Ray City History Blog

War of 1812: Georgia Militia Called Out

Dred Newbern, a pioneer settler of the Ray City, GA area, served in the Georgia Militia in the War of 1812, as documented in War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files. When the Declaration of War was issued in 1812, Dred would have been 18 years old and just become eligible for militia service. At that time, he and his family were living in Bulloch County, Georgia.

• Etheldred Dryden Newbern: War of 1812

In Georgia, military service in the local units of the state militia was compulsory; The right to bear arms came with the responsibility of military training and participation in military service. According to Georgia historian Gordon Smith, “The General Militia Acts of 1803, 1807, and 1818 directed that all district male residents from eighteen to forty-five years old, except those exempted by laws such as ministers, enroll in their district company and perform regularly scheduled drills, at the designated unit muster ground.”

Georgia was divided into Militia Districts and every able-bodied man was required to register in the militia company in his district. Each militia company was commanded by a captain. The companies were organized into regiments, battalions and brigades. The Governor was Commander in Chief of the Georgia Militia.

Furthermore, by order of the Georgia General Assembly, any fit man might be compelled under penalty of law to serve a 12 month enlistment in the district police.

On Feb 7, 1814, the Georgia militia companies were called out to convene for muster, by order of Governor Peter Early. (Early, whose family owned one of the largest slaveholding plantations in Greene County, GA had been an outspoken opponent of any attempts to outlaw the trafficking of enslaved people.) The Georgia Assembly elected Early governor in 1813 when the War of 1812 was under way. “He firmly supported the goals of the James Madison administration and cooperated fully with the government and its military measures. This included raising money, troops, and supplies…” (Encyclopedia of the War of 1812). When criticized for his support of the war, Early replied, “Georgia would survive or go down with the other colonies.“

The following order has been directed by his excellency Gov. Early, to Adjutant-General Newnan.

Head-Quarters,
Milledgeville, 7th Feb. 1814.

You will proceed to the annual convention of the field, staff, commissioned and non-commissioned officers, in every county or regiment within this state, in order to instruct them in the discipline prescribed by Congress – and as it is of the highest importance at the present critical period, that the privates should be particularly taught the duties required of them in the field, the commanding officers of the respective brigades, regiments, and battallions, are called upon to act in concert with the Adjutant-general, by ordering regimental and battalion musters at such times as they may be notified by him, that he will attend for that purpose.
The Commander in Chief deems it highly expedient and necessary for the good of each particular regiment, and the benefit of the militia service at large, that an uniform system of discipline should be introduced and strictly adhered to throughout the state. The Adjutant-general is therefore ordered to furnish the several Brigadiers-general with a detail of the evolutions to be performed by the respective regiments under their command, at the annual reviews and inspection; – and the Brigadiers-general are required to transmit to each Colonel, a copy of such detail.

Columbia Museum & Savannah Recorder, March 7, 1814

When Dred Newbern and other men of Bulloch County were called out for militia duty they were probably happy to follow a leader like Peter Cone. It was customary at the time that militia companies elected their officers, and Peter Cone was well qualified to serve as a Captain of the militia. Although just 24 years old, the Bulloch County native was an experienced combat leader. Cone was a veteran of the Patriot War of East Florida.

In March 1812, Peter Cone was among a force of Georgia “Patriots” who, with the aid of nine U.S. Navy gunboats, invaded Spanish Florida and captured Amelia Island and the town of Fernandina, then turned control of the area over to regular United States troops from St. Mary’s, GA. Although there was no formal U.S. declaration of war against Spain (Spain was England’s ally in the war against Napoleon), this invasion had the tacit approval of President Madison who had commissioned former Georgia governor George Mathews to organize the effort. Within days of capturing Amelia Island the Patriots, along with a regiment of regular Army troops and Georgia volunteers, moved toward St. Augustine, the Spanish capitol of East Florida. On this march the Patriots were slightly in advance of the American troops, led by Lt. Col. Thomas A. Smith, US Army. The Patriots would proclaim possession of some ground, raise the Patriot flag, and as the “local authority” surrender the territory to the United States troops who would then substitute the American flag for the Patriot flag. But when the Patriots and regular US Army invaders reached St. Augustine they encountered stiff opposition: from the Spanish at Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine; from Blacks who fought for Spain (e.g. Prince’s Black Company), many of whom had escaped from enslavement in Georgia and South Carolina; and from the Seminoles and Black Seminoles, who were the targets of frequent raids by militia companies from Georgia hunting people escaped from enslavement as well as land and cattle.  With insufficient force to capture the Spanish fort, Governor Mathews had called for more Georgia volunteers to join the invasion. The occupation of parts of Florida lasted over a year, but after United States Army units were withdrawn and the Seminoles entered the conflict, the Patriots were dissolved.

Captain Cone’s 1812 Company in the Republic of East Florida
In August 1812, Peter Cone had taken a company of militia to St. Mary’s, GA to join Georgia militia Colonel Daniel Newnan’s Detachment of about 250 Georgia militiamen, officers and their enslaved African-American manservants in the “Patriot” invasion of Florida. Under orders, Col. Newnan reported to Lt. Col. Smith (US Army), near St. Augustine, then made a sortie with 117 volunteers against Native Americans at Lotchaway (present-day Alachua County, FL) to destroy their towns and provisions. Included in this force were nine Patriots under the command of Capt. Cone. On September 27, 1812, a band of Native Americans intercepted Newnan’s Detachment about seven miles east of the Lotchaway villages. Newnan’s force never reached the Seminole towns, losing eight men dead, eight missing, and nine wounded after battling Seminoles for more than a week and suffering through a major hurricane of October 1, 1812 (Colonel Newnan describes fighting ” among several pine trees that were laid prostrate by the hurricane.”) Captain Cone was among the wounded. Losses among the Native Americans were greater, including the death of King Payne, leading chief of the Seminoles. Newnan reported that the Georgia militia scalped the Indian dead. King Payne was succeeded as leading chief by his brother Bolek, called Bowlegs by the Anglo-Americans. The Patriot effort to seize Florida territory fell apart when Congress became aware of the unsanctioned invasion and grew alarmed at the possibility of being drawn into war with Spain. Secretary of State James Monroe promptly disavowed the actions and relieved Gen. Mathews of his commission. Drawn out negotiations for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from East Florida finally concluded in 1813. On May 6, 1813, the US Army lowered the American flag at Fernandina and the remaining troops retreated across the St. Marys River back into Georgia.
Cone was praised for his part in the action in Col. Newnan’s report to Georgia governor David Mitchell, published in Niles Weekly Register, Dec 12, 1812. Mentioning Cone by name, Newnan wrote, “My pen can scarcely do justice to the merits of the brave officers and men under my command, their fortitude their privations and distresses never forsaking them…Captain Cone, who was wounded in the head early in the action, behaved well.”
Cone returned to Bulloch County, GA, where he recovered from his head wound. Some of the “patriots” under Cone’s command in 1812 were also mustered into his 1814 company of Georgia militia.

Captain Cone’s 1814 Militia Company

Cone’s 1814 militia company rendezvoused about March 20 at Paramore Hill, a prominent bluff and local landmark overlooking the Ogeechee River. The troops were expected to provide themselves with blankets, knapsacks and canteens, and suitable clothing for a summer campaign of six months. Among the company were Dred Newbern, William Burns (1790-1871), James G. Conner (1790-1876), Henry Cook (1788-1873), Allen Jones, the Green brothers, Elisha (1792-1875), Daniel and Lewis, and others. (Lewis Green and Dred Newbern later moved to Lowndes County, GA; Green to that part of Lowndes County which in 1850 was cut into Clinch, and Newbern to the section that was cut into Berrien County in 1856.)

Paramore Hill

Paramore Hill was the regular designated gathering point for the militia brigades in that sector. It was at an important crossroads and the gathering point for the annual boot camp of the Georgia Militia. In Place Names of Georgia, John Goff gives this description:

Paramore Hill, a high sandy ridge that stretches for a mile or so down the east bank of the Ogeechee River … to the south of Millen, GA. The summit of the hill is some 270 feet about sea level. This height is not appreciably greater than that of some other rises in the general locality, but Paramore Hill is distinctive because the western slope is a steep face that drops precipitously almost to the edge of the river, permitting an open and rare view over the Ogeechee Swamp and its moss-draped trees below (Place names of Georgia).

(Place names of Georgia).

Paramore Hill was a noted waypoint on the ancient trails of Native Americans and the colonial settlers of Georgia. At the foot of the bluff there was a ford across the Ogeechee River. Furthermore, the Capitol Road ran along the top of bluff. The Capitol Road, one of the early thoroughfares of Georgia ran between Savannah and Louisville, which had served as the Georgia capitol from 1796 to 1806.

Following the formation of Cone’s Company at Paramore Hill, Dred Newbern marched with Peter Cone’s men to Savannah, GA, a distance of some 80 miles. After eight miles of marching they crossed the Rocky Ford Road which led one mile south to the river crossing. Rocky Ford was one of the prime crossing points across the Ogeechee River. Another eight miles brought the company to the settlement at Cooperville, founded by William Cooper in 1790. After 26 more miles they reached the outskirts of Whitesville (now Guyton, GA), founded by Squire Zachariah White in 1792. From Whitesville to Savannah was another 29 miles.

Savannah was defended by Fort James Jackson and Chatham County’s own militia and artillery companies, as well as the 8th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army, Colonel Lawrence Manning commanding. Private Lewis Green of Cone’s Company recalled, “upon their arrival…[they] were mustered into service and formed into three companies under the command of Major Robert Bowling…and Colonel Manning…on the twenty sixth day of March, A. D. 1814. Manning was Colonel of a Regiment of Regular [ U.S. Army] troops residing… at that time at the Barracks in Savannah.” About March 30, 1814, militia privates Lewis Green and William Burns were detailed “cutting wood with which to cook their rations, when the hatchet used by said Burns glanced from the stick he was cutting, and cut [Green] on the left ankle, on the back and inner side thereof, just above the heel, cutting the tendon or hamstring completely in two. [Green] averred that the injury was completely accidental and in no respect the result of carelessness on the part of himself or Burns. This happened early in the morning. He was immediately visited by a surgeon of the Regular Army…who then and there dressed his wound, split and sewed together the tendon and bandaged his leg. He was immediately removed to the hospital of the Regular Army at Savannah where he remained under the care of Dr. Rogers (possibly James Rogers), a surgeon in the Regiment.” Green remained in the hospital “until some eight or ten days thereafter, when he accompanied his Company to Sunbury, Liberty County, Georgia where he remained in the regimental hospital under the care of Dr. Rogers for another two months.

From Manning’s Regiment, a detachment of three companies was formed and placed under the command of Major Robert Bowling. The three companies were led by Captain David Clarke, Captain Roger L. Gamble, and Lieutenant Peter Cone. (Although a captain of the Georgia Militia, it appears Cone was mustered into U.S. Army service as a lieutenant.) A compilation of War Department records in the National Archives provides a reconstructed roster of 255 men in Bowling’s Detachment.

Bowling’s Detachment was ordered to take up a station on the Midway River for the defense of the town and port of Sunbury, GA, south of Savannah.

Related Posts:

• Etheldred Dryden Newbern ~ Pioneer Settler
• Pioneers appeal to the Governor about Indians in Lowndes County, GA
• Thomasville Times Account of 1836 Battle of Brushy Creek
• Martha Guthrie: Babe of the Indian Wars