An almost suffocating sense of silence overtook the shoreline. Dark, heavy clouds billowed throughout the sky, blocking most of the sun from shining through. Every once in a while, a patch of blue sky would peak over its obstacles to let a smile shine forth. After a few minutes, I heard the winds rushing through the marsh grasses accompanied by the call of a bird in the distance reminding me that there still was life in the world. All of this provided the perfect ambience to explore Fort Morris, an old Revolutionary War fort on the coast of Georgia.
It seemed only appropriate that I ended up here. I was on my way to the 2021 Presidential Inauguration and rumor was that some sort of revolt was going to happen at the capitals throughout the nation. No one knew for sure what would transpire in the end, but as I was driving down an old country road looking for a place to hike, I saw a sign advertising this fort and serendipitously knew that was where I needed to go and ponder what it meant to face a revolution.
Originally being built for the French Indian War, Fort Morris sits at the mouth of the Medway River and was constructed to protect the town of Sunbury from British forces staying in Florida. Florida had become a refuge for loyalists making the Georgia shore quite vulnerable to attack. Here, 200 soldiers lived with the sole goal of fending off the British after they took Savannah, just north of them. In fact, when the British Army came to assault the fort, Colonel John McIntosh famously yelled at the invading force “Come and get it!” The crazy part about the story is it worked! The British forces retreated, only to return a few weeks later with an army big enough to take the fort. It then stayed occupied throughout the war.
As I walked through the oak covered paths thoughts of what it would have been to have to fight for ones freedom ran through my head. What even, was this freedom that they fought for? What was they tyranny they put their lives on the line for? Can we even truly understand what their motives were today? So much has changed contextually throughout the past couple hundred years, especially since the industrial revolution started, that even trying to think about what would drive someone that had no electricity, no plumbing, hardly any food, no bed. Without that context, I’m not sure if I can really make a judgment but I think it would be valuable for us to all at least think about that. Maybe if we can start focussing on all the things we have, the things we don’t have won’t be as missed.
Closest Supercharger Savannah GA 36 mi
400 Airways Ave, Savannah, GA 31408
Fort Morris Historic Site
2559 Ft Morris Rd, Midway, GA 31320
