Revolutionary War: Thomas Brown!

Augusta fell into the hands of the now notorious Colonel Thomas Brown, one of those figures who still bear a stigma in the tradition of revolutionary Georgia. The gruesome tales of guerrilla warfare and brutalities of the British were repeated along the Savannah, and remembered.  Brown was frequently the villain. When the war broke out he was outspoken for the English and against talk of independence. He was well-known in Augusta, for it was there in late June of 1775 that he had the experience which transformed him into a cruel and implacable a foe against the colonials. An article appeared in The Georgia Gazette.

"This day a respectable body of the Sons of Liberty marched from this place (Augusta) to New Richmond, in South Carolina, in order to pay a visit to Thomas Brown and William Thompson, esqs., for their having publicly and otherwise expressed themselves enemies to the measures adopted for the support of American liberty, and signing an association to that effect, besides their using their utmost endeavors to inflame the minds of the people, and to persuade them to associate and be of their opinion. But upon their arrival they found the said Thompson, like a traitor, had run away; and the said Thomas Brown, being requested in civil terms to come to Augusta to try to clear himself of such accusations, daringly repeated that he was not, nor would he be answerable to them, or to any of them, for his conduct; whereupon they politely escorted him into Augusta, where they presented him with a genteel and fashionable suit of tar and feathers, and afterwards had him exhibited in a cart from the head of Augusta to Mr. Weatherford's where out of humanity they had him taken care of for that night, and on the next morning, he, Thomas Brown, having publicly declared upon his honor, and consented voluntarily to swear that he repented for his past conduct, and tha he would, for the future, at the hazard of life and fortune, protect and support the rights and liberties of America...."

Thereafter, Brown went into Florida and became a Lt. Colonel with the British forces.

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