A Maritime History of the American Revolutionary War: An Atlantic-Wide Conflict Over Independence and Empire by Theodore Corbett

Author:Theodore Corbett [Corbett, Theodore]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781399040419
Google: qkK8EAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1399040413
Publisher: Pen and Sword Maritime
Published: 2023-03-09T21:00:00+00:00

Savannah Taken

As the first step in the Southern strategy, Clinton sent 3,000 Germans and Provincials under Highlander Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell to Georgia, in a squadron under Hyde Parker. They arrived in late December 1778 and were guided by an elderly female slave through the swamps, surprising the rebel garrison at Savannah. Simultaneously, Prévost invaded Georgia from St Augustine. He crossed the St Marys River into Georgia and after token resistance, the rebel forces abandoned Savannah, leaving it to be occupied by both armies at the end of the year. On Prévost’s arrival in Savannah, he took command of the British forces, as he was a brigadier general, outranking Campbell.¹²

Clinton wanted Savannah to be a secure post from which to invade the Carolinas. Campbell was charged with the occupation of city and the cultivation of Loyalist support. He showed a concern for the civil population that made him dreaded by rebel leaders. ‘His immediate care was to soften the asperities of war, and to reconcile to his equitable government, those who had submitted, in the first instance, to the superiority of his arms.’¹³ Inhabitants flocked to serve the British, altogether numbering 5,000 enslaved and free blacks and 2,000 whites.

Prévost left Georgia in March 1779 to advance into South Carolina as he felt that it was the center of the region’s opposition to the crown. He defeated the rebels at Briar Creek and reached the outskirts of Charleston. It appeared the city was ready to surrender, as long as it was agreed that South Carolina would be neutral for the rest of the war. Prévost overplayed his limited hand, however, demanding unconditional surrender of the city. General Benjamin Lincoln’s army arrived to oppose him and he was forced to lift the siege. According to Clinton, Prévost wisely retreated, leaving a force ‘under Lieutenant Colonel Maitland at Beaufort for the purpose of securing a footing in Carolina’.¹⁴ Governor John Rutledge of South Carolina painted a picture of chaos created by Prévost’s invasion, requesting help from d’Estaing in the West Indies. He decided to respond to the request as he still needed to demonstrate the valor of French arms in a victorious action.

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