Part 9 – Conquest of Georgia
Early in 1779 the British army in Savannah started to expand. Overall command in the theater fell to General Prevost who sent Colonel Campbell and the Volunteers to Augusta as part of a 1700 man force aimed at controlling the inland areas of the Georgia colony. The British issued a proclamation that all persons were invited to sign a loyalty oath and stand on the side of his majesty. Tory units started to form as a majority of colonists in Georgia signed the oath. In Wilkes County, a group under Col. James Boyd swelled to 750 men and started marching toward Augusta to link up with Campbell.
As the British force advanced deeper into the colony resistance started forming. Colonels Andrew Pickens, Elijah Clarke, and John Dooley commanded rebel militia units moving in the Georgia countryside. Col. Pickens commanded a brigade from Ninety-Six who enjoyed a reputation as strong experienced fighters. The Presbyterian elder would become one of the most famous and successful of South Carolina’s partisan leaders. With a combined force of 340 militia, the three colonels attacked Boyd’s loyalist troops near Washington, Georgia. Advancing slowly but steadily through wooded areas, the backwoodsmen under Picken’s overall command kept up steady fire on three sides of Boyd’s camp. The Tory militia held firm until a pair of well-aimed rifle balls struck Colonel Boyd in the body. With the sudden loss of their commander, the loyalists fell apart and ran from the field in disorder. 21 were killed and another 25 captured. Pickens knew Boyd and visited him while dying on the field. Boyd’s request for two Loyalists to wait and bury his body was granted along with a promise to deliver Boyd’s watch to his widow. Pickens later wrote that she reacted with outright denial stating “No damned rebel has killed my husband!”
Other units from South Carolina under General Andrew Williamson had moved into Augusta to defend the town. However, a couple of early skirmishes failed to slow the British advance and Williamson took his units back to garrison at Ninety-Six. Of the retreat from Augusta without firing a shot, Pickens would later accuse Williamson of having been ‘corrupted’. Campbell led the loyalist regiments (including Dusenberry and the Volunteers) into Augusta. Their stay was short. As word arrived on February 14 of the Kettle Creek debacle, Campbell moved his forces back toward Savannah.
The British fanned into the countryside administering loyalty oaths (or punishment to those who refused) to the people. They plundered Whig farms and freed the slaves from plantations. They halted to join General Prevost at Hudson’s ferry near place Brier Creek feeds into the Savannah River.
General Ashe was given command of the rebel forces in the area below the Savannah. His group had pursued Campbell through marshy areas along the river for several days when the groups camped on either side of Brier Creek. Ashe protected his right flank by burning the bridge at Paris’s Mill 15 miles north of the camp. His left flank was to the River. The arrangement would prove ill advised.
On the night of March 2, 1779 Lt. Colonel Mark Prevost (brother to the general) led 1,000 men up the back road to Augusta to a place just across Brier Creek near the burned bridge at Paris Mill. A few rebel mounted infantry guarded the crossing but turned and quickly ran as Sgt. Dusenberry and the New York Volunteers slugged deliberately toward them across the shallow stream.
Lt. Col Prevost advanced toward Ashe’s position steadily throughout the morning and arrived around 1PM on the 3rd. Even though warned by riders from Paris Mill hours earlier, Ashe failed to form his men or improve the defense of his camp. About 100 Georgia Continentals commanded by Col. Elbert quickly formed to face the Loyalist lines. Militia units started taking up positions on either side but threw down their arms and ran for the swamps along the Savannah on the first British volley.
A hole opened in the center of the line allowing British (and Loyalist) infantry to advance into the breach. A brief but furious battle with bayonets and musket butts resulted. The rest of the militia ran for the swamps leaving Col. Elbert and his remaining men surrounded with no choice but surrender. All in all, about 200 rebel forces were killed and another 200 captured to include Elbert and another 14 officers. In addition, a number of colonial militia men drowned or were lost in the swamps trying to cross the Savannah River to South Carolina.
The disaster at Brier Creek caused the total loss of Georgia as all colonial forces retreated into South Carolina. To make matters worse, word started to spread that Tory soldiers captured a month before at Kettle Creek were being tried as war criminals. South Carolina’s Gov. Rutledge presided over a tribunal at Ninety-Six that sentenced the 25 Tory prisoners to hang for plundering the countryside. They were judged criminals and denied status as prisoners of war. Even though only 7 were hung and the rest paroled, Stephen Dusenbury and the other loyalist soldiers understood capture could easily mean death. The incredibly brutal tone of civil war combat in the southern theater had begun.
Elijah