Colonel Thomas Brown was a fierce partisan fighter. An able leader, he was always in the thick of battle, deploying his men skillfully and encouraging them to fight on. Passionate to the cause, he would have been at the forefront of America’s Revolutionary heroes, had he been a patriot; but he was not. Brown was loyal to the crown and as such, would become one of the King’s greatest soldiers of the southern theatre. An aristocratic gentleman of financial means, he came to the hard life as a guerrilla warrior not by choice., but by scars that ran deep; physically and mentally. In the southern backcountry war of violent extremes, the penalty for remaining loyal to one’s beliefs was torture and banishment; the pain seething into hatred and vengeful retribution. And for six years, southern patriot Whigs paid dearly, many times over, for birthing their greatest enemy in Thomas Brown.
Early Life
Thomas Brown (May 27, 1750 – Aug. 3, 1825) was born in the seaport shipbuilding town of Whitby, Yorkshire, England to Jonas Brown and Margaret Jackson Brown. His father Jonas married Margaret in 1739, a widow ten years elder to Jonas. Thomas was of a distinguished and titled family; Jonas claiming descent from Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montague and Master of Horse to King Henry VIII. Some sources state that his mother was the granddaughter of Sir Isaac Newton; however, the great mathematician had never married. Born of wealth, Jonas was a prosperous owner of a successful shipping company and invested in alum, used for fixing colors in textiles. Thomas’ mother died in 1771, the same year the 21-year-old Thomas set off to sea on his father’s ships to the New World, transacting family business from Nova Scotia to the Carolinas, and Barbados. Over the next three years, Thomas had made up his mind to settle permanently in America. According to his father Jonas, Thomas was influenced by the cordial reception given him by “the most considerable families.”
In 1773, the Creek and Cherokee Nations ceded over two million acres of land along the Savannah River in Georgia and South Carolina to Georgia authorities, in exchange for large debts to traders. This was to become the ceded lands, which would play a major role during the American Revolution. The transaction was published on June 11, 1773, advertising the sale of this land to English immigrants. By the summer of 1774, a major event in Thomas’ life would determine his fate. His father Jonas, at age 55, intended to marry 24-year-old Sarah Williams, the same age as Thomas. Since Thomas wished to immigrate to America, and the availability of rich agricultural land for sale in Georgia, Jonas paid the royal sum of £3,000 for 5,600 acres to be deeded to his son Thomas. Thomas advertised the land to be rented out to immigrants, setting up Thomas as an American Lord of the Manor. For immigrants who could not afford the passage on the Marlborough, they would be indentured servants to Thomas until the fee was paid off.
With 29 settlers, the Marlborough sailed from Whitby in August for the Orkneys. There, Thomas picked up another 50 or so immigrants (three of Jonas’ captains were from the Orkneys), and sailed for Savannah, Georgia, arriving in early November. Thomas was just the sort of refined, wealthy gentleman the Royal Governor of Georgia, James Wright (serving 1760-1782) wished for when he advertised sale of the ceded lands in Europe. With the 5,600 acres divided into 12 large tracts, Thomas, now appointed a magistrate, traveled up the Savannah River, 120 miles to his new home; where he would establish the community of Brownsborough, just upriver from Augusta. He had anticipated the life as a gentleman planter but no sooner arriving at his estate, he found himself embroiled in rebellious politics that would reach a climax the following year.
Lead up to Violence
As a magistrate, Brown took an oath to uphold British law and was diligent in performing his duties. He lived in Augusta while applying himself to his new life in America. His tenants and indentured servants were put right to work clearing land, building homes, and developing his large plantation. Augusta was laid out in a forty-acre spread and had around eighty homes and businesses layered along the main road that followed the river to Savannah; the Native American trade still the main source of income. To the north led the trail to the Cherokee Nation and west to the Creek; both had large tracts of ceded lands in the backcountry that had been sparsely settled by whites. At first, the townspeople readily accepted the wealthy, genteel, and well-educated Yorkshireman.
Yet the caldron of rebellion was beginning to heat up with both sides of the issue taking a stance. For Brown, most patriotic Whigs had misgivings for his position of wealth and influence. It was becoming a climate where the local populace believed the Royal Government was favoring merchants and their Indians over settlers. Anyone who was appointed to office by the governor was held suspect. For Brown, many Whigs had misgivings about his wealth and position with close ties to the royal governor. Also, rumors spread that the John Stewart, British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, was planning to support an Indian war against farmers and that Brown was the illegitimate son of Lord North, having arrived to secretly spy on the colonials. Though Boston and talk of war was far removed from the wilderness of Georgia, there was a radical drift in backcountry politics as revolution was spreading throughout the colonies
In January of 1775, Brown was in Savannah to see to the Marlborough’s departure for England where it would restock and bring additional settlers to his Brownsborough. While there, he witnessed Governor Wright allowing the Georgia Provincial Congress to assemble. The organization was mainly one-sided towards rebellion and readily adapted the “Continental Association.” The agreement to boycott British goods was adopted by the First Congress in 1774 as a response to what had been labeled England’s ‘Intolerable Acts;’ punitive acts in response to Boston’s Tea Party. It was decided that the importation of goods from England would stop on the ides of March and all exportation would end on December 1, 1775. Also, every town, district, or parish would elect a committee to enforce the Association. Violators’ names would be published so that they would be shunned. These declarations by the Provincial Congress were unacceptable to Brown and other merchants, mainly those who favored remaining under the crown’s laws.
The news of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, threw the low country into turmoil. Governor now Sir James Wright wrote General Thomas Gage in Boston that “The accounts from the northward have had the worst possible effect.” As at British arms installations throughout the colonies, on May 11th, the royal powder magazine in Savannah was broken into. On July 4th, the Second Provincial Congress met, handing down provisions that were far more radical. On July 24th in Savannah, John Hopkins, an accused ‘loyalist’ was tarred and feathered and paraded through the streets. Others who proclaimed allegiance to the crown were forced to leave Georgia for their lives. And the rumor that British Indian Agent Stewart was scheming with the natives to attack erupted into reality for the backcountry. Militias were organized and armed and heated debates organized by local Sons of Liberties took on more violent tones. And for Brown, who remained vocal in his support for British law, the timing of the return of the Marlborough only exacerbated his position.
Beaten and Burned in Mob Attack
By the end of July, passions in Augusta had reached a head. Brown stepped into the mire by organizing a counter association among those still preaching loyalty to the crown, calling themselves non-associators. As such, by assuming the leadership of the loyalist faction, he became the Whig’s primary target. And within a week, Brown’s dream of a comfortable life with an American Lordship and head of the manor would vanish.
On August 2, 1775, Brown was at New Richmond in Brownsborough, his partner James Gordon’s residence. A mob of nearly one hundred Liberty Boys led by Captain Robert Hamilton met Brown on the front porch and demanded he swear to uphold the Continental Association. According to what Brown wrote to his father afterwards, he refused to sign the document. He stated he could not support the Association’s proclamations and his oath as magistrate did not allow him to take up arms against his government nor did he wish to do so against his neighbors. The crowd grew impatient. Their spokesmen told Brown plainly that he could not remain neutral; if he was not with them, he was against them. Accordingly, Brown went inside and came out with a pair of pistols in his pockets. He then asked what they planned to do and was told that Brown would be dragged to Augusta and forced to sign the agreement. Brown reportedly said that if they were for public Liberty, they ought to be for private liberty and allow him to live in peace. At that fifty left, but another fifty remained to enact their threats.
When Brown demanded they leave, six or eight drew their swords and rushed him. Brown wrote that he drew his pistols. One misfired, but the other struck Chesley Bostick in the foot. When the pistols were grabbed, Brown drew his sword and held them at bay until he was hit with a rifle butt from behind in the head. The blow fractured his skull and he fell to the porch, semiconscious. The house was ransacked while Brown was carted to Augusta. He told his father that he was tied to a tree and burning pieces of lightwood were thrust under his feet. In a later description of the episode, Brown was more graphic. 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. Afterwards, he was paraded down Broad Street in a cart. Brown later wrote his father that he was “insensible” for two days after the attack. But was firm in his resolve to remain a loyalist writing that “I do not wish to take up arms against the country that gave me being.” For some months later he had trouble walking and even after several decades later, he suffered migraines as the result of the skull fracture and scalping. It was from that ordeal that throughout the war, patriots referred to the young Yorkshire gentleman as ‘Burnfoot Brown.”
Leadership Role and Refugee to Florida
Shortly after the attack, Brown was put under favorable guard, and rode the fifty miles to the British outpost at Ninety-Six in South Carolina. The brutal attack galvanized Brown to seek retribution against his patriot neighbors. Soon after arriving at Ninety-Six, Brown and other loyalists made recruitment their first order of business. Two weeks after Brown was tortured, he met with William Henry Drayton, one of the Charleston Whigs sent into the back country to recruit patriots among the settlers. By then Brown was vehement towards those who supported rebellion. Drayton wrote of Brown that “his bitterness and violence are intolerable,” and added he was “as dangerous a man as any in this Colony.” William Tennent who accompanied Drayton warned, “Brown will bring them to blood if he can.”
Brown continued to rally loyalists in South Carolina calling themselves non-associators. He traveled to Charleston in November to visit Royal Governor Lord William Campbell, who on September 15, 1775, had been forced to take refuge aboard the British warship HMS Cherokee, anchored in Charleston harbor. Brown was immediately arrested by the Committee of Safety and questioned. Afterwards, he was told to leave the province of South Carolina immediately. Governor Campbell managed to get a message through to Brown, instructing him to go to Savannah and from there to St. Augustine to confer on a plan of action.
Brown showed up in Savannah in mid-December, just when Marlborough returned with the second contingency of Brown’s immigrants for his community. Told that the troubles in America were a distant, thousand miles north from Georgia, the newly arrived that disembarked at Savannah on December 12th must have been astonished to learn that their master, Thomas Brown, was still crippled from his torture and under sentence of banishment from Georgia. Dr. Thomas Taylor, a friend of Jonas Brown who was aboard ship, wrote to Thomas’ father on December 26th to inform him that his son was under orders to leave the province within ten days. As for the newly arrived, they made their way to their promised ceded lands and by July of 1776, so too were forced to decide like their predecessors; independence or a king.
The HMS Hinchinbrook docked in Savannah on January 18, 1775 on its way to St. Augustine, Florida. Royal Governor of South Carolina, Lord William Campbell was among the passengers. It is believed that Thomas Brown most likely took passage on the same ship. At St. Augustine, Lord William introduced his young Yorkshireman prodigy to Florida’s crusty Governor Patrick Tonyn. The former Colonel was a distinguished British officer and comrade in arms of General Henry Clinton. Tonyn would come to realize Brown’s zealous potential as a leader that would play out in the successful defense of Florida from the growing storm.
East Florida; Brown’s Rangers Help to Turn Back Three Rebel Invasions
For Brown and other loyalists driven from their homes, Colonel and Governor Patrick Tonyn of East Florida opened arms to accept all loyal to the crown. Governor Tonyn knew that England had more than enough on its plate than to be concerned about sending additional troops to a Florida garrison defending a small population that had little impact on the overall economy. He also knew the Canadian colony was already under attack by the thirteen rebellious colonies and East Florida, because of St. Augustine and its coastal trade importance, would be next. [1]West Tonyn therefore decided to take matters of defense into his own hands.
Tonyn sent agents north to encourage Loyalists to seek refuge in East Florida. Many Tory families heeded his call and throughout late 1775 and into 1776, found their way south. Tonyn next sought to form a regiment of local militia. Among them would be Seminole allied to England led by local white settlers augmented by the refugees of Georgia and South Carolina. But Tonyn needed an articulate, forceful leader to organize and command. Someone spurred on by passion and determination. Who harbored a grudge, a score, needing to be settled, and would stand firm before the expected rebel invasion. And in Brown, Tonyn had his man.[2]
Brown Organizes Florida Rangers and Bonds with Native Americans
Though texts and several internet sites state Brown had lived with the native Creek and Cherokee right after leaving Augusta, there is no evidence he had ever had any dealings with Native Americans before he reached Florida. He soon made up for that. Besides his new role as forming a band of ranger fighters that included the Seminole in Florida, the driven former aristocrat took the reins from the elder Indian agent John Stewart at Pensacola, Florida. He returned north and traveled amongst the Creek, bringing caravans of arms, ammunition, and presents that was greatly received. This was at a time when rebel patriots could not, due to the forced boycott of British goods, provide anything beyond promises. In fact, when Brown was developing friendships among the natives, the Georgian rebels were set to destroy them.
Brown first entered the Creek native lands in late March or early April of 1776, and remained for long periods of time, returning often for the remainder of the year. There were fourteen Lower Creek towns along the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers and above them and west were the twenty-four towns of the Upper Creeks. Over the months, Brown was able to form close personal attachments with the tribal chieftains that would play out for the British until the war’s end. Once he gained the trust of his native allies, over the next three years, he would stage multiple raids throughout Georgia and Carolina backcountry; particularly cattle rustling.
In early spring, 1776, Tonyn commissioned Brown to Lt. Colonel and gave him the resources to recruit and train a select body of loyalist militiamen to serve for three years. Brown described the men who joined him as possessing “a perfect knowledge of the language, customs, manners and disposition of the different tribes of Creeks and Cherokees … expert woodsmen capable of swimming any river in the province … the best guides in the southern district.” By early 1776, a fast-moving mounted infantry was born; known as the East Florida Rangers. One hundred and thirty men, organized in four companies. Along with their Seminole allies, they would be the most active of Florida’s answer to American aggression and would later support England’s invasion of Georgia and the Carolinas.
Americans Stage Three Unsuccessful Invasions of East Florida
The Provincial Assemblies of Georgia and South Carolina were intent on adding East Florida to the original thirteen rebellious colonies. And in 1776, 1777, and 1778, they launched three separate invasions that proved one fiasco after another. Each fizzled out due to infighting, jealousies, overstuffed egos, and obstinate resistance by the small British garrison and Tory fighters. The Southern Continental Army would spearhead the invasions and from the beginning to the haphazard retreat, be hampered with local legislatures who saw themselves as great battlefield commanders. Brown’s Florida Rangers and Seminole allies would play a key role; especially against one who would prove Brown’s greatest nemesis; Georgia rebel back countryman and fiercest fighter, Lt. Colonel Elijah Clarke.
August of 1776 saw rebel invasion troops gradually picking their way south. They were immediately hampered by Brown’s Rangers and native allies. In this, Brown’s first action commanding men in combat, he proved his worth as a naturally gifted leader. After the British attempt to capture Charleston, South Carolina was thwarted at the Battle of Fort Sullivan, June 28, 1776, Major General Charles Lee answered the call by Georgia’s Legislature and looked south to Florida. He helped organize an expedition into Florida using militia and Continental troops. But after Lee was called north to organize New York City’s defense against the expected British invasion, the Florida expedition began to unravel. With no clear leader and lack of coordination along with men new to the hardships of campaigning, all the invasion did was establish a series of forts along the coast before slipping back north.
The second invasion met the same fate as the first. With Continental troops stalled on the coast, the Georgia militia decided to give up and go home. On May 17, 1777 and the Battle of Thomas Creek, the rebel militia were ambushed by Brown’s rangers. They pulled back headlong into a company of regulars while flanked by bands of Seminole. The result was a total rout with the unorganized mass struggling to get back to Georgia. With the militia gone, the Continentals called off the attack.
Prior to the third invasion, Brown stirred the Americans to action. In March of 1778, he staged a major incursion deep into Georgia. Over the past year, he had been extremely active in raiding; burning frontier settlements and supplying St. Augustine with over 3,000 head of stolen cattle. With a force of 100 Rangers and 10 Seminoles, Brown drove deep into Georgia and captured and burned the patriot outpost at Fort Howe, and former Fort Barrington; a large blockhouse on the banks of the Altamaha River, only sixty miles south of Savannah. Not satisfied with this feat, he sent three large parties further north, two in the Georgia backcountry and one as far as South Carolina, to gather information and stir up Loyalist sentiments to join him in East Florida. A third invasion was called for which proved no better than the previous attempts. Constant squabbling between egotistic legislatures and Continental officers once more led to disaster.
The rebel force, again militia supported by Continental troops under General Robert Howe, departed in early April and took three months to painstakingly weave their way into East Florida; constantly hampered by leadership issues and lack of supplies. When they met the enemy at the Battle of Alligator Bridge, June 30, 1778, the result was no better than the previous year. Having learned they were shadowed by Brown’s Rangers, Continental cavalry were sent forward to attack them. The crafty Yorkshireman led them directly to the bridge where the British regulars awaited. With noses bloodied, rebel militia and Continental troop commanders continued to bicker until desertion and lack of supplies forced the Americans to return home. For a complete detail of the three invasions, see Revolutionary War Journal’s Battles of Thomas Creek and Alligator Bridge: Florida in the American Revolution.
British Invade Georgia. Brown Wounded. Campbell Takes Augusta and Soon Retreats
After the British army under General Sir Henry Clinton vacated Philadelphia in June of 1778 and returned to New York City, the southern theatre gained importance. It was decided to ship an invasion force to capture Savannah, Georgia. Commanding officer Colonel Archibald Campbell (exchanged in May, 1778, for inept blowhard Ethan Allen), sailed that fall from New York City with 3,000 British regulars including Hessians and Loyalist Volunteers equipped and trained as regulars. The city was taken on December 29th and on January 15, 1779, Campbell relinquished command to General Augustine Provost who, along with Brown’s Florida Ranger, arrived at Savannah.
On January 22, 1779, Campbell began his march up the river to Augusta, Brown’s Rangers led the vanguard. On the 26th, Brown was ordered to take the Burke County Jail where the local militia were led by Lieutenant Colonel James Ingram, an aide to General Benjamin Lincoln who had taken command of the Southern American Army. During the attack, Brown’s arm was fractured; however, he continued to lead his men. The attack proved a draw and Campbell carried on towards Augusta. On January 30th, he took the town without a fight, Colonel Samuel Elbert’s Continental force having retreated that morning. Brown’s Rangers were dispatched to guard against rebel raiding parties while Campbell waited for the expected Carolina Loyalists under Colonel James Boyd. However, Brown’s and Campbell’s stay in Augusta would prove short lived.
Two factors played out that forced Campbell and Brown to withdraw to Savannah. Across the river from Augusta was General Andrew Williamson’s 800-man militia force which had just been reinforced by sixteen hundred reinforcements; twelve hundred of them North Carolinians under General John Ashe. Without waiting any longer for Boyd’s loyal Carolinians, Campbell abandoned Augusta early on the morning of February 14, 1779. That same day, at the Battle of Kettle Creek, northwest of Augusta in the ceded lands, a rebel militia force half the size of Colonel Boyd’s Carolina Loyalists attacked and routed the Tories. The rebels were led by legendary Colonels Andrew Pickens and John Dooley that included Brown’s nemesis in Florida, Lt. Colonel Elijah Clarke.
Campbell continued his march south to Savannah with Brown’s Rangers covering his flank. He was later joined by 270 Carolina Loyalists who had survived the ordeal at Kettle Creek. He was also met by Lt. Colonel James Provost who Campbell directed to attack the American forces of North Carolinas at Briar Creek. While Campbell carried on towards Savannah, Provost, with Brown’s Rangers, attacked on March 3rd and devastated the rebel command. American General William Moultrie later commented that “…it is more than probable that Carolina would not have been invaded had this event not taken place.”
Indian Agent and King’s Carolina Rangers Help Defend Savannah
On June 25, 1779, Lord George Germain appointed Thomas Brown the eastern Indian Superintendent covering relations with all Creek and Cherokee throughout Georgia and the Carolinas. Germain wrote that “The King’s Service now requires that the procuring, sending out or leading Parties of the Indians to co-operate with His Majesty’s Forces or otherwise to annoy the Enemy should be the principal object of your attention.” But because the ship carrying dispatches with this order was captured, Brown would not learn of his appointment until late in 1779. Meanwhile, Brown assisted in Provost’s brief invasion of the South Carolina coast leading to the Battle of Stono Ferry. He was also busy reorganizing his Florida Rangers. He recruited additional men and renamed the unit King’s Carolina Rangers. A year later in August, 1780, they would be referred to simply as the King’s Rangers.
On September 3, 1779, Royal Governor Wright wrote Lord George Germain, “No man could have thought or believed that a French Fleet of 25 Sail of the Line, with at least 9 Frigates, and a number of other Vessels, would have come on the coast of Georgia in the month of September, and Landed from 4 to 5000 troops to besiege the town of Savannah…” Washington knew that British held Savannah was an open door for a further British invasion of the south. He and South Carolina Governor John Rutledge had appealed to French Admiral Charles-Henri comte d’Estaing to help take Savannah and close that door. D’Estaing was waiting for the easterly winds to carry his fleet back to France and decided he could afford a two-week diversion.
When rebel militia and the Southern Continental Army under General Benjamin Lincoln joined the French, the British were badly outnumbered. But the British regulars were all veterans from Howe’s main army and General Prevost would be defending a tight knit semi-circle before wide open killing fields. Prevost called in his regulars from the countryside including the 71st Highlander Regiment under Colonel Maitland who made their way along the coast just in time to slip behind defenses. Brown’s men had never fought behind formal works. The association with regulars taught the rangers skills they had not acquired while fighting in the back woods. No doubt lessons learned during the siege paid off a year later at the First Siege of Augusta, when they formed a battle line and charged with bayonet. The King’s Rangers anchored the extreme right of the British line along the River.
The October 9th failed grand assault on the British works centered at the redoubt at Spring Hill, along the Augusta road, not far from Brown’s men. It was aimed at the South Carolina Provincials commanded by the 71st officer Lt. Thomas Tawse. Hessians and Grenadier of the Royal Americans advanced in a bayonet attack and drove the attackers back, basically ending the assault and ultimately, the siege. By holding Savannah, the way was open for General Henry Clinton to consider a major invasion of the south. By the end of the year, Brown finally learned that he was now Superintendent of Indian Affairs and lost no time in organizing his Native American allies for the expected British onslaught.
British Capture Charleston and Brown Given the Green Light to Advance into Backcountry
After the defeat at Savannah, General Benjamin Lincoln had spent the winter months drawing his Southern Army into Charleston, South Carolina, over 5,000 strong. General Henry Clinton and his second in command, General Lord Charles Cornwallis, sailed southward in late December, 1779, with 8,500 troops in 12 regiments with 250 cavalry, artillery, and 5,000 sailors on 90 troopships and 14 warships. After a very stormy voyage, the fleet anchored in the Savannah River on 1 February 1780. Over the next two months, Clinton would inch his way ninety miles along the coast to Charleston. The Siege of Charleston officially began on March 22, 1780 and ended with the complete surrender of the Southern American Army on May 12, 1780.
Brown did not take part in the Siege of Charleston. Instead, Clinton ordered him to remain in Georgia and have his Native Americans ready to assist the British once Charleston fell and forces moved into the back country. Brown was to cooperate with Brigadier General James Paterson who was to command the expedition to Augusta. Brown met with Paterson on February 15th and told him the Creek and Cherokee were alerted. He requested a month’s notice to have them join the King’s troops at Augusta. Paterson told Brown to call their native allies to Augusta in mid-April. However, Clinton soon after summoned Paterson’s 1,500-man detachment to Charleston to help in the siege, putting Brown’s plans on the backburner.
During the siege, Georgia’s rebel resistance increased, staging frequent raids against loyalists while Brown and others did not have the manpower to respond. All rebel resistance in both Georgia and South Carolina collapsed after May 12th and the surrender of the American army. Clinton ordered Lieutenant Colonel Alured Clarke to relieve Augustine Prevost of command in Savannah[3] and to dispatch Brown to Augusta, in cooperation with the British forces on the Carolina side under Lieutenant Colonel Nisbet Balfour who would take station at Fort Ninety-Six (fifty miles north of Augusta in South Carolina). So too, Brown would have two other new commanders besides Clarke and Balfour to work with; John Harris Cruger, who would replace Balfour at Fort Ninety-Six, and Commanding General Cornwallis. Brown would ultimately win the praises of each commander over the next couple of years.
Brown Takes Augusta
By the end of May, Brown had enough horses, wagons, and supplies to begin his expedition to Augusta, 120 miles up the Savannah River. While in route, Brown joined other British representatives in accepting pardons from rebel militiamen and their leaders. Brown arrived at Augusta on June 8th. In 1779, he had been part of Colonel Campbell’s staff. This time Brown would oversee the city, assuming roles as military commander and the town’s mayor. He soon settled into his new role and continued to organize his Native allies in seeking rebel holdouts; particularly in the ceded lands to the north and west. He also established a large cache of weapons and arms plus trade ‘presents’ for the Creek and Cherokee at the McKay plantation and Trading Post. Native presents were also stored at the newly constructed Fort Grierson, named for local resident and loyalist commander Lt. Col. Thomas Grierson. The new fort was just west of Fort Augusta’s ruins at St. Paul’s Church on Broad Street.
During the next few months things were looking good for the British. General Cornwallis had secured the backcountry with a chain of outposts. Most rebel militia leaders had taken parole and returned home. British hopes to placate the south increased after the defeat of Continental factions and the ultimate destruction of a second Continental Army at the Battle of Camden, August 16, 1780. Within in two days, the rebels suffered a major defeat of General Sumter’s large militia force at the Battle of Fishing Creek, August 18th. With these two major American setbacks, it appeared the path was clear to further British influence by invading North Carolina. But the British could not stem the growing tide of rebel resistance; particularly those who broke their paroles and returned to the fight. In this Brown would also feel the affect. While British resources were stretched thin chasing down roving militia bands, Brown’s old nemesis, Georgian Elijah Clarke would strike out and boldly attack Augusta; with the near capture of the town and destruction of Brown and his rangers.
First Siege of Augusta September 14 – 18, 1780
Colonel Elijah Clarke of Georgia had settled in the ceded lands, renamed Wilkes County in 1777, and was keen to return and rid the region of British and loyalist dominance. He also hoped to do away with his hated enemy, Burnfoot Brown while eying the large storage of weapons and native presents in and around Augusta, estimated value at over £4,000. Clarke had hoped to raise a thousand militiamen to take the town and fort, but could only muster 350. Undeterred, Clarke still went ahead with his plans resulting in the First Siege of Augusta. His force included mainly Georgians driven from their homes in the ceded lands with 80 South Carolina militia under Lt. Col. James McCall.
Brown thought himself secure at Augusta with 450 fighters that included King’s Rangers, local armed loyalist militia, plus Creek and Cherokee who were constantly on scouting patrols. But Clarke had organized his force of militia so quickly and marched as soon as they assembled, that Brown was not aware of the threat until it was too late. At 9 AM the morning of September 14th, shots were heard from the Creek Camp, about three miles to the west of town. Thinking that was the main rebel attack, Brown immediately rushed to offer his native allies aid, leaving a small detachment of British partisan regular invalids from the previous Battle of Musgrove Mill at Ft. Grierson to guard the stores and town.
But Clarke had divided his force into three detachments. While the native camp was assaulted, his other two divisions attacked the sparsely guarded town from the south, overwhelming the small guard and securing the stores and town. Brown arrived just as the Creek were pushed back to the McKay plantation where the bulk of the native ‘presents and weapons were stored. Brown succeeded in driving the rebels back, but when Clarke’s main forces joined in the fight, Brown retreated to the stone trading house at McKay’s. There he barricaded his men within the building, while the Creek formed along the Savannah River Banks in a natural defensive position. It was on this first day of the siege or shortly after when Brown received two wounds to his thighs. Though debilitated and in intense pain, Brown refused to relinquish command and remained at his post throughout the four-day siege.
During the first day’s fight and that evening, Brown had the good sense to send two messengers by different routes to Fort Ninety-Six, some fifty miles north in South Carolina. Upon receiving the messages, the able fort’s commander, Lt. Colonel Harris Cruger of the 1st Battalion, Delancey’s New York and New Jersey Brigade, immediately marched most of the garrison to Brown’s relief. Over the next three days while constantly under rifle attack, including a brief shelling from artillery brought over from Ft. Grierson, Brown’s force held. Even after the water was cut off, the obstinate Yorkshireman refused all offers of surrender, vowing to fight to the extreme.
When Cruger’s force of 500 veteran regulars and loyalist militia showed up on the morning of August 18th, Clarke hastily retreated north west into Wilke’s County. He was followed by Cruger’s men who over the next couple of weeks, penalized the ceded lands by plundering and torching over a 100 homes. Clarke afterwards received condemnation for his attempt at Augusta that resulted in the destruction of so many farms and a large exodus of Georgia refuges into South Carolina. So too, Brown was vilified when he followed General Cornwallis’ order to hang any suspected parole breakers who were caught. Within days after the siege was lifted, thirteen militiamen were hanged at the McKay plantation; those whose wounds did not allow them to keep up with the fast-retreating rebel militia.
Within a week after the siege, Cornwallis launched his long overdue invasion of North Carolina. He only got as far as Charlotte, when at the Battle of Charlotte, September 26, 1780, stiff rebel resistance caused a delay. Before the British could forge deeper into the former colony, the disaster at the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7, 1780, saw the total annihilation of Cornwallis’ detached left wing of partisan loyalists with the death of its commander, Colonel Patrick Ferguson. Cornwallis was forced to return to South Carolina and spend the winter regrouping and mopping up rebel resistance. Meanwhile, Brown remained in Augusta. He the next several months rebuilding the Fort Augusta ruins and renaming it Fort Cornwallis. He also resumed his role as Indian Superintendent, organizing Native American resistance throughout the Carolinas while setting up lines of communication to Fort Detroit and the northern tribes.
British Influence in the South Broken
In the six months after Brown’s men held out against Clarke’s attack, the British commander General Cornwallis went from dominating the deep south, to limping his battered and exhausted army to the Carolina coast. There they would eventually march north, seeking to align with British forces who had invaded Virginia. Meanwhile, Colonel Lord Francis Rawdon was left in command of a string of outposts from Ninety-Six to Charleston and Savannah; Augusta included.
The string of British disasters began with the surprise and complete defeat of Lt. Col Banastre Tarleton’s detachment at the Battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781, leaving Cornwallis without his light infantrymen. The defeat was exasperated by the arduous trek through North Carolina’s backcountry, chasing the ever-elusive American Southern Continental Army under the skillful hands of General Nathanael Greene. Having left his baggage train far behind, Cornwallis drove his ever-depleting force further north to the Virginia frontier. There on March 15, 1781, Greene turned and offered battle. Cornwallis smashed what remained of his army in a Pyrrhic Victory at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. It left the frustrated British commander no choice but to give up the chase and seek the coast where he hoped to revitalize his army.
Second Siege of Augusta May 21 – June 5 and Capture
In the spring of 1781, with Cornwallis out of the picture, Greene turned south to target the remaining British strongholds, hoping to pick them off while driving British forces towards the coast. Continental Army commander General Nathanael Greene had his eye on Camden and Fort Ninety-Six in South Carolina. Both Greene’s attempts to take the strong British outposts ended in military draws with rebel forces withdrawing. At Camden, Greene faced Col. Lord Francis Rawdon who sallied from the fort to attack the Continentals at the Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill, April 25, 1781. Not to be deterred, Greene marched his forces west to Ninety-Six, commanded by the ever-resilient Col. Harris Cruger. There, a siege lasted from May 22 – June 18th, ending when word of a large British force was marching from Charleston to reinforce the besieged fortification. In May, Camden had been abandoned and three days after the siege was lifted, Cruger was ordered to abandon Ft. Ninety-Six. Meanwhile, Georgia and South Carolina militia had been eager to have another go at Augusta and Brown’s rangers.
By early May, South Carolina’s militia leader Brigadier General Andrew Pickens arrived outside Augusta with his militia that included Georgia refugees. On May 15th, Colonel Elijah Clarke returned to head his Georgian refugees after recovering from wounds received at the Battle of Long Canes, Dec. 12, 1780. The two militia commanders had united two years previously during the victorious Battle of Kettle Creek, February 14, 1779. Though about to siege Fort Ninety-Six, General Greene, fearing in the advent Augusta fell and the likelihood of a ‘Georgia parole’ by militia forces, whereby all prisoners would be put to death, Greene dispatched a hundred Continental troops to join Pickens. They were led by dragoon commander Lt. Col. Henry ‘Lighthorse Harry’ Lee. Together, the Americans mustered 1,600 troops, a far cry better than Clarke’s first siege of Augusta with just 350 militiamen.
To face them, Brown had about 600 Loyalist Rangers, Tory militia, and Creek and Cherokee allies. Over 500 were stationed within the newly rebuilt Fort Augusta, renamed Fort Cornwallis on the grounds of St. Paul’s Church. It was an impressive fort of extensive defensive works and high walls. About a quarter mile to the west was a smaller fort or redoubt that positioned 80 additional men under local loyalist Lt. Col. James Grierson.
While rebel forces gathered and prepared to siege Augusta, Brown was not inactive. On the 19th, he sallied out of the fort and scattered the nearby militia. On May 22nd, the main attack began with an assault on Ft. Grierson. Major Samuel Hammond of South Carolina led the attack in which every second man was equipped with an ax. The Carolinians swarmed across the shallow gully and began to cut away the stockade. Realizing resistance was futile, Lt. Colonel Grierson and his eighty men escaped over the side of the fort nearest the river and ran along the riverbank toward Fort Cornwallis with the attackers in hot pursuit. Many secondary accounts state that the redoubt’s defenders were cut down to a man, all killed during their attempted escape, including Grierson. Most of those who died that day were among the redoubt’s garrison, some falling prey to rebel vengeance for Brown’s previous hanging of rebel captives during the previous year’s first siege. However, Brown came out of his fort to help Grierson’s escape and opened with a cannonade; Lee’s cannon returning fire. Primary sources, such as Martin Weatherford, later recalled that Grierson and his second, Major Henry Williams, along with other militiamen from the redoubt, safely crowded through the gate of Fort Cornwallis. It was after Brown surrendered the fort that Grierson was murdered and Williams wounded while under captive guard.
With the siege settling in and single American 6 pounder having little effect against Fort Cornwallis’ reinforced walls, the rebels decided to build a Maham Tower, first used successfully the previous month in the fall of Fort Watson, April 14 – 23. Brown witnessed the construction of the thirty-foot tower, built with notched logs and filled with sand and dirt. Knowing its destructive potential, he staged several evening raids to destroy it. When completed on June 1st, the six-pounder cannon was hauled to its summit. Over the next few days, shells constantly rained down on the fort until one by one, cannon and buildings were taken out.
As he had done the previous year when barricaded at the McKay Trading Post, Brown refused to give up. He staged further sallies, torched buildings, sent one of his sergeants disguised as a deserter to torch the tower, and even tunneled under one of the buildings near the fort to set explosive charges; in hopes to blow up rebel forces staging an assault on the fort. All this proved for naught. While Lee, Pickens, and Clarke began assembling their men for a final assault on June 4th against Brown’s defenses left in ruins by the persistent bombardment, Lee sent a last request for surrender. This time Brown accepted, with the request that the surrender be delayed until the fifth, since the fourth was the King’s birthday. He also requested that he and his men would be guaranteed safe protection from vengeful militiamen. Lee agreed and would oversee extraordinary precautions to prevent the murder of prisoners. On June 5th, at 8 AM, Brown surrendered Augusta and was paroled. For his personal safety, he was put under military guard during his escort to Savannah.
Brown Remained Active Organizing Native American Resistance Till War’s End
Brown was exchanged sometime in October of 1781. He was persuasive and received funds to purchase a large supply of arms and presents for his Creek and Cherokee allies. His headquarters was in Savannah from where he sent out Loyalists to the backcountry to deliver the provisions, often accompanying the caravans. After Cornwallis’ defeat at Yorktown, American General ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne had been sent to General Greene in late 1781 and by early 1782, was campaigning against the Cherokee and Creek in Georgia. Brown and his men often skirmished with Wayne’s patrols. Brown was also kept busy recruiting for his Rangers, organizing additional companies. By February, 1782, he had 474 men under his command. As such, Brown bore the brunt of the fighting and foraging outside of Savannah that remained in British hands.
Spring and early summer saw both sides of the conflict positioning men and political influence to take best advantage of expected peace negotiations. In April, Wayne tightened his grip and occupied territory within six miles of Atlanta. Royal Governor Wright of Georgia vowed to fight on, grasping at straws that would keep the Georgia lowlands, like East Florida, in British hands. A plan was enacted whereas Brown would continue the war in the backcountry, leading the native nations; however, England had enough. Sir Guy Carleton of Canada had replaced General Clinton as supreme commander and one of his first acts was to abandon Savannah. Governor Wright was furious when orders arrived from New York on June 14th to abandon Georgia for good. British
General Alured Clarke immediately began preparations to evacuate Savannah. Troops began leaving the city on July 11th, heading for New York and Charleston. The Rangers remained. Georgia loyalists did not want to eventually evacuate to cold Nova Scotia. They also demanded to retain their slaves. Loyalists appealed to General Wayne who offered conditions of gaining citizenship in the new United States, allowing them to stay. Though many loyalists took advantage of Wayne’s offer, Brown and 2,500 Georgian whites along with 4,000 blacks did not and waited for transportation to St. Augustine, Florida. By years end, a large refugee contingency from Charleston would join them; Charleston was abandoned on Dec. 12th. Before leaving Savannah in August, Brown organized one final raid by his Cherokee allies in the ceded lands that only brought down the wrath of American forces. Wayne burned more Cherokee villages and Elijah Clarke forced over a 1,000 Cherokee refugees into Florida. By September 1782, Brown had removed his Rangers with Native American allies to Florida.
After the War
Brown would survive war’s end, spending another 42 years as a successful farmer and merchant. During his eleven traumatic years in America, beginning when he first stepped off ship from England in 1774, he had gained the respect of all he came into contact; both friends and enemy. He also enjoyed the high esteem and appreciation from England’s highest teers of political influence. This would play out nicely for the Yorkshireman when requesting reimbursement for lands lost in Georgia and Florida. By the time of his death in 1825, Brown owned thousands of acres, several plantations, and over 600 slaves; having lived mainly among British held Caribbean islands.
Brown had arrived in Georgia with 150 indentured slaves. He left with 170 black slaves; a number he would consistently expand with acquired land holdings until that number reached over 600. In Florida, he held high office, sitting on Governor Tonyn’s council, having been granted thousands of acres off the St. Johns River. But Brown’s hopes of a peaceful farming existence, like those thousands of other Loyalists who fled to East Florida, were shattered when the British handed the province over to Spain as part of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. On August 29, 1785, the last transports had left Florida; however, the Yorkshireman had obtained his influence over his Native American friends. He struck a blow to his former enemies in Georgia by encouraging the Creeks to cooperate with the new Spanish authorities in controlling American westward expansion. This action would frustrate the new Georgia assembly and developers for years to come.
Brown destination, including many of his former rangers, were the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas; uninhabited land ceded to the loyalists. Abaco is a narrow, irregular, crescent-shaped island, 280 miles from Florida at the northern end of the Bahamas with a duster of small islands inside the crescent and long sandbars outside. The land, described as “nothing more than vegetable bodies rotted on the surface of the rocks.” would prove poor and ultimately unprofitable. By the late 1780’s, Brown’s younger brother by another marriage, Jonas (named for Thomas’ father), was active in seeking restitution for Brown’s losses in America and Florida. In recognition of his loyalism and wartime service, by the late 1780’s, Brown left the Abaco Islands when awarded extensive tracts of land in the north and middle Grand Caicos islands; part of the Bahamas until 1848. Scattered over 8,000 acres and encompassing thirteen different plantations, Brown raised cattle and cotton, forced through the slave labor of over 600 black slaves.
The late 1780’s and throughout the 1790’s were very productive for the wealthy planter; his estate brought in £20,000 annually and was valued at £108,000. Never far from politics and disputes, he often came to odds with the Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, former Royal Governor of Virginia, who arrived in 1787 and would remain until 1796. Brown would, like his father, take a young bride more than twenty years his junior. In 1789, Brown, then aged 39, married Esther Farr of Nassau, age 16. Hetty and Brown soon had four children; Mary, Thomas, Charles, and Susan.
However, things were not as perfect for the growing family. With the renewal of war with France, the Calico Islands were in an exposed position to be attacked. Brown took extreme measures to defend himself and the people. He armed and drilled his black labor force while constructing two forts to defend St. George’s Harbor in which he bought and installed fourteen cannon. Brown would suffer the loss of captured goods at sea, yet his land was not invaded. But the thin soil that had supported his cotton was playing out. It was only a matter of time before he would face ruin. On March 28, 1779, the death of his father, 62-year-old Jonas Brown, caused Brown to pack his family and belongings and move to his family home of Whitby. There he would resume connections with powerful people in the English government that would set him up nicely for the rest of his life.
In Whitby, Brown purchased Newton Hall and Hetty and he had their fifth child, George. His war record and his evident fortune as a wealthy West Indies planter opened society’s doors to him. He was known to William Pitt[4] while busy pushing for further compensation for his services to the elderly King George. He successfully negotiated an exchange of his 8,000-acre estate at Calicos for 6,000 acres on St. Vincent Island; a princely six by two-mile tract that composed one sixth of the entire island. St. Vincent had been returned to the British as part of the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The land had been reserved for the ‘Black Caribs’, former slaves who fought against British interests. The Caribs were defeated and 5,000 deported to islands off Honduras. However, some were allowed to remain and were given Brown grant in treaty. However, Brown’s interest and influence took priority and the deal went through; the remaining Caribs receiving just over 200 acres within Brown’s massive holdings. On June 8, 1805, with King George’s blessings, Lord Camden, Colonial Secretary, approved and the exchange was finalized. The former fighter soon set about removing squatter planters and establishing a firm hand on his new home.
By October, 1806, Brown had removed all his former estate to St. Vincent, including 643 slaves with a dozen white overseers. Within two years, Brown had his land officially surveyed and sugar works constructed, while so too removing the last of the squatter planters who had held out through friends in the local St. Vincent government. During this, tragedy struck Brown, after 18 years of marriage, his young wife Hetty, age 34, died on April 9, 1807. Brown traveled with her to Whitby where she was buried near his father in the churchyard near the old abbey ruins.
Browns years on St. Vincent were not fully one of content. The squatter planters continued arguments in court and Brown’s holdings were whittled down to under 3,000 acres. In February, 1812 Brown was consumed in a document fraud that stated he had received the land through nefarious means. The suit, filed by the former land owners on Brown’s estate, brought charges in London. Brown attended the trial and was convicted in 1815, serving two years in the King’s Bench debtors’ prison. While in prison, his oldest daughter Mary died and was buried with her mother in Whitby. So too, a volcanic eruption did extensive damage to Brown’s estate. Brown left prison in 1817 heavily in debt, owing 31,943 pounds to Liverpool banker John Moss. Moss foreclosed on Brown’s British estates and the former ranger left England for St. Vincent that same year, never to return.
In 1812, while Brown was dealing with his looming trial, Governor Brisbane laid out Georgetown and Trinity Church (built in 1820) on 172 acres of Brown’s plantation. Brown disapproved, but was in no position to stop the town or church’s construction. Upon returning in 1817, Brown reestablished his holdings at Grand Sable Plantation and built a large mansion he called Montague House in honor of his ancestor Sir Anthony Browne, Viscount Montague, master of horse for King Henry VIII. Brown’s sugar plantations produced among the finest sugar sold in England markets and soon restored the former King’s Ranger’s wealth. In 1821, within four years of returning, Brown cleared his debts.
A falling out with his son Charles and Hetty’s mother, who both returned to England, marred the last remaining years. Thomas Brown died on August 3, 1825, at the age of seventy-five. His passing was reported in the London Gentleman’s Magazine. It is not known how many of his old friends paid their respects at his funeral. The former Loyalist who 50 years earlier, had stood on a porch in a Georgia wilderness to defy a mob of Liberty Boys, was buried in the family plot near Holy Trinity Church, Georgetown, St. Vincent. His eldest son, the Reverend Thomas Brown, who had assumed pastor of Trinity Church, kept his post until his death on March 24, 1839. Brown’s grandson, also named Thomas, inherited Sable Plantation but after a devastating hurricane, the land was sold by Brown’s grandson in 1846 to pay Thomas’ debts.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ MORE, CHECK OUT THESE RECOMMENDED BOOKS
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RESOURCE
Buchanan, John. The Road to Guilford Courthouse. 1997: John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York, NY.
Cashin, Edward J. The King’s Ranger – Thomas Brown and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier. 1989: University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.
Cashin, Edward J. “Thomas Brown (1750 – 1825)” Abridged. New Georgia Encyclopedia, (3/7/2005).
Coleman, Kenneth. The American Revolution in Georgia, 1763-1789. 1958 reissue 2021: University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.
Derby, Kevin. “Burnfoot: Thomas Brown and the American Revolution in East Florida” Sunshine State News. July 4, 2019.
Hall, Leslie. Land & Allegiance in Revolutionary Georgia. 2001: University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.
Hibbert, Christopher. Redcoats and Rebels; The American Revolution Through British Eyes. 1990: W. W. Norton and Company, New York, NY.
Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty’s Exiles, American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. 2011: Vintage Press Division of Random House, New York, NY.
Johnson, Daniel McDonald. Savannah, Augusta & Brier Creek: The conquest of Georgia in the American Revolution. 2020: Independently Published by Author.
Jones, Charles Colcock. The History of Georgia. 1883: Houghton Mifflin & Co., Boston, MA.
Kozy, Charlene. “Revealing Thomas Brown.” Cumberland University Press, Lebanon, Tennessee.
Lawrence, Alexander A. Storm Over Savannah, The Story of Count d’Estaing and the Siege of the Town in 1779. 1951: University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.
Leggett, Joan. “Thomas Brown of Grand Sable, St. Vincent.” April 29, 2017. The Original Gregg 784.
McCall, Hugh. The History of Georgia Containing Brief Sketches of the Most Remarkable Events up to the Present. Vol. 2. 1816: Seymour and Williams, Savannah, GA.
McCall, Mac. “The Fight for Augusta.” January 2020 Augusta Magazine.
Olson, Gary D. “Thomas Brown, Partisan, and the Revolutionary War in Georgia, 1777-1782.” In The Georgia Historical Quarterly 44, (Spring 1970): pp. 1–19; (Summer 1970): pp. 183–208.
[1] West Florida was also under British control, governed by George Johnstone, but was eventually forcibly reclaimed by Spain.
[2] Fugitive black slaves were not employed to carry arms for the King. had populated Florida during the decades of Spanish rule and served in the military. But when England gained Florida in 1763, a huge percentage moved to Cuba.
[3] General Prevost would never see England again. After being relieved of command of Savannah, while in route to England via Jamaica, he caught fever and died.
[4] William Pitt’s return to power in 1804 was huge for Brown. Though Pitt, Brown’s request was pushed by Pitt to the elder King who readily agreed to the exchange of land. The land had been reserved for the Black Caribs,