Georgia: Wilkes County: A Smith Family Odyssey Chapter 3 ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store this file permanently for free access. This file was contributed by: Art Seder ARSeder@aol.com ==================================================================== CHAPTER THREE THE SMITHS-SETTLERS AND REVOLUTIONARIES I While a name as common as James Smith obviously creates problems for the genealogist, it is possible to identify the James Smith who emigrated to Georgia from Craven County, North Carolina, with a number of activities and events once he arrived in the Upper Ceded Lands, which, for convenience, will hereafter be referred to as Wilkes County. Since the name Smith is common to all of the groups that emigrated from the British Isles-English, Scotch and Scotch-Irish- it is not possible to identify to which of these ethnic groups James Smith belonged. However, in Rev. Frances Marion Smith's letter of 1908, quoted earlier at page 1, the writer made a point of his parents' claim to pure English ancestry, "unmixed either with Scotch or Irish". He further asserted that "no characteristics have developed along the line that would warrant the conclusion that our descent was from either of these". It is obvious, therefore that the Smiths and their related families took considerable pride in their English heritage, and it is equally obvious that in their eyes the Scotch-Irish, who made up a significant proportion of the residents of Wilkes County, were several notches lower on the social scale. This was a common conception in the early period of Georgia history. While no one in the "upcountry" had pretensions of gentility, and all lived under what would now be considered primitive conditions, those of English descent were generally considered better ordered and disciplined than their Scotch-Irish neighbors. A deprecatory term applied to the more slovenly of these people was "cracker". The term originally referred to a person who talked boastingly, but it came to be applied more generally to lower class southern whites who were "rude and nomadic, excellent hunters but indifferent farmers who planted only a few patches of corn, and as a people who kept themselves beyond the reach of all civilized law." The Smiths clearly disassociated themselves from this class of their fellow settlers. It is likely that James Smith was born about 1725, based on the birth date of his son Nathan and on the date of James' death, 1799. One unverified source lists his wife's name as Mary, but no further information about her has been found. James' children, who are named in his Will, were Nathan, Jacob, John, Martha (Patty), Mary, Joseph, Sarah, Elizabeth and Rachel, although the exact sequence of their birth dates cannot be determined. Since Nathan was born at mid-century, it is likely that most of James' children had been born before the family emigrated to Georgia. While it is not possible to pinpoint the date the Smiths arrived in Wilkes County the probability is that they arrived in Georgia between 1773 and 1776. This conjecture rests on two simple propositions: First, since Wilkes County was not officially opened to settlement until 1773, the Smiths probably arrived after that date. Second, since both James and his son Nathan served with Georgia troops in the Revolutionary War, it is also evident that they had settled in the area before or during the War. And as the evidence indicates that emigration to Wilkes County virtually ceased upon the advent of war in 1776, it is likely that the Smiths were already residents of Georgia when that occurred. Finally, there are a few record references that may also indicate that the Smiths arrived in Wilkes County in the 1773-1776 period. A James Smith is listed as one of a troop of rangers doing duty in the county in 1774. Also, in 1774 a Jacob Smith from North Carolina, who had a wife and a son and daughter three years old and one month old, respectively, was granted 100 acres of land on the upper side of Fishing Creek; and in the following year a Jacob Smith was allotted 100 acres by the Crown Land Commissioners. While there may have been two James Smiths and two Jacob Smiths in Wilkes in the 1773-1776 period, it is not unreasonable to conclude that one or both were members of the Smith family that is the subject of this narrative. II It is possible to identify from tax records the location of James' and Nathan Smith's home sites once they arrived in Wilkes County. Each resident was listed in the militia district in which he resided, and his lands were identified by the river or creek on which the they were located. In later records the names of adjoining land owners and the person to whom the land was originally granted were also listed. James Smith is identified in the records as living on the waters of Beaverdam Creek in a militia district that places him about four miles west of what later became the town of Washington, the County Seat of Wilkes County. His son Nathan is identified as living immediately downstream on Beaverdam Creek. While located in different militia districts, the tax records indicate that their lands abutted each other. At the time the Smiths arrived in Wilkes County, however, the land was an unbroken wilderness, without towns or communities of any kind. The first settlers of the site that later became the town of Washington were emigrants from Westmoreland County, Virginia. Having cut down the first trees in an "unbroken forest of magnificent oaks", they built a stockade called Fort Heard in 1774, around which they built a cluster of cabins. The town itself was not founded until some time after the Revolutionary War. The conditions faced by the first settlers have been described in these terms: "...Life with them was at first hard. There were no roads, and they came with their small supply of needful things on pack-horses. They built their cabins of round logs and covered them with split boards. At the first the floor was of packed clay, and the great chimney, with its wide hearth, was made of clay and stakes. There were no glazed windows and the door was made of split boards. Oftentimes there had not been a single nail used in building the cabin. The saw and axe and auger and frow had been the only tools. There was a scant supply of furniture, and it had been made mainly by hand; a three-legged stool, a puncheon bench, and, after the chair-maker came, a stout chair of hickory, with a raw-hide seat, were the conveniences. The bedsteads were made by hand, and the cattail and the long moss, and sometimes the leaves and pine straw, provided a couch for the sleepers. "The frontiersman had no easy time in providing food supplies. A few cattle he brought with him. Deer were abundant, and he killed an occasional bear, while wild turkeys were so plentiful that they were caught in pens and their flesh was dried and used as bread." We will examine further the living conditions, farming methods, and social and religious activities of the Wilkes County settlers in a subsequent chapter. However, before they had time to do more than clear small patches of forest and build rude cabins the area was devastated by the Revolutionary War, to which we now turn. III The controversies that led to the Revolution are well known and need not be recounted in detail here. The acts of Parliament restricting the colonies to trade with the mother country and repeated efforts to impose taxes on the colonies, particularly the Stamp Act of 1765, caused anger and resistance on the part of the colonists. When the vessel Speedwell arrived at Savannah in December, 1765, bringing a stamp agent and a quantity of stamps, it was met by six hundred colonists who demanded that Governor Wright order the stamps removed and threatened that his house would otherwise be attacked and the stamps destroyed. The Governor wisely ordered the stamps placed back on the Speedwell. Similar incidents occurred in other colonies, and the Stamp Act was repealed. Nevertheless, the seeds of conflict had been sown, and the next ten years saw a recurrence of quarrels and misunderstandings. The result was the calling in 1774 of the First Continental Congress, attended by representatives of twelve of the thirteen colonies. Georgia was not represented at the Congress; opinion in the Colony was still sharply divided, with an estimated one-half the population remaining loyal to the Crown. In general the loyalists were comprised of the older colonists- the men of influence in politics, society and business. They were the plantation owners whose vast coastal rice plantations were worked by large numbers of slaves. Rice was the colony's chief money crop, representing one third the value of all exports, and rice culture had created a moneyed and landed aristocracy which had much to lose from Revolution. On the other hand, the newer settlers, who included the recent emigrants to Wilkes County, were generally strong supporters of independence. They were largely young backcountry subsistence farmers who raised corn, tobacco and livestock and owned few, if any, slaves. These frontier farmers had developed religious and political attitudes far different from those of the Anglican-oriented rice and mercantile society of the Georgia coast. Georgia did not at first play much part in the overall politics of Revolution because it was by far the newest and weakest of the colonies. In 1776 Georgia contained less than 40,000 inhabitants, of whom only a little more than half were white. By comparison, Virginia had a population of 400,00, North Carolina 230,000 and South Carolina 140,000. Georgia's estimated 2,828 able-bodied soldiers were a negligible force, and the colony was in a particularly vulnerable position. In addition to the ever-present possibility of a slave rebellion, Georgia was frontier country in constant danger of Indians attacks instigated by British agents, and it was also threatened by a strong British force stationed at St. Augustine, Florida territory. Nevertheless, members of the more radical American rights group, who were now called Whigs, began early in 1775 to increase their opposition to Britain. Thereafter, over the next twelve months they created an alternative de facto government in Georgia that took over most of the functions previously performed by the royal Governor and ultimately brought about the collapse of British rule in the colony. The first act in this drama took place on July 4, 1774, when a provincial congress, representing ten of the twelve parishes of Georgia, met in Savannah. The congress adopted a petition to the King urging him to recall his armies and fleets from America and to insure justice to Americans. A week later the congress adopted nineteen resolutions declaring the colonies subject to the king but not to Parliament. Like other colonies, Georgia's provincial congress created a Council of Safety with full power to act during recesses of the congress and took steps to ensure a continuation of the new provincial government. Finally, Georgia informed the Continental Congress that the colony was ready to join its sister colonies in defending American rights. During the last half of 1775 the Whig revolutionary government took over still more powers from the royal government, and by September Governor Wright acknowledged that his government had lost its ability to govern. Some militia units replaced loyalist officers with Whigs, and the provincial congress, Council of Safety and various committees acted as they thought best with no real check on their powers except public opinion. Hostilities finally broke out in early 1776, when the British navy sent vessels to the mouth of the Savannah River to obtain provisions. Governor Wright urged the Whigs to cooperate, but instead he and other royal officials were arrested. However, when additional British ships and two hundred troops arrived, Wright and several of his councilors broke their paroles and boarded one of the British ships. After a skirmish involving British efforts to make away with several boats loaded with rice, Governor Wright and most of the royal officials sailed away, thus ending royal government in Georgia and putting Georgia fully into the rebel camp. This prompted the formation of an organized provincial government. A temporary constitution was issued by the provincial congress on April 15, 1776, establishing a simple framework of government and stating that henceforth governmental authority rested with the province instead of the king. That same month the provincial congress instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to work for the welfare of all the colonies. Most importantly, in July Georgia's three delegates all voted for Independence. Efforts to create a more permanent state government began in the Fall of 1776 and culminated on February 5, 1777, when the provincial congress adopted a new constitution creating a state government with executive, judicial and legislative branches. Eight counties, of which Wilkes was one, replaced the old parishes and gave the voters more direct control of local government. The constitution mandated the creation of state-supported schools in each county and adopted provisions safeguarding individual and political rights, including freedom of the press and the right to trial by jury. The Church of England was disestablished, and provisions were made for the free exercise of religion. From the summer of 1776 through 1778 Georgia was completely controlled by the Whigs. Many loyalists fled to Florida, where they formed a partisan military unit that harassed Georgia settlements. Georgia's Whigs retaliated in kind by expelling loyalists and confiscating their property. Unfortunately, however, the Whigs spent more time arguing among themselves than fighting Tories. The conflict involved basic differences between the country, or radical faction, and the town, or conservative, faction. The leader of the conservative faction, Lachlan McIntosh, a Scot from Darien, became colonel and later brigadier general of a battalion of Georgia troops authorized by the Continental Congress. The leader of the radical faction, Button Gwinnett, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, had hoped for that post and used his authority as a leading figure in the provincial congress to carry on a running feud with McIntosh. The conflict between the two men grew to a point where McIntosh publicly called Gwinnett "A Scoundrel & Lying Rascal", whereupon Gwinnett challenged McIntosh to a duel. In the exchange of gunfire both men were wounded, and Gwinnett died three days later. While McIntosh was tried and acquitted, feelings ran so high that he soon left the state for reassignment by General Washington. This incident has a particular interest for descendants of Nathan Smith because he played a small part in it. On July 5, 1777 Nathan was one of a group of individuals from Wilkes County who signed a petition demanding the reassignment of General McIntosh because of the Gwinnett affair. Similar petitions were circulated in rural areas throughout Georgia. Nathan is thus identified, along with his neighbors in Wilkes County, as members of the radical or "country" faction opposed to McIntosh and the conservatives. After two years of relative inactivity, the British adopted a "Southern strategy" aimed at recapturing Georgia and South Carolina and reestablishing royal governments in each. A British expedition from New York landed on Tybee Island outside Savannah on December 23, 1778, and, because the Governor and the Continental military commanders were caught off guard, the British were able to march into Savannah virtually unopposed. In the capture of Savannah the Whigs suffered 450 captured and 100 killed or drowned in the swamps trying to escape, while British losses were reported at seven killed and nineteen wounded. The British offered an amnesty to those who would take an oath of loyalty to the Crown, and their forces scoured the countryside for sixty miles around Savannah, forcing residents to take the oath and to join royal militia units. With Savannah in British hands, the Whig opposition necessarily shifted to the "upcountry", particularly Wilkes County, which was referred to by the British as "the hornet's nest" for its fierce opposition to loyalist incursions. The British commander, Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell, reacted by marching north. From Augusta he dispatched a force of British and Tories into the upcountry to disarm and drive off the Whigs. Many of the settlers fled across the Savannah River into South Carolina, and others retreated to a stockade known as Carr's Fort. A Whig force of 1,200 North Carolinians soon arrived opposite Augusta and forced Campbell to evacuate the town on February 14, 1777. However, he retreated only a short distance down river to a more defensible position at Hudson's Ferry, where he remained a threat to Augusta and Wilkes County. On the same day that the British evacuated Augusta an event occurred of considerable significance to Wilkes County and to the Smith family-the Battle of Kettle Creek. For the Smiths the battle was significant not only because they took part in the fighting but also because the battle took place almost within sight of their homesteads. The background for the battle was this: At about the same time that Colonel Campbell's British troops were marching north to Augusta, General Lord Cornwallis, commander of all British forces in the Southern theater, dispatched a Colonel Boyd, with a force of 800 British regulars and Tories, from the Carolinas into Georgia. Colonel Boyd's orders were to march his army through Wilkes County spreading devastation in their wake and then to continue south to Savannah, enforcing submission throughout the entire State. Boyd's army accordingly crossed from South Carolina into Georgia, plundering and burning as it marched. Meanwhile, however, the Whig forces were gathering under the command of three guerilla leaders who had already proven their mettle in previous encounters with the British-John Twiggs, Elijah Clarke and John Dooly. Partisans under their command harassed the British as they crossed the Savannah River into Georgia, and again as they crossed the Broad River into northern Wilkes County. Once in Wilkes, the British were closely followed by the Americans, made up of South Carolina troops under Colonel Andrew Pickens and militia units under Colonels Clarke, Dooly and Twiggs that included a hundred men from Wilkes. On the night of February 13, 1779 both armies camped in northern Wilkes County, not far from the Broad River. The Patriot forces camped at Clark's Station, a stronghold of Elijah Clark and his followers. The following day the British and Tories resumed their march south through the county, stopping on the north side of Kettle Creek after a long and grueling march. There they prepared to make camp, turning their horses out to graze and beginning to slaughter cattle and parch corn for their evening meal. Throughout the day the British had been shadowed by the American forces, now numbering about 500 men. Finding the British preoccupied and unprepared, the Americans attacked and, after an hour's battle, drove the British through the swamps and across Kettle Creek. As the British tried to mount the hill on the south side of the Creek, Colonel Clarke, commanding the left wing of the American force, crossed the Creek in pursuit and in 45 minutes scattered the enemy in all directions. The British loss totaled 75 killed, including Colonel Boyd, and another 75 wounded. The American loss totaled nine killed and 23 wounded. With the disintegration of the British and Tory army, the Americans captured 600 horses and large quantities of arms, ammunition and clothing. We do not know what part the Smiths played in the Battle of Kettle Creek. However, the Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers (p. 276) includes the names of James Smith and Nathan Smith among those who participated. That James Smith, who was probably in his middle fifties at the time of the battle, would have been called on to shoulder arms should not be surprising; as frontiersmen, hunters and Indian fighters all able-bodied men were subject to militia duty. After the battle citizens of Wilkes County who had retreated to South Carolina in the face of British and Tory raids returned to their homes. Almost immediately, however, they were confronted by a force of 800 Creek Indians who had been stirred up by the British. This prompted a call to arms of every male inhabitant of Wilkes over 16 years of age, and a force of militiamen under Colonel Pickens dispersed the Indians in March, 1799, with a loss of three Americans. The Americans' success at Kettle Creek led to a renewed optimism and a determination to free Georgia from British occupation. However, a sizeable American force was defeated by the British at Brier Creek on the Savannah River in March, and for the next year the British maintained control of Savannah and surrounding areas while the Whigs controlled Augusta and Wilkes County. It was a period of intense guerilla warfare on both sides, with the result that border areas were frequently devastated by raiding parties. With the recapture of Savannah by the British, Governor Wright returned and attempted to reestablish royal civilian government. At the same time, the Executive Council of the State government established by the constitution of 1777 sat at Augusta and attempted to function in the areas controlled by Whig forces. On August 25, 1779, the first court north of Augusta was held in a private home in Wilkes County. The main purpose of the proceeding was to try Tories for high treason and "acting in conjunction with the Injuns". After a trial the court condemned seven persons to death and named 26 others who they recommended should be tried for "assisting the British troops and the avowed enemies of the United States of America." Beginning in April, 1780, and continuing for the next fourteen months, Wilkes County experienced its darkest days of the war. The downturn in Whig fortunes followed the failure by a joint American/French army of some 6,500 men under Generals Benjamin Lincoln and Count d'Estaing to recapture Savannah in October 1799. When the siege of Savannah failed General Lincoln marched off to Charleston and General d'Estaing sailed off with the French fleet. This left the Georgia revolutionaries to their own resources against an enemy intrenched at Savannah and superior both in numbers and discipline. In 1780 the British high command adopted a plan to subdue South Carolina, and in May of that year not only took Charleston but captured General Lincoln and the entire Whig army-the force that had been withdrawn from Georgia after the siege of Savannah. Soon after the fall of Charleston Tory troops once more marched north and occupied Augusta, leaving Wilkes County as the only area of Georgia under Whig control. With the British occupation of Augusta, what remained of the Georgia State government, the Executive Council, was removed to Heard's Fort in Wilkes County in February 1780. While the British did not attempt a formal military invasion of Wilkes, frequent raiding parties were dispatched from Augusta throughout the next year to force their submission. A Tory raiding party surprised and murdered Whig Colonel John Dooly in his bed in the summer of 1870, and Whig partisan leaders including Elijah Clarke and John Twiggs lead equally savage guerilla attacks against the Tories, often retreating across the Savannah River to South Carolina to escape Tory counter raids. A leading Georgia historian described the situation: "Merciless was the war waged between Royalists and Republicans. The former, inflamed with hatred and eager for rapine, spared neither age nor sex. Ruin marked their footsteps, and their presence was a signal for theft, torture, murder and crimes without a name. Revenge and retaliation prompted the Republicans to many bloody deeds which can scarcely be excused even in a defensive war." In September, 1780, Elijah Clarke led an attack on the Tories in Augusta, but the Whigs were forced to call off the siege when the Tories were reinforced. Clarke then decided to cross over into South Carolina to aid the Whig movement there, and 300 Wilkes County men assembled at Dennis Mills on the Little River to accompany him. This led to an extraordinary exodus of women and children from Wilkes to a point in eastern Tennessee west of the Appalachian Mountains. As decribed in Jones' History of Georgia, the men who gathered on Little River at Elijah Clarke's call were accompanied by "... four hundred women and children with their personal effects craving permission to follow the army to a place of safety. For two years the operations of agriculture-of this portion of Georgia had been so much disturbed that very many of the fields remained uncultivated. Poverty lay down at the door of not only a few, and the curses of the tyrant were heard everywhere. It was the part of humanity to harken to the prayers of this helpless population and to guide it into abodes of peace and plenty. For eleven days did Col. Clarke and his command escort this congregation of women and children through mountainous regions and unaccustomed paths to avoid interruption by the enemy. It was a journey replete with difficulties and privations, but there were no murmurings by the way and at last the patient travelers, footsore, weary and pinched with hunger, found rest, homes, and entertainment. at the hands of generous dwellers by the banks of the Watauga and Nolachuckie rivers [in northeastern Tennessee]." Deliverance became possible in early 1781 upon the appointment of General Nathaniel Green as commander of the Southern Division of the Continental Army. With improving prospects in Georgia, Colonel Clarke obtained permission to return from South Carolina with his men, who dispersed in small parties to visit their homes. What they found has been described by an eye witness: "When these small parties entered the settlements where they had formerly resided, general devastation was presented to their view; their aged fathers and brothers had been hanged and murdered, their decrepit grandfathers were incarcerated in prisons where most of them had been suffered to perish in filth, famine or disease, and their wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and young children had been robbed insulted and abused and were found by them in temporary huts more resembling a savage camp than a civilized habitation." Beginning in April, 1781, Georgia and Carolina militia under Clarke and General Andrew Williamson again besieged Augusta. Soon some Wilkes County men were called home to drive away Indians and Tories, but others stayed on until the siege ended with the capture of Augusta on June 5, 1781. From that time on, upcountry Georgia in general, and Wilkes County in particular, were free of the British. However, in November a band of Cherokees invaded Wilkes, robbing, murdering and terrorizing the inhabitants. Whig General Pickens with his South Carolinians augmented by Georgians retaliated by invading Cherokee territory and burning every village south and east of the mountains. This precipitated another invasion by Cherokees and Creeks, which was met by General Clarke, who drove the Indians back across the Oconee River. General Cornwallis surrendered his Army to General Washington at Yorktown in October, 1781, but it was not until July 11, 1782, that the British evacuated Savannah. The treaty of peace ending the war was signed in November 1782, but while formal hostilities ended, the Tories were hunted and harassed for many months thereafter. It is difficult to assess precisely what part the Smiths played in the War of the Revolution. It could have involved no more than participation in actions of the Wilkes County militia when called up from time to time or, on the other hand, may have included service in elements of the Continental Army-soldiers of the Line. In any event, the evidence of their participation consists of the following: James, Nathan and Jacob Smith are all listed as "Soldiers of the Line"in Smith, The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People, Appendix, pp. 622, 632, 639. James and Nathan Smith are listed as Revolutionary Soldiers at the Battle of Kettle Creek in McCall's Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers, pp. 275, 276. Knight, Georgia Roster of the Revolution, refers to two certificates of Elijah Clarke, Lieutenant Colonel, dated February 2, 1784, issued to Nathan Smith (p. 161), and Nathan Smith is included among "Georgia Soldiers of the Line-Revolutionary War" (p. 392). Finally, a list of Revolutionary Soldiers Receipts for Georgia Bounty Grants includes Nathan Smith as recipient of Two Hundred Fifty Acres (Voucher No. 808), issued by E. Clarke, Colonel. Reverend Francis Marion Smith's 1908 letter, to which reference has been made, states that Nathan Smith "served as a Soldier on the American Side throughout the Revolutionary War". It is likely that James Smith, who was in his fifties during the War, served only in the militia and was called out for the Battle of Kettle Creek and at other times to resist Indian and Tory raiding parties into Wilkes County. Nathan Smith may well have served in units of Georgia troops under Continental command, including those of Elijah Clarke and Samuel Elbert, after whom he named his oldest son. It was estimated that in 1775 Georgia's white population of 27,000 was divided as follows: English, 12,800; Scotch-Irish, 9,000; Highland Scotch, 50; German, 4,500. McWhiney, Cracker Culture, p. xiv. Nathan Smith's date of birth, taken from a record of his Revolutionary War service, was March 9, 1750/51. The year of his birth is 1750 or 1751 depending on whether it is calculated under the old or new method of numbering the years. An interesting coincidence appeared at first to suggest that the Smiths emigrated, not from Craven County, but from Rowan County, North Carolina, which in colonial times covered a vast area in the western part of that colony. This possibility was based on the fact that Wilkes County records include an 1801 conveyance of land by Nathan Smith, Sr. of Rowan County, North Carolina, to his son Nathan Smith, Jr. of Wilkes County. However, it is obvious that this transaction involved another Nathan Smith because the father of the Nathan Smith in this narrative was James. Wilkes County tax records reveal that there were indeed two Nathan Smiths living in Wilkes County in the late eighteenth century, both of whom owned land on the waters of Beaverdam Creek. Smith, The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People, pp. 59-60. During the colonial period the only local governmental divisions were the Anglican parishes, which served both religious and governmental purposes. Boyd planned to join forces with a contingent of 600 British troops sent up from Augusta under Colonel McGirth. The two forces were to meet at Little River, the southern boundary of Wilkes County, and from that point act jointly to subdue the State. As a consequence of the Battle of Kettle Creek, that plan collapsed. The list also includes the name of William Foster, the father of Nathan Smith's wife, Sarah. While the Whigs were still in control of Augusta in 1780, another of Mittie Olivia Smith's ancestor Capt. John Shackleford served on a grand jury in that city. For an account of those proceedings, see Chapter Eight and Appendix D. In addition to being a partisan leader, Dooly had been the prosecuting attorney at the trial of the seven Tories condemned to death for treason at the trial held in Wilkes on August 25, 1779. Charles C. Jones, quoted in Brooks, History of Georgia, p. 122. In retribution for the execution of Tories following the trial in Wilkes County, the Tories hanged thirteen wounded Americans who had been left behind when Clarke withdrew from Augusta. McCall, The History of Georgia, Containing Brief Sketches of the most Remarkable Events up to the Present Day, 1784. The savage civil war that occurred in Wilkes County and throughout Georgia during the Revolutionary War is entirely comparable to the situation in Robeson County, North Carolina, during the same period, about which I have written in The Granthams, Seven Generations of American Frontiersmen, pp. 77-83. Settlers and Revolutionaries Settlers and Revolutionaries