Sunbury was founded in 1747 along the Medway River by Mark Carr, sharing with his son the 1,000 acre land grant received from the president of Georgia. By 1758, it was a thriving town of 80 homes, three merchant stores and even a customs house. In 1764, Savannah had 160 ships dock, in comparison to Sunbury's 56 ships... which wasn't bad, all things considered. The port saw itself second only to Savannah, and even claimed fame of being home to two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall.  Recognizing the need for defense, Fort Morris, an earthen fort intended to house up to 200 men and 24 mounted guns, was built.  The fort itself was protected on one side by marsh and to another by the river, which also offered the advantage of being able to fire upon enemy ships entering Medway River before they could turn a full broadside to return fire.  Sunbury was faced with British advances by sea, and by land by loyalists from Florida.

The fort was surrounded on November 25, 1778 by British troops, and British Lt. Col. Lewis Fuser demanded of American Col. John McIntosh the fort be surrendered.  McIntosh replied "... Come and take it!"  Fuser withdrew to Florida, but the retreat was short-lived, and after Savannah fell to the British in December 1778, and Sunbury was bombarded and captured on January 9, 1779.  Sunbury became a military prison operated by the British until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.  The town and the fort were left in ruin.  The town tried to revitalize itself in the mid 1780s, but many factors led to its eventual abandonment:  the county seat moved from Sunbury to Riceboro, the railroad bypassed the town completely, outbreaks of disease, hurricanes and economic difficulty.  By 1855, fewer than eight families lived in Sunbury, and today, there remains nothing more than a few of the earthen walls of Fort Morris, and a few monuments in the nearby cemetery.

While there are quite a few trees in the first four pictures, remember that those were all cleared when the fort was built; the trees on and in the fort area grew after the area was abandoned; it wasn't clear how many -- if any -- where left along the water's edge as camouflage, or if they were cleared as well.

Near the entrance; it originally had a wooden drawbridge over the dry moat	View from town from the northwest toward the fort, and the...	...imaginary panorama picture wrapping around from that same point as the previous picture
A view of the river from one of the gun mount locations	And, what they'd be looking at from the top of the gun mount location	We like historic markers... it's cheaper than paying for the tour.
Only a few monuments of the few dozen remaining date back to the 1780s; most are from the mid 1800s.