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THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL Cameron’s death caused a reshuffle in the Southern Indian Department. John Graham, Lieutenant Governor of Georgia applied for the position before Cameron drew his final breath. Governor Wright endorsed Graham as did the other members of the Governor’s Council. General Leslie agreed to make a temporary appointment pending approval from England. The primary reason for Graham’s nomination, rather than any experience in administering or dealing with Indians, appeared to be to make up for the financial losses he had suffered in the war. Brown argued that Indian country should be administered as a whole and offered to assume Cameron’s duties with no increase in pay. Farquhar Bethune, Cameron’s Deputy who had lived among the Choctaws, told Lord Germaine that management of the Indians should go to one who knew Indians rather then as a sop to a private citizen. The Americans elected John Martin as Governor of the State of Georgia. He tried, like Rebel governors before him, to detach the Indians from the British cause. Martin sent a “talk” to the Creeks explaining that the British made war on the Americans in order to enslave them “the same as the Negroes” and, if they were successful, the king would next make slaves of the Indians. Meanwhile, Brown and his Rangers were tied up around Savannah. General Allured Clarke, with 1,000 regular troops, five or six hundred refugee militia, the inhabitants of the city, Indians and seamen remained blocked up in Savannah by General Wayne with only 300 troops. Due to Brown being bottled up inside Savannah, he found it almost impossible to supply the Indians. The Cherokee lost all their towns east of the mountains to a force of Carolinians and Georgians under Pickens while Elijah Clarke crossed the Oconee and routed a large war party of Creeks. The Southern strategy was reduced to absolute absurdity as the Indians, who were trying to aid the British were unable to break through and join them. A group of 300 Creeks led by commissary Joseph Cornell and bound for Savannah, blundered into Wayne’s camp. Wayne gave them a conciliatory speech and let them go. This difference between Wayne’s attitude toward the Indians and Elijah Clarke’s was striking. Since the death of George Galphin the Indians hadn’t met anyone on the American side who preferred talking to fighting. When Governor Martin later offered to smoke the pipe, many of the chiefs were ready to join him. Brown sent a company of Rangers under Donald Cameron and some Choctaw Indians to a crossing on the Altamaha to meet a party of Upper Creeks under Emistisiguo but on April 12, Major More, of Wayne’s Army, drove them back toward Savannah. A British deserter told Wayne about a storehouse on the St. Mary’s that Brown was using Wayne sent men to destroy it. Major Habersham encountered a party of Indians on their way to Savannah. He pretended to be Brown and led them into a trap. His Dragoons tied an Indian to a tree and, in an effort to gain information, shot him and cut him to pieces. To the north, Jackson’s men intercepted a foraging party of Choctaws attempting to bring cattle to Savannah from Carolina. Wayne intercepted a letter from General Clarke to Brown informing him that Lord North had resigned. Wayne realized that “peace was at hand” and determined to redouble his efforts to take Savannah. Wayne was almost undone by his confidence when, on the night of June 23rd, Emistisiguo, after leading his warriors on a 500 mile march through enemy territory undetected, surprised him from the rear and drove the Americans from their camp. Wayne’s horse was shot from under him as he tried to rally his troops. Wayne formed his infantry and led a bayonet charge in which Emistisiguo was killed and his warriors were routed. Only twelve prisoners were taken and they were all shot. The remaining Creeks made their way to Savannah but unfortunately, the British had already made the decision to abandon Savannah. The formal surrender of Savannah took place on July 11, 1782. The Regular troops embarked for Charlestown and New York. The civilian refugees, estimated at 2500 whites and 4000 blacks, Brown’s Rangers and his Indian allies waited at Tybee and Cockspur Islands for transport. By July 20, his Indian allies had embarked for St. Augustine and by September 25 he had removed most of his Rangers and Indian friends and settled them in East Florida. Even in his final days in Georgia Brown continued to harass the Rebels. He directed his deputy Thomas Waters to mount still another Indian offensive. Waters was to go up to the Cherokee and Creek Indians and attack the rebel settlements. Waters had a hard time recruiting Indians to fight at a time when the British were abandoning Georgia. He managed to collect enough Cherokees to make one sweep through the Ceeded Lands. The raid had the intended effect of distracting the rebels from the coast but unfortunately brought another retaliation down upon the Cherokee. Pickens burned more Cherokee towns and Clarke chased Waters down to Florida, accompanied by a thousand homeless Cherokees. The evacuation of the British from Savannah was a good reason for the Indians to defect from the British cause. They did not abandon the British, however, at least partly due to Brown’s skillful management of them. While the transports were still ferrying refugees to Florida, Brown sent messengers among the Creeks that St. Augustine would be the new base for supplies. Brown’s messengers were so effective that, by the end of September, Georgia’s agent to the Creek’s reported that “all the traders and enemy Indians is either gone or will go to St. Augustine". Indians weren’t the only ones headed south though. By the time the 2nd transport of Loyalist refugees reached St. Augustine in December it was almost too much of a good thing. The total of refugees in East Florida by this point was estimated at over 2,400 whites and 3,600 blacks. Officials began to wonder if there would be enough provisions to go around. If the refugees were the only dependents upon the British stores, the crisis would not have reached the scale it did. The influx of Indian visitors surpassed the number of whites. They came in answer to Brown’s invitation. Brown estimated that 3,000 Creeks visited him in Florida between September and the end of December. Also in December, delegations from the northern tribes descended on St. Augustine. In addition to Creeks, Cherokees and Choctaws, there were Mohawks, Senecas, Delawares, Shawnees, Tuscaroroas and others. The Chiefs expressed their concern that the Great King might abandon them but Brown reassured them that the withdrawals from Savannah and Charlestown were simply tactical and that the war would be carried on. He directed the Indians to cease fighting and go hunting but always be prepared to defend their lands against the rebels. Brown also urged the tribes to form a confederacy to better enable them to stand against the Americans. While the Indians were well disposed to this idea nothing came of it. Also during this Congress, Brown promised that traders would resume their business with St. Augustine as a base. He advised the Cherokee to move from their North Carolina villages to the Coosa, Chattahoochee, and Tennessee Rivers, where they would be closer to the Upper Creeks. In the old days the Cherokee and Creeks would have kept their distance from each other, but now a common enemy united them.
As 1783 opened, Brown was settling in to his surroundings in St. Augustine. He rented a large, balconied residence on Charlotte Street appropriate to his position as Superintendent of Indian affairs and a member of the Governor’s Council. Because the Indians had not made peace with the Americans, Brown was still involved in their struggle. In February, Brown wrote to Thomas Townshend, England’s Secretary of State, informing him that the Georgians were demanding a cession of land between the Ogeechee and Oconee and were threatening to take it by force if necessary. He wanted instructions as to what to do if the Creeks requested aid in repulsing the aggressors. He also indicated he was anxious to retake Pensacola from the Spanish. He estimated that the town could be taken with six frigates to block the harbor and 300 men and he felt that New Orleans was also ripe for the taking. At the same time, some in the Creek nation decided to test the sincerity of the peace talk of General Wayne and Governor Martin and went to Augusta to visit. They were shocked at the poverty of the Georgians, they received only a few shirts and some rum and, to make matters worse, they had their horses stolen. Those who tried to protect their horses were badly beaten. This only worked to drive the Creeks back to Brown. Brown’s Deputy, William McIntosh, reported that the Creeks had held a general meeting of the tribe at Tuckabatchee and decided to never make peace with the Americans, French or Spanish. They asked Brown for ammunition, 20 horse loads for the Lower Creeks and 30 for the Upper Creeks, with which to fight off the intruders. This, however, was not to be. On January 20, 1783, Lord Shelburne’s government signed the preliminary peace agreement with representatives of France and Spain. By the terms of the 5th Article, East Florida was ceded to Spain. British Citizens were allowed 18 months to remove themselves, bag and baggage, from the province. When this news was announced on April 21, the Loyalists in Florida were shocked. Brown was instructed to recall all of his deputies and commissioners from the Indian country. The Crown was concerned that the Indians would turn on the British once they learned that they were going to be abandoned. Meanwhile, the Georgia government proceeded to make plans for an Indian Congress in Augusta and raised the funds needed for food and presents by selling rice to the British in East Florida, as well as selling land, slaves, and horses confiscated from the Loyalists before they fled. The Congress, which began on May 31, was attended by 18 Cherokee Chiefs and a few Lower Creeks. The Indians were told that the new boundary would be the Oconee. Since the land this involved was generally understood to be Creek land, the Cherokee readily agreed. The Creeks refused and were subjected to having their horses stolen once again. Somehow, the Georgians managed to entice 18 Creeks to return to Augusta in October and on November 1 those present agreed to the cession. The only Creek leaders of any standing who attended this meeting were Tallassee King and Fat King. Brown called the Indians to Fort Picolata, on the St. Johns River, in June to tell them the news. Surprisingly, rather than displaying hostility the Creeks asked to be allowed to accompany their English friends when they left. Finally, In October 1783, Brown advised the Creeks to “enter into a negotiation with the Spanish Governor of Pensacola…for obtaining a supply of such arms and ammunition as would enable you to defend your territories.” Brown advised them to take the Spaniards by the hand, that they would be brothers and friends even as the English were. After the Indians left St. Augustine, Brown’s Rangers and the Officers of the Indian Department – except for Brown himself – departed for Abaco Island in the Caribbean. The Spanish Governor, Vizente Manuel de Zespedes arrived in St. Augustine on June 27, 1784 and on July 12 the formal transfer of power took place. The departing British officials honored the new administration with a banquet on July 14. Thomas Brown and the new Spanish Governor got along famously. Another Spanish official who became a friend to Brown was Father Michael O'Reilly. One of Brown’s Indian friends, Charles Fox Taylor also became part of this social circle. Taylor was said to be the son of a Captain Taylor and a the head queen of the Cherokees. The mixed-blood Taylor gave up his claim to chiefdom to follow Brown into exile in the Islands. Thomas Brown’s most important service to Governor Zespedes was to convince a visiting delegation of Creeks to take Zespedes by the hand. As a result Zespedes made Alexander Mcgillivray a Colonel in the Spanish Service. Brown was also responsible for establishing the Creek trade with the firm of William Panton and John Leslie. Finally, on August 29 the last of the British Refugees leaving East Florida, including Col. Thomas Brown, put to sea ending the operations of the Southern Indian Department.
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