the opening of the Revolution, though the forts were in sad repair, nevertheless there was a great rush of the Royalists and of the Rebels to get possession of them. The Royalists were at first the more successful. Augusta with Forts Grierson and Cornwallis, Savannah with Forts Argyle and Halifax, Fort Barrington on the Altamaha, and the recently erected Fort Morris south of Sunbury, were all soon in the hands of the British. These positions were all strong and well fortified. The Rebels were not nearly so fortunate. The forts they held were mostly ruins. Fort McIntosh on the Satilla River was the first of their possessions to be beseiged by the British. Captain Richard Winn held the fort with all his powers of endurance against Colonel Fuser, but, with his reinforcements cut off, he was soon obliged to surrender.
Proceed Against Augusta.
Soon, however, the opportunity of the patriots came. 1781 was the beginning of the change in affairs. Having seized Fort Carr and Fort Howe as the center of operations, the Americans proceeded against Augusta. Colonel Grierson, who was in charge of the fort that bore his name, soon surrendered here, but Colonel Brown was obstinate and strong in his position at Fort Cornwallis. In the end, after an eighteen days' siege, he, too, acknowledged himself beaten.
After varying vicissitudes, the British were finally forced to give up all their strongholds, and thus the Revolutionary forts played their part in history.
During the years that followed there would have been no necessity for any forts in Georgia had it not been for the Indians, especially during the war of 1812, in which the Indians were incited by the British to give trouble. Until 1836 the forts in most general use against the Indians were Forts Hawkins, Mims, Scott and Mitchell.
With the passing of the Indian troubles the Georgia forts were left to absolute ruin, and, when in 1861 the Civil War burst upon the country, there was great need to fortify the land against the enemy. Accordingly, Fort Pulaski, on Cockspur Island, not far from Savannah, was strongly fortified at the cost of $80,000, and Colonel Olmstead with 350 men was placed in command. Receiving word from the enemy to surrender the fort, he answered, "I am here to defend the fort, not to surrender it"; but in 1862 the brave commander was obliged to surrender his treasure.
DuPont Expedition.
Fort McAllister, though not so strong as Fort Pulaski, being only an earthwork with sand parapets, was notwithstanding an equally important position. Admiral DuPont in 1863 was sent to seize it, but the expedition failed; in 1864, General Hazen's division of General Sherman's army took this fort from Major George W. Anderson. In his letter north, General Sherman praised Georgia's sons for their brave resistance. The surrender of Fort McAllister led in a few days to the surrender of Savannah and the quick ending of the war.
After the Civil War, forts were again neglected and even the new forts began to decay. Throughout Georgia today are to be seen her picturesque, ivy-grown forts, and these are a source of never-failing interest to visitors.
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RUINS OF THE OLD FORT AT FREDERICA ON ST. SIMON'S ISLAND, GA.
The only regular military post now in Georgia is the beautiful Fort McPherson. This fort covering about two hundred and thirty-six acres, is four miles from Atlanta. It was established by the United States government in 1867 with the name of McPherson's Barracks; it has a postoffice and telegraph station. It has never yet been called into service. Let us hope that it will be many days before Fort McPherson adds its historic story to those of Georgia's other forts.
JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE.
James Oglethorpe came of a very old family in England. His father, Sir Theophilus, was a soldier under James II, and went into banishment with him. Just before the abdication of James II, James Oglethorpe, the seventh child and fourth son, was born. At sixteen he entered the University at Oxford, when he was twenty-two, entered the British Army as Ensign, and was soon made Lieutenant of the Queen's Life Guards. His soldier life was spent largely on the continent. He became heir to the estate in Surrey and was shortly after elected to the British Parliament, of which body he remained a member for thirty-two years. He was an active member of the House of Commons, a Deputy Governor of the Royal African Society and a gentleman of high position and independent means, and withal a man of genuine piety. He conceived the plan of establishing a colony in America, which should be a refuge for poor people.
The following description of Oglethorpe is by Rev. Thomas B. Gregory:
"February 12, 1733, Oglethorpe and his Colonists scaled the Yamacraw bluffs on the Savannah River and began laying the foundations of the State of Georgia.
The Empire State of the South had its origin in the noblest impulses that swell the human heart. Its founder, the accomplished and philanthropic Oglethorpe, witnessing about him in the old world the inhumanity of man to man, seeing the prisons full of impecunious debtors, and the highways thronged with the victims of religious fanaticism and spite, resolved that he would find in the new world an asylum for the unfortunate ones where they should be no more oppressed by the rich or dragooned by the bigoted.
The colony started out beautifully. The men who had been pining in English jails because they could not pay the exactions of their hard-hearted creditors, and the Salzburgers and others, who, in Austria and Germany, had been made to feel the terrors of religious fanaticism, were glad to be free, and they were only too willing to accept the founder's will that there would be no slavery in Georgia. The institution got a foothold much later on, but it was not the fault of the original colonists.
Beautiful, too, were the initial relationships between the colonists and the red men. Old To-mo-chi-chi, the Chief of the surrounding Indians, presenting Oglethorpe with a Buffalo skin ornamented with the picture of an eagle, said to him: 'I give you this which I want you to accept. The eagle means speed and the buffalo strength. The English are swift as the bird and strong as the beast, since like the one, they flew over the seas to the uttermost parts of the earth, and, like the other, they are strong and nothing can resist them. The feathers of the eagle are soft and means love; the buffalo skin is warm and means protection. Then I hope the English will love and protect our little families.' Alas! the time was to come when the white man would forget To-mo-chi-chi's present and the spirit with which it was made.
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THE MONUMENT TO GENERAL OGLETHORPE, FOUNDER OF THE COLONY OF GEORGIA, IN CHIPPEWA SQUARE, SAVANNAH.
In 1743 Oglethorpe left Georgia forever, after having given it the best that there was in his head and heart for ten years. In 1752 Georgia became a royal province, and remained such until the breaking out of the Revolution in 1775, through which she helped her sister colonies to fight their way to victory, when she took her place among the 'old thirteen' free and independent states."
THE CONDITION OF GEORGIA DURING THE REVOLUTION.
When the American Colonies of Great Britain determined to rebel at the stubborn demands of the mother country, Georgia had least cause to join the revolutionary movement.
This colony was by fifty years