Two of the sons of John Mohr McIntosh and Marjory McIntosh, who lived on the Altamaha River near Darien, Georgia, played pivotal military roles in South/Coastal Georgia at the outbreak of the American Revolution. William was John’s oldest son. Lachlan was second oldest, born in 1727. When he was eleven, an alligator killed his three-year-old brother Lewis while they were swimming in the river, leaving seven children—William, Lachlan, John, Phineas, Mary Ann, and George.
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| Lachlan McIntosh |
Lachlan was trained at a friend of the family’s counting-house. He married Sarah Threadcraft of South Carolina on January 1, 1756. They moved to Darien and had eight children. In 1758, Lachlan received 1,000 acres on an island across from Darien on the north branch of Altamaha where tidal flow made rice lucrative. Later that year, he and William got a thousand acres on Broughton and Doboy Islands. William, who wed Mary Jane Mackay and had four sons, also acquired land on St. Simon’s Island. Eventually, Lachlan owned had 14,000 acres and sixty slaves. He was tax collector and justice of peace and used surveying skills on roads and to lay out new plan of Darien.
As the American Revolution broke out, the McIntoshes, like most Scots, were proud Patriots. As depicted in the last novel of my Scouts of the Georgia Frontier Series, A Calculated Betrothal, Lachlan and William led troops defending the frontier of South Georgia.
March 1776 - Congress approved a Continental battalion with Lachlan McIntosh commanding.
May 1776 – Fifty-year-old William McIntosh raided into East Florida with sixty horsemen, capturing prisoners, slaves, and cattle, and burning plantations.
June 1776 – William built forts on the Altamaha and St. Mary’s Rivers.
July 1776 - William’s force engaged soldiers from St. Augustine and Indian allies on the St. Mary’s.
August 1776 – Lachlan’s men raided every settlement north of the St. John’s River.
Sept. 16, 1776 – Lachlan became brigadier general and devised a system of frontier forts along the southern border of Georgia but never had enough men to adequately staff them. William became lieutenant colonel of the Georgia mounted troops with three hundred horsemen patrolling the frontier, garrisoned at Fort Barrington.
October 1776 – British plans to invade Georgia by land and sea caused Lachlan to spread his troops along the coast and order William to cross the Altamaha. Late in the month, William’s men attacked a troop on the Satilla River. When a party of Loyalists attacked Fort Barrington, eighteen men there held off the attack until William’s rangers forced the attackers to withdraw.
December 1776 – Lachlan led reinforcements to Fort Barrington, now renamed Fort Howe. Supporters of political leader Button Gwinnett tried to discredit Lachlan by claiming William’s soldiers failed to protect South Georgians. William’s men pursued Indians who had killed a trooper.
January 1777 – William took a troop to build Fort McIntosh on the Satilla River. Leaving South Carolinian Captain Richard Winn in charge, he headed back to civilization for leave, physically ill and frustrated by the false claims against him.
February 1777 – Fort McIntosh fell to the East Florida Rangers.
March 1777 – Button Gwinnett asked Lachlan for troops for an invasion of Florida. They argued over who was to lead it. Political and military tensions between them plus false accusations Gwinnett made against George McIntosh eventually led to the famous duel between Button and Lachlan. Button Gwinnett died from his wounds, and William and Lachlan left the state to defend their brother George in his trial and to offer their military services in Virginia.
Sergeant Edmond Lassiter comes to the aid of the dark-haired beauty fending off cattle rustlers. The Patriot scout and Loyalist widow are surprised by their shared values. When Edmond learns the same man who ruined his family is after what little Tabitha has left, he convinces her they should work together to make her land profitable—all while fighting off the British from East Florida and her greedy neighbor, who sabotages their every effort to succeed.
https://www.amazon.com/Calculated-Betrothal-Scouts-Georgia-Frontier-ebook/dp/B0D577ZJ1B/
Denise Weimer writes historical and contemporary romance from her home in North Georgia and also serves as a freelance editor and the Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books. A mother of two wonderful young adult daughters, she always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.
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Thank you for your post today.
ReplyDeleteThis was fascinating...I really know shamefully little about how the Revolutionary War played out in the south. Added to this, my maiden name was McIntosh, so I read this avidly! Thank you
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