Augusta’s role in the American Revolution: An underdog story 250 years in the making

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – As the nation marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, one city’s contribution to that history remains easy to overlook.

In Augusta, local patriots and one of the youngest signers of the Declaration helped push the American Revolution forward — from a frontier colony set up as a buffer between South Carolina and Spanish-controlled Florida.

An unlikely signer from humble beginnings

Wedged between medical buildings on the edge of downtown Augusta sits Meadow Garden — the home of George Walton, one of Georgia’s signers of the Declaration of Independence.

“We were not an afterthought in the Revolution. We were a very important part of that Revolution,” said Ransom Schwarzer, director of Meadow Garden and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Walton’s path to that moment was anything but privileged. Schwarzer said Walton’s father died around the time of his birth, and by age seven he was fully orphaned.

“He didn’t have a fortune. He didn’t have that university education like Thomas Jefferson,” Schwarzer said. “He’s having to pull himself up and make his own way. He had to be incredibly determined.”

That determination carried Walton into politics and eventually into history. He became one of the youngest men to sign the Declaration of Independence.

“George is very distinct in coming from such humble backgrounds and making his own way at such a young age,” Schwarzer said. “He decided he was going to make a different life for himself.”

The battle to take Augusta back

Five years after the Declaration was signed, the British still controlled Georgia. Their troops were stationed at St. Paul’s Church in Augusta. Augusta patriots devised a plan to retake the city.

A marker along Reynolds Street downtown commemorates the Maham Tower — the key to how they did it.

“They actually build a tower — an earthen tower shored up with wood — haul their cannons onto the top of that tower, fire down into that fort, devastating it,” Schwarzer said. “And after a few days, the British will surrender and Augusta will be back in Patriot hands.”

That surrender came in June 1781 — months before the British formally surrendered at Yorktown.

Augusta’s place in the larger story

More battles were fought in South Carolina than in any other colony. What happened across Georgia and the Carolinas helped determine how the war ended and what the new country would look like.

George Walton is buried beneath the Signers’ Monument in downtown Augusta. Meadow Garden is hosting free America250 events this weekend, open to the public.

“We have a lot of possibilities now,” Schwarzer said. “Take what we have, make the best of it, and keep moving.”