Georgia
Genealogy & History
Editor: Jeannette Holland Austin
www.georgiapioneers.com
Volume No. 2 Issue No. 7 July 2006
FREE
Georgia Genealogy Research in 2006 to New Subscribers of www.georgiapioneers.com
Battle of Kettle Creek (Wilkes County)
February 14, 1779
After the
British had taken Augusta, their Indian allies
were delayed going to Augusta when several
hundred loyalists were cut off on February 14th at Kettle Creek in Wilkes County
by South Carolinians under the command of
Colonel Andrew Pickens. Following the British retreat was Colonel Samuel
Elbert’s Georgia Continentals, Andrew Williamson’s South Carolina militia and Colonel
Ashe. The routing by the patriots
succeeded in maintaining the continued dominance of upper Georgia.
Micajah Brooks, an
uneducated orphan boy at the age of 14, was hired by Widow Locklin in North Carolina and sent by her to Ramsour’s Mill. He
arrived during a scrimmage between the tories and 20
or 30 men of Colonel Benjamin Few. Few slapped him on the head and said: “My
buck, don’t you want to go with me and serve your country?” He answered,
“Gladly”. Few sent a horse and bag back
to the widow Locklin. Brooks
served with Few as a scout on the Georgia frontier in Wilkes and Warren Counties
where he volunteered to serve under Capt.
George Barber and Colonel Elijah
Clarke and thus fought in the battle of Kettle Creek and Little River.
Second Battle of Augusta:
May 22, 1781.
On September 14,
1780, Colonel Elijah Clarke rallied 600 troops from North
Carolina to Augusta
to launch a four-day attack on the Mackay house outside of town. During the battle, Capt. Brown of the British
forces was accused of hanging 13 prisoners.
Clarke retreated with Indians and loyalists on his heels. Cornwallis dispatched Colonel Ferguson’s
regiment to cut off Clarke’s retreating army.
However, mountaineers caught Ferguson on Kings Mountain
and scored a decisive victory for the Americans on Octber
7, 1780. Capt. Brown proceeded to
construct Fort Cornwallis
upon the sacred grounds of Augusta’s St. Paul’s Church. Colonel
Clarke returned to Georgia
to harass the loyalists from the backwoods.
Major General Nathaniel Green, the new Continental commander in the
South, ordered Colonel Andrew Pickens and his South Carolina Militia, and
Lieutenant Colonel Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee with
his legion, to join Clarke in besieging Augusta.
Lee’s first move
was to capture the British stores on Galphin’s
plantation at Silver Bluff before proceeding with the others to Augusta. Then Lee’s engineers constructed a wooden
tower from which to cannonade Fort
Cornwallis. The battle lasted two weeks, but in the end, Augusta was captured.
This battle ultimately led to the British evacuation of Savannah on July 11, 1782.
Present: Pvt.
Jonathan Jones who’d fought at the first siege of Augusta; Pvt. Charles Jones was killed by a
shot in the stomach.
New Additions:
Free Research is being offered
throughout 2006 to new subscribers of www.georgiapioneers.com . Although this is for Georgia
families, I frequently connect familiest to other
States. The results are sent via email and posted to the website. Previously, the results were added to the
“Notes” section, alphabetically. Henceforth, in order to enjoin the submitters’ information to the new
research results, it will be found under
“Working Ancestral Files”. If you
did not receive my emails because of email spamming, please check under
“Notes”.
Census Records: 1850 Columbia County;
1850 Effingham County
Digital
Images: We are in the
process of digitizing the oldest court house estate records. This is a long
term project and the goal is to locate originals and documents which were not
filmed during the 1950s. As we all know, Sherman
destroyed many of our earliest records. However, ledgers are showing up in
attics and antique shops!
Cobb County Will Abstracts &
Digital Copies, 1866-1904; Glynn County Loose Original Wills 1809-1845 (digital
images); Glynn County Wills & Appraisements 1856-1866 (digital images);
Jackson County Wills 1802-1860; McIntosh County Wills 1845-1915 (digital
images); McIntosh County Estates 1887-1914 (digital images); Liberty County
Wills 1779-1823 (digital images); Liberty Estate Index 1784-1791 (digital images);
Liberty Estates 1823-1829 (digital images); 1870 Liberty County Residents which
includes ages and physical descriptions (digital image); Franklin County Wills
1899-1911 (digital images).
Working Ancestral Files: Burroughs, Crawford, Denson, Dooly, Hall,
Hampton, Hill, Scoggins. This is the work of
subscribers of georgiagenealogyexchange@georgiagenealogyblog.com who send their information, and subscribers to www.georgiapioneers.com
Genealogy Check
List:
Need help thinking of where to research? This checklist will help keep up
with the records you have researched, and determine where to look next.
New
Websites:
www.virginiapioneers.com
www.northcarolinapioneers.com
www.southcarolinapioneers.com
www.georgiagenealogyblog.com
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Restrictions Apply: The content
of this newsletter is the sole property of Jeannette Holland Austin. "I
hereby give the right to freely quote or redistribute this article, provided
that full credit is given to the author as well as a link provided to the
website of
www.georgiapioneers.com
Without written permission, the right to add or incorporate any of my
articles into a website is expressly forbidden. Copyright violators will be
prosecuted. Jeannette Holland Austin”