vote, he made his voice heard
in the discussions.

In spite of all the drawbacks which the Liberty Boys in Georgia had
experienced, their enthusiasm did not cool. They never ceased their
efforts, and the independence movement continued to grow. The public
mind became more and more inflamed with resentment against the tyranny
of King George and his Parliament, as the people heard of the progress
of events in the more northern Colonies. By the 10th of May the people
of Savannah had heard of the shedding of American blood by British
troops at Lexington and Concord. As the news spread from parish to
parish, the people became aroused, and the response of public sentiment
was all that American patriots could expect.

[Illustration: Seisure of Ammunition in Savannah 060]

The first response of the Liberty Boys at Savannah was to seize the
ammunition stored in the magazine. This event occurred on the night of
the 11th of May, and was planned and carried out by the members of the
Council of Safety. About six hundred pounds of powder fell into the
hands of the Liberty Boys. Some was sent to South Carolina, and the rest
was hidden in the garrets and cellars of the patriots who had seized it.
Tradition says that some of this powder was sent to Massachusetts, where
it was used by the patriots who drove the British before them at the
battle of Bunker Hill.

Other events occurred that showed the temper of the Liberty Boys. On the
4th of June, when Governor Wright came to fire salutes in honor of King
George's birthday, he found the cannon had been spiked, dismounted, and
rolled to the bottom of the bluff. On the 5th of June the first liberty
pole in the Colony was set up at Savannah. A young man named Hopkins,
who spoke contemptuously of the members of the Committee of Public
Safety was seized by a mob, tarred and feathered, placed in an
illuminated cart, and paraded up and down the streets of Savannah.

As the days went by, the independence movement in Georgia became more
enthusiastic, the Liberty Boys more active. The first vessel armed and
equipped for naval warfare during the Revolution was fitted up by
the Liberty Boys of Georgia under the authority of the Provincial
Convention, which had assembled in Savannah on the 4th of July, 1775.
This event is interesting. The Carolina Committee of Safety had heard
that a British ship had sailed for Georgia with a cargo of powder
intended for the Indians and for the use of the Royalis