A Southern Patriot: Gen. Samuel Elbert

General Samuel Elbert

The South is given short shrift when it comes to the telling of the American Revolution. We know all of the northern heroes: Nathan Hale, Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton, Marquis De Lafayette, Samuel Adams, and the like. The most prominent player mentioned in the southern part of the War is a Northerner: Nathaniel Greene. Beyond him you may have heard of Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, but probably no one else. Yet one could argue that the southern war was where the war was really won. The British and the Americans were in a stalemate in the North.

The British reasoned since the southern colonies were more recently from Britain there would be more Loyalists and therefore the War would work more in their favor in the South. So they redirected their energy this way and I am sure to their dismay they found the South as rebellious as the North. In fact in the end the South would chase Cornwallis and his troops away. And where was the place he ended? Yorktown. This is where General George Washington’s troops and the French from the sea surrounded him and he was forced to surrender. The surrender of Yorktown is considered the end of the war by most historians.

Samuel Elbert was a Southern Revolutionary hero about whom most people know nothing. He was born, in 1740, in Savannah. His father was a Baptist minister. When he was fourteen, his mother and father both died leaving him an orphan. He had been living in South Carolina but at his parents’ deaths he traveled back to Savannah.

In Savannah he was employed by a prominent planter named John Rae. Rae would recommend Elbert to be an official trader with the Indians. Elbert became known to the Indians as a fair and respectful trader becoming well liked among them. He became an advocate for the Indians to the white population.

The other thing that Elbert gained from his relationship with John Rae was the hand of his daughter, Elizabeth, whom he married in 1769. The marriage greatly increased Elbert’s social position and influence in the colony. Elbert was an established merchant in Savannah by the year of 1754 and continued to grow his wealth through the 1760s.  

With his new found social position Elbert established a Masonic lodge in Savannah in 1774, but it did not survive the Revolution. He would become a Freemason and join Solomon's Lodge No. 1 ( which now resides in the Cotton Exchange Building) in Savannah along with other Georgia notables James Jackson, Governor John A. Treutlen, and Archibald Bulloch. From about 1776 to 1786 he served as provincial grand master, making him head of the masonry craft for Georgia.

He became a member of the Council of Safety, a group that was found in all the coastal cities, to protest the British taxes and occupation and eventually provide for the defense of the colony. On February 4, 1776, Elbert was made a lieutenant colonel and later colonel in the Georgia Militia. He was now fully immersed in the growing American Revolution.

He was part of the ill-advised plan by Governor Button Gwinnett to take Florida from the British in 1777. The other commander was badly defeated in battle and had to retreat, leaving Elbert and his men to fend for themselves. Only because of a miraculous storm that destroyed a British ship was he able to escape with his men for certain defeat from the British forces.

Despite this early lesson, apparently Florida was on the rebellious Georgia colony’s mind because in 1778 Governor John Houston, who had become governor in place of Gwinnett in large part because of the previously mentioned Florida junket, ordered another attack on Florida. As could be expected this foray into Florida only a year later did not fare any better.

But this time Colonel Elbert would have success.  Elbert put 300 of his troops aboard three galleys and caused the surrender of three British warships. These ships had been harassing the Georgia rebels for almost two years. Despite being overmatched his flotilla won the skirmish and suffered no casualties in the process.

In December of 1778, the British sent a fleet with about 3500 troops to retake Savannah. General Howe was in command of the city. Colonel Elbert, whose strategic thinking had been proven in the Florida expeditions[unclear after this point] Howe they needed to defend a landing place known as Girardeau’s plantation. He offered his troops to do so but Howe refused to let him.  Indeed the British did land there without resistance and were able to attack the American army from the rear by mucking their way through a swamp. The Americans were forced to retreat across a bridge over Musgrove Creek. Elbert’s men, holding the rearguard, were unable to cross the bridge before the British seized it. To escape capture Elbert and his men were forced to swim across the icy creek.

Many troops left or fled to the North. Elbert with his remaining troops briefly occupied Augusta, then deployed to the Brier Creek area where they continually harassed the British forces as they marched toward Augusta. Elbert wrote of their dire conditions, ‘The articles of provisions we shall have plenty, of artillery we have none, small arms very ordinary in general and scarce, many men have come to camp without any, which we have not to give them. Entrenching tools and camp utensils are not to be had here.’

In late February, Elbert was joined by General John Ashe and about 1800 additional troops. Ashe, with the higher rank in the Continental army although Elbert was a brigadier general in the Georgia Militia, deployed most of his troops on high ground near Brier Creek., On March 3, 1779, the British launched a surprise attack and quickly routed Ashe’s main army. Ashe for his part disappeared into the woods. This left Colonel Elbert with his back against Brier Creek. With Brier Creek behind him and surrounded on all other sides by the enemy, Elbert and Lieutenant Colonel John McIntosh together with 60 Continentals and 150 Georgia militiamen fought, it is said, the small regiment "made one of the most gallant stands against overwhelming odds of the Revolutionary War." The British Army was forced to bring up its reserves to defeat Elbert and his men. More than half of his men were killed. Elbert himself escaped death by bayonet when he was recognized as a Mason by a British officer who ordered his life spared.

Elbert remained a prisoner on parole in the British camp for more than a year. The Continental Congress offered Brigadier General James Inglis Hamilton in exchange for Elbert, and arranged for his promotion to the rank of brigadier general in the Continental Army. He was freed in 1780.

Elbert went immediately to George Washington's headquarters in the north. General Washington gave Elbert command of a brigade during the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. Elbert was to become fast friends with the Marquis de Lafayette during the Siege. This friendship continued after war's end through correspondences for many years. Elbert would even name a son after Lafayette.

Elbert’s post war activities were extensive as he led the new state. He was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1784 but declined to serve. He was then elected for a one-year term as governor in 1785. During his governorship Elbert oversaw the chartering of the University of Georgia. This was the first chartered state school in the United States. Later he served briefly as sheriff of Chatham County before dying at the age of forty-eight on November 1, 1788. He was buried at Rae’s Hall Plantation and later removed to Colonial Cemetery where he rests today.

Samuel Elbert is an American story of a young orphan who rose to fame and prominence in times of peace and war. His is a story for the generations.
 
 
 
 
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Elbert's Grave in Colonial Cemetery

Elbert Marker found in Elbert County in Georgia