PIECES OF OUR PAST - THE CHEHAW INCIDENT

A Most Regrettable Affair

The year was 1818, two centuries ago.  Florida was about to become a territory  of the United States under the Adams-Otis treaty which took effect in 1821.  Central Georgians were terrified of Indian attacks once again.  After a brief respite of a few years afer the official end of the War of 1812,  the State of Georgia and the United States government were engaged in military actions against the Indians of southwestern Georgia, western Florida,  and lower Alabama.   General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee was in command of the Federal forces in the Southeast.  The lands along the Ocmulgee, just as during the War of 1812, were vulnerable to attacks by Indians.  The battles in the southeast would become known as the First Seminole Wars.  

Leading the United States Army was General Andrew Jackson, a Carolinian by birth and a Tennessean by destiny.  A decade later, Jackson (LEFT)  would become the 7th President of the United States, but not before reeking havoc among the Native American tribes of the Alabama, primarily the Seminole, Creek, and Cherokee. 

On the last day of January 1818, Major General Edmund Gaines informed General Jackson that while in Harford, Georgia (opposite present day Hawkinsville and once located in Laurens County):  "With extreme regret I have to state to you that the Militia under General Glascock has manifested no disposition whatever to remain a moment longer than the two months for which they were ordered into service. I had reason to calculate upon as many volunteers remaining in service as would defend the new Fort upon Flint [i.e. Fort Early], Fort Gaines and the Frontier adjacent to this place, until the arrival of the detachment of Militia from Major General Floyd’s Division, but in this I have been disappointed."

Jackson was making his way from the rendevous point of the Tennessee Volunteers  to Fort Hawkins which commanded the hilly heights of what would become East Macon.  Small forces remained at Fort Early and Hartford, primarily to keep an Indian warriors from crossing into more populated settlements in Pulaski, Telfair, Twiggs and Laurens counties.  The expected attacks came, although they were primarily limited to the lower regions of Georgia and Alabama.

Jackson and his mostly civilian force moved down an ancient trail along the eastern side of the Ocmulgee River, camping along the way.  They met General Gaines at Harford At Hartford, Jackson and his men crossed the river and moved west toward Fort Early.  

Although the Lower Creeks were friendly to Georgians, citizens of Telfair and Pulaski counties had a fear of Indian forays into their homes and farms.   The fear was real since most of Georgia's militia were under the Jackson’s command.  Georgia governor William Rabun requested that Gen. Jackson send a small contingent of his troops to protect the Georgia frontier.   When Jackson failed to respond, Gov. Rabun took matters into his own hands.

On April 14, 1818, Rabun ordered the formation of a militia unit at Hartford, opposite the future site of Hawkinsville.  Rabun directed the men to proceed to the hostile villages of Phelemmes and Hoppones on the Flint River.  Their mission was to punish the inhabitants by destroying the towns.  Capt. Obed Wright of the Chatam County Militia was placed in command of the expedition.  The force was to be composed of Twiggs and Jones County militia, a garrison of Federal troops at Fort Early, and other volunteers.  

 Wright sent a dispatch to Capt. Jacob Robinson of the Laurens Light Dragoons ordering him to assemble his men at Hartford.  Some of the Laurens Countians refused the order, insisting that it was made without the Governor's authority.  Capt. Robinson gave his men the option of going or staying.  Most of the dragoons followed Robinson to the rendezvous point.  Upon their arrival there were still no written orders.  Robinson hesitated to join Wright but capitulated when Wright insisted that he had proof that the nearby towns were hostile.  Capt. Wright  ordered the Laurens Dragoons to join the expedition, bringing his  total force to two hundred and seventy men.

The expedition moved out of Hartford on April 21st.  Their destination was Fort Early, which had been built by Gen. David Blackshear of Laurens County.  Capt. Ebenezer Bothwell, commander of the fort, provided some troops to Wright despite his opposition to the mission.  Wright moved out on the twenty-second,  headed for the Flint River. On the far side of the Flint River, Wright's men encountered an Indian boy and his two dogs.  The boy was keeping an eye on grazing cattle just on the outskirts of the village of Chehaw.


   One of Wright's men thought he spotted the brand of a Telfair County farmer on one of the cows.  The boy offered to go back to the village to bring the chiefs back for a conference.   Wright declined the offer and ordered the frightened young boy to lead the army into the village.   Just as Wright and his men reached the village, the boy and his two dogs were killed.  An Indian coming out to greet the soldiers was shot and scalped on the spot.   The villagers ran toward their homes in shear terror.  The houses were set on fire.  An elderly woman and child were burned to death.  

 Another woman was shot in the knee.   The chief, Tiger King, known to his white friends as Major Howard, came out holding a white flag.  The chief's son picked up a gun and then put it down upon his father's command.  At that instant, the boy was shot and killed.    The militia then cut and slashed Tiger King to death, cutting the earrings from his body for souvenirs.  A son-in-law of Tiger King was hacked and killed while attempting to escape.  A woman running with her children was killed.  After two hours, it was all over. No soldiers were hurt.  Six men, two women, a boy, and a girl lay dead.  Wright had gotten what he wanted, or so he thought.  

From that point on, accounts of the affair were as varied as counts of the  actual number of those killed at Chehaw.  Wright estimated that between forty and fifty Indians had been killed.  Capt. Robinson of Laurens County insisted that a dozen or so shots had been fired from caves before his men opened fire.    Further, Robinson reported finding a large store of British war supplies in the village.  Wright denied the claims that any of his men or the Indians were waving white flags.  Gov. Rabun verified Wright's and Robinson's accounts of the attack, except for the number of deaths.   

The debate over Wright's actions raged throughout the state.  Many Georgia newspapers were highly critical of the militia's action.   Gov. Rabun and Judge C.B. Strong came to the defense of Wright and his men.  Gen. Andrew Jackson was savoring his victory at St. Marks.  When Jackson received a letter detailing the events at Chehaw, he became furious.  Jackson considered the Indians at Chehaw to be his friends.  He wrote "It will be stigma on the American nation, unless the general government uses its endeavors to bring the perpetrators to justice."  Gen. Jackson then ordered the immediate arrest of Wright and even threatened Gov. Rabun for his failure to act on the matter.   The fallout from Chehaw rocked the statehouse in Milledgeville as well as the halls of Congress in Washington.  Andrew Jackson tried to keep the peace with the friendly Creek Indians.  Chief William McIntosh, who led two thousand of his warriors into battle along side Jackson, took a wait and see attitude.  Eventually, Gov. Rabun would change his views toward Wright and his men.  Rabun realized that he was in a "no-win" situation with Jackson and Federal government in Washington.

Gen. Jackson, within a few minutes after learning of the attack,  dispatched Major John M. Davis to arrest Wright at Hartford and take him to the authorities at Fort Hawkins in Macon.  Major Davis was instructed to seek the help of Gov. Rabun if he could not find Wright at Hartford.  Wright left Hartford for his home in Savannah.  Davis finally found Capt. Wright in Dublin on May 24, 1818.   Major Davis sent a letter to Wright informing him of his arrest.  For some reason, Davis and Wright went to Milledgeville instead of Fort Hawkins.  Wright's attorney, Seaborn Jones, filed a writ of habeus corpus with the justices of the Inferior Court of Baldwin County.  At a hearing on May 28th, the justices found no sufficient cause for Wright's detention and set him free. Andrew Jackson was furious - his authority has been dealt a great insult.  Gov. Rabun had Capt. Wright arrested again, hoping that Wright would be tried in a civil court.  John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun, after much deliberation, agreed and set a trial date in December.  A military court martial remained a possibility.

Capt. Wright could not wait five more months in jail.  On the night of July 27th he fled from the Capital city.  Apparently, Wright went south down the Oconee.  He appeared at the home of Capt. Jacob Robinson of the Laurens Dragoons, his second in command at Chehaw.  Robinson claimed that Wright told him that he had been released.  Capt. Robinson provided Wright a "wooden horse" (canoe) in which Wright was last seen paddling down the river.  Wright went south, never to be heard from again.  

The military authorities, led by Gen. David Blackshear (LEFT) of Laurens County, looked for someone else to blame for the attack at Chehaw.  Capt. Jacob Robinson was brought before a military court martial in Dublin on May 12, 1819.  Robinson was charged with making out a false payroll, conduct unbecoming to an officer, aiding and abetting the escape of Capt. Wright, and for the false arrest of John J. Underwood of the Laurens Dragoons.  The major charges, those concerning his actions as second in command at Chehaw, were not presented against Capt. Robinson.

   Witnesses for the prosecution testified that the Laurens Dragoons came home on some weekends, and although they were subject to recall at a moment's notice, the military court found that they were not on duty and not entitled to pay. The court found Robinson guilty on the first charge. 

 The court found that Robinson's conduct was not unbecoming and that he did not leave his men on the west side of the Ocmulgee River while he remained on the safer, eastern side.  The court found Robinson innocent of the charge that he aided Wright in his escape, despite the testimony of several witnesses who testified that Robinson knew that Wright was still under arrest.  Robinson was found innocent on the charge of the false arrest of John Underwood. Lt. Col. Elijah Blackshear pronounced the court's sentence and ordered that Capt. Robinson be cashiered out of service.  Robinson ran for the Georgia Senate in the next election and defeated one of his accusers, the venerable Gen. David Blackshear. Robinson, a large landowner on the lower Oconee,  left Laurens County after Blackshear returned to the Senate.  

In 1842, the matter of the right of military law over civil law was debated by John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives.  Adams maintained that Jackson's orders were eventually followed by Gov. Rabun.  He forgot to mention that  five non-lawyers who made up the Inferior Court ordered the release of Capt. Wright despite Gen. Jackson's specific orders.   Adams then allowed Congressman Lott Warren, a former Laurens Countian who served with Jackson in Florida, to speak on the subject.  Warren defended Gov. Rabun and his stand on the matter, claiming that he never wavered.

So ended some of the darkest days in the history of Laurens County.  Was it a massacre or a justified attack?  Most of the evidence points to the fact that Wright and his men were not justified in their actions.  Although Wright was tried in the newspapers of Georgia and the halls of Congress, the court of public opinion in Georgia found that the actions of Wright and his men were justified.  Many Georgians had lived through thirty five years of depredations being committed against their friends, families, and property and were in no mood to criticize their own people.  No trial was ever conducted.  No legal blame or justification was ever determined.  It is a story that many have never known and that the souls of those who were there will never forget.

ROSTER OF THE LAURENS LIGHT DRAGOONS

Captain: Jacob Robinson;  1st Lieutenant: Charles S. Guyton; 2nd Lieutenant: John I. Underwood; Cornet: Lewis Joiner; Trumpeter: Terrel Higden;  1st Sergeant: Wm. A. Underwood; 2nd Sergeant:  John Anderson; 3rd Sergeant: John Fort;  4th Sergeant:  Frederick Carter: 1st Corporal: Clement Fennell; 2nd Corporal: David Spears; 3rd Corporal:  Nicholas Baker;  4th Corporal: Wm. H. Parimore. 

PRIVATES:  Speir Knight, John Cory, Robert Knight,  John Armstrong, Wm. Fountain, James Knight, John Spicer, Joel Ware, Henry C. Fuqua,  John Underwood, Robert Coats, William Carson, James Pickeron, Samuel Hill,  James Glass, John N. Martin, William Oliver, Eli Ballard, Robert Thomas,  John G. Petre,  William Cauthron, William Fullwood, Thomas Riggins,  Thomas W. Anderson,  Littleton G. Hall, Jones Livingston,  Joel Culpepper, Lanier Smith, Levan Adams, Daniel W. Duffie, William Pickett, and James Beatty.