Tories gathered at Ninety-Six] and crossed the Savannah, while those of Florida, joined by the Indians, continued to scatter desolation along the southern frontier. Robert Howe, * of North Carolina, now promoted to the rank of major general, was in the chief command of the Southern army, and favored the yet cherished design to march into Florida and disperse the Loyalists. In fact, this measure had become a chief desideratum, for the gathering storm on the frontier of that state was pregnant with evil omens for the whole South. The Loyalists were gaining strength on the St. Mary's, St. John's, and at Pensacola, and re-enforcements of British troops were expected at St. Augustine.April, 1778 Howe moved his head-quarters from Charleston to Savannah.
His regulars, who were in a condition to take the field, did not exceed five hundred and fifty men. These were joined by the commands of Colonels C. C. Pinckney, Bull, and Williamson. Governor Houstoun, of Georgia, who was requested to furnish three hundred and fifty militia, cheerfully complied.
Thus prepared, Howe marched toward the Alatamaha, when he was informed that a body of British regulars, under General Augustine Prévost, a large force of Loyalists, under Colonel Brown, and numerous Indians, were moving toward the St. Mary's for the purpose of invading Georgia. Already Colonel Elbert had been victorious at Frederica, ** and Howe felt certain of success, when, on the twentieth of May,1778 he reached the Alatamaha, and learned how rumors of his expe-
* Robert Howe was a native of Brunswick, North Carolina. History bears no record of his private life, and his biography has never been written. He appears to have been one of the earliest and most uncompromising of the patriots of the Cape Fear region, for we find him honored with an exception, together with Cornelius Harnett, when royal clemency was offered to the rebels by Sir Henry Clinton, in 1776. He was appointed colonel of the first North Carolina regiment, and with his command went early into the field of Revolutionary strife. In December, 1775, he joined Woodford at Norfolk (see page 536), in opposition to Lord Dunmore and his motley army. For his gallantry during this campaign, Congress, on the twenty-ninth of February, 1776, appointed him, with five others, brigadier general in the Continental army, and ordered him to Virginia. In the spring of 1776, British spite toward General Howe was exhibited by Sir Henry Clinton, who sent Cornwallis, with nine hundred men, to ravage his plantation near old Brunswick village. He was placed in chief command of the Southern troops in 1778, and was unsuccessful in an expedition against Florida, and in the defense of Savannah. His conduct was censured, but without just cause. Among others whose voice was raised against him, was Christopher Gadsden, of Charleston. Howe required him to deny or retract. Gadsden would do neither, and a duel ensued. They met at Cannonsburg, and all the damage either sustained was a scratch upon the ear of Gadsden by Howe's ball. *
** Colonel Elbert, who was stationed at Fort Howe, on the Alatamaha, early in the spring of 1778, went with three hundred men to Darien, where he embarked on board three galleys, accompanied by a detachment of artillery on a flat-boat, and proceeded to attack a hostile party at Oglethorpe's Fort. He was successful. A brigantine was captured, and the garrison, alarmed, fled from the fort to their boats, and escaped, leaving Elbert complete victor. On board of the brigantine were three hundred uniform suits, belonging to Colonel Pinckney's regiment, which had been captured while on their way, in the sloop Hatter, from Charleston to Savannah.