The Capture of Savannah, sometimes the First Battle of Savannah (because of the siege of 1779), or the Battle of Brewton Hill, was an American Revolutionary War battle fought on December 29, 1778 pitting local American Patriot militia and Continental Army units, holding the city, against a British invasion force, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell. The British capture of the city led to an extended occupation and was the opening move in the British southern strategy to regain control of the rebellious Southern provinces by appealing to the relatively strong Loyalist sentiment there.
General Sir Henry Clinton, the Commander-in-Chief, North America, dispatched Campbell and a 3,100-strong force from New York City to capture Savannah, and begin the process of returning Georgia to British control. He was to be assisted by troops under the command of Brigadier General Augustine Prevost that were marching up from Saint Augustine in East Florida. After landing near Savannah on December 23, Campbell assessed the American defenses, which were comparatively weak, and decided to attack without waiting for Prevost. Taking advantage of local assistance he flanked the American position outside the city, captured a large portion of Major General Robert Howe's army, and drove the remnants to retreat into South Carolina.
Campbell and Prevost followed up the victory with the capture of Sunbury and an expedition to Augusta. The latter was occupied by Campbell only for a few weeks before he retreated to Savannah, citing insufficient Loyalist and Native American support and the threat of Patriot forces across the Savannah River in South Carolina. The British held off a Franco-American siege in 1779, and held the city until late in the war.
Background
In March 1778, following the defeat of a British army at Saratoga and the consequent entry of France into the American Revolutionary War as an American ally, Lord George Germain, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, wrote to General Sir Henry Clinton that capturing the southern colonies was "considered by the King as an object of great importance in the scale of the war". Germain's instructions to Clinton, framed as recommendations, were that he should abandon Philadelphia and then embark upon operations to recover Georgia and the Carolinas; whilst making diversionary attacks against Virginia and Maryland.
British preparations
In June and July 1778 Clinton removed his troops from Philadelphia back to New York. In November, after dealing with the threat of a French fleet off New York and Newport, Rhode Island, Clinton turned his attention to the South. He organized a force of about 3,000 men in New York and sent orders to Saint Augustine, the capital of East Florida, where Brigadier General Augustine Prevost was to organize all available men and Indian agent John Stuart was to rally the local Creek and Cherokee warriors to assist in operations against Georgia. Clinton's basic plan, first proposed by Thomas Brown in 1776, began with the capture of the capital of Georgia, Savannah.
Clinton gave command of the detachment from New York to Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell. The force consisted of two battalions (the 1st and 2nd) of the 71st Regiment of Foot, the Hessian regiments von Wöllwarth and von Wissenbach, and four Loyalist units: one battalion from the New York Volunteers, two from DeLancey's Brigade, and one from Skinner's Brigade. Campbell sailed from New York on November 26 and arrived off Tybee Island, near the mouth of the Savannah River, on December 23.
American defenses
The State of Georgia was defended by two separate forces. Units of the Continental Army were under the command of Major General Robert Howe, who was responsible for the defense of the entire South, and the state's militia companies were under the overall command of Georgia Governor John Houstoun. Howe and the Georgia authorities had previously squabbled over control of military expeditions against Prevost in East Florida, and those expeditions had failed. These failures led the Continental Congress to decide in September 1778 to replace Howe with Major General Benjamin Lincoln, who had negotiated militia participation in events surrounding the British defeat at Saratoga. Lincoln had not yet arrived when word reached Howe that Clinton was sending troops to Georgia.