OurCoast.com :: Savannah City Guide

After the Constitution was enacted in February, 1777, concern was given to defend Georgia against expected British attack. And so it came. Royal troops under Colonel Archibald Campbell attacked the strong American forces led by General Robert Howe of North Carolina. The revolutionaries guarding Savannah were defeated. Once again Georgia was a British Royal province.

In 1778, French forces under Count Henri D'Estaing joined to help the Americans in their fight for independence. Some of the bloodiest battles of the war followed. One of them was the Siege of Savannah on October 9, 1779.

Famous patriots and mercenaries from European nobility were involved in this grim battle. The Americans were led by General Benjamin Lincoln, who was joined by William Jasper and Count Casimir Pulaski. It was, though, another defeat for the Americans; shortly thereafter the British were commanding the whole South. In October, 1781, however, the English sword of surrender was presented to Lincoln at Yorktown, Virginia, and Savannah's liberation was near.

Nathanael Greene, commander of the revolutionary troops in the South, sent "Mad" Anthony Wayne with some troops to retake Savannah in 1782. The British evacuated Savannah and the Loyalists scurried back to England. On July 11 the Georgia legion received the keys to the city. After the revolution, Savannah was the capital city of Georgia until 1786, when Augusta, and later Atlanta, assumed Savannah's role.

One of the highlights in post-revolutionary times was the visit of President George Washington to Savannah in 1791. He was welcomed as a hero and celebrated by all with patriotic and festive ceremonies, including a parade, dinners and a ball. Later, he sent to the Chatham Artillery a thank-you gift of two cannon used at Yorktown.

Nathanael Greene received for his service during the Revolution Mulberry Grove plantation, up the Savannah River. After he died of a sunstroke in 1786 his widow Catherine "Caty" Greene ran the plantation. President Washington, who knew Mrs. Greene from former times, privately visited her twice during his stay in Savannah. It was also at that plantation in 1793 that Eli Whitney, a schoolteacher from up North, invented, with the support of Miss Caty, the cotton gin. This revolutionary machine separated cotton from its seeds and made the harvesting of cotton even more profitable. With the institution of slavery and the invention of the cotton gin, Savannah's cotton industry was poised to lead the world.

Cotton and slaves made Savannah a rich city with a high society that knew how to celebrate. Cotton had become King and would dominate Savannah until the end of the nineteenth century.

--Sojourn in Savannah

A Jay and a Marquis visit while a chief gets displaced.
A brief history of Savannah, Georgia 1800-1850

pre-1732 | 1733-1776 | 1777-1800 | 1800-1850 | 1850-1865 | 1865-1900 | 1900-1955