USA > Georgia > The Confederate records of the State of Georgia, Vol 2 pt 2 > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
Gc 975.8 C76 v.2,pt.2 1729542
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GC
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02408 0712
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/confederaterecor22cand
THE Confederate Records
OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA
COMPILED AND PUBLISHED UNDER AUTHORITY
OF
THE LEGISLATURE
BY
ALLEN D. CANDLER, A. M., L. L. D. V. 2, Pt. 2
VOLUME II.
Georgia-
State Papers of Governor Joseph E. Brown Relat- ing to the Public Defense, the Organization and Equipment of Troops, Provision for the Fami- lies of Soldiers, etc., 1860 to 1865, inclusive.
Atlanta, Ga. Chas. P. Byrd. State Printer. 1908.
F 867,343
451
1729542
STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
different counties, in the order in which they are re- turned to this office; and you will supply them in the order in which they report, giving to diligence its proper re- ward. So soon as you have received notice from this office of the quantity of yarn required by a county, you will write to the Justices of the Inferior Court, inform- ing them that they will receive the yarn on sending you a power of attorney, of which you will send them a proper form, authorizing you to receive and receipt for and apply in payment such part of the fund due the county for the relief of indigent soldiers' families as may be necessary to pay for the yarn. Upon the receipt of the power of attorney, you will send the thread in such way as the Justices may direct; and you will at once notify John B. Campbell, financial Secretary of the Executive Department, of the amount for which the power of attor- ney is given, that he may retain that sum to meet your draft.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA,
June 2nd, 1863.
IRA M. FOSTER, Q. M. Genl .:
As the time has arrived when you are to begin to re- ceive spun yarn from the factories for distribution among soldiers' families, as required by the resolutions of the Legislature, and as it is impossible in taking the power of attorney from each Inferior Court to know in advance what will be the freight on the thread for each county
452
CONFEDERATE RECORDS
from the factory to your office, so as to include it in the power; and it being, therefore, almost impossible to ap- portion this freight fairly among the counties, I hereby order and direct that the freight on the bales of yarn from the factory to the store in Atlanta, when shipped to a store there or elsewhere, before distributed, be paid out of the general Military Fund; and that the thread when shipped to the respective courts from the store, be sent without payment of freight, so that the courts may pay, each, upon its own thread when received. ..
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA,
June 8th, 1863.
Whereas, The manufacture of cotton cards in the State Card Manufactory is greatly impeded for want of suitable card wire; and
Whereas, What little of such wire there is in the coun- try for sale is held at enormous prices, viz. : about thirty dollars per pound, the cost of which delivered in the Confederacy did not exceed two dollars per pound in our currency ; and
Whereas, Mr. Solomon L. Waitzfelder, of Milledge- ville, who is in every way trusty, reliable and prudent, is about to go to Europe, to purchase and import card clothing for the Milledgeville Manufacturing Company, and is willing to undertake to purchase in Europe and
453
STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
import a quantity of card wire for the State, to be used in the State Card Manufactory; it is
Ordered: That Peter Jones, Esq., Superintendent of the State Card Manufacturing Company, draw the sum of four thousand dollars in currency from the Treasury of this State, chargable to the one hundred thousand dol- lar appropriation for the manufacture of wool and cotton cards and card clothing for factories, by Act of December 6th, 1862, and to hand the same over to said Waitzfelder for said purposes, and to take his receipt therefor; and that a warrant do issue to said Peter Jones on the State Treasury for said four thousand dollars, chargeable as aforesaid.
Given under my hand and Seal of the Executive $ Department, this 8th June, 1863.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
By the Governor :
H. H. WATERS,
Sec'y. Ex. Dept.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA,
June 15th, 1863.
COL. P. THWEATT, Comptroller-General :
I am informed that some wealthy individuals and cor- porations, who have made very large profits during the year, from 1st April, 1862, to 1st April, 1863, refuse to give in their tax returns under the Income Tax Act,
454
CONFEDERATE RECORDS
passed 18th April, 1863, as they are of opinion that the penalty fixed by law for such refusal is less than the tax due under the Act; while others, with less capital, who have probably labored harder, are obliged to give in and pay the tax on all they have made, as they are not able to pay the penalty for refusing to make their returns. It is generally understood that the penalty is $5,000. This de- pends upon the proper construction of the third section of the Act, which declares: "That if any person or body corporate shall fail or refuse to make a return of his, her, or their profits made or realized aforesaid, he, she or they shall be held to have made the sum of $100,000, and shall be taxed accordingly."
The defect in this Section is that it does not say at what per cent. he shall be held to have made the $100,000. If at 100 per cent., then the penalty is $5,000. But if at 1,000 per cent., it is $50,000. Upon a careful review of the whole statute, I adopt the latter construction, and hold that this is the penalty or tax assessed for refusal to make a return.
In the 4th Section it is provided that a person or body corporate charged with having made a false return and re- fusing to produce his or their books of entry, if they kept any, shall be held to have made 1,000 per cent. upon $100,000. Construing the two Sections together, I think it a fair conclusion that the per cent. which a person re- ' fusing to make a return shall be presumed to have made was intended to be as large as that which a person refus- ing to produce his books of entry is presumed to have realized. This conclusion seems not only to be warranted by the usual rules of construction, but it can work no in- justice, as no one can be compelled to pay the $50,000 who
455
STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
will make a fair return and pay the amount of tax which the statute requires him to pay upon his actual income.
He who refuses to make the return may be safely set down as having made profits so large as to subject him to more than the $50,000 of tax, and he is not injured by being compelled to pay a sum less than the tax which would be due from him if he obeyed the law and gave in, as other citizens do.
You are, therefore, directed to order the Tax Col- lectors of the respective counties of this State to assess and collect a tax of $50,000 from each person or body corporate in this State who shall fail or refuse to make a return of his, her or their profits, made or realized as aforesaid.
I am also informed that some persons in the State who commenced with very small capital have made sev- eral thousand per cent. during the year, and as the whole . amount made by such person will not pay his tax, if his profits exceed 2,000 per cent., and as I can not suppose it was their intention to take all a person made for tax, much less to bring him in debt, as authorized in the 76th Section of the Code, I direct you to order the collectors, in all cases, where the tax exceeds one-half of all net profits a person or body corporate has made, to collect one-half of the whole amount made by such person as tax and suspend the collection of the balance required by the statute till the meeting of the Legislature.
JOSEPH E. BROWN, Governor.
456
CONFEDERATE RECORDS
PROCLAMATION.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Milledgeville, Georgia, June 22d, 1863.
To the People of Georgia:
In view of the exigencies of the public service and in compliance with the request of His Excellency President Davis, made through the Secretary of War, I again ad- dress you upon the subject of our local defence against the threatened raids of our vindictive foe.
It is not doubted that our enemies are increasing their cavalry force and making preparations to send raids of mounted men through Georgia, as well as other States, to burn all public property in our cities, destroy our rail- road bridges, workshops, factories, mills and provisions, leaving our country, now the home of a happy people, little better than a desolate waste behind them.
They have met our brave troops in battle and have been again and again ingloriously defeated and driven back. Despairing of their ability to conquer us in hon- orable warfare, they now violate all the rules of war as recognized by civilized nations, disregard the rights of private property, arm our slaves against us, and send their robber bands among us to plunder, steal and de- stroy, having respect not even for the rights or the neces- sities of infirm old age, or of helpless women and children.
To hold in check the mighty hosts collected for our destruction by the Abolition Government, the President is obliged to mass the provisional armies of the Confed-
457
STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
eracy at a few important key points, and can not, without weakening them too much, detach troops to defend the interior points against sudden incursions. He, there- fore, calls upon the people of the respective States, who are otherwise not subject to be summoned to the field, under the Conscription Laws of Congress, to organize; and while they attend to their ordinary avocations at home, to stand ready at a moment's warning to take up arms and drive back the plundering bands of marauders from their own immediate section of country. To this end, he requests me to organize a force of eight thousand men in this State, who are over the age of forty-five years or who are not otherwise subject to military duty in the armies of the Confederacy, to be mustered into the ser- vice of the Confederate States for six months from 1st of August next, for home defence. If this force is not organized by the first of August, by the tender of volun- teers, I am notified that he then makes a positive requisi- tion for it and requires that such requisition be responded to if need be by draft.
It is never yet been necessary, in filling a requisition on this State, to draft Georgians to go to the remotest parts of the Confederacy for the war. They have always volunteered in larger numbers than have been required. And I know it will not now be necessary to draft them to hold themselves in readiness at home, to drive the enemy away from their own plantations, workshops, firesides and churches.
The President predicates this call upon the different Acts of Congress for local defence and not for general defence. No volunteer, under the requisition, will be called into active service except in case of pressing emergency,
458
CONFEDERATE RECORDS
and then only until the emergency is passed. In case a raid is made upon a particular point in the State, the troops nearest that point and those most accessible to it will be called out, and those more remote will not be dis- turbed, unless the force of the enemy is so strong as to render it absolutely necessary. In no case is it ex- pected to call out this force to guard bridges or other public works longer than the enemy is in the vicinity or threatening an early dash upon it. The State troops, now in service, are regarded sufficient for such guard duty.
The Government appreciates the necessity of leaving the productive labor of the country not subject to con- scription, as free as possible, to make all the provisions and other supplies of clothing, etc., which can be made, and it is not intended to call this class of laborers from their occupations at any time for a longer period than is indispensable to drive the enemy from our midst. Will Georgians refuse to volunteer for this defence? The man able to bear arms who will wait for a draft before he will join an organization to repel the enemy, whose brutal soldiery comes to his home to destroy his prop- erty and insult and cruelly injure his wife and his daugh- ters, is unworthy of the proud name of a Georgian, and should fear lest he be marked as disloyal to the land of his birth and to the government that throws over him the ægis of its protection.
The object of mustering this force into the service of the Confederate States, is to have it in readiness, that it may be relied upon and to afford to the volunteers the protection, in case of capture by the enemy, which is en-
459
STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
joyed by other troops in service, including the right to be exchanged as prisoners of war.
Pay, rations and transportation will be allowed to all, when on active duty ; but no one will receive any pay or allowances while at home, as each is expected to be most of his time attending to his own business.
The command of the troops now required of this State will, under the Act of Congress, belong to the President and not to me, so soon as they have been organized and mustered into service. The President, however, having called upon me to organize the troops who volunteer, under the Acts of Congress, in this State, has thought proper to say, through the Secretary of War, that he places the execution of the organization entirely under my supervision and control. For the purpose of main- taining order and system in the organization and that I may know when the full number required has been raised, it becomes necessary that all companies, battalions and regiments which have lately organized and tendered to the President or to any Confederate officer, for local defence in this State, as well as all hereafter to be organ- ized, report to me without delay. By virtue of the au- thority vested in me, I therefore require all such organ- izations, as well those heretofore formed as those here- after to be formed, to report immediately to the Adju- tant and Inspector-General, at this place, with their mus- ter rolls made out in conformity to law, accompanied by their election returns, if they have not already received commissions. And I request the commandants of the different military posts in this State, who have accepted the tender of volunteers for local defence, to see that the companies, battalions or regiments accepted by them
460
CONFEDERATE RECORDS
comply with this requirement as early as possible. Cor- dial co-operation and assistance on the part of the Con- federate officers in the State are invited and expected, as harmony between the State and Confederate officers is essential to success in the prompt formation of the organ- ization required by the President.
All militia and civil officers of this State are hereby authorized and are expected to unite with these organi- zations for home defence, and to be active and energetic in assisting to form such organizations.
Furloughs of six months, unless sooner revoked, are hereby granted to all militia officers of this State, from the time they connect themselves with companies formed under this proclamation, and are mustered into service, and they are authorized to occupy any position as officer or private to which the companies may assign them, (by election, if it be an official position,) without prejudice to their commissions as militia officers and without the loss of the protecton which the Constitution and Laws affords them as such, and no presumption of resignation will be raised against them on account of having entered this service. They are expected to show the same promptness and patriotic devotion to the State, in response to this call which they have shown in response to every previous call. As it is not expected that the troops now called for will be on active duty any considerable pro- portion of their time, the civil officers of the State, of every grade, can do the service required without much detriment to the public interest, in their respective offices, and each of them who is able to bear arms is invited to unite with his fellow citizens for the defence of his home.
461
STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
Any commissioned officer of the militia of this State of the rank of Captain or of a higher grade, is authorized to muster into service any company, when organized, and to send muster rolls of the company immediately by mail to H. C. Wayne, Adjutant and Inspector-General, at Milledgeville. The clerk of the Superior Court, Sher- iff and Ordinary of each county are directed to assist such officer, on his application, in making up the muster rolls in proper form and in a plain legible handwriting. Proper forms will be sent by mail to the Clerk's office of the Superior Court of each county as soon as they can be prepared.
The patriotism of the civil officers is hereby appealed to for efficient and prompt aid in forming these organi- zations.
An apportionment will be made, having in view the strength and exposed condition of each county, and a statement of the number of volunteers required of each will be forwarded in a few days to the commanding officer of the county; and to provide against miscar- riages of the mail, a copy will be sent to each Ordinary, Clerk of the Superior Court and Sheriff in the State, who are requested to give publicity to it in the county.
The citizens of the respective counties in this State are requested to lay aside all other business on the first Tuesday in July next and assembly at the court-house in each county, in mass meeting, and organize the num- ber of volunteers required of county, and report them to the Adjutant and Inspector-General, at Milledgeville, as soon as possible. Every militia and civil officer in the county, from the highest to the lowest, is expected to be
462
CONFEDERATE RECORDS
present, to aid and encourage the organization. In case any county fails to raise its quota on that day, it is hereby required of the civil and military officers of each county to travel through the county without delay and see the citizens and enroll the names of all who will agree to volunteer, till the number is completed. Let no officer forget that he will be more successful in inducing others to volunteer when he can show his own name upon the list as a volunteer. And let the people of each county mark every one, officer or private, who without sufficient cause refuses to defend his home.
Georgians, I appeal to your patriotism and your pride. Let the people of no other State excel you in promptness of action or in the overwhelming numbers tendering in response to the President's call. Your brethren in the field have undergone hardships and en- dured privations to which you have not been exposed, and have nobly illustrated the character of their State when in deadly conflict with the enemy. The time has now arrived when you are expected to defend their homes and your own in the interior, while they defend the bor- der. Grey headed sires, your influence and your aid is invoked. The crisis in our affairs is fast approaching. Georgia expects every man to do his duty. Fly to arms and trust in God to defend the right.
Given under my hand and the Seal of the Executive Department, at the Capi- tol, in Milledgeville, this 23d day of June, 1863.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
463
STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
To the People of Georgia :
Since the date of my proclamation calling for eight thousand volunteers for home defence, I have received a letter from the Secretary of War, dated 19th June, 1863, upon the subject of the proposed organizations and the material of which they are to be composed, embrac- ing a class of fellow citizens not included in the original requisition. The Secretary says: "It is expected that men between forty and forty-five shall enter the proposed organizations, but should such be hereafter called out by the President, they will be liable to be transferred or dis- charged and conscribed."
"It is expected that as far as the men entering these organizations have guns or arms they shall use them, but we hope to be able to make up deficiencies in arms and accoutrements and to supply ammunition when needed."
In obedience to the above requirement of the Presi- dent, made through the Secretary of War, it is expected that each man in the State able to bear arms, including those between forty and forty-five years of age, will promptly unite with one of the volunteer organizations called for by my proclamation. Let no county fail to organize on the first Tuesday of July and let each ten- der its full quota within the appointed time. The late raid of the enemy into East Tennessee and the destruc- tion of the railroad bridges, together with their depreda- tions upon our own sea coast, admonish us that we have no time to lose in preparation for our defence. Let no one, high or low, rich or poor, officer or private, who has physical ability to endure one week's service, falter or make an excuse.
464
CONFEDERATE RECORDS
The patriotic daughters of Georgia will mark with per- petual reproach and regard in future with merited dis- trust every man who hides himself behind any sort of exemption and has not the courage and the manliness to take up arms, when the enemy is in our very midst, to protect their houses against the flames, their little chil- dren against nakedness and hunger and their persons against the insults and injuries of bands of ruffian rob- bers, who are destitute alike of honor, civility and shame.
Given under my hand and the Seal of the Executive Department, this 30th day of June, 1863.
F
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
To the People of Georgia:
The late serious disaster to our arms at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, together with General Bragg's retreat with his army, to our very borders, while they are cause of despair of ultimate success, if we are true to our- selves and place our trust in God, admonish us that if we would protect our homes from the ravages of the enemy, it is time for every Georgian able to bear arms to unite himself, without delay, with a military organization and hold himself in readiness, at a moment's warning, to strike for his home and the graves of his ancestors, with an unalterable determination to die free rather than live the slave of despotic power.
Tens of thousands of our fellow citizens have volun- teered for the war, and those of them that have not been
465
STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
slain or disabled are still risking everything for our suc- cess in distant fields, upon the borders of the Confeder- acy. On account of the near approach of the enemy to the interior, the call is now upon those at home, who have made comparatively little sacrifice, to volunteer to de- fend their own habitations and property, and the homes and families of their neighbors who are in the army against the threatened attacks of the enemy.
Is there a Georgian able to bear arms so lost, not only to patriotism but to all the noble impulses of our nature, that he will, in this emergency, refuse to take up arms for the defence of his home and his family, when the enemy comes to his very door to destroy the one and insult and cruelly injure the other? If there is a Geor- gian possessed of so little courage or manliness, let his fellow citizens mark and remember him. If he hides him- self behind some legal exemption, as a mere pretext to avoid duty, let him be exposed to the censure he de- serves; or, if in his anxiety to make money and become rich, he turns a deaf car to the promptings of patriotism and would sacrifice his liberties to his avarice, let him be exposed with indignant scorn to public contempt. The time has come for plain talk and prompt action. All that is dear to a people on earth is at stake. The best efforts of every patriot are required to save our cause from ruin and our children from bondage. We are determined to be a free people, cost what it may, and we should per- mit no man to remain among us and enjoy the protection of the Government who refuses to do his part to secure our independence.
If all our people at home will organize for home defence, and the Secretary of War will issue and enforce
466
CONFEDERATE RECORDS
such orders as will compel the thousands of persons in Confederate service who, on account of the wealth of parents or political influence or other like causes, are now keeping out of the reach of danger, as passport agents, impressment agents, useless subalterns connected with the different Departments, including other favorites of those in position, stragglers, etc., many of whom are suspected of riding over the country at public expense, engaged on private speculations-enrolling officers in counties where the officers exempt are almost as numer- ous as the conscripts now in the counties subject to en- rollment, and the host of officers in uniform and others who are daily seen in every city, town and village and upon every railroad train and in every hotel in the Con- federacy, to return immediately to their respective com- mands in the field, we should soon have armies strong enough to roll back the dark cloud of war which now hangs over us, and drive the invaders from our soil.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.