[1076] Major Weemys, who commanded in the night assault on Sumter at Fishdam Ford, was unfortunate in his later career, and died in poverty in the city of New York. His manuscripts came into the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Among them is one entitled Sketches of Characters of the General Staff Officers ... in the British Army. It is the work of a disappointed man, but probably reflects the opinions of many officers in the British army.
[1077] The number of men nominally under Howe's orders cannot be stated. He probably had not over 700 in action. Cf. Huger in Moultrie's Memoirs, i. 251. Campbell had with him 3,500 men. Of these 2,500 were in the fight. The total American loss in this preliminary campaign was not far from 900 killed, wounded, and missing; while the British do not seem to have lost more than 40 men. Probably many of the Americans missing sought safety on their plantations. See further returns annexed to the official reports as above; Gordon, iii. 218; and Proceedings of the Robert Howe Court-Martial, passim.
[1078] C. C. Jones has a description of Sunbury in his Dead Towns of Georgia (Ga. Hist. Soc. Coll., iv.).
[1079] Portrait in London Mag., 1781.—Ed.
[1080] Cf. also Moultrie, Memoirs, i. 252.
[1081] For some account of Howe, see Charleston Year-Book for 1882, p. 359, and Dawson's Battles, i. 479. There is a "Sketch of Gen. Robert Howe", by Archibald M. Hooper, in North Carolina University Magazine, ii. 209-221, 305-318, 358-363, and iii. 97-109, and 145-160. The first number of this magazine was printed in March, 1844, and it was continued to 1860. L. C. Draper writes to me that of vol. vi. he has "only one number, issued in March, 1857." He adds: "I have been told that none others appeared of that volume." This statement is confirmed by K. P. Battle, the present head of the university. Mr. Draper tells me also that "there are some valuable Revolutionary papers in the Magnolia, a magazine published in Georgia, and then in Charleston in ante-war times; some in the Orion, a Georgia magazine; some, I think, in Russell's Magazine, published at Charleston."
[1082] For other accounts, see Dawson, Battles, i. 472; Marshall, Washington, iv. 62; F. D. Lee and J. L. Agnew, Historical Record of the City of Savannah, Savannah, 1869, p. 45; T. S. Arthur and W. H. Carpenter, Georgia, Phila., 1853, p. 134; Stevens, Georgia, ii. 160; Eelking, Die deutschen Hülfstruppen, ii. 23; Lowell, Hessians, 239; Lossing, Field-Book, ii. 524; Beatson, Military Memoirs, iv. 371; James Grant, British Battles on Sea and Land, ii. 156-160; Allen, American Revolution, ii. 214; An Impartial History (Bost. ed.,) ii. 361; Botta (Otis's trans.), iii. 15; and Andrews' History, iii. 63.
This attack on Savannah is illustrated in the Faden map (1780) called Sketch of the Northern Frontiers of Georgia, from the mouth of the River Savannah to the Town of Augusta, by Lieut.-Col. Archd. Campbell.—Ed.
[1083] Cf. Moultrie's Memoirs, i. 241, and Remembrancer, viii. 177. An abridgment is in Dawson, Battles, i. 482. There is an interesting account of the affair in Johnson's Traditions, p. 211. See also Ramsay, Rev. in S. C., ii. 12, and Gordon, iii. 230. The numbers given in the text are derived from Moultrie's "Orders" of February 7th (Memoirs, i. 296), and from a letter written by General Bull to Moultrie (Memoirs, i. 312). Des Barres published a large map of this region under the title of Port Royal in South Carolina, taken from surveys deposited at the Plantation Office, 1777. Cf. Neptune Americo-Septentrional (1778), no. 23, and N. Amer. Pilot (1776), nos. 30, 31.
[1084] Georgia, ii. 192. See also Ramsay, Rev. in S. C., ii. 14; Gordon, ii. 230; Stedman, ii. 106; White, Hist. Coll., p. 683; and Stevens, Georgia, ii. 188. In the Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st ser., vol. ii. pp. 41-240, there is a valuable "Historical Journal of the American War." Pp. 178-234 relate to the events described in this chapter.