Liberty County GaArchives History - Books .....Sunbury 1878
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Book Title: Dead Towns Of Georgia
IV.
SUNBURY.
On the 23rd of January, 1734, Mr. Oglethorpe, accompanied by Captain Ferguson
and sixteen attendants,- including two Indians,-set out from Savannah in an open
row-boat, followed by a yawl carrying provisions and ammunition, upon an
exploratory expedition to the Southern frontiers of Georgia. [1] His course lay
through the inner passages, and was pursued as far as St Simons island. For the
protection of the Colony it was then determined to form a military station and
settlement near the mouth of the Alatamaha; and,-as an outpost and barrier
against Spanish invasion,-to erect a strong fort on the high bluff on the
western side of St. Simons island. These sites were shortly afterwards occupied
and fortified, and were respectively named New Inverness and Frederica. It was
during this reconnoissance that the eyes of the Founder of Georgia first rested
upon that bold and beautiful bluff which, overlooking the placid waters of
Midway river and the intervening low-lying salt marshes, descries in the
distance the green woods of Bermuda island, the dim outline of the southern
point of Ossabaw, and, across the sound, the white shores of St. Catherine.
Although formal session had been made by the Lower Creeks of all lands along the
sea-coast from the Savannah to the Alatamaha river, extending westward as high
as the tide flowed, and including all islands except a few which the Indians
specially reserved for the purposes of hunting, fishing, and bathing, no English
settlements had, at that early day, been formed south of the Great Ogeechee
river. Fort Argyle,-garrisoned by Captain McPherson and his troop of Rangers,
and commanding the passes by which the Indians during the late wars were
accustomed to invade Carolina,-was then the only military post of any
consequence in the direction of the Spaniards. From this nameless bluff the
Aborigines had not then removed, and their canoes might be seen passing and
repassing to and from Hussoope, [Ossabaw], and Cowleggee, [St. Catharine],
islands and the main. To the quiet woods and waters of this semi-tropical region
the English were strangers. The Bermuda grass which, at a later period, so
completely covered Sunbury bluff, did not then appear, but magnificent live
oaks, in full grown stature and solemn mien, crowned the high-ground even to the
very verge where the tide kissed the shore. Cedars, festooned with vines, over
hung the waters. The magnolia grandiflora,-queen of the forest,-excited on every
hand the admiration of the early visitor. The sweet-scented myrtle, the tall
pine, the odoriferous bay, and other indigenous trees lent their charms to a
spot whose primal beauty had encountered no change at the hand of man. The woods
were resonant with the songs of birds, whose bright plumage vied in coloring
with the native flowers which gladdened the eye and gave gentle odors to the
ambient air. Fishes abounded in the waters, and game on the land. Cool
sea-breezes tempered the heat of summer, and the rigor of cold was unknown in
the depth of winter. It was a gentle, attractive place,-this bold bluff,- as it
came from the hand of Nature. Some scene like this did the Poet Waller have in
view as he sang:
"Heav'n sure has kept this spot of earth uncurst,
To show how all things were created first."
By a certain grant under the great seal of the Province of Georgia, bearing
date the 4th of October, 1757, his Majesty George II conveyed to Mark Carr, his
heirs and assigns forever, in free and common socage, "All that tract of land
containing five hundred acres, situate and being in the District of Midway in
the Province of Georgia, bounded on the east by the Midway river, on the west by
land of Thomas Carr, on the south by vacant land, and on all other sides by
marshes of the said river."
The grantee of these lands, which embraced the site of the future town of
Sunbury, had been for some twenty years a man of means and of mark in the Colony
of Georgia. In 1741 he had been sent by General Oglethorpe to Virginia to raise
recruits for the Colony. [2] In his last will and testament, dated June 8th,
1767, and proven before his Excellency Sir James Wright on the the 4th of
December of the same year, Captain Carr describes himself as being "of the
Parish of St. Patrick in the Province of Georgia, Esquire." He owned lots in the
town of Frederica, an island on the north side of Midway river, a tract of land
on the main fronting that island, which he had purchased from John Cubbage, and
"a plantation on the main over against Jekyll island." This was his favorite
residence. Here, on the 18th of March, 1741,- despite the presence of a guard of
soldiers there stationed by General Oglethorpe,-the Indians made an attack very
early in the morning, killing several of the soldiers and servants, wounding
others, "locking down the women and children in the cellar," pillaging the
house, and carrying away the booty in a large boat belonging to the plantation. [3]
The grant of this five hundred acre tract on Midway river to Mark Carr in fee
simple, was made under the operation of the rules adopted by the Common Council
in May, 1750, which essentially enlarged the tenures of grants already existing,
and provided that future alienations should convey "an absolute inheritance to
the grantees, their heirs and assigns." It will be remembered that under the
regulations at first prescribed by the Trustees, five hundred acre tracts were
conveyed only to persons well approved by the Trust;-parties who should at their
own expense, and within twelve months from the date of the grant, bring ten
able-bodied men servants not younger than twenty years of age, and settle upon
the lands.
Former alienations of this magnitude had been coupled with other conditions,
among which the following may be enumerated as the most important:
I. The grantee obligated himself to abide in Georgia with his servants for a
term of not less than three years, building houses and cultivating the lands.
II. Within ten years from the registry of the grant, at least two hundred of
the five hundred acres were to be cleared and cultivated.
III. No alienation of the lands thus granted, either in whole or in part, for
a term of years or otherwise, was permitted except by special leave.
IV. After the lapse of eighteen years from the date of the grant, should any
part of the five hundred acres remain uncultivated, unplanted, uncleared, and
without a worm-fence, or pales six feet high, such portion should revert to the
Trust, and the grant, pro tanto, was to become void.
V. These grants were in Tail Male. [4]
On the 20th of June, 1758, Mark Carr conveyed three hundred acres of this five
hundred acre tract, including that portion bordering upon Midway river, to
"James Maxwell, Kenneth Baillie, John Elliott, Grey Elliott, and John Stevens,
of Midway, Esquires," * * * in trust that the same should be laid out as a
town by the name of Sunbury;-one hundred acres thereof being dedicated as a
common, for the use of the future inhabitants;-and in further trust "that they,
the said James Maxwell, Kenneth Baillie, John Elliott, Grey Elliott, and John
Stevens and their successors, should sell and dispose of all and singular the
lots to be laid out in the said town of Sunbury to and for the proper use and
behoof of the said Mark Carr."
Captain McCall [5] suggests that "the town was called Sunbury,-the etymology
of which is probably the residence of the sun,-from the entire exposure of this
place to his beams while he is above the horizon." We believe that this
projected village was named for Sunbury, a quiet and beautiful town in Middlesex
County, on the left bank of the Thames, only a little way above Hampton Court,
and distant some eighteen miles by land from London;-it being a pleasant custom
among the colonists to perpetuate in their new homes the memories of persons and
places dear to them in the mother country.
In ancient records, says Lysons, this place (Sunbury in England) is called
Sunnabyri, Sunneberie, Suneberie, &c. Sunnabyri is composed of two Saxon
words,-sunna, the sun, and byri, a town,-and may be supposed to denote a place
exposed to the sun, or with a southern aspect.
A name better suited to this locality could scarcely have been suggested. It
recalls the peaceful memories of one of the gentle towns of old England, and
typifies the genial influences of the "King of Day" as, from early dawn until
sunset, he irradiates with floods of light the bold bluff "on the westernmost
bank of the river Midway."
Two of the Trustees,-John Stevens and John Elliott,- were prominent members of
the Midway Congregation. James Maxwell had been for several years a resident of
St. John's Parish. He and John Stevens were members of the Provincial Congress
which assembled at Tondee's Long-room in Savannah on the 4th of July, 1775. [6]
Kenneth Baillie and Grey Elliott were active and influential citizens. The
latter was subsequently selected by the General Assembly to act as an assistant
from the Colony of Georgia to Dr. Benjamin Franklin who had been chosen by
several of the Provinces,-Georgia among the number,-and sent on a special
mission to England to represent the wants and grievances of the Colonies,
remonstrate against such acts of the Crown as were deemed oppressive, and oppose
taxation without representation. [7]
All the Trustees, therefore, were men of position and character, commanding
the respect of the community. Their selection for the trust indicated sound
judgment and well-placed confidence on the part of Mark Carr.
The road from Savannah to New Inverness in the Darien settlement which, in
1736, in obedience to Mr. Oglethorpe's orders, was located by Captain Hugh
MacKay, Jr., with his company of Rangers, and Indian guides furnished by
Tomo-chi-chi, had been completed. Various settlements on the Savannah, Vernon,
and Great Ogeechee rivers, and also on St. Simons island and the Alatamaha river
having been confirmed, between 1740 and 1750 planters with their families and
servants began to move in and occupy desirable localities intermediate the Great
Ogeechee and Alatamaha rivers. The sites, at first selected, lay along the line
of the Savannah and New Inverness road, and upon high-grounds adjacent thereto
bordering upon salt-water streams and swamps emptying into them. Between the
Great Ogeechee and South-New Port rivers was formed the Midway settlement. This
district derived its name from its location, which was about midway between the
rivers Savannah and Alatamaha then constituting the northern and southern
boundaries of the colony. It has been suggested, and the belief is current with
some, that the true spelling is Medway, and that both the District and the river
which permeates it were named for one of the well-known streams of merrie old
England. [8]
On the only plan of Sunbury the writer has been able to procure, and in some
of the early records, this river is written Medway. It may be fairly stated,
however, that while by some the river may have been called Medway, the district
was universally known as Midway. The time-honored church, which still stands,
and its predecessor which so long stood near the intersection of the Savannah
and Darien, and the Sunbury roads, are both remembered as the Midway and not
Mediuay congregational meeting houses. We are persuaded that the river as well
as the district were both named Midway;-the former being called for the latter.
By an act dividing the several districts and divisions of the Province of
Georgia into Parishes, passed the 15th day of March, 1758, [9] it was provided
that "the town of Hardwick and district of Ogechee, on the south side of the
river Great Ogechee, extending northwest up the said river so far as the Lower
Indian trading path leading from Mount Pleasant, and southward from the town of
Hardwick as far as the swamp of James Dunham, including the settlements on the
north side of the north branches of the river Midway, with the islands of
Ossabaw, and from the head of the said Dunham's Swamp in a north-west line,
shall be and forever constitute a parish by the name of 'The Parish of St.
Philip': from Sunbury in the district of Midway and Newport from the southern
bounds of the parish of St. Philip, extending southward as far as the north line
of Samuel Hastings, and from thence southeast to the south branch of Newport,
including the islands of St. Katharine and Bermuda, and from the north line of
the said Samuel Hastings northwest, shall be and forever continue a parish by
the name of 'The Parish of St. John': the town and district of Darien,
extending from the south boundary of the parish of St. John to the river
Alatamaha, including the islands of Sapelo and Eastwood, and the sea islands to
the north of Egg island northwest up the river Alatamaha to the forks of the
said river, shall be and forever continue a parish by the name of 'The Parish of
St. Andrew:' and the town and district of Frederica, including the islands of
Great and Little St. Simons, and the adjacent islands shall be and forever
continue a parish by the name of 'The Parish of St. James.'"
Such were the territorial limits of the four southern parishes of the
province, approved by Governor Ellis, and designed to promote the establishment
of religious worship according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of
England.[10]
As the early population of Sunbury was largely drawn from the members of the
Midway congregation,-the most pronounced society existing within the limits of
St. John's parish at the time of its formation,-a brief sketch of that
congregation and its establishment in Georgia, may not be deemed irrelevant.
Early in 1697 a body of Puritans from the Towns of Dorchester, Roxbury, and
Milton, in Massachusetts, taking with them their pastor,-the Reverend Joseph
Lord,- and proclaiming as a leading object the encouragement of churches and the
promotion of religion in the Southern plantations, removed with their families
and personal effects and formed a new home at Dorchester, in the province of
South Carolina. The church which they there established was the first
Congregational or Independent Church within the confines of that Colony. All the
other religious societies belonged to the established Church of England.
After a residence of more than fifty years, finding their lands impoverished
and insufficient for the rising generation,-Dorchester and Beach-Hill proving
very unhealthy,- the good reports of the lands in Georgia having been confirmed
upon the personal inspection of certain members of the Society who had been sent
for that purpose, and a grant of 22,400 acres of land having been secured from
the authorities in Georgia,-which grant was subsequently enlarged by the
addition of 9,950 acres,-the members of the Dorchester Society commenced moving
in 1752 into what is now the swamp region of Liberty County. The settlement lay
between Mount Hope Swamp,-the head of Midway river,-on the North, and Bull-Town
Swamp on the South. At first, however, it was not so comprehensive. It extended
neither to the pine barrens on the West, nor to the salt water on the East. This
immigration, begun in 1752, was continued until 1771, when it ceased. [11]
According to the records of the Society, there were forty-four removals in all,
of which one family came from Charlestown, four from Pon-Pon, and the remaining
thirty-nine from Dorchester and Beach-Hill. These removals were most numerous
during the years 1754, 1755, and 1756. These immigrants brought their negroes
with them, and it appears probable, from the best lights before us, that the
population of this colony, after its full establishment, consisted of about 350
whites, and 1500 negro slaves.
The region into which the Dorchester Congregation immigrated was already known
as the Midway District. To the General Assembly which convened in Savannah in
1751, Audley Maxwell, Esquire, was sent as a delegate;- its population then
entitling it to such representation. It would appear that a number of families
residing in the Midway District previous to the arrival of the Dorchester
Congregation, united with that Society after it was regularly domiciled in its
new home. The Dorchester Colony did not immigrate, in its entirety, to Georgia.
Some families continued to dwell at Dorchester and Beach-Hill, where their
descendants may yet be found. Others removed elsewhere. With the formation of
the new settlement in St. John's parish, however, the old Dorchester colony in
South Carolina lost its integrity and distinctive characteristics.
In locating their plantations amid the swamps of St. John's parish, the
following plan was adopted: After laying by their crops in Carolina in the fall
of the year, the planters came with able-bodied hands, and, during the winter,
cleared land and built houses. In a season or two having thus sufficiently
prepared the way, they brought their families and servants in the early spring,
and at once entered upon the cultivation of the soil. Thus was the removal
rendered as safe and comfortable as, the nature of the case permitted.
Strange to say, their dwellings and plantation quarters were invariably
located on the edges of the swamps, in utter disregard of the manifest laws of
health. In such malarial situations was the entire year passed. Their houses at
first were built of wood, one story high, with dormer windows in the roofs,
small in size, without lights, with no inside linings, and with chimneys of
clay. The negro-houses were made either of clay or poles. For market, rice was
the only article cultivated. While corn was planted on the upland, chief
attention was bestowed upon the clearing, ditching, and drainage of the swamps.
A miasmatic soil was thus exposed to the action of the sun, at their very doors.
The consequence of such injudicious location, and of a general inattention to
domestic comfort, was violent sickness and considerable mortality. So frequent
were the deaths among children that they seldom arrived at puberty. Those who
attained the age of manhood and womanhood possessed feeble constitutions.
According to the register kept by the Society, from 1752 to 1772,-the period
during which this settlement was being formed,-193 births and 134 deaths
occurred. The mortality was greatest during the months of September, October,
and November. April, May, June, and August appear to have been the healthiest
months:-June particularly so. Bilious fevers in the fall, and pleurisies in the
winter and spring, were the diseases which proved most fatal. It used to be said
of such as survived a severe attack of bilious fever in the fall, that they
would certainly die of pleurisy in the winter or spring.
The Indians being in the vicinity, and at times indulging in acts of
hostility, some of the houses of these early settlers were made of hewn cypress
logs after the fashion of block houses, and were bullet proof.
The style of agriculture in vogue was of the most primitive sort. The ground
was tilled with hoes only. Ploughs were not in use. All rails for fencing were
carried on the heads and shoulders of the negroes, and in the same manner was
rice transported from the fields. This grain was not only threshed but also
beaten by hand: and thus was the crop prepared for market. At first some of the
planters sold their crops in Savannah. A trip to that place was the event of the
year, and the anticipated journey was talked of in the neighborhood for some
time before it was undertaken. Horses were specially fed and carefully attended
for a week or more preparatory to the jaunt. Ordinary journeys to church, and of
a social character, were performed on horseback. Hence horse-blocks were to be
seen at every door. When he would a-woo-ing go, the gallant appeared mounted
upon his finest steed and in his best attire, followed by a servant on another
horse, conveying his master's valise behind him.
Shortly after the Revolutionary war stick-back gigs were introduced. If a
woman were in the vehicle and unattended, the waiting man rode another horse,
keeping along side of the shaft horse and holding the check rein in his left
hand. When his master held the lines, the servant rode behind. Men often went
armed to church for fear of the Indians.
The country was filled with game. Ducks and wild geese in innumerable
quantities frequented the rice-fields. Wild turkeys and deer abounded. Bears and
beavers were found in the swamps, and buffalo herds wandered at no great remove
to the southward and northward. There was no lack of squirrels, raccoons,
opossums, rabbits, snipe, wood-cock, and quail. Wildcats and hawks were the pest
of the region, while the cougar was sometimes heard and seen in the depths of
the vine-clad swamps. The waters which they held were alive with fishes,
alligators, terrapins, and snakes.
Such, in a few words, was the condition of the swamp region of the Midway
District when the town of Sunbury was located. Responding to the trust reposed
in them by the conveyance from Mark Garr, Messrs. James Maxwell, Kenneth
Baillie, John Elliott, Grey Elliott, and John Stevens, with due dispatch set
about laying off the town upon the "westermost bank" of Midway river. The plan,
as matured and carried out by them, embraced three public squares,-known
respectively as King's, Church, and Meeting,-and four hundred and ninety-six
lots. These lots had a uniform front of seventy feet, and were one hundred and
thirty feet in depth. Lots numbers one to forty, inclusive, fronting on the
river, were denominated Bay Lots, and carried with them the ownership of the
shore to low-water mark. Four lots constituted a block, bounded on three sides
by streets, and on the fourth by a lane. The streets were seventy-five feet
broad, and the lanes twenty feet wide. The plan of the town was entirely
regular. The streets in one direction ran at right angles to the river, and
were, at right angles, intersected by the cross streets and lanes. From north to
south the length of Sunbury, as thus laid out, was 3430 feet. Its breadth on the
south side was 2230 feet', and on the north, 1880 feet.
Within a short time substantial wharves were constructed, the most marked of
which were subsequently owned and used by the following merchants: Kelsell &
Spalding, Fisher, Jones & Hughes, Darling & Co., and Lamott.
That Sunbury must rapidly have attracted the notice of the colonists and
quickly secured a population by no means insignificant or destitute of influence
in that day of small things, is evidenced by the fact that as early as 1761 the
Governor, by and with the advice and consent of his council, established and
declared it to be a port of entry, and appointed Thomas Carr, Collector, John
Martin, Naval Officer, and Francis Lee, Searcher. These appointments were
confirmed by the Commissioners of his Majesty's Customs. [12]
By deed prepared by Thomas Bosomworth, Malatche Opiya, Mico, Emperor of the
Upper and Lower Creeks, in consideration of ten pieces of stroud, twelve pieces
of duffles, two hundred weight of powder, two hundred weight of lead, twenty
guns, twelve pairs of pistols, and one hundred weight of vermilion, on the 14th
day of December, 1749, conveyed to Thomas and Mary Bosomworth [formerly
Musgrove] Hussoope or Ossabaw island, Cowleggee or St. Catherine island, [13]
and Sapelo, with their appurtenances, warranting the same to them, their heirs,
and assigns, so long as the sun should shine, or the waters flow in the rivers.
[14] This claim to the ownership of these valuable islands proved a very
annoying one to the colonists. After years of litigation, the dispute was
finally settled in 1759, by Royal command, by admitting a demand of Mrs.
Bosomworth for £450 for goods alleged to have been expended by her in his
Majesty's service during the years 1747 and 1748, by allowing her a back salary
at the rate of £100 per annum for sixteen years and a half, during which she had
acted in the capacity of government agent and interpreter, and by confirming to
her and her designing husband full right and title to St. Catherine island, in
consideration of the fact that they had fixed their residence and planted there.
[15]
St. Catherine island was the home of the Bosomworths when Sunbury was settled.
Some fourteen years afterwards it formed the residence of the honorable Button
Gwinnett, who, having disposed of his stock of merchandise in Charleston, South
Carolina, with the proceeds purchased some negroes and a tract of land on St.
Catherine, where he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits until, on the
outbreak of the Revolutionary war, he was summoned from his retirement by the
voice of his fellow-citizens. [16]
Captain McCall, in alluding to the early history of Sun-bury, says: "Soon
after its settlement and organization as a town, it rose into considerable
commercial importance; emigrants came from different quarters to this healthy
maritime port, particularly from Bermuda: about seventy came from that island,
but unfortunately for them and the reputation of the town, a mortal epidemic
broke out and carried off about fifty of their number the first year: it is
highly probable they brought the seeds of the disease with them. Of the
remainder, as many as were able, returned to their native country. This
circumstance, however, did not very much retard the growing state of this
eligible spot: a lucrative trade was carried on with various parts of the West
Indies in lumber, rice, indigo, corn, &c. Seven square-rigged vessels have been
known to enter the port of Sunbury in one day, and about the years 1769 and 1770
it was thought by many, in point of commercial importance, to rival Savannah. In
this prosperous state it continued with very little interruption until the war
commenced between Great Britain and America." [17]
In his report on the condition of the Province of Georgia, dated the 20th of
September, 1773, Sir James Wright mentions Savannah and Sunbury as being the
only ports in the Province. The inlet to the latter he describes as "very good;
and, although the river is not more than twenty two miles in length, fifteen
feet of water may be carried up to the town distant twelve miles from the sea."
From, the same source we learn that during the year 1772 fifty-six vessels of
various sorts, were entered and cleared at the custom house in the port of
Sunbury. [18] The collector of the port at this time was James Kitchen, with a
salary of ,£65 stg, and fees of office amounting to ,£90. The comptroller and
searcher was Isaac Antrobus: salary £60: fees of office amounting to a like sum.
Sunbury soon commanded the rice crop from the adjacent swamp regions. Indigo
was planted on the island just below, then called Bermuda, and now known as the
Colonel's Island. The principal trade was with the West Indies and with the
Northern Colonies. From the former, supplies of rum and sugar were obtained, and
from the latter rum, flour, biscuits, and provisions. To the West Indies were
shipped rice, corn, peas, indigo, lumber, shingles, live stock, and barreled
beef and pork. Governor Wright regarded the trade with the Northern Colonies as
injurious to the Province of Georgia, because, says he, "they take of but little
of our produce, and drain us of every trifle of Gold and Silver that is brought
here, by giving a price for Guineas, Moidores, Johannes's Pistols and Dollars
far above their real and intrinsic value, so that we can never keep any amongst
us." So anxious was Sunbury to concentrate all the trade of the interior, that
at one time it was proposed to connect Midway and North Newport rivers by a
canal running between Bermuda island and the main. This project, however, was
never consummated. Occasionally vessels arrived from English ports bringing
manufactured goods, but such generally sought Savannah as the port of entry and
discharge. The purchases of the Sunbury merchants were largely made in or
through Savannah, and were thence conveyed in coasting sloops and schooners
through the inland passages. Below the town, and on the road to the Colonel's
island, is a locality to this day known as the stave landing, whence, in these
early days, constant shipments of staves and shingles were made. On the eastern
side of that island, the site of the old shipyard is still pointed out where
vessels were repaired and new ones built. It was here that the British landed
during the Revolutionary war, when, under Lieut. Col. Fuser, they attempted the
reduction of Sunbury.
The health of Sunbury from the time of its settlement until, and even after
the Revolutionary war, was good. It
became a pleasant residence for the families of many planters whose plantations
were located in the swamp regions.
The following is a "list of the Proprietors of the Town of Sunbury in
Georgia," and of the Lots owned by them or their representatives about the
period of the war of the Revolution :
Lot No. 1. Mark Carr.
" " 2. Arthur Carnaby.
" " 3. Grey Elliott.
" " 4. Do.
" " 5. Francis Arthur.
" " 6. William Graves.
" " 7. Francis Arthur.
" " 8. John Cubbidge.
" " 9. James Maxwell.
" " 10. Mary Spry.
" " 11. Samuel Bennerworth.
" " 12. Stephen Dickinson.
" " 13. James Fisher. Schmidt & Molich.
" " 14. Do. Do.
" " 15. Swinton & Co.
" " 16. Darling & Munro.
" " 17. Francis Arthur.
" " 18. James Derwell.
" " 19. Swinton & Co.
" " 20. Thomas Peacock.
" " 21. Andrew Darling.
" " 22. Thomas Young.
" " 23. Do.
" " 24. Eoger Kelsall.
" " 25. John James.
" " 26. Joseph Bacon.
" " 27. John Stewart, Sen'r.
" " 28. John Lupton.
" " 29. Dunbar, Young & Co.
" " 30. Do.
" " 31. John Elliott,
" " 32. James Dunham.
" " 33. Lyman Hall.
" " 34. Do.
" " 35. Samuel Miller.
" " 36. Kenneth Baillie, Sen'r.
" " 37. Samuel Bennerworth.
" " 38. Do.
" " 39. William Sererson.
" " 40. Do.
" " 41. Mark Carr.
" " 42. Tabitha Bacon.
" " 43. Do.
" " 44. John Winn.
" " 45. David Jervey.
" " 46. Do.
" " 47. Francis Arthur.
" " 48. Francis Lee.
" " 49. John Quarterman, Jr.
" " 50. James Dowell.
" " 51. John Irvine.
" " 52. Jeremiah Irvine.
" " 53. Darling & Co.
" " 54. Matthew Smallwood.
" " 55. William Peacock.
" " 56. Isaac Lines.
" " 57. John Osgood.
" " 58. Rebecca Way.
" " 59. John Stewart, Sr.
" " 60. John Lupton.
" " 61. James Dunham.
" " 62. John Shave.
" " 63. Jacob Lockerman.
" " 64. Paynter Dickinson.
" " 65. John Lawson.
" " 66. Do.
" " 67. Thomas Ralph.
" " 68. John Quarterman, Sr.
" " 69. Thomas Gouldsmith.
" " 70. James Houstoun.
" " 71. John Stevens.
" " 72. Mark Carr.
" " 73. Hugh Clark.
" " 74. Do.
" " 75. Kenneth Baillie, Sr.
" " 76. Do.
" " 77. Paris Way.
" " 78. Nathaniel Yates.
" " 79. William Dunham.
" " 80. Charles West.
" " 81. Daniel Slade.
" " 82. Jacob Lockerman.
" " 83. Samuel West.
" " 84. Thomas Carter, P. Schmidt.
" " 85. John Elliott.
" " 86. Do.
" " 87. William Baker.
" " 88. Do.
" " 89. Audley Maxwell.
" " 90. Elizabeth Simmons.
" " 91. John Graves.
" " 92. Do.
" " 93. Eobert Bolton.
" " 94. John Baker.
" " 95. John Humphreys.
" " 96. James Fisher, Francis Guilland.
" " 97. John Lupton.
" " 98. Do
" " 99. Henry Saltus.
" " 100. Donald McKay.
" " 101. Stephen Dickinson.
" " 102. Do.
" " 103. William Clark.
" " 104. Thomas Christie.
" " 105. Samuel Jeanes.
" " 106. Moses Way.
" " 107. William David.
" " 108. Paynter Dickinson.
" " 109. Francis Lee.
" " 110. Do.
" " 111. James Harley.
" " 112. Samuel Bacon.
" " 113. Tabitha Bacon.
" " 114. John Stewart, Snr.
" " 115. Do.
" " 116. Do.
" " 117. Stephen Dickinson.
" " 118. Do.
" " 119. John Elliott.
" " 120. Do.
" " 121. Benjamin Stevens.
" " 122. John Lynn.
" " 123. Do.
" " 125. John Sutherland.
" " 126. Do.
" " 127. Samuel Jeanes.
" " 128. Do.
" " 129. Joseph Tickener.
" " 130. William Miller.
" " 131. Richard Mills.
" " 132. Do.
" " 133. Peter McKay.
" " 134. James Miller.
" " 135. Do.
" " 136. David Jervey.
" " 137. William Davis.
" " 138. Do.
" " 139. Joseph Serjeant.
" " 140. John Jones.
" " 141. Strong Ashmore.
" " 142. Francis Arthur.
" " 143. Donald McKay.
" " 144. Do.
" " 145. Andrew Way.
" " 146. James Fisher.
" " 147. George Monis.
" " 148. Thomas Way.
" " 149. James Hatcher.
" " 150. Do.
" " 151. Francis Arthur.
" " 152. Do.
" " 153. Do.
" " 154. Do.
" " 155. John Perkins.
" " 156. Do.
" " 157. William Lowe.
" " 158. Do.
" " 159. Charles West. Schmidt & Molich.
" " 160. Do. Do.
" " 161. Do.
" " 162. Do.
" " 163. William Peacock.
" " 164. Do.
" " 165. Charles West.
" " 166. Do.
" " 167. William Davis.
" " 168. Do.
" " 169. Francis Lee.
" " 170. Do.
" " 171. Thomas Vincent.
" " 172. Benjamin Baker.
" " 173. Grey Elliott.
" " 174. Do.
" " 175. Do.
" " 176. Do.
" " 177. John Lupton.
" " 178. Do.
" " 179. Do.
" " 180. Do.
" " 181. T. Quarterman,
" " 182. Joseph Bacon.
" " 185. Susannah Jones.
" " 186. Do.
" " 189. Barnard Romans.
" " 190. Do.
" " 191. Barnard Romans.
" " 192. Do.
" " 200. John K. Zubley.
" " 205. Edward Way.
" " 206. Do.
" " 207. James Fisher.
" " 208. Do.
" " 209. Edward Maham.
" " 210. Do.
" " 211. Richard Spencer.
" " 212. Do.
" " 213. William Swinton.
" " 214. Do.
" " 215. Do.
" " 216. Do.
" " 217. Samuel Jeanes.
" " 218. Do.
" " 219. Do.
" " 220. Henry Saltus.
" " 221. James Read.
" " 222. Do.
" " 223. Charles West.
" " 224. Do.
" " 225. John Shave.
" " 226. Do.
" 227. Richard Baker.
" " 228. Do.
" " 229. Marn'k Perry.
" " 230. Do.
" " 231. Thomas Dunbar
" " 232. Joshua Snowden.
" " 233. Samuel Burnley. Schmidt & Molich
" " 234. Samuel Burnley. Schmidt & Molich.
" " 235. Do.
" " 236. Do.
" " 237. John Milchett.
" " 238. Do.
" " 239. James Andrew.
" " 240. Do.
" " 241. William Dunham.
" " 242. Do.
" " 243. Samuel Jeanes.
" " 244. Winw'd McIntosh.
" " 245. David Jervey.
" " 246. Do.
" " 247. Francis Lee.
" " 248. Samuel Morecock.
" " 249. Mark Carr
" " 250. Do.
" " 251. George Bodington.
" " 252. Mary Bateman.
" " 253. John Goff.
" " 257. Robert Bolton.
" " 258. Do.
" " 265. Mark Carr.
" " 266. Do.
" " 267. John Bryan.
" " 268. Do.
" " 269. Patrick M. Kay.
" " 270. Do.
" " 271. Benjamin Andrew.
" " 272. Do.
" " 273. Morgan Tabb.
" " 274. Do.
" " 275. Morgan Tabb.
" " 276. Do.
" " 277. James Watcher.
" " 278. Do.
" " 279. Francis Arthur.
" " 280. Do.
" " 281. John Bryan.
" " 282. Samuel Richardson.
" " 283. John Gaspar Stirkey.
" " 284. Do.
" " 285. John Jones (mulatto.)
" " 289. Thomas Carter.
" " 290. Do.
" " 305. Do.
" " 306. Do.
" " 307. Do.
" " 308. Do.
" " 309. Do.
" " 313. Samuel Tomlinson.
" " 314. Do.
" " 315. Do.
" " 317. William Swinton.
" " 318. Do.
" " 319. Do.
" " 320. Do.
" " 340. Peter McKay.
" " 341. Do.
" " 342. Do.
" " 343. Do.
" " 344. Do.
" " 345. Do.
" " 346. Do.
" " 347. Peter McKay.
" " 348. Do.
" " 349. Do.
" " 350. Do.
" " 351. Do.
" " 352. Thomas Quarterman.
" " 353. Barrack Norman.
" " 354. Do.
" " 355. Do.
" " 356. Tarah, Senior.
" " 357. Francis Arthur.
" " 358. Do.
" " 359. Frederick Hobrendorff.
" " 360. Do.
" " 361. Joseph Richardson.
" " 362. Do.
" " 373. John Ford.
" " 403. Thomas Christie.
" " 404. Do.
" " 431. Marmaduke Gerry.
" " 432. Do.
" " 433. Do.
" " 434. Robert Smallwood.
" " 435. Do.
" " 436. John Winn.
" " 437. Francis Arthur.
" " 438. Do.
" " 473. Do.
" " 474. Do.
" " 475. Do.
" " 476. Do.
" " 477. Do.
" " 478. Samuel Bacon.
" " 479. Francis Lee.
" " 480. John Tutes.
In the Spring of 1773 William Bartram, at the request of Dr. Fothergill 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." [19]
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, [20] from
South Carolina, and settled in this fruitful district. It is about nine miles
from Sunbury to Medway meetinghouse, which stands on the high road opposite the
Sunbury road. As soon as the congregation broke up I re-assumed 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." [21]
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. [22] 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. [23] 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. [24] 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 10th 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."
[25] 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." [26]
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
Bevolutionists. 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. [27]
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 loas 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." [28]
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." [29]
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. [30]
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.
[31] 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; [32] 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.
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 widespread and
impracticable marsh permeated by Polehaul 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. [33]
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.
[34] 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. [35]
As we all know, through the failure of General Lee to concentrate the
requisite men and munitions, the contemplated movement from which so much was
anticipated never took place; and when, on the 20th of September, he went North
to assume the command to which he had been appointed, he ordered the troops in
the neighborhood of Sunbury to follow him.
This project was renewed by General Robert Howe, who advanced as far as Port
Tonyn. There, however, a council of war decided a further prosecution of the
enterprise un-advisable. The sick and convalescent,-of whom there was a
considerable number,-in gallies and such boats as could be procured were, under
the command of Colonel C. C. Pinckney, conducted by the inland passage to
Sunbury where, for a time, they were allowed to rest and recruit. They were
subsequently transferred to Charleston by the way of Port Royal. [36] Colonel
John Mcintosh was left in command of Sunbury with one hundred and twenty-seven
men. The remnants of Elbert's and White's regiments proceeded to Savannah. [37]
So far, Sunbury had suffered no molestation at the hands of the King's forces.
Lord George Germain's plan for the Southern campaign in 1778 was prepared with
"minuteness of detail." The reduction of Savannah was resolved upon. As a
diversion, and with a view to distracting the attention of General Howe and the
American forces concentrated for the protection of the then capital of Georgia,
General Augustine Prevost was ordered to dispatch from St. Augustine two
expeditions, one, by sea, to operate directly against Sunbury, and the other, by
land, to march through and harrass the lower portions of Georgia, and, at
Sunbury, form a junction with the former.
Responding to his instructions, that officer sent by water a detachment of
infantry and light artillery under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Fuser for
the capture of Sunbury. Lieutenant Colonel Mark Prevost was charged with the
conduct of the expedition by land. He took with him one hundred British
regulars. At Fort Howe, on the Alatamaha, he was joined by the notorious
McGirth, with three hundred refugees and Indians. On the 19th of November this
force entered the Georgia settlements, taking captive all men found on their
plantations, and plundering the inhabitants of every article of value capable of
transportation. At the point where the Savannah and Darien road crosses Bulltown
swamp, Prevost was confronted by Colonel John Baker, who had hastily collected
some mounted militia to dispute his advance. After a short skirmish the
Americans retreated. Colonel Baker, Captain Cooper, and William Goulding were
wounded. At North Newport Bridge, [afterwards called Riceborough Bridge,]
further resistance was encountered at the hands of the Patriots, but it was too
feeble to materially retard the progress of the invading forces. Meanwhile,
Colonel John White. [38] having concentrated about one hundred Continentals and
militia, with two pieces of light artillery, took post at Midway Meeting House
and constructed a slight breastwork across the road at the head of the causeway
over which the enemy must advance. His hope was that he might here keep Prevost
in check until reinforcements could arrive from Savannah. An express was sent to
Colonel Elbert to advise him of the hostile invasion, and Major William Baker,
with a party of mounted militia, was detached to skirmish with the enemy and, at
every possible point, interrupt his progress. On the morning of the 24th Colonel
White was joined by General Screven with twenty militiamen. It was resolved to
abandon the present and occupy a new position a mile and a half the other side
of Midway Meeting House where the road was skirted by a thick wood in which it
was thought an ambuscade might be advantageously laid. McGirth being well
acquainted with the country, and knowing the ground held by Colonel White,
suggested to Prevost the expediency of placing a party in ambush at the very
point selected by the Americans for a similar purpose. It was further proposed,
by an attack and feigned retreat, to draw Colonel White out of his works and
into the snare. The contending parties arrived upon the ground almost
simultaneously, and firing immediately commenced. Early in the action the
gallant General Screven, renowned for his patriotism and beloved for his
virtues, received a severe wound, fell into the hands of the enemy, and was by
them killed while a prisoner and suffering from a mortal hurt. A shot from one
of the field pieces passed through the neck of Prevost's horse, and both animal
and rider fell. Major Roman, commanding the artillery, supposing that the
British commander had been killed, quickly advanced his two field pieces to take
advantage of the confusion which ensued, and Major James Jackson, thinking the
enemy was retreating, shouted victory. Prevost however soon appeared remounted,
and advanced in force. Finding himself overborne by numbers, Colonel White
retreated upon Midway Meeting House, breaking down the bridges across the swamp
as he retired, and keeping out small parties to annoy the enemy's flanks.
Compelled to withdraw still further, and desiring by stratogem to retard the
advance of the enemy. Colonel White "prepared a letter as though it had been
written to himself by Colonel Elbert, directing him to retreat in order to draw
the British as far as possible, and informing him that a large body of cavalry
had crossed over Ogechee river with orders to gain the rear of the enemy, by
which their whole force would be captured." This letter was so dropped as in the
end to find its way into Colonel Prevost's hands, who seems to have considered
it genuine. It is believed that it exerted much influence in retarding his
advance, which was pushed not more than six or seven miles beyond Midway Meeting
House in the direction of Savannah. Meanwhile, McGirth, with a strong party,
reconnoitering in the direction of Sunbury, ascertained the fact that the
expedition under Lieutenant Colonel Fuser had not arrived. This circumstance, in
connection with the concentration of the forces of Colonels Elbert and White at
Ogeechee ferry, where a breastwork was thrown up and preparation made vigorously
to dispute his further progress, determined Prevost to abandon his enterprise
and return to St. Augustine. Treating the population as rebels against a lawful
sovereign, and utterly refusing to stipulate for the security of the country,
Prevost, upon his retreat, burnt Midway Meeting House, and all dwellings,
negro-quarters, rice-barns, and improvements within reach. The entire region was
ruthlessly plundered;-the track of his retreating army being marked by smoking
ruins. His soldiers, unrestrained, indulged in indiscriminate pillage,
appropriating plate, bedding, wearing apparel, and everything of value capable
of easy transportation. The inhabitants were subjected to insult and
indignities. The region suffered terribly, and the patriotism of the people was
sorely tried. [39] The scene was such as was subsequently repeated when General
Augustine Prevost in 1779 raided through the richest plantations of South
Carolina, [40] or when the Federal cavalry under General Kilpatrick, in the
winter of 1864-1865, over-ran, occupied, and plundered Liberty county,
converting a well ordered and abundantly supplied region into an abode of
poverty, lawlessness, and desolation.
Delayed by head winds, Colonel Fuser did not arrive in front of Sunbury until
Prevost had entered upon his retreat and was beyond the reach of communication.
Late in November, 1778, his vessels, bearing some five hundred men, battering
cannon, light artillery, and mortars, anchored off the Colonel's island. A
landing was effected at the ship yard. Thence, the land forces with field
pieces, moving by the main road, marched upon Sunbury. The armed vessels sailed
up Midway river in concert, and took position in front of the fort and in the
back river opposite the town, simultaneously with its investment on the land
side by the infantry and artillery. Colonel John McIntosh, with one hundred and
twenty-seven Continental troops, and some militia and citizens from
Sunbury,-numbering less than two hundred men in all,-held Fort Morris. The town
was otherwise unprotected. Having completed his dispositions, Fuser made the
following demand upon Colonel McIntosh for the surrender of the fort:
"SIR,
" You cannot be ignorant that four armies are in motion to reduce this
Province. One is already under the guns of your fort, and may be joined, when I
think proper, by Colonel Prevost who is now at the Medway meetinghouse. The
resistance yon can, or intend to make, will only bring destruction upon this
country. On the contrary, if you will deliver me the fort which you command, lay
down your arms and remain neuter until the fate of America is determined, you
shall, as well as all of the inhabitants of this parish, remain in peaceable
possession of your property. Your answer, which I expect in an hour's time, will
determine the fate of this country, whether it is to be laid in ashes, or remain
as above proposed.
" I am Sir,
" Your most obedient, &c,
"L. V. FUSER,
"Colonel 60th Regiment and Commander of his Majesty's
"Troops in Georgia, on his Majesty's Service."
" P. S.
"Since this letter was closed, some of your people have been firing scattering
shot about the line. I am to inform you, that if a stop is not put to such
irregular proceedings, I shall burn a house for every shot so fired."
To this demand the following brave response was promptly returned by Col.
McIntosh: [41]
"FORT MORRIS, Nov. 25, 1778.
"SIR,
" We acknowledge we are not ignorant that your army is in motion to
endeavour to reduce this State. We believe it entirely chimerical that Colonel
Prevost is at the Meeting-House: but should it be so, we are in no degree
apprehensive of danger from a junction of his army with yours. We have no
property compared with the object we contend for that we value a rush:-and would
rather perish in a vigorous defence than accept of your proposals. We Sir, are
fighting the battles of America, and therefore disdain to remain neutral till
its fate is determined. As to surrendering the fort, receive this laconic reply:
COME AND TAKE IT. [42] Major Lane, whom I send with this letter, is directed to
satisfy you with respect to the irregular, loose firing mentioned on the back of
your letter.
"I have the honor to be Sir,
"Your most obedient Servant,
"JOHN MCINTOSH,
"Colonel of Continental Troops."
In delivering this reply Major Lane informed Colonel Fuser that the irregular
firing of which he complained was maintained to prevent the English troops from
entering and plundering Sunbury. With regard to the threat that a house should
be burned for every shot fired, Major Lane stated that if Col. Fuser sanctioned
a course so inhuman, and so totally at variance with the rules of civilized
warfare, he would assure him that Colonel McIntosh, so far from being
intimidated by the menace, would apply the torch at his end of the town,
whenever Colonel Fuser fired the town on his side, "and let the flames meet in
mutual conflagration." [43]
Instead of assaulting, Fuser hesitated and awaited a report from scouts whom
he had sent into the country to ascertain the precise movements of Prevost and
learn when his junction might be expected. That officer, as we have seen,
unwilling, after the affair near Midway Meeting House, to hazard an engagement
with the Continental forces supposed to be advancing from the Great Ogeechee,
and surprised at the non-appearance of Fuser before Sunbury, had already
commenced his retreat and was beyond the reach of easy communication. Surprised
and chagrined at the intelligence, Fuser raised the siege, re-embarked his
troops, and returned to the St. Johns river, where he met the returned forces of
Prevost. Mutual recriminations ensued between these officers, each charging upon
the other the responsibility of the failure of the respective expeditions.
Remembering the superior forces at command, it cannot be doubted that either
singly or in conjunction Prevost and Fuser could have speedily occupied Sunbury
and compelled a surrender of Fort Morris, had their operations been vigorously
pressed. When we consider the paucity of Continental troops and militia offering
resistance to the invading column of the one, and the slender garrison opposed
to the investing forces of the other, the small space and the short time to be
overcome in accomplishing a junction, and the further fact that they both must
have been aware of the near approach to Savannah of Colonel Campbell's
expedition from which these advances from Florida were distinctly intended to
distract the attention of the Revolutionists, we cannot but be surprised that
Colonels Fuser and Prevost should thus have abandoned their enterprise when a
consummation was manifestly within easy grasp. Upon his retreat from Sunbury
Colonel Fuser landed his British regulars at Frederica with instructions to
repair and place in good defensive condition the military works which General
Oglethorpe had planned and erected at that point.
Having collected his forces, Gen. Robert Howe marched to Sunbury. During his
short stay there he did little more than point out and condemn the defenseless
condition of the works, and memorialize Congress upon the dangers which
threatened the Georgia coast, the lack of men and munitions of war, and the
disorganization existing in his scattered army. He was one of those unfortunate
officers who, lacking the energy and the ability to make the most of the
resources at command, and harping upon the existence of defects and wants which
inhered in the very nature of things, constantly clamored for the unattainable,
indulged in frequent complaints, neglected careful organization, discipline and
dispositions, and, on important occasions, became involved in unnecessary
perplexities and loss.
Although relieved from the presence of the enemy, heavy shadows rested upon
the inhabitants of St. John's parish. [44] Desolation and ruin were on every
hand. The gathered crops having been burnt, many were without sufficient means
of subsistence, and not a few were compelled to look elsewhere for support.
These tribulations, however, were but an earnest of sadder ones soon to
follow,-trials so grievous that patriotic hearts were well-nigh overborne at
thought and apprehension of distresses almost beyond human endurance. These
peoples,-the first of the Colony to declare for freedom,-were on the eve of
passing under a yoke far more oppressive than that from which not three years
before they had sought to escape, and their homes were to become so desolate
that expatriation would be found preferable to a perplexing residence and
distressful life in the region where they had garnered up present possessions
and future hopes. [45]
The year 1778 closed gloomily upon the patriots in Georgia. Its capital fell
before the advance of Colonel Campbell. General Howe's army, retiring in
confusion and with much loss, crossed the Savannah river at Sister's and Zubly's
ferries and rendezvoused in South Carolina, leaving the newly born State
entirely open to the enemy. While at Cherokee Hill, on his retreat, General Howe
dispatched Lieutenant Tennill with orders to Major Joseph Lane commanding at
Sunbury to evacuate that post, and, retiring up the south side of Great Ogeechee
river, to join the main army at Zubly's ferry. This order was received in ample
time, if promptly obeyed, to have ensured the salvation of the garrison; but
Major Lane, moved by the persuasions of Captain Dollar,-commanding a company of
artillery,- and the entreaties of the citizens of Sunbury, resolved to disregard
the instructions of his General, and assumed the responsibility of remaining and
defending the fort and town. [46] The account of the reduction of Fort Morris
and the fall of Sunbury we give in the language of Captain McCall:
"On the first notice of the arrival of the transports [conveying Colonel
Campbell's command,] off the coast of Georgia, General Prevost [then in Florida]
marched; and embarked in boats, two thousand men, consisting of artillery,
infantry, loyalists, and Indians. On the 6th of January, [1779] that part of his
army which moved by water was landed on Colonel's island, seven miles south of
Sunbury, about ten o'clock in the morning; and Prevost with the light infantry,
marched and took possession of the town early on the ensuing day. Two American
gallies and an armed sloop cannonaded the enemy, but with little effect. The
following day the main body of the enemy arrived. Every exertion was made to
prevent the landing of the cannon and mortars near the town, by the fire from
the gallies and the fort. On the night of the 8th they took advantage of the low
tide to pass behind a marsh island [47] opposite to the fort, with a few of
their boats containing cannon, howitzers, and mortars, and landed them above the
town and placed them on batteries previously prepared.
On the morning of the 9th Prevost summoned the fort to surrender
unconditionally, accompanied by a statement of his force and the weight of his
metal. Major Lane replied that his duty, inclination, and means pointed to the
propriety of defending the post against any force however superior it might be.
The British batteries of cannon and mortars were opened on the fort and replied
to. Lane soon discovered that his fortress would not be long tenable, and began
to repent his disobedience of orders. He parlied to obtain better terms than
unconditional surrender, but no other would be allowed him: and the time having
elapsed for his acceptance or refusal, hostilities recommenced. He parlied again
and requested until eight o'clock the next morning to consider of the conditions
offered to him, which being peremptorily refused, he assented to them and
surrendered the fort containing twenty-four pieces of artillery, ammunition, and
provisions, and the garrison consisting of seventeen commissioned officers and
one hundred and ninety-five non-commissioned officers and privates, including
Continental troops and militia. The American loss was one Captain and three
privates killed, and seven wounded. The British loss was one private killed and
three wounded.
"The Washington and Bulloch gallies were taken to Ossabaw island, stranded on
the beach, and burned by their crews, who took passage on board of Captain
Salter's sloop and sailed for Charleston, but were captured by a British tender
and taken to Savannah. Captain John Lawson, of the sloop Bebecca, of sixteen
guns, put to sea and got safe to Charleston." [48]
After the fall of Sunbury the Continental officers captured at Savannah were
sent to that place on parole.
When General Prevost, after the junction of his forces with those under
Colonel Campbell, moved from the coast into the interior for the complete
subjugation of Georgia, the command of Savannah and the adjacent country was
confided to Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Innes. Proclamations of the most
stringent character were issued by him, by Colonel Campbell, and by Sir Hyde
Parker. The inhabitants were enjoined to collect their arms and accoutrements of
every description, and surrender them to the military storekeeper. Should these
have been concealed or buried, as was not infrequently the case, they were to be
uncovered and brought in under pain of rigid search, exposing the delinquent to
punishment as an enemy to the King. Special places were designated for the
arrival and departure of boats and trading vessels; and permits were required
from the superintendents of such ports for the receipt or conveyance of property
of any description. An infringement of these regulations worked confiscation of
the goods, and punishment of the crews engaged. Peace, freedom, and protection
were offered to all who would at once return to their allegiance and join the
Royal standard. Three months were allowed for the incoming of the disaffected
and deserters, and Savannah was designated as the place where the oath of
allegiance would be administered. The proclamation of the 11th of January, 1779,
was even more onerous. A reward of two guineas was offered for the apprehension
of every citizen still adhering to the Rebel cause, and ten guineas were
promised upon the surrender of a Committee or Assembly man to any commanding
officer of the King's garrisons. Prices were prescribed for all articles of
merchandise and country produce. Any deviation from this scale of prices was
punished by the confiscation of the articles exposed for sale. Only to those who
had resumed their allegiance to the Crown were permits to trade granted, and a
fine of one hundred pounds sterling was collectible against any merchant dealing
with one not an acknowledged and loyal subject of the King. No produce could be
exported except under a certificate of the superintendent of the port that it
was not wanted for the use of the Royal troops. To the families of those who
maintained their devotion to the Rebel cause no mercy was shown. Stripped of
property,-their homes rendered desolate,-often without food and clothing,-they
were thrown upon the charity of an impoverished neighborhood. The entire coast
region of Georgia was now open, and the enemy overran and exacted the most
stringent tribute. Many fled from St. John's parish and from Sunbury upon the
first approach of Prevost.
Writing from Purysburg on the 10th of January, 1779, to Colonel C. C.
Pinckney, General Moultrie mentions the fact that thousands of poor women,
children, and negroes were fleeing from Georgia,-they knew not whither;-"sad
spectacle that moved the hearts of his soldiers." [49]
For the time being the parish of St. John was in a deplorable condition.
Multitudes of the inhabitants, unable to sustain themselves in the midst of the
utter destitution which there prevailed, set out for Carolina, where they
subsisted upon the charity of others until the opening spring afforded an
opportunity for planting crops in their new homes. Others, possessing the means
of subsistence, were so oppressed by the operation of Royal proclamations and
restrictions, that they abandoned the region, seeking refuge in other quarters.
Sunbury suffered a material diminution of population, and never recovered from
the shock then experienced.
Although in the enemy's possession, and paralyzed by the onerous exactions
then imposed, Southern Georgia did not wholly cease from offering resistance.
Colonels Twiggs, Few, and Jones, closely watched the British outposts, cutting
off supplies, and harrassing the garrisons whenever opportunity occurred. Along
the sea-coast were found private armed vessels, in the service of the
Revolutionists, engaged in the removal of Rebel property in the interest of the
owners, and in capturing craft in the employ of the King.
Ascertaining that some British officers had accepted an invitation from Mr.
Thomas Young to dine with him at Belfast on the 4th of June, 1779, Captain
Spencer, commanding an American privateer, determined to surprise and capture
the party. For this purpose, proceeding up Midway river in the evening, he
landed between eight and nine o'clock at night, and, with twelve of his men,
entering the house, made Colonel Cruger and the English officers at the table
prisoners of war. Intending to carry off some negroes, Captain Spencer kept his
prisoners under guard until morning when, having taken their paroles, he
permitted them to return to Sunbury. Colonel Cruger was soon after exchanged for
Colonel McIntosh who had been captured at Briar Creek.
On the 28th of the same month Major Baker, advancing toward Sunbury, attacked
and defeated a company of mounted recruits under Captain Goldsmith at the
Whitehouse. Several of the enemy were killed and wounded. Among the former was
Lieutenant Gray, whose head was almost severed from his body by a sabre cut
delivered by Robert Sallett. Major Baker entered Sunbury without opposition. [50]
It was by these, and kindred partizan exploits, that the British troops at
various detached posts were held in partial check, and the drooping spirits of
the oppressed inhabitants from time to time revived.
Upon the appearance of Count D'Estaing's fleet off the coast of Georgia,
General Augustine Prevost concentrated as rapidly as he could within the lines
around Savannah the various detachments on duty in the vicinity. That under
Lieutenant Colonel Cruger, at Sunbury, was ordered in and reached Savannah on
the 10th of September, just two days prior to the landing of the French troops
at Beaulieu.
It does not lie within the compass of this sketch to recount the operations of
the allied armies under Count D'Estaing and General Lincoln which culminated in
that bloody and disastrous repulse on the morning of the 9th of October, 1779.
Suffice it to say that Sunbury had her patriotic representatives among the
troops commanded by General Lachlan McIntosh, both during the progress of the
siege and in the final assault. Two of them at least attested with their lives
their supreme devotion to the patriot cause:-Major John Jones who had been for
some years a resident of Sunbury, and who was at the time an aid to General
Mcintosh; and Charles Price, formerly a practising Attorney at Sunbury, and a
young gentleman of I promise in his profession. [51]
Upon the repulse of the allied armies, and after the departure of Count
D'Estaing, and the retreat of General Lincoln into Carolina, the condition of
the sea-coast of Georgia was more pitiable than ever. Exasperated by the
formidable demonstration, and rendered more arrogant and exacting, the Loyalists
set out in every direction upon missions of insult, pillage, and inhumanity.
Plundering banditti roved about unrestrained, seizing negroes, stock, furniture,
wearing apparel, plate, jewels, and anything they coveted. Children were
severely beaten to compel a revelation of the places where valuable property and
money were concealed. In the language of Captain McCall, [52] "The militia who
had been under the protection of the British, not allowing themselves to doubt
of the success of the allied forces, cheerfully participated in a measure which
promised the recovery of the State to the union. Future protection was not to be
expected, and nothing remained for them but the halter and confiscation from
the British or exile for themselves, and poverty and ill-treatment by an
insolent enemy for their wives and children who were ordered forthwith to depart
the country without the means for travelling or any other means but a reliance
on charity for subsistence on their way.
"The obscene language which was used, and personal insults which were offered
to the tender sex, soon rendered a residence in the country insupportable.
Having neither funds nor means of conveyance for themselves and children, they
were obliged to abandon the country under the most deplorable circumstances and
seek a dependent residence in the adjoining States at the most inclement season
of the year. Numbers whose former condition enabled them to make their
neighboring visits in carriages, were obliged to travel on foot; many of them
without shoes, through muddy roads and deep swamps."
Prominent among these raiding Tories was the renegade McGirth.
Under such depressing influences some portions of Liberty county were almost
depopulated. Deprived of a support from the back-country, and with nothing to
sustain commerce from abroad, Sunbury languished. Its decline, inaugurated when
Prevost and Cruger demonstrated the insecurity of the position, and confirmed
when Major Lane surrendered Fort Morris, was now day by day accelerated. All who
could possibly get away fled the place, and those who remained led lives of
disquietude, and penury. In the face of these difficulties, however, Commodore
Oliver Bowen, Captains Spencer, Howell, Maxwell, Pray, Hardy, Lawson, Stiles,
and others owning private armed vessels, made frequent voyages along the coast,
capturing parties who were engaged in collecting provisions for the British
troops in Savannah and transporting them through the inland passages, removing
the property of the Whigs from the down-trodden districts, and occasionally
executing summary vengeance upon the crews of such craft as were known to be
enployed upon missions of arson, robbery, and murder. Sometimes sharply
contested naval engagements occurred, such as that between Captain Braddock with
his two American gallies, and the brigantine, Dunmore, Captain Caldeleugh,
mounting twelve guns. The Dunmore had sailed from Sunbury for Jamaica, and was
attacked so soon as she crossed St. Catharine bar, on the 18th of September, 1779.
On the 4th of June of this year Captain Howell entered the inlet of Sunbury,
and learned from a negro that he had been sent out to catch fish for Mr.
Kitchins, the Collector of the port, with whom a party of British officers, both
civil and military, were to dine that day,-it being the King's birthday.
Although Mr. Kitchins' house was within four hundred yards of the fort,-now no
longer called fort Morris, but named by its captors fort George in honor of his
majesty, King George III,--presuming that the assembled guests on this festive
occasion would indulge freely and be found entirely off their guard, Captain
Howell resolved upon their capture. Ascending the river with muffled oars, and
under cover of the night, the Captain with twelve men passed the fort without
attracting its notice, and, landing at Sunbury, surrounded the house about
eleven o'clock and took the entire party, numbering twelve persons, prisoners.
Among the captured was Colonel Roger Kelsall, who had insulted and ill-treated
Captain Howell while he was a prisoner of war. Incensed at the recollection of
these indignities, Captain Howell was on the eve of taking him out and drowning
him in the river, when the prayers of the lady of the house induced him to spare
his life. Having exacted from his captives a pledge that they would not again
take up arms until regularly exchanged, Captain Howell returned, without loss or
molestation, to his privateer.
Upon the transfer of active operations to the Carolinas, Sunbury seems to have
been but feebly garrisoned by the enemy. At times, and for a considerable
portion of the year 1780, it appears doubtful whether any British force was
there stationed. The Royal army in Georgia was then so much reduced that the
garrison at Savannah did not exceed five hundred men. [53]
The truth is, the available forces of the State had been so largely withdrawn
for service elsewhere, the entire coast region was so thoroughly impoverished,
and so many of the Whig families had moved away, that there was scarcely any
necessity for maintaining this post except as a matter of convenience in keeping
open the land communication between Savannah and St. Augustine.
In this exhausted and comparatively quiet condition did matters remain until
the close of the war. We are not aware that any events occurred in Sunbury,
during the residue of the struggle, worthy of special mention or calculated to
rouse the inhabitants from that quietude born of want and oppression, feebleness
and present despair.
The successes of General Greene in Carolina enabled him to inaugurate such
measures for the relief of Georgia that, in order to escape from the advancing
and investing columns under General Wayne and Colonel Jackson, the British
garrison embarked on the 11th of July, 1783, and Savannah, after having been
more than four years and a half in the possession of the enemy, was formally
surrendered to the Patriots who had already virtually achieved the independence
of the thirteen Confederated States.
Colonel James Jackson was designated by General Wayne as the officer to
receive the surrender of the town;-a compliment well merited in view of the
patriotism and gallantry which had distinguished him during the whole war, and
in recognition of the recent active and hazardous service performed by his
command while operating in advance of the army of occupation.
Georgia's losses, particularly along her south-eastern borders, had been very
great. Her slave population, although quiet during the struggle, was essentially
demoralized and reduced. It is estimated that between the 12th and 25th of July,
1783, not less than five thousand negroes made their escape from Savannah in
sailing vessels. Upon the cessation of hostilities the agricultural and
commercial interests of the State were in a most disastrous situation.
Particularly was this the case in Liberty county where negroes and property of
every description had been, from time to time during the continuance of the
struggle, carried off, patriotic citizens driven into exile, plantations burned
and converted into waste places, and the seeds of poverty and distress sown
broadcast.
On the first Monday in August, 1783, Governor Martin convened the Legislature
in Savannah. Courts of Justice were re-established, commissioners of confiscated
estates appointed, and measures adopted for the rehabilitation of the State. It
was not, however, until the assembling of the Constitutional Convention on the
first Monday in January, 1784, when Lyman Hall was appointed Governor, George
Walton, Chief Justice; Samuel Stirk, Attorney General; John Milton, Secretary of
State; John Martin, Treasurer, and Richard Call, Surveyor General, that the
machinery of reconstruction was fully set in motion.
With the incoming of peace many who had been absent in the army, and others
who had sought, in South Carolina and elsewhere, temporary refuge from the
devastations of the war, returned to their former homes in Sunbury and on the
adjacent plantations, and entered with becoming spirit and energy upon the labor
of rebuilding and re-peopling the desolated region. For a season it seemed as if
the prosperity of this seaport would be revived. Not a few of its inhabitants,
however, having, during the continuance of hostilities, formed settlements
elsewhere, determined to remain where they were, and so the ante bellum
population was by no means regained. Others had died, and others still in their
places of retreat found themselves so impoverished that they could not command
the means requisite for a removal.
The first session of the Superior Court of Liberty county was held at Sunbury
on the 18th of November, 1783,- their Honors, Chief Justice George Walton, and
Assistant Judge Benjamin Andrew, Senior, presiding. On the 20th, the Grand Jury
being empanneled and sworn, the Chief Justice delivered a charge in
which,-having alluded to the fact that good order and subordination had
everywhere characterized the courts presided over by him on this his first
riding since the close of the war, and assured them that nothing could so much
contribute to confirm the blessings of peace as an observance of the laws which
had for their sole object the general happiness of the people,-he spoke as
follows: "I congratulate you, gentlemen, on the news of a definitive treaty of
peace by which our freedom, sovereignty, and independence are secured. The war
which produced it was one of necessity on our part. That we were enabled to
prosecute it with firmness and perseverance to so glorious an issue, should be
ascribed to the protecting influence of the Great Disposer of events, and be a
subject of grateful praise and adoration. While the result of the contest is so
honourable and advantageous to us and to posterity, it is to be lamented that
those moral and religious duties so essential to the order of society and the
permanent happiness of mankind, have been too much neglected. To recover them
into practice, the life and conduct of every good man should be a constant
example. Your temples, which the profane instruments of a tyrant laid in ashes,
should be built again: for nothing tends to harmonize the rude and unlearned
organs of man more than frequent meetings in the places of holy worship. Let the
monument of your brave and virtuous soldier and citizen, [54] which was ordered
by Congress to his memory, be erected on the same ground, that his virtues and
the cause in which he sacrificed his life may be seen together by your children
and remembered through distant ages. [55]
"In the course of the conflict with an enemy whose conduct was generally
marked with cruelty, the whole State has suffered undoubtedly more than any in
the Confederacy. The citizens of Liberty County, with others, have drunk deep in
the stream of distress. Remembering these things, we should not lose sight of
the value of the prize we have obtained. And now that we are in full possession
of our freedom, we should all unite in our endeavours to benefit and perpetuate
the system, that we may always be happy at home and forever freed from the
insults of petty tyrants commissioned from abroad." [56]
The grand jurors to whom this charge was delivered, were Joseph Law, William
Baker, Senior, James Maxwell, James Jeffries, John Mitchell, Junior, Palmer
Goulding, John Elliott, John Whitehead, William West, Thomas Bradwell, William
Peacock, Senior, Nathan Taylor, John Hardy, William Baker, Junior, Nathaniel
Saxton, James Powell, William Way, John Myers, Senior, John Way, John Winn,
Edward Way, Joseph Way, and William Quarterman.
By an act approved the 26th of February, 1784, Sunbury was designated as the
place for holding the Superior and Inferior Courts of Liberty County. They were
there held until, by the act of 1797, Riceborough was made the county seat.[57]
On the 10th of February, 1787, John Baker, John Hardy, and Alexander McIver
were, by the Legislature, appointed Commissioners for the port of Sunbury, and
were invested with powers similar to those conferred in and by the law
regulating the pilotage of Savannah.
For the better encouragement of trade, the Governor was authorized to draw on
the treasurer of the State in favor of the Commissioners for the port of Sunbury
for £100. The act further appointed a harbor and tonnage master, and provided
for the collection of tonnage duties, and an additional sixpence to be levied
and set apart for erecting lighthouses and supporting pilots.
Commerce revived to a considerable extent, but the trade of Sunbury did not
reach that activity or volume which existed at the inception of the
Revolutionary war.
The Indians were still troublesome on occasions, coming from beyond the
Alatamaha in predatory bands and making short but sometimes cruel inroads into
the white settlements On the 24th of October, 1787, a man was scalped within
eighteen miles of Sunbury, and on the 9th of the following January, Rogers,
Queeling, and Bennett were killed and scalped within the limits of the Midway
settlement, by a party of Indians. During this year skirmishes occurred with the
Indians at Phinholloway creek and at Shepherd's plantation. On the first of May
the savages attacked Mr. Girardeau's plantation, carrying off some of his
negroes, and wounding a young man named Smallwood. Seven days afterwards they
appeared at Colonel Maybank's plantation and captured a number of his slaves. At
Sapelo a young man was killed by them while milking his cow. On the 6th of June,
on the plantation of John Houstoun, Esq., McCormick was killed by the Indians,
his son scalped, and three of his daughters and a little boy carried into
captivity. In September, thirteen negroes were stolen by them from Mr.
Quarterman's plantation. Captain Sumner and Lieutennant Burnley pursued and
overtook them in a swamp on Taylor's creek. The Indians fled and the negroes
were recovered. [58]
The militia of the county was constantly on duty to repel these incursions,
and the citizens generally went armed to church to guard against surprises. To
assist the militia, the inhabitants of Liberty County, at their own charge,
placed and maintained in service for three months "a company of Horsemen" under
the command of Captain Elijah Lewis. This troop acted as scouts. In September,
1788, a "Body of Light Horse,"-consisting of a captain, two lieutenants, two
sergeants, and forty privates,- was raised for the defense of the county, and
supported by the voluntary subscriptions of the inhabitants. It was commanded by
Captain Rudolph, and subsequently by Lieutenant Whitehead. This company was paid
off and disbanded at Newport Bridge [afterwards called Riceborough] on the 28th
of March, 1789:-six privates and one sergeant being retained in service to act
as scouts. [59]
In these matters of home defense, and in the subsequent military service
which, rendered necessary in 1793, was continued until, by the treaty of
Colerain, a peace was concluded with the Indians, the citizens of Sunbury bore
their full part.
On the 8th of December, 1791, an act was adopted entitled "An act for the
better regulating of the town of Sunbury." [60] Until its passage no legislative
provision had been made for the incorporation or government of this town, then
in the thirty-third year of its existence.
The general provisions of that act were as follows: On the second Monday in
January next ensuing, and on the second Monday in January in every third year
thereafter, all proprietors of lots or houses in the town of Sunbury, of full
age, were required to meet at the place of holding the courts in said town and,
under the direction of two or more justices of the peace for the county of
Liberty, proceed to ballot for five persons,-each of whom should be the
proprietor of a house or lot in Sunbury, and an inhabitant thereof, and of full
age,-who should be styled "Commissioners of the Town of Sunbury."
On the Monday next following such election it was made the duty of these
Commissioners, or a majority of them, to assemble and appoint a clerk and such
other officers as they might regard as proper and necessary for the execution of
the provisions of the act.
Full power was lodged with these Commissioners to make such by-laws and
regulations, and impose such pains, penalties, and forfeitures as they might
deem conducive to the good order and government of the town, provided the same
were not repugnant to the constitution and laws of the State, and did not extend
to life or member.
By the third section the Commissioners, or a majority of them, were required
"yearly and every year to make, lay, and assess a rate or assessment upon all
and every person or persons who do or shall inhabit, hold, use, occupy, possess,
or enjoy any lot, ground, house, building, tenement, or hereditament within the
limits of the town of Sunbury, for raising such sum or sums of money as the said
Commissioners or a majority of them shall judge necessary for and towards
carrying this act into execution: and in case of a refusal or neglect to pay
such rate or assessment, the same shall be levied and recovered by warrant of
distress and sale of the offender's goods, under the hands and seals of the said
Commissioners or a majority of them, or under the hand and seal of any justice
of the peace for the County of Liberty."
The concluding section appointed such Commissioners superintendents of
pilotage for the port of Sunbury, and invested them with the power and authority
of Justices "so far as to keep the peace and preserve good order in the said town."
By the act of December 12th, 1804, [61] it was provided that the election of
Commissioners should occur annually on the first Monday of August, and be held
in the Sunbury Academy.
The Justices of the Peace of Liberty County having "neglected to hold an
election for Commissioners for the town of Sunbury, to the great injury of said
town," the Legislature on the 2d of December, 1805, [62] directed the Justices
of the Inferior Court of Liberty County "to call an election for that purpose,
giving ten days notice of the same at the most public place in the town."
In case of failure, at any time thereafter, to elect Commissioners on the day
appointed, it was made the duty of the Inferior Court, when notified of the
fact, to advertise an election.
This is all the legislation appearing on the Statute books with reference to
the government of the town of Sunbury. These Commissioners continued to hold
office in a quiet way,-looking after the police and order of the town,-until
about the year 1825, when elections went by default, and such of the citizens as
remained, by common consent managed their premises each after his own fashion,
having the taller weeds in the streets and along the Bay "chopped down" at
irregular intervals, and permitting the cows and the Bermuda grass to strive for
the mastery in the lanes and upon the common.
In 1801 Sunbury was described as "a seaport in Liberty County, favoured with a
safe and convenient harbour," as being "a very pleasant, healthy place," and
promising without doubt to become "a port of commercial consequence." "It is
resorted to," says Sibbald, "by many persons during the Summer months; it has an
Academy under an able instructor." [63]
The most famous institution of learning in Southern Georgia, for many years,
was the SUNBURY ACADEMY. It was established by an act of the Legislature
assented to the first of February, 1788. [64] Abiel Holmes, James Dunwody, John
Elliott, Gideon Dowse, and Peter Winn were nominated in the act as
Commissioners. To them, or a majority of them, was authority given to sell at
public sale, and upon previous notice of thirty days in one of the gazettes of
the State, any confiscated property within the county of Liberty to the amount
of £1,000. This sum, when realized, was to be by them expended in the
construction of a building suitable for the purposes of the Academy. Each
Commissioner was required to execute a bond, in favor of the Governor of
Georgia, in the penalty of £1,000, conditioned for the faithful performance of
the trust. In 1803 the number of Commissioners was increased to seven, but two
years afterwards the Legislature directed a return to the original number, which
was five. [65]
As late as December 4th, 1811, the Legislature directed a grant and
conveyance, to the Commissioners of Sunbury Academy, for the sole use and
benefit of that institution, of one-third of a tract of land adjoining Sunbury,
known as the Distillery Tract; the same having been confiscated as the estate of
Roger Kellsall, and being then the property of the State.
The administration of the affairs of this academy during the long course of
its valuable existence appears at all times to have been conducted by its
trustees with prudence and skill. Certain it is that until the marked decadence
of Sunbury this institution maintained an enviable reputation, and attracted
scholars in no inconsiderable numbers from various portions of the State, and
even from sister States. The teacher whose name is for the longest period and
most notably associated with the management of this Academy, and who did more
than all others to establish a standard of scholarship and maintain rules of
study and discipline unusual in that period and among these peoples, was the
Reverend Dr. William McWhir. Great was the obligation conferred upon the youths
of Southern Georgia, for certainly two generations, by this competent instructor
and rigid disciplinarian. A native of Ireland, a graduate of Belfast College,
and licensed to preach by the Presbytery of that city, he came to America in
1783 and settled in Alexandria, Virginia. There, for ten years he was the
Principal of the Academy of which General Washington was a trustee. He was
frequently a guest at Mount Vernon, enjoying the hospitality of that noted
mansion. On one occasion while he was dining with the family, General
Washington, as his custom was, asked the usual blessing. Mrs. Washington,
somewhat surprised that Mr. McWhir had not been invited to do this, remarked to
General Washington, "You forgot that we had a clergyman at table with us
to-day." "No, madam," he replied, "I did not forget. I desire clergymen, as well
as all others, to see that I am not a graceless man."
About 1793 he removed to Sunbury where he became the Principal of the Academy
and, for nearly thirty years, made it the leading institution of learning in
this entire region. A thorough Greek, Latin, and English scholar, an
uncompromising observer of prescribed regulations, and a firm believer in the
virtue of the birch as freely applied in those days in the English and Irish
schools in which he had received his training, he was a terror to all dolts and
delinquents. To the studious and the ambitious, he always proved himself a
generous instructor, full of suggestion and encouragement. The higher branches
of mathematics were also taught; and, as a preparatory school, this institution,
under his guidance, had no superior within the limits of the State. The average
attendance was about seventy. Pupils were attracted not only from Liberty, but
also from the adjacent counties of Chatham, Bryan, Mcintosh, and Glynn. Some
came from even greater distances. Two generations sat at the feet of this
venerable preceptor. Fathers and sons in turn responded to his nod, and feared
his frown. Although
"A man severe he was, and stern to view,"
so impartial was he in the support of whatever was just and of good report, and
so competent and thorough as a teacher, that for more than a quarter of a
century his numerous pupils found in him, above all others, their mentor, guide,
and helper in the thorny paths of knowledge. Strongly did he impress his
character and influence upon the generations in which he lived, and his name and
acts are even now well remembered. The evening of his days was spent, as
inclination prompted, at the residences of his old scholars, by whom a cordial
welcome was always extended. That welcome was recognized by him as peculiarly
genuine and agreeable when accompanied by a generous supply of buttermilk and a
good glass of wine. The latter might be dispensed with: a failure to provide the
former was, in his eyes, an unpardonable breach of hospitality, and materially
impaired the comfort of his sojourn, and the tranquility of the venerable guest.
Among the other teachers at this Academy may be mentioned Mr. James E. Morris,
the Rev. Mr. Lewis, the Eev. Mr. Shannon, the Rev. Mr. Thomas Goulding, Uriah
Wilcox, Rev. Mr. John Boggs, Captain William Hughes, Mr. C. G. Lee, Rev. A. T.
Holmes, Rev. S. G. Hillyer, Major John Winn, Mr. W. T. Feay, and Mr. Oliver W.
Stevens. The building-a large two story and a half double wooden -house, about
sixty feet square and located in King's Square,- was pulled down and sold some
time about the year 1842.
As early as 1797 it being manifest that the population of the town was
steadily decreasing, and that its commercial importance could not be
reestablished, it was resolved by a large majority of the citizens of Liberty
that Sunbury,-the then seat of justice,-was inconveniently situated for
conducting the public business, and that North New Port Bridge was the most
eligible location for the Court House and Jail. Matthew McAllister, Esq. had
very generously offered to convey in fee simple, for public uses, a piece of
ground two hundred and thirty feet in length and one hundred and fifty feet in
width, situated near "the Bridge," without "price or consideration other than a
wish on his part to promote the growth of the town of Riceborough and benefit
the inhabitants thereof." The middle and upper portions of the county had by
this time the controlling vote in public matters, and the Legislature was
memorialized, in opposition to the feebler will of the residents of Sunbury and
its vicinity, to authorize a removal of the seat of justice. Accordingly, on the
1st of February, 1797, an act was passed appointing Thomas Stevens, Daniel
Stewart, Peter Winn, Joel Walker, and Henry Wood, Commissioners to superintend
the admeasurement of the land offered by Mr. McAllister, receive the titles
therefor, and erect thereon and keep in repair a Court House and Jail for the
County of Liberty. The act further provided that after its passage "all courts
and elections heretofore held, and all I public business heretofore transacted
at said town of Sunbury, should be held and transacted at the said town of
Riceborough," to which place the County offices and records were to be removed.
[66]
Riceborough was a more convenient point for shipping to Savannah the rice,
cotton, and agricultural products of the County, and was much more central for
the facile convocation of the citizens and the transaction of public business.
Sunbury, however, still remained the favorite resort of the wealthier planters
during the summer months, and maintained a permanent population of perhaps four
hundred. The hurricane of 1804, with its wild devastations, begat a sense of
insecurity in the minds of not a few dwellers on the coast, and to some extent
diminished the population of the town. Soon afterwards, Bermuda grass began to
overspread the bluff and cover, with its deep mat, the streets and lanes. With
its importation the health of the place became sensibly affected. Chills and
high grades of billious fever grew frequent in the fall of the year, and from
time to time removals occurred to healthier localities. Many citizens still
clung to their old homes rendered so pleasant by the refreshing sea-breezes and
the never-failing stores of the waters and the orchards, and Sunbury for many
years continued to be the abode of culture, hospitality, and ease. Then came the
hurricane of 1824 blowing down out-houses, bearing away fences, bringing in the
sea in great masses, and carrying fear to many, and even death to some who
resided at exposed points. The wild indigo disappeared more rapidly than ever,
and the dark Bermuda grass asserted its dominion on every hand. From the
numerous cattle accustomed to feed upon its common and wander through its
streets and lanes, and from the refuse of the town, now no longer new, the
original sandy soil became saturated with fertilizing matter, and grew rich.
Thence, under the heat of autumnal suns, year by year rose exhalations annually
more and more prejudicial to health. Chills and fevers were more frequent, and
Sunbury proved less and less attractive as a summer resort. In 1829 Sherwood
describes the town as having "a flourishing academy, a house of worship for the
Baptists, twenty dwelling houses, two stores, three offices, and a population of
one hundred and fifty." [67]
Ten years before, the Sunbury Female Asylum had been incorporated by the
Legislature of Georgia. [68] Supported by the generous charities of kind hearted
women, it never enjoyed a vigorous existence, and after some years suffered a
languishing death.
Although by resolutions adopted on the 18th of November, 1812, and the 12th of
November, 1813, the Legislature provided for stationing troops in the counties
of Bryan, Liberty, McIntosh, Glynn, and Camden, for the protection of the
sea-coast of Georgia, it does not appear that any permanent detail was made for
Sunbury. The fort, however, was again placed in tolerable condition, the
planters furnishing the labor requisite for cleaning out the ditch,
strengthening the parapet, and mounting such guns as there remained and were
deemed trustworthy. A few light pieces were obtained from Savannah and added to
the armament. Such gun-carriages as were manufactured in the county were made by
Jonathan Goulding, of Taylor's Creek. Not a shot, however, was fired from the
fort during the war of 1812-1815.
Although British vessels of war were constantly upon the coast, and the smoke
of merchantmen captured, robbed, and burnt by them was on several occasions seen
from Sunbury, the enemy never ascended Midway river. A company composed of the
citizens of the town and its vicinity, numbering some forty men and commanded by
the honorable John A. Cuthbert, and another company consisting of the larger
boys then students at the Sunbury Academy, and under the command of Captain
[afterwards Brigadier General] Charles Floyd, were formed for local defense,
drilled at regular intervals, and held themselves in readiness to act as
occasion might require.
Besides these, there were then three volunteer companies in Liberty County:
the Liberty Independent Troop,-Captain Joseph Jones,-and two infantry companies,
commanded respectively by Captains Robert Quarterman and John Winn. "The
Guards," under Captain Winn, were at one time stationed at Hardwick, in Bryan
County.
After his defeat at Point Peter, Captain Jones' cavalry company and the Bine
company of Captain Quarterman were ordered to the relief of Major Messias. They
were for some time on duty at Darien.
The militia of the County being well organized and efficiently officered, was
largely engaged in maintaining a careful watch along the coast. In this service
assistance was rendered by barges and cutters from the American Navy, which
patrolled Midway river and the adjacent inlets, and not infrequently established
their headquarters at Sunbury. The "Committee of Safety" for Liberty County,
during the war, consisted of General Daniel Stewart, William Fleming, John Winn,
John Stacy, John Elliott, John Stevens, and Joseph Law. These gentlemen were
authorized to take general charge of the local defense, and to call upon the
citizens of the County for such labor as appeared necessary. In case of a
refusal on the part of any one to respond to the requisition, they were
instructed to advertise the name of such delinquent in the most frequented
places, that he might be held up to public contempt "for having disgraced the
character of the citizen and the patriot."
This Committee assured General C. C. Pinckney of their ability and willingness
to repair and garrison the Fort at Sunbury, and made requisition upon him for
two 18-pounder guns and a suitable supply of ammunition. In its remodeled
condition, the fortification at Sunbury received at the hands of the Committee
of Safety a new name,- "Fort Defence." As being more easily defended, and
requiring a smaller garrison, General Pinckney suggested the erection of a tower
for the protection of Sunbury. This project, however, was never consummated.
The last vessel of any moment, which visited the town, was a Swedish brig
which, in 1814, came in and conveyed away a load of cotton. Mr. James Holmes was
the last Collector of the port; and for many years prior to his death the office
was a mere sinecure. Subsequently a Surveyor was appointed by the General
Government whose principal duty was to sign blank reports and draw his quarterly
salary. The last person who held this office was the genial Colonel William
Maxwell.
Until 1833, the Liberty Independent Troop,-the oldest volunteer military
organization within the limits of Georgia except the Chatham
Artillery,-celebrated the fourth of July each year at Sunbury. This company was
then the guest of the town, and the recipient of every welcome and hospitality.
.The morning was spent in military exercises, in contentions at the head, ring,
and target, and the afternoon was crowned with a public dinner replete with good
cheer and patriotic speeches. This annual parade was the event of the year in
that quiet community. On such occasions the U. S. Revenue Cutters stationed on
the coast would generally come up to the town by special invitation, and
participate in the festivities.
The summer retreats established at Jonesville, Flemington, Hinesville, and
Dorchester, compassed the depopulation of the old town. Without trade, destitute
of communications, and visited more and more each season with fevers, Sunbury,
for nearly thirty years, has ceased to exist save in name. Its squares, lots,
streets, and lanes have been converted into a corn field. Even the bricks of the
ancient chimneys have been carted away. No sails whiten the blue waters of
Midway river save those of a miserable little craft employed by its owner in
conveying terrapins to Savannah. The old cemetery is so overgrown with trees and
brambles that the graves of the dead can scarcely be located after the most
diligent search. Fort Morris is enveloped in a wild growth of cedars and myrtle.
Academy, churches, market, billiard room, wharves, store-houses, residences, all
gone; only the bold Bermuda covered bluff and the beautiful river with the green
island slumbering in its embrace to remind us of this lost town. A stranger
pausing here would find no trace of the past once full of life and importance,
but now existent only in the skeleton memories which redeem place and name from
that oblivion which sooner or later is the common lot of all things human. The
same bold bluff,-the same broad expanse of marshes stretching onward to the
confines of the broad Atlantic.- the same blue outlines of Colonel's island and
the Bryan shore,-the same sea-washed beach of St. Catherine,-the same green
island dividing the river as it ebbs and flows with ever restless tide,-the same
soft sea-breezes,-the same bright skies,-the same sweet voices and tranquil «
scene which nature gave and still perpetuates,-but all else how changed! Truly
"oblivion is not to be hired." Blindly scattering her poppy she deals with
places as with men, and they become as though they had not been. Strange that a
town of such repute, and within the confines of a young and prosperous
commonwealth, should have so utterly faded from the face of the earth!
"The garden with its arbor-gone,
And gone the orchard green;
A shattered chimney stands alone.
Possessor of the scene."
It is with pleasurable sadness and filial reverence that we have brought
together these fragmentary memories of a place once the abode of so much
refinement, intelligence, hospitality and patriotism,-the home of Lyman Hall and
Button Gwinnett,-signers of the Declaration of Independence,-of John Elliott and
Alfred Cuthbert,-United States Senators from Georgia,-and of John A. Cuthbert,
member of Congress,-the birth-place of William Law,-the accomplished lawyer,
upright judge, and courtly gentleman,-and of John E. Ward,-the eloquent
advocate, speaker of the House of Representatives, president of the Georgia
Senate, and United States Minister to China,- for some years the residence of
Richard Howley and Nathan Brownson, Governors of Georgia,-claiming intimate
association with the Reverend Moses Allen, Benjamin Baker, Colonels William and
John Baker, General Daniel Stewart, Colonel John McIntosh, and Major John Jones,
patriots all, who risked fortune and life in support of the primal struggle for
independence,-the scene of the professional labors of Doctors Dunwoody,
Alexander, and West,-and numbering among its citizens clergymen, teachers,
physicians, lawyers, merchants, and planters, whose influence was appreciated in
their day and generation, and whose names, if here repeated, would challenge
respect and veneration.
Nature survives, but nearly all the rest is shadow. In this humid soil so
fecund with vegetation, neglected gravestones,-covered with brambles and
overturned by envious forest trees,-"tell truth scarce forty years."
ENDNOTES
[1] See Memoir of General James Oglethorpe by Robert Wright, p. 74. London, 1857.
[2] Memoir of General James Oglethorpe, by Robert Wright, pp. 284, 285. London,
1867.
[3] See A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, &c., by William Stephens, pp.
160, 161. London, MDCCXLII.
[4] See An Account Shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America, &c.
pp. 48, 49. London, 1741.
[5] History of Georgia, vol. I, p. 253. Savannah, 1811.
[6] The following members of that Congress came from the Parish of St. John:
James Screven, Nathan Brownson, Daniel Roberts, John Baker, Sr., John Bacon,
Sr., James Maxwell, Edward Ball, William Baker, Sr., William Bacon, Jr., John
Stevens, and John Winn, Sr. [6a]
[6a] Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. II, p. 106.
[7] See McCall's History of Georgia, vol. II, p. 7. Savannah, 1816.
[8] The Medway, in the county of Kent, is a noble stream. Its trunk and branches
cover thirty square miles of the surface of the county, and its length is nearly
sixty miles,- of which forty are navigable. This river well deserves the name of
Vaga, by which the Britons described its wanderings. The Saxons added the
syllable Med, the sign of middle, because the river runs through the centre of
the county, and thus gets its present name of Medway.
Encyclopaedia Britanica, 8th Edition, vol. XIII, Article Kent, p. 65.
See also vol. VIII, p. 716.
[9] Marbury and Crawford's Digest, pp. 150 152.
[10] Under the writs of election issued by Sir James Wright in 1761, Thomas
Carter, Parmenus Way and John Winn were returned as members from Midway and
Sunbury in St. John's Parish . [10a]
[10a] McCall's Georgia, vol. I, p. 286.
[11] DeBrahm says: "The Beach-Hill Congregation settled upon the Heads of the
two Newport Rivers early in the year 1752, when they left Carolina in a great
Body, they continued drawing their Effects and Cattle after settling all other
Concerns in their native Province until 1755, many rich Carolina Planters
followed the Example of that Congregation, and came with all their Families and
Negroes to settle in Georgia in 1752; the Spirit of Emigration out of South
Carolina into Georgia became so universal that year, that this and the following
year near one thousand Negroes was brought in Georgia, where in 1751 were scarce
above three dozen." [11a]
[11a] History of the Province of Georgia, &c., p. 21. Wormsloe, 1849.
[12] See Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. II, p. 21. Philadelphia. 1859.
In his letter to Lord Halifax, written in 1763, Sir James Wright says: "I
judged it necessary for his Majesty's service that Sunbury,-a well settled
place, having an exceeding good harbour and inlet from the sea,-should be made a
Port of Entry; and I have appointed Thomas Carr, Collector, and John Martin,
Naval Officer for the same. There are eighty dwelling houses in the place; three
considerable merchant stores for supplying the town and planters- in the
neighborhood with all kinds of necessary goods; and around it for about fifteen
miles is one of the best settled parts of the country."
[13] When visited by an English traveller in 1743, this island was inhabited by
eight or ten families of Indians, who had considerable tracts of open land, and
were largely engaged in the cultivation of corn. It abounded with game, "on
which," says the writer, "the good Indians regaled us, and for Greens boiled us
the Tops of China Briars, which eat almost as well as Asparagus." [13a]
[13a] London Magazine for 1745, pp. 551, 552.
[14] McCall's History of Georgia, vol. I, pp. 214, 215. Savannah, 1811.
[15] See Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. I, pp. 453, 454.
[16] See Sanderson's Biography of the Signers, vol. III, p. 120. Philadelphia,
1823.
[17] McCall's History of Georgia, vol, I, pp. 255, 256. Savannah, 1811.
[18] See Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, vol. III, p. 161, et
seq. Savannah, 1873.
[19] Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, &c, p. 5. London, 1792.
[20] His Observations were published in 1792.
[21] Idem. pp. 9, 10.
[22] See Watkins' Digest, p. 144.
[23] See Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. II, p. 92. Philadelphia, 1859.
[24] See Sanderson's Biography of the Signers, vol. III, p. 55. Philadelphia, 1823.
McCall's Georgia, vol. II, p. 41. Savannah, 1816.
[25] Sir Thomas Browne's Hydriotaphia.
[26] See Letter of the 9th of February, 1775, signed by Lyman Hall, Chairman.
White's Historical Collections of Georgia, pp. 520, 521. New York, 1855.
Sanderson's Biography of the Signers, vol, III, p. 54. Philadelphia, 1823.
[27] The apparent tardiness and hesitancy on the part of the Colony of Georgia
in casting her lot with her Sister Colonies at the inception of those movements
which culminated in a declaration of independence, may be excused or accounted
for when we remember that she was the youngest and the least prepared of all the
Colonies, and recall the fact that Schovilites, leagued with Indians, were
scourging her borders and awakening in the breasts even of the most patriotic
and daring, gravest apprehensions for the safety of their wives and children.
"The charge of inactivity vanishes," says Captain McCall, "when the sword and
hatchet are held over the heads of the actors to compel thorn to lie still." [27a]
During the progress of the Revolution the term Schovilite which, at first, was
used to designate not only the bandit follower of Schovil, but also every
adherent of the Crown in the Southern provinces, was dropped, and that of
Loyalist and Tory substituted. The Revolutionists were known as Whigs, Rebels,
and Patriots. Many Loyalists who had fled from the Carolinas and Georgia secured
a retreat in East Florida whence, having associated with themselves parties of
Indians, under the name of Florida Rangers, they indulged in predatory
incursions into Georgia to the great loss and disquietude of the southern
portions of the Province.
[27a] History of Georgia, vol. II, p. 4. Savannah, 1816.
[28] See White's Historical Collections of Georgia, pp. 517, 518. New York, 1855.
[29] Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. I, pp. 445, 446. New York, 1847.
[30] Journal of Congress, vol. I, p. 375.
Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. II, p. 151. Philadelphia, 1859,
Three days afterwards Congress appropriated $60,000 for the support of the
battalions thus ordered to be raised.
[31] It is not improbable that some of these guns may have been brought from
Frederica; for the Council of Safety had ordered all warlike stores at that
place to be secured.
[32] In compliment to Captain Morris, commanding a company of Continental
Artillery raised for coast defence. By this company was the fort garrisoned upon
its completion.
[33] For the accompanying plan of Fort Morris, I am indebted to a recent survey
made at my suggestion by Sam'l L. Fleming. Esq., of Liberty County.
[34] The following orders were issued by Colonel S. Elbert, for the fuller
instruction of the Artillerists stationed at Sunbury: [34a]
[34a] See MS. Order Book of Col. Elbert.
"HEADQUARTERS SAVANNAH, 5th Dec'r, 1777.
"ORDERS TO CAPTAIN DEFATT OF THE ARTILLERY.
"You are to proceed immediately to the Town of Sunbury, in this State, where
are a corps of Continental Artillery posted, which you are constantly to be
employed in teaching the perfect use of Artillery, particularly in the Field.
Both Officers and Men are hereby strictly ordered to attend on you for the above
purpose, at such times, and in such places as you may direct; and the Commanding
Officer of the Troops in that place on your shewing him these Orders, will
furnish Men to do the necessary duty in the Town & Fort; so that there will be
nothing to prevent Captain Morris and his Company from being perfected in the
Business for which they were raised. Such pieces of Artillery as you approve of,
have mounted on Field-Carriages; and for this purpose you are empowered to
employ the necessary Workmen, and procure Materials. Your drafts on me for every
necessary Expense, accompanying the Vouchers, will be duly honored.
" I am, Sir, your most Obdt Servt,
"S. ELBERT, Col. Commd'g."
[35] McCall's Georgia, vol. II, p. 96. Savannah, 1816.
[36] See McCall's Georgia, vol. II, p. 153. Savannah, 1816.
[37] During the year 1777 American privateers were busy off the Georgia coast
and among the inland passages. They cruised as far south as St. Augustine and
made frequent captures. In his communication of the 8th of October, Sir James
Wright informs Lord George Germain that a short time previous a privateer from
Sunbury, mounting ten guns, had taken five prizes; two of which were safely
carried in. He urges upon the Secretary of War the expediency of stationing a
twenty-gun ship or a frigate at Cockspur, two sloops of war in the Savannah
river, and one at Sunbury. [37a]
From Sunbury, on the 1st of May, 1777, did Col. Elbert embark in transports
his troops destined for the expedition against Florida undertaken at the
instance of Governor Button Gwinnett.
[37a] Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, vol. III, pp. 246, 248,
Savannah, 1873.
[38] He had been for some time stationed at Sunbury, and commanded not only the
Continental troops there concentrated, but also all detached companies operating
to the southward. Captain Morris' artillery company constituted the permanent
garrison of the Fort.
[39] The following lines descriptive of the desolations wrought by this invading
force, are extracted from a quaint old-fashioned poem composed by John Baker, a
son of Colonel John Baker, and found among the MSS of the latter:
"Where'er they march, the buildings burn,
Large stacks of rice to ashes turn:
And me [Midway] a pile of ruin made
Before their hellish malice staid.
"Nor did their boundless fury spare
The house devote to God and prayer:
Brick, coal, and ashes shew the place
Which once that sacred house did grace.
"The churchyard, too, no better sped,
The rabble so against the dead
Transported were with direful fumes,
They tore up and uncover'd tombs."
[40] Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. X, p. 294. Boston, 1874.
[41] Mr. John Couper, in a letter dated St. Simon's, 16th April, 1842, and
written when he was eighty-throe years of age, gives the following anecdote of
the famous and eccentric Captain Rory McIntosh who, at the time, had attached
himself in a volunteer capacity to the infantry company commanded by Captain
Murray, forming part of the 4th Battalion of the 60th Regiment. Captain Murray's
company was in the lines which Colonel Fuser had developed around Sunbury and
its Fort. "Early one morning," writes Mr. Couper, "when Rory had made rather
free with the 'mountain dew,' he insisted on sallying out to summons the fort to
surrender. His friends could not restrain him, so out he strutted, claymore in
hand, followed by his faithful slave Jim, and approached the fort, roaring out,
'Surrender, you miscreants! How dare you presume to resist his Majesty's arms?"
Captain McIntosh knew him, and, seeing his situation, forbid any one firing,
threw open the gate, and said "Walk in, Mr. Mcintosh, and take possession."
"No," said Rory, "I will not triift myself among such vermin; but I order you to
surrendei." A rifle was fired, the ball from which passed through his face,
sideways, under his eyes. He stumbled and fell backwards, but immediately
recovered and retreated backwards, flourishing his sword. Several dropping shots
followed. Jim called out, "Run, massa-de kill you." " Run, poor slave," says
Rory. " Thou mayest run, but I am of a race that never runs." In rising from the
ground, Jim stated to me, his master, first putting his hand to one cheek,
looked at his bloody hand, and then raising it to the other, perceived it also
covered with blood. He backed safely into the lines." [41a]
[41a] White's Historical Collections of Georgia, p. 472. New York, 1855.
[42] The Legislature of Georgia, in acknowledgment of the conspicuous gallantry
of Colonel McIntosh on this occasion, voted him a sword with the words "Come and
take it", engraven thereon.
[43] See White's Historical Collections of Georgia, pp. 523, 524. New York, 1855.
McCall's Georgia, vol. II, pp. 155, 161. Savannah, 1816.
Moultrie's Memoirs of the American Revolution, &c., vol. I, p. 189. New York,
1802.
[44] The inhabitants of Sunbury seem, at times, to have been considerably
annoyed by the lawless conduct of the troops quartered in their midst. So marked
were these violations of good order, that General Howe on the 16th of January,
1778, deemed it proper to call attention to them in a General Order, from which
we make the following extract:
"Complaints have been made to the General that some of the Soldiers have
injured the Buildings in the Town; and his own observation convinces him that
these complaints are but too well founded. Actions like these disgrace an army,
and render it hateful. Any Soldier who either offers Insult or does Injury to
the Persons or Property of the Inhabitants will be punished in the severest
manner. And officers of every degree are injoined to exert themselves to prevent
such Enormities for the future if possible, or to detect those who may commit
them, that they may receive that punishment which such Actions so richly
deserve. Officers of Companies are to take particular care that their men are
made acquainted with this Order."
[45] If we may credit a contemporary writer, the population of the Midway
settlement was considerably demoralized.
"Fields once her [Midway's] glory and her pride,
Weeds, grass, and briars now do hide.
And worst of villains make their home
Where flames had happen'd not to come.
"Instead of preaching, prayers, and praises,
Now on the Gospel holy days
They race, and light, and swear and game,
Without regard to law or shame.
"They arm'd, disguis'd, with faces blacked,
Do many villainies transact;
The few, few honest that are here,
Do often rob and put in fear."
MS. DIARY OF BENJ'N BAKER.
[46] For this disobedience of orders Major Lane was subsequently tried by a
Court Martial and dismissed the service.
McCall's Georgia, vol. II, p. 177. Savannah, 1816.
[47] This island lying in front of Sunbury, divides Midway river into two
channels known respectively as the front and back rivers.
[48] McCall's History of Georgia, vol. II, pp. 177, 179. Savannah, 1816.
General Moultrie,[48a] then at Purysburg, before the news of the surrender of
Sunbury and its fort had reached him, wrote to Colonel Pinckney: "I fear we have
lost Sunberry and the two gallies that took shelter under that battery, last
Thursday or Friday, as we heard a very heavy cannonade from that quarter. The
officer commanding had about 120 Continentals and some inhabitants within the
fort,-refused to evacuate the post; notwithstanding his receiving positive
orders for that purpose he, Don Quixote-like, thought he was strong enough to
withstand the whole force the British had in Georgia, for which, I think, he
deserved to be hanged."
[48a] Memoirs of the American Revolution, &c., vol. I, p. 259. New York, 1802.
[49] Memoirs of the American Revolution, &c., vol. I, p. 259. New York, 1802,
[50] McCall's History of Georgia, vol. II, pp. 235, 237. Savannah, 1816.
[51] McCall's Georgia, vol. II, pp. 270 and 271. Savannah, 1816.
White's Historical Collections of Georgia, pp. 533, 537. New York, 1855.
[52] History of Georgia, vol. II, p. 283, et seq. Savannah, 1816.
[53] See letter of Sir James Wright to Lord George Germain, under date Savannah,
20th August, 1780.
Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, vol. III, p. 314. Savannah, 1873.
[54] General James Screven, who fell in the skirmish near Midway Meeting House.
[55] This monument has never been reared. The obligation is as binding now as
when thus solemnly recognized.
[56] Quoted in White's Historical Collections of Georgia, p. 630. New York, 1855.
[57] See Watkins' Digest, pp. 298, 618.
[58] See White's Historical Collections of Georgia, p. 528. New York, 1855.
[59] See Historical Address before the Liberty Independent Troop by the Rev. Dr.
Charles Colcock Jones, pp. 10, 11. Savannah, 1856.
[60] See Watkins' Digest, p. 431.
Marbury and Crawford's Digest, pp. 128, 129.
[61] Clayton's Digest, p. 213.
[62] Clayton's Digest, p. 243.
[63] "Notes and Observations on the Pine Lands of Georgia," &c., p. 65. Augusta,
1801.
[64] Watkins' Digest, p. 380.
[65] Clayton's Digest, pp. 115, 246.
[66] See Watkins' Digest, p. 618. 28
[67] Gazetteer of the State of Georgia. Philadelphia, 1829.
[68] Lamar's Digest, p. 84.
Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
THE DEAD TOWNS OF GEORGIA;
BY
CHARLES C. JONES, JR.
FOR HERE WE HAVE NO CONTINUING CITY.
Heb.: xiii. 14
SAVANNAH:
MORNING NEWS STEAM PRINTING HOUSE.
1878.
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