Georgia

Only Texas (11,000) and New York (2,800) have more historical markers than Georgia, which has erected nearly 2,600 of them. The state's markers most often pertain to the Civil War, but they also cover a broad range of other historical topics, including events and places from the American Revolution. The marker program began in 1952 by the state appointed Historical Commission. The Historical Commission was abolished in 1973 in favor of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and then, after a brief try at privatizing the maintenance and erection of historical markers, the state transferred the responsibility to the Georgia Historical Society in 1997. The Society is located at 501 Whitaker Street in Savannah and serves the state as the main authority on Georgia's history. In addition to housing a museum and archives, it sells a variety of publications through its website that offer insight into the state's colonial and Revolutionary era past. (Website: www.georgiahistory.com; phone: (912) 651-2125.) Another state agency responsible for matters pertaining to historical sites is the Georgia Department of Archives and History, 5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, Ga. 30260; phone: (678) 364-3700.

Altamaha River

Altamaha River. Seedarien.

Augusta

Augusta. At the head of navigation of the Savannah River (240 miles by water from the port of Savannah, half that distance by road), the site of Augusta was a natural communications hub long before the white man arrived. Carolina colonists had a trading post in the area before Oglethorpe established the town of Augusta in 1735 to 1736 and named it for the Princess of Wales. Fort Augusta, built in 1736 about 100 yards from the river, was enlarged by the British invaders in 1780 to 1781 and renamed Fort Cornwallis.

On the eve of the Revolution, Augusta was the center of the most heavily settled area of Georgia and the most important inland trading center in the southeast. Some six hundred men and two thousand pack horses came each spring for goods. But as in so many other backcountry regions of the South, the people were predominantly Loyalist.

The British marched up the river in January 1779 and occupied Augusta but were forced to withdraw after two weeks because of Patriot military operations described in the sections on Kettle Creek and Brier Creek battlegrounds. With Savannah in enemy hands, Augusta became Georgia's temporary capital until the Patriots were run out again in mid-June 1780. Shortly before, Charleston had fallen, and the British were undertaking the conquest of the entire South. Part of their strategy was to establish strong Loyalist bases in the backcountry, notably at Ninety Six, South Carolina, and Augusta.

Colonel Thomas Brown was the Loyalist commander in Augusta. A native of East Riding in Yorkshire, from a family of wealthy merchants, he had come to Georgia after 1773 to take up 5,000 acres near the confluence of the Broad and Savannah Rivers as a family investment. Understandably, he was unsympathetic to the Whigs, who advocated revolution, but he made himself the object of their wrath by publicly ridiculing their cause. For this he was tarred and feathered, publicly exposed in a cart, and forced to profess support of the Whigs. They had picked on the wrong man. Brown made his way into the backcountry of South Carolina, where he joined the Loyalists. Later he became a redoubtable leader of militia under the British in East Florida and proved to have an exceptional talent for recruiting Indians. The British commissioned him superintendent of Indian affairs for the region and lieutenant colonel of the King's Rangers, an organization which he recruited and led.

Thomas Brown returned to Georgia with the British invaders and led Colonel Archibald Campbell's column to Augusta in January 1779. He withdrew with Campbell the next month (see brier creek), but returned in June 1780 as commander of the occupation forces in Augusta. On 14 September he was suddenly attacked by Patriot militia under Colonel Elijah Clark, 350 of the latter's troops and 80 recruited by Lieutenant Colonel James McCall. Clark had hoped to raise a much larger force but nevertheless went ahead with this misguided attempt to liberate Augusta.

The Patriots achieved surprise, but accidentally and for a most peculiar reason. They approached in three columns, one hitting the Indian camp on the outskirts of town and then the trading center around the Mackay House. Most of the Augusta garrison rushed to defend the latter place, stripping Fort Grierson to a small guard detachment, not realizing that two other Patriot columns were advancing to attack that place. The little fort was easily captured. Clark invested the Mackay House, cutting off its water supply and blocking an effort by Brown's fifty Cherokee allies to reinforce him.

The beleaguered Loyalists had meanwhile reported their situation to Colonel John Cruger at Ninety Six, some 45 miles due north, and, confident that a relief column would arrive from Ninety Six, held out despite great suffering from lack of water. Clark lacked the strength for an assault, and after maintaining the siege for four days he was forced to retreat on the approach of Cruger with five hundred troops from Ninety Six.

"It was a reckless, ill-advised expedition," concluded Sydney G. Fisher in his Struggle for American Independence (II, p. 347). Not only did it fail to accomplish any military purpose, but it precipitated a wave of Loyalist vindictiveness that made earlier atrocities seem mild. The Patriot hero Elijah Clark abandoned twenty-nine of his wounded. Thirteen rebels were hanged, most of them on the open-air staircase of the Mackay House. The rest of the prisoners were cruelly disposed of by the Indians.

Until this time Brown had offered lenient terms to Whigs of the area and had reported to his British superiors that he was leaning over backwards to conciliate the backcountry people. After Clark's attack in mid-September 1780 he turned vindictive. His troops revisited homes of their Whig enemies with such vengeance that four hundred women and children were forced to flee for protection in Clark's camp.

When General Nathanael Greene's army moved south to drive the British from the Carolinas, Patriot militia again besieged Augusta. By this time Fort Cornwallis had been completed about a mile east of Fort Grierson. (Fort Cornwallis did not figure in the earlier action, not then being in service.) Brown's Rangers, about 265 officers and men, held Fort Cornwallis and may have been reinforced by other troops. Some eighty militia under Colonel James Grierson garrisoned Fort Grierson, and about three hundred Creek Indians completed Brown's command. About twice that total number of Patriot militia were around Augusta when the operation started on 16 April 1781. Clark was back on the scene, and General Andrew Pickens was there with his newly recruited regiment of "state regulars" from South Carolina (his men were paid in plunder taken from Loyalists). Also on hand was a detachment of Over Mountain Men under Colonel Isaac Shelby (see sycamore shoals and fort watauga sites under Tennessee).

After scoring a number of local successes, cutting off Loyalist relief columns and capturing enemy outposts (see beech island and fort galphin under South Carolina), the militia leaders convinced Greene that Augusta could be taken by assault. Greene therefore detached "Light Horse Harry" Lee with his legion to Augusta. The Continentals arrived on 23 May, and Fort Grierson was quickly taken. Proving that the Loyalists had no monopoly on committing atrocities, the Patriots killed thirty of the eighty defenders as they tried to fight their way back to Fort Cornwallis. Most of the fifty prisoners were wounded, and Colonel Grierson was murdered. (Captain Samuel Alexander of the Georgia militia is generally blamed, but this is disputed.)

Their resistance strengthened by the ruthlessness of the Patriots, the defenders of Fort Cornwallis held out for almost two weeks. The besiegers undertook "regular approaches," but were hampered by a lack of heavy artillery. Construction of a Maham tower was started (see fort watson under South Carolina for the first use of this device). Brown made several sorties and tried to destroy the tower by blowing up a nearby house in which he had secretly hidden powder. On 1 June the Patriots started delivering an effective fire from their tower into Fort Cornwallis, but it was not until three days later that Brown offered to negotiate. The expected relief was not in sight (Ninety Six was also besieged), and the Loyalists lacked the strength to fight off the assault that was forming.

It was sound military practice to parole the garrison of a fortress in return for its surrender, thereby sparing the attacker casualties and time, and this is what the Patriots finally agreed to do. Brown and his 334 survivors were marched off under heavy guard (primarily for their own protection) to Savannah, where they were paroled. About fifty Loyalists and forty Patriots were buried at Augusta.

A memorial cross in the churchyard of St. Paul's marks the site of Forts Augusta and Cornwallis. Benson Lossing reported seeing remains of the ditch and embankments as late as 1849.

What has long been called the Mackay House was discovered to be in fact the Ezekiel Harris House, built in 1797. The actual Mackay House was largely destroyed during the battle that occurred there, fell into disrepair, and was destroyed a few years later. The Harris House, at 1822 Broad Street, has been called "the finest example of colonial frame residential architecture south of the Potomac," though it is in fact not from the colonial period, and has several unique features for this section of the South. The Harris House has eighteenth-century furnishings on the first floor, Revolutionary War exhibits on the second, and exhibits of the Indian trade on the third. The house, which is now correctly listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and has an excellent tour which discusses how the erroneous identification saved the building from destruction. Phone: (760) 737-2820. The house is owned by the Augusta Museum of History at 560 Reynolds Street; phone: (706) 722-8454.

Brier (Briar) Creek Battlefield

Brier (Briar) Creek Battlefield and vicinity. In late 1778 and early 1779 British troops converged on Georgia from New York and Florida, conquering coastal Georgia with ease and pushing up the Savannah River to establish a base at Augusta. Patriot militia turned out to swell the forces commanded by General Benjamin Lincoln, and the portly commander from Massachusetts soon felt he could undertake a counteroffensive. As the initial move he ordered General John Ashe with about 1,500 men to join forces with the 1,200 under General Andrew Williamson near Augusta.

The night of 13 to 14 February 1779 the British hurriedly evacuated Augusta in the face of this threat from the South Carolina side. On 25 February General Ashe crossed the river and followed the route taken by the British in their retreat to General Prevost's fortified camp at Hudson's Ferry (east and slightly north of modern Newington, where there is a highway marker).

In Screven County the Savannah River and Brier Creek form a pocket. Into this marched Ashe, following the old Augusta road that paralleled the swamp-lined river, and near the end of this pocket he was stopped by the demolished bridge across the creek. Ashe was camped in the immediate vicinity of the bridge and making preparations to repair it for a continuation of his advance south when he was called to a council of war at Black Swamp, South Carolina. The decision was made at this meeting on 1 March for all the other generals to mass their scattered forces around Augusta and then to join Ashe on Brier Creek. This would involve a march of 80 miles for Lincoln's troops at Purrysburg to Augusta, picking up General Griffith Rutherford's 700 North Carolinians at Black Swamp and Williamson's 1,200 South Carolinians near Augusta. This combined force would then have to march another 50 miles to reach Brier Creek.

While the amateur American generals concluded their deliberations, the British professionals already were marching to execute a classic example of "defeat in detail." Under cover of darkness on the night of 1 to 2 March, two columns left their camp at Hudson's Ferry. One of these, a diversionary effort under Major McPherson, moved back up the old Augusta road to Buck Creek, about 3 miles south of the destroyed bridge on Brier Creek. Here the First Battalion of the Seventy-first Highlanders and 150 Loyalists would make a feint to distract attention from the main attack.

The latter were commanded by General Prevost's younger brother, Lieutenant Colonel Marc Prevost. Marc Prevost had a well-balanced force of about 900 troops, regular infantry, light infantry, dragoons, grenadiers, Florida rangers and militia, and five pieces of field artillery.

Early on the morning of 2 March, having covered 30 miles along the general route of modern Ga. 24, Prevost reached Paris Mill (now Millhaven), about 14 miles to the rear of the American camp. Here he was delayed in improvising a crossing because the Americans had destroyed the bridge. Mobile forces, light infantry, and dragoons got over the creek that evening and moved swiftly to defeat the outposts and cut the supply lines between Paris Mill and the Savannah River. To complete their good fortune, the British captured the messenger sent to inform Ashe of this unexpected threat to his rear.

The Patriot general had returned to his headquarters around noon on 2 March. He ordered a strong cavalry patrol under Major Ross to reconnoiter in the direction of Hudson's Ferry the next morning in preparation for the attack that Ashe hoped to make when reinforcements arrived from South Carolina. Major Ross, not otherwise identified, had joined the Patriots on Brier Creek just a day earlier, and he emerges as a major offender in this comedy of errors because he did not inform Ashe when he made contact with the enemy a mere 3 miles to the south on Buck Creek. At a time when the Patriots badly needed reconnaissance forces to the north, Ross remained inactive and silent to the south.

As Ross was moving south, Prevost was advancing on the Patriot camp. About 2:30 p.m., minutes before the enemy came into sight, General Ashe received a warning message from the commander of his baggage train (at Burton's Ferry, about where U.S. 301 now crosses the Savannah). Prevost deployed astride the road in a line extending from the creek to the river. Reduced to an effective strength of only 800 because detachments were off on other missions, shaken by the sudden appearance of enemies in force to their rear, and with many men waiting to receive ammunition, the Americans were quickly routed. Only the left flank, sixty Georgia Continentals and 150 militia commanded by General Samuel Elbert and Lieutenant Colonel John McIntosh, put up a real fight before being overwhelmed.

Elbert's life was spared, it is said, when a British officer recognized the Masonic distress sign (one of many such incidents reported in many wars). The McIntosh involved here is the "Come and take it" McIntosh of Fort Morris fame (see sunbury site and fort morris).

Between 150 and 200 Americans were killed in action or drowned in trying to swim the Savannah. With a loss of about 16 killed and wounded, the British took 170 prisoners, 7 guns, and 500 stands of arms in addition to a quantity of ammunition, provisions, and baggage.

The disaster is unusually well documented because the record of the court of inquiry has been preserved in the memoirs of General William Moultrie, who was president of the court. In a remarkably brief opinion (seventy-eight words), the court concluded "that General Ashe did not take all the necessary precautions … to secure his camp and obtain timely intelligence" but that he showed no lack of personal courage "and remained in the field as long as prudence and duty required."

Freeman's Old Bridge was never rebuilt, and the old Augusta road was rerouted over Brannen's Bridge about a mile upstream. Here a roadside park features a large historic marker with an excellent map showing troop dispositions and movements involved in the battle. The late Clyde D. Hollingsworth of nearby Sylvania did most of the research for this marker.

An elevated highway on a dirt causeway has obliterated the portion of the battlefield where the British and American lines met, but the rest of the landscape has changed little since 1779. Brier Creek is dark and deep where it runs past the roadside park near the modern bridge. There are only a few homes and fishing camps in the area where the southern Patriots were roundly trounced.

The best route to the battlefield is from the center of Sylvania along East Ogeechee Street. (From the picturesque old county clerk's office this street is between two modern banks.) Follow this route for 11 miles through the countryside to the roadside creek and historical marker. A side road to Buck Creek Church (the crossroad is about 1.5 miles short of Brier Creek Bridge) leads to the area where the British diversionary effort was made and where Major Ross was located.

Cherokee Ford

Cherokee Ford, Savannah River (Abbeville County, South Carolina; Elbert County, Georgia). In mid-February 1779 a Patriot blockhouse at Cherokee Ford, defended by an eight-man detachment commanded by a lieutenant and armed with two swivel guns, barred the passage of Colonel Boyd and his 800 Loyalists. Boyd declined to fight his way across into Georgia, marched about 5 miles upstream, and put his mounted troops across the Savannah at several points. Captain Robert Anderson had been moving up the Georgia side of the river to oppose Boyd's crossing. Although outnumbered and forced to deal with several enemy columns, the Patriots attacked through heavy canebrakes along the riverbank and inflicted one hundred casualties, losing about a third that number themselves. Boyd marched on to Kettle Creek, Georgia (see kettle creek battlefield).

Cherokee Ford was at the mouth of Rocky Creek, about a mile north of where State Highway 72 crosses the Savannah River. A railroad bridge spans the river at this point, which can be reached by an unimproved road off S.C. 72 just west of Calhoun Falls.

Elijah Clark Memorial State Park

Elijah Clark Memorial State Park, on Clark Hill Reservoir of the Savannah River, in Lincoln County, 7 miles northeast of Lincolnton on U.S. 378 and Ga. 43.

"After 125 or more years," reads a wonderfully wry sentence in the brochure of the Department of State Parks, "Georgia has realized that the shortcomings of [Elijah] Clark were outweighed by the great service he rendered the state." The highlight of Clark's great service as a partisan leader during the Revolution was his part in the morale-building victory at Kettle Creek (see kettle creek battlefield).

Authorities disagree on various details of his career, including his military genius, but there can be no doubt about Clark being a tough partisan leader throughout the Revolution. His postwar career included Indian fighting, involvement in the schemes of French minister Genêt against Spain, illegal establishment of the "Trans-Oconee State" in Creek territory, and alleged involvement in the Yazoo Land Fraud. But he was a popular hero in Georgia when he died in 1799, and now he is an official hero.

The state park features conjectural reconstructions of the simple log buildings erected by this "Hero of Hornet's Nest." The larger one is a two-room cabin with an extra-wide dogtrot in the center and chimneys on each end. Copies of uniforms and documents are displayed and the cabin is featured as a museum. The smaller structure in the rear is furnished as a kitchen. In the park are the graves of Clark, his wife, and several of their children, moved here from their original site in the county.

Recreational facilities in the 447-acre park include cabins, family camping, fishing and swimming. For full information call the park at (800) 864-7275.

Darien

Darien and vicinity, Altamaha River, McIntosh County. On U.S. 17 and Interstate 95, the country around modern Darien was of great strategic importance from the earliest colonial days until the end of the Revolution. It is the center of the delta of the Altamaha River, which was a natural barrier between Spanish settlements in Florida and English colonies along the Atlantic coast. When the French pushed along the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, they had hopes of colonizing the line of the Altamaha to form a corridor to the Atlantic Ocean.

The site of Fort King George, the state's oldest standing fort, about a mile east of modern Darien, has been beautifully developed by the Georgia Historical Commission with a splendid little museum that interprets the history of the site from prehistoric times and its early occupation by the Spanish (1650–1686). On special occasions that vary from year to year, the Fort King George site offers reenactments and living histories. Phone (912) 437-4770.

Fort King George was established in 1721 and garrisoned by provincial troops before being taken over by an independent company of Royal soldiers. Bessie Lewis, who has long searched the archives on both sides of the Atlantic for the history of Fort King George, found documentary evidence to prove that many of the garrison were Swiss. After enduring the hardships of battle and disease for six years, during which time they buried 140 of their comrades and had to repair the damages of a nearly disastrous fire, the garrison was moved to Port Royal, South Carolina. Two lookouts were maintained at Fort King George from 1727 to 1733, until the permanent English settlement was established at Savannah by Oglethorpe.

Three years later a colony of Scots Highlanders under John McIntosh Mohr settled near Fort King George, building a new fort for defense against the Spanish colonists in Florida and a town where modern Darien still stands. When the Spanish threat ended, the fort fell into ruins, but at the start of the Revolution it was rebuilt.

Darien figured in the abortive efforts of the southern colonists to mount an offensive into Spanish Florida, but it was not the scene of any specific action of significance. Among the settlers who achieved importance in the war was Lachlan McIntosh (1725–1806), who had come to Darien with his parents in 1736. His nephew John McIntosh (1755–1826) became famous for his successful defense of Sunbury (see sunbury site and fort morris) and had a long military career.

The site of Fort Darien has not been precisely located, but the state has developed 12 acres around Fort King George into a scenic archaeological landmark. The authorities have made the economical decision not to reconstruct the British fortification of 1721 to 1727, even though there is more than adequate information as to its appearance. A visitor to the museum can reconstruct in his mind's eye this frontier post on the Lower Bluff of the strategic Altamaha River of Georgia.

Ebenezer

Ebenezer, Savannah River, Effingham County. When the British took Savannah in December 1778 and prepared to conquer the rest of Georgia and South Carolina, General Prevost (see sunbury site and fort morris) first massed at Ebenezer. From a base here he sent Colonel Archibald Campbell up the river to take Augusta, and from here he himself led the raid to Charleston.

Ebenezer's claim to fame transcends the role it played in the Revolution. The two hundred Salzburg Lutherans who settled here in 1736 built the second church in Georgia (1741, replaced in 1769 by the brick structure that survives) and the first gristmill and sawmill, and their rice mill probably was the first in America. Silk culture was their most successful industry. But British occupation destroyed the promising settlement, driving out the inhabitants who had come to the New World to escape the evils of the Old. Unable to recover after the British left, it gradually faded into oblivion. The official highway map of the state of Georgia, as of this writing, does not show it, although Ga. 275 dead-ends there.

The site of New Ebenezer, as it was originally called, is overgrown with timber except for a few open spots. The only remaining building is Jerusalem Church (1769), the oldest standing public building in Georgia. A large brick structure (60 by 80 feet) with an interior balcony, it is topped by a frame belfry. The brick walls are 23 inches thick. Modern Salzburgers have done their architectural heritage no favor by building their new parish house so close to the beautifully simple old church. This structure of 1958, connected by a short covered passage to the renovated church, includes a small museum. The Georgia Salzburger Society meets at the church on 12 March and Labor Day. Lutheran services are held every Sunday and services are sometimes held in German.

Just before reaching the church, visitors will see the old cemetery on the left. It is well maintained within the modern burial ground, but few old headstones have survived. A few hundred feet beyond the church is a picturesque overlook on the bluff of the Savannah River.

Fort Frederica National Monument

Fort Frederica National Monument. Seest. simons island.

Jekyll Island

Jekyll Island, Brunswick County. Nine miles long, 1.25 miles wide, with 11 miles of beach, Jekyll Island was first a hunting and fishing ground of the Guale Indians, then a Spanish stronghold and pirate base (from about 1566 to 1732, when Georgia was founded as an English colony). Oglethorpe named the island for a family that contributed to his colonization of Georgia. Spanish commissioners were entertained in 1736 by Major William Horton, first English resident of the island, while Oglethorpe paraded the garrison of nearby St. Simons to indicate a greater military strength than he actually had there. The deception delayed Spanish efforts to reassert their claim to this region until 1742, when they were defeated on St. Simons Island. After this final repulse the Spaniards burned the buildings on Jekyll Island and withdrew to Florida. The tabby remains of Horton's house are on the north end of the island, and the road he cut from his house to the beach still bears his name.

For fifty-six years (1886–1942) the island was the exclusive vacation site of a group of America's wealthiest millionaires, who selected this island after searching the world for the ideal spot. They bought it for $125,000 from the du Bignon family, who became founding members of the Jekyll Island Club. The du Bignons had owned the island since the Revolution, building a great fortune in cotton, and their burial ground has been preserved.

In 1947 the state of Georgia acquired Jekyll Island for $675,000 (which works out to about $10 per acre) and made it a state park. This purchase by court condemnation decree during the tenure of an acting governor is noted on a historical marker at the entrance of the island of Riverview Drive, where ten other markers are located.

Most of the tourist attractions on Jekyll Island are identified with the tenure of the millionaires, but there are places of interest pertaining to the Sea Island cotton and Civil War era. In 2000 the Jekyll Island Foundation was formed to preserve the natural and historical riches of the area. Website: www.jekyllislandfoundation.org; phone: (912) 635-4053.

Kettle Creek Battlefield

Kettle Creek Battlefield, located off Highway 44, 8 miles southwest of Washington, Wilkes County. Here on 14 February 1779 a Patriot force of about 450 under Andrew Pickens, John Dooly, and Elijah Clark surprised and defeated 600 Loyalists commanded by Colonel James Boyd, an Irishman from Raeburn Creek, South Carolina. The victory prevented a dangerous linkup of Carolina and Georgia Loyalists. It also was a rare example of coordination among Patriot military leaders.

Half a page is devoted to Kettle Creek Battlefield in the 1964 report of The National Survey, Colonials and Patriots: Historic Places Commemorating our Forebears, 1700–1783, which points out that the site "appears much as it did at the time of the battle." In 1930 the Daughters of the American Revolution, who owned 12 acres of the battlefield on the north side of Kettle Creek, gave the federal government an easement to erect a monument on so-called Battle Hill. (In point of fact, the decisive action of the battle took place on the south side of the creek, although the Loyalists were camped on the north side and some fighting took place there.) Now Wilkes County has acquired title to the 12 acres from the DAR. Guided tours of the site are offered through the Washington-Wilkes Chamber of Commerce. Phone: (706) 678-2013.

Because the history of the Kettle Creek campaign is not well known outside of Georgia, where it is often called "the state's favorite battle," a brief sketch is included here. British forces from Florida and New York converged in the last days of 1778 to take Savannah, all of coastal Georgia, and then establish a base at Augusta. From the latter place they were fanning out through the backcountry, using veteran Loyalist units from Florida and rallying others from Georgia and the Carolinas. Patriot militia leaders were trying to organize resistance.

The main enemy threat soon crystallized in the form of about seven hundred Loyalists led by Colonel Boyd. Starting with a nucleus of troops from Anson County, North Carolina, Boyd marched south, gathering strength and spreading destruction through South Carolina as he headed for a proposed rendezvous in Georgia with five hundred Loyalists under Colonel Daniel McGirth. The linkup was supposed to take place on Little River, the southern boundary of modern Wilkes County and about 6 miles north of where the Battle of Kettle Creek took place.

Boyd's crossing of the Savannah River above Augusta was opposed by Patriot forces moving up both banks to attack him. Frustrated at Cherokee Ford, he moved about 5 miles upstream and succeeded in crossing on a broad front, but because of effective resistance he lost about 100 troops (including deserters). With his remaining 600 men, Boyd first marched westward to shake off pursuit. Then he cut south toward the rendezvous. Around a farm on the north side of Kettle Creek he went into camp on the afternoon of 13 February (a Saturday). Boyd's men and horses were tired after three days of arduous campaigning, and it looked as if the worst was over, so the Loyalist leader put his horses out to graze and let his men settle down to prepare their first hot food in several days.

Three separate Patriot forces had joined in the pursuit. Colonel John Dooly, a North Carolinian who had settled in Georgia, could have claimed the overall command because of seniority. But Colonel Andrew Pickens had 250 troops to Dooly's 100, so Dooly waived his seniority to give Pickens command of their combined forces. Colonel Elijah Clark joined later with 100 mounted infantry. The Whigs crossed the Broad River at Fishdam Ford, about 5 miles downstream from where the Tories had crossed (later Webb's Ferry), and camped at Clarke's Creek, within 4 miles of the enemy.

The next morning (14 February) Pickens advanced cautiously on Boyd's position without being detected. After a brief reconnaissance he formed for action with Dooly on the right, himself in the center, and Clark's dragoons on the left. Alerted only when his pickets opened fire on the advancing Patriots, Boyd reacted quickly and well. He moved forward with about 100 men to establish a delaying position while the rest of his command formed to defend their camp.

The Patriot center under Pickens attacked aggressively, and Boyd was mortally wounded when he rejoined the main body with his delaying force, but he had bought valuable time. Dooly and Clark, on the flanks, were seriously impeded by canebrakes, but when they finally came on line the Loyalists were forced across the creek. Here the fighting was renewed. Some authorities believe the entire action lasted an hour and three-quarters; others say it ended in less than an hour. But only about half of the 600 Loyalists engaged in the action escaped to join the garrison in Augusta. Boyd and nineteen of his men were killed, and another twenty-two taken prisoner; the rest fled, some to Augusta, most to their homes. The Patriots lost seven men. Five Loyalist prisoners were hanged as traitors. Boyd died game, having led his troops bravely after making the cardinal military mistake of underestimating his enemies and allowing himself to be surprised.

Much work remains to be done by historians and archaeologists in reconstructing the Battle of Kettle Creek. The terrain is virtually undisturbed, and an excellent topographic map in the 1:24,000 series is available from the U.S. Geological Survey. ("Philomath Quad., Ga., 7.5'" is the identification.)

The site is open at all times, and is 11.5 miles southwest of Washington, Georgia, off Highway 44 on Warhill Road. A virtual tour of the battlefield is available at http://www.rootsweb.com/~gawilkes/kettlecreek.htm.

Midway

Midway, Liberty County on U.S. 17 and near Interstate 95. A handsome frame church, a reconstructed eighteenth-century home, and a clutch of historical markers alert the traveler to the fact that Midway is of exceptional historical interest. The Midway Society was organized here in 1754 to settle a grant of 32,000 acres. Its members were substantial people of New England and South Carolinian origins from Dorchester, South Carolina, where a Congregationalist community had been founded in 1695. They were seeking better land and relief from overcrowding in Old Dorchester. The pioneers prospered as cultivators of rice, indigo, and other crops. Politically active in their newly formed Parish of St. Johns (1758), they espoused the Patriot cause at the start of the Revolution when the majority of the Georgia colonists were reluctant to cast in their lot with rebels to the north. The Midway Society had undertaken to establish other settlements throughout the parish, serving these with associate pastors from the main meeting house at Midway. The port town of Sunbury, about 10 miles east, was the most important of these, and Button Gwinnett's enthusiastic leadership of the "Sunbury faction" during his brief tenure as governor in the spring of 1777 led to his fatal duel with General Lachlan McIntosh of Darien (see savannah).

Gwinnett and Dr. Lyman Hall are the two signers of the Declaration of Independence of which St. James Parish is so proud, although neither was a member of the congregation (as has been persistently claimed). The two men had homes in Sunbury as well as at Midway. (The so-called Button Gwinnett Home on St. Catherine's Island was built long after his death, according to its present owners and the Georgia Historical Society.)

When the British shifted their military efforts to the South in the last months of 1778, two columns from Florida converged on St. James Parish. Lieutenant Colonel Marc Prevost, brilliant younger brother of the British commander in Florida, marched toward Midway while an amphibious force under Lieutenant Colonel L. V. Fuser sailed to attack Sunbury. Colonel John White of North Carolina, commander of the Fourth Georgia Continentals, posted his two hundred regulars and their two cannon to defend a breastwork just south of Midway Church. When Brigadier General James Screven arrived with about twenty militia the Patriots advanced a mile and a half south to set up a new defensive line.

Screven was mortally wounded and captured in the skirmish that followed (24 November 1778). White withdrew in good order through the town in the face of superior force, but Prevost learned that Fuser had not yet reached Sunbury and that a strong Rebel force was rallying for a defense of Ogeechee Ferry. Burning Midway Church and other buildings, the four hundred British, Loyalists, and Indians retreated to Florida. The next day, 25 November, an outnumbered Patriot force defied Fuser's demand to surrender Fort Morris (see sunbury site and fort morris).

Midway Church was reconstructed in 1792, and the town prospered until again ravaged by war in 1864. But the community boasts a remarkable record of producing famous Americans: eighty-six ministers including the fathers of Oliver Wendell Holmes and Samuel F. B. Morse, as well as several governors, congressmen, and cabinet members. A great-grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt was General Daniel Stewart of Midway.

Midway Museum, a few yards behind the church, is a house museum in the privately-owned custody of Midway Museum, Inc. The structure is a reconstruction in the raised-cottage style prevalent in the area during the eighteenth century. Completely furnished, it has a detached kitchen and a few exhibits pertaining to the history of the region through the Civil War. A diorama shows Colonel John McIntosh in full Highland regalia rejecting the British demand to surrender Fort Morris, and this exhibit gives an indication of what the fort and surrounding area looked like at the time. The museum and its grounds are open every day except Monday. Phone: (927) 884-5837.

Mulberry Grove Plantation

Mulberry Grove Plantation, Savannah River, Chatham County. About 10 miles above Savannah on 2,200 acres of the best bottomland in Georgia, the confiscated estate of Royal Lieutenant Governor John Graham became the home of General Nathanael Greene. Here he died suddenly (of sunstroke) at the age of forty-four, shortly after taking up permanent residence, and his young son was drowned at Mulberry Plantation. (See Colonial Park Cemetery, savannah, for the story of their lost tomb.)

The twenty-six-year-old Eli Whitney met the widow of General Greene and her plantation manager while travelling to Savannah, and it was while staying as a guest at Mulberry Grove that he invented the cotton gin.

The plantation house was burned in late 1864 or early 1865 by Sherman's troops. The restored mansion was wrecked by a storm in the early 1900s and not rebuilt.

A highway marker is on U.S. 17 at the City Hall in Port Wentworth. Mulberry Grove is located about 2 miles northeast of that marker and is owned by the Georgia Port Authority, which intends to make it into a parking lot for shipping containers.

St. Simons Island

St. Simons Island, Brunswick County. Landmarks of the pre-Columbian and colonial era are numerous. Vestiges of the Spanish missions remain in the Old Spanish Garden (marker at Ocean Boulevard on Demere Road). At Gascoigne Bluff, where the highway bridge now arrives from the mainland, the Indians had a village and the first English settlers landed in 1736.

Fort Frederica National Monument is a National Historic Landmark (established 1936) whose story is told by its tabby ruins, excavated building foundations, and modern museum. This 247-acre park is located about 12 miles from Brunswick on St. Simons Island along U.S. 17. Established in 1736 by Oglethorpe, Fort Frederica was his base for the unsuccessful attack on St. Augustine three years later. From the fort he led a band of Highlanders to defeat two hundred Spanish raiders near Christ Church in 1742. The raiders were annihilated in a pursuit that ended at Bloody Marsh. Both sites are marked. As a national park, Fort Frederica is known for its bird watching in addition to guided historical tours of the preserved grounds. During the summer there are historical recreations of eighteenth-century British garrison life. Most interesting is the annual lime-burning festival in August, when the staff makes the tabby, from which many of these coastal forts are built, by burning oyster shells in a kiln. Phone: (912) 638-3639.

Oglethorpe's defeat of the Spaniards was significant in American history because it ended the efforts of Spain to regain Georgia by force. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 ended Fort Frederica's strategic importance, and its gradual abandonment was hastened by a fire ten years later.

Among the other sites marked on the island is the place where Charles Wesley had religious services on 14 March 1736, the first Sunday after his arrival in Georgia. On the wall of Christ Church (whose present building dates from 1884) is a cross made from the great oak long designated as the tree under which Wesley preached to Oglethorpe and about twenty others on this occasion. Portions of the old military road and sites of colonial forts are marked.

Satilla River

Satilla River, Camden County. The first major river barrier north of St. Marys River, which divides the present states of Georgia and Florida, the Satilla figured prominently in military operations of the colonial and Revolutionary era. It is now noted as the last of Georgia's wild and scenic rivers. Experienced canoeists can enjoy campsites and other facilities along a 149-mile stretch of the river between Woodbine (U.S. 17) and the vicinity of Waycross (U.S. 82).

Savannah

Savannah. If you know where to look you will find an obscure plaque in a wall alongside a busy street in an area of abandoned railroad buildings. "Upon this spot stood the Spring Hill Redoubt," it reads. "Here on October 9, 1779, one of the bloodiest engagements of the Revolutionary War was fought, when repeated assaults were made by the Allied troops of Georgia, South Carolina and France in an effort to retake Savannah from the British." The marker is on the intersection of West Broad Street and Liberty in front of the visitors center in Savannah. In 2004 the Coastal Heritage Society, in conjunction with the city of Savannah, commemorated the Spring Hill Redoubt in its 225th anniversary of the Battle of Savannah. Yet, historians to this day question as to why this battle, deemed one of the American Revolution's most fiercely fought, continues to receive short shrift in terms of writings and remembrance.

The British had captured Savannah on 29 December 1778, a force from New York under Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell landing at Girardeau's Plantation (now the railroad docks of the Seaboard Coast Line, about a mile below the city). The British advanced generally along the line of modern Wheaton Street. A marker at the end of East Liberty Street tells of the British turning movement that forced General Robert Howe to retreat into South Carolina and abandon Savannah.

Admiral comte Charles-Hector Théodat d'Estaing appeared off the Georgia coast in the fall of 1779 with about 40 warships and 4,000 troops to collaborate with the Americans in a powerful effort to retake Savannah. The Patriot force, under General Benjamin Lincoln, numbered 600 Continentals, 200 cavalry under Count Casimir Pulaski, and 750 militia. The British garrison, under the veteran Swiss, General Augustine Prevost, was composed largely of Loyalists and numbered only 2,400 initially. Ranks of the defenders were swelled by 800 men when Lieutenant Colonel John Maitland arrived from Beaufort after a remarkable movement through the coastal swamps that eluded Allied land and sea forces. Two other exceptional enemy commanders—the New York Loyalist and son-in-law of Oliver De Lancey, Lieutenant Colonel John Cruger, and British Captain James Moncrieff—figured prominently in the defense of the city. Leading roles in the attack were played by Colonels John Laurens and Francis Marion and Sergeant William Jasper, all of South Carolina. Among the senior American officers were General William Moultrie of South Carolina and Lachlan McIntosh of Georgia. Major Thomas Pinckney, later famous as a diplomat, was assigned as aide-de-camp to d'Estaing. And in the back ranks of this stellar cast of characters was the future king of Haiti, Henri Christophe.

Allied generalship was bungling from the start, while British defensive efforts were managed with exceptional competence. The experienced Prevost, veteran of more than twenty years of campaigning in America, anticipated that the main attack would be against the Spring Hill Redoubt, and he made his dispositions accordingly. Moncrieff, whose engineering experience in North America started in 1762, distinguished himself in planning and building the fortifications that ringed Savannah. More than a month after reaching Georgia, d'Estaing finally launched his long-expected attack. Diversionary efforts were made against the eastern and western flanks, but the main attack was from the southwest against the Spring Hill Redoubt. D'Estaing personally led the first piecemeal attack without waiting for two other French columns on his left to get into their assigned positions. In a gallant but uncoordinated series of charges the French lost many men without making any significant gains. To the west the Americans circled through the low ground where the Springfield Canal was later dug and attacked in two columns. The Crescent Flag of Marion's Second South Carolina Continentals and the Lillies of France were planted on the Spring Hill Redoubt, but they could not be kept there. After three American officers and one of d'Estaing's aides had been shot down with the flags, Sergeant William Jasper of Fort Moultrie fame was mortally wounded trying to put them up again.

As the South Carolinians were starting to pull back, the British counterattacked with a crack force of grenadiers and marines to sweep the ditches of the Spring Hill Redoubt and its adjacent artillery position clean. Count Pulaski was mortally wounded in a gallant but foolhardy attempt to lead his cavalry through the abatis just north of the Spring Hill Redoubt. Franco-American coordination had been bad at the start of the operation, and it got worse as the wounded d'Estaing tried to renew the assault. A fresh American column on the left under McIntosh was diverted into the swamps on the western side of Savannah because the French did not want them to interfere with their reorganization in front of the Spring Hill Redoubt. The battle finally ground to a halt in the heavy fog of dawn; but for this poor visibility Prevost could have counterattacked and turned the Allied defeat into a greater disaster.

The Allies lost more than 1,000 killed and wounded. Prevost reported that he buried 203 Allied dead around Spring Hill and another 28 on his left. The French lost 20 percent of their total strength and about 50 percent of those engaged around the Spring Hill Redoubt. American authorities put British losses at about 150, of whom about 40 were killed. (Casualty figures for this action vary wildly.)

In 1833 the Central of Georgia Railway built its tracks along the old Louisville Road and erected its roundhouse, shops, and other buildings over a 14-acre tract of the Spring Hill battlefield. Another 20 acres to the south, through which the attackers advanced and where the Jewish Burial Ground has survived from its dedication in 1773, has succumbed to urban development. In 1990 the Costal Heritage Society opened the Savannah History Museum in the passenger building of the old Central of Georgia Railway. The Battle of Savannah is detailed here through exhibits and among their ten thousand historical artifacts. Phone: (912) 651-6825. Presently the Coastal Heritage Society is working to fulfill the longtime wishes of many American Revolution preservationists by creating a Battlefield Park. In 2004 the state of Georgia approved a $6 million bond to help fund the project, which is now in the post-planning phase. The Coastal Heritage Society offices are located at 303 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Savannah. Phone: (921) 651-6840.

Savannah of the Revolution occupied the area now bounded on the south by Oglethorpe Avenue, on the east by Lincoln Street, and on the west by Jefferson Street. There were about 430 houses (badly damaged in the Franco-American siege), and six public squares relieving the monotony of founder James Oglethorpe's grid of parallel streets intersecting at right angles. Little remains to remind the visitor of Savannah's eighteenth-century history except the beautiful Colonial Park Cemetery (see below) and the monuments to colonial and Revolutionary heroes in the city squares.

Colonial Park Cemetery is rich in historical associations in addition to being a place of unique beauty in a modern city. Shaded by old trees festooned with Spanish moss and covering about 7 acres between Abercorn and Habersham Streets on Oglethorpe Avenue, the cemetery was used from about 1750 to 1853, when it was closed to burials. There are more than six hundred markers standing, but according to local experts, many of the dates on them are not to be believed. Local lore has it that the Union troops during the Civil War grazed their horses in the cemetery and, being "mischievous" by nature, took time to alter the dates as well as perform other high jinks on the markers. Large brick vaults include remains of such famous families as the Habershams and the McIntoshes. Button Gwinnett is almost certainly buried here, and the one eyesore in the otherwise tastefully restored and maintained park is the modern monument over the spot where some believe his bones lie. The bronze marker includes a facsimile of the rare signature that in recent years has fetched $150,000 in the autograph market. The controversial Gwinnett was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a military place-seeker in the abortive efforts to organize the defense of the southern colonies before the British got around to conquering them, and for about two months in the spring of 1777 governor and commander in chief of Georgia troops. In this position he antagonized the conservatives by pressing the extreme views of his supporters around Sunbury (see sunbury site and fort morris) and was publicly denounced by the equally controversial Lachlan McIntosh. This led to a duel on the outskirts of Savannah in which both men were wounded. Gwinnett died three days later. He has no known descendants, there is no trustworthy portrait, and only thirty-six of his autographs have survived.

As you come in the central gate of the cemetery from Oglethorpe Avenue, the four so-called colonial vaults are a short distance to the right front. Markers identify the second one as the Graham Vault and tell the visitor that the body of Lieutenant Colonel John Maitland was briefly interred here (he died of malaria a few days after ending his important duties in the defense of Savannah in 1779). Of more interest, however, is the information that the body of General Nathanael Greene lay here for more than a century. But you should know the whole story about the "lost grave" of the officer who was second only to George Washington as a Patriot military hero.

Greene came south to take command of military operations in the Carolinas and Georgia in December 1781. The great Rhode Islander was naturally a hero of the South when the war ended, and the state of Georgia gave him the confiscated plantation of Royal Lieutenant Governor John Graham. Having spent two years traveling between Georgia and Rhode Island, Greene finally sold his property in the North and established his home permanently on his Georgia estate near Savannah in 1785. The next year he died suddenly of sunstroke at the age of only forty-four. With great civic ceremony he was buried in Savannah's Colonial Park Cemetery. Logically, he would have been put to rest in the Graham Vault, but newspaper accounts of the interment did not specify the location. One of Greene's biographers was told insistently by the man who read the burial service that the body was in the Jones Vault, one of the four "colonial vaults" standing in a row near today's Oglethorpe Avenue gate.

Some efforts were made in 1820 and 1840 to clear up what was already becoming a mystery, but Greene's body was not found. Greene's family had meanwhile left the region and witnesses of the burial had died off. High-spirited but ghoulish troops of Sherman's conquering Civil War armies entertained themselves by desecrating colonial graves, opening many tombs and altering epitaphs. It was known also that bodies of the Jones family had been removed by a descendant for reburial elsewhere, and the story sprang up that Greene's bones had also been moved.

In 1901 the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati resolved to make a proper effort to find the remains of their hero. After getting all the necessary permissions and the cooperation of local patriot societies, and witnessed by a large crowd, the searchers opened the colonial vaults one by one and quickly found what they were seeking. Unmistakably identifiable by a metal plaque and vestiges of a major general's uniform, and with the remains of Greene's young son who drowned in 1793, was the body that had been lost for more than a century. The explanation was very simply that what had for years been called the Graham Vault was actually the Jones Vault, and the real Graham Vault had never been opened for investigation. In 1902 General Greene and his son were reinterred in the monument erected to the general in Johnson Square after the cornerstone was laid by Lafayette in 1825.

Large-scale street maps of Savannah's historic area are distributed by the city's tourist agencies. A virtual tour website of Savannah that includes many of the Revolutionary War landmarks is www.ourcoast.com.

Jasper Spring is buried under the new intersection of the Westside Bypass (Ga. 26 Loop) and U.S. 17-80. This is where the famous Sergeant William Jasper and a companion surprised a British escort and liberated a number of Patriot prisoners being taken to Savannah for trial and probably for execution. A heroic statue of Jasper is in Madison Square (Bull Street between Charlton and Harris Streets), where two cannon also mark the junction of the colonial roads from Augusta and Darien.

A few blocks east of Madison Square, roughly in the section now covered by Troup and Lafayette Squares, is the area where the French "regular approaches" were dug in 1779 and where most of the French siege artillery was emplaced.

The site of Tondee's Tavern, where the Rebels raised the Liberty Pole and convened the Provincial Congress in the summer of 1775, is at the northwest corner of Broughton and Whitaker Streets. Governor Wright's house, where he was held prisoner for nearly a month in early 1776 before escaping to a British warship, was at the northeast corner of today's State and Jefferson Streets, where the Telfair Academy now stands. Opposite the Davenport House (1821–1822) at 10 East State Street is where the British barracks were built in 1777; they were torn down in 1916.

The Old Dunning House at 24 East Broughton Street was Prevost's headquarters in 1779. The place from which the Rebels first fired a cannon at the British in Georgia waters on 3 March 1776 is in the middle of Montgomery Street just north of Bay Street.

Identified in tourist literature are many interesting landmarks dating from the colonial era. Among these are the recently restored area of the Trustees' Garden, where the Herb House of 1734 stands as Georgia's oldest building and the Pirates' House of 1754 has been restored as a restaurant.

The Georgia Historical Society, 501 Whitaker Street, (912) 651-2125, has a fine collection of books, manuscripts, early Savannah newspapers, and portraits of famous Georgians. On exhibit is the round shot removed from the body of Pulaski. As mentioned earlier, he was wounded in the attack of 9 October 1779 around the Spring Hill Redoubt. He died about two days later aboard an American warship, the Wasp, after a surgeon had been unable to remove a projectile of this type from his groin. Presumably this is the fatal missile, extracted during the postmortem examination. One of the mysteries of Revolutionary War history is whether Pulaski was buried at sea, on St. Helena's Island (off Beaufort, South Carolina), or in Greenwich, Georgia, though military records indicate he was buried at sea on 15 October 1779.

Literature on points of historical interest is available from the Convention and Visitors Bureau of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, Savannah 31401. Website: www.savannahchamber.com; phone: (912) 644-6400.

Sunbury Site and Fort Morris

Sunbury Site and Fort Morris, Liberty County. About 11 miles east of Midway on the Midway River and off Exit 76 of Interstate 95 is the 70-acre state park and site of a dead town that once had 496 house lots, three large public squares, five wharves, and a fort. Park office phone: (912) 884-5999.

Sunbury was one of the settlements established by the founders of Midway. The reiterated claim that it grew into a port rivaling Savannah is an exaggeration, but from its founding in 1758 it did become an important place in remarkably short order. On the eve of the Revolution 317 of the lots had been sold, two of them to Lyman Hall, and the population of the town was about 1,000.

Dr. Lyman Hall was one of the New Englanders who had gone to Midway from Dorchester, South Carolina. A graduate of Yale (1747), he was an ordained minister before turning to medicine. As colonial protest against British rule mounted, Dr. Hall became a leader of the radical Patriot faction in Sunbury and was sent to represent St. Johns Parish in the Continental Congress before Georgia got around to electing an official delegation. He and Button Gwinnett, whose plantation was on nearby St. Catherine's Island and who was a justice of the peace in Sunbury (1767–1768), gained provincial immortality by signing the Declaration of Independence. (There is speculation that Gwinnett is buried at Sunbury, but the greater evidence is that he lies in the Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah.)

After the outbreak of the Revolution a large earthwork was built with slave labor on a bluff overlooking the salt marshes of the river on the southern outskirts of Sunbury. It was manned by fewer than 200 men under Colonel John McIntosh (nephew of General Lachlan McIntosh) when Lieutenant Colonel L. V. Fuser's much stronger force from Florida arrived by ship on 25 November 1778 and demanded its surrender. "Come and take it," was McIntosh's reply. The British declined the invitation and withdrew. (See midway.)

A few weeks later, when the southern army of General Robert Howe went to meet the greater threat against Savannah, leaving about 200 Continentals at Sunbury, General Augustine Prevost captured Fort Morris with the loss of only one British soldier killed. The American commander had disobeyed his orders to evacuate the fort after the fall of Savannah, eleven days earlier. In addition to the 159 Continentals and 45 militia captured, the Patriots lost 24 guns and a quantity of supplies.

With the decline of its political and commercial importance Sunbury became an educational center, the famous Sunbury Academy being established in 1788 and remaining in operation for at least five years after the retirement of its distinguished principal, Dr. William McWhir, in 1824. A number of misfortunes had meanwhile struck the town: the county seat was moved away in 1797 and hurricanes inflicted great damage in 1804 and 1824. By 1850 the place was deserted, and cornfields covered the house sites until these were taken over by pines. The long-neglected burial ground has a marker that starts, ironically, with the words: "In this Cemetery are buried men and women whose lives contributed much to the early history of Georgia."

As for directions to the cemetery, it must be reported that this author was unable to find the site, and it was not for lack of trying. The modern topographical map shows two cemeteries. Several websites mention the cemetery, some confusing it with the Midway Church cemetery and others referring correctly to it, but giving no details as to its whereabouts. A local resident informed the author that the northernmost of these was the colonial burying ground, but the director of the Georgia Historical Society expressed the opinion that it was the one 1,300 feet farther south.

The remains of Fort Morris are picturesque and interesting. The earthworks have been cleared of underbrush but are covered by widely spaced trees. The central parade, about an acre in extent, shows evidence of recent archaeological exploration. From the long face of the quadrangular fort, which measures almost 100 yards, you can see how guns on the parapet would command the river and how the salt marshes would make attack from three directions virtually impossible. The park is home to a number of historical recreations, including an annual "Come and Take It!" day every November.

A cannon excavated from the site in 1940 is on the courthouse lawn at Hinesville.

To reach Fort Morris and Sunbury, proceed as follows. From U.S. 17 in Midway or Exit 76 on Interstate 95 (3.7 miles east of Midway) drive east on Ga. 38. The turnoff to Sunbury from Ga. 38 is on the left about 4.2 miles from Interstate 95. Old Sunbury is 3 miles away, where a group of historical markers is situated. Fort Morris State Park is 7 miles from the interstate on Fort Morris Road and well marked with directional signs.

Tybee Island

Tybee Island, mouth of Savannah River off U.S. 80, 18 miles east of Savannah. Probably the first naval capture of the Revolution was made off Tybee Island on 10 July 1775 when a schooner, the first vessel chartered by the Continental Congress, commanded by Captain Oliver Bowen, seized a British ship and 14,000 pounds of powder. When the British sailed from New York to take Savannah in 1778, they anchored off Tybee (23 December) before proceeding to Girardeau's Plantation. The island became a popular bathing resort and is now part of the Tybee National Wildlife Refuge. A museum operated by the Tybee Island Historical Society includes exhibits pertaining to the early history of the island although, like so many of Georgia's historical attractions, it focuses largely on the Civil War. Phone: (912) 786-5801.