USA > Georgia > Colquitt County > History of Colquitt County > Part 3
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
were led by A. H. Stephens, Benj. H. Hill and Herschel V. Johnson.
In this referendum, Colquitt seemed to change position, since she presented practically a solid front for the Union. Only three votes were cast for secession, as follows: John D. Dalton, Allen Creed and Darling Creed, the last two be- ing brothers, and all three being natives of South Carolina. Colquitt's delegates, elected to the Convention at this referen- dum were Henry Crawford Tucker and John G. Coleman. Of course, we have heard of Elder Tucker before, and are to hear of him again. However, it was the only political com- mission that he ever held. The other delegate, Coleman, baffles us. The census of 1860 shows that he was a resi- dent of Colquitt County at that time, having been born in South Carolina, and thirty-eight years old-that he had a wife and three children, and that he was one of the two wealthiest citizens in the county. Records at the State house at Atlanta show that within three weeks of the close of the Secession Convention, he was elected a judge of the Inferior Court of Colquitt County, for a term of four years. At this point he drops out of sight. No one remembers him here after these seventy years, and the courthouse records having been destroyed, in 1881, are out of the equation. He seems to have "sunk without trace," in the confusion incident to the Confederate War.
At the October, 1898, term of Colquitt Superior Court, this writer called on the Hon. Aug. H. Hansell, at that time presiding judge of the Superior Courts of the Southern Cir- cuit, at his room in the old Fish Hotel. He was accompanied there by Hon. Matt. J. Pearsall, a very brilliant young lawyer at the Moultrie Bar. Among many reminiscences with which Judge Hansell favored us, was one concerning an experience he had as a member of the Secession Convention, where he headed the delegation from Thomas County; the Judge was
27
SLAVERY AND SECESSION
invited to attend a conference held on either the first or sec- ond night of the convention, at the room of United States Senator Robert Toombs. When he got there, after supper, he found Alexander H. Stephens and others. A few moments after the company was assembled, Senator Toombs took the chair and said, "Gentlemen, I wanted to confer with you as to how I should answer a letter which I have today received from the Governor of South Carolina, asking what, in my opinion, would be the reaction of this convention, should he fire on Fort Sumter." This, of course, provoked difference of opinion; and Mr. Stephens deftly staved off a vote. Presently Senator Toombs excused himself from the room for a short time, and on his return, said, "Gentlemen, I have just received a telegram from the Governor of South Caro- lina, urging that I wire him what I think would be the re- action of the delegates here, in case he should fire on Fort Sumter."
At this, Mr. Stephens procured an adjournment; and as he and Delegate Hansell walked away, Mr. Stephens asked Delegate Hansell to join him in a plate of oysters in a restau- rant nearby; and, when they were seated, Delegate Hansell said, "Mr. Stephens, don't you think that if Senator Toombs had exhibited and read his letter and telegram to us tonight, it would have produced a stronger effect?"
To which Mr. Stephens answered, "Ah, Hansell, you just don't know Bob. Now I know that he had not received any such letter, and that he had not received any such telegram, but he thinks he got them."
At the time this convention was deliberating, the Secession movement had reached a stalemate, the situation being as follows: South Carolina had seceded on December 20, 1860; and her action had been followed by Mississippi, three weeks afterward; Florida had gone out of the Union January 10, 1861; and Alabama had gone along on January 11, 1861.
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
Georgia's referendum had sent to the Milledgeville convention a majority against the Secession movement. The whole move- ment therefore stood to turn out a fiasco, unless Georgia should reverse her position; because Georgia was, as Horace Greeley expressed it, a short while before the date of the con- vention, "The Empire State of the South." The Georgia Secession Convention was one of the most important political gatherings that ever met in the history of man-a fact recog- nized fully by the leaders of both factions in Georgia.
Leading the Secession minority were Thos. R. R. Cobb, aristocratic Presbyterian elder, who lived his religion every day, and Governor Joe Brown, also a leading churchman of Georgia, whose parents were the poorest of the "poor-whites" of the mountains.
Fiery Cobb, really a great orator, was telling the delegates that Secession would cause no war-that the North would not fight-that he would agree to drink all the blood that would be shed as a consequence of Secession. Poor man: less than a year afterwards, he was to meet Benj. H. Hill, and tell him how much mental distress he was in as he saw the country standing on the threshold of a tremendous con- flict, saying, "I am opposed to war on principle: it is against my religion; but, having led my State into this war, there is no honorable course open to me, except to go in and get killed." He resigned his position in the Confederate Con- gress; went in; and was shot to death, next year, on the heights of Fredericksburg.
His co-worker at the convention, and the one having equal responsibility for the convention's ultimate action,-Gover- nor Joe Brown, in all probability had no definite opinions as to whether war would come or not. We are of the opin- ion from his record, that the only thing about it that Gover- nor Joe Brown knew perfectly well was that regardless of
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SLAVERY AND SECESSION
Cobb's fate, or the fate of any other, he did not expect to encourage himself in getting killed, then or later.
The anti-secessionists in caucus named Herschel V. John- son to close the argument for their side. When all the others had spoken in the debate, rumor has it that some secessionist put through a motion to adjourn for lunch, just as Governor Johnson was on the point of taking the floor and making the speech which, the friends of the Union expected would do the business for the Secession movement, and that something happened to him, at lunch. Anyhow, there seems to be no doubt that when it came his turn to speak at the reassembling of the convention after lunch, his eagle refused to soar. It is said that when that great man arose to address the conven- tion upon the momentous issue, he placed his feet somewhat apart; and looking vacantly around over the audience, said "I am standing on a rock." He then looked around some more-started off again, and said, "I am standing on a rock; and nobody can't move me." That's all. He was led to his seat. The test vote was taken without the expected speech; and the result showed 160 votes for Secession against 130 votes against it. Georgia went out; the Confederacy was organized; and 350,000 men lost their lives.
Thomas County's three delegates voted for the ordinance. We are under the impression, from the talk of Judge Hansell, hereinbefore referred to, that they must have reversed their instructions. Colquitt's two delegates, Elder Tucker and John G. Coleman, both voted for the ordinance.
CHAPTER VI The Civil War
AS HAS BEEN SEEN, Colquitt's delegates to the Secession con- vention, along with many other delegates, ran counter to the instructions of their constituents, and voted to take Georgia out of the Union.
Hon. N. M. Marchant, octogenarian resident of west Col- quitt, tells us that there was some considerable criticism of their action, when they reached home; but this could not have been intense, as the record shows that delegate Coleman was elected to a position on the Inferior Court bench of Colquitt County, within a few weeks after the action and adjourn- ment of the convention. The truth would appear to be that war sentiment swept all the South like a prairie fire, during the first part of the year 1861, engulfing, for the time, all opposition. For instance, A. H. Stephens, one of the leaders against Secession, so long as it was short of an accomplished fact, went to Montgomery as a delegate from Georgia, to a convention of delegates from the seceded states, and ac- cepted the office of vice-president of the new "Confederate States of America"; and soon afterwards, went to Savannah, where he made a speech to a mass meeting of the citizens of that town, known to subsequent history as the "Corner Stone Address," in which he proclaimed to the world that the corner stone of the projected new government was the per- petual enslavement of the Negro race; and that this action placed the Lord Almighty on the side of the Confederacy, guaranteeing that the new government would never fall. It was an amazing speech, coming as it did from the second highest officer in the Confederacy, since it flew right in the face of the most generous impulses of that age. John Bright,
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THE CIVIL WAR
leader of the Liberals in the British Parliament, denounced the new government as, "That unholy combination against human liberty." The Pope simply announced that he would pray for peace. The Czar of Russia, who had freed the serfs in his own country a few years before, quietly sent the Rus- sian fleet into New York harbor, conveying assurance to Lincoln that it was at his service if needed.
Anyhow, by the time Fort Sumter was fired on, April 9, 1861, things were getting around to a fighting complexion; and when Lincoln, as a result of the bombardment of Sum- ter, called on the states remaining in the Union for three hundred thousand volunteer soldiers to coerce the Confed- eracy, a company was organized in Colquitt County to resist the coercion of a State, in its right to secede. This com- pany was called "Company H," of the 50th Regiment, C. S. A. A copy of the roster of this company, as it was organized, is inserted here.
MUSTER ROLL OF COMPANY "H," 50TH GEORGIA REGIMENT, C. S. A.
J. J. Johnson, Ist Lieutenant
Jake Alger, Orderly Sergeant
John Tucker, 2nd Lieutenant
Jerry Wells, Captain
E. Tillman, 3rd Lieutenant
Privates :
Wilson Alger
Louis Bloodworth
Jake Kinard
Jackson Alred
John Bower
John Law
Vance Alger Simon Connell Marion Lee
John Alderman
Jake Croft
Wright Murphy
Thos. Alligood
James Castleberry
Solomon Mercer
Andy Alligood
Jake Creed
John Mercer
Jack Allred Walt Hancock
James McMullen
Irain Allred
Harrison Hancock
J. J. Norman
Allen Allred
James Hood
Burrell Baker
Allen Hart
J. S. Norman Malley NeSmith
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
W. W. Baker
Hardin Hancock
Joe Norwood
W. Bryant
Simon Hant
John Owens
Calvin Bryant
James Hardwick
Paul Creed
Thos. Baker
John Henly
Isaac Carlton
David Culpepper Jack Hancock
Mitchell Tillman
John Crosby
Henry Hancock
Elbert Tillman
Miles Dukes
William Hall
Jordan Tillman
Wyatt Dukes
Jesse Hollingsworth
John Tillman
William Denmon Wash Hollingsworth
Thomas Tillman
Elisha Davis
James Horne
John A. Tillman
Elijah Field
Willis Price
Harrison Tillman
N. Flowers
James Redd
Lot Townsend
J. Ganey
James Robertson
James Thompson
Hiram Gay
Thomas Roland
Richard Tucker
Matthew Gay
Robert Royles
Henry Varnadoe
Jack Green
Charles Royles
P. O. Wing
Moses Guyton
Joe Simpson
James Weeks
David Giles
George Suber
Pink Weeks
Mr. I. McD. Turner, good citizen of Moultrie now and for the past fifty years, was in Moultrie as a child, on the day the company was organized; and remembers the men volunteers, marching two abreast, making a procession of something like fifty couples, by where he was standing with his mother. He also remembers, after seventy-four years, the wailing of the women, whose men were being enrolled.
The following are reported to us as having been killed in action, or as having died in camps, as a result of wounds or disease: Burrell Baker, James Castleberry, James Hardwick, Miles Dukes, Willis Price, A. Alligood.
The name Malley NeSmith will be noted on this roster. Hon. J. B. Norman, Jr., once related to us a circumstance connected with his death, as follows:
Malachi NeSmith was a young married man when he went away with "Company H." He left a wife and two baby
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THE CIVIL WAR
boys, living near the home of J. B. Norman, Sr., at what is now Norman Park, in Colquitt County. In the Seven Days' Battle, near Richmond, he was wounded desperately, and a letter so saying was received by his wife. Mail was brought to that vicinity at that time by Star Route once a week, from Thomasville; and Mr. Norman, Sr., habitually brought the mail. At any rate, on the day it was expected that another letter would be received, the anxious wife came with her babies to the residence of Norman, to await the coming of the mail. Finally Mr. Norman drove up, got out of the buggy, and proceeded leisurely to take out his horse. The two anxious women pressed out into the lot. "Did you get news?" they asked.
"Yes," said the man of few words.
"Well, is it good or bad?" they asked impatiently.
"Ah," said he, tactfully, "it's about like we were afraid it would be."
Then the ineffaceable recollection of the boy's mother, seek- ing to comfort the widow.
By the way, Mrs. NeSmith remained a widow until her death, after she had reared her two boys to maturity-no better men ever having been in the county-"Malley" Ne- Smith and "Matthy" NeSmith.
After "Company H" had gone away to "foe-fenced camps and bloody battle-fields," other war-like impulses beat in the bosoms of some of Colquitt's sons, witness the following letter, on file in the Georgia Department of Archives.
"Colquitt County, Georgia. August 13th/61
"Hon. Joseph E. Brown,
Milledgeville. Georgia.
Dear Sir.
"I have been Instructed to Inform you that a portion of the citi- zens of this county assembled today for the purpose of organizing
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
a Malitia or Battalion Master- and there being no lawful officers to order the same I was directed by them to request your Excellency to appoint or lawfully authorize legal officers to order the same. I was also authorized to recommend to your notice James Brown, Esq- of this county for the office of Battalion Collonel and James R. Alger Esqr for Major.
"Please put us in a way to prepare ourselves for the Exegencies of the times.
"Hoping Your Early attention am yours Verry respectfylly, Jeremiah Hancock."
The prominence of the Tillmans in "Company H" will not have escaped attention of the reader, there being eight of them, if we count Third Lieutenant E. Tillman. Third Lieutenant E. comes into the picture later; as is shown by a record on file in the Georgia Department of Archives, of which the following is a copy:
MUSTER ROLL OF CAPTAIN ELIJAH TILLMAN'S COMPANY
Muster Roll of Captain Elijah Tillman's Company, in the Regiment, commanded by Colonel called into the service of the Confederate States for local defense, under the provisions of the acts of Congress, on the requisition of the Presi- dent, by Joseph. E. Brown, Governor of Georgia, from the fourth day of August, 1863, date of this muster, for the term of six months, unless sooner discharged, and to serve in the South Western Quarter of the state & West of the Altamaha River.
NAME
NO. PRESENT AND ABSENT
(Privates in Alphabetical Order)
RANK
VALUATION IN DOLLARS OF HORSES
1 Elijah Tillman Captain 500
2 John Selph Ist Lieutenant 500
3 Linton Carlton 2nd Lieutenant
4 John Tucker Ensign
5 Flournoy Clark .1st Sergeant 400
6 Seaborn Weeks 2d Sergeant 400
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THE CIVIL WAR
7 Darlin Creed
3d Sergeant 500
8 John Sloan
4th Sergeant 700
9 Nathaniel Giles 5th Sergeant 500
10 James E. Hancock 1st Corporal 300
11 Abraham Gay
2d Corporal 500
12 Elias Murray 3d Corporal 400
13 Thomas Weeks 4th Corporal 400
14 Jackson P. Bennet.
125
15 John S. Bloodworth
16 James W. Bloodworth
17 David Bland
300
18 Ezekiel Crosby
19 Leroy H. Clark
20 David A. Giles
21 Mack L. Gay
500
22 Jacob J. Giles 250
23 Spencer Graves
24 Eveander Gunn
25 Wiley N. Holland
26 Abel P. Hutchison
27 James W. Hires 500
28 Oliver Hays
29 Thomas F. Hampton
30 John Johnson 100 ยท
31 William E. Johnson
32 James Mercer 400
33 Reason J. Marlow
34 William H. McCall
35 Richard J. Mauldin
36 William Matthis
37 Moses C. Norman 500
38 John T. Norman 600
39 Richard J. Norman 400
40 Thomas Norwood 250
41 John N. Philips 500
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
42 George W. Tucker
43 Matthew Tucker
44 Benjamin Weeks
45 Joshua Warren
46 Stewart S. May 500
All present.
REMARKS ON THIS MUSTER ROLL :
The two Bloodworths have no horses and the Captain thinks they are unable to buy horses.
All others have horses or can purchase them.
NOTE: This muster roll was certified August 27, 1863, at Moul- trie, Ga., by Elijah Tillman, Captain; appraised August 27. 1863, at Moultrie, Ga., by Daniel Thomas, Willis Bedinfield, and John Turner; certified August 27, 1863, at Moultrie, Ga .. by N. T. Mac- Intosh, Lieutenant Colonel, 69th Regiment, Georgia Militia. muster- ing officer.
Original muster roll on file in Georgia Department of Archives. The part italicized is printed on original.
It will be noticed that Moses C. Norman, John T. Norman, and Richard J. Norman appear on the muster roll of Captain Till- man's Company. Also, that the names of J. J. Nor- man and J. S. Norman ap- pear in the muster roll of "Company H." All these five men were sons of James M. Norman, the Col- quitt pioneer. J. B. Nor- man, Sr., another brother, already referred to, held during the war the position of superintendent of the
J. J. GILES, 94 years old in August, 1936. Sole Survivor of Colquitt's contribution to the Confederate Armies.
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THE CIVIL WAR
distribution of the necessities of the families of the volunteers. But the mother of these men was Ruth Tillman, an aunt of Captain Elijah Tillman, and a near relative of all the Till- mans whose names appear as privates in "Company H." So, in a way, Colquitt County's Tillmans, who were a branch of South Carolina's fighting Tillmans, sent thirteen representa- tives into the armies of the Confederacy.
As has already been noted, Colquitt had very few slaves, at any time, and none of her citizens looked on slavery as indispensable to their welfare personally. While the county was a part of Lowndes and Thomas, the citizens of Colquitt territory, living remote from the county sites of these original counties, had practically nothing to do with politics, local, state, or national; and, when the Secession War came on, there was no great feeling among her citizens among them- selves, or, for that matter, against any outsiders. In all, some fifteen or twenty of the men enlisted or conscripted in the armies of the Confederacy, lost their lives; but not a life was lost in guerrilla or partisan fighting.
Only two Union soldiers ever put foot on the soil of Col- quitt; and these were prisoners of war escaped from the great war prison, at Andersonville, in Sumter County. Toward the end of 1864, these two unfortunate youths, making their way southward, stopped at the residence of J. B. Norman, Sr., near the present site of Norman Park, and asked for "some- thing to eat." That good man and his wife entertained them over-night; and on the morrow, Mr. Norman gave them a little stake and let them proceed. It was done like him, even if the war hadn't been about over anyhow.
There has been much criticism of the South about the suf- fering of the prisoners at the prison at Andersonville in 1864. This was the year Sherman went through Georgia, when he himself said that he destroyed food and feedstuffs to the value of $100,000,000, three-fourths of which, he says, was
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
sheer waste. This caused a scarcity, which undoubtedly re- acted on the unfortunate prisoners at Andersonville.
We close this chapter with a snapshot of the John K. McNeil Camp, Confederate Veterans Association. This pic- ture was taken on April 26, 1936, on the occasion of Memorial Day. All members from Colquitt County are in the picture except the venerable J. J. Giles, whose picture also appears separately-he being unable, from the infirm- ities of age, to appear for the group. He was, as will be noticed, one of Captain Elijah Tillman's Company, as per muster roll above referred to. The ages of these men are marked under the picture. Mr. Giles will be ninety-four in the month of October of the present year, and is the only sur- viving member of Colquitt's contributions to the armies of the Confederacy. The other veterans went into the war from other counties, and now reside here. Giles died February 18, 1937.
Left to right: J. A. OWEN. 92 years old, JOE OWEN, 88 years old. S. J. J. BRUCE 102 years old, J. H. BRIDGERS, 89 years old.
CHAPTER VII Reconstruction
THE CIVIL WAR ended with the surrender of Lee, on April 9, 1865, and the surrender of Johnston, on May 30, 1865. President Johnson appointed James Johnson, of Columbus, Provisional Governor of the State. Governor Johnson called a convention of delegates for the purpose of abolishing slavery, as a thing preliminary to the restoration of Georgia's representation in the United States Congress. The Constitu- tional Convention met in November, 1865, abolished slavery, repealed the ordinance as Secession, and went home. Flournoy Clark and B. E. Watkins represented Colquitt in this convention.
Flournoy Clark was a Methodist preacher, progenitor of a family long prominent in Colquitt County at the time, and still prominent. He was the father of Rev. George Clark, prominent Baptist minister, and of R. G. Clark, for many years clerk of the Superior Courts of Colquitt County, and one-time representative of Colquitt in the General Assembly of Georgia. Dr. Baker E. Watkins was by profession a phy- sician, and like Flournoy Clark, was a Methodist preacher. He was a native of Kentucky, who moved first to Alabama, and afterward to Terrell County, Georgia. He moved to "Old Greenfield," in Colquitt, in 1863, where he practiced his profession of medicine. He was the first resident doctor in Colquitt County and rode the three-path roads for many years in relief of the suffering.
C. J. Jenkins was elected Governor of Georgia, under the provisions of the Constitution of 1865, on November 15th of that year. In the meantime, much confusion had arisen in Georgia, and "carpet-baggers," a term applied to political
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
adventurers from the North, appeared in the Fall of 1866. Congress passed the "Reconstruction Act," in March, 1867; and Georgia was again taken over by the United States Gov- ernment, and placed under the control of Gen. John Pope. In December, 1867, Gen. Pope called another Constitutional Convention, for the purpose of acting on the Reconstruction Act of Congress, which provided civil rights for the Negroes resident in the State. There were 169 whites and 37 Negro delegates. The great majority of the white dele- gates belonged to the "poor-whites" of the State, as the non-slave-holding class had long been called, and at the time of the assembling of the Constitutional Convention of 1867, these white delegates were generally known as "Scala- wags," a term of reproach applied to them because they had gone over to the reconstructionists. The convention ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, which provides equal civil rights for Negroes, and all and any other classes of citizens. Immediately afterwards, Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment to the National Constitution, pro- viding equal political rights to Negroes, and forbidding any state paying out of its funds any past indebtedness incurred in support of rebellion or insurrection. The convention also ratified this amendment.
Colquitt's delegate to this convention was Rev. Melton C. Smith, who moved to Thomas County after the close of the Civil War from up near Atlanta-near McDonough to be more accurate. He was a Methodist preacher too; and the father of Col. Joe Smith, a member of the Colquitt County Bar for many years.
Willis W. Watkins was elected representative of Colquitt County in the Georgia House of Representatives, in the ses- sions of 1865-1866-1867. He was rated as a Republican, or "Reconstructionist." In fact, he was such, died such, and gloried in it while he lived, although he was a son of
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RECONSTRUCTION
Preacher-Doctor B. E. Watkins, the Democrat. Also, he was an ex-Confederate soldier; but then so was Gen. James Long- street, Lee's "Right Arm," who went along with the Repub- licans or Scallawags of the time. Also, War Governor Joseph Emerson Brown joined the popular side, went as a delegate to the Republican Convention at Chicago, helped nominate Grant, and made a fiery speech in favor of the civil and political rights of the Negroes. In 1871-2-3, Isaac Carlton, another Republican, represented Colquitt in the legislature.
The 7th Senatorial District of Georgia, consisting at that time of Colquitt, Thomas and Brooks counties, was repre- sented in the Georgia State Senate by Benning B. Moore, dur- ing the years 1865-6-7. In the years 1868-9-70, this District was represented by Rev. Melton C. Smith. In the years 1871- 2-3, William L. Clark was State Senator. All these men were Republicans, and possibly Moore and Clark were Negroes. The Reconstructionists sent to the House of Representatives at Washington as Representative of the 2nd District of Geor- gia, which included Colquitt, Major Richard Whitely, of De- catur, during the years 1872-3-4-5. He was a Confederate soldier, and maintained an office at Bainbridge as a member of the partnership of "Donaldson and Whitely," Attorneys.
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