USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 2
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*Reminiscences of the Last Days, Death and Burial of General Henry Lee, by Charles C. Jones, Jr., Albany, N. Y., 1870.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
who proved to be also the owner of the vessel-agreeing to put him ashore at the south end of Cumberland Island. For this service the Captain refused to accept compensa- tion, esteeming it a privilege "to minister to the comfort and to respond to the wishes of so distinguished a hero of the Revolution."
Originally the name of Cumberland Island was "Missoe", a term which in the language of the Creek Indians of the Georgia coast is said to have meant "Sassafras." At the suggestion of Tomo-chi-chi's nephew, the name was changed to Cumberland, in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, from whom the youth had received the gift of a watch. Oglethorpe was so pleased with this evidence of good-will on the part of the Indian that he is said to have erected near the southern end of the island a hunting lodge which he called Dungeness, after an English country seat of which he was the owner in the county of Kent. To quote an old record, Dungeness from this time until the outbreak of the Revolution "was owned successively by peers of the realm." The place was acquired by General Greene soon after he became a resident of Georgia, probably in 1784. Though he did not live to realize his dream of making this island retreat his summer home, he carefully planned both the original mansion and the grounds; and subsequent to his death it became the favorite abode and the last resting place of his widow, who years later smiled upon the suit of Phineas Miller. At the time of General Lee's visit, Mrs. Shaw, her daughter, a charming hostess, presided over the mansion and dispensed the hospitalities of this far- famed seat.
It was early in the month of February, 1818, when, toward the hour of 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a grandson of General Greene, a lad some fifteen years old, who was amusing himself with boyish sports near the water front,
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DUNGENESS
observed a schooner which seemed to be approaching the private docks at Dungeness. Before reaching the wharf, however, the schooner came to anchor in the middle of the narrow channel, and a boat was lowered, into which a feeble old man was assisted by the captain and mate, who took seats beside him, and together they were rowed ashore by two sailors. The youth hastened forward to ascertain the object of this unexpected visit and to welcome the guest. General Lee was tenderly lifted from the boat and brought ashore by the officers. He was plainly, almost scantily, attired. The sailors placed upon the wharf an old hair trunk in a dilapidated condition and a cask of Madeira wine. General Lee brought no other baggage with him. Beckoning the youth to his side, he inquired his name. Learning that he was a grandson of his old war comrade and that Mrs. Shaw was at home, the strange visitor threw his arms lovingly around the lad, who, without knowing what it meant, returned the old hero's warm embrace. Then leaning heavily upon the stout arm of the youth, General Lee walked a short distance from the landing and sat upon a log, overcome by exhaustion. Too weak to proceed further, he bade the boy run at once to the house and to say to his aunt that an old friend and comrade of her father's-General Lee-was at the wharf and wished the carriage to be sent for him. "Tell her," he added, "that I am come pur- posely to die in the house and in the arms of the daughter of my old friend and companion."
Leaving the old hero seated upon the log, young Phineas Nightingale-for this was the lad's name- hastened to the mansion, communicated the fact of General Lee's arrival and delivered his message to the mistress of Dungeness. The carriage was immediately sent to the landing and in it General Lee and his little friend rode leisurely up together. When they arrived at the house, the old soldier was so weak that he had to be assisted both in getting out of the carriage and in ascend- ing the steps. Having received a most cordial welcome
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from the Shaws he excused himself at once and retired to his room. Such was his extreme feebleness that he remained a recluse, emerging but once a day, and then only for a short walk in the garden. On these outdoor exeursions he always sent for young Nightingale to accompany him. It was seldom that he dined with the family, his meals as a rule being served in his room. At last he was unable to take his customary stroll in the open air, and the painful realization of the fact that he was a prisoner told unhappily upon the sensitive nerves of the high strung old aristocrat.
There happened to be at this time in the harbor to the south of the island-pending negotiations for the annexa- tion of Florida-a number of naval ships; while at Fer- nandina, on the Florida coast, there was stationed a land force. The officers in both departments of the service called in a body upon the distinguished guest. But as a rule, General Lee wished no one to enter his room. At times he suffered paroxysms of extreme agony and when these occurred at short intervals his exhibitions of mingled rage and anguish were often something fearful to behold. To quote Colonel Jones, "it was the strong man wrestling with the frailties of the falling tabernacle -the brave heart chafing under the decadence of physical powers-the caged and wounded eagle beating against the prison bars and longing for the sunlight and free air, the lordly plumage and sturdy pinions of former days." At such times his groans would fill the house and wring the hearts of the anxious friends who watched at the bedside of the sufferer. Many of the important remedies which modern ingenuity and professional skill have since contrived were then unknown and the patient languished amid physical tortures which medical science, at a later period, might have materially mitigated.
During his illness, the old hero was constantly attended by two of the best surgeons from the fleet.
THE CARNEGIE MANSION. BUILT ON THE SITE OF GENERAL NATHANAEL GREENE'S OLD HOME AT DUNGENESS.
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DUNGENESS
Some of the incidents which occurred at this time would be really amusing if they were not at the same time deeply pathetic. In moments of supreme agony, losing his self-control, General Lee would sometimes drive the servants from his presence and never after- wards permit them to enter his room. At length an old domestic, formerly Mrs. Greene's favorite maid, was selected to wait upon General Lee. She was an esteemed and privileged family servant. But the first thing the old soldier did when she entered the apartment was to hurl his boot at her head and to order her out instanter. Entirely unused to such treatment, the negress, without saying a word, deliberately picked up the boot and threw it back at General Lee. The effect produced by this strange and unexpected retort was instantaneous. The features of the stern old warrior relaxed. In the midst of his pain and anguish a smile passed over his counten- ance, and from that moment until the day of his death he would permit no one except "Mom Sarah" to minister to his wants.
General Lee's sojourn at Dungeness lasted two months. He breathed his last on March 25, 1818, and was laid to rest in Georgia's bosom.
As soon as the fact of his demise was made known, all the vessels in Cumberland Sound displayed colors at half mast. The funeral was attended by the army and navy officers who were on duty at the mouth of the St. Mary's River, and by detachments from both wings of the coast defence. Minute-guns were fired from the flag-ship- the John Adams-while the body was being lowered into the tomb and at the close of the services at the grave, a salute was fired. Nothing was omitted in the way of for- mal honors, to show a nation's sorrow for the loss of an illustrious soldier and patriot. Sometime in the early thirties, two marble slabs, one to be put at the head and the other at the foot of the grave, were sent to Dungeness
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
by Major Lee, the old hero's eldest son; and they were at once placed in position by Mr. Nightingale over the last resting place of "Light Horse Harry."
Prior to the Civil War, the question of the removal of General Lee's body to Virginia, the State of his birth, was discussed by the Legislature in session at Richmond and commissioners to superintend the execution of the trust were duly appointed. But the outbreak of hostilities shortly ensued; and nothing further could be done at this time. For years after the war, the State was too har- rassed by debt and too exhausted by the ravages of con- flict, to undertake this labor of love. But in 1912 another movement looking toward the transfer of the old soldier's body to Virginia was successfully launched, and Georgia will be called upon in the near future to surrender the charge which for nearly a hundred years she has kept in her heart's core at Dungeness.
Over the ashes of General Greene's widow, in the little burial ground at Dungeness, stands a marble slab some- what dingy with age, on which the following inscription is lettered :
Catharine Miller, widow of Major-General Greene, commander-in-chief of the American Revolutionary Army, in the Southern Department, who died September 1, 1814. Aged 59. She possessed great talents and exalted virtues.
Within the same enclosure of ground sleeps Charles Jackson, Esq., a soldier of the Revolution. His grave is marked by a substantial headstone, from the record carved upon which the following particulars in regard to him have been gleaned. He was born at Newton, Mass., April 23, 1767 and educated at Harvard. In the struggle for independence he was a commssioned officer,
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DUNGENESS
and at the close of hostilities became a counsellor-at-law. He died at the residence of Phineas Miller, Esq., on Cumberland Island, October 25, 1801, while a visitor at Dungeness.
Louisa C. Shaw, General Greene's daughter, is buried here beside her husband, James Shaw, Esq. The former died April 24, 1831, aged 44 years; the latter January 6, 1820, two year's after General Lee's visit, aged 35 years. Several other members of the immediate family connec- tion are also here entombed.
History often repeats itself. In the vernal months of 1870 another care-worn sufferer, embarking upon an ocean voyage, sought the healing balm of the southern waters. He, too, was a soldier of the Virginia line. On an April day at Appomattox, worn by victorious combat, he brought his tattered legions to a last pathetic halt. Fate wrote his name among the vanquished, but she qualified the record with this entry in a bold pen-"over- powered but not outgeneraled." The very bugles which told of the truce sang a pean to his genius which kindled an echo on the answering cliffs of the furthest mountain ; while the prowess which enabled him through four long years to withstand a world in arms travelled upon the ebbing tide of a Lost Cause to the remotest isles of the sea. Even in the judgment of his enemies, he towered a prince among the men of battle; and the foremost critics of his time have laid the palm of soldiership upon his surrendered sword. But the sublime self-abnegation which constrained this peerless leader of the embattled hosts to decline the most flattering overtures of for- tune for a modest seat of learning in the Valley of Virginia, where he might lead the feet of his young countrymen in the gentle paths of peace-his majestic and serene poise of soul-his stainless nobility of character-these crowned him above the wreaths of battle with the fadeless laurels of Lexington; and, if moral
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
grandeur be the scale by which we measure men, we must look in vain for his like even among the mail-clad knights of Homer's land of heroes.
But the burdens which weighed upon his shoulders were not alone those of his college. He bore the sorrows of his people. In the vain hope of renewing his strength, he sought the Bahama Islands; and, on his way back to Lexington, impelled by filial reverence, he made a pil- grimage to his father's grave at Dungeness. It was not his first visit to this beloved shrine, but it proved to be his last. He was accompanied on the trip by an idolized daughter, who did not long survive him. At Savannah, he wrote a letter home in which he told of the visit to Dungeness. It was dated April 18, 1870. Said he* : "We visited Cumberland Island where Alice decorated my father's grave with beautiful fresh flowers. I presume it will be the last time I shall be able to pay it my tribute of respect. The cemetery is unharmed and the graves in good condition, but the house at Dungeness has been burned and the island devastated. I hope I am better." But it was not to be. He resumed his arduous duties, only to lay them down again in a few weeks. The end came gently but suddenly-almost in a flash. It was not disease in the ordinary sense by which the mysterious thread of life was severed, but anguish of soul. Six months from the date when the above letter was penned, the renowned warrior fell asleep at Lexington, bequeath- ing to his fellow-countrymen and to the whole Anglo- Saxon race, the untarnished sword, the matchless example, and the immortal name of Robert E. Lee.
*General Lee, a biography, in the "Great Commander" series, by Fitz- hugh Lee, his nephew, p. 410, New York, 1899.
CHAPTER II
Jefferson Davis's Arrest at Irwinville: The True Story of a Dramatic Episode
T WO miles to the west of Irwinville, in what is today a dense thicket of pines, there occurred at the close of the Civil War an incident concerning which a host of writers have produced for commercial purposes an endless amount of fiction. It was here, in the gray morning twilight of May 10, 1865, while encamped on land today the property of Judge J. B. Clement, of Irwinville, that Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, was overtaken by the Fourth Regiment of Michigan Cavalry and put under arrest. More than half a century has elapsed since then ; and happily with the flight of time some of the fairy tales of this dramatic period, when the imagination was inflamed by passion, have been dispelled. To prejudice the popular mind against Mr. Davis and to bring upon him speedily the punishment to which he was exposed by reason of his fallen fortunes, there appeared in the Northern papers a story concocted by some evil genius with malice aforethought to the effect that when arrested the President was clad in his wife's calico wrapper and that, among other articles of feminine attire which he wore at this time, were a hoop-skirt and a sun-bonnet.
Shades of Ananias! The facts are these: Mrs. Davis, with four of her children, left the Confederate capital,
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
under an escort, several days in advance of the final evacuation of Richmond. Mr. Davis followed in the course of a week's time, proceeding southward by slow stages. It was not until Lee and Johnston had both surrendered that he ceased to cherish some hope of ulti- mate success. After the final meeting of the Confederate Cabinet in Washington, Ga., he leisurely resumed his journey toward the trans-Mississippi region, there quietly at home to await results. It was not in the charac- ter of a fugitive that he bade adieu to his friends in the little Georgia town ; and so deliberate was he in the matter of saying farewell that Dr. H. A. Tupper, an eminent Baptist divine, with whom he stopped, turned to Judge Garnett Andrews and said:
"I really believe that Mr. Davis wishes to be captured."1
It is certain that he manifested every sign of indiffer- ence, though he must have known that the country was full of armed men who were panting like blood-hounds upon his track. Word having reached him of a con- spiracy on the part of desperate men to rob the wagon train in which Mrs. Davis was journeying, he hastened to overtake her, going some distance out of the direct line of travel. Such a change in his plans meant that he was certain to be either arrested or killed; and, turning to the faithful comrades in misfortune who accompanied him, Mr. Davis urged them to feel in nowise bound to attend him upon this hazardous trip. But not a man in the party availed himself of this loop-hole to escape danger. Mrs. Davis, in the course of time, was finally overtaken; and the President, with his party, was preparing to move in advance of her when, just at the hour of dawn, on May 10, 1865, he was suddenly halted. Besides the members of his family there were with Mr. Davis at the time the arrest was made, Postmaster-General John H. Reagan,
1Letter of Dr. H. A. Tupper to Dr. J. Wm. Jones, dated Richmond, Va., December 25, 1889, and reproduced in the Davis Memorial Volume, pp. 399- 401, Atlanta, 1890.
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JEFFERSON DAVIS'S ARREST AT IRWINVILLE
Captain Moody, of Mississippi, an old friend; Governor Lubbock, of Texas; and two members of his personal staff, Colonel Burton Harrison and Colonel William P. Johnston. At this point we will let Postmaster-General Reagan continue the thread of the narrative. Says he :*
"Under cover of the darkness, Colonel Pritchard (a Federal officer) moved to where we were, and posted one battalion in front of us and another across the creek in our rear, and each took the other in the dimness of the morning for Confederates. Both battalions were armed with repeating rifles and a rapid fusillade occurred between them, with the result that one or two were killed and a few wounded. When this firing occurred the troops in our front galloped upon us. The Major of the regiment reached the place where I and the members of the President's staff were encamped, about a hundred yards distant from where the President and his family were located. When he approached me I was watching a struggle between two Federal soldiers and Governor Lubbock. They were trying to get his horse and saddle bags away from him and he was holding on to them and refusing to give them up; they threatened to shoot him if he did not, and he replied-for he was not as good a Presbyterian then as he is now-that they might shoot and be damned but they would not rob him while he was alive and looking on. I had my revolver cocked and in my hand, waiting to see if the shooting was to begin.
"Just at this moment the Major rode up, the men contending with Lubbock disappeared, and the Major asked if I had any arms. I drew my revolver from under the skirt of my coat and said to him, 'I have this.' He observed that I had better give it to him. I knew that they were too many for us and surrendered my pistol.
*Memoirs of John H. Reagan, pp. 219-220, New York and Washington, 1906. Senator Reagan lived to be the last surviving member of the Confed- erate Cabinet.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
I asked him then if he had not better stop the firing across the creek. He inquired whether it was not our men. I told him that it could not be; that I did not know of an armed Confederate within a hundred miles of us, except our little escort of half a dozen men, who were not then with us. We learned afterwards that they, or the most of them, had been captured at Irwinville. The Major rode across the creek and put an end to the skirmish.
"When the firing began, President Davis afterwards told me, he supposed it to be the work of the men who were to rob Mrs. Davis's train. So he remarked to his wife: 'Those men have attacked us at last; I will go out and see if I cannot stop the firing; surely I have some authority with the Confederates.' Upon going to the tent door, however, he saw the blue-coats, and turned to his wife with the words, 'The Federal cavalry are upon us.'"' He was made a prisoner of war.
"As one of the means of making the Confederate cause odious, the foolish and wicked charge was made that he was captured in woman's clothes; besides which his portrait, showing him in petticoats, was afterwards placarded generally in show cases and public places in the North. He was also pictured as having bags of gold on him when captured. This charge is disproven by the circumstances attending his capture. The suddenness of the unexpected attack of the enemy allowed no time for a change of clothes. I saw him a few minutes after his surrender, wearing his accustomed suit of Confederate gray."
Colonel William P. Johnston confirms the Postmaster- General's statement in regard to the President's apparel. Says he :* "Mr. Davis was dressed as usual. He had on a knit woolen visor, which he always wore at night for neuralgia; and his cavalry boots. He complained of chilliness, saying that some one had taken away his
*Davis Memorial Volume, p. 404, Atlanta, 1890.
4
WHERE PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS WAS ARRESTED, ON MAY 10, 1865, NEAR IRWINVILLE, GA.
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JEFFERSON DAVIS'S ARREST AT IRWINVILLE
raglan, or spring overcoat, sometimes called a water- proof. I had one exactly similar, except in color. I went to look for it and either I, or some one at my instance, found it and he wore it afterwards. His own was not restored." Governor Lubbock testifies to the same effect.1 Mr. James H. Parker, of Elburnville, Pa., a Federal soldier who witnessed the arrest makes this statement:2 "I am no admirer of Jeff Davis. I am a Yankee, full of Yankee prejudice; but I think it wicked to lie about him or even about the devil. He did not have on at the time he was taken any such garment as is worn by women. He did have over his shoulders a waterproof article of clothing, something like a Havelock. It was not in the least concealed. He wore a hat and did not carry a pail of water on his head." Mr. T. H. Peabody, a lawyer of St. Louis, one of the captors of Mr. Davis, declared in a speech before Ransom Post, of the G. A. R. that the hoop-skirt story was purely a fabrication of newspaper reporters.3 So the whole affair resolves itself into some- thing like the compliment which an old parson paid one of his deacons in the church :
"Said Parson Bland to Deacon Bluff Seated before the fire: Deacon, I like you well enough But you're an awful liar. "
1Ibid, 408.
2Ibid, 407.
3Ibid, 402.
CHAPTER III
The Old Creek Indian Agency: Where a Forgotten Patriot Sleeps
N a wooded bluff, to the east of the Flint River, not far from the boat-landing, where the stream at this point is crossed by the old Federal wire road, there sleeps in an unmarked grave what is mortal of Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, one of the most unselfish characters known to American public annals. The grave of the old patriot is on land which formerly constituted a part of the old Indian Agency, in what was then the territory of the Creek nation. Colonel Hawkins was a polished gentleman and a man of letters. During the War of the Revolution, he served on the personal staff of General Washington; and, because of his accurate acquaintance with the French language, he became the official interpreter of his Commander-in-chief, in the latter's frequent intercourse with the French officers. He was North Carolina's first United States Senator; and, after serving for six years in the world's highest legislative forum, this scholar in politics, while still at the height of his fame, accepted from President Washing- ton an unsolicited appointment as resident agent among the Creek Indians. Despite the earnest protests of his large and influential family connection, Colonel Hawkins felt constrained, from motives of patriotism, to obey what he considered a call of duty, especially at a time when the nation's peace was gravely imperiled; and, for six- teen years,-until summoned to his final recompense-he
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buried himself among savage tribes in the deep heart of the Georgia wilderness.
Two separate localities in this State are fragrant with the associations of this great man. The first of these is Fort Hawkins, on the heights overlooking the Ocmulgee River, opposite the present city of Macon. But the period of his residence at this place was compara- tively short; and he next located at the old Indian Agency on the Flint, where his permanent headquarters were established. Included in the latter reservation- which belonged to the Federal government until 1826- there were ten thousand acres of land, divided into two nearly equal parts by the Flint River. The official residence of Colonel Hawkins was on the east side of the stream. Here important conferences were held with the Indians ; treaties negotiated and signed; and various matters of business transacted. It was also in the nature of an educational farm, where he instructed the Indians in the agricultural arts.
Subsequent to the treaty of Indian Springs, in 1825, when the Creeks finally ceded to the State the lands which still remained to them in Georgia, the old Indian Agency was acquired from the United States government and a part east of the Flint added to Crawford County; and afterwards, in 1852, when Taylor was erected, the section lying west of the Flint was made a part of Taylor. Thus the old Indian Agency passed by absorption into the counties above named, between which it was divided into two almost equal portions. Near the site of the old home of Colonel Hawkins is the Flint River ferry, at which point the stream is crossed by the old Federal wire road, for years the principal highway of travel between Macon and Columbus, and still used extensively by vehicles.
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