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This junction effected, M'Intosh returned to Miller's plantation, three miles from Savannah, where Lincoln, with the main army, arrived on the sixteenth, and made his headquarters.
While Lincoln and his force were approaching, the French effected a landing at Beuley and Thunderbolt, without opposition. M'Intosh linked D'Estaing to make an immediate upon the attack British works. D'Estaing would not listen, but advanced within three miles of Savannah,Sept. 16, 1779and demanded an unconditional surrender to the King of France. Prevost refused to listen to any summons which did not contain definite provisions, and asked for a truce until the next day to consider the subject. This was granted by D'Estaing, and, in the meanwhile, twelve hundred white men and negroes were employed in strengthening the fortifications, and mounting additional ordnance. This truce Lincoln at once perceived was fatal to the success of the besiegers, for he had ascertained that Maitland, with eight hundred men, was on his way
* Count Casimir Pulaski was a native of Lithuania, in Poland. He was educated for the law, but stirring military events had their influence upon his mind, and he entered the army. With his father, the old Count Pulaski, he was engaged in the rebellion against Stanislaus, king of Poland, in 1769. The old count was taken prisoner, and put to death. In 1770, the young Count Casimir was elected commander-in-chief of the insurgents, but was not able to collect a competent force to act efficiently, for a pestilence had swept off 250,000 Poles the previous year. In 1771, himself and thirty-nine others entered Warsaw, disguised as peasants, for the purpose of seizing the king. The object was to plaee him at the head of the army, force him to act in that position, and call around him the Poles to beat back the Russian forces which Catharine had sent against them. They succeeded in taking him from his carriage in the streets, and carrying him out of the city; but were obliged to leave him, not far from the walls, and escape. Pulaski's little army was soon afterward defeated, and he entered the service of the Turks, who were fighting Russia. His estates were confiscated, himself outlawed. He went to Paris, had an interview there with Dr. Franklin, and came to America in 1777. He joined the army under Washington, and, as we have seen, was placed in command of cavalry.
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* His legion did good service at the North. Early in the spring of 1778 he was ordered to Little Egg Harbor, on the New Jersey coast. His force consisted of cavalry and infantry, with a single field-piece from Proctor's artillery. While on his way from Trenton to Little Egg Harbor, and when within eight miles of the coast, he was surprised by a party of British, and a large portion of his infantry was bayoneted. Julien, a deserter from his corps, had given information of his position; the surprise was complete. His loss was forty men, among them Lieutenant-eolonel Baron De Botzen. Pulaski was ordered to the South in February, 1779, and was in active service under Lincoln until the siege of Savannah, in October of that year, where he was mortally wounded. His banner, as we have noticed on page 392, was preserved, and carried to Baltimore. He was taken to the United States brig Wasp, where he died, and was buried under a large tree on St. Helen's Island, about fifty miles from Savannah, by his first lieutenant and personal friend, Charles Litomiski. Funeral honors were paid to his memory at Charleston, and, on the 29th of November, Congress voted the erection of a monument to his memory. Like other monuments ordered by the Continental Congress, the stone for Pulaski's is yet in the quarry. The citizens of Savannah reared the one delineated on page 720, in commemoration ot the services of Greene and Pulaski.
Arrival of Maitland—Victory lost by Delay.—Plan of the Siege of Savannah.
from Beaufort, to re-enforce Prevost, and that his arrival within twenty-four hours was the object hoped to be gained by a truce for that length of time. Such proved to be the fact; Maitland, under cover of a fog, eluded the vigilance of the French cruisers, and entered the town on the afternoon of the seventeenth. * His arrival gave Prevost courage, and toward evening he sent a note to D'Estaing bearing a positive refusal to capitulate. The golden opportunity was now lost to the combined armies. **
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* Finding the French in possession of the only channel at the mouth of the Savannah which was navigable, when he arrived at Dawfuskie, Maitland, conducted by a negro fisherman, passed through a creek with his boats, at high water, and, concealed by a fog, eluded the French. D'Estaing, ignorant of the geography of the country about Savannah, had no idea that there was any other way than by the regular channel for boats to reach the town.
** Lee, in his Memoirs, says, "Any four hours before the junction of Lieutenant-colonel Maitland was sufficient to have taken Savannah."
* Explanation of the Plan.—1, Georgia volunteers, under Major Wright. 2, Picket of the 71st. 3, First Battalion of Delancey's corps, under Lieutenant-colonel Cruger. 4, Georgia militia. 5, Third battalion Jersey volunteers, under Lieutenant-colonel Allen. 6, Georgia militia. 7, Picket of the line and armed negroes. 8, General's quarters; convalescents of the line. 9, South Carolina Royalists. 10, Georgia militia and detachment of the fourth battalion of the 60th, Lieutenant-governor Graham. 11, Fourth battalion 60th dismounted dragoons and South Carolina Royalists, Captain Taws. 12, North Carolina Loyalists, Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton, Governor Sir James Wright. 13, 14, King's rangers, Lieutenant-colonel Brown. A, First battalion of the 71st, Major M'Arthur. B, Regiment of Trombach. C, Second battalion Delancey's corps, Lieutenant-colonel Delancey. D, New York volunteers, Major Sheridan. E. Light infantry, Major Graham. F, Weisenbach's regiment. G, Second battalion 71st, Major M'Donald. II, 60th Grenadiers, three companies and one of marines, Lieutenant-colonel Glazier. I, North Carolina Loyalists, under Colonel Maitland. The working of the artillery during the siege was under the direction of Captain Charlton. This map is copied from one in Stedman's History, drawn under the direction of Colonel Moncrief. Neither the French nor Americans made any drawings, and hence we are unable to give the positions of the various parts of the combined armies, in detail. The city extended, at the time of the siege, on the west to the present Jefferson Street, on the east to Lincoln Street, on the South to South Broad Street, and contained six squares and twelve streets. There were about four hundred and thirty houses in the city.
Operations of the Siege.—D'Estaing's Proposition to Storm the Works.—Remains of the French Lines.
It was now perceived that the town must be taken by regular approaches, and not by assault. To that end all energy was directed. The heavy ordnance and stores were brought up from the landing-place of the French, and on the morning of the twenty-third,Sept. 1779the combined armies broke ground. The French frigates, at the same time, moved up to the sunken vessels within gunshot of the town, and compelled the British ships to take shelter under the guns of the battery. Night and day the besiegers applied the spade, and so vigorously was the work prosecuted, that in the course of twelve days fifty-three pieces of battery cannon and fourteen mortars were mounted. Prevost, cautious and skillful, did not waste his strength in opposing the progress of the besiegers by sorties, but reserved all for the decisive moment.
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During the twelve days, only two sorties were made; one under Major Graham,Sept. 24and the other under Major M'Arthur.Sept. 27Several were killed on each occasion, but the general operations were not affected.
On the morning of the fourth of October, the batteries being all completed and manned, a terrible cannonade and bombardment was opened upon the British works and the town. The French frigate Truite also opened a cannonade from the water. Houses were shattered, some women and children were killed or maimed, and terror reigned supreme. Families took refuge in the cellars, and in many a frame the seeds of mortal disease were planted while in those damp abodes during the siege. There was no safety in the streets, for a moment. Day and night an incessant cannonade was kept up from the fourth until the ninth; but, while many houses were injured, not much impression was made upon the British works. Slowly but surely the sappers and miners approached the batteries and redoubts. The beleaguered began to be alarmed, for their guns made very little impression upon the works or camp of the combined armies, and the hope that Admiral Byron would follow and attack D'Estaing's vessels, lying off Tybee, faded away.
Another promised victory was now before the besiegers, and almost within their grasp, when D'Estaing became impatient. He feared the autumn storms, and the British fleet which rumor said was approaching. A council was held, and when his engineers informed him that it would require ten days more to reach the British lines by trenches, he informed Lincoln that forthwith, or an attempt be made to carry the place by storm. The latter alternative was chosen, and the work began on the morning of the following day.Oct. 9To facilitate it, theabatiswere set that afternoon by the brave Major L'Enfant and five men, while exposed to heavy volleys of musketry from the garrison, but the dampness of the air checked the flames, and prevented the green wood from burning.
Just before dawn on the morning of the ninth, about four thousand five hundred men of the combined armies moved to the assault in the midst of a dense fog, and under cover of a heavy fire from all the batteries. ** They advanced in three columns, the principal one
* These remains are in the southeastern suburbs of the city, about half way between the Negro Cemetery and the residence of Major William Bowen, seen toward the right of the picture. The banks have an average height, from the bottom of the ditch, of about five feet, and are dotted with pines and chineapins or dwarf chestnuts, the former draped with moss. The ground is an open common, and although it was mid-winter when I was there, it was covered with green grass, bespangled with myriads of little flowers of stellar form. This view is from the direction of the town looking southeast.
* Three thousand five hundred were French, a little more than six hundred were American regulars (chiefly North Carolinians), and about three hundred were militia from Charleston.
Storming of the Spring Hill Redoubt.—D'Estaing Wounded.—Death of Pulaski and Jasper.
commanded by D'Estaing in person, assisted by General Lincoln; another main column by Count Dillon. The first was directed against the Spring Hill redoubt * (between 11 and 12 on the right side of the map); the second was to move silently along the edge of a swamp, pass the redoubts and batteries, and assail the rear and weakest point of the British lines, toward the river on the east; the third column, under General Isaac Huger, was to make a feigned attack in front, to attract attention from the other two. Fog and darkness allowed D'Estaing and Lincoln to approach very near the Spring Hill redoubt before they were discovered. Terrible was the conflict at this point just as the day dawned. The French column led to the assault, and were confronted by a blaze of musketry from the redoubt and by a cross-fire from the adjoining batteries. Whole ranks were mowed down like grass before the scythe. D'Estaing was wounded in the arm and thigh early in the action, and was carried to his camp. The Americans pressed forward: Lieutenant-colonel Laurens led the light troops on the left of the French, while General M'Intosh, with another column, passed theabatis, and entered the ditch north of the Spring Hill redoubt. Regardless of the destructive storm, the gallant troops leaped the ditch, and planted the crescent ** and thelilyupon the parapet. The gallant and accomplished Maitland commanded this right wing of the besieged, and was prepared for a vigorous assault. *** His practiced eye at once perceived the peril of the garrison, if this lodgment should be sustained. He united the grenadiers and marines nearest the point of attack, and ordered Lieutenant-colonel Glazier to lead them to a recovery of the lost ground. Within five minutes after receiving this order, Glazier, at the head of his men, rushed to the parapet, and made a furious charge with the bayonet upon the worried ranks of the assailants. This blow by flesh and vigorous men, could not be withstood. The standards of France and of our Carolina were torn down, and the gallant men who had assisted in planting them there were pressed from the parapet into the ditch, and driven through theabatis.
While the carnage was occurring at the Spring Hill redoubt, Huger and Pulaski were endeavoring to force the enemy's works on different sides of the town; Huger, with his party, waded almost half a mile through rice-fields, and assailed the works on the east. They were received with a sharp fire of cannon and musketry, and, after losing twenty-eight men, retreated. Pulaski, at the same time, with about two hundred horsemen, endeavored to force his way into the town a little eastward of the Spring Hill redoubt. At the head of his troops he had passed theabatis, banner in hand, and was pressing forward, when a small cannon shot struck him in the groin, and he fell to the ground. His first lieutenant seized the banner, and for a few minutes kept the troops in action; but the iron hail from the seamen's batteries and the field artillery, traversing the columns of the assailants in all directions, compelled the whole force of the combined armies to yield, and they retreated to the camp. Back through the smoke, and over the bodies of the dead and dying, some of Pulaski's soldiers returned, found the expiring hero, and bore him from the field. Already the French had withdrawn, and the Continentals, under Lincoln, were retreating. At ten o'clock, after about five hours' hard fighting, the combined armies displayed a white flag, and asked a truce in order to bury the dead. Prevost granted four hours, and during that
* The Spring Hill redoubt was at the entrance of the Augusta road into the town, on the western side. The buildings of the rail-way station now cover its site.
** The American standards were those of the second South Carolina regiment, embroidered and presented to them by Mrs. Susanna Elliott, three days after the battle at Fort Moultrie, in 1776, and were planted by Lieutenants Hume and Bush. The French standard was raised by one of D'Estaing's aids, who, with Hume and Bush, soon fell, mortally wounded, leaving their colors fluttering in the breeze. Lieutenant Gray, of the South Carolina regiment, seeing his associates fall, seized the standards and kept them erect, when he, too, was prostrated by a bullet. Sergeant Jasper, whom we shall meet hereafter, sprang forward, secured the colors, and had just fastened them upon the parapet, when a rifle ball pierced him, and he fell into the ditch. He was carried to the camp, and soon afterward expired. Just before he died, he said to Major Horry, "Tell Mrs. Elliott I lost my life supporting the colors she presented to our regiment."
*** A sergeant of the Charleston grenadiers deserted during the night of the eighth, and communicated the general plan of attack, to Prevost. This gave the garrison a great advantage, for they strengthened the points to be attacked.
The Siege raised.—Withdrawal of the combined Armies.—Effect of the Movement.—Colonel Jackson.
interval D'Estaing and Lincoln consulted in relation to further operations. The latter, although his force was greatly diminished by the action just closed, wished to continue the siege; but D'Estaing, whose loss had been heavy, resolved on immediate departure. * The siege was raised, and on the evening of the eighteenthOct. 1779the combined armies withdrew; the Americans to Zubley's Ferry, and the French to Caustin's Bluff, whence they repaired to their ships at TybeeOct. 20Lincoln and his little army hastened to Charleston, where we shall meet them again, besieged and made prisoners of war. These events closed the campaigns in the South for that year. **
The result of the siege was a death-blow to the hopes of the South, and never since the beginning of hostilities had such gloom gathered over the prospects of the future, or so much real distress prevailed in Georgia. *** Toward the sea-board every semblance of opposition to royal power was crushed, and only in the interior did the spirit of armed resistance appear. This increased during the following winter and spring, and at last disturbed the quiet of the royal forces in Savannah. These events, sometimes trivial in themselves, but important in the great chain of circumstances, are related in detail by M'Call, Stevens, White, and other chroniclers of the state. The most important we have already considered; let us now glance at the closing events of the war in Georgia.
When General Greene raised the siege of Ninety-Six, Major James Jackson **** was appointed to the command of the garrison at Augusta. Greene also ordered a legionary corps (composed of part cavalry and part infantry) to be raised in Georgia, and appointed Major Jackson its colonel. As soon as it was organized, Jackson went out with it upon active service.
* The whole force of the combined armies was four thousand nine hundred and fifty, of which two thousand eight hundred and twenty-three were French. The whole British force in Savannah, including a few militia, some Indians, and three hundred negroes, was two thousand eight hundred and fifty. The French lost, in killed and wounded, six hundred and thirty-seven men, and the Americans four hundred and fifty-seven. The whole loss of the British did not exceed one hundred and twenty. Lieutenant-colonel Maitland was attacked with a bilious disease during the siege, and died a few days afterward.
** Ramsay, Gordon, Marshall, Moultrie, Steelman, M'Call. Lee.
*** Indescribable were the sufferings of the people of Savannah, particularly the families of the Whigs. The females were exposed to daily insults from the brutal soldiery, and many, reduced from affluence to poverty, unable to bear the indignities heaped upon them, traveled away on foot, some of them even without shoes upon their feet, and took refuge in the Carolinas.
**** James Jackson was born in the county of Devon, England, on the twenty-first of September, 1757. In 1772, he came to America, and began the study ot the law in Savannah. At the age of eighteen, he shouldered a musket and prepared to resist British power. He was active in repulsing the British at Savannah in 1776. In 1778, he was appointed brigade major of the Georgia militia, and was wounded in the skirmish when General Scriven was killed. He participated in the defense of Savannah at the close of the year, and when it fell into the hands of Campbell, he was among those who fled into South Carolina, where he joined General Moultrie's command. While on his way, so wretched was his appearance, that some Whigs arrested, tried, and condemned him as a spy. He was about to be executed, when he was recognized by a gentleman of reputation from Georgia. Major Jackson was in the siege of Savannah in October, 1779. In August, 1780, he joined Colonel Elijah Clark's command, and was at the battle at Blackstocks. In 1781, General Pickens made Jackson his brigade major, and his fluent speech often infused new ardor into the corps of that partisan. He was at the siege of Augusta, and was left in command of the garrison after the expulsion of the British. He subsequently commanded a legionary corps, with which he did good serviee. He joined Wayne at Ebenezer, and was active with that officer until the evacuation of Savannah by the British. The Georgia Legislature gave him a house and lot in Savannah at the close of the war. He married in 1785; was made brigadier in 1786; and in 1788 was elected governor of Georgia, but modestly declined the honor on account ol his youth and inexperience, being only about thirty years of age. He was one of the first representatives in Congress under the Federal Constitution. He was elected a major general in 1792, and during the three succeeding years was a member of the United States Senate. He was chiefly instrumental in framing the Georgia Constitution in 1798. From that year till 1801, he was governor of the state, when he again took a seat in the Senate of the United States. He held that office until his death, which occurred on the nineteenth of March, 1806. He was buried about four miles from Washington City. Subsequently, his remains were deposited in the Congressional burial-ground. The inscription upon the stone which covers them was written by John Randolph, his personal friend and admirer. There never lived a truer patriot or more honest man than General James Jackson.
Operations of Captain Howell.—Chastisement of the Indians.—Arrival of Wayne.—Skirmish near Savannah.
During the spring of 1781, Captain Howell, the Hyler of the Georgia Inlets, captured several British vessels lying in the bays and the mouths of the rivers on the coast, and finally compelled all that escaped to take refuge in the Savannah.
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Military matters in Georgia were very quiet during that summer; but in the autumn, the volunteers collected by Colonel Twiggs and his associates became so numerous, that he determined to attempt the capture of British outposts, and confine them within their lines at Savannah, until the arrival of General Wayne, then march-ins from the North.
Twiggs marched toward the sea-board, preceded by Jackson and his legion, who skirmished with patroles all the way to Ebenezer. Jackson attempted the surprise and capture of the garrison at Sun-bury, but was unsuccessful, and returned, when he found Twiggs ready to march westward to quell the Indians and Tories then assembling on the frontier. Twiggs halted at Augusta on learning that Pickens had marehed on the same errand.Jan. 1782
That brave partisan chastised the Indians severely. Every village and settlement eastward of the mountains was laid in ashes, and nothing but a heavy fall of snow prevented his crossing the great hills and spreading desolation over a wide extent of country.
General Wayne arrived early in February,1782and established his head-quarters at Ebenezer. His force was inferior to that of the British in Savannah, then commanded by Brigadier-general Alured Clarke, * and he was obliged to content himself with petty warfare upon outposts and foraging parties, while watching an opportunity to attack Savannah at night. Fearing this, Clarke summoned his detachments to the city, to man the extensive fortifications. They came with provisions plundered from the inhabitants, and applying the torch on the way, left a broad track of desolation behind them.
General Clarke, perceiving the gathering strength of the Republicans, and that he was likely to be shut up within the narrow limits of his lines, sent for the Creeks and Cherokees to come in a body to his relief. They were yet smarting under the chastisement of Pickens, and hesitated. A party sent out to keep a way open to the city were attacked by Major Jackson. Colonel Brown was sent to their aid. He was attacked and defeated by Wayne, after a severe skirmish, but he retreated by by-paths in safety to Savannah.
On the night of the twenty-second of June,1782three hundred Creek Indians, led by Guristersigo, a powerful warrior, approached Wayne's encampment. He intended to fall upon the American pickets, but ignorantly attacked the main body at three o'clock in the morning.Jan. 23The infantry seized their arms; the artillery hastened to their guns. Wayne was at a house a short distance from camp, when intelligence came that the whole British force from Savannah was upon him. He leaped into his saddle, rode to the aroused camp, and shouting, "Death or Victory!" ordered a bayonet charge. At that moment his horse was shot dead under him, and he saw his cannons seized by the savages. With sword in hand, at the head of Parker's infantry, he led to the recapture of his field-pieces. A terrible struggle ensued. Tomahawk and rifle were powerless against bayonets, and Guristersigo and seventeen of his chief warriors and white guides were slain. The Indians fled when they saw their leader fall, leaving behind them one hundred and seven-
* General Clarke was governor of Canada in 1807.
Treaty with the Indians.—Cessation of Hostilities.—Evacuation of Savannah.
teen pack-horses loaded with peltry. Wayne pursued the fugitives far into the forest, captured twelve of them, and at sunrise they were shot. The Americans lost only four killed and eight wounded.
In September,1782Pickens and Clarke again chastised the Indians, and completely subdued them.
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Tired of the conflict, and fearful of the scourge which Pickens still held in his hand, they gladly made a treaty by which all the lands claimed by the Indians south of the Savannah Rivcr and east of the Chattahoochie were surrendered to the Slate of Georgia, as the price of peace. This established the boundary line between the State of Georgia and the Indian domain.
Early in 1782, the British Parliament, perceiving the futility of attempts hitherto to subdue the Americans, now began to listen to the voice of reason and of humanity, and steps were taken toward the establishment of peace, between the United States and Great Britain, upon the basis of the independence of the former. On the fourth of March,1782the House of Commons passed a resolution in favor of peace, and active hostilities ceased. Preparations were now made for the evacuation of Savannah, and on the eleventh of July the British army evacuated it, after an occupation of three years and a half. Wayne, in consideration of the services of Colonel James Jackson, appointed him to "receive the keys of Savannah from a committee of British officers." He performed the service with dignity, and on the same day the American army entered Savannah, when royal power ceased in Georgia forever. * A few days afterward, Colonel Posey, with the main body of the Americans, marched to join Greene in South Carolina. Wayne soon followed with the remainder; hostilities ceased, *** and the beams of peace shed their mild radiance over the desolated state, and gave promise of that glorious day of prosperity and repose which speedily followed.
Governor Martin called a special meeting of the Legislature in Savannah,Aug. 1782about three weeks after the evacuation. They assembled in the house of General M'Intosh, which is yet (1852) standing on South Broad Street, between Drayton and Abercorn Streets. The session was short, but marked by decision and energy. On the first Monday in January following, the constitutional session commenced at the same place. Every branch of the new government was speedily organized, and the free and independent State of Georgia began its Career. *
* Between the twelfth and the twenty-fifth of July, seven thousand persons, according to British accounts, left Savannah, consisting of twelve hundred British regulars and Loyalists, five hundred women and children, three hundred Indians, and five thousand negroes. Governor Wright, and some of the civil and military officers, went to Charleston; General Clarke and part of the British regulars to New York; Colonel Brown's rangers and the Indians to St. Augustine; and the remainder, under convoy of the Zebra frigate, the Vulture sloop of war, and other armed vessels, to the West Indies. It is estimated that nearly seven eighths of the slaves in Georgia were carried off now, and on previous occasions, by the British.
** Colonel Jackson had a skirmish with some forces on Skidaway Island, below Savannah, on the twenty-fifth of July, and this was the last fought battle for independence, in Georgia.
*** This house is the third eastward from Drayton Street, and is said to be the oldest brick house in Savannah. Broad Street, upon whieh it stands, is a noble avenue, shaded by four rows of Pride-of-India-Trees.
**** Lyman Hall, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was chosen governor in January, 1784; George Walton, chief justice; Samuel Stirk, attorney general; John Milton, secretary of state; John Martin, treasurer; and Richard Call, surveyor general.
Revolutionary Remains.—Visit to Jasper's Spring.—Its historical Associations.
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HERE are but few remains of Revolutionary localities about Savannah. The city has spread out over all the British works; and where their batteries, redoubts, ramparts, and ditches were constructed, public squares are laid out and adorned with trees, or houses and stores cover the earth. Not so with the works constructed by the French engineers during the siege in the autumn of 1779. Although the regular forms are effaced, yet the mounds and ditches may be traced many rods near the margin of the swamp southeast of the city. These I visited early on the morning of my arrival in Savannah, after an instructive interview with the Honorable J. C. Nicoll, to whom I am indebted for a knowledge of the several historical localities in and near the city. Their present appearance and description are delineated on page 737. After sketching General M'Intosh's house, printed on the preceding page, I procured a saddle-horse and rode out to "Jasper's Spring," a place famous as the scene of a bold exploit, which has been the theme of history and song.*
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It is near the Augusta road, two and a half miles westward of the city. The day was very warm. The gardens were garnished with flowers; the orange-trees were blooming; blossoms covered the peach-trees, and insects were sporting in the sunbeams.
Jasper's Spring is just within the edge of a forest of oaks and gums, and is remarkable only on account of its historical associations. It is in the midst of a marshy spot partially covered with underwood, on the northern side of the road, and its area is marked by the circumference of a sunken barrel. Being the only fountain of pure water in the vicinity, it is resorted to daily by travelers upon the road. One
* We have already met Sergeant William Jasper while securing the Carolina flags upon the parapet of the Spring Hill redoubt at Savannah (see page 738), and there sealing his patriotism with his life's blood. Jasper was one of the bravest of the brave. After his exploits at Fort Moultrie, which we shall consider hereafter, his commander, General Moultrie, gave him a sort of roving commission, certain that he would always be usefully employed. Jasper belonged to the second South Carolina regiment, and was privileged to select from his corps such men as he pleased to accompany him in his enterprises. Bravery and humanity were his chief characteristics, and while he was active in the cause of his country, he never injured an enemy unnecessarily. While out upon one of his excursions, when the British had a camp at Ebenezer, all the sympathies of his heart were aroused by the distress of a Mrs. Jones, whose husband, an American by birth, was confined in irons for deserting the royal cause after taking a protection. She felt certain that he would be hanged, for, with others, he was to be taken to Savannah for that purpose the next morning. Jasper and his only companion (Sergeant Newton) resolved to rescue Jones and his fellow-prisoners. Concealing themselves in the thick bushes near the spring (at which they doubted not the guard of eight men would halt), they awaited their approach. As expected, the guard halted to drink. Only two of them remained with the prisoners, while the others, leaning their muskets against a tree, went to the spring. Jasper and his companion then leaped from their concealment, seized two of the guns, shot the two sentinels, and took possession of the remainder of the muskets. The guards, unarmed, were powerless, and surrendered. The irons were knocked off the wrists of the prisoners, muskets were placed in their hands, and the custodians of Jones and his fellow-patriots were taken to the American camp at Purysburg the next morning, themselves prisoners of war. Jones was restored to his wife, child, and country, and for that noble deed posterity blesses the name of Sergeant Jasper. That name is indelibly written on the page of history, and the people of Savannah have perpetuated it by bestowing it upon one of the beautiful squares of their city.
Departure from Savannah.—Night Voyage.—Arrival at Charleston.—Early Settlement.
of them, a wagoner, came, knelt, and quaffed when I opened my port-folio, and, as he arose from the spring I sketched him, as seen in the preceding picture. He knew nothing of the event which makes it famous.
After lingering for half an hour in the cool shade at the spring, I returned to Savannah. A slight haziness began to overspread the sky, which deepened toward evening, and descended in gentle rain when I left the city at eight o'clock in a steam-packet for Charleston. We passed the lights at Fort Pulaski at half past eight, and an hour later glided by the beacons of Tybee and breasted the rising waves of the Atlantic. Like Yellow Plush, I soon discovered the "use of basins," and at an early hour turned into my berth to prevent a turning out of my supper. During the night we passed through Port Royal entrance, touched at Beaufort, stuck in the mud in the channel between Ladies' and St. Helena Islands, and at daylight emerged again into the Atlantic through St. Helena's Sound. The breeze was hourly stiffening, and every "landlubber" on board preferred the berth to breakfast, until we approached Charleston bar, when the wind died away, the sun gleamed through the breaking clouds, and upon the bosom of long, heaving swells, we were wafted into Charleston harbor.
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We landed at one o'clock, dined at two, and at three I called upon the Reverend Samuel Smythe, D.D., with a letter of introduction, with whom I passed the remainder of the afternoon in visiting places of interest upon the banks of the Cooper River, above the city. To the kind courtesy of Dr. Smythe I am indebted for much of the interest, pleasure, and profit of my visit at Charleston and vicinity.
Here, upon the spot where the first permanent English settlement in South Carolina was accomplished, let us glance at the record of history.
In the Introduction to this work (page xxxii.), I have referred to the first attempt at permanent settlement on South Carolina soil, and the result. As it was only anattempt, proved unsuccessful, and does not illustrate the growth of popular liberty, except so far as theprinciples, of the Huguenots (those first emigrants) had influence in the political opinions of the people in after years, we will not stop to consider the details, but pass on to the period of permanent settlements.
For a hundred years after the first attempt at colonization in South Carolina was made, no settlements were undertaken, and no white man walked in her forests, except a few Spaniards, who penetrated the wilderness from St. Augustine in search of a fancied region of gold. At length the English, who had formed settlements on the Cape Fear and vicinity, turned their attention to more southerly regions.
In January, 1670, two ships, with materials fora permanent settlement, sailed from England, under the command of Sir William Sayle, who had previously visited and explored the South Carolina coast. He entered Port Royal, planted his colony upon Beaufort, and soon afterward died there.
The jurisdiction of Sir John Yeamans, of the Northern colony, was then extended over this settlement, and in 1671 he was chosen their governor. The people were easily induced, "for the convenience of pasturage and tillage," to remove to the south bank of the Ashley River, further north, and there they laid the foundation of old Charlestown ** (at present called Old Town, or the Landing); and there was planted the first fruitful seed a gift of the commonwealth of South Carolina. The colony, in honor of Sir George Carteret, one of the proprietors, was called the Carteret County Colony. ** Nine years afterward, the settlers abandoned this spot, and upon Oyster Point, nearer the sea, at the confluence of the
* There were about fifty families who went from the Fort Royal settlement to the Ashley River, and about the same number from the Northern colony accompanied Governor Yeamans thither.
** Governor Yeamans caused a number of African slaves to be brought from Barbadoes, and in the year 1672 the slave system in South Carolina was commenced
Founding of Charleston.—Increase of Settlers.—Their Character.—Difficulties with the Indians.
Ashley and Cooper Rivers * (so called in compliment to Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury), a place more eligible for commercial pursuits, they founded the present city of Charleston,1680and in the course of the year built thirty houses. *** The city retained its original name of CharlesTownuntil after the Revolution, when it was called Charleston. The general early history of South Carolina we have already considered in its connection with the North State; we have, therefore, only a few particular points to notice in its progress prior to the separation in 1729.
The beauty of the climate and the freedom which then prevailed made South Carolina a chosen refuge for the oppressed and the discontented of all lands. Several Dutch families of New York went to South Carolina when that city passed into the hands of the English, and settled on the southwest side of the Ashley, near the English colony, from whence they spread over the state, and were joined by many from "fader-land." In 1679, Charles the Second sent quite a number of French Protestant refugees (Huguenots) thither; and when, in 1685, the Edict of Nantes (see page 386, volume i.) was revoked, large numbers of the Huguenots crossed the Atlantic, and sought refuge in South Carolina from the fires of persecution about to be relighted in France. Ten years later,1696a colony of Congregationalists, from Dorchester, in Massachusetts, ascended the Ashley almost to its head, and founded the town of Dorchester, in the present parish of St. George, Dorchester. This was a village of considerable note during the Revolution, but it is now deserted, and little remains of the past but the primitive church and the graves around it.
Under various leaders, men of every creed and of various countries went to South Carolina; "and the Santee, the Congaree, the Wateree, and the Edisto now listened to the strange voices of several nations, who in the Old World had scarcely known each other, except as foes. There, for a while, they mingled harmoniously with the natives. The French Huguenot and the German Palatine smoked their pipes in amity with the Westo and the Serattee; and the tastes and habits of the Seine and the Rhine became familiar to the wandering eyes of the fearless warriors along the Congaree. It was not long before a French violinist had opened a school for dancing among the Indians on the Santee River." ***
For some time the colonists were obliged to depend, in part, upon the bounty of the proprietors for subsistence, and the calls of this dependence being generally answered, idle and improvident habits were begotten, highly inimical to the prosperity of a new state. The proprietors perceived the bad tendency of such indulgence, and in a letter to the colonists declared that they would "no longer continue to feed and clothe them, without expectation or demand of any return." This resolve, so unkind to the apprehension of the Carolinians, was of great benefit to the colonists. Ultimately the people, compelled to work or starve—to be provident or to be beggars—turned to their own resources, and their development began. Independence of action begat independence of thought and feeling, and in this first broken fallow, turned up to the vivifying influence of the sun and shower of free civil, political and religious life, the seed of Republican liberty, which subsequently bore such generous fruit in the Carolinas, was planted and took firm root..
In addition to the diseases incident to the climate, and the privations always attendant upon first settlement, the Carolinians were soon called upon to resist powerful foes—the Indian tribes upon whose hunting-grounds they were settling. These difficulties have been noticed in a preceding chapter. The red men were hardly quieted before internal troubles menaced the colony with a more terrible blow. Food had become scarce, discontents were
* The Indian name for the Ashley was Ke-a-wah; for the Cooper, E-li-uan. The city has a tine sheltered harbor, with the sea six miles distant.
** The city of Charleston was laid out in 1680 by John Culpepper, who had been surveyor general of the Northern colony of the Carolinas, but was then a fugitive, on account of his participation in an insurrectionary movement there. The streets were laid out nearly at right angles, and the town site was completely inclosed with a line of fortifications. A plan of these fortifications, and of the city at that time, is published in Johnson's Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution, page 3.
*** Simm's History of South Carolina, page 64.
An Insurrection.—Legislative Assembly.—French and English.—Church Liturgy adopted
heard on every side, and an insurrectionary movement occurred. The rebellion was promptly suppressed, and some supplies just then arriving from England with some new settlers, the people were quieted and became loyal. This difficulty had just passed by, when the Spaniards menaced the English, and ships of war with land troops appeared. Before their arrival, vessels which had been sent to Virginia and Barbadoes for provisions and munitions of war reached the harbor of Charleston. Governor Yeamans at once acted on the offensive, and drove the Spaniards back to St. Augustine.
Yeamans left the colony in 1674, and was succeeded by Joseph West, a man of republican tendencies. He called the freemen of the colony together in convention at Charleston to make laws for their government. This was the first legislative assembly convened in South Carolina. It might have been an auspicious event, had not the jarring interests of classes and creeds, there represented, produced discord and confusion. Cavaliers and Puritans, Churchmen and Dissenters, each strenuous for the prevalence of their respective opinions, presented, in this first attempt at representative legislation, powerful arguments in favor of absolutism. Anarchy prevailed, and in the midst of the dissensions in Charleston, the Stono Indians swept along the frontiers of the settlements, and plundered a great quantity of grain and numerous cattle. The inhabitants armed themselves, defeated the Stonos in several skirmishes, took many of them prisoners, and sent them to the West Indies to be sold as slaves. After other obstinate conflicts, the Stonos were subdued and almost exterminated. They have never had a tribal existence since, and it is believed that they have no living representative upon the earth.
A Legislative Assembly met in Charleston in 1682, and enacted laws for the civil and military operations of the colony. The spirit of freedom had begun to work in the hearts of the people, and when the collection of rents, the great cause of discontent in the Northern colony, was pressed, they rebelled. The public records were seized, and the Assembly, assuming the functions of government, imprisoned the secretary of the province. The governor (Colleton) declared martial law. The exasperated people clamored for his impeachment. The Assembly complied, and he was banished from the province. Turbulence and misrule continued until the scheme of government of Locke and Shaftesbury was abandoned; a better day then dawned. John Archdale, the good Quaker, came, and his policy was like oil poured upon troubled waters. Only one great difficulty remained—the troubles arising from the antipathy of the English to the French. The general excellence of character possessed by the latter soon disarmed prejudices; their political disabilities were removed; they were no longer excluded from participation in governmental affairs, and the last fountain of disquietude was dried up. During the whole of Archdale's administration, and that of Blake, his successor, peace and prosperity prevailed.
James Moore succeeded Blake in 1700. He sent an expedition against the Spaniards at St. Augustine, in 1702, which proved unsuccessful. A subsequent expedition against the Apalachian Indians, undertaken by Moore, has been considered in a previous chapter.
Nathaniel Johnson, a pliant servant of Lord Granville, one of the proprietors, succeeded Moore in 1703, and, pursuant to a plan long cherished by that nobleman and his friends, he proceeded to the establishment of the Church of England in Carolina. This was the first budding of religious intolerance there. The Dissenters were excluded from the Colonial Legislature, and suffered other disabilities. They laid their grievances before the English Parliament. There they received encouragement, and the law of disfranchisement was soon repealed by the Colonial Assembly, but the Liturgy of the Church of England remained the established form of religion in the province until the Revolution.
England was now at war with France and Spain. Her enemies coalesced, and joined in an expedition against South Carolina in 1706. A squadron of five ships came from Havana and appeared before Charleston. The governor called upon the people to repel the invaders, and they cheerfully responded. The invading troops were compelled to fly to their ships, and these, in turn, being attacked by some vessels which had been speedily armed in the harbor, retreated in haste across the bar, and departed. This was the first
Revolution.—Royal Government established.—Separation of the Colonies.—Extension of Settlements.
naval victoryof the South Carolinians. Of eight hundred of the enemy, almost three hundred were killed or taken prisoners.
In 1710 a speck of civil war appeared in Charleston, when two claimants to the office of acting governor, on the death of Tynte, the successor of Johnson, disputed for the honor. A compromise was effected, by referring the case to the proprietors for a decision. They wisely discarded both candidates, and appointed Charles Craven, brother of one of the proprietors, governor of the province. Under his administration the colony prospered, settlements extended, and the power of a dangerous Indian confederacy against the Carolinas was effectually broken. *
Craven was succeeded by Robert Johnson, a son of the former governor,1717and during his administration a revolution occurred in South Carolina which changed the government from a proprietary to a royal one. The remote causes of this change may be found in the desire of the people for a simple and inexpensive government responsible only to the crown, and not to be subjected to the caprices, avarice, and inefficiency of a Board of Control composed of private individuals, intent only upon personal gain. The immediate and ostensible cause was the refusal of the proprietors to pay any portion of the debt incurred by the Indian war so promptly suppressed by Governor Craven; and the severity with which they enforced the collection of rents. The people looked to the crown for relief, aid, and protection. A scheme for a revolution was secretly planned, and on the twenty-eighth of November, 1719, Governor Johnson was deposed. The people proceeded to elect James Moore governor. The militia, on whom Johnson looked for aid, were against him, and finding himself entirely unsupported, he withdrew to his plantation. Moore was proclaimed governor of the province in the king's name, and royal authority was established. During the administration of Francis Nicholson, the successor of Moore, and that of Arthur Middleton, acting governor, little of political importance occurred in relation to the colony, except the legal disputes in England concerning the rights of the proprietors. These were finally settled in 1729, by a royal purchase of both colonies (see page 562) from the proprietors, and during that year North and South Carolina became separate royal provinces.
The colony was now very prosperous, and from the period of the separation until the Revolution, nothing occurred to impede its general progress but the troubles with the Indians, detailed in preceding chapters, and difficulties with the Spaniards. Soon all alarm on account of the latter subsided, for Oglethorpe had established a barrier on the Southern border, by laying the foundation of the commonwealth of Georgia, and preparing means for keeping the Spaniards south of the St. John's. When this barrier was made secure, the treaties with the Indians were accomplished, the war with France ended, and universal peace reigned in the Carolinas. Emigration flowed thither in a broad and rapid stream. Immigrants came from all parts of Europe. Up the Pedee, Santee, Edisto, and Savannah Rivers, settlements spread rapidly, and soon the ax and the plow were plying with mighty energy upon the banks of the Wateree, the Broad, and the Saluda Rivers, and their tributaries. *** At one time six hundred German settlers came in a body; and from the North of Ireland such numbers of the Protestant inhabitants (Scotch-Irish chiefly) departed for Carolina that the depopulation of whole districts was menaced. Immigrants came, too, from the other colonies. Within a single year,1764more than a thousand families with their effects—their cattle, hogs, and horses—crossed the Alleghanies from the Eastern settlements, and pitched their tents in the bosom of Carolina. Far removed from the po-
* See page 562.
** Previous to this period, some important settlements were made. Between the years 1730 and 1740, an Irish settlement was planted near the Santee, to whieh was given the name of Williamsburg township. At the same time, some Swiss emigrants, under John Pury, settled upon the northeast side of the Savannah, and founded the village of Purysburg. From 1748 to 1755, great numbers of Palatines (Germans) were introduced, and settled Orangeburgh and other places upon the Congaree and Wateree. After the battle of Culloden in 1745, many Scotch Highlanders came over. Some of them settled in South Carolina, but a larger portion located at Cross Creek (Fayetteville), in North Carolina. The greatest influx of settlement was after the treaty of Paris, in 1763.
Discontents.—Disputes with the Governor.—Effects of the Stamp Act.—Boldness of the People.
litical power they had been taught to reverence they soon became alienated. They felt neither the favors nor the oppressions of government, and in the free wilderness their minds and hearts became schooled in that sturdy independence which developed bold and energetic action when the Revolution broke out.
While the people of New England were murmuring because of Writs of Assistance and other grievances, the Carolinians were not indifferent listeners, especially those upon the seaboard; and before the Stamp Act lighted the flame of general indignation in America, leading men in South Carolina were freely discussing the rights and privileges of each colony, and saw in day-dreams a mighty empire stretching along the Atlantic coast from the Penobscot to the St. John's. Already their representatives had quarreled with the governor (William Boone), because he had presumed to touch, with official hands, one of their dearest privileges (the elective franchise), and refused to hold intercourse with him. In these disputes, Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch, Henry Laurens, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the Rutledges, and other stanch patriots in the stormy strife ten years later, were engaged. A spirit of resistance was then aroused, which brought South Carolina early into the arena of conflict when the war began.
When intelligence of the Stamp Act came over the sea, the Assembly of South Carolina did not wait to consult the opinions of those of other colonies, but immediately passed a series of condemnatory resolves. When, soon afterward, the proposition for a Colonial Congress came from Massachusetts, a member of the Assembly ridiculed it, * others thought the scheme chimerical, yet a majority of them were in favor of it, and delegates were appointed to represent South Carolina in the Congress which was held at New York.Oct. 7, 1765The iniquitous character of the Stamp Aet was freely discussed by the Carolinians, and as the day approachedNov. 1when it was to go into operation, the people became more and more determined to resist it. When the stamps arrived in Charleston, no man was found willing to act as distributor, and Governor William Bull (who had succeeded Boone) ordered them to be placed in Fort Johnson, a strong fortress on James's Island, then garrisoned by a very small force. When the place of deposit became known, one hundred and fifty armed men, who had secretly organized, went down to the fort at midnight, in open boats, to destroy the stamps. They surprised and captured the garrison, loaded the cannons, hoisted a flag, and at sunrise proclaimed open defiance of the power of the governor. The captain of the armed ship which brought the stamps opened a parley with the insurgents, and agreed to take away the obnoxious articles, and "not land them elsewhere in America." ** This was agreed to, and the men returned to the city. So universal was the opposition to the Act, that no attempt was made to arrest the men concerned in this overt act of treason.
* "If you agree to the proposition of composing a Congress from the different British colonies," said the member, "what sort of a dish will you make. New England will throw in fish and onions; the Middle States flax-seed and flour; Maryland and Virginia will add tobacco; North Carolina pitch, tar, and turpentine; South Carolina rice and indigo; and Georgia will sprinkle the whole composition with saw-dust. Such an absurd jumble will you make if you attempt to form a union among such discordant materials as the thirteen British provinces." A shrewd country member replied, "I would not choose the gentleman who made the objection for my cook, but, nevertheless, I would venture to assert that if the colonies proceed judiciously in the appointment of deputies to a Continental Congress, they would prepare a dish fit to be presented to any crowned head in Europe."—Ramsay.
** In a letter from Charleston, published in Weyman's New York Gazette, it is stated that on the morning of the nineteenth of October a gallows was discovered in the middle of Broad Street, where Chinch Street intersects (then the central part of the town), on which were suspended an effigy representing a stamp distributor, and another to impersonate the devil. Near by was suspended a boot (Lord Bute), with a head upon it, covered by a blue Scotch bonnet. To these effigies labels were affixed. Upon one was the warning, "Whoever shall dare to pull down these effigies had better been born with a mill-stone about his neck, and cast into the sea." At evening they were taken down, and paraded through the street by about two thousand persons, until they came to the house of George Saxby, in Tradd Street, an appointed stamp distributor, where they made a great noise, and injured his windows and other portions of his house, to "the value of five pounds sterling." No other riotous feelings were manifested. Nine day's afterward, Saxby and Caleb Lloyd made oath at Fort Johnson that they would have nothing more to do with the stamps.
Liberty Tree.—Charleston Sons of Liberty.—Pitt's Statue.—Christopher Gadsden
Under a wide-spreading live oak, a little north of the residence of Christopher Gadsden—the Samuel Adams of South Carolina—the patriots used to assemble during the summer and autumn of 1765, and also the following summer, when the Stamp Act was repealed. There they discussed the political questions of the day. From this circumstance the green oak was called, like the great elm in Boston,Liberty Tree. * There Gadsden assembled some of his political friends after the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, and, while bonfires were blazing, cannons were pealing for joy, and the Legislature of South Carolina was voting a statue in honor of Pitt, ** he warned them not to be deceived by this mere show of justice. *** His keen perception comprehended the Declaratory Act in all its deformity, and while others were loud in their praises of the king and Parliament, he ceased not to proclaim the whole proceeding a deceptive and wicked scheme to lull the Americans into a dangerous inactivity. And more; it is claimed, and generally believed in South Carolina, that under Liberty Tree Christopher Gadsden first spoke of American Independence. How early is not known, but supposed to be as early as 1764. ****
The people of Charleston cheerfully signed non-importation agreements in 1769 and
* This tree stood within the square now bounded by Charlotte, Washington, Boundary, and Alexander Streets. This continued to be the favorite meeting-place until the Revolution was in full progress. Beneath that tree the Declaration of Independence was first read to the assembled people of Charleston. Its history and associations were hateful to the officers of the crown, and when Sir Henry Clinton took possession of the eity in 1780, he ordered it to be cut down, and a fire lighted over the stump by piling its branches around it. Many cane heads were made from the remains of the stump in after years. A part of it was sawed into thin boards and made into a neat ballot-box, and presented to the "'76 Association." This box was destroyed by fire, at the rooms of the association, during the great conflagration in 1838.
** This statue was of marble, and stood at the intersection of Broad and Meeting Streets. During the siege of Charleston, in April, 1780, a British cannon-ball from James's Island passed up Meeting Street, struck this statue, and broke off its left arm. Several years after the war, the statue, being considered an obstruction, was rudely pulled down by some workmen employed for the purpose, when the head was broken off, and it was otherwise mutilated. Good taste would have restored the arm, and kept the statue in its place until this day.