty of them were slain, and forty five were wounded and
taken prisoners. Grierson was captured, but was instantly killed by a
Georgia rifleman, who, on account of cruelties inflicted upon his family
by his victim, could not be restrained from dealing a blow of vengeance.
* In this assault Major Eaton was slain.
The Americans now turned their attention to Fort Cornwallis. They were
without artillery, except the old iron piece in possession of Clark, and
Finley's grasshopper; and their rifles had but little effect upon the
fort. Lee suggested the erection of a Mayham tower, which was used so
efficiently at Fort Watson and Ninety-Six. This was done, under cover
of an old frame house which stood directly in front of the present
Episcopal church. This procedure made Brown uneasy, and on the night of
the twenty-eighth he sent out a detachment to drive the Americans from
their labor. After a severe skirmish, the enemy were driven into the
fort at the point of the bayonet. On the succeeding night, a similar
attempt was made, with the same result. The tower was completed on the
first of June, and for its destruction Brown used every effort in his
power. Sallies were made under cover of night, and some severe conflicts
ensued. He tried stratagem, ** and failed in that.
On the thirty-first of May, Brown was summoned to surrender. He refused,
and that night a six pounder, brought from Fort Grierson, was placed in
battery on the tower. Toward noon, riflemen stationed upon it opened a
galling fire upon the garrison, which was continued throughout the day.
The guns were soon unmanned by the rifle balls, and the six pounder
dismounted them. The garrison dug vaults within the fort to save
themselves from the murderous fire of the assailants, and thus the siege
went on until the morning of the fourth,[[June, 1781]] when a general
assault was agreed upon. While the Americans were forming tor attack,
Brown, perceiving the maintenance ot his post to be im-
* This rifleman was Captain Samuel Alexander, whose aged father had been
a prisoner in Fort Cornwallis for some time, and was cruelly treated by
both Brown and Grierson. The son was the deliverer of his father soon
after he dispatched Grierson.
** Brown opened a communication with a house in front of the tower, and
placed a quantity of powder in it. He then sent a Scotchman, under the
cloak of a deserter, who advised the Americans to burn that old house,
as it stood in their way. Had they done so, the explosion of the powder
might have destroyed the tower. Lee suspected the man, and had him
confined. Brown finally applied a slow match and blew up the house, but
the tower was unharmed.
[[[Surrender of the Forts at Augusta.--Liberty Hill.--Departure for
Savannah.--A Night Journey.]]]
{719}possible, sent out a flag and offered to make a conditional
surrender to Pickens and Lee. The day was spent in negotiations, and
early the next morning the fort was surrendered to Captain Rudulph, who
was appointed to take possession. The garrison marched out and laid down
their arms, and Brown and his fellow-prisoners were paroled to Savannah
under a sufficient guard, who marched down the river on the Carolina
side. * Pickins and Lee soon hastened to the aid of Greene, then
investing Ninety-Six. In this siege of Augusta, the Americans had
sixteen killed and thirty-five wounded; seven of them mortally. The loss
of the British was fifty-two killed: and three hundred and thirty-four,
including the wounded, were made prisoners of war. ** The British never
had possession of Augusta after this event.
Let us close the chronicle for a while.
It was toward noon when we descended Liberty Hill, looked in upon the
slave-market at Hamburg (the first and last I ever saw), and crossed
Shultz's bridge to Augusta. After dinner I visited the site of Fort
Cornwallis, and made the sketch on page 715; also the site of Fort
Grierson, of which no vestiges remain. The rivulet is still there, and
the marshy lagoon on the brink of the river; but the "gulley" mentioned
in the local histories was filled, and houses and gardens covered the
site of the redoubt and its ravelins. At the office of the mayor, I
saw (and was permitted to copy) a sketch of the proposed monument to be
erected in the middle of the broad and beautifully shaded Greene Street,
directly in front of the City Hall, in honor of the Georgia Signers
of the Declaration of Independence. It is to be a granite obelisk,
forty-five feet in height, composed of square blocks of stone. The base
of the obelisk will be six feet eight inches square at the bottom, and
gradually tapered to the top. It will rest upon a base twelve feet eight
inches square, elevated two feet above the ground. The corner-stone is
already laid, and it is to be hoped that another will soon be added
to the few monuments already erected to the memory of Revolutionary
patriots.
I left Augusta on the evening of the twenty-fifth[[Jan. 1849]] with real
regret, for the beauty of the city, ornamented with water-oaks, wild
olives, holly, palmettoes, magnolias, and other evergreens; the gardens
blooming; the orange-trees budding in the bland air, and the courtesy
of the citizens whom I met, wooed me to a longer tarry. But "home, sweet
home," beckoned me away, and at eight o'clock I entered a mail-coach,
with a single fellow-passenger, for a ride of fifty-two miles to the
"Ninety-mile Station," on the Great Central Railway. I had a pleasant
companion while he kept awake, and we whiled away the tedious night
hours by agreeable conversation until we reached Waynesborough, ***
where we exchanged horses and the mails. After leaving the village, I
endeavored to sleep. My companion complained that he never could slumber
in a coach; and I presume his loud snoring always keeps him awake,
for in ten minutes after leaving the post-office his nasal pipes were
chanting bass to the alto of the coach-wheels.
We breakfasted at sunrise at a log-house in the forest, and arrived at
the rail-way, on the upper border of Severn county, near the banks
of the Great Ogeeche, at eleven o'clock, where we dined, and at one
departed for Savannah. Swamps, plantations, and forests, with scarcely
a hill, or even an undulation, compose the monotonous scenery. While
enjoying the pleasing anticipation of an early arrival in Savannah, our
locomotive became disabled by the breaking of a piston-rod. We were yet
forty miles from our goal, in the midst of a vast swamp, ten miles from
any habitation, near the road. The sun went down; the twilight faded
away, and yet we were immovable. At intervals the engineer managed to
start his steed and travel a short distance, and then stop. Thus we
crawled along, and at eleven
* The brother of young M'Koy, who was hanged and scalped by Brown's
orders, and who, thirsting for revenge, had joined Clark before Augusta,
endeavored to kill Brown, but was prevented by the guard. It was during
this march to Savannah, when at Silver Bluff, that Brown encountered
Mrs. M'Koy, as related on page 716.
** M'Call, ii., 370; Lee, 238; Ramsay, ii., 238.
*** Waynesborough is the capital of Burke county. It is upon a branch of
Brier Creek, about thirty-five miles above the place of General Ashe's
defeat.
[[[Detention in a Swamp.--Picturesque Scenery.--Savannah.--Greene and
Pulaski Monument]]]
{720}o'clock at night we reached the thirty mile station, where we
supped at the expense of the rail way company. At our haltings we
started light-wood fires, whose blaze amid the tall trees draped with
moss, the green cane-brakes, and the dry oases, garnished with dwarf
palmettoes, produced the most picturesque effects.
[Illustration: 8730]
A hand-car was sent down to Savannah for another engine, and at six
o'clock in the morning we entered that city. I breakfasted at the
_Pulaski House_, a large building fronting upon Johnson Square, amid
whose noble trees stands a monument erected by the citizens of Savannah
to the memory of General Greene and the Count Pulaski. *
Savannah is pleasantly situated upon a sand-bluff, some forty feet above
low-water-mark, sloping toward swamps and savannahs, at a lower altitude
in the interior. It is upon the south side of the river, about eighteen
miles from the ocean. The city is laid out in rectangles, and has ten
public squares. The streets are generally broad and well shaded, some
of them with four rows of Pride-of-India trees, which, in summer, add
greatly to the beauty of the city and comfort of the inhabitants. With
interest in Savannah and suburbs, let us open the interesting pages of
its history, and note their teachings respecting Georgia in general,
and of the capital in particular, whose foundations were laid by General
Oglethorpe.
We have already considered the events which led to the settlement of the
Carolinas, within whose charter limits Georgia was originally included,
and we will here refer only to the single circumstance connected
with the earlier efforts at settlement, which some believe to be well
authenticated, namely, that Sir Walter Raleigh, when on his way to the
Orinoco, in South America, entered the Savannah River, and upon the
bluff where the city now stands stood and talked with the Indian king.
** There are reasonable doubts of the truth of this statement.
As late as 1730, the territory lying between the Savannah and Alatamaha
Rivers was entirely uninhabited by white people. On the south the
Spaniards held possession, and on the west the French had Louisiana,
while the region under consideration, partially filled with powerful
Indian tribes, was claimed by Great Britain. To prevent France and Spain
from occupying it (for the latter already began to claim territory even
north of the Savannah), and as a protection to the Carolina planters
against the encroachments of their hostile neighbors, various schemes of
emigration thither were proposed, but without being effected. Finally,
in 1729, General James Oglethorpe, a valorous soldier and humane
Christian, then a member of Parliament, made a proposition in that body
for the founding of a colony to be composed of poor persons who were
confined for debt and minor offenses in the prisons
* In March, 1825, at a meeting of the citizens of Savannah, it was
determined to take the occasion of the expected visit of General La
Fayette to that city to lay the corner-stones of two monuments, one to
the memory of Greene, in Johnson Square; the other in memory of Pulaski,
in Chippewa Square. These corner-stones were accordingly laid by La
Fayette on the twenty-first of March, 1825. Some donations were made;
and in November, 1826, the State Legislature authorized a lottery, for
the purpose of raising $35,000 to complete the monuments. The funds
were accumulated very slowly, and it was finally resolved to erect one
monument, to be called the "Greene and Pulaski Monument." The structure
here delineated is of Georgia marble upon a granite base, and was
completed in 1829. The lottery is still in operation, and since
this monument was completed has realized a little more than
$12,000.--Bancroft's Census and Statistics of Savannah, 1848. The second
monument, a beautiful work of art, will soon be erected in Chippewa
Square. Launitz, the sculptor, of New York, is intrusted with its
construction.
* See M'Calfs History of Georgia, note, i., 34.
[[[Oglethorpe's Colonial Plan.--Charter for Georgia.--First
Emigrants.--Interview with the Indian King.]]]
{721}of England. * He instituted an inquiry into their condition, which
resulted in the conviction that their situation would be more tolerable
in the position of a military colony, acting as a barrier between
the Carolinians and their troublesome neighbors, than in the moral
contamination and physical miseries of prison life.
[Illustration: 8731]
The class of persons whom he designed to transplant to America were
not wicked criminals, but chiefly insolvent debtors. Oglethorpe also
proposed to make the new colony an asylum for the persecuted Protestants
of Germany and other Continental states, and in this religious idea he
included the pious thought of spiritual benefit to the Indian tribes.
The Earl of Shaftesbury (the fourth bearing that title) and other
influential men warmly espoused the scheme, and a general enthusiasm
upon the subject soon pervaded the nation. A royal charter was
obtained in 1732 for twenty-one years; ** large sums were subscribed
by individuals; and in the course of two years, Parliament voted one
hundred and eighty thousand dollars in support of the scheme. ****
Oglethorpe volunteered to act as governor of the new colony, and to
accompany the settlers to their destination. Accordingly, in November,
1732, he embarked with one hundred and twenty emigrants, and in
fifty-seven days arrived off the bar of Charleston. He was warmly
welcomed by the Carolinians, and on the thirteenth of January he sailed
for Port Royal. While the colonists were landing, Oglethorpe, with a few
followers, proceeded southward, ascended the Savannah River to the high
bluff, and there selected a spot for a city, the capital of the future
state. With the Yamacraw Indians, half a mile from this bluff, dwelt
_Tomo Chichi_, the grand sachem of the Indian confederacy of that
region. Oglethorpe and the chief both desired friendly relations; and
when the former invited the latter to his tent, _Tomo Chichi_ came,
bearing in his hand a small buffalo skin, appropriately ornamented, and
addressed Oglethorpe in eloquent and conciliatory terms. (v) Friendly
rela-
* In 1728, Oglethorpe's attention was drawn to the condition of debtors
in prison by visiting a gentleman confined in the Fleet Jail, who
was heavily ironed and harshly treated. He obtained a parliamentary
commission to inquire into the state of debtor-prisoners throughout
England, of which he was made chairman. They reported in 1729, and
efforts at reform were immediately made. The most popular proposition
was that of Oglethorpe, to use the prison materials for founding a new
state in America.
** This charter was unlike all that had preceded it. Instead of being
given for purposes of private advantage, as a money speculation, it was
so arranged that the administrators of the affairs of the new colony
could derive no profit from it whatever; they acted solely "in trust for
the poor." It was purely a benevolent scheme. They were to manage the
affairs of the colony for twenty-one years, after which it was to revert
to the crown. In honor of the king, who gave the scheme his hearty
approval, the territory included within the charter was called Georgia.
The seal of the new province bore a representation of a group of silk-
worms at work, with the motto "Not for themselves, but for others."
*** James Edward Oglethorpe was born in Surrey, England, on the
twenty-first of December, 1698. He entered the army at an early age, and
served under Prince Eugene as his aid-de-camp. He was for many years a
member of Parliament, and while in that position successfully advocated
a scheme for colonizing Georgia. He founded Savannah in 1733. In
prosecution of his benevolent enterprise, he crossed the ocean several
times. He performed a good deal of military service in Georgia and
Florida. He returned to England in 1743, and was married in 1744. In
1745, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier in the British army, and
in 1747 to major general. He was employed, under the Duke of Cumberland,
against the Pretender, during 1745. When General Gage went to England
in 1775, the supreme command of the British army in North America was
offered to Oglethorpe. His merciful conditions did not please ministers,
and General Howe received the appointment. He died at Grantham Hall, on
the thirtieth of June, 1785, at the age of eighty-seven years, and was
buried in Grantham Church, Essex, where his tomb bears a poetic epitaph.
**** Graham, iii., 180-184.
* (v) "Here," said the chief, "is a little present; I give you a
Buffalo's skin, adorned on the inside with the head and feathers of an
Eagle, which I desire you to accept, because the Eagle is an emblem of
speed, and the Buffalo of strength. The English are swift as the bird,
and strong as the beast, since, like the former, they flew over vast
seas to the uttermost parts of the earth; and like the latter, they are
so strong that nothing can withstand them. The feathers of an Eagle
are soft, and signify love; the Buffalo's skin is warm, and signifies
protection; therefore, I hope the English will love and protect our
little families."
[[[Founding of Savannah.--Progress of the Colony.--Methodists.--Defenses
against the Spaniards.]]]
{722}tions were established, and on the twelfth of February[[1732]] the
little band of settlers came from Port Royal and landed at the site of
the future city of Savannah.
For almost a year the governor lived under a tent stretched upon pine
boughs, while the streets of the town were laid out, and the people
built their houses of timber, each twenty-four by sixteen feet in size.
[Illustration: 9732]
In May following, a treaty with the Indian chiefs of the country was
held; and on the first of June, it was signed, by which the English
obtained sovereignty over the lands of the Creek nation, as far south
as the St. John's, in Florida. Such was the beginning of one of the
original thirteen states of our confederacy.
Within eight years after the founding of Savannah, twenty-five hundred
emigrants had been sent out to Georgia, at an expense of four hundred
thousand dollars. * Among these were one hundred and fifty Highlanders,
well disciplined in military tactics, who were of essential service to
Oglethorpe. Very strict moral regulations were adopted; ** lots of land,
twenty-five acres each, were granted to men for military services,
and every care was exercised to make the settlers comfortable. Yet
discontent soon prevailed, for they saw the Carolinians growing rich
by traffic in negroes; they also saw them prosper commercially by trade
with the West Indies. They complained of the Wesleyans as too rigid,
and these pious Methodists left the colony and returned home. Still,
prosperity did not smile upon the settlers, and a failure of the scheme
was anticipated.
Oglethorpe, who went to England in 1734, returned in 1736, with three
hundred emigrants. A storm was gathering upon the southern frontier of
his domain. The Spaniards at St. Augustine regarded the rising state
with jealousy, and as a war between England and Spain was anticipated,
vigilance was necessary. Oglethorpe resolved to maintain the claim of
Great Britain south to the banks of the St. John's, and the Highlanders,
settled at Darien, volunteered to aid him. With a few followers, he
hastened in a scout-boat to St. Simon's Island, where he laid the
foundations of Frederica, and upon the bluff near by he constructed a
fort of _tabby_ *** the ruins of which may still be seen there. He also
caused forts to be erected at Augusta, Darien, on Cumberland Island,
and near the mouth of the St. Mary's and St. John's. Perceiving these
hostile preparations, the Spanish authorities at St. Augustine sent
commissioners to confer with Oglethorpe. They demanded the evacuation
of the whole of Georgia, and even of the region north of the Savannah to
St. Helena Sound. This demand was accompanied by a menace of war in the
event of non-compliance. Thus matters stood for several months.
In the winter of 1736--7, Oglethorpe again went to England, where he
received the commission of brigadier general, with a command extending
over South Carolina as well as
* Among those who went to Georgia during this period were John and
Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist sect. Also in 1733, quite
a large body of Moravians, on the invitation of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel, left the Old Continent for the New, and
pitched their tents near Savannah, after a long voyage. They soon made
their way up the Savannah to a beautiful stream, where they settled down
permanently, and called the creek and their settlement, Ebenezer, a
name which they still bear. Whitfield came in 1740, and established an
orphan-house at Savannah. He sustained it for a while, by contributions
drawn from the people of the several provinces by his eloquence; but
when he was asleep in the soil of New England, it failed. All Christians
were admitted to equal citizenship, except Roman Catholics; they were
not allowed a residence there.
** The importation of rum was prohibited, and, to prevent a contraband
trade in the article, commercial intercourse with the West Indies was
forbidden. The importation of negroes was also forbidden.
*** Tabby is a mixture of lime with oyster-shells and gravel, which,
when dry, form a hard rocky mass.
**** This is from a sketch made by W. W. Hazzard, Esq., in 1851. Mr.
Hazzard writes: "These ruins stand on the left bank or bluff of the
south branch of the Alatamaha River, on the west side of St. Simon's
Island, where the steamers pass from Savannah to Florida." This fort was
a scene of hostilities during the war of the Revolution, and also that
of 1812; and is one of the most interesting military relics of our
country. Mr. Hazzard states that, in his field in the rear of it, his
men always turn up "bomb-shells and hollow shot whenever they plow
there." The whole remains are upon his plantation at West Point.
[[[Expedition against St. Augustine.--Return of Oglethorpe to
England.--Georgia a Royal province.]]]
{723}Georgia. There he remained a year and a half, when he returned
to his colony with a regiment of six hundred men to act against the
Spaniards. England declared war against Spain in the latter part of
1739, and Oglethorpe immediately planned an expedition against St.
Augustine. The St. Mary's was then considered (as it remains) the
boundary between Georgia and Florida. Over that line Oglethorpe marched
in May, 1740, with four hundred of his regiment, some Carolinians, and
a large body of friendly Indians. He captured a Spanish fort within
twenty-five miles of St. Augustine. A small fortress, within two miles
of that place, was surrendered on his approach, but a summons to give up
the town was answered by defiant words. The invaders maintained a siege
for some time, when the arrival of re-enforcements for the garrison,
and the prevalence of sickness in the camp, obliged them to withdraw and
return to Savannah.[[July, 1740]]
In 1742, the Spaniards invaded Georgia. A fleet of thirty-six sail, with
more than three thousand troops from Havana and St. Augustine, entered
the harbor of St. Simons,[[July 16, 1742]] and a little above the town
of the same name, erected a battery of twenty guns. Oglethorpe, with
eight hundred men, exclusive of Indians, was then on the island. He
withdrew to his fort at Frederica, and anxiously awaited re-enforcements
from Carolina. He skirmished successfully with attacking parties, and
arranged for a night assault upon the enemy's battery. A deserter (a
French soldier) defeated his plan; but the sagacity of Oglethorpe used
the miscreant's agency to his subsequent advantage, by bribing a Spanish
prisoner to carry a letter to the deserter, containing information that
a British fleet was about to attack St. Augustine. Of course the letter
was handed to the Spanish commander, who arrested the Frenchman as
a spy. The intelligence contained in Oglethorpe's letter alarmed
the garrison, and the Spaniards determined to assail the English
immediately, and then return to St. Augustine as speedily as possible.
On their march to the attack of Frederica, they fell into an ambuscade.
Great slaughter ensued, and they retreated precipitately. The place of
conflict is called Bloody Marsh to this day. On their retreat, by water,
they attacked Fort William, at the southern extremity of Cumberland
Island, but were repulsed with loss. The expedition was disastrous to
the Spaniards in every particular, and the commander was tried by a
court-martial at Havana, and dismissed from the service in disgrace.
After ten years of service in and for the colony of Georgia, Oglethorpe
returned to England, and his feet never again pressed the soil of
America. His rule had been chiefly military. A civil government was now
established,[[1743]] under the control of a president and council,
who were instructed to administer it as the trustees should dictate.
Prosperity did not yet gladden the settlers, and the colony had a sickly
existence. At length the moral and commercial restrictions began to be
evaded; slaves were brought from Carolina, and hired first for a few
years, and then for a hundred years, or during life. This was equivalent
to a purchase, and was so considered by the parties; for a sum, equal to
the value of the slave, was paid in advance. Finally, slave ships came
directly to Savannah from Africa; slave labor was generally introduced,
and Georgia, like Carolina, became a planting state. In 1752, the
trustees, wearied with the complaints of the colonists, resigned the
charter into the hands of the king, and from that period until the war
of the Revolution, Georgia was a royal province. * When the treaty of
Paris in 1763 guarantied, as far as possible, general peace in America,
the province, for the first time, began to flourish and take an
important place among the Anglo-American colonies; and in the
hostilities against the Indians on the frontiers its people performed
their part well in furnishing provisions and men for the armies.
The inhabitants of Georgia first began to feel the hand of British
taxation, when, in 1767, Governor Wright communicated his instructions
from the king to require implicit obe-
* John Reynolds was the first royal governor. He was appointed in 1754.
and was succeeded in 1757 by Henry Ellis. Sir James Wright, who was the
last royal governor of Georgia, succeeded Ellis in 1760, and held the
office until 1776.
[[[Political Agitation.--Committee of Correspondence.--Movements of the
Sons of Liberty.--Their names]]]
{724}dience to the Mutiny Act. * They were compelled to acquiesce, but
it was with reluctance They had not realized the practical iniquity of
the Stamp Act; and when, in 1768, the Assembly at Savannah appointed
Dr. Franklin an agent to attend to the interests of the colony in Great
Britain, they had no formal special complaint to make, nor difficulties
with government for him to adjust. They generally instructed him to use
efforts to have the acts of Parliament repealed, which were offensive
to all the colonies. To a circular letter from the speaker of the
Massachusetts Assembly,[[1768]] proposing a union of the colonies, an
answer of approval was returned. In 1770,[[Feb, 1770]] the Legislature
spoke out boldly against the oppressive acts of the mother country, by
publishing a Declaration of Rights, similar in sentiment to that of the
"Stamp Act Congress" at New York. Governor Wright was displeased, and
viewing the progress of revolutionary principles within his province
with concern, he went to England[[1771]] to confer with ministers.
He remained there about a year and a half. During his absence, James
Habersham, president of the council, exercised executive functions.
The republicans of Georgia had become numerous in 1773, and committees
of correspondence were early formed, and acted efficiently. A meeting
of the friends of liberty was called in Savannah in the autumn of that
year, but Sir James Wright, supported by a train of civil officers,
prevented the proposed public expression of opinion. The wealthy feared
loss of property by revolutionary movements, while the timid trembled at
the thought of resistance to royal government. Selfishness and fear kept
the people comparatively quiet for a while. In the mean time, a
powerful Tory party was organizing in South Carolina and in Georgia,
and emissaries were sent by the governors of these provinces among the
Indians on the frontiers, to prepare them to lift the hatchet and go out
upon the war-path against the white people, if rebellion should
ensue. Such was the condition of Georgia when called upon to appoint
representatives in the Continental Congress, to be held at Philadelphia
in 1774. Half encircled by fierce savages, and pressed down by the heel
of strongly-supported royal power in their midst, the Republicans needed
stout hearts and unbending resolution. These they possessed; and in
the midst of difficulties they were bold, and adopted measures of
co-operation with the other colonies in resistance to tyranny.
On the fourteenth of July,[[1774]] the Sons of Liberty were requested
to assemble at the liberty pole at Tondee's tavern, ** in Savannah, on
Wednesday, the twenty-seventh instant, in order that publie matters may
be taken under consideration, and such other _constitutional measures_
pursued as may then appear most eligible." *** The call was signed by
Noble W. Jones (who in 1780 was a prisoner in Charleston), Archibald
Bullock, John Houstoun, and George Walton. A meeting was accordingly
held at the watch-house in Savannah.[[July 27, 1774]] where letters from
Northern committees were read, and a committee to draft resolutions
was appointed. **** These proceedings were published, and the governor,
alarmed at the progress of rebellion around him, issued a countervailing
proclamation.[[August]] He called upon the people to discountenance
these seditious men and measures, and menaced the disobedient with the
penalties of stern British law.
On the tenth of August another meeting was held, when it was resolved to
concur with their sister colonies in acts of resistance to oppression.
After strongly condemning the Boston Port Bill, they appointed a
committee to receive subscriptions for the suffering peo-
* A proviso of this act, as we have elsewhere noticed, required the
colonists to provide various necessaries lor soldiers that might be
quartered among them.
** The first liberty-pole was erected in Savannah, on the fifth of June,
1775, in front of Peter Tondee's tavern. His house stood upon the spot
now (1849) occupied by Smet's new stores.
*** M'Call, ii., 16.
**** John Glenn was chosen chairman of the meeting. The following-named
gentlemen were appointed the committee to prepare the resolutions: John
Glenn, John Smith, Joseph Clay, John Houstoun, Noble W. Jones, Lyman
Hall, William Young, Edward Telfair, Samuel Farley, George Walton,
Joseph Habersham, Jonathan Bryan, Jonathan Cochran, George M'Intosh,
Sutton Banks, William Gibbons, Benjamin Andrew, John Winn, John Stirle,
Archibald Bullock, James Seriven, David Zubley, Henry Davis Bourguin,
Elisha Butler, William Baker, Parminus Way, John Baker, John Mann, John
Benefield, John Stacey, and John Morel. These were the leading Sons of
Liberty at Savannah in 1774.
[[[Contributions for Boston.--Tory Influence.--Whig Boldness.--Spiking
of Cannon.--Tar and Feathers.]]]
{725}ple of that city, and within a few hours after the adjournment
of the meeting, five hundred and seventy-five barrels of rice were
contributed and shipped for Massachusetts. The governor assembled
his friends at the court-house a few days afterward, and their
disapprobation of the conduct of the Republicans was expressed in strong
terms. Agents were sent throughout the province to obtain the signatures
of the people to a printed denunciation of the Whigs; and by means of
menaces and promises, an apparent majority of the inhabitants declared
in favor of royal rule. * So powerfully did the tide of opposition
against the Whigs flow for a while, that they did not appoint delegates
to the Continental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia in
September, and Georgia was not represented in that first Federal
Republican council, ** yet they heartily approved of the measure, and
by words and actions nobly responded to that first great resolution,
adopted by the Continental Congress on the eighth of October, 1774, ***
which approved of the resistance of Massachusetts.