The State of Georgia being under consideration, it was resolved by Congress, on the 5th of July, 1776, to raise two battalions (one of them to consist of riflemen) to serve in Georgia; that blank commissions be sent to the Convention of Georgia to be filled up with the names of such persons as the Convention should deem proper; that the Legislatures of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina be recommended to allow recruits for these battalions to be enlisted in their several States; that four galleys be built for the defense of the sea-coast, and that two artillery companies, of fifty men each, be enlisted _to garrison two forts which the State was to erect at Savannah and Sunbury_.[196] It may, we presume, be safely asserted that the heavy earthwork on Midway river, just south of Sunbury, was laid out and erected about the period of the commencement of the Revolutionary war. If any prior defense there existed, it was so modified and enlarged as completely to lose its identity. The names of those who were specially charged with the construction of this fort have not been perpetuated, but it lives in tradition that the planters of Bermuda island and of the Midway District, and the citizens of Sunbury contributed mainly to its erection. It was built chiefly by slave labor, and was armed with such cannon as could be procured on the spot, or obtained elsewhere.[197] That its armament was by no means inconsiderable will be conceded when it is remembered that twenty-five pieces of ordnance were surrendered by Major Lane when he yielded the ownership of this work to Colonel A. Prevost. These guns, however, were small, consisting of 4, 6, 9, 12, and 18-pounders, with perhaps one or two 24-pounders. It was called by the Americans, FORT MORRIS;[198] but, upon its capture by Colonel Prevost, its name was by him changed to FORT GEORGE.