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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 271
of time other battalions were added and Colonel Mclntosh eventually
became General Mclntosh. But an unfortunate duel with Button Gwin-
nett, in which the latter fell, induced General Mclntosh to seek an assign
ment to service in another field, and Colonel Elbert succeeded him at the
head of the Georgia troops. However, General Mclntosh returned to
Georgia in the course of time to aid in the recapture of Savannah, and
was second in command to General Lincoln. He achieved marked dis
tinction in the Revolution, especially under General Washington, but
at home he was.unfortunately the victim of divided sentiment, though
an impartial sifting of the evidence shows that he was not the party at
fault. Colonel Elbert was made brigadier-general at the battle of Briar
Creek. Though the engagement was disastrous to the Americans, due
largely to the strategic blunders of General Ashe, it brought honors to
the brave Georgian, every member of whose command was either killed,
wounded or taken prisoner. Just before the fall of Savannah, Colonel
Elbert urged General Howe to fortify Brewton Hill; but the command
ing officer overruled the suggestion, and, sad to relate, Brewton Hill,
in grim confirmation of the Georgian's foresight, furnished the precise
spot on which the British troops landed. In 1785 General Elbert was
made governor.
But the fortunes of war were destined to bring other Georgians to the
front. Gen. James Screven, who was killed at the battle of Midway
Church, was an able officer, to whose memory the United States Congress
voted a monument, but the shaft was long delayed. Gen. Elijah
Clarke* was an illiterate man who lived on the northern frontier of the
state; but he was an unterrified dealer in buckshot. He waged relent
less warfare against the Tories, and at the battle of Kettle Creek he is
credited with the victory which overcame the noted ringleader of the
band, Colonel Boyd. Subsequently, when Augusta fell for the second
time into the hands of the British, he conducted the defenseless wives
and children of the Broad River region to an asylum of safety in Ken
tucky ; and the effort of Cornwallis to thwart him gave rise to the battle
of King's Mountain. His son John, who afterwards became governor
of Georgia, participated in some of the border campaigns, though at the
time only an immature youth. Gen. John Twiggs was another distin
guished soldier of the Revolution, whose services the state will always
remember. Like General Clarke, he, too, lived on the upper frontier
near Augusta, but he was an accomplished man, refined and polished,
though largely self-educated. He married a sister of David Emanuel;
and, coming to Georgia from Maryland some time before the Revolu
tion, he was not long in winning the spurs of knighthood. He fought
few engagements in which he was not successful; and in this respect was
perhaps unequaled by any Georgian. Indeed, he is said to have been the
nightmare of the dreaded Tarleton. Gen. David E. Twiggs was his son,
and Judge H. D. D. Twiggs, of Savannah, is one of his descendants.
Both General Clarke and General Twiggs distinguished themselves after
the Revolution in campaigns against the Indians.
* Though General Clarke was an illiterate man, the county which includes the
classic city of Athens with the State University and the Lucy Gobb Institute, and
which is therefore the Georgia Attica, bears the name of the rustic rifleman.