Revolutionary War_Southern Campaign_Georgia

Georgia As early as July 10, 1775, Captain Bowen, commanding a Georgia armed schooner carrying ten carriage guns and many swivels, manned by a detachment of fifty picked men, captured a British armed schooner arriving from London, at the mouth of the Savannah River. The British ship was commanded by Captain Maitland and had, besides other military stores, 14,000 pounds of gunpowder. 5,000 pounds were shipped to Philadelphia to be used by the American army at Bunker Hill; 5,000 pounds were kept for the military forces in Georgia and South Carolina. Observations of a Loyalist:

“It will be observed that the war which had opened in Massachusetts was steadily drifting southward. Great campaigns 77 had been fought in what is known as the Middle States, which continued to be the theatre of operations for several years. In the extreme South, matters were in a deplorable condition. Tories were numerous, and in may places civil war reigned. The patriots were so few in numbers that the enemy prepared a careful campaign for the capture of Savannay and the conquest of Georgia.”

“Five thousand additional troops were to be landed at Charleston, and a strong force of Indians was to be brought from Florida and Alabama to assail the frontier settlements, while the commandant at Detroit was to send others to join them from the Northwest.”

“General Prevost (british), was in command of a mingled force of regulars, Tories and Indians in East Florida. They committed many outrages and brought away an enormous…