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334 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
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an obvious depression of spirits on the part of his old commander, who
seemed loath t& join in the conversation, he urged him to consult a
doctor. On the next morning the physician arrived, took a little blood
and administered some ordinary prescription, but the inflammation
increasing another physician was called into consultation. The disease,
having now assumed an alarming aspect, it was decided to blister the
temples and to let the blood freely; but it was too late; the head had
swollen greatly, and the patient lapsed into a total stupor, from which
he never revived. Early on the morning of Monday, November 19,
1786, he died.
Gen. Anthony AYayne, whose plantation was not far distant, hearing
of the illness of his friend, hastened to his bedside, and was with him
when the end came. In a letter addressed to Maj. James Jackson, he
said: '' He was great as a soldier, greater as a citizen, immaculate as a
friend. His corpse will be at Major Pendletoii's this night, the funeral
from thence in the evening. The greatest honors of war are due his re
mains. You, as a soldier, will take the proper order on this melancholy
affair. Pardon this scrawl; my feelings are too much affected because
I have seen a great and a good man die." When the news reached'
Savannah, it produced overwhelming sorrow. Preparations were hastily
made to do full honor to the memory of the distinguished man and to
surround the obsequies with the dignity befitting his high rank and
character. On Tuesday, the day after his death, the remains were taken
by water to Savannah, thence to the home of Major Pendleton, which
stood on Bay Street, next to the corner of Barnard Street, and close to
the water's edge. In front of this house the militia, representatives of
the municipality, members of the Society of the Cincinnati, and many
persons in private and official life, received the body. Flags in the har
bor were lowered to half-mast, the shops and stores in town were closed,
and labor of every kind was suspended. At about 5 o'clock in the after
noon, the funeral procession started from the Pendleton house to the
Colonial Cemetery, belonging to Christ Church; the. artillery in Fort
Wayne firing minute-guns as the long lines advanced; the band playing
the solemn "Dead March in Saul."
On reaching the burial ground, where a vault had been opened, the
regiment filed to right and left, resting 011 arms until the funeral train
had passed to the tomb. Then the Hon. William Stevens, judge of the
Superior Court of Chatham County and Grand Master of the Masons,
took his place at the head of the coffin, since there were no clergymen in
the town at this time, and, with tremulous voice, read the funeral service
of the Church of England. Then the body was placed in the vault;
the files closed, with three general discharges; the artillery fired thirteen
rounds, and, with trailed arms, all slowly and silently withdrew. Al
though so large a number of people attended the funeral obsequies
and participated in the deep grief which followed the death of this
distinguished man, the place of his burial, due to a singular combina
tion of circumstances, became in a little more than thirty years unknown
to the local authorities and remained for over a century an unsolved
enigma.
On February 3, 1786, a new county was organized out of lands taken
from AVashington, and in honor of Gen. Nathanael Greene, of the Revo-