On March 2 and 3, 1776, the American Revolutionary War's Battle of the Rice Boats, also known as the Battle of Yamacraw Bluff, was fought on land and at sea along the Savannah River, which separates the Province of Georgia from the Province of South Carolina. Georgia and South Carolina Patriot militias faced off against a tiny Royal Navy fleet in the conflict.
The British Army was under siege in Boston in December 1775. A fleet of the Royal Navy was sent to Georgia to buy rice and other commodities. When this navy arrived, the colonial insurgents in charge of Georgia's government arrested James Wright, the British Royal Governor, and resisted the British taking possession of and removing supply ships that were moored at Savannah. The majority of the supply ships were successfully seized by the British, but several were reclaimed and others were burnt to avoid their acquisition.
Governor Wright managed to get out of his captivity and make it to a ship in the fleet. Although Savannah was temporarily retaken by the British in 1778, his departure signaled the end of British rule over Georgia. From 1779 until 1782, when British soldiers were eventually pulled out in the dying days of the war, Wright governed once again.
Tensions over British colonial policies in the Thirteen Colonies exploded into conflict in April 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Following those events, Patriot colonists besieged Boston, although the encirclement was not total since the city could be resupplied by sea. News of this engagement, along with the engagement of Bunker Hill in June, fueled the colonies' yearning for independence. Before these events, the Province of Georgia had been able to maintain its relative neutrality, but in the summer of 1775, radicals in the Georgia provincial legislature took control and gradually deprived Georgia's Royal Governor, James Wright, of his authority. South Carolina intercepted Wright's plea for a naval presence in Savannah, the colony's capital, Patriots in Charleston, and replaced it with a message stating that he did not need such help.
When British men-of-war started arriving at Tybee Island in January 1776, the Georgia issue reached a breaking point. Three ships were seen anchored near Tybee Island on January 12; by January 18, the fleet included HMS Cherokee, HMS Siren, HMS Raven, HMS Tamar, and many smaller ships. Wright believed that the fleet had been dispatched to punish the local rebels, as he told Joseph Clay and others. These ships really marked the start of a fleet that was gathered in Savannah to provide supplies for the struggling British forces in Boston. General William Howe had issued an order for an expedition to buy rice and other supplies in Georgia in December 1775. The whole armada had gathered off Tybee Island by the beginning of February. Under the general direction of Captain Andrew Barclay (or Barkley) aboard HMS Scarborough, it carried around 200 British army regulars from the 40th Foot, which was commanded by Major James Grant. It also contained HMS Hinchinbrook and two transports, Whitby and Symmetry.
The Georgia Committee of Safety ordered Wright and other Crown provincial delegates to be arrested on January 18 in response to the first ships arriving in January. A major in the Georgia militia named Joseph Habersham put Governor Wright under house arrest and made him swear not to try to get in touch with the British ships. Fearing for his safety, Wright fled the home on the evening of February 11 after being tormented despite his incarceration. He was brought to Scarborough after making his way to a Loyalist supporter's property. The process of forming regiments for the Continental Army had started, and Georgia's provincial parliament had convened and chosen delegates to the Second Continental Congress.
Governor Wright issued a letter to the other council members once he got on Scarborough, expressing his dissatisfaction with the Patriot authorities' promises of safety and access to the goods he wanted. In 1774, Georgia and the other twelve colonies accepted the conditions of the Continental Association, which was established by the First Continental Congress and which prohibited commerce with Great Britain. After discussions essentially broke down, Barclay gave the order for his fleet to move on February 29. His target was many commercial ships anchored in Savannah whose owners wanted to move their cargo, which was made feasible on March 1st when the earlier restrictions were lifted.
Alongside transports carrying two to three hundred troops under Grant's command, Scarborough, Tamar, Cherokee, and Hinchinbrook set sail up the Savannah River to Five-Fathom Hole on March 1. Then Hinchinbrook set sail up the Back River with one of the transports. While Hinchinbrook grounded on a sandbank in the river in an effort to gain a position above the town, the cargo moored across from the port area. Hinchinbrook's decks were cleared by gunfire from Joseph Habersham's militia, but Habersham was unable to try to seize the ship because he lacked the necessary boats, and it sailed free on the next high tide. Grant's soldiers arrived on Hutchinson Island late on the night of March 2. They crossed the island and occupied many of the rice boats stationed close to the island about 4:00 am on March 3. Because they were able to keep quiet, and maybe with the help of the ship captains, the alarm in Savannah wasn't sounded until nine in the morning. When the ships arrived on March 1, the Committee of Safety issued appeals for the town's and the ships' defense, which were then sent to the Committee of Safety in South Carolina the next day along with a plea for help.
Colonel McIntosh gathered 300 troops and positioned three 4-pound guns atop Yamacraw Bluff in response to the alert. Then, under a parley flag, he sent Major Raymond Demeré II and Lieutenant Daniel Roberts to one of the occupied ships, where they were immediately taken into custody. The scene became tense when Captain Rogers, the party's commander, was insulted during a second, bigger parley that came to negotiate the release of the two prisoners and the ships. The British retaliated in like when he shot at someone on the occupied ship, hurting one and almost sinking the parley group's boat. The gunfight continued four hours when McIntosh fired with the guns on the cliff after that boat retreated.
A company of militia was gathered to carry out the Committee of Safety's decision to destroy the supply ships after it convened to consider the matter. There was a panic as the British forces rushed to escape the occupied boats in the face of the fireship that was approaching after one supply ship, Inverness, was thrown adrift and set on fire. The Patriot artillery and militia were active throughout the commotion, splattering the fleeing British workers with grape shot and musket fire. Two of the occupied ships were able to flee downstream, while two others fled upstream but were forced to dock and had their crews captured. The fire raged long into the night and destroyed three ships. 500 South Carolina militia were sent in answer to the previous request, and their prompt arrival aided the action.
The next day, Captain Barclay received a parley from Colonel McIntosh proposing a prisoner swap. The other members of Wright's council were arrested by the Committee of Safety when Barclay declined the trade. This strategy worked; in return for those council members' assurances of security, the British-held detainees were freed.
Although several merchant ships had to discard part of their cargo in order to make it down the shallow canal, the British managed to safely sail the majority of the ships down the Back River despite the activity. When they arrived at Tybee Island, the two British cargo ships were filled with the 1,600 barrels of rice that were needed.
Negotiations regarding the prisoner swap continued as the navy remained moored near Tybee Island. A number of approaching vessels were held by the navy during this period and then disposed of as prizes. A group of Savannah militiamen set fire to every home on the island on March 25 in order to prevent Wright and the commanders of the ships from using them. On March 30, Barclay led the convoy of transports and commercial ships as they weighed anchor and headed north. He initially arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, where the local Patriots refused to help him and used field artillery to fire at his ships after the British had left Boston earlier in March. In May, he finally returned to the British army at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
British rule over Georgia ended after the fight and Wright's departure, and British soldiers retook Savannah in December 1778. After Governor Wright's return, Savannah was under British control until 1782.
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