^
Update this timeline entry
Barnwell's ship arrived in Charles Town with a disappointing army
Source: The Southern Frontier #86
Project ID
Chapter
No chapter
Timeline title
Start date
End date
Filename received
Filename assigned
Content
Enable editor
Use plain text
Code entry
On May 22, 1721, H.M.S. Enterprise, with Governor Francis Nicholson, John Barnwell, and the royal troops aboard, dropped anchor at Charles Town bar. Her arrival, anxiously expected by the supporters of the temporary government, put an end to the attempts of Johnson and Captain Hildesley to defeat the popular revolution. 1 [Note 1 c.o. McCrady, S.C. under the Royal Government] Amid rejoicing at the beginning of a new order in the colony government, and in defense of the southern frontier, there were reasons for dissatisfaction on the part of Barnwell and the old soldier who had supported him so vigorously in his dealings with Whitehall. Official lethargy in England had come near to defeating in advance the one item in the expansionist program of the Carolinians and the Board of Trade to which the government had given assent. Instead of a battalion of foot, a single company of soldiers had come over on the Enterprise; and not the young artificers for whom Nicholson had pleaded, but a hundred invalids, half of them now ill of scurvy. Tools for building the fort had indeed been furnished by the Board of Ordnance, but the engineer had failed to sail with Nicholson as he had agreed. Barnwell had expected the lieutenancy of the independent company and a command on the same footing as at Annapolis and Placentia, but had been disappointed. 'Without an Engineer, without Carpenters, Smiths, Brick-layers and other Trades-men, and even without men Capable of doing any work, it was hopeless,' he declared, to employ the independent company in making the projected settlement on the Altamaha. But delay might be fatal. He therefore proposed that some of the province scouts should be sent at once to 'secure possession of that place by a small Palissado Fort and a few Huts,' until the regular royal fort could be built. 2 [Note 2 C.O.: 'Letters and Papers relating to Landing His Majesty's Independent Company now in South-Carolina &ca. and likewise concerning ColI. Barnwell's going to Altamaha River in order to Build a Small Fort there' (16 folios), especially Barnwell's memorial, June 3, 1721.] Nicholson and his council concurred, and entrusted the task to Barnwell himself as the commander of the southern scouts. He was ordered to take possession of the Altamaha in the King's name 'for use of the Crown of Great Britain,' and if interrupted by Indians or Europeans 'to repel force by force.'3
Replace existing data with this data
