Increasingly deprived of normal lives and facing constant threats, men on both sides of the Savannah River found safety and purpose by joining the militia units. They felt that the best way to defend themselves against Indian marauders was to respond without mercy, destroying entire villages and killing all the savages who were suspected of harboring the raiding parties. The strongest among them were usually successful because of their own prowess and their reputation as unrestrained retaliators. They themselves could strike with stealth and speed, and most of their women were trained in the use of weapons. Regular troops who joined the Continental army were mostly single men who enlisted for three years. The militia rarely signed up for more than three months, and they were apt to depart at any time regardless of enlistment agreements if they received a message from home calling for their return, even just before a major battle. They were not amenable to discipline, except from their own elected officers, and usually preferred to retain their own accurate rifles instead of shifting to the musket/bayonet weapon. Both they and their commanders were averse to rigid battle lines. Although the regular Continental troops were still given training to array themselves in line as did the British, they had learned from experience that it was better to yield the field of battle, preserve their strength, and then to fight again against a weakened or exposed enemy.

A small group of the militia in Georgia and South Carolina, whose farming interests had faded into relative insignificance or who had nothing of their own left to protect, were free to follow Elijah Clarke and others in maintaining a permanent core around which other, more transient volunteers could rally. The revolution in the southern states was initiated by wealthy and influential political leaders along the coast, but the responsibilities for combat were shifting to these backwoodsmen, some of whom would never yield even when their plight seemed hopeless.

CHAPTER 29

Georgia Remains Independent

1777

Sitting in the main room of Clarke’s cabin, Elijah Clarke and Aaron Hart listened intently to their visitor from South Carolina. There was a small, rough wooden table between them, with a jug of corn whiskey and three tumblers on it. The man was William Henry Drayton, and they had been expecting his visit. With little regard for small talk, he presented his case without delay, deigning only to swallow half a tumbler of moonshine to cut the dust of his long ride that morning.