Return of British Army and Navy Prisoners Held on Georgia Coast Early in Revolutionary War

This return provides the names of thirty-two British prisoners of war taken by land and sea and held by Americans at Sunbury, Georgia, a town on the Medway River twenty-five miles south of Savannah. The prisoners may have been held in Fort Morris, less than a mile southwest of the town. The first page lists sixteen prisoners taken by the privateer sloop of war Houston and the privateer schooner of war Sunbury, both commanded by Captain Gilbert Harrison. Harrison captured the British ship Bellahoo, a tender for the HMS Perseus man of war, on June 27; and the sloop Nancy and the schooner Jericho on July 29, 1778.

The verso lists eight marines and seamen captured by Continental troops from aboard the HM brigantine Hinchinbrook in the Frederica River on April 19, 1778. It also includes a list of eight prisoners "taken by Land" in various engagements, including one "taken at Tyconderoga," a reference to the American loss of Fort Ticonderoga in northern New York in July 1777.

[REVOLUTIONARY WAR.] "A General return of Prisoners of War now confined in Sunbury [?] State Georgia August 5th 1778," Manuscript Document. 2 pp., 8.75" x 10.25". Some repairs to edges, affecting a few words; protected in mylar but easily removable; soiled on edges from earlier reinforcements.

Historical Background
At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Congress authorized the construction of two forts in Georgia—one to protect Savannah and the other at Sunbury, which had a population of around 1,000 residents in 1774. Fort Morris was built to the southwest of Sunbury and used as a base for several campaigns against British East Florida. It housed 25 cannons and a garrison of around 200 men.

In the fall of 1778, a two-pronged British force moved north by land and sea from St. Augustine to rendezvous at Sunbury, the second largest town in Georgia. The British land force under the command of Lt. Col. Mark Prevost battled with a small group of Patriots near the Midway Meeting House on November 24, 1778. Meanwhile, the troops proceeding by water under the command of Lt. Col. Lewis V. Fuser surrounded Fort Morris at Sunbury and demanded that the fort's defenders surrender the fort and "remain neuter until the fate of America is determined." Colonel John McIntosh, the officer in command at the fort, responded, "We, sir, are fighting the battles of America, and therefore distain to remain neutral till its fate is determined. As to surrendering the fort, receive this laconic reply: COME AND TAKE IT." McIntosh's reply stunned Fuser, who had been unable to establish communications with the other British force, who ordered a withdrawal to the British ships, ending the British invasion of Georgia. Although the repulse mattered little militarily, it was a tremendous morale boost for southern Patriots.

The British returned with a larger force in January 1779 and took Fort Morris on January 10, after capturing Savannah on December 29. The British occupied the fort, renamed Fort George, until September 1779, when they departed to help defend Savannah. The Americans briefly occupied it before the British retook it in October and held it until 1782.

Gilbert Harrison was a citizen of Georgia or North Carolina. While commanding the sloop St. John in February 1776 from the West Indies to Georgia, Harrison and his vessel were captured by a British man of war and taken to Nova Scotia. He escaped and proceeded to Plymouth to lay claim to the cargo, which had been recaptured by an American privateer. In June 1778, he commanded the privateer sloop of war Houston, and in July the privateer schooner of war Sunbury. In November 1780, he commanded the privateer brig Bellona. In December it wrecked on Anastasia Island, East Florida. Harrison and the crew were taken prisoner, and he and some of the crew were sent to a prison ship at Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1781.

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