Lachlan McIntosh was born in 1728 in Scotland. When he was eight years old, his Scottish Highlander family emigrated to the Altamaha region of Georgia in 1736, in the early years of the new colony and as part of an effort to protect Georgia’s borders from Spanish invasion by recruiting Scottish Highlander veterans. His father John McIntosh Mohr was one of the leaders of the Scottish immigrants and was captured at Fort Mose in 1740 after a failed siege on St. Augustine during the wars with Spanish Florida. He was a prisoner of war for several years. During that time, twelve year old Lachlan lived at Bethesda, George Whitefield’s orphanage near Savannah. At fourteen, he became a cadet in the military regiment at Fort Frederica and began his military career. In his early twenties, he moved to Charleston, South Carolina and began a business relationship with Henry Laurens, another future patriot. He married Sarah Threadcraft in 1756 and moved back to Georgia, where he became a wealthy rice planter at Darien, a town that his father helped establish years earlier.
McIntosh was a prominent patriot early on. In January 1775, he organized delegates to the Provincial Congress from Darien and served throughout the entire American Revolution. He was commissioned a colonel in Georgia’s first Continental regiment in January 1776; his brothers William and John also served as colonels in the American Revolution. Lachlan helped defend Savannah during the Battle of the Rice Boats and in September 1776 was promoted to Brigadier General in the Continental Army.
In May 1777, McIntosh notably fought in a duel with Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and rival for control of Georgia’s troops. Both men were wounded, Gwinnett mortally so. McIntosh was acquitted of murder in court, but with popular opinion against him, he left Georgia to transfer to Washington’s headquarters, served at Valley Forge during the difficult winter of 1778, and was promoted to Major General and appointed commander of the Western Department at Fort Pitt. He led expeditions against British-allied Indians in the Ohio Valley and established Forts Laurens and McIntosh, which served as important centers of American military power in the Northwest Territory after the American Revolution.
McIntosh returned to Georgia in 1779 and was involved in unsuccessful attempts to retake Savannah from the British. His wife and five children were stuck in Savannah, unable to leave despite McIntosh’s attempts to secure their safe travel across British lines. He, along with many other Continental soldiers, was captured when Charleston fell to the British in 1780 and was a prisoner of war for two years.
After the American Revolution, Congress appointed McIntosh to the rank of major general. McIntosh lived the rest of his life as a planter and businessman in Savannah; his house was the meeting site for the first session of Georgia’s Legislature in 1783. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Georgia in 1784, was a commissioner for Georgia during the signing of the Cherokee Treaty of Hopewell in 1785, and helped settle a boundary dispute between Georgia and South Carolina in 1787. He died on February 20, 1806, at nearly eighty years old. He is buried in Savannah’s Colonial Park Cemetery. His house still stands at 110 E. Oglethorpe Avenue in Savannah and is currently a vacation rental.
Author: Jessica Wallace
Bibliography
“General Lachlan McIntosh (1727-1806).” Georgia Historical Society. https://www.georgiahistory.com/ghmi_marker_updated/gen-lachlan-mcintosh-1727-1806/
“General Lachlan McIntosh House (Savannah, GA).” Digital Library of Georgia. https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_larc_hbo0274canvas=0&x=314&y=218&w=709
Jackson, Harvey H., III. Lachlan McIntosh Papers in the University of Georgia Libraries. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2021.
“Lachlan McIntosh.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3601/lachlan-mcintosh
Sullivan, Buddy. “Lachlan McIntosh.” New Georgia Encyclopedia. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/lachlan-mcintosh-1727-1806/