|
Edward Telfair Chapter
(Savannah, Georgia)
SIEGE OF SAVANNAH
2:00 A.M., OCTOBER 9, 1779.
A fog rises from the marshes and waterways surrounding Savannah. The mist obscures the movements of forces outside the town from keen-eyed lookouts posted along the palisade and redoubts that form a wall about the town. But the mist also makes maneuvering more difficult and confused for the besieging forces now assembling beyond the walls. Few are asleep inside the town, and even fewer in the military units surrounding it. Before this day is over, nay, before the sun has fairly risen, in a paroxysm of gore and carnage lasting less than a single hour, more will be counted among the dead and dying than from any other battle of the American Revolution, excepting only Bunker's Hill. The dead and wounded will range from unknown Black Haitians, the Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, themselves only recently freed from slavery, through American patriots fighting for the cause of Liberty, to titled European nobility fighting for honor, glory and a cause greater than self.
THE PROLOGUE:
The causes of the American Revolution should be familiar to all who would call themselves American. Increasingly onerous laws and taxes had been forced without representation upon Britain's American colonists by a crown blind to the needs and cries of its subjects. Isolated acts of resistance had been ruthlessly suppressed with deadly force, engendering still greater acts of insurrection. Still, few had been supportive of an actual rebellion and severance of all political bonds with Great Britain. That gradually began to change as news of the latest royal outrages circulated up and down the colonies.
Committees of Correspondence began to form to discuss the matter and to plan appropriate actions. In September 1774 The First Continental Congress met and passed three measures of significance. They petitioned King George for a reconciliation and for relief from the more burdensome of his laws and taxes. But their second measure almost ensured their petition would not be agreed to, as they formed the Continental Association which called for a boycott of British Goods. This was to be enforced by Committees on Safety. Finally, they called for a Second Continental Congress to meet the following year.
|
|
By the time the Second Continental Congress met, the Battles of Lexington and Concord had already been fought. War was not so much declared as evolved. Nevertheless, Congress formed a committee of five men, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, to draft a Declaration of Independence. The job fell largely on Thomas Jefferson, then a 33 year old Virginia Aristocrat.
Congress also commissioned George Washington, one of its delegates, to raise a Continental Army and to assume command thereof. In addition to Washington's regulars (They scarcely merited that appelation. Most of these American soldiers were young, ranging in age from their early teens to their mid-20s, landless, unskilled, and poor. Others were indentured servants and slaves who were serving as substitutes for their masters and had been promised freedom at the war's end.), each state had its own militia, and there were other volunteer units of even lesser legitimacy. At the beginning of the conflict, the colonies had essentially no naval forces. In all, the American military had a less than auspicious beginning.
Facing the revolutionaries was a battle-hardened army of some 50,000 British veterans reinforced by an additional 30,000 Hessian Mercenaries, These land forces were backed by the most powerful naval armada ever assembled, some 270 Ships of the Line in 1775, which by 1783 had grown to 468. Commodore Esek Hopkins, Commander in Chief of the newly formed American Navy, started his campaign with 8 ships which eventually grew to about 60.
Precious few were the advantages enjoyed by the Americans. They fought on their own territory and were more familiar with the terrain, its resources and obstacles. Their supply lines were shorter. They had a better feel for the populace and a better handle on where sympathies lie. Their major advantage, however, lay in the tasks faced by the respective armies. The British must defeat the Americans while the Americans need not achieve victory, but only avoid defeat while the British wore themselves out in attrition and costs, quite different tasks, really.
It is well that the Americans did not need to defeat their adversaries, for victories were few. They suffered many defeats, but none were decisive. For the most part, the Americans would attack a garrison or raid an outpost, and then fade away as the British brought up overwhelming forces. The war drug on.
|
The "Committee of Five"
that was assigned to draft
the Declaration of Independence.
|
Georgia was both the southernmost and the youngest of the thirteen colonies, scarcely a generation old, having been founded in 1733 by then Reserve Colonel James Edward Oglethorpe. As the fires or Revolution began to glow brightly, the Sons of Liberty, more often called the Liberty Boys met in Peter Tondee's Tavern to discuss the latest British affronts and to plan strategy. On May 11, 1775 the Liberty Boys, led by Noble Wimberly Jones, and perhaps with some liquid courage from Tondee's Tavern, removed some 600 pounds of gunpowder from the Savannah armory. Isolated incidents of rebellion continued with the formation of a Provincial Congress. The Provincial Congress selected delegates to the Continental Congress and established various resolutions that essentially set up a government in opposition to the Royal Governor, James Wright.
In January 1776, Governor Wright was placed under house arrest by Major Joseph Habersham. On February 11, Wright fled the Governor's Mansion in Savannah and found refuge with the British Fleet, then anchored off the coast near the Savannah River. Savannah was now in the hands of the Americans and would remain so until late in 1778. The Council of Safety became the de facto legislature, and its president, Archibald Bulloch, the effective governor.
|
American Patriot Joseph Habersham
|
All of this, of course, did not sit well with the Crown. Nevertheless, there was a war to be fought and most of it was being fought in the northern and middle states. It was not until September 1778 when some 3,000 British and Hessian troops under command of Lt. Colonel Archibald Campbell sailed from New York harbor with secret orders to land on the Georgia Coast for an attempt to capture Savannah. Campbell found Savannah poorly defended and General Robert Howe ill-prepared to maintain the city. By using a flanking maneuver and approaching from a direction that Howe had not defended, on December 29, Campbell took the city within hours and the loss of only ten men. Howe retreated from the city in disorder and shortly thereafter ordered the evacuation of his forces from the entire state. Howe was subsequently court-martialed for his egregious performance, but was absolved of blame in losing the city. Nevertheless, Howe was succeeded as commander of the Southern Department of the Continental Army by Major General Benjamin Lincoln.
On July 22, 1779, Royal Governor James Wright returned to Savannah charged with maintaining the peace and restoring royal government. He brought with him a vice-governor, a justice of the courts and an entire staff of supporters. Wright's first act was to restore all laws to those in effect in 1775.
Flushed with success, Colonel Campbell made immediate preparations to advance against Augusta, situated in the interior about one hundred and fifty miles distant. No opposition was manifested, and the whole province of Georgia apparently submitted. Colonel Campbell established himself in Augusta, and detached Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton, with two hundred men to the frontiers of Georgia. Meanwhile General Prévost, having arrived at Savannah from Florida, assumed command. Judging the ground occupied to be too extensive, he ordered Augusta evacuated and the lines narrowed. Prévost's men remained in the city and provided clout for Wright's directives. This effectively ended the Revolutionary Government in Georgia so far as the Royalists were concerned, though, to be sure, as soon as Campbell departed Augusta, the Revolutionaries established a government in exile headquartered there. With the exception of the back country, where skirmishes between Patriots and Tories continued, Georgia was firmly in British hands.
THE OVERTURE:
General Benjamin Lincoln, now commander of the Southern Department, viewed the British occupation of Savannah with considerable alarm. The city had an excellent deep water port and could provide a southern base from which operations could be mounted to attack the weak under-belly of the Continental Army. Lincoln set about to raise a force of 5,000 men with which to besiege the city. He would also need naval support to prevent the British from reinforcing their garrison from the sea. Since the colonies had no naval forces available, and raising a navy in short order was impossible, he contacted the French requesting naval support of the proposed siege.
In the summer of 1779, French Admiral General Comte Charles-Henri d'Estaing had captured St. Vincent and Grenada in the British West Indies, tipping the balance there in favor of French naval superiority. D'Estaing's powerful fleet was available for a joint operation with the Americans. The count soon received a flurry of letters from French diplomats and Gen. Lincoln, urging him to bring his fleet northward for a campaign against Savannah. The count was enthusiastic, and sailed north with a fleet composed of twenty-two Ships of the Line and an additional fifteen support and transport vessels. D'Estaing held commissions as both an Admiral in the French Navy and a General in the French Army and brought with him some 4,000 troops, including about 750 Black Haitians, the largest force of Black military ever to serve in the American Revolutionary War. While the troops went ashore at Tybee Island and began to work their way toward the city, the fleet set up a blockade at the mouth of the Savannah River. Though of insufficient strength to withstand an attack by a major British fleet, the flotilla effectively isolated the British garrison from resupply.
D'Estaing established his headquarters at Thunderbolt and on the arrival of General Lincoln, summoned Prévost with a demand to surrender the city. Prévost replied with a request for twenty-four hours to consider the demand. Whether Prévost ever truly considered Savannah's surrender is moot. Certain it is that he took the time in a redoubled effort to strengthen the city's walls and redoubts. Ironically, it is likely that had d'Estaing attacked immediately, his assault would have met with success and Savannah taken. By waiting to strengthen his own forces, he also gave Prévost time to strengthen the city's defenses.
The Continental Army considered the Siege to be of such importance that George Washington personally dispatched the hard-charging Casimir Pulaski and his Polish Legion of cavalry to Savannah. Described by a British officer as "The best damned cavalry the rebels ever had," the name "Polish Legion" is now decried by most historians as it members were, for the most part, Americans, not Poles.
Benjamin Lincoln left Charleston and joined General Lachlan McIntosh at Ebenezer. From here the Continental Army advanced and began to take positions around the city on September 9. With the arrival of the opposing force, Governor James Wright ordered all able-bodied men to assist in building Savannah's defenses. The number of redoubts fortifying its surrounding palisade increased from four to thirteen. Over a hundred cannon were mounted. General Prévost summoned Colonel John Maitland and the 800 troops of First Batallion of the 71st Highlanders from Beaufort, South Carlina to bolster the city's defenses. Though d'Estaing 's fleet blockaded the mouth of the Savannah River, Maitland used a tidal creek by night to enter the city. Both Lincoln and d'Estaing knew that the siege would not be of long duration, for Britain would find out about the naval blockade and send enough ships to break through D'estaing's line. It was the belief of the American commanders that the British would surrender if their escape routes were cut.
When Colonel Francis Marion arrived with his Second South Carolina Regiment, and learned that d'Estaing was giving Provost time to consider a surrender, and apparently with Lincoln's concurrence, he fairly exploded. General Horry, who was present, feared Marion would physically attack Lincoln. "My God!" Marion thundered, "who ever heard of anything like this before? First allow an enemy to entrench, and then fight him! See the destruction brought upon the British at Bunker's Hill -- yet our troops there were only militia; raw, half-armed clodhoppers, and not a mortar, or carronade, not even a swivel -- only their ducking-guns! What, then, are we to expect from regulars, completely armed, with a choice train of artillery, and covered by a breastwork?'" Apparently Pulaski was of the same mind, though we have not found any actual quotes. Nevertheless, d'Estaing was the ranking officer and the operation continued under his command. Marion and Pulaski were good soldiers and would follow orders, even at the cost of life.
To the north of the city ran the Savannah River from which d'Estaing began a continued naval artillery bombardment. East and west of the city were marshes allowing neither egress nor regress. The allied forces drew up in a semi-circle on the south of the city. (See map below.) and commenced an artillery barrage. The siege may be considered to have started September 25 at 7:00 AM when the land-based artillery assault began. It was quickly called to a halt as the gun placement was found wanting. The guns were reset and commenced firing again at midnight of October 3, then again silenced as shells were found hitting allied positions. Investigation found the French cannoneers had gotten into a keg of rum and were drunk. The gun crews were replaced (and, one assumes, properly disciplined) and firing resumed. This continued until morning of October ninth. Though damage was done in the city proper, and some citizens killed, little or no damage was done to the city's defenses, which were continually being strengthened. By October 7th, it was obvious that the city would not fall to artillery. An infantry assault was necessary. The date of October 9th was selected. The drama was ready to commence.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE... WITHIN THE CITY:
We have already met most of the major players but will take a few moments to review them.
|
Gen. Robert Howe
Lost the city
|
JAMES WRIGHT was born May 8 1716 in London, England to a family well versed in colonial administration. He came to South Carolina in 1730 when his father was appointed chief justice of the colony. By 1740 Wright was a practicing attorney in South Carolina and had been appointed acting attorney general. On August 14, 1741, he entered Gray's Inn in London and was called to the bar.
Returning to South Carolina, Wright practiced law and purchased plantations and slaves. He married Sarah Maidman in February 1742, and they had eight children before her death at sea in 1763. He became attorney general of South Carolina in 1747. He held that position until 1757, when he became colonial agent for South Carolina in London. Wright's ties with Georgia began when the crown appointed him the third royal governor of Georgia in 1760, after poor health forced Henry Ellis to leave the colony. Wright proved an effective and popular governor and can be credited (or blamed) with delaying the growth of Revolutionary feelings in Georgia as he ably discharged his duties and presented the Crown's position on controversial matters. After passage of the Stamp Act, the Liberty Boys marched on the Goveror's Mansion in protest. Wright confronted them alone, armed with only a single-shot flintlock pistol. Though it is certain the Liberty Boys would have prevailed in a shootout, Wright's calm demeanor and the respect with which he was held, prevailed, and the Boys melted away. His popularity may be gauged by the fact that Wright Square in Savannah is still named for him, making him the only Colonial Governor so honored. After the war, Wright returned to London, never to return.
|
British Governor James Wright
|
GENERAL AUGUSTIN PRÉVOST (pronounced Pre-voh) was born August 27, 1723, possibly in Geneva, Switzerland. Though the family was French, they, being Protestant, had fled France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Augustin had ended up in the British West Indies, where he pursued a career in the military and where he had secured a commission as a Lieutenant by 1768. He rose through the ranks, it would seem, by ability and talent, rather than by family money and prestige, and by 1773 was a Colonel commanding a Regiment.
Prévost was known to his men as "Old Bullet Head" in consequence of an indentation in the area of his left temple caused by a bullet in some early campaign. (Ouch! Excedrin® Headache number One!) The indentation is clearly shown in the accompanying portrait, painted by Mather Brown.
Prévost is said by some to have introduced Scottish Rite Freemasonry into America, having been himself initiated into the Rite of Perfection on January 2, 1768, as a Lieutenant in the 60th Royal American Regiment. On February 1774, at Kingston, now Colonel of the Regiment, he was appointed a Deputy Grand Inspector General. Prévost, in turn, is known to have communicated degrees of Freemasonry in South Carolina and Georgia.
Prévost was married to Nanette (Ann) Grand and was the father of George Prévost, who himself rose to the rank of Lieutenant General in the British Army. Prevost (the elder), died May 6, 1786.
|
Gen. Augustin Prévost
"Old Bullet Head"
Defended the city
|
LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN MAITLAND was born of the nobility, the eighth son of Charles Maitland, 6th Earl of Lauderdale, and Lady Elizabeth Ogilvy. He had a multifaceted career both in public service and in the military. He was commissioned Captain of Marines in 1757, and served in the Seven Years' War, losing his right arm in action. With peace in 1763, he went on half-pay, but returned to active service in 1770, and was promoted to Major in 1775.
Maitland ran unsuccessfully for Parliament for Haddington Burghs in 1768. In 1769 he became Clerk of the Pipe of the Scottish Exchequer. Then in 1774, he successfully stood for Parliament, again for Haddington Burghs. He retained his seat until, in about 1777, he was sent to America on active service with the Marines.
In May 1778, Major John Maitland commanded a detachment of Marines in action against American vessels in the Delaware. In October that year, he transferred into the army when appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st Battalion of the 71st Foot (Fraser's Highlanders). He served with distinction in South Carolina and Georgia, taking part in Campbell's capture of Savannah on 29 December 1778. In 1779, he took part in the battle at Stone's Ferry (20 June), and was left in command at Beaufort, South Carolina.
When summoned by Prévost, Maitland led his men on an almost impossible forced march across low country marshes and the Savannah River to help relieve the besieged city. He had long suffered from malaria, or as it was then called bilious fever, and weakened by the march, Maitland succumbed to his illness at the age of only 47, and died October 22, only two days after the French fleet sailed away.
Maitland was buried the day after his death in Savannah's Colonial cemetery. However in 1981, his body was exhumed and returned to Scotland, where it was re-interred, in a small box, in the family vault beneath the Lauderdale Aisle (an Episcopal Chapel within the Church of Scotland building) in St. Mary's Church, Haddington. A plaque expresses appreciation to the people of Georgia for the return of his remains.
|
Lt. Colonel John Maitland
1st Batallion, 71st Foot, (Fraser's Highlanders)
|
DRAMATIS PERSONAE... WITHOUT THE CITY:
JEAN-BAPTISTE-CHARLES-HENRI-HECTOR, COMTE D'ESTAING (MARQUIS DE SAILLANS) was born at the chateau de Ravel (Auvergne), France, November 28, 1729. He entered the French Army at an early age as a colonel of infantry, and by 1757 held the rank of Brigadier General. He was captured at least twice by the British, but released on each occasion. In temperament, he seems to have been arrogant, and not well liked by the men he led. He also seemed reluctant to attack his enemies except when he held overwhelming advantage. In 1763 he was named lieutenant-general in the navy, and in 1777 vice-admiral.
One year later, he left Toulon, France in command of a fleet of twelve battleships and fourteen frigates with the intention of assisting the American colonies against Great Britain. He sailed on April 13, and between the 11th and the 22nd of July, blockaded Lord Howe at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, but did not venture to attack him, though greatly superior in force. The one time he seemed ready to engage an enemy of roughly equal force, a great storm arose and separated the combatants. In late summer of 1779, his fleet, augmented by fifteen support and transport vessels, sailed for Savannah with 4000 troops including some 750 members of the Volontaires de Saint-Domingue. As the highest ranking allied officer, he assumed overall command of the Siege. Whatever failures there may have been can be laid squarely at his feet.
When the French Revolution broke out, he sided with the revolutionaries. In 1789 he was appointed National Guard at Versailles and in 1792 he was chosen admiral by the National Assembly. Though in favor of the revolutionary reforms, he remained loyal to the royal family, and at the trial of Marie Antoinette in 1793 bore testimony in her behalf. For this, he was denounced as a reactionary and put on trial. Ever the romantic, he lost his head April 28, 1794 in a tête-à-tête with Madame Guillotiné.
|
Charles-Henri-Hector, Comte d'Estaing
Commander of French Fleet and Troops;
Senior Allied officer; assumed command of Siege
|
HENRI CHRISTOPHE: It appears certain that a sergeant named Henri Christophe served with the Volontaires de Saint-Domingue under d'Estaing in the Siege of Savannah. It is also certain that a man named Henri Christophe with the rank of sergeant rose from obscurity to become the first King of Haiti. Were they the same man? Most historians think so, but a vocal minority with equally impeccable credentials deny, or at least question, the fact. They point out that at the time of the Siege, Christophe, the future King, was but a lad of twelve, unlikely to be in the army and even more unlikely to have risen to the rank of sergeant. Those favoring the proposition note that many of the Volontaires were in their teens and the qualities of bravery, intelligence, and leadership had already manifested in the young man. In a proposed monument to the Haitian volunteers, an attempt is made to reconcile the apparent age discrepancy by showing Christophe, not as a sergeant, but as a young drummer boy.
Henri Christophe was born October 6, 1767 in Grenada, the son of slaves from West Africa. From an early age he displayed an attitude ill-suited to life as a slave. Before the age of ten, his father sold him to a sea captain, possibly for profit, possibly to rid himself of the troubles young Henri continually brought down upon the family. The captain, in turn, sold him to a French sugar planter in Haiti. It is not completely clear how he ended up attached to the French Army.
While Christophe might not have learned how to conduct a siege at Savannah, it is certain that he could have learned how not to conduct one. We next find Christophe back in Haiti, which at the time was a wealthy province of France financed by the sugar cane industry. Spanish interests eyed the province covetously and a conflict ensued. France enlisted its slaves to help fight off the invaders, while the Spaniards recruited the more disgruntled elements to help overthrow their French overlords. Perhaps in the beginning, neither side realized that both were fighting to oust Europeans from their island. The conflict evolved into a revolution. Christophe rose from a Sergeant fighting for Toussaint L'Overture to a General fighting for Jean Jacques Dessalines.
The Europeans were defeated and Haiti was declared an independent republic on November 27, 1803. The Republic of Haiti was divided into two states. Christophe was elected president of the Northern State in February of 1807. Christophe set three priorities: first: to strengthen his republic against a feared return of the French; second, to educate his people who had, as slaves, been denied even the most rudimentary education; and third, to restore the financial strength of Haiti by rebuilding the sugar industry which had been devastated by the fighting. Though largely successful, the latter resulted in a plantation economy fully as brutal as the French had operated.
Christophe found that the restraints of a Republic made his governance more difficult, and on March 28, 1811, he declared Haiti a kingdom, with himself as King Henri I. His reign would last a decade.
In August 1820, Christophe suffered a stroke. As word of his infirmities spread, a rebellion developed. His own generals rose against him. With a meeting scheduled to hear the rebel's demands, Christophe ordered himself bathed and clothed in his best formal Napoleonic uniform. He was seated in his favorite chair and his attendants ordered to retire. When the rebel emissaries entered, they found that Chistophe had ended his life with a single shot to the heart using a silver bullet. The date was October 8, 1820.
|
Henri Christophe
Sergeant of the Volontaires de Saint-Domingue
later First King of Haiti
|
GENERAL BENJAMIN LINCOLN was born in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1733. He followed his father's footsteps into local office. He also worked his way up in the local militia until he was Lt. Colonel by 1772. In 1776, he was promoted to Brig. General, then Maj. General then commander of all Massachusetts troops in the Boston area. After the British evacuation of Boston, Lincoln joined General George Washington at New York, commanding the right wing at the Battle of White Plains. Shortly after seeing action at Fort Independence, he was commissioned into the Continental Army as a Major General.
Lincoln moved south with General Washington and then was sent to the Northern Department to help against Maj. General John Burgoyne's campaign. After recovering from a severe wound, Lincoln was appointed Southern Department Commander in September 1778. He failed to reclaim Georgia and then surrendered Charleston and himself in May 1780. After being exchanged, he soon returned to Washington's main army, even leading it south to Virginia and, at least according to popular myth, playing a major role in the Yorktown surrender on October 20, 1781. Following the war, he stayed active in public life in various capacities until his retirement in 1809. He died in Hingham in 1810 in the very house in which he was born.
|
Major General Benjamin Lincoln
Commander of the Southern Department
Senior American officer at the Siege
|
COUNT CASIMIR PULASKI was born into a wealthy family in Poland in 1747. Pulaski, as a young man, fought for freedom from Russia in his homeland until 1771, when he was exiled to France. In Paris he met American envoy Benjamin Franklin, who influenced him to help Americans fight for their independence.
"I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it," wrote Casimir Pulaski to George Washington in a letter in which he offered his military services to America during the Revolutionary War. He proved true to his word. Washington was so impressed with Pulaski's abilities during the Battle of Brandywine Creek that he recommended the Continental Congress appoint Pulaski as general of the American cavalry. In 1778, Pulaski organized an independent corps of cavalry known as the Pulaski or Polish Legion. It is reported that he spent $50,000 of his own money to help train and equip his troops.
Pulaski is known as the "Father of the American Cavalry," a tribute to the tactics and operations he developed. Though better known for the stirring charges that terrorized the enemy, Pulaski revolutionized cavalry operations, as he demonstrated the value of cavalry in reconnassaince, espionage, and the day-to-day drudge of supplying an army in the field. His men were trained to care for and groom their own horses, rather than leaving their care to underlings.
Pulaski died October 11 of wounds sustained in the Siege of Savannah and accounts of his burial vary. An aide deposed that Pulaski was buried at sea. Other accounts place his burial at Greenwich Plantation, near Savannah, with a subsequent exhumation in 1853 and reburial in the cornerstone of the Casimir Pulaski monument in Monterey Square. (It is, perhaps, part of the charm of Savannah, that Pulaski's bones and his monument are not located in Pulaski Square.) In an effort to settle the matter, the remains were exhumed from the cornerstone in 1996, and while they showed wounds consistent with those known to have been sustained by Pulaski, DNA tests proved inconclusive. If not Pulaski, whose remains are buried in Pulaski's monument? Inquiring minds want to know!
|
General Count Casimir Pulaski
Commander of the Polish Legion
Opposed d'Estaing's plans for the Siege
|
FRANCIS MARION, THE SWAMP FOX was perhaps the greatest guerrilla fighter in the American Revolution. Incredibly daring, he terrorized the entire British Army in South Carolina, striking with fantastic swiftness, then vanishing ghost-like into the swamps. To chase him was a futile nightmare, for the Swamp Fox was too clever and too fearless.
Born near Georgetown, South Carolina, Marion was for years a peaceful farmer. When the Cherokees began their massacres he began his fighting career, learning the Indian techniques of surprise attack and sudden disappearance, how to use swamps and forests as cover. Thus when England sent a vast fleet to capture Charleston, Marion was already a brilliant strategist. From a tiny, unfinished island fort he defied fifty warships of the greatest navy in the world. He and his men crippled the entire British fleet and saved the city, though they lacked adequate ammunition, achieving the first important victory of the American Revolution.
Later, When Lincoln surrendered Charleston to the enemy, Marion escaped and formed Marion's Brigade, one hundred fifty tattered, penniless patriots. None received pay, food or even ammunition from the Continental Army. The only reward they sought was freedom from tyranny, freedom for America. Although Marion received a Congressional citation for wisdom and bravery, he was never accorded the honor his country owed him, and when the British evacuated Charleston he was not asked to participate in the celebration because he and his men were too ragged. But that ragged brigade who followed Francis Marion on the long, hard road to American independence earned its rightful place in history.
|
General Francis Marion
The Swamp Fox
Opposed d'Estaing's plans for the Siege
|
SERGEANT WILLIAM JASPER had faced British shot before. In July 1776 he stood with Francis Marion's 2nd South Carolina Regiment at Sullivan's Island in a half finished fort made of Palmetto trunks. When British shot snapped the flagstaff, Jasper climbed up on the ramparts, walked the length of the fort, cut the flag from its pole, attached it to a cannon's sponge staff and re-raised the colors. Then he faced the British gunners, raised his hat in mock salute, and gave them three Huzzahs before returning to his own gun. Jasper, it seems, had a thing for the colors.
In honor of his deed, John Rutledge, President of the lower house of the state legislature, removed his personal sword from his side and presented it to Jasper. The palmetto of which the fort was constructed was added to the state's flag, and Jasper was offered a commission. He declined the commission and never commanded more than six men. Jasper was illiterate and signed his enlistment papers with an 'X.' His genius lay not in long term plans and strategy, but in evaluating the situation at a moment's notice and taking immediate decisive action. He was noted for his abilities at disguise and his glib tongue. He passed through enemy lines with impunity and often returned with enemy soldiers he had either seduced or captured.
His bravery was legendary. On one occasion while reconnoitering unarmed near Savannah, he was accosted by two women who tearfully reported their husbands had been captured and were being transported to the city for courts-martial and presumable hanging. Speculating that the escort detail would stop at a spring on the trail, Jasper and an associate hid themselves nearby until the detail arrived, and sure enough, stopped for a respite. Boldly attacking the two who had been assigned guard duty, Jasper took their weapons, shot two others, grabbed the weapons which had been stacked, and left rapidly with the prisoners, leaving behind eight soldiers, a sergeant and an officer trying to figure out an excuse for losing the prisoners.
Jasper was killed in the Siege of Savannah and is presumed buried in a mass grave near the Spring Hill Redoubt along with others who died in the cause of liberty.
|
Sergeant William Jasper
Grenadier Co., Second South Carolina (Marion's Regiment)
|
