*** A curious legislative act occurred during this session. A resolution was passed censuring Governor Walton for having transmitted a letter to the President of Congress, "containing unjust and illiberal representations respecting General M'Intosh." The attorney general was ordered to prosecute the governor. On the day preceding the passage of these resolutions, the same Legislature had elected Governor Walton chief justice of Georgia. He was thereby made president of the only tribunal competent to try him! To have condemned himself would have been an exercise of "Roman virtue" hardly to be expected.
Tories under Colonel Boyd.—Augusta in possession of the British.—Partisan Skirmishes.—General Elbert.
the siege of that city, was ordered by General Prévost to advance with about two thousand regulars and Loyalists,Jan. 1779 upon Augusta.' Already he had sent emissaries among the South Carolina Tories to encourage them to make a general insurrection; and he assured them that, if they would cross the Savannah and join him at Augusta, the Republicans might be easily crushed, and the whole South freed from their pestilential influence. Thus encouraged, about eight hundred Loyalists of North and South Carolina assembled westward of the Broad River, under Colonel Boyd, and marched along the frontier of South Carolina, toward the Savannah. Like a plundering banditti, they appropriated every species of property to their own use, abused the inhabitants, and wantonly butchered several who opposed their rapacious demands. While these depredators were organizing, and Campbell was proceeding toward Augusta, General Elbert ** crossed the Savannah, joined Colonels Twiggs and Few, and skirmished with the British van-guard at Brier Creek and other places, to impede their progress. They effected but little, and on the twenty-ninth of January1779 Campbell took possession of Augusta, and placed the garrison under Lieutenant-colonel Brown, the Loyalist just mentioned, who, with Lieutenant-colonel M'Girth, had preceded him thither. Campbell then proceeded to establish military posts in other parts of Western Georgia.
The Whigs who could leave with their families crossed the Savannah into Carolina. The oath of allegiance was every where administered; the habitations of those who had fled into Carolina were consumed; and Georgia seemed, for the moment, permanently prostrate at the feet of the invaders. The quiet that ensued was only the calm before a gathering storm. Colonel John Dooly collected a body of active militia on the Carolina shore, thirty miles above Augusta, while Colonel M'Girth, with three hundred Loyalists, was watching him on the other side. Dooly crossed over into Georgia, and these partisans had several skirmishes. Finally, Major Hamilton, an active officer under M'Girth, drove Dooly across the Savannah, a short distance below the mouth of Broad River, and encamped at Waters's plantation, about three miles below the present town of Petersburg, in Elbert county. Dooly took post opposite to Hamilton, where he was joined by Colonel Pickens. Their united forces amounted to about three hundred and fifty men.
Colonel Pickens, who was the senior officer, assumed the command of the whole, and with Dooly crossed the river at Cowen's Ferry, to attack Hamilton.Feb. 10, 1779 That officer had broken up his encampment and marched to Carr's Fort, not far distant, to examine its condition and administer the oath of allegiance to the surrounding inhabitants. The Americans besieged the fort, and were confident of capturing it, having cut off the supply of water for the garrison, when, at ten o'clock at night, a message came to Colonel Pickens, from his brother, informing him of the march of Boyd and his banditti through the district of Ninety-Six. Unwilling to distress the families who had taken shelter within the fort, Pickens declined a proposition to burn it, and raising the siege, he hastened to confront Boyd, the more important foe. He crossed the Savannah near Fort Charlotte, when Boyd, hearing of his approach, hastened toward the Cherokee Ford. At that ford was a redoubt, garrisoned by eight men, with two swivels. They successfully disputed the passage of Boyd,
* General Prévost had come from St. Augustine, captured the fort at Sunbury on the way, and, with Campbell's troops, had a force of about three thousand regulars and one thousand militia.
** Samuel Elbert was born in South Carolina in 1740. He became an orphan at an early age, went to Savannah, and there subsequently engaged in commercial pursuits. He joined the Continental army in Georgia early in 1776, as lieutenant colonel, having been a few months previously a member of the Savannah Committee of Safety. He was promoted to colonel in the autumn of 1776, and in May, 1777, commanded an expedition against the British in East Florida. In the following year he was actively engaged in the neighborhood of Savannah, and behaved bravely when it was attacked by Campbell at the close of December. He was promoted to brigadier, and was with Colonel Ashe at Brier Creek, where he was made prisoner. After his exchange, he went to the North, joined the army under Washington, and was at the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown. At the close of the war, he was commissioned a major general. He was elected governor of the state in 1785. General Elbert died at Savannah, on the second of November, 1788, at the age of forty-five years. His remains were buried in the family cemetery on the mount, at Rae's Hall, five miles above Savannah. Elbert county, in Georgia, was named in honor of the general.