164 CHATHAM COUNTY. 



the most extraordinary captures took place, that the annals of 

 warfare ever recorded. When Gen. Prevost called in his de- 

 tachments, he ordered the commandant at Sunbury, on the 

 Georgia coast, upon evacuating that post to put the invalids 

 on board of the small armed vessels, and to send them by the 

 inland navigation to Savannah under the care of (Japt. Trench, 

 of the British Regulars. In consequence of head winds, Capt. 

 Trench and his command were detained until some of D'Es- 

 taing's fleet were in possession of the pass, and he was induced 

 to sail up the Ogeechee river until he reached a point about 25 

 miles from the city of Savannah. Having arrived here, he 

 learned that the passage over land was also blocked up by the 

 allied force, and he therefore made a descent upon the shore, 

 and finally took post with his party about 15 or 20 miles from 

 Savannah, Col. John White, of the Georgia line, having as- 

 certained that Capt. Trench's force consisted of 111 soldiers 

 possessing 130 stand of arms, and that he also had under his 

 charge, in the river Ogeechee adjacent to his camp, five ves- 

 sels, four of them fully armed, and one of them mounting 14 

 guns, and manned by 40 seamen, formed the resolution of cap- 

 turing the detachment. He disclosed his plan to those who 

 were with him. McCall, in his History of Georgia, says that 

 the party consisted of Col. White, Capts. Geo. Melvin and A. 

 E. Elholm, a sergeant and three privates, seven in all. Other 

 historians make no mention of Capt. Melvin, or of a sergeant, 

 but give the whole praise to White, Elholm, and three soldiers, 

 reducing the number to five. White built many watch-fires 

 around the camp, placing them in such a position, and at such 

 intervals as to induce Capt. Trench and his soldiers to believe 

 that he was absolutely surrounded by a large force. The de- 

 ception was kept up through the night by White and his com- 

 panions, marching from fire to fire with the measured tread 

 and the loud challenge of sentinels, now hailing from the east 

 of the British camp, and then shifting rapidly their position 

 and challenging from the extreme west. Nor was this the only 

 stratagem ; each mounted a horse and rode with haste in di- 

 vers directions, imitating the manner of the staff', and giving 

 orders with a loud voice. The delusion was complete. Capt. 

 Trench suffered himself to be completely trapped. White car- 



