GA, USA
Fort Grierson Captured by Patriots
May 22, 1781
The Augusta siege began on May 22, 1781, when Pickens, Lee, and Clarke invested the town. Fort Grierson, a smaller Loyalist fortification, was the first British position to fall. Colonel James Grierson surrendered the fort to the Patriot besiegers but was killed shortly afterward — shot by a Georgia militiaman while being escorted to the rear. The killing reflected the personal hatred that had accumulated through two years of backcountry warfare and Brown's reprisals.
With Fort Grierson taken, the Patriot forces turned their full attention to Fort Cornwallis, where Brown and his King's Rangers remained entrenched on the high ground. The final phase of the Augusta siege had begun.
People Involved
South Carolina Presbyterian elder and militia general called "The Wizard Owl" by the Cherokee. Commanded the successful 1781 Patriot siege of Augusta alongside Light-Horse Harry Lee and Elijah Clarke, capturing Fort Cornwallis on June 5, 1781.
Georgia frontier militia leader who mounted two major assaults on British Augusta — a failed attempt in September 1780 and the successful 1781 siege with Pickens and Lee. His men formed the backbone of Georgia Patriot resistance during the British occupation.
British Loyalist officer known as "Burnfoot Brown" after Patriots burned his feet in 1775. Commanded the British garrison at Augusta from 1780 until the June 1781 surrender of Fort Cornwallis to Pickens and Lee. His use of Cherokee and Creek allies made the Augusta theater particularly brutal.
British Loyalist officer who commanded Fort Grierson, a smaller fortification in Augusta taken by the Patriots before the main siege of Fort Cornwallis in 1781. Grierson was killed shortly after his capture — shot by a Georgia militiaman whose family he had reportedly abused during the occupation.