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SOURCE: . Charles C. Jones,
Jr. The History of Georgia. Volume 2: Revolutionary Epoch.
Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1883. Pages 499-501.
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| "Learning that the English ship Britannia lay at anchor in the mouth
of Great Ogeechee River, Captains John Howell and John McCleur, on the
night of the 14th of April, 1781, with muffled oars towed their privateers
alongside and grappled with her. Springing upon deck, they demanded and
received quick surrender. Captain Wade and a boat's crew had gone ashore
to spend the night, and thus escaped capture. The Britannia had a cargo
of rice on board, was bound to the West Indies, and was waiting for a fair
wind to put to sea. On the 24th, while off Doboy Sound with this prize,
the ship Cormorant, Captain McEvoy gave chase. Finding that she could not
escape, the Britannia struck her colors and came to anchor. While the boats
from the Cormorant were in the act of taking possession of her, Captain
Howell ran down, fired upon, and compelled them to retire. Then, slipping
the cable of the Britannia, he ran that vessel close in shore until he
reached the south end of Blackbeard Island where he defended her until
the afternoon. Fearing attack during the night by a superior force, he
abandoned and burnt the ship, paroling his prisoners and landing them on
the island. |
| On the 4th of June, 1781, Captain Howell having entered the inlet of
Sunbury learned from a negro that he had been sent out to catch fish for
Mr. Kitchins, the collector of the port, with whom a party of British officers,
both civil and military, were to dine that day, it being the king's birthday.
Although Mr. Kitchens' house was within four hundred yards of the fort,
now no longer called Morris but named by its captors George in honor of
his majesty King George III, presuming that the assembled guests on this
festive occasion would indulge freely and be found entirely off their guard,
Captain Howell resolved upon their capture. Ascending the river with muffled
oars and under cover of the night, the captain with twelve men passed the
fort without attracting its notice, and, landing at Sunbury, surrounded
the house about eleven o'clock and took the entire party, numbering twelve
persons, prisoners. Among the captured was Colonel Roger Kelsall, who had
insulted and ill-treated Captain Howell while he was a prisoner of war.
Incensed at the recollection of these indignities, Captain Howell was on
the eve of taking him out and drowning him in the river, when the prayers
of the lady of the house induced him to spare his life. Exacting from his
captives a pledge that they would not again take up arms until regularly
exchanged, Captain Howell repaired, without loss or molestation, to his
privateer. Upon his return to the fort, Kelsall observed that when he found
himself in Captain Howell's power he anticipated early death. He admitted
that he had no right to expect the lenient treatment which he received. |
| Manning his boats with twenty men from his privateer, Captain Anthony
on the 12th of July proceeded up the Ogeechee River to capture a schooner
laden with rice. He did gain possession of her, but before he could get
her out he was intercepted by a British galley commanded by Captain Scallan.
Taking to his boats Antony escaped to the shore with the loss of one man
killed and another wounded. On the following night he rejoined his privateer.
Two days afterwards Captain McCleur, within full view of the British armed
vessels lying in Charlestown harbor, took the sloop Brier, Captain William
Roberts master, filled with West India produce, and carried her safely
into a North Carolina port. |
| On the 18th of September the brigantine Dunmore, Captain Caldeleugh,
mounting twelve guns, sailed from Sunbury for Jamaica. She had no sooner
crossed the bar than she was attacked by two American galleys, one of which
was commanded by Captain Braddock. A close contest ensued which lasted
for four hours when the brigantine effected her escape. She was so much
damaged that she was compelled to seek the port of Savannah for repairs.
Upon resuming her voyage, she was again attacked by Captain Braddock, but
a second time succeeded in eluding him. In a gale of wind off Hilton Head,
the American galley Tuger, Captain McCumber, was capsized on the 20th of
October. Two of her crew were drowned. Thirty of them, saved in open boats,
joined Captain Howell the next day and assisted in the capture of two schooners
freighted with rice, having thirty negro slaves on board, and bound for
the West Indies. Before the schooners could be conveyed to a place of security
Captain Scallan appeared in a galley with two boats and sixty men. Stting
fire to the schooners, Captain Howell escaped with the negroes. Promptly
taking possession of the schooners, the enemy saved them from the impending
conflagration. |
| Trivial as these affairs, and others of like character, doubtless were,
they will now be remembered s the best manifestations of activity on the
sea which the patriots of Georgia in their impoverished and enfeebled condition
were capable of exhibiting. |
| In conducting his movement southward as far as Ebenezer, Colonal Jackson
had several skirmishes with the enemy who, as they retired, destroyed the
bridges along his line of march and annoyed him wherever the cover of a
thick wood afforded an opportunity. |
| To render secure the communication between Savannah and the lower countries
the British maintained military posts at Great Ogeechee ferry and at Sunbury.
General Twiggs, assisted by Jones, Irwin, Lewis, Carr, and others, had
been very successful in rousing the patriotic ardor of the inhabitants
and in swelling the ranks of the Revolutionists. He hoped soon to be strong
enough to make an attack upon Savannah. From Burke County, late in October,
he ordered Colonel Jackson, then at Ebenezer, with Stallings' dragoons,
McKay's riflemen, and Carr's volunteer dragoons, to attempt the surprise
and reduction of the British post at Great Ogeechee ferry. While nearing
that post on the 2nd of November, Jackson fell in with a scouting party
whom he captured without spreading any alarm, and actually appeared before
the White House at the ferry before Captain Johnston, the English commander,
was aware of his approach. So suddenly did he fall upon this structure,
which constituted the principal defense, that Captain Johnston agreed to
surrender and was in the act of handing his sword to Colonel Jackson when
Captain Goldsmith was killed by Captain Patrick Carr. Inferring from this
unexpected and violent act that no quarter was to be given, Captain Johnston
sprang into the house and called upon his men to resume their arms and
to sell their lives as dearly as possible. With so much vigor was the structure
defended that 'Jackson was not only compelled to relinquish what he deemed
a certain conquest, but to retreat with the loss of Captain Grant and several
of his men.' At this juncture he was deserted by McKay's riflemen who went
off in quest of plunder. |
| Proceeding to Butler's house, distant a mile from the ferry, where
were stationed fifteen loyalists under the command of Captain Howell who
was lying sick abed, he carried that post which offered a stout resistance.
Howell and five of his men were killed. Five others were captured." |
SOURCE: . Charles C. Jones,
Jr. The History of Georgia. Volume 2: Revolutionary Epoch.
Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1883. Pages 499-501.
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| I have not been able to connect brave Captain
John Howell to my family tree yet. Please let me know if you find a link
to your own ancestry!
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