Part 8 – First Savannah
Under orders to begin offensive operations in the Southern colonies General Clinton dispatched Lt. Colonel Campbell with 3500 men to Savannah. The plan was to join with general Prevost who commanded several militia units from East Florida. His regiments mixed runaway slaves with recent colonists. The men wore hunting shirts and specialized in moving through swamps and coastal marshlands. They had traded raids with Georgia militia since early in the war. Now moving deep into the colony, they threatened Savannah itself.
Now considered some of the finest loyalist units in the army, the New York Volunteers joined General Oliver Delancey’s brigade onto a flotilla of warships. They sailed from Sandy Hook on November 27, 1778 under command of Commodore Hyde Parker. Sailing nearly a month, the armada anchored off Tybee Island near the mouth of the Savannah River on December 23.
The ever aggressive Colonel Archibald Campbell (he would soon be known as ‘Mad Archie’) immediately held meetings with local Tories and learned what he could of Savannah’s defenses. The city is on the southern bank of the Savannah River about 17 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. All along the river colonists grew rice on plantations populated mainly with slave labor. This section was the mercantile heart of the still young and sparse Georgia Colony. The main river channel was over 30 feet deep allowing the British to sail upriver past the city to disembark. The rebel force of about 850 militia under General Howe were deployed in a semi-circle ready to face the British forces expected from to come from southeast of town.
On the 29th, Campbell’s troops sailed upriver to Girardeau Plantation and disembarked only two miles from the town. A few Continentals from South Carolina under Captain John Smith attacked in an attempt to discourage the landing. Some of the first ashore, Sergeant Dusenberry and the New York Volunteers drove Smith’s men back to the Rebel lines fronting the town along its only road.
General Howe felt secure in his defense as both his flanks were protected by marshlands. Unfortunately for him a runaway slave girl named Quamino Dolly guided Sir James Baird’s light infantry (including Dusenberry and the Volunteers) into the swamps. They walked single file pathways winding thru the swamp and came out behind the right side of the Howe’s position. Without hesitation the light infantry group charged into the Georgia militia. Those men were already under great stress from Colonel Campbell’s artillery firing directly at the rebel lines and when Col Campbell led a simultaneous charge to the front, the South Carolina units turned in panic. They pulled the Georgia militia along with them in a head long flight back toward the town of Savannah but directly into the cold steel of bayonets wielded by the 71st Infantry and the New York Volunteers. The resulting melee left 85 rebels dead and another 450 captured. The prisoners were later removed by ship to New York and ultimate consignment to the Jersey. Many of the rebels on the left side of Howe’s line found themselves with no alternative but to retreat through a thick swamp. Several drowned. All in all, Howe lost some 70% of his army. Although later found innocent in a court martial, Howe’s military career was finished. Congress sent General Lincoln who had assisted Gates at Saratoga to take over the southern Continental army.
In all, the fighting only lasted about an hour. The British had only three killed and a few wounded in routing the rebel force. Taking Savannah brought control of the Georgia colony along with 48 cannons, 23 mortars,94 barrels of powder and warehouses full of food and other supplies. Several merchant ships and a fine port facility fell to the winners like a fine prize. In addition, they discovered the citizens lukewarm in their support of the war and many began joining the ranks to form even more loyalist regiments. The British campaign to take the southern colonies was off to a fast start.
Elijah