CHARACTER CARDS
INSTRUCTIONS: Archaeologists learned that many different groups of people lived near Point Peter at the time of the War of 1812. The characters below represent several of these groups of people. What would it have been like to be alive then? What things have changed over the years? What things have stayed the same?
Caty Greene Miller
Lady of Dungeness Plantation
My name is Caty Greene Miller and I live on Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia. I grew up with the swirling social life of Northern cities and fancy balls. I first married General Nathanael Greene when I was 19 years old. Nathanael was a general in the Revolutionary War. Nathanael and I had five children: George, Martha, Cornelia, Nat, and Louisa. After the war, we moved to Mulberry Plantation in Georgia. Tragedy struck in June, 1786. Nathanael was visiting a neighbor's rice plantation and died of sunstroke. After Nathanael died, I fell in love with Phineas Miller, my children's tutor. We married on May 31, 1796. We moved to Cumberland Island in 1798 and built a 30-room mansion known as Dungeness on the south end of the island. Dungeness is the biggest house ever built of tabby, which is a mixture of limestone, water, and oyster shells. Even though Phineas has now passed away, I still throw extravagant gala balls. Every opportunity I get, I have visitors, many from the North. Old friends stay for months at a time. Cumberland is truly a wonderful place to live, from the tree-lined Grand Avenue to the beautiful beaches.
George Taylor
British Sailor
My name is George Taylor and I am a sailor in the British Navy. Life is hard on the ships. Every day I think of a way to escape and desert my country to become a sailor on an American merchant ship. On American ships the pay is higher and the working conditions are much better. We lose sailors to American ships every time we dock at a port. They escape then. Last week my friend Benjamin escaped. I wanted so badly to go with him but my fear caught up with me. Since we are always losing men, we seize sailors off of American ships. The papers call this "impressment." We board American ships, and when we find someone who looks like he might be one of our escaped mates, we take him back to our ship. Sometimes, it turns out that these sailors are actually Americans, but we don't really care�we take them anyway. Next week our ship ports in Charleston and I hope to escape then.
Captain Abraham Massias
Commander of the Battery at Point Peter
I am Abraham Massias, commander of the battery at Point Peter. It is now winter, 1815, and I feel the cold in every one of my bones. My men haven't received the winter clothes I requested months ago. No doubt, we are all suffering for the oversight of a supply officer somewhere curled up in front of his fireplace. We're on the eve of an attack from those British scoundrels over on Cumberland and there's not a man who can hold his musket steady without shivering. I feel so far away from my childhood in New York, where no one depended on me for answers and guidance. Alas, the British will come soon, in a force I cannot match in numbers. I will match them in spirit and ferocity. They will not take the Point so easily from me.
Captain Robert Barrie
Captain of H.M.S. Dragon
My name is Captain Robert Barrie of the H.M.S. Dragon. We have succeeded in capturing the fort at Point Peter but not without incident. What a cowardly lot, these dirty Yankees! As my men and I, numbering some 800 Royal and Colonial Marines, advanced towards the rear of the fort, concealed riflemen ambushed us. We stood our ground and forced the Americans into a disgraceful retreat. It was our intention to take the fort by storm, but the Yankees saved us the trouble by running upon our approach. Even the French put up a stronger fight! This newly sign peace at Ghent is a sad damper to those of us who wished to have fought the enemy into complete humiliation. The Americans must have been glad of peace on any terms to preserve what's left of these so-called United States.
Nathaniel Davis
British Private
My name is Nathaniel Davis, and I am a private in the Royal Marines. We've been stationed on Cumberland Island for almost one year. There is a rumor that our constant vigilance will soon end as we take the fight across the channel to the American fort. Our chances of success are better than good. We outnumber the Yanks 10 to 1. The Black Colonial recruits are determined fighters and I daresay their freedom is worth the price of having their muskets in our coming battle. I only hope that I can march at the front of the column and fire in the first volley at the American rebels. My father fought them in Virginia in '78, losing his leg. Now I've been given the opportunity to avenge his loss and win glory for the crown. God save the King!
John O'Malley
Fisherman
My name is John O'Malley, formerly of Ireland but now I'm a bona fide American. I came to St. Marys, Georgia, in 1806 from Dublin. I heard the fishing was a pretty good way to live a life out here. Also, between you and me, the powers that be over there don't appreciate a nice Catholic boy. But now look at the state of my town. Two years of war and the British are knocking at my door once again. They've stripped the town bare of anything that's worth anything, and they even put my boat on the river bottom. It seems like anywhere I go in the world, the British show up and ruin something. I have faith in my new country, however. We won't stand by for long and let the British destroy our way of life. This will be the last time the King of England comes to America looking for a fight!
Claire Lawson
Soldier's Wife
My name is Claire Lawson and my husband, Samuel, is a solider in the United States Army. We have been married two years and have no children. I am traveling with my husband from camp to camp during this war. I am one of the fortunate wives who gets to stay with my husband. There was a lottery to see how many wives could go with their husbands on campaigns and I was blessed with luck to be able to accompany my Samuel.
A typical day for us consists of Samuel spending the day at the parade square, practicing drills and cleaning weapons, while I work to supplement the meager wage he earns as a solider. I have two jobs at the camp, besides being a companion to my husband. I work as a seamstress and laundress. I do not regret coming with my husband on the campaign because I get great happiness and satisfaction that we are together and I am fulfilling my duty as a wife.
Sophie
Enslaved Female
My name is Sophie and I live at Hampton Plantation off the coast of Georgia. Most of us here are what they call "half hands," which means we are too young, too old, or too sick to do the really hard work. Most of the strong men, like my husband and my brother, work on rice plantations. Rice makes more money, so the rice plantations get the stronger men.
Our daily life consists of picking cotton. We have to work in the field all day, even if we're sick. When I was pregnant, I had to keep working right up until the day I gave birth to my son. Then I had to take him out to the field with me every day when he was just a baby.
One good thing here is that we get our own garden plot, storage shed and chicken coop behind our house, even though we have to share a house with nine other strangers. There are only five small houses for us 50 slaves to live in. All the women I live with seem to be nice so far. Our house is responsible for our own food. So we raise our own chickens in the chicken coop in the back and we grow our own vegetables. And we also get fish and oysters in the creeks and bays.
Henry
Enslaved Male
My name is Henry and I work and live on a plantation. Life on a cotton plantation is not very fun. I came from a rice plantation where I was treated much nicer. But that's just the way life goes that I got moved to a cotton plantation. I have to work in the field all day picking cotton. We work long days here, from before the sun comes up till after night falls. When I get home from the field at night, my hands are covered in scratches from the cotton bolls.
I live in a cabin close to the big plantation house with my wife, my brother and his wife and my four children and my brother's four children. We are tightly crammed in our cabin�it's just one room, 12 feet by 15 feet. We only have three beds in our cabin, so we take turns sleeping on the dirt floor. We made our beds ourselves, out of gray moss that we collected from the forest. We have one chimney, made out of sticks and mud, that helps keep us warm in the winter. We don't have any windows like they have in the big house. We built our house the old way our grandparents did in the old country.
Jacob Rogers
U.S. Musician
My name is Jacob Rogers and I am a musician in the United States Army. The year is 1812 and I am 23 years of age. I just finished my training at Governor's Island in the New York Harbor. Musicians of the Regular Army are sent there to be trained for battle. We were crowded into double-deck bunks. We slept on large sacks stuffed with straw and shivered all night long in a building that had no heat. It was paradise compared to being in actual war. Many people think that, as musicians are placed in the back of the line, we are less in danger than soldiers. This is not true, the goal of the enemy is to shoot down the flags, which are held near me, and as the falling or striking of a flag is a signal of surrender, musicians are in equal danger as the soldiers.
The main instruments I play are the drums, fife, bugle, and bassoon. My drum has a calf skin snare head and leather ears, which are pulled to tighten the drum to play. These instruments are our primary source of battlefield communication. At different times throughout the day, I play my instruments to signal orders. With my instruments, I tell soldiers when to fire, and when to wake up, eat, and go to bed. I keep a steady beat for road marches and troop movements. On a foggy day, the instruments are the only way to get orders to the troops. Each day is a new challenge but in the end it is worth it to serve our country.
Thomas Morrison
Colonial Marine
My name is Thomas Morrison and I was a Colonial Marine in the War of 1812 fighting for the British against the Americans. I am a freed man now! I did my time and I have gained freedom. I was a member of the Corps of Colonial Marines. The British recruited me from my home in Georgia. By instruction from London, all individuals were free who reached British posts and ships. When I signed up, the British freed my whole family from slavery. I also received full pay and a suit of clothing. The suit of clothing alone was worth almost my whole year's salary! The British valued my Corps especially for our discipline and our knowledge of the local area. We fought against our former masters in the skirmish at Point Peter, and we won!
After the war, we insisted that the British keep their promise of settlement in one of their colonies. I lived in a garrison on the island of Bermuda for 14 months. Our Corps was disbanded and 700 of us were sent to Trinidad in 1816. We have settled with our families near Princes Town, and have become yeoman farmers in a new free Black community.
Rudy Whitley
U.S. Rifleman
My name is Rudy Whitley and I am a rifleman in the first-ever U.S. Regiment of Riflemen, which was created in 1808. Our rifle is the Model 1803 Harpers Ferry, which is a .54 caliber weapon that is slower to load than the smoothbore muskets that the infantry use, but is deadly accurate. We also carry a large knife for close combat. Two of our main jobs are patrols and long distance raids. Also, when in battles, we act as skirmishers and target enemy officers and artillerymen with our long-distance rifles. We got ideas for some of our battle tactics from the Light Infantry and even the Indians. We are the first in the field and the last out. One of our main missions is to snipe and kill the British officers, non-commissioned officers, and musicians. Our uniforms are distinctive, because of our elite status. Our summer uniform is a style of hunting coat that is green with yellow fringe. For winter and dress, we have a yellow-trimmed green wool cutaway coat and trousers similar in pattern to other troops. Our headgear is a cylindrical felt cap trimmed with a brass, diamond-shaped plate, a yellow band and tassels, and a bottle-green feather plume.