Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-06-18
[From the Historical Magazine for JaneI

COLONEL JoHN WHITE, OF THE GEORGIA
LTNE.-One of the most remarkable feats was
performed by this brave officer, that occurred
during the whole period of the Revolutionary
war. 1t is related on the authority of DR..
Ramsay, in his History of the Revolution in
South Carolina, Col. Lee. in his Memoir of
the War in the Southern Department, Major
Mccall, in his History of Georgia and by
Major Garden, in his Revolutionary Anec-
dotes, that while the allied army was engag-
ed before Savannah, and while the siege
was pending Col. White conceived an ex-
traordinary enterprise. Captain French, with
one hundred and eleven British regulars, had
taken post on the Ogechee River about
twenty-five miles from Savannah. AT the
some place lay five British vessels. of which
four were armed the largest mounting four
teen guns and the smallest four.
- Col. White, having with him only Captains
George Melvin, A. c. G. Elholm. sergeant
and three men, on the night of the LIST Octo-
Der, 1779. approached the encampment of
French, and kindled many fires, the illumi-
nation of which was discernible at the British
station. exhibiting, by the manner of ranging
them. the plan of camp.-To this stratagem
he added another: he and his comrades,
initiating the manner of the staff, rode with
haste in various directions, giving orders in
a loud voice. French became satisfied that
a large body of the enemy were upon him,
and on being summoned by White he sur
rendered his detachment, the crews of the
five vessels, forty in number, and one hun
dred and thirty stand of arms Col. White
having succeeded. pretended, that he must
keep back his troops, lest their luminosity
should break out, and indiscriminate slaugh-
ter take place in defiance of his authority,
and that, therefore, he would commit them to
three guides, who would conduct them safely
to good quarters aE
- h .1at
address, that the whole of the British prison
ers were safely conducted by three of the
captors for twenty-five miles through the
country to the American post at Sudbury.
The affair. notwithstanding the high au-
thority above quoted, bears so much the ap-
pearance of romance, and approaches so near
the marvellous, as to be doubted by many to
the present day.-The writer has in his pos
session an original document, which fully
sustains the facts SO far as relates to the cap
ture of the vessels 1t is in the hand writing
of Major William Jackson, who was the
Secretary of the Federal Convention OF 1877,
and of which the following is an exact copy:
"CHAs. Town, April IA, 1880.
GENTLEMEN: Please to pay to Jacob
Read, Esq. Proctor in the cause of the cap
tors, and claimants for the vessels taken in
Ogechee River by Col. White, twenty-five
hundred dollars, being his fees in said cause,
LOT WHICH Will uC oSSOuhe"pAS. "A'; So
tlemen.
"Your most ob't serv't,
"W. JACKSON,
"one of the Agents of the Army.
'sTo Messrs, Colcock i Gibbons,
"Vendue Masters"
The order is Endorsed in the handwriting
of Gen. Read, who was a United States
Senator from South Carolina.
Col. White an Englishman by birth, of
Irish parentage, was surgeon in the British
navy.-Whle on visit to Barbados, he
married a lady, native of London, to which
place he soon returned; and having acquired
a fortune by his profession, he left the navy
and embarked for America, and settled in
Philadelp hia, determined to make 1t his future
residence When the Revolution commenced
he took the oath of allegiance, and entered
the army as Captain, and was soon promoted
to the rank of Colonel-his regiment Qhe 4th
Georgia battalion) being ordered to the
South.
He was severely wounded in the assault at
Spring Hill redoubt on the 9th October. 1779,
(where Pulaski fell and only nine days after
the capture of French. He succeeded in
making his escape from the British with Col.
Ebert and others his wound had so much
impaired his health that he was obliged to
retire from the army; and died soon after
wards in Virginia from pulmonary attack
produced by fatigue and exposure.
SAVANNAH, Ga. L. n. L.