Savannah

Savannah and the Revolution: The Forgotten Battleground That Shaped a War

Long before Sherman's march made Savannah synonymous with Civil War destruction, this elegant port city on the Georgia coast served as one of the most consequential and dramatic theaters of the American Revolution. The story of Savannah between 1778 and 1782 encompasses a stunning British victory, one of the bloodiest allied assaults of the entire war, the death of two legendary soldiers, and a prolonged occupation that tested the loyalties of an entire colony. It is a story that, for too long, has been overshadowed by the more celebrated campaigns in the northern states, yet it was here, in the humid lowcountry of Georgia, that British strategic ambitions reached their zenith and the Franco-American alliance suffered one of its most devastating setbacks. Understanding what happened at Savannah is essential to understanding why the war lasted as long as it did and why the road to Yorktown was far less certain than hindsight suggests.

The origins of the Savannah campaign lie in a fundamental shift in British war planning. By the autumn of 1778, the conflict in the northern colonies had ground to a frustrating stalemate. The catastrophic British surrender at Saratoga in October 1777, followed by the Franco-American alliance formalized in February 1778, had changed the calculus entirely. The British ministry, now led by Lord George Germain's war office, adopted what historians call the Southern Strategy — a calculated pivot toward the Carolinas and Georgia, where the Crown believed large populations of Loyalists would rise to support the King's forces once a British military presence was established. Germain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, wrote to General Sir Henry Clinton that capturing the Southern Colonies was "considered by the King as an object of great importance in the scale of the war."

Germain's instructions to Clinton, framed as recommendations, were that he should abandon Philadelphia and then embark upon operations to recover Georgia and the Carolinas, whilst making diversionary attacks against Virginia and Maryland. Georgia, the youngest and most sparsely populated of the thirteen rebellious colonies, appeared to be the weakest link in the Patriot chain. Savannah, as the colony's capital and principal port, was the obvious prize.

The blow fell with remarkable speed. On December 29, 1778, a British expeditionary force of roughly 3,500 troops under Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell arrived at the mouth of the Savannah River after sailing south from New York. The force consisted of the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 71st Regiment of Foot, Hessian troops of von Wöllwarth's Grenadier Regiment and von Wissenbach's Garrison Regiment, and several Loyalist units which included a battalion of New York Volunteers, two battalions of DeLancey's Brigade, and one battalion from the New Jersey Volunteers.

He was to be assisted by troops under the command of Brigadier-General Augustine Prévost that were marching up from Saint Augustine, Florida. Campbell was a shrewd and energetic Scottish officer who had himself been a prisoner of the Americans earlier in the war — a personal grievance that likely sharpened his determination. Campbell boasted that he would be "the first British officer to [rend] a star and stripe from the flag of Congress." Opposing him was Major General Robert Howe, commander of the Continental Army's Southern Department, who had managed to assemble fewer than 700 Continental regulars and perhaps 150 militia to defend the city. Local Continental Army troops were under the overall command of Governor John Houstoun, and Howe and Georgia officials had previously squabbled over control of military expeditions against East Florida. Despite the urgency of the situation, Houstoun refused to allow Howe to direct the movements of the Georgia Militia. The disparity in numbers alone made the outcome probable, but Campbell ensured it with a brilliant flanking maneuver. Guided by an enslaved man named Quamino Dolly, who led British light infantry through a concealed path around the American right flank, Campbell executed a devastating double envelopment. Howe's line collapsed within minutes. The Americans lost 83 killed, 11 wounded, and 453 captured; British casualties numbered a mere 3 killed and 10 wounded. Howe's defense collapsed, and the city was captured after less than an hour of light fighting. Howe and others escaped, but Britain now had a southern operational base that they would retain until the very end of the Revolutionary War.

The fall of Savannah set off a rapid chain of events that, for a time, seemed to herald the complete reconquest of Georgia. On January 19, 1779, British General Augustine Prévost arrived in Savannah from Florida and assumed overall command. Hoping to consolidate Britain's foothold in Georgia, Prévost sent troops to capture the outlying towns; Colonel Campbell seized control of Augusta, Georgia, while another detachment of British troops marched up the coast to occupy Beaufort, South Carolina. But the advance into the backcountry stalled. Campbell abandoned Augusta on February 14, the same day a Loyalist force en route to meet him was defeated in the Battle of Kettle Creek.

Although American forces were defeated by the British at the Battle of Brier Creek on March 3, the Georgia backcountry remained in Patriot hands. Meanwhile, Robert Howe was court-martialed for the loss of Savannah. Although he was ultimately exonerated of any wrongdoing, he was removed from command anyway, and was replaced with Major General Benjamin Lincoln.

Wright returned to British-occupied Savannah in July 1779 and served as royal governor for three more frustrating years. Despite capturing Savannah, the British lacked the resources and manpower to quell the Revolution in Georgia, and Wright was unable to govern effectively.

Georgia became the only colony to have lost its royal government and then re-establish it.

Indeed, Georgia was the only colony the British fully re-conquered. Yet even as the trappings of royal authority returned to Savannah, Patriot resistance in the upcountry continued to simmer, and the city increasingly functioned less as the capital of a pacified province than as an isolated British garrison surrounded by hostile territory. Savannah was used as a base to conduct coastal raids which targeted areas from Charleston, South Carolina to the Florida coast.

The dramatic climax of Savannah's Revolutionary War story came in the autumn of 1779, when a massive Franco-American force attempted to recapture the city. The siege of Savannah, the second deadliest battle of the Revolutionary War, took place in the fall of 1779. It was the most serious military