Will They Never Leave?

The British did not leave Savannah easily during the Revolutionary War. In 1776 the Liberty Boys under Major Joseph Habersham had taken into custody the Royal governor of Georgia Sir James Wright. Wright had been captured in January and escaped in February. He escaped to the British warship, the HMS Scarborough, anchored at the mouth of the Savannah River. The ship took him to London. With these actions you would have thought the British were gone from Savannah for good.
But no, Wright organized a military attack and retook Savannah on December 29, 1778 and resumed his role as royal governor on July 22, 1779. But the patriots were not happy with this and on September 16, 1779 the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah was waged. It was one of the bloodiest contests in the War. It was one of the most ethnically diverse battles ever fought. But alas, the patriots did not win and Savannah remained under Governor Wright. Wright would remain in Savannah until July of 1782. This was well after the surrender of General Cornwallis in 1781 at Yorktown. Wright moved to London after the evacuation, where he died three years later.

Needless to say Savannahians were elated over Wright’s departure. And for many years after held celebrations on Evacuation Day. They were still partying when in 1904 the Lachlan Mclntosh Chapter, N.S.D.A.R of Savannah selected a bronze drinking fountain as an appropriate monument to be placed at the south end of Forsyth Park. “The intent was to terminate Bull Street, the city's long Avenue of Monuments of the Revolutionary War--to Nathanael Greene, William Jasper, and Casimir Pulaski--with a fitting memorial to the close of that war in Georgia.” The monument was dedicated on George Washington's birthday, February 22, 1905.

This fountain lasted only a few years. A large wagon demolished the fountain in September of 1914. In 1930 the Lachlan McIntosh Chapter re-dedicated the memorial tablet that had been attached to the fountain. And now close by its original site stands a coquina slab with the bronze plaque. Where the Evacuation Day Fountain once flowed a new monument to the veterans of the Spanish American War now stands. The Evacuation Day celebrations have stopped and all that is left is a small plaque commemorating the day. But maybe one day you may be walking through Forsyth Park on July 11 and you will notice a party. If you do stop and watch because it is most likely ghosts from the parties held long ago for Evacuation Day.

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