Battle of The Rice Boats - Background

Background

In April 1775, tensions over British colonial policies in the Thirteen Colonies boiled over into war with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Following those events, Patriot colonists surrounded the city of Boston, placing it under siege, although the encirclement was incomplete: the city could be resupplied by sea. News of this action and the June Battle of Bunker Hill fanned the flames of independence throughout the colonies. Although the Province of Georgia had managed to remain relatively neutral before these events, radicals in the Georgia provincial congress came into power during the summer of 1775 and progressively stripped Georgia's Royal Governor, James Wright, of his powers. While Wright had requested a naval presence near Savannah, Patriots in Charleston, South Carolina had intercepted his request and substituted for it a dispatch indicating he did not need such support.

The dispute in Georgia reached a crisis point when British men-of-war began arriving at Tybee Island in January 1776. On January 12, three ships were seen at anchor off Tybee Island; by January 18 the fleet consisted of the HMS Cherokee, HMS Siren, HMS Raven, HMS Tamar, and a number of smaller vessels. Wright's opinion, expressed to Joseph Clay and others, was that the fleet had been sent to punish the local rebels. In fact, these ships were the beginnings of a fleet assembled to acquire provisions in Savannah for the beleaguered British troops in Boston. In December 1775 General William Howe had ordered an expedition to purchase rice and other provisions in Georgia. By early February the entire fleet had assembled off Tybee Island. It was under the overall command of Captain Andrew Barclay (or Barkley) on the HMS Scarborough, and included HMS Hinchinbrook and two transports, HMS Whitby and HMS Symmetry, carrying about 200 British army regulars from the 40th Foot under the command of Major James Grant.

The arrival of the first ships in January prompted the Georgia Committee of Safety to order the arrest of Wright and other provincial representatives of the Crown on January 18. Joseph Habersham, a major in the Georgia militia, placed Governor Wright under house arrest, and extracted a promise from the governor that he would not attempt to communicate with the British ships. Wright, who continued to be harassed in spite of his confinement, feared for his life, and escaped the mansion on the night of February 11. He made his way to the plantation of a Loyalist supporter and was taken from there to the Scarborough. In the meantime, Georgia's provincial assembly had met, elected representatives to the Second Continental Congress, and begun the process of raising regiments for the Continental Army.

After Governor Wright arrived aboard the Scarborough he wrote a letter to the remaining members of his council, in which he expressed frustration over getting assurances of safety and access to the desired supplies from the Patriot authorities. Georgia had, along with the other twelve colonies, in 1774 adopted the terms of the Continental Association created by the First Continental Congress banning trade with Great Britain. With negotiations effectively failed, Barclay ordered his fleet into action on February 29. His objective was a number of merchant vessels docked at Savannah, whose owners were desirous of moving their goods, something that became possible on March 1 when the previous constraints expired.