Grant's detachment crossed Hutchinson Island and took several rice boats at 4 a.m. on 3 March before the alarm was raised at 9 a.m. The five-hour delay leaves open whether the soldiers achieved an unusually quiet seizure or whether commercially minded crews allowed them aboard. Lachlan McIntosh brought 300 militia and three four-pounder guns to Yamacraw Bluff, where efforts to negotiate instead led to arrests and gunfire. The Committee of Safety then sent the burning Inverness toward the occupied vessels, forcing a confused withdrawal under musket and artillery fire. Two boats escaped downstream, two went upstream and were captured, and three burned before about 500 South Carolina militia arrived.
Chapter · 1:04:34-1:08:15
The Battle of the Rice Boats at Savannah
British troops seized rice boats by Hutchinson Island, but 300 Georgia militia with three four-pounders, a failed parley, and a burning vessel turned the recovery into a four-hour river fight.