USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > History of Savannah, Ga.; from its settlement to the close of the eighteenth century > Part 7
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The Chatham Artillery, the oldest artillery organization in the State of Georgia, was organized on May 1, 1786, mainly through the efforts of Edwin Lloyd, a Revolutionary soldier, who was elected the first captain of the company. The first public service rendered by the battery was . performed in association with other companies of the regiment of the Chatham county militia, and other troops from Beaufort district, in the State of South Carolina in attacking and dispersing on May 6, 1786, a camp of runaway negroes, who, styling themselves the King of England's soldiers, had fixed their lawless homes on Bear Creek, in Effingham county. The first funeral honors paid by the corps were rendered upon the occasion of the burial of Major-General Nathanael Greene on June 20, 1786.
During the visit of General Washington to Savannah in May, 1791, he was constantly attended by the Chatham Artillery, then under the command of Captain Elf, the second captain of the battery. General Washington after his visit presented to the battery two of the guns taken at Yorktown, which are still in their possession and cherished with much pride. The third commander of the battery was Josiah Tattnall, the father of Commodore Tattnall, a man upon whom was bestowed the highest civil and military honors within the gift of the State of Georgia.
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James Robinson was the fourth captain of the Chatham Artillery, being elected in July, 1794. The battery under his command participated in the Creek Indian disturbance along the southern coast of Georgia. Ben- jamin Wall succeeded Captain Robinson as commander of the battery. Captain Wall was followed by Richard Montgomery Stiles. Under the command of Captain Robert McKay, the Chatham Artillery as a part of the First Regiment of the Georgia militia, entered the service of the United States in the War of 1812, and for a time formed a part of the garrison at Fort Jackson, besides being actively engaged in the construc- tion of earth- works for the immediate protection of Savannah. The eighth captain of the Chatham Artillery was Colonel William T. Will- iams who was elected in 1816, and continued as captain until his election in 1824 as major of the First Regiment. Colonel Williams was several times elected mayor of Savannah, and was a man of the highest integrity of character.
During the command of Captain Blois, who succeeded Colonel Will- iams, the city of Savannah was honored by a visit from General Lafay- ette, upon which occasion the Chathams extended military honor to the friend of Washington.
On February 2, 1826, Charles M. King was elected the tenth captain of the Chatham artillery, and for a period of six years he remained in ac- tive command. He was followed as captain by Charles Stephens, an of- ficer of the regular army who had seen much service in the southwest under General Jackson. It was under his command that the Chatham artillery tendered its services to the governor of the State when the Uni- ted States became involved in the war with Mexico. They were not ac- cepted because their services were not required. For seventeen years the command of the company was retained by Captain Stephens. He was succeeded by Captain John B. Gallie, who during the civil war, while in command at Fort McAllister, with the rank of major, was killed on February 1, 1863. It was during the captaincy of Major Gallie that the company assisted in celebrating the centennial anniversary of the settle- ment of Liberty county in 1853, on which occasion the Chatham Artil- lery, Republican Blues and the Savannah Guards formed a military or- ganization known as the Washington Legion.
John E. Ward succeeded Major Gallie as captain. In 1858 Joseph
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S. Claghorn became the fourteenth commander of the company. Under the captaincy of the latter the battery was mustered into the service of the Confederate States on July 31, 1861, as a part of the First Volunteer Regiment of Georgia, the commissioned officers being Jasper S. Clag- horn, captain ; Charles C. Jones, jr., senior first lieutenant ; Julian Hart- ridge, junior first lieutenant ; William H. Davidson, senior second lieu- tenant, and Bernardino S. Sanchez, junior second lieutenant.
On May I preceding their being mustered into service, the seventy- fifth anniversary of the corps was celebrated with most interesting cere- monies, on which occasion an oration commemorative of its history from its earliest organization was pronounced by the senior first lieutenant, Charles C. Jones, jr. On October 14, 1862, Lieutenant Jones was pro- moted and commissioned as lieutenant-colonel of artillery, and by Briga- dier-General Mercer was ordered to the command of the light batteries in the military district of Georgia, in which capacity he continued to ren- der most efficient service until the war closed. The remaining war rec- ord of the corps we have, with only slight changes, taken from the ad- dress of Hon. John E. Ward, delivered at the centennial anniversary ex- ercises of the company, held in Savannah in May, 1886.
Under Captain Claghorn the company entered the Confederate ser- vice with over one hundred and twenty men, with horses, drivers and cannoneer, and as a thoroughly drilled and mounted battery. On De- cember 24, 1861, a Blakely gun, throwing a conical projectile of nearly twelve pounds in weight, which had been brought through the blockade, was assigned to this battery by Brigadier-General Lawton, as a special mark of the esteem in which the battery was held by him, and as a re- ward for the proficiency and skill which it had already attained. For many months it continued in their possession, and was used by them in the battle of Secessionville. When the armament of the battery was changed, it passed out of the hands of the company, and was abandoned by Wagner's German artillery upon the retreat from Bryan county, when at the close of the war it was retiring within the Confederate lines on the old Darien road, upon the advance of Sherman's army.
The first hostile guns were heard in the encampments of the battery on October 30, 1861. On that day launches from a blockading vessel attempted to set fire to a schooner which had stranded near the Confed-
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erate battery on the north point of Warsaw Island. This battery was at the time garrisoned by the Republican Blues of Savannah, and opened fire upon the launches, which resulted in an engagement which was ter- minated by the withdrawal of the Federals without accomplishing their purpose. This was the first passage of arms on the coast of Georgia.
Immediately after the battle of Seven Pines, General Lawton, who from the first moment when, as colonel of the State regiment under the order of Governor Brown, he had occupied Fort Pulaski, had with ability and patriotism devoted his entire time and all his energies to the defense of Georgia, received an order to prepare five thousand men to move on to Richmond at the shortest notice. His prompt reply was : " My men, to the number designated, are ready to march at once, and I earnestly request that I may be ordered to Virginia with them." This request was granted, and history records how he there illustrated his State, and glad- dened the hearts of her people by his gallant deeds.
The Chatham Artillery, then a part of his command, earnestly solic- ited to be allowed to follow their general to the field of battle. Their application was warmly seconded by General Lawton, but was refused . because their services were deemed absolutely necessary on the seacoast of Georgia.
On December 12, 1862, when by the exertions of Captain Claghorn the battery had been raised to the number of one hundred and sixty-five men, the animals carefully trained and all the appointments of the bat- tery in excellent order, he resigned the command of the company to ac- cept the appointment of lieutenant-colonel and ordnance officer upon the staff of Major-General Gustavus W. Smith, commanding the Georgia militia and the State forces. Passing through all the dangers of the war, Captain Claghorn died at his own home, in the city of Savannah, on April 8, 1879, honored, respected and beloved, having been as a man, all that wife, child, or friend could hope for. He was buried by the Chatham Artillery with military honors, leaving no ex-captain of the company sur- viving but John E. Ward.
The vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Captain Claghorn was filled by the promotion of the then Junior First Lieutenant John F. Wheaton to the captaincy, who is yet the honored commander, having been captain for more than one-quarter of the entire period of the exist- ence of the corps. 50
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John F. Wheaton was born at Gilford, New Haven county, in the State of Connecticut, on January 22, 1822. After a short residence at Hart- ford and Bridgeport in his native State, he came to Savannah in 1852, and having selected this as his home, has been one of its most useful and valued citizens for more than one-third of a century. He became a member of the Chatham Artillery in May, 1856, was appointed chairman of the armory committee, 1859, which position he has held from that time up to the present. During that period the entire debt for the original cost of the armory, about $12,000, under his judicious management has been retired. A large amount has been expended in repairs to the ar- mory building. the company's quarters have been comfortably and taste- fully furnished, and the armory has been improved at an expense of about $7,000.
He was elected a corporal of the company in 1859, promoted to sec- ond sergeant in May, 1861, to orderly sergeant in February, 1862, to junior first lieutenant May, 1862, and to the captaincy in November, 1862.
Captain Wheaton assumed command not on a holiday parade, not amid the pomp and pageantry of mimic war, not in the hour of sunshine, but when the roar of battle was sounding, when danger stood in every path, when death lurked in every corner.
Faithfully and fearlessly, from that period to the present time, has he discharged every obligation resting upon him, as a soldier amid the carn- age of battle, or a citizen treading the path of duty, encompassed by the " Pestilence that walketh in darkness," or as the chief officer of the city. Immediately after assuming command of the company the battery was ordered to James Island in Charleston harbor, and there for two years it endured all the hardships and participated in all the engagements and skirmishes that there occurred, serving at Battery Wagner with detach- ments of thirty men during the most eventful month of the memorable siege of that fort.
Transferred from the coast of South Carolina to the everglades of Florida, under the command of General Colquitt, the company was en- gaged in the famous battle of Olustee, where by the skillful handling of their battery they greatly contributed to the winning of that glorious victory. It participated in the reconnoissance and engagement at Cedar Creek and at Columbia, S. C. Retreating with General Johnston's army
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through South Carolina from Columbia to Smithville, thence to Raleigh and thence to Greensborough, where it was surrendered in April, 1865, with Johnston's entire command. Immediately after the surrender the company was marched to Augusta, Ga., where it was disbanded as a Confederate organization. Thus, from the time when the curtain rose at Pulaski to its fall at Greensborough, the Chatham Artillery was no- bly performing its part in this great drama which had fixed the atten- tion of the world for four years, and been baptized in the blood of thou- sands engaged in constant and active service, enduring cheerfully every privation, fearlessly encountering every danger, and during the most try- ing periods led by John F. Wheaton as commander.
During the dark days of reconstruction the company was not permit- ted to retain its military character, yet all the members assembled in citi- zens dress whenever summoned by their officers for the transaction of business. Although their armory was seized by the forces of the United States in December, 1864, and placed under the control of the Freedman's Bureau until June, 1868, the interest due on the armory's scrip was at all times paid, and the general welfare of the organization was carefully looked after and attended to. The social characteristics that had so long been features of the company, were retained and continued during that humiliating period. On February 22, 1866, the company gave a grand picnic, and since that date has given one every year, in which its mem- bers, their families and friends participated.
On January 19, 1872, the anniversary of the birthday of General Rob- ert E. Lee, the company made its first uniformed appearance after the war, and since that date has paraded on all its regular parade days on all public occasions, retaining in its advanced age its true military bear- ing, its social instincts, its patriotic and public spirit, remaining true to the principles that actuated the fathers and promoters of this grand old asso- ciation from its organization.
As soon after the surrender of the Confederate army as the nature of the case and the exigency of the times would permit, the company was reorganized upon a peace basis. Their Washington guns, which had been carefully buried and concealed during the war, were resurrected from their hiding-place, and remounted and restored to their former position as honorary field-pieces of the battery. The old spirit still survived,
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and the Chatham Artillery was again restored to its pristine vigor and its high reputation among the volunteer companies of Savannah. The objects of the founders of this military organization are thus expressed in the preamble to the rules and regulations of the company :
"Impressed with a firm belief that the safety of the glorious institu- tions under which we live, and which have been bequeathed to us as a sacred and inestimable legacy, purchased by the blood and toil of the fathers of the Republic, depends upon a well regulated and strictly dis- ciplined militia, and that such a militia is especially necessary in the com- munity in which we live, from the peculiar character of our population which renders it necessary to be always prepared, and ever on the alert to meet a danger which may have its being among us without our knowl- edge, and may break forth in our most unsuspecting moments ; fully con- vinced that it is the duty of every citizen to contribute not only to the pe- cuniary exigencies of his country when demanded, but to be prepared in times of danger when the peace and welfare and dignity of that country are threatened to interpose his person as a shield and safeguard between her and dishonor ; that to obtain this laudable and honorable object, a proper organization and a strict bond of union and action are required as well in peace as in war, and that a corps devoted to the service of field arm- ory is an honorable, important and efficient branch of the national or State defense, affording the best opportunities to render valuable those services which it is our duty and desire to proffer to our beloved country on all occasions when the support of her right or interest may demand them, we the officers, noncommissioned officers and privates of the Chatham Artillery whose names are hereunto subscribed for the purposes above recited, and with a view to obtain a knowledge of military tactics, and especially that portion more particularly embraced under the title of our association, do hereby solemnly agree to the following rules of the gov- ernment of the Chatham Artillery, and we do hereby pledge our honor, for which our signature is witness, that we will to the best of our ability and understanding devote ourselves to the advancement of the interests of the corps, to which we have voluntarily attached ourselves by all hon- orable means, and ardently co-operate in the increase of its strength, re- spectability and discipline, and that we will foster and maintain senti- ments of respect and affection towards each other as soldiers and citizens,
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and united as a band of brothers, devote ourselves, when occasion re- quires it, to the service of our Country."
It may in just pride be affirmed that the members of this ancient com- pany have under all circumstances and on all occasions endeavored to redeem the pledges and maintain the sentiments thus early given and recorded. Surviving the vicissitudes of fortune and the shock of battle this organization after more than a century's existence, is still bouyant in spirit and strong in membership. The total strength of the company, rank and file, is fifty-eight men. The implements of war consist of two six-pounders, presented by General George Washington, one howitzer, one light six-pounder, and one gatling gun. The officers are: John F. Wheaton, captain ; R. F. Harmon, senior first lieutenant ; G. P. Walker, junior first lieutenant; J. R. Saussy, second lieutenant; I. A. Solomons, orderly sergeant ; T. N. Theus, ordnance sergeant ; E. E. Buckner, quar- termaster sergeant ; J. B. Law, guidon sergeant; J. S. Silva, secretary; J. F. La Far, treasurer.
Savannah Volunteer Guards. This is the oldest infantry corps in Georgia. It was organized as a company early in 1802, and was at- tached to the First Regiment, First Brigade, First Division of the Georgia Militia. Its first parade was on May 1, ISO2, and it has ever since adopted and observed that day as its anniversary. On the 20th of the same month the corps took part in the reception extended to vice Presi- dent Aaron Burr. The uniform at that time was blue, trimmed with red, with gold bars across the breast.
Dr. John Cummings was the first captain of the Guards. He was an Irishman by birth-one of the leading and most influential merchants of Savannah at that time, and president of the Branch Bank of the United States. He was lost at sea on board the steamer Pulaski, on a trip from Savannah to Baltimore.
Captain Cummings resigned in 1808, and was succeeded by Captain : James Marshall. During Captain Marshall's command the War of 1812 with Great Britain occurred, and the Guards with the other companies of Savannah composing the First Regiment were mustered into the service of the United States for local defense, and at one time a portion of the Guards with the Republican Blues were sent on an expedition against St. Augustine. We are unable to ascertain how long Captain Marshall con-
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tinued to command the Guards. He afterwards became colonel of the regiment, and was so, as late as 1825. He was succeeded, however, as captain of the Guards by Frederick S. Fell, who had been first lieutenant of the company.
In 1818 Edward F. Tattnall was elected commander. Captain Tatt- nall was of the family of Tattnalls so distinguished in the history of Georgia. His father was Josiah Tattnall, who had been the third cap- tain of the Chatham Artillery, colonel of the First Regiment Georgia Militia, general of the First Brigade, United States Senator from Georgia, and governor of the State. He was the elder and only brother of the celebrated Commodore Josiah Tattnall, who, himself, was a member of the Guards from his early manhood to his death, and whose remains they attended to their last resting place at Bonaventure on June 16, 1871.
Captain Tattnall had been a captain in the United States army in the war of 1812, and had greatly distinguished himself in an engagement with the British at Point Petre, near St. Mary's, Ga. Captain Tattnall entered upon the command of the guards vigorously and with zeal. He was evidently a born soldier ; and, though a strict disciplinarian and very exacting in his requirements, he soon secured the absolute devotion of his command, and, infusing into it much of his own high, chivalric spirit, enhanced, if he did not create, that intense and admirable esprit de corps which has ever since been one of its chief characteristics. Under his leadership it attained a degree of efficiency and prosperity it had never known before, and received an impulse which it has not yet lost. He may be considered, in the largest sense, "the second founder " of the corps. On the occasion of President James Monroe's visit to Savannah on May 8, 1819, the Savannah Volunteer Guards, under his command, took part in the reception and parade. The second uniform adopted by the company was blue, trimmed and slashed with scarlet, and a full scar- let front-very similar to the uniform of the French gens d'arme at one time. And, in this connection, a pleasant incident is related as occur- ring on the occasion of Lafayette's visit to Savannah during his Ameri- can tour in 1825.
It appears that the distinguished visitor landed at the foot of East Broad street. A contemporary account says: "The troops were placed in position on the green, in front of the avenue of trees, their right on
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East Bay. A more gallant and splendid military display we have never seen; the effect was beautiful; every corps exceeded its customary num- bers; many who had not appeared under arms for years shouldered them on this occasion, and the usual pride of appearance and honorable emu- lation was ten times increased by the occasion. Those who know the volunteer companies of Savannah will believe this to be no empty com- pliment."
The incident referred to is that, as Lafayette passed down the line, he reached Tattnall with his Guards, and either affected by the sight of a uniform so familiar to him in his own country, or attracted by the fine appearance of the company, he threw up both hands, and, with sparkling eyes, exclaimed, " Ah ! quels beaux soldats ! quels beaux sold- ats !"
Captain Tattnall continued in command until January, 1831, and after an interval of some time was succeeded by Joseph W. Jackson. Cap- tain Jackson was a lawyer, a member of Congress and one of the most distinguished men of his day. His successor was William Robertson, proprietor of the Savannah Daily Georgian, who assumed command in November, 1836. Captain Robertson held his commission but a few months, resigning in July, 1837. He was succeeded by William P. Bowen, under whom was procured an act of the Legislature authorizing the corps to half pay members, the object of which was to lay the foun- dation of a fund with which at some future day, to build an armory or arsenal.
Captain Bowen resigned in 1844, when he was succeeded by Dr. Cosmo P. Richardsone, who was elevated to the position from the rank of private. Captain Richardsone proved to be an officer of extraordin- ary merit. During his term occurred the incorporation of the corps which in another part of the chapter is more fully discussed. Captain Richardsone died while holding the position of Captain of the Guards. He was dearly beloved by every member of the corps and his death was in the nature of a personal loss. He was buried with military honors on February 8, 1852.
Dr. James P. Sereven, an exempt private, was elected the next Cap- tain of the Guards, the first position of a public character he had ever consented to take. Soon, however, he became in quick succession,
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mayor of the city, member of the State Senate and first president of the Savannah, Albany and Gulf Railroad Company, now known as the Sa- vannah, Florida and Western Railway. Dr. Screven's pressing public and private engagements induced him to resign in December, 1857, when he was succeeded by his eldest son, the present distinguished citizen of Savannah, Colonel John Screven.
Under the administration of Captain Screven the corps made rapid advance in all the avenues which mark the proficiency of a military or- ganization. The first event of importance during the command of Cap- tain John Screven was the acquisition of an armory. This was secured in 1859 by the purchase of the old Unitarian Church on the southeast- ern corner of Bull and York streets. It required some time and expense to prepare the building for the use of the corps, but it was finally con- verted into pleasant military quarters. During the occupation of the city by Sherman in 1864, it was used by some of his troops as a guard- house. Through their carelessness it took fire and was destroyed.
Soon after the acquisition of an armory a very rapid increase in the members of the corps began to take place, and it not infrequently hap- pened that at an afternoon drill one hundred and fifty men or more would be out-a number quite too large to be handled with convenience as a single company. This state of affairs gave rise to the idea of form- ing an independent battalion. Steps were immediately taken to carry it into effect.
While preparations to form a battalion were going on South Carolina seceded from the Union, and on January 3, 1861, as related in the chap- ter devoted to the war period, fifty men of the Guards under Captain Screven, the Oglethorpe Light Infantry and the Chatham Artillery were taken by Colonel Lawton under orders from Governor Brown, and ef- fected the seizure of Fort Pulaski. From this time for several months the volunteer companies took turns at Fort Pulaski. The Guards were there several times.
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