Archibald Bulloch (1730-1777)
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-682

Archibald Bulloch was a Revolutionary soldier, a leader of Georgia's
Liberty Party, and the state's first chief executive and commander in
chief.  

Archibald Bulloch 

Bulloch was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1730. His father,
James Bulloch, had immigrated to South Carolina in the 1720s from
Scotland. His mother, Jean, was the daughter of a Puritan minister, the
Reverend Archibald Stobo. Archibald Bulloch was the
great-great-grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth
president of the United States. 

Bulloch was educated in Charleston and began his political career in
South Carolina while he practiced law. He was commissioned lieutenant
in a South Carolina regiment in 1757. In 1758 the Bulloch family
relocated to Georgia. In October 1764, after Bulloch moved to Savannah,
he married Mary De Veaux, daughter of Judge James De Veaux, a prominent
Savannah landowner. Bulloch resumed his political career in his new
state and quickly became a leader of the Liberty Party, guiding it
during the resistance to the oppressive measures of the British
colonial government. He was one of seven Liberty Party candidates
elected to the Commons House of Assembly in the pivotal election of
1768. The success of Bulloch and the other candidates of the Liberty
Party in this election prompted the South Carolina Gazette to note
approvingly that "Liberty prevailed." 

Bulloch was one of the signers of the invitation to meet at Tondee's
Tavern in Savannah on July 27, 1774, to discuss the "critical
situation" resulting from the recent acts of the British Parliament to
tax the colonies "without the consent of the people." The 1775
Provincial Congress of Georgia, meeting at Tondee's Tavern, elected
Bulloch to be its president, thus formalizing the leadership role that
he had thus far assumed in the conflict with Britain. It also elected
him as one of Georgia's representatives to the Continental Congress. 

At the Continental Congress, Bulloch immediately impressed the
delegates from the other colonies when he arrived wearing homespun
clothes, symbolizing Georgia's commitment to the embargo on British
goods. On November 7, 1775, Bulloch was appointed to the Secret
Committee of the Continental Congress. This important committee
contracted for the importation of gunpowder, arms, and ammunition for
the conflict with Britain. 

In addition to his political posts, Bulloch also fought in the American
Revolution. In March 1776 he served under Colonel Lachlan McIntosh in
the Battle of the Rice Boat. On March 25, 1776, he was entrusted with
leading a dangerous expedition to Tybee Island. Bulloch and his men
destroyed facilities used by the British and killed and captured
British marines and supporters. On June 20, 1776, Bulloch became the
first president and commander in chief of Georgia under the new state's
temporary Republican government. He held this post until his death
eight months later. 

On February 22, 1777, in the face of an invasion by the British from
Florida, Georgia's Council of Safety requested that Bulloch "take upon
himself the whole Executive Powers of Government." Just two days after
he was handed what amounted to dictatorial powers, however, he died.
Though some have speculated that he was poisoned, the cause of his
death remains unknown. 

Suggested Reading

Charles Francis Jenkins, Button Gwinnett, Signer of the Declaration of
Independence (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1926). 

Charles C. Jones Jr., Biographical Sketches of the Delegates from
Georgia to the Continental Congress (Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co.,
1972). 

William Bacon Stevens, A History of Georgia, from Its First Discovery
by Europeans to the Adoption of the Present Constitution in MDCCXCVIII
(1847; reprint, Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Press, 1972). 



Jim Schmidt, Atlanta


Published 9/19/2002