Sav Morn News has interesting news feature on Declaartion of Independence signer Button Gwinnett

[neillh...@earthlink.net]

Where is Button Gwinnett? Savannah revolutionary remains a mystery

Evan Lasseter

Savannah Morning News

April 6, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET

• Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, remains a mysterious historical figure.
• The exact location of Gwinnett's grave in Savannah's Colonial Park Cemetery is unknown.
• Gwinnett died from an infected wound after a duel with his political rival, Lachlan McIntosh.

Passers through Savannah’s Colonial Park Cemetery can’t miss the history.

The consistent display of historical markers. The sea of headstones. Literally, the ground under one’s feet.

But there is also a colonial mystery in this passive park that has largely eluded Savannahians, historians and those curious from across the world. A mystery where the figure in question was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence: Where is Button Gwinnett? Or better yet, who is Button Gwinnett?

“The story is the fact no one really knows anything about him," said Colin Gwinnett Sharp, an indirect descendant of Gwinnett who wrote a biography of him. "He was a man of mystery."

More: Children's Hospital of Savannah patients create art for America's 250

As the United States celebrates its 250^th anniversary this year, a passage of time that has allowed its founding fathers to reach venerated status, one of Georgia’s three signers of the Declaration of Independence remains a man of obscurity. Perhaps no fact about what little historians know of his journey from England’s middle class to an independence advocate exemplifies that obscurity more than the mystery of where he now lays.

Gwinnett died from wounds sustained during a duel with another Coastal Georgia colonial figure, Lachlan McIntosh (more on that later). A local newspaper reported after Gwinnett’s death in May 1777 he would be buried in what is now Colonial Park Cemetery, said Stan Deaton, senior historian at the Georgia Historical Society.

When a group of Georgians some 70 years later decided to exhume the bodies of all three signers, to lay them at a signer’s monument in Augusta, they found Georgie Walton and Lyman Hall. But then came the mystery.

“They could not find Button Gwinnett's grave for the simple reason that in the intervening 70 years, his gravestone in what is now Colonial Park Cemetery had disappeared, and nobody thought he was important enough to replace it,” Deaton said.

More: Savannah children's art to be displayed at Lincoln Memorial

Sharp said it’s even possible that Gwinnett’s wife was too poor to purchase a headstone. To this day there is no consensus on his resting place, although historians believe it is located somewhere in Colonial Park.

A Savannahian named Arthur Funk resurrected the mystery in the 1950s due to his fascination with Gwinnett, Deaton said. The City of Savannah permitted him to do a couple digs, and Funk found pieces of stone carved with three sevens and two “t’s.”

The city greenlighted further digging where remains were exhumed. Medical examiners at the time assessed the bones and determined they were that of a woman, Deaton said. But after a long process of six or seven years, in which the “Smithsonian got involved,” it was deemed the site of Gwinnett’s grave.

An over 10 foot stone monument, centered with a plaque on Gwinnett's history stands at the location today.

“I obviously don't think we'll ever know definitively where he is,” Deaton said. “Did Arthur Funk find it? Probably not.”

Gwinnett’s burial is not the only facet of his life and legacy that passed with little historical record. He did not leave behind a tranche of personal letters as with other founding fathers and manuscripts about his life are almost none.

Sharp, in the process of writing his book, found one letter attributed to Gwinnett. The rest of the records were financial.

It’s known Gwinnett came from England’s middle class, the son of a clergyman, and had his first foray into trading there. He came to Savannah likely to find a “looser” trading environment in the colonies, Sharp said. But his business enterprises were no long-term success and records found by Sharp show at least one of his trading ships was seized to pay debts.

“Gwinnett was often in financial straits," Sharp said.

But Deaton and Sharp said one fact of Gwinnett’s life seems clear: he sought status and had likely had a way of drawing people towards him. He was able to borrow enough money to buy St. Catherine’s Island, just south of Savannah, and he had an ascendant political career (which included election to the Second Continental Congress) despite his business failings.

“Gwinnett must have been quite a character… He certainly must have had the ability to influence people to get elected to the places that he did,” Deaton said.

Those aspirations for more status may have led to Gwinnett’s demise.

Upon signing the Declaration of Independence, Gwinnett returned to Georgia, where he felt the "real action" may be taking place, Deaton said. The crown still ruled St. Augustine to the south, and Gwinnett thought Georgia could take it over.

Gwinnett led multiple military expeditions to the city. All ended in failure, Deaton said. The failure was so prominent he was investigated for the events. Gwinnett was cleared of all charges. Enter McIntosh.

In response to the news Gwinnett was cleared, McIntosh took to the floor of the Georgia Assembly. There he publicly called Gwinnett a scoundrel and lying rascal.

Gwinnett then challenged Mcintosh to a duel.

The pair found themselves in a pasture on one of James Wright’s plantations for the standoff. Deaton said it was probably somewhere near Savannah’s Catholic Cemetery off Wheaton Street on the city's east side.

When guns blazed, both men hit their target. Gwinnett suffered a wound to the femur that became infected by gangrene. He died about three days later.

Some 250 years later Gwinnett conjures the curiosity of locals and visitors alike. A walking tour was seen gathered around the monument at the suspected grave site on a recent Wednesday afternoon.

"I don't think anyone could ever definitively know, other than the fact they know he is in that cemetery. But if you choose to go and see where they say he is, that's perfectly fine too," Deaton said.

Evan Lasseter is the City of Savannah and Chatham County government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELas...@gannett.com.