The second bloodiest battle of the War of
Independence was fought in Savannah, the Siege and
Battle of Savannah. A British victory, that is why most
people have never heard of the battle. On October 9th,
1779, at eight o’clock in the morning, in 55 minutes,
1,150 men died. If you watched a movie that had that
much death in less than an hour, you would think it
was exaggerated, but that’s what happened in 1779.
It was a massacre by today’s standards. Only
150 British were killed; over 1000 Allies were killed.
American, French and Haitian troops bore the defeat.
The British won the battle and had leisure to bury
their dead. The King’s fallen soldiers were moved.
They are interred in a corner of the National Cemetery
in Beaufort today. The allies didn’t have that leisure.
They were given twenty-four hours to retreat, under
a flag of truce of fifty hours, they left behind Haitian
regiments and buried their dead, literally where they
lay.
From Madison Square west are dozens of bodies
and, as you move west, tens of dozens. Located under
the Savannah Visitors Center parking lot, the old
‘cotton yard’ are mass graves with hundreds of bodies.
Bodies of Patriots who died for our liberty.
