The dead towns of Georgia

by Jr. Charles C. Jones

For two months after the termination of this expedition, Oglethorpe lay ill of a continued fever contracted during the exposures and fatigues incident upon his exertions and anxieties during the siege. When, on the second of September, Mr. Stephens called to see him at Frederica, he found him still troubled with a lurking fever and confined to his bed. His protracted sickness had so “worn away his strength” that he “seldom came down stairs, but retained still the same vivacity of spirit in appearance to all whom he talked with, though he chose to converse with very few.”[97]

Four companies of the regiment were now encamped at the south-east end of St. Simons island, and the other two at Frederica. So soon as the men recovered from the malady contracted at St. Augustine, they were busily occupied in erecting new fortifications and strengthening the old. From these two camps detachments garrisoned the advanced works, St. Andrew, Fort William, St. George, and the outposts on Amelia island;—the details being relieved at regular intervals.[98]

During the preceding seven years, which constituted the entire life of the Colony, General Oglethorpe had enjoyed no respite from his labors. Personally directing all movements,—supervising the location, and providing for the comfort, safety, and good order of the settlers,—accommodating their differences,—encouraging and directing their labors,—propitiating the Aborigines,—influencing necessary supplies, and inaugurating suitable defences, he had been constantly passing from point to point finding no rest for the soles of his feet. Now in tent at Savannah,—now in open boat reconnoitering the coast,—now upon the southern islands,—his only shelter the wide-spreading live-oak,—designating sites for forts and look-outs, and with his own hands planning military works and laying out villages,—again in journeys oft along the Savannah, the Great Ogeechee, the Alatamaha, the St. Johns, and far off into the heart of the Indian country,—frequently inspecting his advanced posts,—undertaking voyages to Charlestown and to England in behalf of the Trust, and engaged in severe contests with the Spaniards, his life had been one of incessant activity and solicitude. But for his energy, intelligence, watchfulness, and self-sacrifice, the enterprise must have languished. As we look back upon this period of trial, uncertainty, and poverty, our admiration for his achievements increases the more narrowly we scan his limited resources and opportunities, the more intelligently we appreciate the difficulties he was called upon to surmount. Always present wherever duty called or danger threatened, he never expected others to press on where he himself did not lead. The only home he ever owned or claimed in Georgia was on St. Simons island. The only hours of leisure he ever enjoyed were spent in sight and sound of his military works along the southern frontier, upon whose safe tenure depended the salvation of the Colony. Just where the military road connecting Fort St. Simon with Frederica, after having traversed the beautiful prairie,—constituting the common pasture land of the village,—entered the woods, General Oglethorpe established his cottage. Adjacent to it were a garden, and an orchard of oranges, figs and grapes. Magnificent oaks threw their protecting shadows above and around this quiet, pleasant abode, fanned by delicious sea-breezes, fragrant with the perfume of flowers, and vocal with the melody of song-birds. To the westward, and in full view, were the fortifications and the white houses of Frederica. Behind rose a dense forest of oaks. “This cottage and fifty acres of land attached to it,” says the honorable Thomas Spalding in his “Sketch of the life of General James Oglethorpe,”[99] “was all the landed domain General Oglethorpe reserved to himself, and after the General went to England it became the property of my father.... After the Revolutionary war, the buildings being destroyed, my father sold this little property. But the oaks were only cut down within four or five years past, and the elder people of St. Simons yet feel as if it were sacrilege, and mourn their fall.” Here the defences of St. Simons island were under his immediate supervision. His troops were around him, and he was prepared, upon the first note of warning, to concentrate the forces of the Colony for active operations. In the neighborhood several of his officers established their homes. Among them, “Harrington Hall,”—the country seat of the wealthy Huguenot, Captain Raymond Demeré, enclosed with hedges of cassina,—was conspicuous for its beauty and comfort.

Including the soldiers and their families, Frederica in 1740 is said to have claimed a population of one thousand.[100] This estimate is perhaps somewhat exaggerated, although much nearer the mark than that of the discontents Tailfer, Anderson, and Douglas, who, in their splenetic and jacobinical tract entitled “A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia in America,” assert that of the one hundred and forty-four lots into which the town was divided, only “about fifty were built upon,” and that “the number of the Inhabitants, notwithstanding of the Circulation of the Regiment’s money, are not over one hundred and twenty Men, Women, and Children, and these are daily stealing away by all possible Ways.”[101]

As we have already seen, the town was regularly laid out in streets called after the principal officers of Oglethorpe’s regiment; and, including the military camp on the north, the parade on the east, and “a small wood on the south which served as a blind to the enemy in case of attack from ships coming up the river,” was about a mile and a half in circumference. The fort was strongly built of tabby and well armed. Several eighteen pounders, mounted on a ravelin in front, commanded the river, and the town was defended on the land side by substantial intrenchments. The ditch at the foot of these intrenchments was intended to admit the influx of the tide, thus rendering the isolation of Frederica complete, and materially enhancing the strength of its line of circumvallation. We reproduce from “An Impartial Enquiry into the State and Utility of the Province of Georgia”[102] the following contemporaneous notice: “There are many good Buildings in the Town, several of which are Brick. There is likewise a Fort and Store-house belonging to the Trust. The People have a Minister who has a Salary from the Society for propagating the Gospel. In the Neighbourhood of the Town, there is a fine Meadow of 320 Acres ditch’d in, on which a number of Cattle are fed, and good Hay is likewise made from it. At some Distance from the Town is the Camp for General Oglethorpe’s Regiment. The Country about it is well cultivated, several Parcels of Land not far distant from the Camp having been granted in small Lots to the Soldiers, many of whom are married, and fifty-five Children were born there in the last year. These Soldiers are the most industrious, and willing to plant; the rest are generally desirous of Wives, but there are not Women enough in the Country to supply them. There are some handsome Houses built by the Officers of the Regiment, and besides the Town of Frederica there are other little Villages upon this Island. A sufficient Quantity of Pot-herbs, Pulse, and Fruit is produced, there to supply both the Town and Garrison; and the People of Frederica have begun to malt and to brew; and the Soldiers Wives Spin Cotton of the Country, which they Knit into Stockings. At the Town of Frederica is a Town-Court for administering Justice in the Southern Part of the Province, with the same Number of Magistrates as at Savannah.”

At the village of St. Simon, on the south point of the island, was erected a watch-tower from which the movements of vessels at sea might be conveniently observed. Upon their appearance, their number was at once announced by signal guns, and a horseman dispatched to head quarters with the particulars. A look-out was kept by a party of Rangers at Bachelor’s Redoubt on the main, and a Corporal’s guard was stationed at Pike’s Bluff. To facilitate communication with Darien a canal was cut through General’s island. Defensive works were erected on Jekyll island, where Captain Horton had a well improved plantation, and there a brewery was established for supplying the troops with beer. On Cumberland island were three batteries,—Fort St. Andrew,—built in 1736, on high commanding ground, at the north-east point of the island,—a battery on the west to control the inland navigation,—and Fort William,—a work of considerable strength and regularity,—commanding the entrance to St. Mary’s river. Two companies of Oglethorpe’s regiment were stationed near Fort St. Andrew. As many of the soldiers were married, lots were assigned to them which they cultivated and improved. Near this work was the little village of Barrimacké of twenty-four families.

Upon Amelia island, where the orange trees were growing wild in the woods, were stationed the Highlanders with their scout boats. They had a good plantation,—upon which they raised corn enough for their subsistence,—a little fort, and “a stud of horses and mares.”[103]

“Nowhere,” remarks Mr. Spalding,[104] “had mind, with the limited means under its control, more strongly evinced its power. And it will be seen hereafter, that it was to the great ability shown in the disposition of these works, that not Georgia only, but Carolina owed their preservation; for St. Simon’s was destined soon to become the Thermopylæ of the southern Anglo American provinces.” Besides compassing the improvement of, and garrisoning his defensive works along the southern frontier with the men of his regiment, Oglethorpe kept in active service considerable bodies of Indians whose mission was to harrass the Spaniards in Florida, annoy their posts, and closely invest St. Augustine. So energetically did these faithful allies discharge the duty assigned them, and so narrowly did they watch and thoroughly plague the garrison and inhabitants of St. Augustine, that they dared not venture any distance without the walls. Adjacent plantations remained uncultivated; and, within the town, food, fuel, and the necessaries of life became so scarce that the Spanish government was compelled to support the population by stores sent from Havana. To the efficient aid of his Indian allies was Oglethorpe on more than one occasion indebted for the consummation of important plans. It would not be an exaggeration to affirm that to their friendship, fidelity, and valor, was the Colony largely beholden not only for its security, but even for its preservation. “If we had no other evidence,” writes Mr. Spalding, “of the great abilities of Oglethorpe but what is offered by the devotion of the Indian Tribes to him, and to his memory afterwards for fifty years, it is all-sufficient; for it is only master minds that acquire this deep and lasting influence over other men.”

In his letter to the Duke of Newcastle, dated Frederica, May 12th, 1741, Oglethorpe advises the Home Government of a reinforcement of eight hundred men newly arrived at St. Augustine, and of a declared intention on the part of the Spanish authorities to invade the provinces of Georgia and Carolina so soon as the result of Admiral Vernon’s expedition in the West Indies should have been ascertained. He makes urgent demand for men-of-war to guard the water approaches, for a train of artillery, arms, and ammunition, and for authority to recruit the two troops of Rangers to sixty men each, and the Highland company to one hundred, to enlist one hundred boatmen, and to purchase or build, and man two half-galleys. Alluding to the expected advance of the Spaniards, the writer continues: “If our men of war will not keep them from coming in by sea, and we have no succour, but decrease daily by different accidents, all we can do will be to die bravely in his Majesty’s service.... I have often desired assistance of the men-of-war, and continue to do so. I go on in fortifying this town, making magazines, and doing everything I can to defend the Province vigorously, and I hope my endeavors will be approved of by his Majesty, since the whole end of my life is to do the duty of a faithful subject and grateful servant. I have thirty Spanish prisoners in this place, and we continue so masters of Florida that the Spaniards have not been able to rebuild any one of the seven forts which we destroyed in the last expedition.”

It does not appear that the men-of-war and ordnance requested were ever furnished.