Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

158 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
era! Oglethorpe died at the patriarchal age of ninety-seven. He lived
to see the Colony which he founded an independent commonwealth and
to meet John Adams, the first ambassador from the United States to
the Court of St. James. He was buried at Cranham Church, in Essex:
Comity, England, where his last resting place commands an outlook
upon the North Sea.
General Oglethorpe," by Henry Bruee, New York, 1890; "James Oglethorpe, the
Founder of Georgia," by Harriet C. Cooper, New York, 1904; "James Edward Ogle
thorpe," an address at the Annual Banquet of the Georgia Society of Sons of the
Revolution, at Savannah, February 5, 1894, by Judge Emory Speer, included in a
volume of speeches on "Lee, Lincoln, Grant," etc., New York and Washington, 1909;
and Judge Charlton's oration at the unveiling of the Oglethorpe monument in
Savannah, November 23, 1910.
BLOODY MAESH: WHEKE A BATTLE WAS FOUGHT IN WHICH SPAIN LOST A CON
TINENT.—Between, the lighthouse at St. Simon's and the old citadel of Frederica
there stretches a low plain on which was staged a war drama, the far-reaching effect
of which upon the subsequent fortunes of America hardly admits of a parallel in the
history of the New World. Here, on July 7, 1742, was fought the historic battle
of Bloody Marsh. To quote an authority whose opinion is universally respected,
Thomas Carlyle, "half the world was hidden in embryo under it;" and this wisest
seer and clearest thinker of the nineteenth century further adds: '' The Yankee nation
itself was involved, the greatest phenomenon of these ages.'' * The renowned White-
field declared that Georgia's deliverance from the Spaniards.at this time was to be
paralleled "only by some instances out of the Old Testament."t Said he:t "Certain
it is that this battle, though well nigh forgotten, is one of the most glorious and
decisive in the annals of our country. It detennined that (North America should be
left to the exploitation of the Anglo-Saxon, the Celtic and the Teutonic races. Had
success attended the Spaniards, they would have advanced upon the more northern
settlements." To quote an eminent jurist of this State,* "General Oglethorpe re
ceived from the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vir
ginia, and North Carolina special letters, congratulating him on his success and
expressing gratitude to the Supreme Governor of Nations for placing the affairs
of the Colonies under the direction of a General, so well qualified for the important
trust.'' In the ancient Spanish burial ground near Frederica lie the remains of
some of the hapless victims who fell in this engagement, but the sacred area is
choked with briars and brambles while, amid the damp undergrowth, hisses the
vengeful snake. The disappearance of the Spanish flag, on January 1, 1899, from
the whole upper half of the Western Hemisphere, when the independence of Cuba
was recognized by the government of Madrid, merely served to record the final issues
of the great victory achieved by Oglethorpe when, with a force of six hundred men,
he inaugnarated the era of Spain's downfall and gave the whole continent of North
America to English civilization. Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends,
L. L. Knight, Vol. I.
* Judge Emory Speer, in a speech delivered at the annual banquet of the Georgia
Society of Sons of the Revolution,, at Savannah, on February 5, 1894, and incor
porated in a volume entitled "Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and Other Biographical Ad
dresses," pp. 130-131, New York and Washington, 1909. In this same work, Judge
Speer reproduces the "Official E'eport of Don Manual Montiano, Spanish Commander
of the Expedition against Georgia,'' a document of very great value to historians.
t McCall, Stephens, Jones.
t Judge Speer in the worki above mentioned, pp. 130-131.- Also an address de
livered by Judge Walter G. Charlton, at the unveiling of the Oglethorpe monument
in Savannah, November 23, 1910,