USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 61
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With a part of the money advanced, General Floyd built a line of block houses from the Ocmulgee to the Alabama River, to protect the northern frontier of the state. On the west bank of the Chattahoochee, two miles below the present City of Columbus, he built a stronghold, which he called Fort Mitchell. ¿ Leaving here a strong garrison, he then marched rapidly by night into the heart of the Creek country, mov- ing toward Autossee, one of the largest towns of the Creek Nation, located on the left bank of the Tallapoosa River. Gen. William MeIn- tosh, a chief of the friendly Creeks, accompanied him on this expedi- tion. At daybreak, on November 29, 1813, Autossee was reached. Here an engagement immediately occurred. Simultaneously a movement was directed against Tallassee; and before 9 o'clock the kings of both towns were numbered among the slain. Nothing was left of these Indian set- tlements when General Floyd withdrew his troops. He then returned to Fort Mitchell. The expedition consumed seven days; and though pro- vided with rations for a shorter period he had marched over 120 miles and had achieved two signal victories over the Creek Indians.
General Floyd, enfeebled by wounds received in these engagements, remained at Fort Mitchell until after the Christmas holidays. But, in January, 1814, having heard rumors of a concentration of the Upper Creeks at a town of some importance called Hat-le-wau-le, he dispatched a force of 1,500 men to attack this place; and, after a hard fought battle designated by historians as the Battle of Challibee, the Indians were dispersed. Capt. Samuel Butts, a gallant Georgian, was among the slain. Following this engagement, General Floyd was ordered to Savannah, where he remained until the close of the war, guarding the state's ocean front.
* "Men of Mark," I, p. 93.
t "History of Georgia, " L. B. Evans, p. 176.
# "Men of Mark in Georgia," I, pp. 94-95.
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However, General Jackson continued his operations in the territory of the Creek Nation. Advancing, in March, with strong re-enforee- ments, he won a decisive victory over the Red Sticks at Horse-Shoe Bend, on the Tallapoosa River, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Topekah. Hundreds of the surviving Creeks fled across the Florida line and took refuge among the Seminoles. On August 9, 1814, the victorious Tennessean assembled at Fort Jackson the vanquished chiefs who still remained in Alabama and there dietated terms of peace to the Creek Nation. As a result, Georgia acquired, under the terms of this treaty, an extensive area of land south of the Altamaha River, reaching from the western boundaries of the old original County of Wayne to the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Out of this vast tract more than a score of connties were afterwards organized; but it was first opened to settlement under the Lottery of 1820.
Col. Daniel Appling, a native Georgian and a graduate of West Point, achieved renown in a distant state during the War of 1812. As soon as hostilities began, he received orders to repair to Sackett's Har- bor, in New York. Ile hastened northward without delay; and, in the Battle of Sandy Creek, on May 30, 1814, achieved the gallant record upon which his fame as a soldier today rests. The following account has been preserved of Colonel Appling's part in this engagement: *
"Captain Woolsey left the port of Oswego, on May 28, in charge of eighteen boats with naval stores, destined for Saekett's IIarbor. He was accompanied by Captain Appling, with one hundred and thirty of the rifle regiment and about the same number of Indians. They reached Sandy Creek on the next day, where they were discovered by the British gun-boats, and in consequence entered the creek. The rifle- men were immediately landed and, with the Indians, posted in an am- buscade. The enemy ascended the ereek; but, in an effort to land a detachment upon the banks, an unforeseen difficulty was encountered. The riflemen from where they were concealed suddenly confronted the new arrivals and poured so destructive a fire upon them that, in ten minutes they surrendered to the number of two hundred, including two post Captains and two Lieutenants. On the part of the Americans but one man was lost. Three gun-boats were captured, besides several small vessels and equipments. After this affair, Appling was breveted Lieu- tenant-Colonel."
There were several other engagements in which this distinguished officer figured with equal credit. At the close of the war he returned to Georgia; and on October 22, 1814, the General Assembly passed a resolution in which "the heroic exploits of the brave and gallant Lieu- tenant-Colonel Daniel Appling" were commended in the most enthusi- astic terms. At the same time, the governor was requested to have pur- chased and presented to this native son an elegant sword suited to an officer of his grade. But Colonel Appling, on March 18, 1818, at Fort Montgomery, died of an attack of pleurisy, before the above resolution was carried into effect. He left no children. At the ensuing session of the State Legislature, a resolution was passed in which the General Assembly of Georgia assumed the guardianship of the young officer's
* "White's Statistics, " pp. 106-107.
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fame. It was ordered further that the sword be purchased at once and deposited for safe keeping in the executive chamber. This was done; and for more than fifty years it was one of the treasures of the state capitol. In 1880, during the administration of Governor McDaniel, the General Assembly made the Georgia Historical Society of Savan- nah the custodian of this priceless heirloom.
Having brought the Creeks to terms, General Jackson turned his eyes still further southward. We next find him at Mobile, awaiting an attack from the British. But the latter had crossed over into West Florida, then a territory of Spain and had reached Pensacola, a town which Jackson had already asked for permission to attack. In default of an answer from Washington, he now threw diplomacy to the winds and with 3,600 men stormed the town, expelled the British from Pensa- cola and drove the Creeks and Seminoles into the neighboring swamps.
To join General Jackson at Mobile the general government in Octo- ber called on Georgia for 2,500 militia. These troops were ordered to meet at Fort Hawkins and were put under command of Gen. John Mc- Intosh. From this body of troops, Brigadier-General Blackshear was detached at the head of a column to subdue an uprising of Seminoles on the Flint River. At the same time, General McIntosh, with the re- mainder of the militia started for Mobile, instructing General Black- shear to join him there; but on reaching his destination General Black- shear found that the Seminoles had been effectually subdued, that the British had been driven from Pensacola and that General Jackson, marching over land, was then en route to New Orleans there to meet the Red Coats of England upon arrival. General Blackshear was then ordered to join General Floyd in Savannah; and it was on this march across the state that he blazed the afterwards famous Blackshear Road. Word received from General Floyd stated that the British were 2,000 strong, had pillaged the Town of St. Mary's and had withdrawn to Cumberland Island; but on General Blackshear's arrival no sign of the enemy was to be found.
Jackson's arbitrary conduct in foreign territory belonging to a power with which we were then at peace was about to result in censure from the President when he transferred his forces to New Orleans, there winning on January 8, 1815, over the seasoned veterans of Packenham, a victory which instantly restored his popularity and caused the cabi- net to drop its consideration of drastic measures with respect to his con- duct at Pensacola. The Treaty of Ghent had already been concluded between the two nations at war when General Jackson fought the Battle of New Orleans; but this fact did not lessen the brilliancy of a triumph won by him over soldiers who had been trained under the Iron Duke and who later in this same year were to stand among Wellington's con- quering legions at Waterloo.
On January 26, 1815, news of the Battle of New Orleans was brought to Fort Hawkins by an Indian runner from Mobile. General Black- shear, en route to Savannah, received the tidings on February 4th, and in return sent a letter by courier to General Floyd telling him that in celebration of the victory nineteen guns were fired at Fort Hawkins.
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To the American frontiersmen who achieved this victory at New Orleans and to the gallant Tennessean who led them, we offer an admir- ing salute, for these men of the forest, trained only in the backwoods of America, had vanquished an army of veterans, trained by the one man in all Europe who was soon to defeat the great Napoleon.
DEATH OF CAPT. SAMUEL BUTTS .- Capt. Samuel Butts was a gallant officer of the state militia. He lost his life in the battle of Challibee, on January 27, 1814, while leading a fearless charge against the Indians. It was during the second war for independence, when the savage tribes on the frontier, instigated by the British, rose in arms against the whites. Maj .- Gen. John Floyd, at the head of the state troops, undertook to complete his victory over the Indians in the battle of Autossee by penetrating into the country of the Upper Creeks. News came to him that certain bands of savages had fortified a town on the Tallapoosa River, in what is now the State of Alabama and he was marching thither. When the troops halted for the night within fifteen or twenty miles of the town, they went into camp only to be aroused before daybreak by the unexpected appearance of the Indians. To quote a writer of the period: "The darkness of the hour, the covert afforded the Indians by a thick forest of pines, the total want of breastworks, the surprise which the first yell of the savages occasioned, and the estimated numerical superiority of the enemy's force, were well calculated to put the courage of the militia to a severe test; but not a platoon faltered. In less than fifteen minutes every hostile Indian but the dead and dying had fled from the battle field." Captain Butts fell, in the thickest of the fight, shot through the abdomen, and the country lost a gallant soldier and a true patriot. Captain Butts was a native of Virginia, in which state he was born on November 24, 1777. But he came to Georgia in early life, settling first in Hancock and then in Jasper. He was for some time engaged successfully in mercantile pursuits; and when, at the outbreak of hostilities, the Legislature of Georgia advanced a sum of money to General Floyd with which to purchase needed supplies for the army, he placed this sum in the hands of Captain Butts, who promptly executed the commission,-"'Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," L. L. Knight, Vol. I.
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CHAPTER V
GOVERNOR EARLY'S FAREWELL MESSAGE IS SOON FOLLOWED BY HIS DEATH-DAVID B. MITCHELL IS RECALLED TO THE HELM-THE LEGIS- LATURE ADOPTS A LIBERAL POLICY TOWARDS SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS AND INSTITUTIONS FOR THE UNFORTUNATE-THE STATE PENITENTIARY AT MILLEDGEVILLE-GEORGIA'S PENAL CODE UNDERGOES A REVISION- TRADERS FORBIDDEN TO BRING NEGROES INTO THE STATE TO SELL- CRUEL TREATMENT OF SLAVES IS FORBIDDEN-THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1816-DR. W. W. BIBB RESIGNS THE TOGA-BECOMES GOVERNOR OF THE TERRITORY OF ALABAMA-HIS TRAGIC DEATH- COLONEL PICKETT'S PEN-PICTURE-GEORGE M. TROUP SUCCEEDS DR. BIBB-JOHN FORSYTH LATER SUCCEEDS MR. TROUP-MEMBERS OF CONGRESS DURING THIS PERIOD-THE DEATH OF COLONEL BENJAMIN HAWKINS-ONE OF THE NOBLEST CHARACTERS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR STATE-HIS SELF-IMMOLATION-INFLUENCE OF COLONEL HAWK- INS OVER THE INDIANS-BURIED AT THE OLD AGENCY ON THE FLINT RIVER.
NOTE: FORT HAWKINS, THE CRADLE OF MACON.
Governor Early, in his farewell message to the General Assembly, on November 8, 1815, congratulated the state upon the prospect of set- tled conditions, following the recent war with England, in which suc- cess had perched upon the banners of America. But he counseled har- mony in the deliberations of the Legislature, since at this time it was a matter of vital importance for the people to be united in the work of rehabilitation. Said he: "If peradventure matters of discussion should arise, in which different opinions should prevail, let not passion assume the empire of reason. The former is not the road which leads to the Temple of Truth."
On retiring from office, Governor Early was immediately elected to the State Senate, in which body he was serving at the time of his death, on August 15, 1817. He died at the early age of fifty, at a time when the state was in sore need of his abilities. Governor Early was buried on a bluff, at Scull Shoals, overlooking the Oconee River. His grave was on a part of the old estate formerly owned by his father, Joel Early, known as Early's Manor, one of the handsomest estates in upper Georgia. In the course of time, however, the grave in which Governor Early was buried became enclosed in a horse and cow lot; and from this neglected spot it was finally exhumed in 1915 and reinterred in the cemetery at Greensboro, Georgia. Governor Early's brother, Eleazer,
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was the author of one of the first maps of Georgia, published some time in the '20s .*
Governor Mitchell, on assuming office, found the commonwealth in a greatly reduced condition, due to the ravages of war, but he applied himself with zeal to the work of rebuilding. On recommendation of Governor Mitchell, a liberal policy was adopted in support of schools, libraries, hospitals and institutions for the poor; and to all these causes the Legislature voted generous appropriations. The spirit of the great Oglethorpe himself seemed to inspire the legislation of this period; for in addition to various other measures of an eleemosynary character an act was passed requiring the master to support in comfort his infirm slaves and in the event of his failure to do so the inferior courts were authorized to sue for a just amount and to collect the same, "any law, usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding." t Four years prior to this time an act had been passed establishing a tribunal for the trial of slaves, under which act, all slaves committing offences were to be accorded a trial by jury, before inferior court judges.
As we have already seen, the Legislature of 1803 provided for a state penitentiary to be established at the seat of government; and the buildings for this purpose having been completed the Penitentiary Act was approved December 19, 1816. This act remained in effect until the close of the Civil war, when the state penitentiary was destroyed and, in its place, due largely to the exigencies of the times, arose the convict lease system. Georgia's Penal Code underwent a radical revision at this time to adapt it to changed conditions. Under the Penal Code of 1816, traders were forbidden to bring negro slaves into the state to sell and anyone violating this provision was subject to imprisonment for three years, besides a fine of $500 for each negro. # It will be of interest in this connection to note what the Penal Code of 1816 says on this sub- ject: "Offences Relative to Slaves." We quote the following para- graph: "Any person except emigrants, bringing, importing or intro- ducing into this state, by land or water, any slave or slaves, with intent to sell, transfer, or barter such slave or slaves, such person shall be guilty of a high misdemeanor and, on conviction, shall be punished to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars for each negro, and to undergo imprisonment in the penitentiary, at hard labor, for any period of time not less than one year nor longer than three years, as the jury may recommend; and the fact of offering for sale, transfer or barter, such slave or slaves, within the term of one year after the bringing into this. state of such slave or slaves, shall be sufficient evidence of the intent of such importation or introduction (though no actual sale, barter or trans- fer be made) ; and every person so concerned or interested in bringing, importing or introducing such slave or slaves, shall be equally guilty as the principal and, on conviction, shall suffer the same punishment as before prescribed." **
* Judge George Hillyer, of Atlanta, Georgia, a kinsman, was chiefly instrumental in the removal of Governor Early's body to the cemetery at Greensboro, Georgia.
+ "Lamar's Compilation, " p. 802.
# "Lamar's Compilation," p. 608.
** Ibid., p. 608.
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Cruel treatment of slaves was also forbidden. Section 37 of the Penal Code of 1816 reads as follows: "Any owner or owners of a slave or slaves, who shall cruelly treat such slave or slaves, by unnecessary and excessive whippings, by withholding proper food and nourishment, by requiring greater labor from such slave or slaves than he, she, or they are able to perform, by not affording proper clothing, whereby the health of such slave or slaves may be injured or impaired; every such owner or owners shall, npon sufficient information being laid before the grand jury, be by said grand jury presented, whereupon it shall be the duty of the attorney or solicitor-general to prosecute said owner or owners who, on conviction, shall be sentenced to pay a fine at the dis- cretion of the court, and also be imprisoned, if the jury trying the offender or offenders shall think proper to recommend that additional punishment." *
Georgia's eight electoral votes in the presidential campaign of 1816 were given to James Monroe, of Virginia, for President, and to Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, for vice president. The following electors were chosen this year : from the state at large, David Adams and Charles Harris; district electors, John McIntosh, John Clark, Jared Irwin, John Rutherford, Henry Mitchell and David Meriwether.t
On November 9, 1816, Dr. W. W. Bibb, Georgia's junior senator, resigned the toga in great mortification of spirit. He had voted for an act increasing the salaries of congressmeu; and because of a strong protest aroused throughout the country he felt that he could not longer retain his seat. But President Madison, in recognition of his conspicu- ous abilities, appointed him governor of the Territory of Alabama. He was the only man to hold this office ; and in 1819, when Alabama entered the Union, he was called by the spontaneous voice of the people to be the first governor of the new state. During a violent thunderstorm he was thrown from his horse, receiving injuries from which he died, at Fort Jackson, Alabama, July 9, 1820. He was succeeded in office by his brother Thomas, a coincidence rare in the history of politics.
Col. Albert J. Pickett, the noted pioneer historian of Alabama, was personally well acquainted with Doctor Bibb whose characteristics of person and manner he describes as follows. Says he: "Governor · Bibb was five feet ten inches in height, with an erect but delicate frame. He was exceedingly easy and graceful in his bearing. His face bore the marks of deep thought and great intelligence. His eyes, of a dark color, were mild but expressive. Whether thrown into the company of the rude or the refined, his language was pure and chaste. No one ever lived, either in Georgia or Alabama, who was treated with a greater degree of respect by all classes. This was owing to his high moral character, unsurpassed honor, excellent judgment, and a very high order of talents. Entirely free from those patronizing airs which char- acterize many of our distinguished men, he invariably treated the hum- blest citizen with courtesy and respect. He was, however, a man of firmness, swaying the minds of men with great success, and governing · by seeming to obey. In reference to his Congressional career, we have
* Ibid., p. 609.
t "Lanman's Biographical Annals of the United States Government, pp. 518-519.
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often heard from the lips of many of his distinguished contemporaries, that the practical order of his mind, the wisdom of his views, and the peculiar music of his voice, contributed to render him one of the most effective of speakers."
The Legislature was in session when Doctor Bibb resigned his seat in the United States Senate; and to succeed him in this high office, George M. Troup, of Savannah, formerly a member of Congress, was elected.
To the Fourteenth Congress (1815-1817) the following delegation had been chosen in the fall of 1814: Alfred Cuthbert, John Forsyth, Bolling Hall, Wilson Lumpkin, Thomas Telfair and Richard Henry Wilde. Messrs. Cuthbert, Forsyth and Lumpkin afterwards became United States senators. Richard IIenry Wilde was a great literary genius of whom we shall later speak more at length. Bolling Hall removed to Alabama, after completing his term, and was not again identified with Georgia. Mr. Cuthbert resigned in 1816 and was suc- ceeded by Zadoc Cook .*
To the Fifteenth Congress (1817-1819) the following representatives were chosen in the fall of 1816: Joel Abbot, Thomas W. Cobb, Zadoc Cook, Joel Crawford, John Forsyth and Dr. William Terrell.
Mr. Forsyth, before completing his term, was chosen to succeed George M. Troup, in the United States Senate, the latter having resigned the toga. Hon. Robert Raymond Read, of Augusta, was chosen to suc- ceed Mr. Forsyth.
On June 16, 1816, Georgia sustained a severe loss in the death of Col. Benjamin Hawkins, who, as Indian agent for the Federal Govern- ment, had been a resident of Georgia for sixteen years, with head- quarters first at Fort Hawkins, on the Ocmulgee, and afterwards at Fort Lawrence, on the Flint. Colonel Hawkins was a native of North Caro- lina and a man of rare accomplishments. As early as 1780 the Tar Heel State commissioned him as general agent to obtain both at home and abroad all kinds of supplies for her troops. Successful in this trust, she sent him repeatedly to the Continental Congress; and, when North Caro- lina, after some hesitation, entered the Union, under the new Federal Constitution, he became one of the state's first senators, serving from 1789 to 1795. Washington's friendship for Colonel Hawkins was born amid the perilous days of the Revolution, when as a member of his staff the cultured North Carolinian had made his acquaintance with the French language of great help to Washington, in the latter's correspond- ence with the French officers. There were few men in the army with the educational advantages of Colonel Hawkins. Reared in affluence, he received instruction from the best tutors. But it was not alone the cultivated intellect but the robust character of Colonel Hawkins to which Washington was attracted; and for few men did he entertain a warmer friendship or a more exalted admiration than he did for the gallant North Carolinian.
It is somewhat anomalous that a man of such culture, equipped
* "Biog. Cong. Directory, 1774-1911," p. 81.
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to represent his country in the highest and noblest spheres of useful- ness, should have found employment for his talents in a wilderness, among savage tribes. But whilst he was still a member of the Conti- nental Congress, he had shown a peculiar fitness, a rare aptitude, for Indian negotiations; and in this connection let it be said that it required no ordinary gifts to meet the demands of such a service and to render justice alike to the white man and to the Indian. Nor was the life to which Colonel Hawkins was called as Indian agent without its far-reach- ing effect upon his country's political fortunes. At the close of the Revolution, the adjustment of relations with the various Indian tribes became a matter of the greatest interest ; and Congress appointed Colonel Hawkins one of the commissioners plenipotentiary to open friendly relations with the four great southern tribes, the Creeks, the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and the Chickasaws. With the last three tribes the com- missioners succeeded in negotiating satisfactory treaties, whereby they placed themselves under the protection of the United States Govern- ment and gave to Congress the sole power of regulating trade with them. The attempt to conciliate the Creeks, however, failed, due to entangle- ment with Spain by virtue of the treaty of Pensacola and to difficulties with Georgia. Finally, however, in the treaty of New York, in 1790, by a master stroke of Washington, the Creeks put themselves in like relation to the Government.
Thus it became a matter of the utmost importance to cultivate these Indians. Washington fixed his eyes on the long-known and well-tried North Carolina senator as the fittest man to take charge of the well ad- vanced work of conciliation and to crown it by becoming the permanent agent. His family-one of the most influential and numerous in the state-opposed his accepting this appointment. Every inducement on the part of friends and relatives was brought to bear upon him in vain. He recognized in the appointment an imperative call of duty; and, like the great Hebrew law-giver, he put behind him the allurements of wealth and power and turned his face toward the wilderness. Nor was it his own flesh and blood whom he undertook to lead but an alien race of hostile savages. He looked upon the work as his mission. He gave to it the best there was in him. He not only accepted the appointment but he made its life-long duties a labor of love and a source of high moral and intellectual enjoyment.
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