RORY McINTOSH'S VISIT TO SUNBURY

On evening in Charleston, Rory [McIntosh] marches into the house of Captain James Wallace, attended by his piper. "I am come madam," said he to Mrs. Wallace, who was from the Highlands, "to take a cup of tea and give you a taste of our country's music!"

This Rory had been in that melancholy Fort Moosa capture, hereinbefore related. During the expedition under Prevost to Savannah, just spoken of, Sunbury (in Liberty County, Georgia) was attacked. Among the Florida troops before the fort, there, was Rory McIntosh. "Early one morning, when he had made rather free with 'mountain dew,' he insisted on sallying out to summon the fort to surrender. His friends could not restrain him; so out he strutted, claymore in hand, followed by his faithful slave Jim, and approached the fort, roaring out, 'Surrender, you miscreants! How dare you presume to resist his Majesty's arms?'" … The commander of the fort knew him, and seeing his condition forbade any one from firing on him. As Rory kept advancing, the commander, whose name was also McIntosh, and who seems to have been a man who understood how to carry a joke, "threw open the gate and said, 'Walk in, Mr. McIntosh, and take possession.' 'No,' said Rory, 'I will not trust myself among such vermin, but I order you to surrender!'" This appears to have been too much for some of the men in the fort, and a rifle was fired at Rory, "the ball from which passed through his face," below his eyes. "He stumbled and fell, but immediately recovered and retreated backwards flourishing his sword. … and the redoubtable old hero got back safely into his own lines.

Sunbury, which had been unsuccessfully attacked a short time before by an expedition from Florida, was this time captured, and the troops moved on and took part in the reduction of Savannah.

Source:
Lainer, Sidney, Florida: Its Scenery, Climate and History With an Account of Charleston, Savannah, Augusta, and Aiken; A Chapter For Consumptives; Various Papers on Fruit-Culture; and a Complete Hand-Book and Guide, J.B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1876, pages 196-197

Submitted by Bob Franks