CHARACTERS

Private Ned Simmons

Ned Simmons was a slave of the Revolutionary War General Nathaniel Greene and lived most of his life on Greene's Cumberland Island Plantation. Ned was even made Gen. George Washington's driver when he visited Savannah in May 1791. In January 10, 1815 the British landed at the plantation and encamped there, freeing Ned Simmons. Ned was one of the first to volunteer to join the British Colonial Marines. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, given an 1808 pattern British uniform, a Brown Bess musket and was given training as a combat marine.

As part of the peace agreement, British command agreed to return any property still on the island after February 17, 1815 to the owners. As Ned was still on the island, he too was sent back to the Greene family as property.

Ned crossed the lines to the Union Army in February 1863, by then over 100 years old, to regain the freedom he had briefly gained in the War of 1812.