TATTNALL COUNTY. 537 



the White Bluff District, in which was situated Bonaventure, 

 and then very densely inhabited. In 1792 he had command 

 of the Chatham artillery, which is now one of the most respect- 

 able companies in the State. In 1793 he became Colonel of 

 the regiment. In 1800 he was elected Brigadier General of 

 the First Brigade of the First Division. In his military capa- 

 city he rendered important services in 1788 and 1793, in or- 

 ganizing detachments of militia sent from Chatham into 

 the counties of Bryan, Liberty, and Mcintosh, then much 

 harassed by the Creek Indians. In 1787, at the head of a body 

 of light infantry, he was engaged in an expedition under Col. 

 James Gunn, composed of South Carolina and Georgia troops, 

 which destroyed large and well fortified camps of slaves, in 

 open insurrection, on the waters of Abercorn creek. The 

 slaves were led by certain notorious negro brigands, who had 

 acted with the British at the siege of Savannah, and had been 

 particularly active against that portion of the American assail- 

 ing forces commanded by Col, Laurens, and in wliich the 

 brave Jasper received his death-wound. This was the most 

 serious insurrection that ever occurred in Georgia. It had its 

 origin in the year 1786. The negroes had been embodied 

 many months, and were many hundreds in number, were well 

 armed, and so formidable, that after various attempts in both 

 years to subdue them, a body of Catawba Indians, and some 

 pieces of cannon, were in this expedition employed against 

 them. 



In 1797 and 1798, Col. Tattnall was much engaged, when 

 not in attendance upon the sessions of Congress, in the drill of 

 his regiment, war and invasion by the French being antici- 

 pated. The civil services of this eminent patriot were much 

 more important, He was frequently sent to the Legislature. 

 He served in the year 1796 at Louisville, in the General 

 Assembly that rescinded the Yazoo Act of January, 1795. 

 Against that infamous speculation he was the determined foe, 

 and was the leading member of the Senate, as General James 

 Jackson was of the lower house, who carried through the 

 rescinding act. So sensible was the Legislature of 1796 of 

 his ardent devotion to the interests of Georgia, that they 

 passed an act relieving his brother, John Mulryne Tattnall, 



