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Skirmish in Bulltown Swamp Marker

10880 S Coastal Hwy, Riceboro, GA 31323, USA

Georgia, USA

MARKER

TICKETED:

NO

​PARKING:

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RESTROOMS:

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CROSSING

November 1778

HISTORIC PEOPLE WHO WERE HERE

0

HISTORIC PRESERVATION at Skirmish in Bulltown Swamp Marker.

In November of 1778, Lieut. Col. James Mark Prevost, with 100 British Regulars, and 300 Refugees and Indians under McGirth, crossed the Altamaha River and moved into Georgia, killing or taking prisoner all men they found, and ravaging the plantations. Continental troops and Militia marched against them. Near this spot, where the old Savannah to Darien road crossed Bulltown Swamp, a small detachment of Mounted Militia, Col. John Baker commanding, met and fought a delaying action with the invaders. Colonel Baker, Captain Cooper and William Goulding were wounded.

About Skirmish in Bulltown Swamp Marker

Patriot and Loyalist forces skirmished in Bulltown Swamp during the bitter struggle for Georgia’s coastal interior. Small actions like this disrupted communication and supply while exposing civilians to retaliation. The marker recalls the Revolution’s local, irregular warfare in Liberty County.

HISTORY HAPPENED HERE at Skirmish in Bulltown Swamp Marker

In November 1778, Lieutenant Colonel James Mark Prevost led British regulars, Loyalist refugees, and Native allies across the Altamaha River into Georgia. Near Bulltown Swamp, mounted militia under Colonel John Baker fought a delaying action on the Savannah–Darien road. Baker, Captain Cooper, and William Goulding were wounded as the invaders advanced.

The action occurred within a campaign in which commanders relied on speed, imperfect intelligence, and local knowledge. Eighteenth-century fighting was often decided by terrain, roads, fields of fire, unit cohesion, and the ability to communicate under pressure. Militia and Continental soldiers fought beside men whose experience and training varied widely, while Loyalist and British forces faced similar problems of coordination. Casualties carried the war back into surrounding households and communities. The site is consequently important not only for the immediate clash but also for what it reveals about the Revolution as a violent civil and military struggle.

The surviving marker text adds further detail: In November of 1778, Lieut. Col. James Mark Prevost, with 100 British Regulars, and 300 Refugees and Indians under McGirth, crossed the Altamaha River and moved into Georgia, killing or taking prisoner all men they found, and ravaging the plantations. Continental troops and Militia marched against them. Near this spot, where the old Savannah to Darien road crossed Bulltown Swamp, a small detachment of Mounted Militia, Col. John Baker commanding, met and fought a delaying action with the invaders. Colonel Baker, Captain Cooper and William Goulding were wounded.

The site's significance is clearest when interpreted at several scales. Locally, it shows how residents and landscapes were drawn into wartime demands. Regionally, it belonged to routes of communication, supply, government, or military movement. Nationally, it demonstrates that independence emerged from thousands of connected decisions and actions rather than from famous battles alone. The physical location anchors those relationships and helps explain why timing, distance, terrain, and community participation mattered to the outcome.

The marker at Skirmish in Bulltown Swamp Marker makes this history legible in a modern landscape that has changed substantially since the eighteenth century. Its value lies in identifying the approximate place and connecting it to documented people, movements, and institutions. Visitors should distinguish the historic event from the later act of commemoration: the marker is evidence of how the episode has been remembered, while its text and setting guide interpretation of the original event. Considered with contemporary records and the broader campaign, the location adds geographic meaning to a story that might otherwise survive only as names and dates.

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