The Tories went down to Georgia

 You sort of have to feel sorry for Georgia. In the War Between the States, aka the Civil War, Georgia became the focus of General William Tecumseh Sherman, who devastatingly marched through the South near the end of the war and set Atlanta on fire. 

But I was surprised to find that Georgia featured prominently in the end game of the Revolutionary War as well. Much of the focus at that time fell on Savannah.

As I mentioned in the last post, Sharon has relatives who were members of state militias during the Revolutionary Way. Pvt. Michael Abney lies in her direct line of succession, which makes him a great-great-great something or other. Michael appears on a roster of soldiers from South Carolina along with six other Abneys.

Given that families back then seemed to love using a sometimes limited number of names, even with large broods of children. I'm pretty sure the men are all related, but I was only able to determine that Michael three brothers with names that appear in the roster with him. Unfortunately, he also had cousins by the same name, so I cannot say with certainty which ones served. 

All but two of the seven served in either the 96th District Regiment or its offshoot, the Upper 96th district regiment. One of them, Nathaniel Abney, served in the 2nd Spartan Regiment, and the roster entry for him indicates he was a physician. The only Nathaniel I could find on the tree who might fit that bill is a Capt. Nathaniel Abney, but none of the information in his entry confirms that the Nathaniels are the same person.

The listing of another member of the Abney family, Dannett, contains no information about his regiment or dates of service. The only thing the listing says about him is, "Killed by 'Bloody Bill' Cunningham." Dannett is either Michael's brother or cousin.

You can find numerous sites on the Web for Cunningham. Cunningham was a loyalist who joined loyalist forces in 1775, not long after the onset of hostilities. Suffice to say Cunningham earned his nickname, both in war and through the pursuit of private vengeance against people who wronged him or ticked him off by their actions. 

I've no evidence from the sources I've seen that any of the Abneys fought in Georgia, but following their trail led me to the state's involvement in the Revolutionary War.

According to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/revolutionary-war-georgia Georgia was initially reluctant to join the revolution, skipping the First Continental Congress. A provincial congress elected representatives to the Second Cont. Congress, but the delegates decided not to attend. After the events at Lexington and Concord that you learned about -- Right? You did learn about that? -- a second provincial congress elected new delegates who did attend the meeting in Philadelphia.

This began a struggle between loyalists, or Tories, and Whigs -- those sympathetic to the revolution. A number of skirmishes were fought, but by late in the war, Georgia lay pretty firmly in the establish a new nation camp. 

In 1778, the British, going nowhere in the north decided to begin prosecuting the war in the south. Georgia became a central battleground, and the Georgians were aided by militias from South Carolina.

The British had early success and managed to take Savannah, proclaiming that the American flag had lost a star. The installed military government returned control of Georgia to England, the only one of the colonies to be repatriated. 

But by 1782, Georgia Whigs threatened Savannah, and the British evacuated the city, with many loyalists joining them in Florida. Florida became Spanish territory again in 1793, and many of the Brits and loyalists settled in the West Indies, particularly the Bahamas and Jamaica.

The story of Georgia is much more complicated than this poor summary. If you want to know more, this info was digested from the site referenced previously.