This mentions Francis Marion and describes the Battle of Savannah.  It is provided as a historical overview,
     and for some clue as to the variety of troops that may have been involved in the military operations of the time.


               In some of the bloodiest fighting of the Revolutionary War,
               American and French troops failed to take Savannah.

                                     By Thomas G. Rodgers

             As the fifth year of the American Revolution opened, hopes for colonial independence were
             growing dim. By 1779 British forces still occupied major American cities. Divisions plagued the
             Continental Congress and the rebel army. In the South, bitter civil war raged between Patriot
             and Loyalist Americans.

             Georgia, the only American colony to be reconquered by the British, was just 42 years old
             when the war started. Georgia's population was small, with barely 3,000 men of military age.
             On December 29, 1778, the colonial capital fell to British troops. The rebel defenders were
             routed, losing 550 captured or killed. Patriot forces were swept from the state.

             Britain's occupation of Savannah was only the first stroke in a strategy geared to bring Virginia,
             the Carolinas and Georgia back under royal control. It was felt that the large numbers of
             Loyalists in the South would flock to the king's cause. With the South secured, the stubborn
             Continentals in the North could be more easily tamed.

             In January 1779, British Colonel Archibald Campbell moved up the Savannah River with 1,044
             men and occupied Augusta. There, he invited residents of the surrounding countryside to come
             in and take an oath of loyalty to the king and receive pardons. About 1,400 men complied.
             Georgia seemed securely under royal control.

             Campbell awaited the arrival of Colonel James Boyd, a Tory agent recently sent into South
             Carolina to recruit 6,000 Loyalist volunteers. Only 600 men were actually raised. Boyd's failure
             to enlist anywhere near the expected numbers of Loyalists revealed the major flaw in Britain's
             southern strategy, that of overestimating American enthusiasm for the royal cause. Many Tory
             recruits joined only out of fear or intimidation.

             As Boyd's Tories made their way toward Augusta, 200 South Carolina militia under Colonel
             Andrew Pickens and 140 Georgia militia under Colonel John Dooley pursued them. Though
             badly outnumbered, the little Patriot force hoped to overtake Boyd's 600 Tories. They counted
             on pluck and surprise to give them a victory and prevent Boyd from joining Campbell's British
             garrison at Augusta.

             The rebels attacked Boyd's command as it was encamped at Kettle Creek, near present-day
             Washington, Ga., on February 14, 1779. They caught the Tories by surprise as they were killing
             cattle and grazing their horses. The battle took only an hour; and the Tory camp was overrun.
             The Loyalists fled in panic, leaving 20 dead, including Boyd himself, and 22 were captured. The
             rebels lost seven killed and 15 wounded. Campbell, concerned about a possible rebel attack on
             Augusta, withdrew his troops that same day and moved south toward Savannah.

             Encouraged by their badly needed victory at Kettle Creek, the rebels now planned a
             counteroffensive in Georgia. Patriot General John Ashe, with 2,300 troops, followed Campbell's
             retreating army and reached Briar Creek, 60 miles south of Augusta. The rebels hoped to
             reinforce Ashe there and enlarge their army to 8,000 men. Such a force could then drive the
             British back to Savannah and possibly retake the city. The war could be reversed and Georgia
             liberated.

             But Campbell, a wary and aggressive commander, anticipated the rebel plan and launched a
             bold counterattack of his own. From his base at Hudson's Ferry, 15 miles south of Ashe, he
             sent a picked force of 900 men up the southern bank of Briar Creek. The redcoats crossed
             upstream and hit Ashe's camp from the rear, trapping the rebel army in the angle of Briar
             Creek and the Savannah River.

             Ashe's army was completely surprised. With mounted patrols out and other units on detached
             duty, he had only 800 men to meet the approaching British onslaught. Most of his troops were
             untrained, inexperienced militia, poorly armed and equipped. When the British attacked at about
             4 o'clock in the afternoon on March 3, 1779, the rebel battle line was just being formed.

             Despite a heroic resistance by Colonel Samuel Elbert's 200 Georgia Continentals and militia
             (who stood their ground until nearly all were killed, wounded or captured) Ashe's North
             Carolina militia broke and ran almost immediately, fleeing in confusion into the Savannah
             swamp. A few swam the river and escaped. Others drowned, or were captured or killed by the
             pursuing redcoats. Abandoning his troops, Ashe fled across the river. He would later face
             charges of incompetency and neglect.

             Briar Creek was the worst rebel disaster of the war in the South so far. One hundred and fifty
             rebel soldiers died. Twenty-eight rebel officers and 200 enlisted men were captured. Ashe lost
             seven field pieces, 1,000 small arms, ammunition, equipment, supplies and baggage. British
             losses were five killed and 11 wounded.

             In Savannah, royal governor Sir James Wright formally reestablished British control in July,
             while a fledgling Patriot government in exile tried to carry on in Augusta. With the exception of
             the back country, where skirmishes between Patriots and Tories continued, Georgia was firmly
             in British hands.

             Now, Patriot hopes had to look to another source: the rebel alliance with France, signed in
             February 1778.

             In the summer of 1779, French Admiral Count Charles-Hector Theodat d'Estaing captured St.
             Vincent and Grenada in the British West Indies, tipping the balance there in favor of French
             naval superiority. D'Estaing's powerful fleet was available for a joint operation with the
             Americans. The count soon received a flurry of letters from French diplomats and Maj. Gen.
             Benjamin Lincoln, Continental commander in the South, urging him to bring his fleet northward
             for a campaign against Savannah.

             D'Estaing was enthusiastic about the proposal. The 50-year-old aristocrat was eager to make
             up for a failed allied operation against Newport, R.I., that had to be aborted the previous year
             because of poor cooperation and poor weather.

             The count arrived off the Georgia coast on September 1 with 37 ships, including 22 ships of the
             line, and 4,000 troops detached from duty in the West Indies. The formidable French fleet
             surprised and captured several British vessels near the mouth of the Savannah River.

             The fleet anchored off Savannah Bar as the British ships withdrew upriver. The small garrison
             at Fort Tybee, on Great Tybee Island, guarding the entrance to the river, fired on the French
             ships with their two guns without effect. That night a French detachment occupied the fort,
             which they found abandoned.

             On September 12, a vanguard of 1,200 French troops landed unopposed at Beaulieu beach on
             Ossabaw Sound, a few miles south of Savannah. The bulk of the French army disembarked,
             and a camp was established three miles from the city.

             On September 16, d'Estaing arrogantly sent a formal demand to the British General Augustine
             Prevost that he surrender Savannah "to the arms of his Majesty the King of France." He
             reminded Prevost that he had captured Grenada with a far smaller force, and he held Prevost
             "personally answerable" for what might happen should siege operations drag on.

             To the Americans' chagrin, d'Estaing added, "I have not been able to refuse the Army of the
             United States uniting itself with that of the King. The junction will probably be effected this day.
             If I have not an answer therefore immediately, you must confer in future with General Lincoln
             and me."

             Prevost asked for a 24-hour truce to allow him to confer with civil authorities in Savannah; and
             d'Estaing foolishly agreed to his request. He could have captured Savannah by direct assault,
             since the British garrison was unprepared for an attack. Instead, he allowed Prevost to stall for
             time and strengthen the town's defenses. The allies would regret losing their best opportunity to
             take Savannah.

             Prevost was a veteran of many years' service in the British army. The Swiss-born officer had
             been wounded at Fontenoy in 1745. At the capture of Quebec from the French in 1759, he
             received a wound which had left a circular scar on his temple and led to his being nicknamed
             "Old Bullet Head." He complained of poor health and was not regarded as an aggressive
             commander. Colonel Campbell wrote that "Prevost seems a worthy man, but too old and
             inactive for this service."

             Old Bullet Head used the delay wrested from d'Estaing to put soldiers, townspeople and several
             hundred black slaves to work around the clock to finish the city's fortifications. He also sent an
             urgent message to Lt. Col. John Maitland to bring his 800 troops down from Beaufort, S.C., to
             reinforce the Savannah garrison.

             Maitland, commander of the Highland 71st Regiment, was from a distinguished Scottish family.
             The resourceful 47-year-old veteran, who had lost his right hand in combat at Lagos Bay in
             1759, was respected both by his own men and by the Americans.

             Maitland had contracted a fever (in fact, he had just a little over a month to live); yet he
             force-marched his men to the Savannah River. With the help of black fishermen as guides, he
             crossed upriver from Savannah, and he and his reinforcements arrived in the besieged town on
             September 17. With Maitland's troops in place and his defenses strengthened, Prevost finally
             sent his reply to d'Estaing: No surrender!

             Benjamin Lincoln and his Continental officers were upset that the count had moved on
             Savannah without them, as if the operation were purely a French exercise. They feared
             d'Estaing might take the town and hold it for the French king--fear that did not bode well for
             cooperation between the allied armies.

             Lincoln joined d'Estaing on September 23. His 3,000 troops included Georgia and South
             Carolina Continentals and militia. With d'Estaing's 4,000 French regulars, the allies now had
             7,000 men with which to take Savannah. Opposing them in the town were 2,500 British and
             Loyalist troops under Prevost.

             General Benjamin Lincoln--a New Englander who neither drank nor cursed--was a patient and
             cautious commander. D'Estaing seemed unimpressed by him, describing him as a brave man
             but "extremely indifferent" with "no opinion of his own." The count was astounded at the
             phlegmatic Lincoln's habit of falling asleep in his chair, even when dictating correspondence.

             The French had a low opinion of the Americans. Baron Curt von Stedingk, a Swedish officer in
             the French army, wrote that the rebels were "so badly armed, so badly clothed, and I must say
             so badly commanded, that we could never turn them to much account." The American militia,
             d'Estaing wrote, would run or take cover "just because some cannon balls came close." A
             grenadier captain wrote that the militia "are supposedly quite good, at least they say they are."
             Higher marks were given to the Continental regulars, who, according to another officer,
             "conducted themselves in a superior manner at all times."

             Rebel cuisine also failed to impress the count. D'Estaing complained of the meager fare at
             Lincoln's table, "a massive cake of rice and corn cooked under the ashes of an iron platter" and
             "a mixture of sugar, water, and fermented molasses which makes up the Nectar the Americans
             call grog."

             Delays plagued the allies. Lack of horses and artillery carriages prevented them from landing
             heavy artillery, which was not in place until October 4. Siege entrenchments were begun on
             September 24, but progress was slow, and the British exploited every opportunity to disrupt the
             work. British sorties against the siege lines on September 24 and September 27 confounded the
             allies. The second sortie provoked an accidental exchange of fire in the darkness between
             French and American troops; and several soldiers were killed.

             On the night of October 1, the rebels prevented a detachment of 111 British troops from
             reaching Savannah. The British, under Captain French, had camped on the Ogeechee River.
             Colonel John White, a Georgia Continental, with only two officers, a sergeant and three
             privates, tricked French into thinking that the camp was surrounded by a larger force by lighting
             fires in the woods around the camp, as if a whole army was bivouacked there; White
             demanded the detachment surrender, and the whole British command was taken prisoner.

             At midnight on October 3, French artillery opened fire on Savannah. But according to one
             officer, "The cannoneers being still under the influence of rum, their excitement did not allow
             them to direct their pieces with proper care." On October 4, 53 heavy cannon and 14 mortars
             began a five-day bombardment of the town.

             The bombardment failed to crack the defenses but caused considerable damage inside the
             town. An American officer wrote, "The poor women and children have suffered beyond
             description. A number of them in Savannah have already been put to death by our bombs and
             cannon." One of Prevost's aides commented, "Many poor creatures were killed trying to get to
             their cellars, or hide themselves under the bluff of the Savannah River."

             Loyalist Chief Justice Anthony Stokes described one night of the shelling and its effects: "At
             five I was awakened with a very heavy cannonade from a French frigate to the north of the
             town, and with a bombardment which soon hurried me out of bed; and before I could get my
             clothes on, an eighteen-pounder entered the house, stuck in the middle partition, and drove the
             plastering all about....Whilst we were in the cellar, two shells burst not far from the door, and
             many others fell in the neighborhood all around us. In this situation a number of us continued in
             a damp cellar, until the cannonade and bombardment almost ceased, for the French to cool their
             artillery; and then we ascended to breakfast."

             On October 6, Prevost asked that the women and children be allowed to leave Savannah and
             take refuge in the ships anchored in the river. D'Estaing and Lincoln refused, fearing another
             delaying tactic.

             Time was running out for d'Estaing. A month had been spent in front of Savannah, and the
             British position seemed no weaker than when operations had begun. The admiral had other
             worries as well. Hurricanes were a serious concern. And, if a British naval force should
             suddenly appear, d'Estaing might be cut off from his supply base in the West Indies.

             Conditions on board the ships anchored off the coast were described by a French naval officer,
             who wrote: "The navy is suffering everything, anchored on an open coast and liable to be driven
             ashore by the southeast winds. Seven of our ships have been injured in their rudders, several
             have lost their anchors, and most of them have been greatly endamaged in their rigging. The
             scurvy rages with such severity that we throw daily into the sea about thirty-five men....The
             bread which we possessed, having been two years in store, was so much decayed and
             worm-eaten, and was so disagreeable to the taste, that even the domestic animals on board
             would not eat it."

             On the morning of October 8, Major Pierce Charles L'Enfant, future architect of Washington,
             D.C., with a handful of troops, tried to set fire to the abatis of felled trees in front of the British
             lines; but the wood was too damp and did not catch fire. D'Estaing's engineers told him they
             would need at least 10 more days before they could penetrate the British works.

             The count decided that the only option left was a direct assault on the town. Otherwise, the
             siege must be lifted. He proposed a predawn assault on October 9. Lincoln agreed; and the
             allies prepared for one of the bloodiest attacks in the war.

             D'Estaing hoped to exploit a weak point in Savannah's defenses. Although the town was
             protected on the north by the Savannah River and shielded on the west by a wooded swamp, a
             narrow depression along the edge of the swamp afforded a way for the allies to move their
             troops near the British defenses under cover of night before launching the attack. The allies
             decided to use this approach route to strike the enemy's right flank.

             Prevost knew of the terrain west of town, however, and anticipated an attack there. A rebel
             deserter warned him of the allied plans, so "Old Bullet Head" strengthened his defenses on his
             right flank and put the skillful Maitland in command there.

             Three forts or redoubts protected the British right flank. The most exposed one, Spring Hill
             Redoubt, was defended by South Carolina Loyalist troops led by Captain Thomas Tawse and
             the vengeful Lt. Col. Thomas Brown, who once had been tarred and feathered by Georgia
             rebels. The other redoubts on the right also were held by Loyalist troops. Thus, the bloodiest
             part of the battle would pit Americans against Americans.

             Farther on the British right, Prevost had placed a naval battery of 9-pounders near the river.
             Another naval battery lay to the east of the Spring Hill Redoubt, supported by British marines
             and grenadiers of the 16th Foot, to be used to reinforce the redoubt if the allies attacked there.

             The allied plan called for a vanguard of 250 French grenadiers to rush the Spring Hill Redoubt,
             while two strong French assault columns, led by d'Estaing himself and by Colonel Stedingk,
             attacked the other two forts on the British right. Two American assault columns, under Colonel
             John Laurens and Brig. Gen. Lachlan McIntosh, would support the French.

             The French planned diversionary attacks west of the town near the river and from their
             trenches near the British center. Brigadier General Isaac Huger, with 500 South Carolina and
             Georgia militia, would conduct a feint east of the town.

             D'Estaing's 3,500 assault troops were drafted for temporary duty from regiments garrisoning
             the island colonies in the West Indies: Martinique, Guadeloupe and St. Dominique. They
             included several hundred free black troops, among them young Henri Christophe, future dictator
             of Haiti. Formed into provisional units at Savannah, the troops and their officers had never
             served together before in combat. Now they were to carry out a difficult assault against a
             forewarned enemy. So far, nearly everything else had gone wrong.

             Delays doomed the allied plan. Volunteers who were to guide the troops through the
             treacherous swamp in the darkness proved unreliable. A French officer wrote that his guide
             "did not know the road and at the first musket shot disappeared." Assault forces were not in
             position until after daybreak and lost the advantage of the pre-dawn surprise attack. D'Estaing
             confessed to having a "very poor opinion of this attack."

             Anxious to begin the attack, French assault troops waited at the edge of the swamp. From the
             direction of the Spring Hill Redoubt 500 yards away the eerie wail of Scottish bagpipes drifted
             toward them through the heavy pre-dawn fog. This "most sad and most remarkable" music,
             d'Estaing wrote, made "a very great impression" on the French soldiers; it was as if the enemy
             "wanted us to know their best troops were waiting for us."

             At about 5:30, d'Estaing's troops heard firing from the British lines and realized the diversionary
             attack by their troops in front of the enemy center had finally begun. A few minutes later,
             British sentries spotted the assault troops and fired several rounds. Not all the allied troops
             were in place yet.

             The allied diversionary attacks failed. D'Estaing and Lincoln would have to carry the Spring Hill
             Redoubt with no support. D'Estaing considered canceling the attack, but his pride prevented
             him from showing hesitation in front of the Americans. "My indecision," he said, "would have
             made me a laughingstock." He ordered the attack to commence.

             Surging forward with a cry of "Vive le Roi!" the French vanguard advanced on Spring Hill
             Redoubt at the double quick. The British and Loyalist troops in the fort opened up on them with
             a vicious cross-fire of muskets and cannons. The white-coated grenadiers cleared the abatis in
             front of the fort; then in the smoke and fog and under heavy fire, they thrust their way up the
             parapet. But the supporting French column was slow in following them. By the time they
             arrived to reinforce the vanguard, enemy fire had driven the grenadiers back.

             Leading his troops forward, d'Estaing was wounded in the arm just before he reached the
             redoubt. The fighting became intense. The attackers were sprayed with musket fire and
             grapeshot--pieces of scrap iron, nails, bolts, steel blades, and chain. Fire also came from a
             British galley in the river. A British soldier at one of the guns said, "Believe me, I never was
             happier in my Life than upon this Occasion."

             D'Estaing's troops were thrown back on the second French assault column led by Stedingk.
             The columns became entangled, lost formation, and were cast into "utter confusion," as one
             French officer wrote. Stedingk's column was shoved back into the swampy ground on the
             French left, where more than half were killed or left "stuck fast in the mud." "Those who lost
             only their shoes," another officer said, "were the most fortunate."

             D'Estaing urged his troops forward, crying, "Advance, my brave grenadiers, kill the wretches"
             while British and Loyalist troops from the redoubt bellowed, "Kill the rascal French dogs," and
             "God save the King!"

             For a moment the sheer fury and determination of the French attack nearly overwhelmed the
             defenders, and the French managed to raise their flag over the parapet. Stedingk later wrote:
             "My doubts were all gone. I believed the day was our own."

             But the defenders were determined, too. Despite three brave assaults on the fort, the French
             could not stand up to their firepower, and d'Estaing reluctantly ordered a retreat. As the French
             fell back, British troops rose up from the parapet and delivered a point-blank volley. D'Estaing
             was wounded for a second time, in the thigh, and was nearly left for dead.

             Continental light infantry under John Laurens, former aide to General George Washington, now
             arrived, and then the second column under Lachlan McIntosh, whose wife and children were in
             Savannah. McIntosh already had weathered a political storm after killing his rival, Button
             Gwinnett, in a duel.

             The Patriots arrived near the Spring Hill Redoubt at the height of the battle's confusion, as the
             wounded d'Estaing tried to re-form his troops. McIntosh's troops, thrust far to the left in the
             swamp, were exposed to British naval fire from the river, as well as heavy grapeshot from the
             fort. Major John Jones, the General's aide, was within paces of an enemy cannon embrasure
             when he was cut in two by a cannon shot. McIntosh was driven back under heavy enemy fire
             in the allied retreat.

             Continentals of the 2nd South Carolina, led by the future partisan hero Francis Marion,
             succeeded in reaching the redoubt; in brutal hand-to-hand combat on the parapet Captain
             Tawse, the Loyalist commander, died after striking down three of the attackers with his sword.

             Sergeant William Jasper placed the 2nd South Carolina's colors on the ramparts but was shot
             down. Jasper already was a hero because of his actions in 1776 at Fort Sullivan near
             Charleston, where he raised his regiment's flag in defiance of the British naval assault. Now, as
             he lay dying, he passed the colors to Lieutenant John Bush, who also fell.

             As fighting raged for control of the parapet, Maitland committed his reserves. British marines
             and grenadiers launched a devastating bayonet charge that drove the attackers back from the
             ramparts and into the ditch below. Allied assault troops, helpless and exposed to deadly musket
             and artillery cross-fire, were butchered in the ditch. "The moment of retreat," Stedingk wrote,
             "with the cries of our dying comrades piercing my heart was the bitterest of my life." A British
             officer described the scene: "Their assault was a furious as ever I saw; The Ditch was choke
             full of their Dead."

             Full daylight now revealed dead and dying French and American soldiers, many of them
             impaled on the abatis, for 50 yards in front of the ditch. Mangled grapeshot victims littered the
             field for 100 yards beyond. At the sight of them, John Laurens threw down his sword in disgust.

             While the desperate allied gamble played itself out in the bloody ditch in front of Spring Hill,
             Brig. Gen. Kazimierz Pulaski, with the rebel cavalry, led a bold but reckless attempt to breach
             the British lines between the redoubts. Riding at the head of his 200 horsemen, Pulaski reached
             the abatis but was struck down by enemy canister fire. Exposed to deadly fire and demoralized
             by the loss of Pulaski, the allied cavalry withdrew in confusion. The attempt to capture
             Savannah was over.

             The contest lasted less than an hour. When it was apparent even to d'Estaing and Lincoln that it
             was useless to continue, they withdrew their devastated troops and counted losses.

             The two sides observed a four-hour truce to collect and bury the dead and to retrieve the
             wounded. The French listed 151 killed and 370 wounded, while the Patriots lost 231 killed and
             wounded, nearly all Continentals. British losses were only 18 killed and 39 wounded. For the
             allies, Savannah was the bloodiest battle of the war, a Bunker Hill in reverse.

             Once more, d'Estaing fell back on siege operations. But his officers warned him that further
             delay in the face of possible hurricanes off the Georgia coast might jeopardize the fleet.

             Squabbling between the allies soon set in. A French naval lieutenant described the Savannah
             operation as an "ill-conceived enterprise without anything in it for France," while a young
             French artillery officer blamed the Patriots for the defeat at Spring Hill Redoubt. The "rout
             began with the rebels," he wrote, "they took flight first...like a crowd leaving church." D'Estaing
             blamed Lincoln, saying the rebels "promised much and delivered little." Lincoln criticized the
             count for not taking Savannah when he first had the chance.

             Over Lincoln's objections, d'Estaing reluctantly prepared to pull out. He marched his troops
             back to the French ships, loaded his guns and equipment aboard, and set sail for France,
             dispatching some of the ships to the West Indies.

             One of his officers described d'Estaing as "A true grenadier in this affair but a poor general....It
             is not the fault of the troops that Savannah was not taken, but rather of those who commanded
             us." The count, who wrote both prose and poetry, was intelligent, courageous and bold. He also
             was arrogant, ambitious and, in the words of another officer, "covetous of glory." Before being
             executed in 1794 during the French Revolution, he said, "When you cut off my head, send it to
             the English, they will pay you well for it!"

             The siege was over. On October 19, the last of Lincoln's weary and disillusioned rebel troops
             withdrew to Charleston.

             Maitland, the old Scottish warrior who worked so hard to defend Savannah, died on October
             26. Three days later, Governor Wright proclaimed a day of thanksgiving for the British victory.

             A golden opportunity to retake Savannah and alter the course of the war had been lost. Two
             more devastating defeats for the Patriots lay ahead. On May 12, 1780, British forces captured
             Lincoln's entire army of 5,400 at Charleston; and on August 16, 1780, General Horatio Gates'
             entire American army of 3,000 was destroyed at Camden, S.C. Georgia remained in British
             hands until the end of the war; and Savannah was not reoccupied by the Patriots until the
             British withdrew in 1782.

             Two years after the Allied debacle at Savannah, a fresh opportunity for a Franco-American
             operation presented itself. General George Washington's Continentals, in cooperation with
             French regulars under Count Rochambeau and the French fleet under Admiral DeGrasse,
             besieged General Charles Cornwallis' British army at Yorktown, Va. This time there were
             more favorable battle conditions, better coordination, and wiser command decisions. On
             October 19, 1781, exactly two years after the rebel withdrawal from Savannah, Yorktown's
             8,000-man British garrison surrendered. Benjamin Lincoln was given the honor of accepting the
             defeated British general's sword.

             The defeat at Yorktown prompted Britain to open peace talks with the American rebels, and in
             early 1783 the Treaty of Paris recognized the United States as an independent nation.
 

             Thomas G. Rodgers teaches history at Gilmer High School in Ellijay, Ga., at Reinhart
             College in Waleska, Ga., and at Truett-McConnell College, Epworth, Ga. He is the
             author of a number of articles on American military history. For further reading:
             Alexander A. Lawrence's Storm Over Savannah; or Henry Lumpkin's Savannah to
             Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South.