[1095] It usually precedes Prevost's report, and may also be found in Hough, Savannah, 134, and in White, Hist. Coll., 343. T. W. Moore, one of Prevost's aides, wrote a long letter to his wife, which was printed in Rivington's Royal Gazette, Dec. 29, 1779; reprinted by Hough in his Savannah, p. 82. Governor Tonyn, of Florida, inclosed some interesting letters to Clinton bearing on the siege (Remembrancer, ix. 63, and elsewhere).
[1096] The first (pp. 25-52, with some "additions" running from p. 52 to p. 56) is by an unknown hand. It was copied from Rivington's Royal Gazette, Dec., 1779. The second journal, which he for convenience calls "Another Journal" (cf. his Savannah, pp. 57-79), was also copied from Rivington. It appears, however, to be identical with the "Journal" (Sept. 3d-Oct. 20th) which E. L. Hayward sent to John Laurens in December, 1779,—reprinted in Moore's Materials for History, N. Y., 1861, pp. 161-173, and in Historical Magazine, viii. 12-16. It is interesting, but hardly worth so many repetitions.
[1097] To this should be added an extract from a letter of Anthony Stokes, the colonial chief justice of Georgia to his wife, which Moore found in Orcutt's Collection of Newspaper Scraps in the library of the N. Y. Hist. Soc., and printed in his Diary, ii. 223.
[1098] Cf. Garden, Anecdotes of the American Revolution (Brooklyn ed.), iii. 19, and Hough, Savannah, 157. It was not written till long after the event, and has no value for fixing dates, as Pinckney confesses to having relied on Moultrie for the dates he gives.
[1099] The French, in Mag. of Amer. Hist. (1878), P. 548, where it is stated that they were "translated from an original MS. in the possession of Mr. Frank Moore." Lincoln's orders, as then given, are stated to be on the same sheet and in the same handwriting as those of the French, though in English. A somewhat different and more accurate copy of Lincoln's orders is printed in Moultrie's Memoirs, ii. 37. Cf. Lincoln's MS. order-book.
There has been much dispute as to the size of the opposing armies. In the report which I have somewhat incautiously attributed to D'Estaing, the French army actually on shore is given at 2,823 Europeans, 165 volunteers from Cape François, and 545 "volunteer chasseurs, mulattoes, and negroes newly raised at St. Domingo." The American force is rated at 2,000, or 5,524 men in all. Cf. Hough, Savannah, 173, and Jones, Savannah, p. 40, note. Moultrie (Memoirs, ii.) increases the number of the Americans to 4,000, while lowering that of the French to 2,500. Stedman (Am. War, ii. 127) is even wilder when he says that the combined armies numbered more than ten thousand men, of whom about five thousand were French. In this he is followed by Mackenzie (Strictures, p. 12), and as both were officers in the force which came South with Clinton, it is probable that that was the impression prevalent in the British army. Chief-Justice Stokes (View of the British Constitution, etc., Lond., 1783, p. 116) estimates the Americans at 2,500 and the French at 4,500, while Jones (Savannah, p. 39) rates the French at 4,456, and the Americans at 2,127. This is probably as accurate an estimate as can now be made.
The writer of the so-called D'Estaing report says that the force in Savannah was composed of 3,055 English European troops, 80 Cherokee savages, and 4,000 negroes, or 7,155 men in all. Stedman gives the garrison at 2,500 "of all sorts", while T. W. Moore says that there were but 2,000 in the town. The legend on Faden's Plan gives the number at 2,360, while the writer of the first journal in Hough (p. 43) says that there were but 2,350 "effectives" in the place.
The Allies lost in the sortie of the 23d, 24th, or 25th of September—for the journals differ as to the date—from 70 to 150 in killed, wounded, and missing. Cf. Jones, Savannah, 22, 53. The writer of the Extrait, ec. of 158 pages, p. 141, says that this great loss was due to the fact that M. O'Dune, who had the immediate command at the time, was intoxicated, and pursued the assaulting column too far. The assault of Oct. 9th cost D'Estaing, according to the Extrait (as above, p. 148), 680 men, while the author of the other journal translated by Jones gives it as high as 821. The American loss was not far from 312, though Moultrie rates it at 457, or a total loss of about 1,133 in killed, wounded, and missing. The French suffered severely from sickness,—malaria on shore and scurvy in the fleet. So that Captain Henry, when he wrote (Remembrancer, ix.) that "we have every reason to believe that this expedition cost the enemy two thousand men", was probably not far from correct. In the document which I have called the D'Estaing report the French losses are given as follows (Hough, Savannah, p. 174): "Killed, 183; wounded, 454." But the figures have not been verified by a comparison with the original Gazette.
The English loss in the sortie was very slight,—not more than twenty-one. Repelling the assault on the 9th cost Prevost 16 killed and 39 wounded. But to these numbers should he added those picked off from time to time, which swelled the total to 103 in killed and wounded (Prevost's report in Remembrancer, iv. 81). He lost, in addition, 52 in missing and deserters, or 155 in all. But this was more than counterbalanced by desertions from the French ranks. It should be stated, however, that T. W. Moore, Prevost's aide, gave the loss of the garrison in killed and wounded alone at 163.
[1100] C. C. Jones, Georgia, ii. 375-416; Lee and Agnew, Historical Record, 50-64; Arthur and Carpenter, Georgia, 174-193. Cf. also Allen, History, ii. 264; An Impartial History, p. 605; Andrews, iii. 309-318; and Beatson, Memoirs, iv. 516-534. The most inaccurate account known to the present writer is in E. Ryerson, The Loyalists of America and their Times, Toronto, 1880, vol. ii. p. 22.