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THE 2ND BATTLE FOR AUGUSTAThe rebel assault on Fort Grierson came on May 22. With every second man equipped with an axe, the Carolinians swarmed across the shallow gully and began to cut away at the stockade. Realizing the impossibility of holding the fort against this attack, Grierson and his men escaped over the side of the fort nearest the river and ran along the riverbank toward Fort Cornwallis followed hotly by the attackers. Brown sallied from the fort and covered Grierson’s retreat with artillery fire. In addition to the Rangers and Grierson’s men, the force defending Fort Cornwallis also included the Loyalist militia from Augusta and the surrounding area. Brown had also requisitioned all the slaves he could find in Augusta to work on bolstering the forts defenses. In addition there were Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw warriors in the fort; some with their families. During the first week the rebels dug trenches from the riverbank parallel to the western front of the fort and another along the east side. These trenches would provide protection for the workers building a Maham tower, a type of wooden siege tower first used against Fort Watson. The tower, built to a height of 30 feet from notched logs and then filled with dirt and stone, was to act as a position for both riflemen and cannon to fire directly into the fort. On the night of 28 May, Brown, along with his Rangers and Indians, launched a surprise attack on the militia in the western trenches. It was only by the exertions of Lees Continental Infantry that the rebels regained the works at bayonet point. On the 29th Brown again attacked and there was fierce hand-to-hand combat in the trenches. On this occasion, it was reinforcement by bayonet-wielding dismounted cavalry that drove the Rangers and Indians back to the fort. Brown came out again on the 30th, this time attacking both the East and West trenches with bloody hand-to-hand fighting ensuing in this toughest fight of all. On 31 May, Lee and Pickens sent a flag of truce to Brown giving him an opportunity to surrender. Brown replied that it was “his duty and inclination to defend his position to the last extremity.” By June 1st, things had almost reached the breaking point. Brown’s attacks had been unable to stop the constant digging of approach trenches and the Maham tower was completed. Brown built a platform in the southwest corner of the fort , mounted two cannons, and directed their fire on the tower. Black pioneers within the fort filled sandbags and stacked them on the platform to protect the gun crews and riflemen. On the 2nd of June a six-pounder was mounted in the tower. It commanded most of the interior of Fort Cornwallis. Before noon, the two cannon on the platform were knocked out of action. In desperation, Brown sent a Scots sergeant, pretending to be a deserter, with instructions to destroy the tower if he had a chance. Lee was almost fooled but became suspicious at the last minute and had the man placed under guard. During the night of June 2nd, Brown had his men burn the houses near the fort but they left two standing. Brown’s sappers had dug a tunnel under one of the houses and filled it with a large quantity of explosives. If the Americans occupied the house for cover during their assault on the Fort, he would blow it up. On June 4th, Picken’s militia was sent to reconnoiter the two houses to see if they could be used as shelter for the assault on the fort later that day. They did so and withdrew but those in the fort did not see their withdrawal. At 3AM, Brown detonated the explosives, destroying the house. The trap had been sprung but no prey was in it! By 9 AM the American columns were formed up for the assault. Lee and Pickens asked Brown to send his prisoners out from the fort and remove them from danger. Brown replied that he was capable of taking care of his own prisoners but that he was willing to discuss the Rebel offer of surrender made June 3rd. Brown suggested the same terms that Clinton had offered Lincoln at the surrender of Charles Town. These negotiations had the advantage of saving Brown the embarrassment of surrendering on June 4th – the King’s Birthday. Early on June 5th the final terms of the surrender were reached. Officers would be sent to Savannah on parole; the rank and file were prisoners of war. Brown’s sick and wounded would be cared for by British surgeons. Brown asked that his Indians be allowed to go to Savannah with him but the Rebels were non-committal on that point. Lee realized the danger that Brown was in from the Georgia militia and assigned Continental Regulars to guard him. Militia men followed Brown’s party downriver hoping to get a chance to kill him. As soon as Lee left Augusta on June 6th, Colonel Grierson was murdered while being held prisoner in his own house. Dr. Thomas Taylor wrote, “Patriots at home may exclaim and with some Justice on the Impropriety of employing Indians, but their cruelties in this part of the continent have been exceeded in number at least four-fold by those of the Rebels. Putting a man to death in cold-blood is very prettily named giving a Georgia parole.” Grierson’s murder invited retaliations by the British but for the most part they refrained. When the British hanged South Carolina Colonel Isaac Hayne, and the rebels protested, they were told that Hayne was executed according to Cornwallis’ long-standing order regarding rebels who broke their paroles and resulted in several prominent backcountry Loyalists who were refugees in Charles Town delivering an address to the King on behalf of the loyal inhabitants of the Carolina frontier. They attached to their address a list of over 300 loyalists who had been killed by rebels after they had surrendered. Meanwhile, Brown was a prisoner on parole and, although he was not militarily active, he was not passive. The rules of his parole required that he refrain from military activity until he could be exchanged for a Rebel of equal rank. Brown went to Charles Town in hopes of expediting his exchange. The British Commandant there, General Leslie, was in charge of arranging a wholesale swap and Brown wanted to make sure he was on the list. Brown did not blame his superiors for their failure to come to his assistance at Augusta. In writing to Lord Germaine, Brown assumed responsibility for the loss of Augusta, due to his inability to rally his Indian allies in sufficient numbers. The Cherokees had not recovered sufficiently from the attacks they had suffered from the Virginians and North Carolinians. Most of the Creeks were off on the Pensacola campaign. They came to Brown’s call, but the distance was too great. Some 1500 hundred Creek warriors were reported to have reached the Ogeechee River, 40 miles west of Augusta, on the day Brown surrendered. If he had known this he would not have surrendered his post. The Raven led a contingent of loyal Cherokees to Savannah to see Brown. When Brown had not returned from Charles Town by Sept 1, the chief left a “talk for our father Col. Brown.” In the talk he said that while the Indians had the King’s warriors to fight with them, the Cherokee had to fight alone. The Raven admitted that when he had been to Augusta the previous year he had “been under his displeasure” because of his bad conduct but had since done what his father required of him and he hoped to be restored to Col. Brown’s favor. The Indians showing up in Savannah gave Governor Wright another straw to grasp at for saving Georgia. Wright sent a message to General Clarke requesting that he authorize Brown, who by this time (October 1781) had been exchanged, to employ Indians against the Georgia frontiers. Brown alerted the Creeks to be ready, but a major obstacle was the lack of money. His personal credit was ruined, and he needed supplies for the Indians. Brown’s credit was, however, good with London. Lord Germaine wrote General Leslie instructing him to pay Brown’s expenses. Supplies were on the way as an examination of Brown’s accounts reveals that Leslie advanced him over 10,000 Pounds. Over the next month or so, Governor Wright raised three companies of horse at the expense of the Provence and the King’s Rangers were reformed. Georgia’s new general, John Twiggs, advanced his militia to Burke County. Brown relied on his time-tested strategy to make Twiggs retreat. His commissaries led war parties of Creeks to the backcountry frontiers, and Twiggs hastily returned to defend Augusta. On December 5, 1781 Thomas Brown wrote his end-of-year report to his superiors. In spite of the loss of the Georgia and Carolina backcountry and of Cornwallis’ army at Yorktown, and, he might have added, the failure of the southern strategy, the Indians remained firmly in the British camp. The Cherokees had suffered greatly from their loss of hunting grounds and the constant attacks by the frontiersmen. Brown was forced to supply clothing as well as arms and ammunition to them. He intended to send two to three hundred packhorses, by a round-about six-hundred-mile route, to the Cherokees. He also had to supply the Creeks with goods they had formerly purchased from Augusta or Pensacola. The Upper Creeks were actively opposing the Spaniards in Pensacola and Mobile and were harassing rebel settlements on the Ohio River in the north. If the Spanish forces tried to attack East Florida, as Governor Tonyn thought they might, Brown had five hundred Indians ready to march to his assistance from the lower Creeks and Seminoles. On December 29, 1781, the Indian Department suffered another blow with the death of Alexander Cameron in Savannah. Thus ended 1781.
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