Royal Government re-established.

Appearance of the French Fleet. Alarm of the British.

Savannah strengthened. Several minor expeditions were planned and executed both by Prevost and Lincoln, but they had little effect. The latter arrived at Purysburg, upon the Savannah, on the third of January, 1779, and established his head-quarters there. His force consisted of about twentyfive hundred effective men, and it continually augmented by recruits from the militia. The marches and counter marches of these generals in attempts to foil each other will be noticed while considering the attack upon Charleston in May following, and its immediate antecedent events.1

a 1779.

On the twentieth of July, a Sir James Wright returned from England and resumed the government of Georgia. It had been under military rule since the fall of Savannah. Governor Wright did not long remain in quiet, for the strong arm of our French ally held the falchion over the head of British power in the South. Early in September, the Count D'Estaing, with twenty ships of the line and eleven frigates, having on board six thousand soldiers, suddenly appeared off the Southern coasts. He had battled successfully with Admiral Byron in the West Indies, and now he came to assist in driving the British out of the Southern States. So sudden was his appearance off Tybee Islandb that 1779. four British vessels fell into his hands without a contest. A plan was soon arranged between Lincoln and D'Estaing to besiege Savannah. The latter urged the necessity of early departure from our coast as a reason for prompt action, and he entreated Lincoln to press forward with his army as rapidly as possible.

5 Sept. 3,

From the moment when the French fleet appeared off Tybee, Prevost felt uneasy. He recalled his detachments from the advanced posts, and directed Colonel Maitland, who, with eight hundred men, was stationed at Beaufort, to be in readiness to leave that post. He began in earnest to strengthen the fortifications of the city; and Colonel Moncrief, the talented chief of the engineers, pressed into his service every hand not otherwise employed, including three hundred negroes collected from the neighboring plantations. Thirteen redoubts and fifteen batteries, with lines of communication, were speedily completed, with strong abatis in front. Upon these batteries seventy-six pieces of cannon were placed, of six, nine, and eighteen pounds caliber. These were manned by seamen from the vessels of war in the harbor. Several field-pieces were placed in reserve, to be used at any required point at a moment's warning, and intrenchments were opened to cover the reserved troops and artillery.

On the evening of the fourth of September the French fleet disappeared, and Prevost rejoiced in the belief that Savannah was not its destination. Still, he continued his preparations for attack. The works on Tybee Island were strengthened, and the garrison there was increased by one hundred infantry under Captain Moncrief. On the sixth the fleet reappeared with increased force; and on the ninth it anchored off Tybee Island, and landed some troops on the south side of it. Moncrief, perceiving resistance to be useless, spiked the guns, embarked the troops, and fled to Savannah. The English shipping near Tybee sailed up to Five Fathom Hole, and the whole British land force in Georgia was now concentrated at Savannah. The next day all the cannons of the armed vessels, except a few which were left to defend the channel, were brought on shore and placed in battery. Every thing was now ready for an attack.

Lincoln marched from Charleston to Zubley's Ferry, where he concentrated his troops on the twelfth of September. Count Pulaski, with his legion, and General M·Intosh, with his

1 On one occasion two American galleys went down the Savannah and captured and destroyed two vessels belonging to the English. Prevost on another occasion, sent a party to surprise Beaufort, and capture stores there; and on the fourth of June, Colonel Cruger (who afterward commanded at Ninety-Six), with a party of Loyalists, while celebrating the king's birth-day at a plantation at Belfast, on the Midway, was captured by Captain Spencer. Cruger was afterward exchanged for Colonel John M'Intosh. On the south side of the Ogeechee, at a place called Hickory Hill, a party, under Colonel Twiggs, had a skirmish' with some British soldiers, who attacked them. The enemy lost seven killed, ten wounded, and the re mainder were taken prisoners. The Americans had two wounded. Major Baker, with thirty men, at tacked and defeated a party of British soldiers near Sunbury, on the twenty-eighth of June, the same day when Twiggs had his engagement near the Ogeechee. These were Georgia Loyalists.

American Army at Savannah.

Pulaski.

D'Estaing's summons to Surrender refused.

His Error.

command, were dispatched toward Savannah, a little in advance of the main army, to

attack the British

outposts. Both parties had several

skirmishes with the enemy before they reached the French army, already landed at Beaulieu, or Beuley. This junction effected, M.Intosh returned to Miller's plantation, three miles from Savannah, where Lincoln, with the main army, arrived on the sixteenth, and made his headquarters.

While Lincoln and his force were

immediate attack upon the British works. D'Estaing would not listen, but advanced within three miles of Sa

vannah, a a Sept. 16, and de- 1779. manded an uncon ditional surrender to the King of France. Prevost refused to listen to any summons which did not contain definite provisions, and asked for a truce until the next day to consider the subject. This was granted by D'Es taing, and, in the mean while twelve hundred white men and negroes were employed in strength ening the fortifications, and mount

approaching, the French effected. a landing at Beuley and Thunderbolt, without opposition. M-Intosh urged D'Estaing to make an ing additional ordnance. This truce Lincoln at once perceived was fatal to the success of the besiegers, for he had ascertained that Maitland, with eight hundred men, was on his way

1 Count Casimir Pulaski was a native of Lithuania, in Poland. He was educated for the law, but stirring military events had their influence upon his mind, and he entered the army. With his father, the old Count Pulaski, he was engaged in the rebellion against Stanislaus, king of Poland, in 1769. The old count was taken prisoner, and put to death. In 1770, the young Count Casimir was elected commander-in-chief of the insurgents, but was not able to collect a competent force to act efficiently, for a pestilence had swept off 250,000 Poles the previous year. In 1771, himself and thirty-nine others entered Warsaw, disguised as peasants, for the purpose of seizing the king. The object was to place him at the head of the army, force him to act in that position, and call around him the Poles to beat back the Russian forces which Catharine had sent against them. They succeeded in taking him from his carriage in the streets, and carrying him out of the city; but were obliged to leave him, not far from the walls, and escape. Pulaski's little army was soon afterward defeated, and he entered the service of the Turks, who were fighting Russia. His estates were confiscated, himself outlawed. He went to Paris, had an interview there with Dr. Franklin, and came to America in 1777. He joined the army under Washington, and, as we have seen, was placed in command of cavalry. His legion did good service at the North. Early in the spring of 1778 he was ordered to Little Egg Harbor, on the New Jersey coast. His force consisted of cavalry and infantry, with a single field-piece from Proctor's artillery. While on his way from Trenton to Little Egg Harbor, and when within eight miles of the coast, he was surprised by a party of British, and a large por

tion of his infantry was bayoneted. Julien, a deserter from his corps, had given information of his position; the surprise was complete. His loss was forty men, among them Lieutenant-colonel Baron De Botzen. Pulaski was ordered to the South in February, 1779, and was in active service under Lincoln until the siege of Savannah, in October of that year, where he was mortally wounded. His banner, as we have noticed on page 392, was preserved, and carried to Baltimore. He was taken to the United States brig Wasp, where he died, and was buried under a large tree on St. Helen's Island, about fifty miles from Savannah, by his first lieutenant and personal friend, Charles Litomiski. Funeral honors were paid to his memory at Charleston, and, on the 29th of November. PULASKI'S SEAL. Congress voted the erection of a monument to his memory. Like other monuments ordered by the Continental Congress, the stone for Pulaski's is yet in the quarry. The citizens of Savannah reared the one delineated on page 514, in commemoration of the services of Greene and Pulaski

Arrival of Maitland.

Victory lost by Delay.

Plan of the Siege of Savannah.

from Beaufort, to re-enforce Prevost, and that his arrival within twenty-four hours was the object hoped to be gained by a truce for that length of time. Such proved to be the fact; Maitland, under cover of a fog, eluded the vigilance of the French cruisers, and entered the town on the afternoon of the seventeenth.' His arrival gave Prevost courage, and toward evening he sent a note to D'Estaing bearing a positive refusal to capitulate. The golden opportunity was now lost to the combined armies."

Finding the French in possession of the only channel at the mouth of the Savannah which was navigable, when he arrived at Dawfuskie, Maitland, conducted by a negro fisherman, passed through a creek with his boats, at high water, and, concealed by a fog, eluded the French. D'Estaing, ignorant of the geography of the country about Savannah, had no idea that there was any other way than by the regular channel for boats to reach the town.

2 Lee, in his Memoirs, says, "Any four hours before the junction of Lieutenant-colonel Maitland was sufficient to have taken Savannah."

Explanation of the Plan.-1, Georgia volunteers, under Major Wright. 2, Picket of the 71st. 3, First battalion of Delancey's corps, under Lieutenant-colonel Cruger. 4, Georgia militia. 5, Third battalion Jersey volunteers, under Lieutenant-colonel Allen. 6, Georgia militia. 7, Picket of the line and armed negroes. 8, General's quarters; convalescents of the line. 9, South Carolina Royalists. 10, Georgia militia and detachment of the fourth battalion of the 60th, Lieutenant-governor Graham. 11, Fourth bat talion 60th dismounted dragoons and South Carolina Royalists, Captain Taws. 12, North Carolina Loy alists, Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton, Governor Sir James Wright. 13, 14, King's rangers, Lieutenant-co onel Brown. A, First battalion of the 71st, Major M'Arthur. B, Regiment of Trombach. C, Second battalion Delancey's corps, Lieutenant-colonel Delancey. D, New York volunteers, Major Sheridan. E, Light infantry, Major Graham. F, Weisenbach's regiment. G, Second battalion 71st, Major M'Donald. H, 60th Grenadiers, three companies and one of marines, Lieutenant-colonel Glazier. I, North Carolina Loyalists, under Colonel Maitland. The working of the artillery during the siege was under the direction of Captain Charlton.

This map is copied from one in Stedman's History, drawn under the direction of Colonel Moncrief. Neither the French nor Americans made any drawings, and hence we are unable to give the positions of the various parts of the combined armies, in detail.

The city extended, at the time of the siege, on the west to the present Jefferson Street, on the east to Lincoln Street, on the South to South Broad Street, and contained six squares and twelve streets. There were about four hundred and thirty houses in the city.

Operations of the Siege.

D'Estaing's Proposition to Storm the Works.

Remains of the French Lines.

It was now perceived that the town must be taken by regular approaches, and not by assault. To that end all energy was directed. The heavy ordnance and stores were brought up from the landing-place of the French, and on the morning of the Sept., 1779. twenty-third, the combined armies broke ground. The French frigates, at the same time, moved up to the sunken vessels within gunshot of the town, and compelled the British ships to take shelter under the guns of the battery. Night and day the besiegers applied the spade, and so vigorously was the work prosecuted, that in the course of twelve days fifty-three pieces of battery cannon and fourteen mortars were mounted. Prevost, cautious and skillful, did not waste his strength in opposing the progress of the besiegers by sorties, but reserved all for the decisive moment. During the twelve days, only two sorties Sept. 24. were made; one under Major Graham,b and the other under Major M'Arthur.c Sept. 27. Several were killed on each occasion, but the general operations were not affected. On the morning of the fourth of October, the batteries being all completed and manned, a terrible cannonade and bombardment was opened upon the British works and the town. The French frigate Truite also opened a cannonade from the water. Houses were shattered, some women and children were killed or maimed, and terror reigned supreme. Families took refuge in the cellars, and in many a frame the seeds of mortal disease were planted while in those damp abodes during the siege. There was no safety in the streets, for a moment. Day and night an incessant cannonade was kept up from the fourth until the ninth; but, while many houses were injured, not much impression was made upon the British works. Slowly but surely the sappers and miners approached the batteries and redoubts. The beleaguered began to be alarmed, for their guns made very little impression upon the works or camp of the combined armies, and the hope that Admiral Byron would follow and attack D'Estaing's vessels, lying off Tybee, faded away.

Another promised victory was now before the besiegers, and almost within their grasp,

be made to carry the place by storm.

⚫ Oct. 9.

when D'Estaing became impatient. He feared the autumn storms, and the British fleet which rumor said was approaching. A council was held, and when his engineers informed him. that it would require ten days more to reach the British lines by trenches, he informed Lincoln that the siege must be raised forthwith, or an attempt

The latter alternative was chosen, and the work began on the morning of the following day.e To facilitate it, the abatis were set on fire that afternoon by the brave Major L'Enfant and five men, while exposed to heavy volleys of musketry from the garrison, but the dampness of the air checked the flames and prevented the green wood from burning.

Just before dawn on the morning of the ninth, about four thousand five hundred men of the combined armies moved to the assault in the midst of a dense fog, and under cover of a heavy fire from all the batteries. They advanced in three columns, the principal one

1 These remains are in the southeastern suburbs of the city, about half way between the Negro Cemetery and the residence of Major William Bowen, seen toward the right of the picture. The banks have an average height, from the bottom of the ditch, of about five feet, and are dotted with pines and chincapins or dwarf chestnuts, the former draped with moss. The ground is an open common, and although it was mid-winter when I was there, it was covered with green grass, bespangled with myriads of little flowers of stellar form. This view is from the direction of the town looking southeast.

Three thousand five hundred were French, a little more than six hundred were American regulars (chiefly North Carolinians), and about three hundred were militia from Charleston.

Storming of the Spring Hill Redoubt.

D'Estaing Wounded.

Death of Pulaski and Jasper

commanded by D'Estaing in person, assisted by General Lincoln; another main column by Count Dillon. The first was directed against the Spring Hill redoubt' (between 11 and 12 on the right side of the map); the second was to move silently along the edge of a swamp, pass the redoubts and batteries, and assail the rear and weakest point of the British lines, toward the river on the east; the third column, under General Isaac Huger, was to make a feigned attack in front, to attract attention from the other two. Fog and darkness allowed D'Estaing and Lincoln to approach very near the Spring Hill redoubt before they were discovered. Terrible was the conflict at this point just as the day dawned. The French column led to the assault, and were confronted by a blaze of musketry from the redoubt and by a cross-fire from the adjoining batteries. Whole ranks were mowed down like grass before the scythe. D'Estaing was wounded in the arm and thigh early in the action, and was carried to his camp. The Americans pressed forward: Lieutenant-colonel Laurens led the light troops on the left of the French, while General McIntosh, with another column, passed the abatis, and entered the ditch north of the Spring Hill redoubt. Regardless of the destructive storm, the gallant troops leaped the ditch, and planted the crescent' and the lily upon the parapet. The gallant and accomplished Maitland commanded this right wing of the besieged, and was prepared for a vigorous assault. His practiced eye at once perceived the peril of the garrison, if this lodgment should be sustained. He united the grenadiers and marines nearest the point of attack, and ordered Lieutenant-colonel Glazier to lead them to a recovery of the lost ground. Within five minutes after receiving this order, Glazier, at the head of his men, rushed to the parapet, and made a furious charge with the bayonet upon the worried ranks of the assailants. This blow by fresh and vigorous men, could not be withstood. The standards of France and of our Carolina were torn down, and the gallant men who had assisted in planting them there were pressed from the parapet into the ditch, and driven through the abatis.

While the carnage was occurring at the Spring Hill redoubt, Huger and Pulaski were endeavoring to force the enemy's works on different sides of the town; Huger, with his party, waded almost half a mile through rice-fields, and assailed the works on the east. They were received with a sharp fire of cannon and musketry, and, after losing twenty-eight men, retreated. Pulaski, at the same time, with about two hundred horsemen, endeavored to force his way into the town a little eastward of the Spring Hill redoubt. At the head of his troops he had passed the abatis, banner in hand, and was pressing forward, when a small cannon shot struck him in the groin, and he fell to the ground. His first lieutenant seized the banner, and for a few minutes kept the troops in action; but the iron hail from the seamen's batteries and the field artillery, traversing the columns of the assailants in all directions, compelled the whole force of the combined armies to yield, and they retreated to the camp. Back through the smoke, and over the bodies of the dead and dying, some of Pulaski's soldiers returned, found the expiring hero, and bore him from the field. Already the French had withdrawn, and the Continentals, under Lincoln, were retreating. o'clock, after about five hours' hard fighting, the combined armies displayed a white flag, and asked a truce in order to bury the dead. Prevost granted four hours, and during that

At ten

The Spring Hill redoubt was at the entrance of the Augusta road into the town, on the western side. The buildings of the rail-way station now cover its site.

The American standards were those of the second South Carolina regiment, embroidered and presented to them by Mrs. Susanna Elliott, three days after the battle at Fort Moultrie, in 1776, and were planted by Lieutenants Hume and Bush. The French standard was raised by one of D'Estaing's aids, who, with Hume and Bush, soon fell, mortally wounded, leaving their colors fluttering in the breeze. Lieutenant Gray, of the South Carolina regiment, seeing his associates fall, seized the standards and kept them erect, when he, too, was prostrated by a bullet. Sergeant Jasper, whom we shall meet hereafter, sprang forward, secured the colors, and had just fastened them upon the parapet, when a rifle ball pierced him, and he fell into the ditch. He was carried to the camp, and soon afterward expired. Just before he died, he said to Major Horry, "Tell Mrs. Elliott I lost my life supporting the colors she presented to our regiment."

3 A sergeant of the Charleston grenadiers deserted during the night of the eighth, and communicated the general plan of attack, to Prevost. This gave the garrison a great advantage, for they strengthened he points to be attacked.