“Sir,
“We acknowledge we are not ignorant that your army is in motion to endeavour to reduce this State. We believe it entirely chimerical that Colonel Prevost is at the Meeting-House: but should it be so, we are in no degree apprehensive of danger from a junction of his army with yours. We have no property compared with the object we contend for that we value a rush:—and would rather perish in a vigorous defence than accept of your proposals. We Sir, are fighting the battles of America, and therefore disdain to remain neutral till its fate is determined. As to surrendering the fort, receive this laconic reply: Come and take it.[208] Major Lane, whom I send with this letter, is directed to satisfy you with respect to the irregular, loose firing mentioned on the back of your letter.
“I have the honor to be Sir,
“Your most obedient Servant,
“John McIntosh,
“Colonel of Continental Troops.”
In delivering this reply Major Lane informed Colonel Fuser that the irregular firing of which he complained was maintained to prevent the English troops from entering and plundering Sunbury. With regard to the threat that a house should be burned for every shot fired, Major Lane stated that if Col. Fuser sanctioned a course so inhuman, and so totally at variance with the rules of civilized warfare, he would assure him that Colonel McIntosh, so far from being intimidated by the menace, would apply the torch at his end of the town, whenever Colonel Fuser fired the town on his side, “and let the flames meet in mutual conflagration.”[209]
Instead of assaulting, Fuser hesitated and awaited a report from scouts whom he had sent into the country to ascertain the precise movements of Prevost and learn when his junction might be expected. That officer, as we have seen, unwilling, after the affair near Midway Meeting House, to hazard an engagement with the Continental forces supposed to be advancing from the Great Ogeechee, and surprised at the non-appearance of Fuser before Sunbury, had already commenced his retreat and was beyond the reach of easy communication. Surprised and chagrined at the intelligence, Fuser raised the siege, re-embarked his troops, and returned to the St. Johns river, where he met the returned forces of Prevost. Mutual recriminations ensued between these officers, each charging upon the other the responsibility of the failure of the respective expeditions. Remembering the superior forces at command, it cannot be doubted that either singly or in conjunction Prevost and Fuser could have speedily occupied Sunbury and compelled a surrender of Fort Morris, had their operations been vigorously pressed. When we consider the paucity of Continental troops and militia offering resistance to the invading column of the one, and the slender garrison opposed to the investing forces of the other, the small space and the short time to be overcome in accomplishing a junction, and the further fact that they both must have been aware of the near approach to Savannah of Colonel Campbell’s expedition from which these advances from Florida were distinctly intended to distract the attention of the Revolutionists, we cannot but be surprised that Colonels Fuser and Prevost should thus have abandoned their enterprise when a consummation was manifestly within easy grasp. Upon his retreat from Sunbury Colonel Fuser landed his British regulars at Frederica with instructions to repair and place in good defensive condition the military works which General Oglethorpe had planned and erected at that point.
Having collected his forces, Gen. Robert Howe marched to Sunbury. During his short stay there he did little more than point out and condemn the defenseless condition of the works, and memorialize Congress upon the dangers which threatened the Georgia coast, the lack of men and munitions of war, and the disorganization existing in his scattered army. He was one of those unfortunate officers who, lacking the energy and the ability to make the most of the resources at command, and harping upon the existence of defects and wants which inhered in the very nature of things, constantly clamored for the unattainable, indulged in frequent complaints, neglected careful organization, discipline and dispositions, and, on important occasions, became involved in unnecessary perplexities and loss.