New Savannah

New Savannah is a ghost town in Richmond County, Georgia, situated on the Savannah River at the point where Butler Creek meets it, downstream from Augusta. Its origins trace to around 1740, when a group of Chickasaw people — part of a Horse Creek band led by a chief known as Squirrel King — crossed the river and established a community here. Accounts differ on the precise circumstances of the founding, but the settlement became a functioning village where residents farmed, hunted, and served as scouts. By 1757, a British officer named Captain Daniel Pepper put the fighting-age male population at seventy, suggesting a community of meaningful size. The town remained active until the upheaval of the Revolutionary War brought its era to a close.

Today New Savannah is a quiet riverside locality with little to mark what once stood here. Visitors drawn to early colonial-era and Native American history will find the setting — the confluence of Butler Creek and the Savannah River — more evocative than any surviving physical remains. Access is straightforward from the Augusta area, and the site suits a brief sightseeing or photography stop rather than a full-day outing.