Hutchinson's Island, Georgia

HUTCHINSON'S ISLAND, GEORGIA. 7 March 1776. The Georgia Patriots take control. On 11 May 1775, after news of Lexington and Concord arrived in Savannah, the "Liberty Boys" seized five hundred pounds of powder from the provincial magazine. When an armed British schooner appeared on 2 June, a crowd expressed the town's defiance by spiking a battery in Savannah. Three days later they erected the colony's first liberty pole and paraded under arms. On 13 June they called for a provincial congress to meet on 4 July, and later in the month they helped a South Carolina force drive Indian Superintendent John Stuart to East Florida. After more powder had been seized, Governor Sir James Wright gave up hope of keeping the revolution out of his province and appealed to General Thomas Gage and Admiral Samuel Graves for armed support. Although authority in Georgia passed to a council of safety and the Provincial Congress in July 1775, the royal governor remained unmolested in Savannah until early 1776. When two warships and a loaded transport arrived in belated response to Wright's request for help, the council of safety ordered his arrest to prevent him from rallying Georgia Loyalists. Joseph Habersham, who had risen as leader of the Patriots, led a group that captured the governor on 18 January and placed him under house arrest. He escaped the night of 11 February 1776 and took refuge aboard the Scarborough.

After the assembly refused to answer his conciliatory letter of 13 February, Wright resorted to force. The warships moved up the river on 6 March and took eleven riceladen merchant vessels; troops under Major John Maitland landed on Hutchinson's Island, opposite the town. After their warnings to the British to withdraw were ignored, the rebels set fire to two merchant ships on 7 March. These drifted toward the troop transport and caused a panic. Colonel Stephen Bull arrived about this time with four hundred Carolinians, and the British abandoned their plan for attacking the town. Only two of the rice ships escaped.

Governor Wright left with the British ships, making the return journey to London, where he urged the crown to recapture the province. He returned to Savannah in July 1779, after the British had retaken the city.

SEE ALSO Wright, Sir James, Governor.

                         revised by Michael Bellesiles