April 1778 Engagement at St. Simons Island

East Florida, who remained loyal to the British crown during the American Revolution, was separated from Georgia by the wilderness of forest and swamp lands. In January 1776, the Continental Congress called upon Georgia and the Carolinas to capture St. Augustine and sanctioned expeditions against East Florida.
American Revolution in Georgia

Three routes existed for armed conflict: an ocean voyage in the Atlantic; the King’s Road connecting Fort Howe on the Altamaha River and Fort McIntosh on the Satilla River; and the Inland Passage- coastal rivers and tidal creeks, which was the most accessible route. In 1776, the Georgia Council of Safety commissioned armed craft called "galleys" to oppose His Majesty’s ships and the British privateers operating out of St. Augustine.

The First and Second Florida Expeditions by the Americans in 1776 and 1777 respectively proved to be disastrous, primarily due to inadequate planning and lack of coordination between Georgia's military and civilian authorities. A Third Florida Expedition was being planned in 1778, when word reached Georgia of an expected invasion led by British General Augustine Prevost. Colonel Samuel Elbert, in command of the Georgia Continental Army and Naval forces, learned in early April of 1778 that the British vessels HMS frigate Galatea, HMS brigantine Hinchinbrook, sloop Rebecca, and brig Hatter were sailing near St. Simons Sound.

Colonel Elbert detailed about 300 men from the Four Georgia Continental Battalions at Fort Howe to march to Darien. They embarked at Darien on three Georgia Continental Navy galleys, Lee, Washington and Bulloch, and with the 50 men of the First Company of Artillery on board a flat boat, proceeded down the Altamaha River and its South Branch to the Frederica River. On April 18, 1778, about 100 Georgia Continental troops landed at Pike’s Bluff on St. Simons Island and marched to Frederica where British prisoners were taken.

The next morning, April 19, the American forces on board the galleys attacked the British vessels. As Virginia Steele Wood, Reference Specialist in Naval and Maritime History at the Library of Congress, describes the naval encounter, "… the wind had died thereby favoring the Americans and making it impossible for the British to carry out their plan of sailing directly into the galleys for boarding. Initially the galleys executed a few random shots as they rowed toward the enemy, then anchored at a safe distance of half a mile and began a heavy cannonade, firing right on target for several hours.

"Since Hinchinbrook’ s fourteen 4-pounders’ limited range were no match for the galley's 18-, 12-, and 9-pounders, all three British vessels began dropping downriver. … Believing they were in a deep channel they resumed moving downstream with the ebb when suddenly Rebecca grounded in a place the British called "Raccoon Gut." Almost immediately Hinchinbrook and Hatter suffered the same fate. Meanwhile the galleys, still firing, were closing fast, by then about 10 am. Being faced with imprisonment or abandoning ship the British crowded into their ships’ boats leaving behind some of Hinchinbrook ‘s crew. Six to seven miles distant, the 20-gun HMS Galatea was awaiting them in St. Simons Sound, and all who escaped made it safely on board."

The Victory at St. Simons helped stiffen American resistance at a critical period in Georgia. The Engagement, which the British called the "Debacle at Raccoon Gut," temporarily left British East Florida with no naval defenses except the HMS Galetea. But the Third Florida Expedition ended in 1778 in much the same way as the previous two. After the capture of Savannah by the British in December 1778 and Sunbury in January 1779, the Revolutionary War had ended on the Inland Passages in Coastal Georgia and British East Florida.