Capture of Savannah

Battle

Campbell chose Girardeau's Plantation as his landing point, a site roughly 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the city. On December 29, once Howe learned that troops were coming ashore there, he dispatched a company of Continental Army soldiers to hold the high bluffs overlooking the landing area. Recognizing that his main force could not disembark safely until those heights were cleared, Campbell sent two companies from the 71st Regiment to seize them. The Americans fired first, at a range of about 100 yards (91 m). Rather than answering with their own volley, the British charged forward with fixed bayonets before the defenders could reload, and the Americans fell back after inflicting four deaths and five wounds while suffering none themselves. By midday Campbell's entire army was ashore, and it began advancing on the city with caution.

That same morning, Howe convened his officers to select ground for a defensive stand. He established his line about half a mile (0.7 km) south of the city, shaped like an open V with both flanks resting against swampy timberland. Samuel Elbert commanded Georgia regulars and militia on the left side of this formation, while Isaac Huger and William Thomson led South Carolina regulars and militia on the right. Four field guns backed the position, and companies of light infantry protected each flank. The bulk of Howe's men, Continentals included, had experienced little or no combat up to that point.

Around two in the afternoon, Campbell's forward companies caught sight of Howe's line, prompting the main column to halt while Campbell rode ahead to assess the situation. He judged the American defenses to be fundamentally solid, but a local enslaved man revealed to him a hidden path cutting through the swamp on Howe's right flank. Campbell then ordered Sir James Baird to lead 350 light infantry troops along with 250 New York Volunteers through the marsh, guided by this man, while positioning the rest of his force out of sight to suggest a threatened attack against Howe's left. An officer was sent up a tree to track Baird's movement. Just as the guide had promised, the concealed route emerged close to the Continental barracks, a position the Americans had left unprotected since they had no idea their flank had been turned. Once Baird's men reached the right spot, the officer in the tree waved his hat as a signal, and Campbell gave the command for his troops to attack.

Howe's first indication of trouble came as musket fire erupted from the barracks, quickly joined by artillery bombardment and the sight of British and Hessian soldiers charging his front line. He called for an immediate withdrawal, though this swiftly degenerated into a full rout. His inexperienced soldiers barely fired back, with some abandoning their muskets outright as they tried to flee through the boggy ground. Campbell later wrote that catching up to them proved almost impossible given how astonishingly fast their retreat unfolded. British light infantry positioned behind the Continental lines severed the road toward Augusta, cutting off the one meaningful path of escape and forcing the fleeing troops into a chaotic crush toward the city itself. Those Americans who failed to surrender at once sometimes met bayonets instead. On the right flank, soldiers searched in vain for a way across Musgrove Creek, since none existed, and large numbers were captured as a result. Huger nonetheless succeeded in organizing a rear guard that allowed a portion of the Continental soldiers to get away. While some of Howe's men slipped northward before the British could seal off the city entirely, others had no choice but to attempt swimming across Yamacraw Creek, and an uncertain number perished in that effort.