Early Life
Button Gwinnet was born in England circa 1732 to 1735 in the parish of Down Hatherley in county Gloucestershire to Welsh parents; Reverend Samuel Gwinnett and his wife Anne. He was named Button after his godmother Barbara Button. It is believed that he attended the College School at Gloucester Cathedral (presently the King’s School). When he was old enough, he apprenticed to his uncle, William Gwinnett, as a greengrocer (in colonial times – sold fresh goods as dry goods while also supplying cloth and calico for clothing). He later apprenticed with John Weston Smith as an ironmonger. On April 19, 1757, he married Ann Bourne, daughter of a local greengrocer. The couple had three daughters when they left Wolverhampton in 1762 for the colonies in America.
Emigrates to America
Early on, Gwinnet proved he had little success as a businessman. Settling first in Newfoundland, Canada, he soon moved his family to the Caribbean on Jamaica. When business ventures proved dismal, he moved once more to Savannah, Georgia in1765. There he opened a greengrocer store. Once more, he failed to make a profit and sought other means to support his family. He then set his eye on farming. This day Gwinnett would be considered a ‘people person’, for though he was a lousy businessman, he was well liked and acquired favor among the local population of Savannah. Through his connections, he was able to obtain credit to purchase a large land grant on St. Catherine’s Island that included many slaves. His dream of running a profitable plantation were soon dashed for once again, his business savvy was basically non-existent.
Goes Into Politics
It was then that Gwinnett chose a path similar to New Englander Samuel Adams of Boston. The persuasive ex-brew master had failed at all things concerning business, until he found his true calling in politics; more specifically, rousing the masses to hurl themselves at one fashionable enemy – Mother England. Once more using his connections, and like Adams, his persuasive style among other colonists, he made a name for himself by adopting rebellious rhetoric that fueled anti-British sentiments. It proved enough to find himself elected to the Georgia Provincial Assembly. Over time, Gwinnett’s skill as a political manipulator gained him the role of speaker of the house. It was here that he met his chief rival, Low Country Rice King Lachlan McIntosh, powerful leader of the independent movement in Georgia.
American Revolution and Rivalry with McIntosh Intensifies
While Gwinnett flexed his muscle within the Provincial Legislature, being elected to president and speaker, equivalent to the Governor of Georgia, he had his eye on military commissions. However,
Lachlin McIntosh beat him to the punch. In 1775, McIntosh raised the 1st Georgia Regiment of the Georgia Line. After organizing the defense of Savannah, in the spring of 1776, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the Continental Army, charged with defending any incursions by the British from Florida. It was this commission in early 1776 that angered Gwinnett to no end for he had sought the same appointment as brigadier in the Continental Battalion.
Elected to Represent Georgia in the Second Continental Congress – Signs Declaration of Independence
As speaker of the Georgia House in which he acted as Governor of Georgia, and a strong advocate for rebellion, he was sent north to Philadelphia, representing Georgia in the Second Continental Congress (along with George Walton and Lyman Hall). He voted in favor of the Declaration of Independence that was adopted on July 2, 1776. He signed the document on August 2, 1776 and prepared to return to Georgia. Arriving in Savannah, he carried a proposed state constitution drawn up by John Adams. He would later in 1777, draw up the original draft of Georgia’s first State Constitution based on Adams document.
Also, upon returning to Georgia, Gwinnett considered himself a strong candidate for the brigadier general position to lead the 1st Regiment in the Continental Army. It was the loss of that position to his rival Lachlan McIntosh, that embittered Gwinnett greatly. Throughout 1777, Gwinnett would use his powerful position as president/governor of Georgia to undermine the military leadership of McIntosh. Tensions between the two escalated to a boiling point when the General Assembly voted to approve Gwinnett’s attack on British Florida in April, 1777, bypassing McIntosh’s input.
Invasion of Florida and Rout at the Battle of Thomas Creek, May 17, 1777
During this incursion against British held St. Augustine in Florida, Governor Gwinnett demanded total control over the expedition, overruling Georgia’s Continental General Lachlan McIntosh. A heated debate between the two further fueled their growing hatred. This only worsened when later in the year, Gwinnett ordered McIntosh’s brother George arrested and charged with treason.
As civilian, Gwinnett called a council of war over the head of General McIntosh, to which he did not even invite the general. At this council, it was decided that the militia, a little over one hundred volunteers under Colonel John Baker, would march overland. The Continental troops, commanded by Colonel Samuel Elbert, second to General McIntosh and a slight to the general, would travel by ship along the coast. In twelve days’ time, they would rejoin at Sawpitt Bluff, fifty miles north of St. Augustine. From there they would plan their attack on the city.
The invasion, launched on May 1, 1777, proved a dismal failure from the very beginning. After fording swollen rivers, attacks by Seminole warriors, and no sign of Continental troop reinforcements, on May 16th, Colonel Baker made camp that evening at Thomas creek. Not sending out scouts before settling in for the night proved the rebel’s undoing. Camping nearby were loyalist Colonel Brown’s Rangers along with his Seminole allies and Colonel James Prevost’s regulars. That evening, the British and loyalists planned their attack against the rebels for the next morning.
When Baker broke his camp and marched along Thomas Creek, the British stuck. At nine in the morning, on May 17th, the loyalists rose as one and fired a devastating volley into the rebel column. Baker’s men immediately turned and fled, running headlong into Provost’s regulars. Simultaneously, the Seminole warriors swarmed from both flanks and attacked ruthlessly (angered by previous clashes with Georgia rebel militia who had mutilated Native American bodies). The battle lasted but five minutes with a complete rout of the Georgia militia, most clawing their way through the swamps to seek escape.
Gwinnett Voted Out of Office
While the Georgia militia and Continental troops pressed south to invade Florida and secure the Georgia border, Gwinnett decided not to march with the command he wrested from McIntosh. Instead, he remained in Savannah to campaign for the position of Georgia’s first State Governor, as outlined in the state’s Constitution that Gwinnett drafted and helped adapt in January, 1777. The election was set for May 8th. Unfortunately for Gwinnett, by then Georgians were tired of the bickering feud between the two rebel leaders. In a wide margin, they elected John Adams Treutlen, a colleague of Gwinnett who along with George Wells of the radical faction of government, helped to write the new Georgia Constitution.
The election over, this paved the way for McIntosh’s request for a hearing into the conduct of citizen President Gwinnett regarding relations with the military. McIntosh pressed the Assembly that the expedition had been “formed to gratify the dangerous ambition” of the president. Lachlan went on to predict a bad end to the invasion. He charged Gwinnett’s failure to consult with him, Brigadier General of Georgia’s Continental troops, or any military members in the planning and execution of the invasion. McIntosh went even further in his accusations against Gwinnett calling him “a Scoundrell and lying Rascal.”
The Assembly was also done with the egotistical feud and was not moved by McIntosh’s arguments. They dismissed any wrongdoing by Gwinnett and exonerated him; most likely with a sigh of relief as a new governor was elected to carry on business.
Duel and Death
Though the matter seemed closed, it was not so for Gwinnett. Still smarting from McIntosh’s public attack on his honor and having called him a liar and scoundrel, Gwinnett challenged his rival to a dual. On the evening of May 15th, a formal written challenge was brought to McIntosh signed by Gwinnett. The letter offered a challenge that “desir’d he [McIntosh] would give satisfaction for it as a gentleman before sunrise next morning in Sir James Wright’s pasture, behind colonel Martin’s house…” McIntosh sent back a reply that he would “assuredly meet him at the place and time appointed with a pair of pistols only, as agreed upon with Mr. Gwinnett’s second, who brought the challenge.” (George Wells, assemblyman and future Governor of Georgia).
Close friend of Gwinnett and Georgia co-signer of the Declaration of Independence, Lyman Hall, wrote an account of the dual:
“Here it was in Assembly that the General called him (as tis said) a Scoundrell & lying Rascal – I confess I did not hear the Words, not being so nigh the parties however it seems Agreed that it was so – a dual was the Consequence, in which they were placed at 10 or 12 foot Distance, Discharged their pistols nearly at the same Time – Each Wounded in the Thigh, Mr. Gwinnetts, thigh broked so that he fell – on which (tis said) the General Asked him if he Chose to Take another Shot – was Answered, Yes, if they would help him up, – (or words nearly the same) – the Seconds Interposed – Mr. Gwinnett was brought in, the Weather, Extrem Hot – a Mortification came on – he languished from that Morning (Friday) till Monday Morning following & Expired…”
Both men had been shot in the thigh, Gwinnett just above his knee. McIntosh had remained standing while Gwinnett fell. Assemblyman George Wells, who was present for the dual, claimed that Gwinnett desired each have another shot to settle their dispute; however, when Gwinnett was helped to his feet, he fainted. Disputing Hall’s claim that both men shook hands agreeing the matter settled.
Afterward
Governor Button Gwinnett died, aged 42, two days later on May 19, 1777, and was buried in the Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. When the war turned south and British Colonel Campbell successfully captured Savannah, later defeating an American/French attempt at retaking the town, Savannah was in British hands, remaining till nearly war’s end. Gwinnett’s signature is extremely valuable, because it is so rare with only fifty-one known examples. Gwinnett County in north Georgia was named in his honor in 1818.
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SOURCES
Coleman, Kenneth. The American Revolution in Georgia, 1763 – 1789. 1958: University of Georgia, 2021: Reissue University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.
Crompton, Sam. Georgia During the American Revolution Era. 2018: The Rosen Publishing Group, New York, NY.
Hall, Leslie. Land and Allegiance in Revolutionary Georgia. 2001: University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.