of London, set out “to explore the vegetable kingdom,” and search the
Floridas and the western portions of Carolina and Georgia “for the
discovery of rare and useful productions of nature.” In his charming
narrative of travels and observations, he presents us with this glimpse of
our lost town: “After resting, and a little recreation for a few days in
Savanna, and having in the meantime purchased a good horse, and equipped
myself for a journey southward, I sat off early in the morning for
Sunbury, a sea-port town beautifully situated on the main between Medway
and Newport rivers, about fifteen miles south of great Ogeeche river. The
town and harbour are defended from the fury of the seas by the north and
south points of St. Helena and South Catharine’s islands; between which
is the bar and entrance into the sound: the harbor is capacious and safe,
and has water enough for ships of great burthen. I arrived here in the
evening in company with a gentleman, one of the inhabitants, who politely
introduced me to one of the principal families, where I supped and spent
the evening in a circle of genteel and polite ladies and gentlemen.”[185]
The following day was occupied in exploring Bermuda [now Colonel’s]
island, whose soil, plantations of indigo, corn, and potatoes, Indian
tumuli of earth and shell, flora and fauna, greatly interested and
delighted him.
“On the morrow,” continues Mr. Bartram, “obedient to the admonitions of my
attendant spirit, curiosity, as well as to gratify the expectations of my
worthy patron, I again sat off on my southern excursion and left Sunbury
in company with several of its polite inhabitants who were going to Medway
meeting, a very large and well constructed place of worship, in St. John’s
parish, where I associated with them in religious exercise and heard a
very excellent sermon delivered by their pious and truly venerable pastor,
the Rev. —— Osgood. This respectable congregation is independent, and
consists chiefly of families and proselytes to a flock which this pious
man led, about forty years ago,[186] from South Carolina, and settled in
this fruitful district. It is about nine miles from Sunbury to Medway
meeting-house, which stands on the high road opposite the Sunbury road.
As soon as the congregation broke up I reassumed my travels, proceeding
down the high-road towards Fort Barrington, on the Alatamaha, passing
through a level country well watered by large streams, branches of Medway
and Newport rivers, coursing from extensive swamps and marshes, their
sources: these swamps are daily clearing and improving into large fruitful
rice plantations, aggrandizing the well inhabited and rich district of St.
John’s parish.”[187]
In the absence of records it is impossible to specify, with any degree
of accuracy, the ratio of increase which characterized the population
of Sunbury during the first twenty years of its existence. That at an
early period it became a favorite resort not only for commercial purposes
but also for health, admits of no doubt. The probability is that this
town culminated in prosperity, population, and importance, about the
beginning of the Revolutionary war, when its inhabitants, white and
black, numbered, we should say, between eight hundred and a thousand.
That, until the retarding influences of the Revolutionary struggle were
encountered, Sunbury had steadily, although slowly, advanced in material
wealth, influence, and population, may be safely asserted. Bermuda island,
too, was comfortably settled by agriculturists, on small plantations,
busied chiefly with the production of indigo. Sunken spaces, indicating
where the old vats were located, may be seen to this day. A rich and by
no means inconsiderable back country was entirely tributary to Sunbury.
Rice, cattle, lumber, shingles, staves, and other articles of commerce,
brought from the furthest practicable distances, were here concentrated
for sale and shipment; and quite an extensive territory drew its supplies
from the store-houses and shops of the Sunbury merchants. On one or two
occasions cargoes of Africans were landed and sold in this port. The
houses, although of wood, were some of them large, and even imposing. The
wharves were faced with palmetto and live oak logs, and filled in with
oyster shells, sand, and stone-ballast. Among the residents were not a few
of gentle birth, refinement, and education. As a rule, the inhabitants led
easy, comfortable, simple lives, and were much given to hospitality. No
one was ever in a hurry, and the mornings and afternoons, among the better
class, were largely devoted to amusements, such as fishing, sailing,
riding, and hunting. The evenings were spent in visiting and in social
intercourse. It was a good, easy life that these planters, even at that
early day, began to lead upon the Georgia coast. It became more striking,
abundant, and attractive after the Revolution; but the delightful germs
of the most pleasing existence this country has ever known were then
present. No aid seems to have been invoked from the Colonial Council in
either supporting the town or indicating the manner in which it should
be governed. We find no public resolutions or acts on the subject prior
to the legislation of 1791. In all likelihood a Magistrate’s Court, and
the concurrent views of a few of the prominent citizens, invoked on an
emergency, sufficed for the preservation of order and the maintenance of
peace.
The general council, however, from time to time, appointed packers,
inspectors, and “cullers of lumber” for the port.
By an act passed the 26th of March, 1767, it was made obligatory upon
the inhabitants to “clear and keep clear the several squares, streets,
lanes, and common” within the town. In consideration of such service they
were declared exempt from road duty in the parish of St. John.[188] By
the constitution, adopted in convention at Savannah on the 5th day of
February, 1777, the parishes of St. John, St. Andrew, and St. James, were
consolidated into one county called LIBERTY. The counties then named and
defined within the limits of Georgia were eight in all:—Wilkes, Richmond,
Burke, Effingham, Chatham, Liberty, Glynn, and Camden. While to each of
the other counties was accorded a representation of ten members, fourteen
were allowed to Liberty in consideration of its extent and importance.
Sunbury was permitted two special and additional members to represent the
trade of the place; and, for like purpose, Savannah was empowered to send
four.
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary war the parish of St. John possessed
nearly one-third the wealth of the entire province; and its inhabitants
were remarkable for their upright and independent character.[189] Three
hundred and seventeen of the four hundred and ninety-six lots into which
the town of Sunbury was divided, had been sold, and were, many of them at
least, occupied by their respective proprietors and their tenants. Among
the prominent citizens was Dr. Lyman Hall, a native of Connecticut and a
member of the Midway congregation. Although owning and cultivating a rice
plantation situated on the Savannah and Darien road a few miles beyond
Midway meeting house in the direction of Savannah, he was the proprietor
of and resided upon two of the most desirable lots in Sunbury, numbered 33
and 34 on the plan of that town, and fronting upon the river. He was the
leading physician not only of the place but also of the adjacent country
for many miles. It was mainly through his influence that the parish of
St. John acted independently and in advance of the Republican party in
Georgia. In acknowledgment of the decided stand then assumed by him, he
was, on the 21st of March, 1775, unanimously elected as a delegate to
represent the parish in the next general Congress.[190] On the 13th of
May following, upon the production of his credentials, he was unanimously
admitted to a seat in Congress “_as a delegate from the parish of St. John
in the Colony of Georgia_, subject to such regulations as the Congress
should determine relative to his voting.” He carried with him from
Sunbury, as a present to the suffering Republicans in Massachusetts, one
hundred and sixty barrels of rice, and fifty pounds sterling.
It was not until the 15th of July, 1775, that the Convention of Georgia
acknowledged complete allegiance to the general Confederacy, and appointed
Archibald Bulloch, John Houstoun, the Rev’d Dr. Zubly, Noble W. Jones, and
Lyman Hall as delegates to the Provincial Congress.
Intermediately between the time when Dr. Hall took his seat in Congress as
a delegate from the parish of St. John, and this action of the Convention,
as he represented only a portion of the Colony of Georgia, he declined
voting upon questions which were to be decided by a vote of Colonies.
He, however, participated in the debates, advocated the necessity and
value of the present Congress, recorded his opinion in all cases except
such as required an expression of sentiment by Colonies, and declared his
earnest desire and conviction “that the example which had been shown by
the parish which he represented would be speedily followed, and that the
representation of Georgia would soon be complete.”
When the Declaration of Independence was signed, of the three members from
Georgia whose names were affixed to that memorable document, two—Lyman
Hall and Button Gwinnett,—were from St. John’s parish: and we may add,
from the town of Sunbury:—for, although Gwinnett then resided on St.
Catharine island, his home was within sight of that flourishing seaport,
all his public and much of his private business was there transacted,
he was constantly seen in its streets, was known and honored of its
citizens, and in very truth constituted one of them. Two Signers of the
Declaration of Independence from one little town in St. John’s parish!
and that town clean gone from the face of that beautiful, lonely, and
bermuda-covered bluff! It is in perpetuating acts and names like these
that memory stays the engulfing waves of oblivion, and administers signal
rebuke to “time which antiquates antiquities and hath an art to make
dust of all things.”[191] Did the limits of this sketch permit, it would
be interesting to detail the efforts made by the parish of St. John
to persuade positive resistance to English rule and inaugurate steps
contemplating an absolute separation from the mother country when the
greater part of Georgia was not persuaded of the expediency of such action
and was actually opposed to the proceedings of the Continental Congress.
So determined and independent was the rebel spirit in Sunbury, throughout
the Midway settlement, and at Darien, that it actually brought about, for
the time being, a voluntary political separation from the other parishes
of the Colony. So annoyed were the citizens of St. John’s parish by the
temporizing policy which characterized the Savannah Convention, that on
the 9th of February, 1775, they applied to the Committee of Correspondence
in Charleston “requesting permission to form an alliance with them and
to conduct trade and commerce according to the act of non-importation
to which they had already acceded.” It was strongly urged that having
detached themselves from the other parishes in Georgia which hesitated to
participate in the movement, they ought to be considered and received as a
“separate body comprehended within the spirit and equitable meaning of the
Continental Association.”[192]
While admiring the patriotism of the parish, and entreating its citizens
to “persevere in their laudable exertions,” the Carolinians conceived it
improper, and “a violation of the Continental Association to remove the
prohibition in favor of any _part_ of a province.”
Disappointed, and yet not despairing, the inhabitants of the parish of
St. John “resolved to prosecute their claims to an equality with the
Confederated Colonies.” Having adopted certain resolutions by which they
obligated themselves to hold no commerce with Savannah, or elsewhere,
except under the supervision of a Committee, and then only for the
absolute necessaries of life, they appointed Dr. Hall, as we have already
seen, an independent delegate to represent the parish in the general
congress of provinces.
The patriotic spirit of its inhabitants, and this independent action
of St. John’s parish in advance of the other parishes of Georgia, were
afterwards acknowledged when all the parishes were in accord in the
Revolutionary movement. As a tribute of praise, and in token of general
admiration, by special act of the Legislature the name of LIBERTY
COUNTY was conferred upon the consolidated parishes of St. John, St.
Andrew, and St. James. Sir James Wright was not far from the mark when
he located the head of the rebellion in St. John’s parish, and advised
the Earl of Dartmouth that the rebel measures there inaugurated were to
be mainly referred to the influence of the “descendants of New England
people of the Puritan Independent sect” who, retaining “a strong tincture
of Republican or Oliverian principles, have entered into an agreement
amongst themselves to adopt both the resolutions and association of the
Continental Congress.” On the altars erected within the Midway district
were the fires of resistance to the dominion of England earliest kindled;
and Lyman Hall, of all the dwellers there, by his counsel, exhortations,
and determined spirit, added stoutest fuel to the flames. Between the
immigrants from Dorchester and the distressed Bostonians existed not
only the ties of a common parentage, but also sympathies born of the
same religious, moral, social, and political education. Hence we derive
an explanation of the reason why the Midway settlement declared so early
for the Revolutionists. The Puritan element cherishing and proclaiming
intolerance of established church and the divine right of Kings, impatient
of restraint, accustomed to independent thought and action, and without
associations which encouraged tender memories of and love for the mother
country, asserted its hatreds, its affiliations, and its hopes with no
uncertain utterance, and appears to have controlled the action of the
entire parish.[193]
When it became evident that England was resolved to coerce her Colonies,
the inhabitants of Sunbury and of St. John’s parish determined to place
themselves in the best possible condition for effective resistance.
While some of the citizens joined the State militia and the regularly
constituted Colonial forces, others formed themselves into an infantry
company, and a troop of horse, for local defense. The latter was commanded
by Captain John Baker, who afterwards attained the rank of Colonel, and,
in association with Colonels Cooper and Andrew Maybank, and Major Charles
West, rendered signal service in the partisan warfare which ensued.
For the immediate protection of Sunbury a fort was built just below the
town upon the point where the high ground ended and the wide impracticable
marshes between the main and Bermuda island commenced.
A small defensive work may have existed here at an earlier date. The
Record Book of Midway Church discloses the fact that in 1756 a letter was
received from the honorable Jonathan Bryan,—one of his Majesty’s council
for the Colony,—conveying the intelligence that the Indians were much
incensed at several of their people having been killed by some settlers
on the Great Ogeechee river in a dispute about cattle, and advising the
Midway congregation, with expedition, to construct a fort for their
protection. “People,” continues the Journal, “are very much alarmed with
the news, and consultations were immediately had about the _building and
place for a fort, and it was determined by a majority that it should be at
Captain Mark Carr’s, low down, and upon the river near the sound, at about
seven or eight miles distance from the nearest of the settlement of the
Society, which accordingly was begun on the 20th September, 1756_.”[194]
On the 11th of July following, apprehending an attack from a French
privateer, the Midway people were summoned to Sunbury, where they “raised
a couple of batteries and made carriages for eight small cannon which
were at the place.” These were probably nothing more than field works
thrown up on the bluff just in front of the town. It is to these little
forts that Governor Ellis alluded when, upon his second tour of inspection
through the southern portion of the Province, he “was pleased to observe
that the inhabitants of the Midway District had enclosed their church
within a defence, _and had erected a battery of eight guns at Sunbury in a
position to command the river_.”[195]
The State of Georgia being under consideration, it was resolved by
Congress, on the 5th of July, 1776, to raise two battalions (one of them
to consist of riflemen) to serve in Georgia; that blank commissions be
sent to the Convention of Georgia to be filled up with the names of such
persons as the Convention should deem proper; that the Legislatures of
Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina be recommended to allow
recruits for these battalions to be enlisted in their several States;
that four galleys be built for the defense of the sea-coast, and that two
artillery companies, of fifty men each, be enlisted _to garrison two forts
which the State was to erect at Savannah and Sunbury_.[196]
It may, we presume, be safely asserted that the heavy earthwork on Midway
river, just south of Sunbury, was laid out and erected about the period
of the commencement of the Revolutionary war. If any prior defense there
existed, it was so modified and enlarged as completely to lose its
identity.
The names of those who were specially charged with the construction of
this fort have not been perpetuated, but it lives in tradition that the
planters of Bermuda island and of the Midway District, and the citizens of
Sunbury contributed mainly to its erection. It was built chiefly by slave
labor, and was armed with such cannon as could be procured on the spot, or
obtained elsewhere.[197] That its armament was by no means inconsiderable
will be conceded when it is remembered that twenty-five pieces of ordnance
were surrendered by Major Lane when he yielded the ownership of this
work to Colonel A. Prevost. These guns, however, were small, consisting
of 4, 6, 9, 12, and 18-pounders, with perhaps one or two 24-pounders. It
was called by the Americans, FORT MORRIS;[198] but, upon its capture by
Colonel Prevost, its name was by him changed to FORT GEORGE.
At the inception of the Revolutionary war the coast defenses of Georgia
were in a most pitiable and dilapidated condition. All her forts were in
ruins, or nearly so. On the 20th of September, 1773, Sir James Wright,—who
makes no mention of any defensive work at Sunbury,—reports Fort George
on Cockspur island, which was built in 1762 of mud walls faced with
palmetto logs, with a caponiere inside to serve for officers’ apartments,
as “almost in ruins, and garrisoned only by an officer and three men,
just to make signals, &c.” Fort Halifax, within the town of Savannah,
constructed in 1759 and 1760, and made of plank filled in with earth,
with the exception of two of its caponieres, was totally down and unfit
for use. Fort Frederick, at Frederica, erected by General Oglethorpe
when his regiment was stationed there, had been without a garrison for
upwards of eight years, and although some of its tabby walls remained,
the entire structure was fast passing into decay. Fort Augusta, in the
town of Augusta, made of three-inch plank, had been neglected since 1767
and was rotten in every part. Fort Barrington on the Alatamaha river was
in like condition. Of the fort at New Ebenezer, of Fort William on the
southern extremity of Cumberland island, of Fort Argyle, and of the other
minor defenses erected in the early days of the Colony, scarce a vestige
remained.
[Illustration: _Fort Morris_
_J. Bien, Photo. Lith. N. Y._]
Located some three hundred and fifty yards due south of Sunbury, and
occupying the bluff where it first confronts Midway river as, trending
inward from the sound, it bends to the north, Fort Morris was intended
to cover not only the direct water approach to the town, but also the
back river by means of which that place might be passed and taken in
reverse. Its position was well chosen for defensive purposes. To the south
stretched a wide-spread and impracticable marsh permeated by Pole-haul
and Dickerson creeks,—two tributaries of Midway river,—whose mouths were
commanded by the guns of the fort. This marsh also extended in front of
the work, constituting a narrow and yet substantial protection against
landing parties, and gradually contracting as it approached the southern
boundary of Sunbury. This fortification was an enclosed earth-work,
substantially constructed. Its walls embraced a parade about an acre in
extent. The eastern face, confronting the river, was two hundred and
seventy-five feet in length. Here the heaviest guns were mounted. The
northern and southern faces were respectively one hundred and ninety-one,
and one hundred and forty feet in length, while the curtain, looking to
the west, was two hundred and forty-one feet long. Although quadrangular,
the work was somewhat irregular in shape. From the southern face and the
curtain, no guns could be brought to bear upon the river. Those there
mounted served only for defense against a land attack. The armament of
the northern face could be opposed to ships which succeeded in passing
the fort, until they ascended the river so far as to get beyond range. It
also commanded the town and the intervening space. The guns were mounted
_en barbette_, without traverses. Seven embrasures may still be seen, each
about five feet wide. The parapet, ten feet wide, rises six feet above
the parade of the fort, and its superior slope is about twenty-five feet
above the level of the river at high tide. Surrounding the work is a moat
at present ten feet deep, ten feet wide at the bottom, and twice that
width at the top. Near the middle of the curtain may be seen traces of a
sally-port or gateway, fifteen feet wide. Such is the appearance of this
abandoned work as ascertained by recent survey. Completely overgrown by
cedars, myrtles, and vines, its presence would not be suspected, even at
a short remove, by those unacquainted with the locality. Two iron cannon
are now lying half buried in the loose soil of the parade, and a third
will be found in the old field about midway between the fort and the site
of the town. During the recent war between the States, two 6-pounder guns
were removed from this fort and carried to Riceboro. No use, however, was
made of them. Two more, of similar calibre, of iron, and very heavily
reinforced at the breech, were taken by Captain C. A. L. Lamar,—whose
company was then stationed at Sunbury,—and temporarily mounted on the
bluff to serve as signal guns. Despite their age and the exposure to which
they had so long been subjected, these pieces were in such excellent
condition that they attracted the notice of the Ordnance department,
and were soon transported to Savannah. There they were cleaned, mounted
upon siege carriages, and assigned to Fort Bartow, where they remained,
constituting a part of the armament of that work, until upon the
evacuation of Savannah and its dependent forts by the Confederate forces
in December, 1864, they passed into the hands of the Federal army.[199]
Sunbury was occupied by the Revolutionists as a military post, and its
fort garrisoned at a very early period in the Colonial struggle for
independence.[200] In 1776 when Gen. Charles Lee, after full conference
with the venerable Jonathan Bryan, projected a plan of operations against
St. Augustine for the relief of the southern frontier of Georgia, which
had been constantly and sorely vexed by raiding bands from Florida, and to
destroy what promised to be a stronghold for the English, the Virginia
and North Carolina troops who were in the expedition were ordered to
rendezvous at Sunbury. It being the sickly season of the year, and the
men being unaccustomed to the climate, much suffering was encountered
from fevers. The mortality became so great,—from ten to fifteen dying in
a single day,—that the soldiers were removed to the sea-islands in the
vicinity for health.[201]