Battle of The Rice Boats - Battle

Battle

On March 1, Scarborough, Tamar, Cherokee, and Hinchinbrook sailed up the Savannah River to Five-Fathom Hole, accompanying transports carrying two to three hundred men under Grant's command. Hinchinbrook and one of the transports then sailed up the Back River. The transport anchored opposite the port area, while Hinchinbrook, in an attempt to take a position above the town, grounded on a sandbank in the river. Gunfire from Joseph Habersham's militia cleared Hinchinbrook's decks, but without suitable boats, Habersham was unable to attempt the taking of the vessel, which floated free on the next high tide. Late on the evening of March 2, Grant's men were landed on Hutchinson Island. They made their way across the island, and, at 4:00 am on March 3, took over a number of the rice boats anchored near the island. Due to their success at remaining quiet, and possibly with the collusion of the ship captains, the alarm was not raised in Savannah until 9:00 am. The arrival of the ships on March 1 prompted the Committee of Safety to issue calls for the defense of the town and the ships, which were forward along with a request for assistance to South Carolina's Committee of Safety the next day.

When the alarm was raised, Colonel McIntosh took 300 militiamen and set up three 4-pound cannons on Yamacraw Bluff. He then sent Lieutenant Daniel Roberts and Major Raymond Demeré II under a parley flag to one of the occupied ships; they were promptly arrested. When a second, larger, parley arrived to discuss the release of the two captives and the ships, the situation turned nasty when Captain Rogers, leader of the party, was insulted. After he fired at someone on the occupied ship, the British responded in kind, wounding one and very nearly sinking the parley group's boat. Following that boat's retreat, McIntosh opened fire with the cannons on the bluff, beginning a gunbattle that lasted for four hours.

The Committee of Safety, when it met to discuss the situation, decided that the supply ships should be burned, and a company of militia was assembled to accomplish this task. One supply ship, the Inverness, was torched and set adrift toward the occupied vessels, causing a scramble as the British troops hurried to abandon them in the face of the arriving fire ship. During the confusion, the Patriot militia and battery were active, raking the scurrying British crews with musket fire and grape shot. Two of the occupied vessels managed to get away downstream, and two more escaped the flames by going upstream, but were forced to dock, and their crews were taken prisoner. Three ships succumbed to the flames, which burned well into the night. The action was assisted by the timely arrival of 500 South Carolina militia sent in response to the earlier appeal.