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Rebellion!While things in the Southern Indian Department had been difficult during the previous 10 years, opposition to the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and the Intolerable Acts in the New England Colonies and Virginia had been moving things steadily toward a confrontation between rebellious colonists and the mother country. As a precaution, in the spring of 1775 Stuart sent word to all Indian Department employees to be alert to any efforts of disloyal people to alienate the Indians from the King and to prepare them to act if called upon. With the events in Massachusetts of 18 April, 1775 at Lexington and Concord and on 17 June at Breeds Hill the genie was finally out of the bottle. On the heels of the news of the fighting in New England (Lexington and Concord), the rumor of a British-inspired Indian war spread through Carolina and Georgia. Rebel forces were asserting that Stuart had been endeavoring to raise the Cherokee to come down against them. The rumor that Stuart had instructed Alexander Cameron to start an Indian war reached incredible proportions. At the same time, the Carolina Committee of Safety was so impressed with Cameron's potential as an enemy that it tried to hire him away from the Indian Department. On June 26, the council instructed Andrew Williamson, a prominent planter of the Ninety-Six District, to pay a visit to Cameron and offer a bribe or a threat, whichever would do the most good. Cameron denied any intention of raising Indians against the province of South Carolina. He rejected Williamson's offer of money to join the rebel cause. His denials, however, were not believed in Charlestown; the rumor was stronger than the facts. Emotions ran so high in Charleston that John Stuart had to seek refuge with a friend, John Mullryne, at Thunderbolt near Savannah. Stuart asked ten or so citizens to listen to what he had to say in his own defense. He denied the accusations, but in trying to prove his innocence he went too far. He made his correspondence with Alexander Cameron available to his interrogators. Joseph Habersham, an admitted "malcontent," found what he thought was the incriminating evidence he was seeking. Cameron had replied to Stuart that in the event of war, Cameron was ready to lead the Indians in support of the government. At another time this statement could hardly be construed as a plot to attack British subjects, but in the inflamed atmosphere of July 1775, that was Habersham's interpretation and he hastened to convey his "proof" to Charlestown. Armed men in canoes chased after Stuart as he was rowed to the safety of a British schooner. "I had a very narrow escape" he told Gage after his arrival in St. Augustine. From St. Augustine Stuart conducted a debate by correspondence with the Carolina Committee of Intelligence in a fruitless effort to persuade the members that he was not going to launch an Indian War. He might as well have spared himself the trouble since on September 12, 1775, General Gage informed Stuart that the services of the Indians would be required in putting down revolution. He wrote to say that the rebels were using Indians against the British in Massachusetts and therefore Stuart was free "to make them take Arms against His Majesty's Enemies, and to distress them all in their power, . . . no time should be lost to distress a set of People so wantonly rebellious." During this same period, the actions of the Rebels in the Carolinas toward the King's loyal subjects had become more and more violent. On August 2, nearly one hundred (100) "Liberty Boys" called upon several gentlemen to force them to swear to uphold the Continental Association. William Thomson fled to the comparative safety of Alexander Cameron's residence at the Cherokee town of Keowee. Thomas Brown, who would play a major part in the history of the Indian Department later in the war, was not so lucky. Brown was staying at New Richmond, the residence of John Gordon. Already known as a leader of those with loyalist sentiments, Brown was targeted specifically by the rebel mob that came to New Richmond to demand that he sign the Association. He began the confrontation warily, asking to be excused from joining. The committeemen demanded to know Brown's reasons for refusing to take the oath of the Association. Brown said that he did not want to take up arms against the country that had given him being, but on the other hand he did not want to fight those among whom he intended to spend the rest of his days. They replied that the oath required neither action. Brown admitted that the obligation to take up arms was not expressly mentioned, but it was implied. The Association required obedience to any measure ordained by Congress; the use of arms was a distinct possibility. Furthermore, Brown had, as Magistrate, recently taken the oath of allegiance to the Crown and, as a man of honor, could not take another oath in opposition to it This dramatic debate on the front porch of the big house at New Richmond had counterparts elsewhere. Few are as well chronicled as this one between a lone loyalist and the hundred or so Sons of Liberty. The crowd began to grow impatient. Their spokesmen told Brown plainly that he could not remain neutral; if he was not with them he was against them. Brown then replied that they could not deprive him of the privilege of thinking what he thought. He then went inside the house. The committeemen, frustrated so far, threatened to destroy the property. At that point, Brown put his pistols in his pockets, stepped onto the porch again, and demanded to know what the crowd intended to do. They told him plainly that they intended to drag him to Augusta and force him to subscribe to the Articles of Association. Brown said that if they were for public liberty, they ought to be for private liberty and allow him to live in peace. At that point, about fifty (50) of the mob left New Richmond. The rest, however, became more agitated and moved toward Brown in a threatening manner. Brown warned that the first person to touch him must be ready to "abide by the consequences." Six or eight drew their swords and rushed at him. Brown's first pistol misfired, but with the second he shot "their Ringleader" through the foot. When the liberty men grabbed his pistols, Brown drew his sword: "I parried off their repeated lunges and kept them at bay for some time," his narrative continued. But a "cowardly miscreant" came up behind him and hit him in the head with a rifle butt, fracturing his skull. Brown was carried off toward Augusta in a semiconscious state; his house was ransacked. He was tied to a tree and burning pieces of lightwood were thrust under his feet. His hair was stripped off with knives, he was scalped in three or four places, and his legs were tarred and burned so badly that he lost two toes and could not walk properly for several months. Brown was exhibited in a cart from the head of town to the east side of Augusta. An acquaintance, Dr. Andrew Johnson attended to Brown. He left Augusta the next morning with the connivance of a friendly guard, and made his way to Moses Kirkland's camp at Ninety-Six and later to Savannah. On January 18, 1776, Brown left Savannah, bound for East Florida, aboard the HMS Hinchinbrook Soon after his arrival in St. Augustine, Brown unfolded the plan that he and Moses Kirkland had developed with the approval of Lord William Campbell. The plan had as its object the restoration of royal rule in Georgia and South Carolina by employing Indian Allies on the frontier in conjunction with British troops along the coast. Essential to the plan was that the Indians be accompanied by white Loyalists who knew the backcountry people well enough to distinguish between friends and enemies. John Stuart was present and, according to East Florida Governor Patrick Tonyn, "he adopted the measure with spirit when the plan was read to us by Mr. Brown.". Of course, as we have previously mentioned, Stuart had already received orders to make ready to use the Indian nations against the rebels. He did, however, have grave doubts about whether the Indians could be properly restrained once the war lust was upon them. Furthermore, his family was still detained in Charlestown as hostages against his good behavior. So, on Feb 15, 1776, John Stuart went off with mixed feelings to Cape Fear, North Carolina, to confer with General Henry Clinton, whose southern expedition had reached that point on its way to Charlestown. At the same time, Thomas Brown ventured into Creek country to begin to learn the ways of the Indians. While all this was going on, events were also moving in the Cherokee territory. In October 1775 John Stuart had sent his brother Henry on a mission to the Cherokee. He was to deliver ammunition to the Cherokees so that they would be better able to cooperate with the King's troops if called upon. Stuart's journey was long, from Pensacola through the Chickasaw country, and then an arduous fifty-five days to Toquah in the Overhill Cherokee country. On May 7th he reported that he had arrived with twenty-one horse loads of ammunition. He also reported that several Loyalists who were sheltering among the Cherokee reported that the friends of the Crown were many in the Carolina backcountry and that they were ready to assemble if they were assured of assistance in the form of arms and ammunition. Henry Stuart and Alexander Cameron found that the Cherokee, emboldened by the arrival of the ammunition, were on the verge of going to war. They tried desperately to dissuade them and convince them to wait for the time when a coordinated attack could be mounted. Unfortunately, their efforts were in vain as in late July the Cherokee began a series of small, uncoordinated raids on the Carolina frontier. By coincidence these raids coincided with the arrival of General Clinton's force at Charlestown to give the impression to the rebels that the British had put their plan for recovering SC and GA into action. Rebel General Charles Lee arrived in Charlestown in July just in time to repel the naval attack thus ending the British plans for a southern invasion for several years. Lee next turned his attention to the Indian frontier. He called upon Virginia to send men to march against the Mountain Cherokee while the Carolinians attacked the lower towns. In August the rebel militia of both Carolinas devastated the Cherokee country. While all this was going on, Thomas Brown had entered the Creek country in Late March or Early April and remained there the rest of the year forming close personal attachments with the tribal chieftains that were possible only as a result of prolonged association. Brown's route to the interior was to the west of the great Okefenokee Swamp, through Seminole country and into the Lower Creek towns along the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers. There were fourteen villages usually designated as the Lower Creek Towns. Above them and west of the Chattahoochee were the twenty-four towns of the Upper Creeks When Brown reached the Lower Creek town of Chiaha on the Flint River with an impressive train of ammunition (meant for the supply of the Loyalists in the Carolina backcountry) the Indians were delighted. They assumed that the powder was for them. They were aware of Henry Stuart's caravan that was on its way to the Cherokee and they had long expected a supply of powder. Brown was bold but not a fool. Rather than reveal the actual destination for the powder he instead said that the powder was at the disposal of Stuart's Deputy David Taitt. Brown then waited for Taitt to come down from the upper Creek country to join him. Taitt made good use of the opportunity. He summoned the Lower Creek chiefs to meet him at Chiaha town, promised to send to Pensacola for powder for them, explained the need for an escort for Brown's train, and finally urged the Creeks to ignore the Rebel representatives who had been among them recently. Taitt planned to lead a group of Upper Creeks into Carolina while Brown and the Lower Creeks went by another route. Brown would send word to his Carolina friends that help was on the way and he expected a thousand or so Loyalists to join him. Before Brown could leave Chiaha town, dispatches arrived ordering Taitt to cancel the operation, possibly due to the failure of the British invasion of Charlestown. Instead, Brown stored his powder, part at Chiaha town and part at Tuckabatchee, and he and the Creek Chief Emistisiguo took a party of warriors to Oconee to offer protection to "well-disposed persons" (i.e. Loyalist refugees) who might come into Indian Country from Carolina. In October, Stuart invited the Creeks to Pensacola for a Congress. In doing so, Stuart was doing his part to carry out the plan. His October congress drew more than five hundred Indians to Pensacola and resulted in the settling of the long-standing war between the Choctaws and Creeks, thereby freeing the Creeks to turn their attention to the Georgia rebels. Stuart informed Lord George Germain that he had secured the consent of the Upper Creeks to escort a military expedition carrying arms and ammunition to Carolina. He hoped the Lower Creeks would go to Governor Tonyn's assistance in repelling a rebel invasion of East Florida. While Stuart was engaged in his talks with the Lower Creeks, he received word from William McIntosh, on of his Deputies, that the Georgians were invading the Creek country. The Creeks immediately left Pensacola to defend their towns. Although the report proved to be false, Stuart was pleased with "the spirit of the nation". In October, the Lower Creeks from Chiaha town encountered a party of Georgia Rangers near the Altamaha, killed four of them and wounded two others. A mild panic swept the Georgia backcountry resulting in rebel General Lachlan McIntosh sending a message to the Creeks in December telling them that he loved his brothers the Creeks and hoped he could prevent his own warriors from destroying the Creek towns in the same way the Carolinians had those of the Cherokees. The Creeks answered by staging another raid along the Altamaha. Again, four Georgia Rangers were killed, their bodies pinned with arrows, and all were scalped. Throughout December, Brown encouraged small war parties to take up the hatchet In February, 1777 Thomas Brown returned to East Florida and, taking command
of the East Florida Rangers, began leading the Rangers and Indians against rebel
targets on the southern Georgia frontier. Meanwhile, in January General Sir William Howe wrote to John Stuart ordering him to organize the men who would lead the Indians under the British plan telling him; "Lord William CAMPBELL has represented to me in a particular manner that a number of his Majesties faithful Subjects from South Carolina have taken Refuge among the different Nations of Indians, and that they will be in great need of your Support and Assistance. You are therefore here by directed to order your Deputies to class those who are willing to act Offensively with the Indians into Companies under trusty Officers. That you furnish them with Arms, Amunition, & such Necessaries as they may need. That you fix them to certain Districts making them Obedient to your Orders. And that You do fall upon every other Expedient You can to relieve their Distresses and to make them as serviceable as possible in surmounting them by joining their Force to that of the Indians. You are also directed to keep the Expences attending these People seperate from those of the Indians transmitting as regular Accounts of the One as the other. The knowledge they must have of the frontier Inhabitants & of the Loyalists in particular will make them very usefull in distinguishing them when necessary and I beg this Caution may be strictly enjoyn'd to all Parties going into the Settlements of any of the Provinces &c. " The recruiting went slowly as Stuart's Deputies had difficulty finding "persons of abilities who can be confided in" in the Indian Country. Evan McLaurin, sent into the Carolina backcountry by Lord William Campbell, was one of those Stuart had been counting on, but he was flushed out of the Indian country by the Georgians. At the same time, Stuart wrote to Lord George Germain complaining that the plan called for British troops to march with the Indians and he saw no troops at hand. In June, however, Stuart had to reverse himself on his request for troops noting that "the Indian country is bereft of provisions." In September David Taitt obtained the agreement of the Lower Creeks to attack Georgia. They were ready to march under the supervision of Assistant Deputy Superintendent William McIntosh. Two hundred white traders were formed into a volunteer company to fight alongside the Indians. All was in readiness and the only thing wanting was the approval of Brigadier General Prevost, who was the commander of British Forces in East and West Florida. George Galphin, the Continental Congress's Indian Commissioner, attempted to "derail" the British plans while they were still being formed by inviting the Creeks to a Congress at his Old Town Plantation on the Ogeechee. Handsome Fellow of the Okfuskees led the Galphin faction as he had before. When Emistisiguo argued against going, Handsome Fellow threatened to kill him. The Cussita King led a large delegation from his town to meet Galphin, The Cowetas would not go; they were engaged in a feud with the backcountry Georgians. Their hostility was encouraged by Stuart's new Assistant Deputy, Alexander McGillivray, the mixed blood son of Lachlan McGillivray, who ranked with George Galphin as a giant in the Indian trade and in influence among the tribes. On June 17 some four hundred Creek warriors met Galphin and the Georgia Indian Commissioners at Old Town. Handsome Fellow and the Cussita King talked fondly of their old trading path to Augusta and how much they would like to reopen it. They needed a great quantity of presents to take back with them to show that Galphin was not poor and that they again could be supplied from Augusta. Galphin had enough rum to keep the Okfuskees and Cussitas drunk for a month and a few guns and ammunition but little else. Instead he offered to take them to Philadelphia, where they would be astonished at the quantity of goods the Continental Congress possessed. Handsome Fellow was not interested in far-off Philadelphia, but he would like to see Charlestown and so, under Galphin's promise of protection, the Indians went visiting. David Taitt informed Brown that he hoped to "spoil Galphin's party" by dispatching Coweta warriors on the Georgia frontier. Perhaps this was what Brown had been waiting for. Brown immediately scattered his Rangers to all parts of Georgia's exposed frontier. One band of Rangers penetrated to within 5 miles of Savannah and another was reported to have passed right through the town of Augusta. Another group moved up the Georgia coast and occupied St. Simons Island. The Rangers, or Florida Scouts as the Georgians called them, were loose on the Georgia frontiers at the same time as the Coweta war parties. The Cowetas skirmished with Captain Elijah Clarke's Wilkes County militia and burned a fort on the Ogeechee. Another band ambushed a patrol of Georgia Continentals and killed Captain Thomas Dooly. The Georgia Council directed Georgia Governor John Adam Treutlen to call out the Effingham County militia to search for the enemy. General McIntosh was asked to send fifty of his soldiers to guard Effingham. With the frontier people aroused to new hostility against Indians, Handsome Fellow and his touring party could not have returned to Georgia at a worse time. The late Thomas Dooly's brother, Captain John Dooly, intercepted the Indians at Galphin's house at Silver Bluff and brought them to Augusta as prisoners. Governor Rutledge ordered Carolina troops to rescue the Indian prisoners but Galphin was able to prevent bloodshed by negotiating their release and escort to the Ogeechee. Their trip was not without further incident as Brown's Rangers intercepted the party and killed Captain John Gerard when he resisted being taken prisoner. The Georgians talked to Handsome Fellow and his party and encouraged them to assassinate Taitt, Cameron, and William McIntosh in revenge for the attack. Nothing came of it though as providence took a hand in matters and Handsome Fellow died of natural causes before he reached Okfuskee town. It was at this time, in the early fall that Stuart's offensive was to have been launched but George Galphin again frustrated the British plan. Galphin succeeded in convincing Handsome Fellow's warriors that Stuart and Emistisiguo had sent the Coweta raiding parties against Georgia so that the Georgians would attack Handsome Fellow's band. The pro-Galphin Okfuskees attempted to kill Taitt and Cameron as well as Emistisiguo, but the youthful Alexander McGillivray managed to save the lives of his friends. The Cussitas planned to kill William McIntosh, but the Cowetas and Chiahas protected him. The British Deputies and traders had to leave Indian country for a while in fear of their lives. As the year 1777 ended, both sides tried to regroup. Neither the Americans nor the British could improve upon their original strategy. The Georgians were as determined as ever to invade Florida and the Indian country. The British talked seriously about implementing Brown's plan which had, by now, become Lord George Germain's plan. The Carolina Loyalists grew impatient for the arrival of troops and began to filter down to Florida. Loyal Georgians were forced to leave the state, and their lands were confiscated. In the meantime, the Indians continued to quarrel about where their best interest lay. In November, some of Galphin's allies returned to Old Town to receive congratulations and supplies. While Galphin had plenty of "good words" for them he had little else. Stuart, on the other hand had the advantage of an apparently bottomless purse. Stuart's expenses were $19,000 in 1776, $37,729 in 1777, and $54,224 in 1778.. Stuart and Galphin both used trade embargoes to win back the Indians, but the Creeks soon realized that Galphin's embargo was born of a shortage of supplies. The Creeks, including the pro-Galphin Okfuskees and Cussitas, soon begged Stuart to send back the Deputies and traders and by March 1778 Taitt and William McIntosh were once again back in the Creek country. Brown was not idle either. On March 12, 1778 Brown, with a mixed force of Indians and Rangers, swam the quarter-mile-wide Altamaha and crept up to Fort Howe during the night. At daybreak they stormed the entrenchments with the loss of one killed and four wounded. Two of the forts defenders were killed, four wounded, and twenty-three taken prisoner. The artillery was destroyed and the fort burned. While the engagement was given little note by General Prevost, the storming of Fort Howe was of more import then Prevost admitted or understood. It meant that Brown could send his Rangers and Indians into Carolina to take a census of loyal inhabitants. Moses Kirkland, Stuart’s Deputy to the Seminoles, went off for the second time to explain the plan for retaking the south to Sir Henry Clinton. By April 10, Brown was ready with his intelligence report. He had established contact with Loyalist Robert Cunningham who assured him that 2,500 men between the forks of Saluda and Broad Rivers were ready to accompany him “on any service whenever orders are sent.” There were another 1,000 on the Congaree and the Ridge, 1,600 on the Pedee and Enoree, and 1,200 on the Green River. Corn had been stored for two years in preparation for the uprising. Brown was also directly responsible for the movement of many Loyalists to Florida. He had kept up a correspondence with his friends since his exile, and when Governor Tonyn needed more Rangers he wrote to his contacts in the Ninety-Six District. Georgia Governor John Houstoun informed the Congress on April 16 that between five and six hundred Loyalists marched through the back parts of Georgia on their way to Florida, stealing horses, arms, and ammunition as they went, and “I am sorry to say, were joined by some in this state.” In June the Rebel “invasion" of Florida was underway. Thomas Brown, his East Florida Rangers, and a number of Indians were involved in the skirmishes that harassed the invading Rebels all the way up to the battle of Alligator Creek where the combined British/Loyalist/Indian forces turned the invasion force back.
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