The dead towns of Georgia

by Jr. Charles C. Jones

Acting upon the belief that it was better to confront the Spaniards upon the confines of the Colony than abide the event of their invasion, volunteers came in such numbers from Carolina and Georgia that General Oglethorpe was compelled to issue orders that all who had plantations should remain at home and cultivate them until actually summoned to arms.

Hearing a report that the Spaniards were intent upon dislodging the settlers from Frederica, Ensign Delegal, taking thirty men of the Independent Company under his command, and rowing night and day, reached Frederica on the 10th of May and tendered his services. Without permitting them to land, Oglethorpe ordered English strong beer and provisions on board, sent a present of wine to Ensign Delegal, and, upon the same tide, in his scout boat conducted the party to the east point of St. Simons island where it is washed by Jekyll sound, and there posted the company, locating a spot for constructing a fort, and commanding a well to be dug. By the 16th, Ensign Delegal had succeeded in casting up a considerable entrenchment and in mounting several cannon.

This post,—strengthened on the 8th of June by the arrival of Lieutenant Delegal, with the rest of the Independent Company and thirteen pieces of cannon belonging to them,—was subsequently known as Delegal’s Fort at the Sea-point.

The workmen at Frederica were diligently employed in building a powder magazine under one of the bastions of the fort. It was made of heavy timber covered with several feet of earth. The construction of a large store-house, a smith’s forge, a wheelwright’s shop, and a corn-house also engaged their attention. The men capable of bearing arms were trained in military exercises each day by Mr. McIntosh. The Colonists were in a state of constant alarm, and everything was made subservient to the general defense. Even the feeble avowed their willingness to sacrifice their lives in protecting their new homes. Inspired by the intrepidity and vigilance, the fearlessness and the activity of the General,—who was constantly on the move, visiting the advanced works, pressing his reconnoissances even within the enemy’s lines, and making every available disposition of men and munitions which could conduce to the common safety,—soldiers and citizens kept brave hearts, labored incessantly and cheerfully, observed a sleepless watch upon the sea and its inlets, and stood prepared to offer stout resistance to the Spaniard. It was a manly sight, that little colony fearlessly planting itself upon island and headland, separated from all substantial support, and yet extending itself on land and water to the very verge of hostile lines held by an enemy greatly superior in men and the appliances of warfare.

This state of uncertainty and alarm continued along the southern frontier of Georgia until, by conference between Mr. Oglethorpe and the Spanish Commissioners in Jekyll sound on the 19th of June, there occurred an amicable adjustment of pending disputes. The healths of the King and Royal Family of Great Britain, and of the King and Queen of Spain, were drank amid salvos of artillery from the sloop Hawk and the Sea-Point Battery; and when the Spaniards set out on the 22d to return to St. Augustine, they expressed themselves pleased with their reception and amicably inclined towards the Colony and its knightly General. This period of tranquility was of but short duration. In the fall of the year a peremptory demand was made by the Spanish Government for the evacuation by the English of all territory lying south of St. Helena’s sound.

Perceiving that vigorous measures and a stronger force were requisite for the preservation of the Colony, and yielding to the solicitations of the Trustees that he should be present at the approaching meeting of Parliament to influence larger supplies for Georgia, Mr. Oglethorpe, having made the best possible arrangements for the government and protection of the province during his absence, embarked for England on the 29th of November, 1736.[59]

During his absence in England, nothing of special moment transpired on the southern frontiers. Mr. Horton appears to have been left in general charge of the defenses in that quarter. He established himself at Frederica, whence he made frequent tours of inspection to its out-posts and dependent works. Of a visit which he paid to the town early in February, 1737, Mr. Stephens, Secretary of the Colony, gives us rather a stupid account,[60] from which we gather that the inhabitants were living “in perfect Peace and Quiet, without Fear of any Disturbance from Abroad, and without any Strife or Contention at Law at Home, where they sometimes opened a Court, but very rarely had any Thing to do in it.” Only slight improvements had been made during the preceding year in clearing and cultivating land, because of the constant apprehension of incursion by the Spaniards, and the amount of military service the able-bodied men were obliged to perform.

Moved by the indications of hostility on the part of the Spaniards, and yielding to the entreaties of the Trustees[61] that additional troops be provided for the protection of the Colony, his Majesty, in June, 1737, appointed Oglethorpe General of all forces in Carolina as well as in Georgia, and authorized him to raise a regiment. In October of that year, and before his regiment had been fully recruited, he was commissioned as Colonel. The relief of Georgia being regarded as important, a body of troops was sent thither from Gibraltar, which reached Savannah early in May, 1738, and was transferred from that point to the South for the defense of the frontiers. The famous clergyman George Whitefield, detailed to take Mr. Wesley’s place in the Colony, was a passenger on board the ship in which these soldiers were transported. About the same time two or three companies of the General’s own regiment, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel James Cochrane, arrived in Charleston, and were marched southward by the road which ran from Port Royal to Darien.[62] Oglethorpe’s regiment was limited to six companies of one hundred men each, exclusive of non-commissioned officers and drummers. To it a grenadier company was subsequently attached. Disdaining to “make a market of the service of his country” by selling commissions, the General secured the appointment, as officers, only of such persons as were gentlemen of family and character in their respective counties. He also engaged about twenty young gentlemen of no fortune to serve as cadets. These he subsequently promoted as vacancies occurred. So far from deriving any pecuniary benefit from these appointments, the General, in some cases, from his private fortune advanced the fees requisite to procure commissions, and provided moneys for the purchase of uniforms and clothing. At his own expense he engaged the services of forty supernumeraries,—“a circumstance,” says a contemporaneous writer, “very extraordinary in our armies, especially in our plantations.”

In order to engender in the hearts of the enlisted men an interest in and an attachment for the Colony they were designed to defend, and with a view to induce them eventually to become settlers, permission was granted to each to take a wife with him. For the support of the wife, additional pay and rations were provided.[63] So carefully was this regiment recruited and officered, that it constituted one of the best military organizations in the service of the King.

Sailing from Portsmouth on the 5th of July, 1738, with the rest of his regiment,—numbering, with the women, children, and supernumeraries who accompanied, between six and seven hundred souls,—in five transports convoyed by the men of war Blandford and Hector, General Oglethorpe arrived safely in Jekyll sound on the 18th of the following September.[64] The next day the troops were landed at the Soldiers Fort, on the south end of St. Simon’s island. This arrival was welcomed by an artillery salute from the battery, and by shouts from the garrison. Upon coming within soundings off the Georgia coast on the 13th, Sir Yelverton Peyton, in the Hector, parted company and sailed for Virginia. Until the 21st, the General encamped near the Fort, superintending the disembarcation and issuing necessary orders. His regiment was now concentrated, and every officer is represented to have been at his post.