Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

294 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
Selecting thirteen of the wounded American soldiers, Brown caused them to be
hanged from the high balustrade of the staircase in the White House, so that he
might witness the dying agonies of these men as he lay on his couch in the hall
below. And as each victim was pushed from the balustrade and fell with a dull
thud at the end of the rope, Brown would utter a grunt of satisfaction. He turned
the rest of the prisoners over to the tender mercies of the Indian allies, who, forming
a circle around them in the front yard of the White House, put them to death by
slow and fiendish tortures.
When, in 1781, Augusta was at last captured by the Americans, Brown was taken
prisoner. Knowing that if the soldiers could put hands on him they would tear
the poor fellow limb from limb, the American commander had him carried down
the river in a boat under a strong guard. It is strange that he was not court-
martialed and hanged, a fate which he richly deserved. The Americans were too
merciful to him. Brown was afterwards exchanged and rejoined the British army,
and till the end of the war continued his fierce fighting and cruel work. After the
war was over, realizing that he could not live in America, he took refuge in England,
There, in the year 1812, he was convicted of forgery and thrown into prison, where
he ended his infamous life in disgrace and ignominy.
Colonel Gtrierson was another bad Tory, and Brown's right-hand man. They
were two of a kind, companions in arms and companions in cruel deeds. Never was
there joined together, in the commission of lawlessness, two men worse than Brown
and Grierson, the Georgia Tory. Grierson, like Brown, was a colonel in the British
army. Fort Grierson, at Augusta, was named for him. It was one of the strongest
forts in Georgia, and around it, at the siege of Augusta, was fought one of. the
bloodiest battles of the Revolution in the state. When Augusta was captured by the
Americans, Grierson, like Brown, was taken prisoner. To save him from being
mobbed by the soldiers, the American commander had him hidden away in.a little
house some distance from town and placed a strong guard around him; but suddenly,
about twilight, a soldier on horse-back galloped up and, before the guards knew what
he was about, threw his gun to his shoulder, shot Grierson throw the window, and
then, wheeling, galloped away. During the night, in dreadful agony, Grierson died
of the wound. The man who shot him was supposed to be Samuel Alexander, the son
of John Alexander, an old man seventy-eight years old, whom Grierson had treated
with savage cruelty, when he and Brown held sway in Augusta. Young Alexander
was never arrested or tried for the deed.
Daniel McGirth was another notorious Tory of Georgia. Unlike Brown, he was
an ignorant, uneducated man; and, unlike Brown, too, he started out as an ardent
patriot. He was born and reared in South Carolina and was a good frontiersman,
as active and lithe as a panther. He was also a fine horseman and a splendid shot,
and was among the first to take up arms in the American cause. Somehow he
drifted into South Georgia, where he belonged to the little band of patriots who
so bravely resisted the invasion of the British from Florida. He acted as a scout
and spy for the Americans, and he rendered them most important service.
McGirth brought with him from South Carolina a thoroughbred horse, of which
he was very proud. She was an iron-gray mare with a snow-white blaze in her fore
head, and he called her Gray Goose. She was considered the finest horse in the
American army, beautiful, intelligent, and swift as the wind. A captain in the
American army took a great fancy to the animal and tried to buy her from McGirth,
offering him a large price, but McGirth refused to part with her. This angered the
captain, who, out of spite, mistreated McGirth in many ways, as an officer can mis
treat a subordinate, if he chooses. McGirth was a high-spirited fellow. Irritated
beyond endurance, he one day insulted the officer and raised his arm to strike him;
but some one intervened and stopped the blow. Now, to strike a superior officer
is a grave crime in the army, so McGirth was tried by court-martial and sentenced
to receive ten lashes with a cowhide on his bare back three days in succession. The
first whipping was administered and he was put into the guard house to await his
second humiliation. The feelings of this high-spirited man can be imagined, as he
paced up and down in his cell and brooded over the bitter shame to which he was
being subjected.
About twilight, as he was gazing through his prison bars, MeGirth spied Gray
Goose, hitched to a tree not far away. He gave a low, peculiar whistle, and Gray