Lachlan McIntosh Lachlan McIntosh ( March 17 , 1725 – February 20 , 1806 ) was a British - born American military and political leader during the American Revolution and the early United States . In a 1777 duel , he shot dead Button Gwinnett , a signer of the Declaration of Independence . Early life . Arrival in Georgia . Lachlan McIntosh was born near Raits , Badenoch , Scotland . McIntosh ’ s father , John McIntosh Mòr , moved the family to Georgia in 1736 with a group of 100 Scottish settlers founding the town of New Inverness , ( which was later renamed Darien ) at the mouth of the Altamaha River . John McIntosh led the colonists as they carved out the new settlement from dense forest . The dangers of frontier life were brought home to Lachlan in 1737 when his younger brother Lewis McIntosh was killed by an alligator while swimming in the river . Georgia was then governed by James Oglethorpe who had founded the colony in 1732 . It was a highly militarized colony and clashes with neighboring Spanish Florida and its fortress city of St . Augustine were common . In one of these clashes in 1740 , during the War of Jenkins ' Ear , Lachlan ’ s father was captured by the Spanish and held prisoner for two years . The elder McIntosh was eventually released , but his health had deteriorated during his captivity and he died a few years later . Before his death he had supported the Colony ' s British Board of Trustees in their opposition to the introduction of African slaves into Georgia , which was demanded by an increasing number of colonists in need of labor . This earned him the gratitude of Oglethorpe . The “ Mòr ” of his title is Scots Gaelic for “ big ” . After his father ' s death , McIntosh was sent to the Bethesda Orphanage in Savannah under the care of the noted evangelist George Whitefield . His elder brother , Colonel William McIntosh , served under Oglethorpe and helped to repulse a Spanish invasion of the colony . Lachlan spent two years at the orphanage before traveling to Fort Frederica to serve as a military cadet . During this time , the Jacobite Rebellion broke out in Scotland . Lachlan and his brother William planned to travel to Scotland and join the rebellion , but General James Oglethorpe , who had become a friend and mentor to the young McIntosh , convinced them to remain in Georgia . Lachlan ' s brother William has sometimes been confused with another William McIntosh , of the Creek Nation , who is their cousin . The Creek William McIntosh was the son of Capt . William McIntosh , a Tory in the Rev . War . , and a high status Creek woman . The senior William McIntosh was the son of Capt . John McIntosh , who had immigrated with his brother Roderick , and with John " Mòr " McIntosh from Scotland . Confusion about the names stems from the fact that on their ship " The Prince of Wales , " at least five males were named John McIntosh in one form or another . In 1748 , McIntosh moved to Charleston , South Carolina , and took a position as a clerk for Henry Laurens , a wealthy merchant and slaveholder , who would become a lifelong friend and mentor . In 1756 McIntosh married Sarah Threadcraft . He soon returned with her to Georgia where he studied surveying . He acquired land in the Altamaha River delta and slaves to work it ; he became a prosperous rice planter . American Revolution . Early war . By 1770 , McIntosh had become a leader in the independence movement in Georgia . In January 1775 he helped organize delegates to the Provincial Congress from the Darien District of St . Andrew Parish . On January 7 , 1776 , McIntosh was commissioned as a colonel in the Georgia Militia . He raised the 1st Georgia Regiment of the Georgia Line , organized the defense of Savannah and helped repel a British assault at the Battle of the Rice Boats in the Savannah River . He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Continental Army , charged with defense of Georgia ' s southern flank from British incursions from Florida , by then a British possession . On October 22 , 1776 , McIntosh ordered his brother William to construct a fort on the Satilla River to protect Georgia from Florida . The fort was the first to be named Fort McIntosh . Duel with Button Gwinnett . During the period of 1776 to 1777 , McIntosh became embroiled in a bitter political dispute with Button Gwinnett , the Speaker of the Georgia Provisional Congress and a radical Whig leader . Their bitter personal rivalry began when McIntosh succeeded Gwinnett as commander of Georgia ’ s Continental Battalion in early 1776 . The two men represented opposing factions in a deeply divided Patriot movement in Georgia . Gwinnett had been forced to step aside after his election had been called into question by opposing forces within the independence movement . Gwinnett , thwarted in his military ambitions , became a delegate to the Continental Congress and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence . He returned to Georgia after his allies gained control of the Provisional Congress and succeeded in electing him speaker . Shortly afterward , he was elected president and commander - in - chief of the Committee of Safety . Gwinnett began purging the government and military of his political rivals . One of his early targets was George McIntosh , Lachlan ' s brother , who had opposed Gwinnett ’ s election . Gwinnett had George arrested and charged with treason against the revolution . In addition , Gwinnett had ordered Lachlan McIntosh to lead a poorly planned military expedition into British Florida . The operation was a disaster , and Gwinnett and McIntosh publicly blamed each other for the failure , straining the already tenuous relationship between the two men . On May 1 , 1777 , Lachlan McIntosh addressed the Georgia assembly and denounced Gwinnett in the harshest terms , calling him a " scoundrel and lying rascal . " Gwinnett sent a written challenge to McIntosh demanding an apology or satisfaction . McIntosh refused to apologize , and Gwinnett challenged him to a duel . On May 16 , in a field owned by James Wright a few miles east of Savannah , Gwinnett and McIntosh met to duel with pistols . At a distance of 12 paces , the two men leveled and fired virtually simultaneously . Gwinnett received a ball to the thigh and McIntosh was struck in the leg . McIntosh would recover from his wounds , but Gwinnett ’ s wound was mortal and he died three days later . Gwinnett ’ s allies had McIntosh charged with murder , but he was acquitted in the ensuing trial . George Washington , fearing Gwinnett ’ s allies would take revenge on McIntosh , ordered him to report to Continental Army headquarters on October 10 . He spent the winter of 1777 - 1778 with the Continental Army at Valley Forge , Pennsylvania , where he commanded several regiments of North Carolina troops . Military service on the western frontier and in the South . On May 26 , 1778 , McIntosh was given command of the Western Department of the Continental Army , headquartered at Fort Pitt ( present - day Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) on the Pennsylvania frontier . He restored order along the frontier and conceived a plan to attack the British stronghold of Fort Detroit . He established several new forts including Fort Laurens , named for his friend and mentor Henry Laurens , who had become President of the Continental Congress , and Fort McIntosh ( near present - day Beaver , Pennsylvania ) to prepare for the attack . The expedition against Fort Detroit was doomed however , and the troops were forced to turn back before reaching the fort . McIntosh was replaced as commander of the Western Department by Colonel Daniel Brodhead on March 5 , 1779 . Washington ordered McIntosh to return to the south to join General Benjamin Lincoln in Charleston , South Carolina . He marched to Augusta , Georgia , in command of the Georgia troops , and then proceeded to Savannah , where he commanded the 1st and 5th South Carolina regiments during the siege of Savannah . After the battle , he retired his troops to Charleston where he remained to defend the city from the British Army . On May 12 , 1780 , General Lincoln was forced to surrender the city to British General Sir Henry Clinton . McIntosh was taken prisoner and remained in captivity until he was exchanged on February 9 , 1782 for Charles O ' Hara . The war was brought to an end in 1783 with the Peace of Paris which recognized American independence and transferred East and West Florida to Spain . Later years . McIntosh returned to his plantation to find it ruined by the occupying British . McIntosh tried to restore his property and business interests , but he would spend the rest of his life in relative poverty . He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1784 , but never attended . In 1785 , he was appointed a commissioner to treat with the southern American Indian tribes . In 1787 , he was asked to help settle a boundary dispute between Georgia and South Carolina . In 1791 , he was part of the delegation that officially welcomed President George Washington to Georgia . McIntosh died in Savannah , Georgia on February 20 , 1806 . McIntosh is buried alongside his great - nephew Colonel James S . McIntosh ( 1784 – 1847 ) at Colonial Park in Savannah ' s historic district . His great - great - nephews , James M . McIntosh and John Baillie McIntosh , were generals on opposite sides in the American Civil War .