Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. I, Part 16

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1294

USA > Georgia > Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. I > Part 16

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AN ORDINANCE

To dissolve the union between the state of Georgia and other states united with her under a compact of government entitled, "The Constitution of the United States of America":

WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA IN CONVENTION ASSEMBLED, DO DECLARE AND ORDAIN, AND IT IS HEREBY DECLARED AND ORDAINED:

That the ordinance adopted by the state of Georgia, in convention on the second day of January, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the constitution

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of the United States was assented to, ratified and adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the general assembly of the state, ratifying and adopting amend- ments of the said constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded and abrogated.

WE DO FURTHER DECLARE AND ORDAIN:

That the union now existing between the state of Georgia and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved, and that the state of Georgia is in the full possession and exercise of all of those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent state.

After the first reading of this important paper a request was made for it to be repeated and this was done amid the profound silence of the sovereign conven- tion. The approval of its terms by the majority was evident, bitt opposition to its passage was nevertheless made in the form of resolutions designed to delay separate action and invite the co-operation of other states, and on taking the vote for this substitute it was lost by only thirty-one votes. This first effort to secure secession by co-operative state action having failed, the opposition to secession broke down and the ordinance passed by a vote of 208 yeas to 89 nays. At two o'clock P. M., Jan. 19, 1861, the president of the convention, Geo. W. Crawford, briefly and impressively announced the vote and declared officially that by virtue of the ordinance the sovereign state of Georgia was a free and independent republic. To this announcement the convention responded with dignified applause, but the people outside who had gathered in Milledgeville from various parts of the state in large numbers, manifested their approval by much greater demonstrations. Cannon saluted the event, the bells were sounded, the popular voice rose in swelling volume of cheers, the colonial state flag waved over the capitol, and at night the city was made a blaze of illumination. Intelli- gence spread in a few minutes through the state by telegraph, and the people were everywhere promptly informed of this expected final action by thousands of extras poured out by the press. They were evidently ready to ratify the act of the constitution notwithstanding its serious import. Very many deplored disunion and nearly all would have averted it. There had been a difference of opinion, "not so much as to the rights which Georgia claims, or the wrongs of which she complains as to the remedy and its application." Union men fully believed that the power of the republican party would be overthrown as soon as it attempted any wrong against the south and had insisted on resort to another ballot in the

Union. Others urged a temporary delay of secession until a convention of southern states could assemble and agree on a plan of concerted action. But now that the state had by its convention decided on immediate secession, its people buried their differences and united in support of the ordinance. The entire state thus rapidly rallied and was aroused to indescribable enthusiasm. Cities and towns became the centers of mass meetings in which the population, men, women, and children, gathered to hear the orators of the state. Every possible aspect of the momentous question was fully presented, even to the dreadful possibilities of long and wasting war. Speakers with impassioned utter- ance quoted the words spoken by the colonial orators, "Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this cause." . "Peace if possible, but war to the end if we must." "If we perish, let it be so, for we will die for liberty and all liberty will perish with us." Yet the hope was brightly painted that secession would be peaceable; that armed coercion by the United States government would not be used; southern states would all unite in a constitutional government; treaties of amity and close commerce would be made with the United States, and prosperity and peace for both governments would

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certainly follow. Thousands shook their heads in dissent to these fond hopes and urged that no delusions be indulged. Secession, they said, involved war and it was the first business of the hour to prepare for the inevitable, irrepressible conflict.

The foregoing account of popular feeling and state action preceding the military operations in Georgia is necessary to a presentation of the causes that produced the disastrous movements of contending troops, when brave Ameri- cans of common blood met in great battle within the limits of the state. The profound convictions of the Union forces which invaded the state being con- ceded and their valor proclaimed, it is fully just to say that no impeachment of the people of Georgia on account of their action in those days can be sustained. They had a rare reverence for the principles fought for and then framed into constitutional form by the founders of the American Union, and they were distinguished by ardent devotion to the Union itself. The political platforms of all their parties reposed on the conservative doctrines of fidelity to the Union and the constitution. They had furnished troops, arms and sustenance in all the wars of the common country. They were conspicuously faithful to the Union in the war of 1812, when other sections talked seriously of secession; they had refused to sustain the nullification views of a southern sister state; they had first contributed as a southern people the leaders who had won peace and vast territory in the Mexican war. They were justly proud of their heroes, Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis, whose armies had brought Mexico to terms; and in 1850, ten years before secession took place, the state stood foremost in agreeing to the celebrated compromise, which it was hoped would allay all sectional disputes and secure. constitutional union. Now at this crisis of 1861, the same people of Georgia were profoundly persuaded that a dual Union formed in the whole country covered by the United States would be better for both north and south than the one Union governed by a sectional party. They had lost confidence in the power of constitutional guar- antees to protect them from sectional oppression. They wished in good faith to withdraw in peace, and not without great hope that the separation by a geo- graphical line running from ocean to ocean would destroy the causes of strife and unite the two distinct nations in the closest international fraternity. Even if it be supposed that secession thus considered was a mistake, it would be admitted that Georgians were provoked into error and acted with becoming dignity in asserting their views. All they had they staked in this action. They immolated property and their lives on the altar of their convictions; they illus- trated honor itself by their conduct of the war, and put new and loftier value upon the love of liberty under constitutional free government by making its "last analysis the blood of the brave." The legal rights of Georgia under the Federal constitution to secede, has been conceded by implications in those amendments of the constitution, resulting from the Confederate war, which expressly forbade secession. Whether the exercise of that privilege was prudent admits of contrary opinions, but does not affect the question of the honorable purpose of Georgians to abide by the terms of the constitution, nor allow a criticism which accuses Georgia of disloyalty to the flag of the nation, the con- stitution of the government and the union of the states.

The ordinance of secession was signed by all the members of the conven- tion Jan. 22, 1861, and on the next day thereafter the governor emphasized the sovereign act by taking steps to obtain possession of the Augusta arsenal in the name of the state. On the summit of salubrious sandhills noted for the purity and dryness of the climate and near a patriotic, historic and delightful

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city, the United States had erected buildings, established an arsenal, and kept there at all times a detachment of regular troops. The flag of the nation floated over the place and asserted resistance to the secession and sovereignty of Georgia. The continued occupation of this arsenal by United States forces after Georgia had formally resumed its original independent sovereignty was construed to be a defiance of its supreme authority within its own boundaries, and hence the demand arose for the surrender of its possession to the authorities of the state. Gov. Brown, accompanied by Col. Henry R. Jackson, an accomplished and experienced officer as his aide, and also Col. William Phillips as a member of his staff, proceeded to Augusta in person and on Jan. 23 addressed a courteous note to Capt. Elzey, commanding the arsenal, requesting him to withdraw his troops and proposing to receipt for all public property in his charge to be accounted for on adjustment between the state and the United States. The commandant, Capt. Elzey, well understanding his duty as a military officer, declined to surrender his post on this demand and immediately sent a dispatch by telegraph to the secretary of war at Washington, and about midnight received the following answer:

· Washington, Jan. 23, 1861.

Capt. Arnold Elzey, Second Artillery Commander, Augusta Arsenal, Georgia:

The governor of Georgia has assumed against your post and the United States an attitude of war. His summons is harsh and peremptory. It is not expected that your defense should be desperate. If forced to surrender by violence or starvation, you will stipulate for honorable terms and a free passage by water with your company to New York.

T. HOLT, Secretary of War.

The governor having received the refusal of Capt. Elzey to vacate the arsenal, ordered the military of Augusta to be put in readiness to take it by force if necessary. Col. Cumming, in command of the Augusta battalion, prepared for action in obedience to orders, but no further movement was made on that day in order that Capt. Elzey might have ample time to determine on a bloodless sur- render of his charge. Early on the morning of Jan. 24, the command of Col. Cumming was assembled under arms to march against the arsenal, when the governor received a note from Capt. Elzey requesting an interview "for the purpose of negotiating honorable terms of surrender." Elzey having become fully satisfied by the show of force which had been marshaled to take the arsenal that resistance would be vain, and result only in the wanton destruction of life, determined to act upon his judgment according to the discretion given him by the secretary of war. The governor had only desired to enforce the authority of the state, and promptly retiring the troops which had assembled, he went at once to hold the interview which Elzey had requested. Attended by Gen. Williams, Gen. Harris, Col. Wm. H. T. Walker, and his aides, Col. Jackson and Col. Phillips, the governor entered the arsenal grounds and held a satisfactory consultation with the gallant officer in command. After proper deliberation it was agreed that the flag on being lowered should be saluted, the garrison should march out with military honors, retaining arms and private property and have safe passage to Savannah and then to New York. The governor also receipted for the property of the arsenal, and thus all the honorable terms were adjusted.

Great sympathy was shown for the commandant in the trying circumstances of this enforced surrender of his trust. No one doubted his courage or his willing- ness to defend his post at any reasonable hazard, but all commended the prudence by which needless loss of life was prevented. In appreciation of his embarrassing I-8

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position, Gov. Brown and all present extended warm assurances of their esteem, and expressed the common desire that the unhappy difficulties of the country might be adjusted without estrangement or hostility. The brave and impetuous Walker, afterward major-general in the Confederate army, and killed in battle near Atlanta, had been with Elzey at West Point. Seizing the hand of his former fellow-cadet with a warm grasp, he said: "You have done all that could be required of a brave man." Elzey silently threw his arm around his friend in acceptance of his sympathy, and both expressed regret that an occasion had arrived which separated chief friends. A very large amount of ordnance and general munitions fell into possession of the state upon the occupancy of the arsenal, including 22,000 small arms, two howitzers, two cannon, together with considerable stores of ammunition. Observing the form of surrender the garrison was paraded and a salute of thirty-three guns, one for each state, was fired. The United States flag dropped down the line along the staff and soon afterward Gen. Harris with a detachment of Oglethorpe artillery took possession under the authority of Georgia. A flag had been provided, made of white material and displaying in the center a five-pointed red star, and this was run up on the arsenal to symbolize the sovereignty of the state. The event was duly celebrated by a salute of twenty-one guns, the first for the republic of Georgia, five others in honor of the states already seceded, and then fifteen more in anticipation of the union of all the states of the south in the southern Confederacy.

Gov. Brown and staff returned immediately to the capitol, where the conven- tion was still in session, and engaged in maturing many important measures made necessary to the new relations which the states bore to all nations and states of the world. Among other acts the governor was authorized to raise two regiments at once for state defense. These were very promptly formed. Offers pressed in upon the governor from all parts of the commonwealth and the only difficulty was in the selection from the excessive number of eager aspirants. Two colonels, William J. Hardee and W. H. T. Walker, were commissioned; also Lieut .- Cols. Chas. J. Williams and E. W. Chartain, and Majs. McLaws, Gardner, Cumming and Harben. The governor, or commander-in-chief, proceeded vigorously to organize the military of the whole state so as to be ready for possible war. The formation of volunteer companies in every county was considerably encouraged, notwithstanding the want of arms. These companies were advised to organize and drill with or without guns. Uniforms made at home were adopted without much regard at first to regularity of cut or color. Officers capable of drilling were few and books of military tactics were scarce. There were more plough-shares than swords in Georgia, and while shotguns and small-bore rifles were plentiful. they were not well adapted for battle. Nevertheless the military spirit was at work and strong enough to overcome all difficulties so successfully that com- panies were rapidly formed in such numbers as to be far in excess of the requisitions.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE STRUGGLE.

The honor, it is said, falls to a company called Lee's Volunteers, organized in Atlanta, of being the first in Georgia to tender service to the Confederate States government. The tender was formally and enthusiastically made at Mont- gomery on the fifth day of March, by officers who had gone to Montgomery, Ala., . the Confederate capital, for that purpose. On their return from this successful mission they were honored with public demonstrations at various places on the way and received with distinguished honor at Atlanta. On the train which bore them homeward there were some patriotic ladies who, fully imbued with the

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spirit of the times, procured material at Grantville, and with their own hands made the first Confederate flag for Georgia, and presented it to the company. The flag as made showed seven stars in a circle on a blue union, and three hori- zontal bars of red and white. As in all parts of the state volunteer companies were being formed and drilled numerous incidents suitable to that just related occurred and increased the already ample enthusiasm. In forecast of the needs of the state Gov. Brown had contracted with northern firms for arms and some had been delivered, but the difficulty of securing their delivery increasing, he contracted with the Tredegar iron works, at Richmond, Va., and through that source obtained a number of guns for coast defense. As a further means for obtaining small arms all old muskets were put in order. The smooth-bore flint and steel gun was altered to the percussion lock. Where it could be done the bore was rifled and bayonets were attached. Companies were directed to arm themselves with the common double-barrel shotgun. Cartridges were made of buckshot, or with "buck and ball," consisting of one lead ball and three or four buckshot. Such private arms as these were freely contributed by the people, and with these the companies learned to drill, and in many cases fought their first battles.

Pending all the popular stir in the state which followed the ordinance of secession the convention which had adjourned from Milledgeville met again March 7, 1861, in Savannah, and gave the governor power to issue state bonds and treasury notes for war purposes. The convention also yielded entire control of forts, arms and military operations to the Confederate States govern- ment, which had been formed at Montgomery during the first week of the preceding February. After adopting all other measures of immediate necessity the convention proceeded to adjournment, after hearing the parting words of the president, George W. Crawford, a portion of which are here recalled to show the common spirit of the times. Said he:

"You have overturned a government which has been sectional in policy and sectional in hostility. It had lost nationality, and the first requirement of every government is that of protection to person and property. You have overthrown the Federal Union, but you have preserved the Federal constitution. You have sustained ancestral wisdom in the foundation of your government sepa- rated only from those abuses which experience has developed. In short you have effected a political reformation."

After the state had become a member of the Confederate States government the issue was joined between the two nationalities and no longer existed as between the state separately and the United States. Georgia in convention formally recognized the fact that the supreme military authority, and, therefore, the responsibility for the conduct of military operations, rested in the Confederate States government. Accordingly the governor responded promptly to all requi- sitions for troops made by the secretary of war. The first regiment ordered into Confederate service was organized at Macon and sent to Pensacola, where it was early under fire and sustained itself with admirable gallantry. Subsequently it saw some service in Northwestern Virginia, and still later on, being divided among other commands, its gallant companies were conspicuous in nearly all the great battles of the war. This first regiment attracted particular attention on account of its priority in the field, and its organization at Macon was witnessed with great enthusiasm. An election was held in camp for field officers, resulting in the choice of James N. Ramsey, colonel; J. O. Clarke, lieutenant-colonel; G. H. Thompson, major. A review of the troops was held by Gov. Brown, witnessed by a great assembly of citizens and in these inspiring circumstances the regiment

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left for action and dangerous service. Further requisitions continued to be quickly made, and were responded to in numbers of companies far beyond the ability of the state to equip them for service or the demand made by the Confederate government. Local camps were also formed in many counties during the spring of 1861, when the young soldiery learned their first lessons in the art of war. Not only did the young men offer themselves as soldiers, but the people of all ages and classes showed a wonderful readiness to share the burdens now falling on the state. Contributions of funds to meet the expenses of new companies were raised in large amounts. Uniforms were bought in many instances at the public expense. Even entire companies were equipped by the liberality of a few men of wealth. The women formed sewing societies and made clothing for the young soldiers who were preparing for war. Pledges were given to protect the families of men who enlisted for the Confederate struggle. The food crop was more largely planted and in general a community of feeling and effort existed everywhere.

It will be borne in mind that these active preparations were stimulated by the threatening effect of the clouds which were gathering in the north and the early mutterings of the storm brewing at Washington. Peace commissioners had been sent from southern states to submit the secession question to peaceable consideration of the governinent. Among these messengers from the south, an eminent Georgian, Martin J. Crawford, accepted a prominent place, and after a long, unavailing effort to obtain a hearing he returned home in April, 1861, and announced to the people that the subjugation of Georgia would certainly be attempted. The peace commissioners now understood that the hearing which they had so long asked for in Washington had been delayed, in order to gain time for military operations, and that the final refusal in April to allow their overtures to be considered was in their judgment tantamount to a public declara- tion of war. Their address published throughout the south destroyed the last hope of peaceful settlement, and aroused the state to immediate preparations for a war that might begin at any time by invasion of the coast.

BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES.

Hence no great surprise was felt at the beginning of hostilities by the appear- ance of war vessels off the coast of Carolina, and the attempted reinforcement of Fort Sumter, which resulted in the thrilling bombardment and surrender of that fortress to the Confederate forces. The further news was also brought that Norfolk was under threat of attack and it was now clearly realized that war had indeed begun.

A telegram from Richmond, sent by Gov. Letcher to Gov. Brown, asked for troops from Georgia to be dispatched without delay to Norfolk to aid in its defense. The governor expeditiously put himself in communication with the cities of Columbus, Macon and Griffin, where he knew that military companies had been well drilled and prepared for emergencies. The demand was very urgent. Not over a day was given for departure and not more than an hour allowed for the answer of acceptance. But the responses came to their demand quickly and bravely. The companies were ordered to move at once, and in less time than twenty-four hours the gallant men composed of the flower and pride of the state had made preparations, bidden adieu to their homes, and were aboard the cars hurrying with ardent haste to the front. Notwithstanding this short notice, the people of the cities left behind as well as those through which they passed evinced their patriotic pride with enthusiastic demonstrations. This is

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but one instance given as an example of the readiness with which the young Georgians of that day exhibited their fealty to the state. The companies com- posing the command were the Floyd rifles, Capt. Thos. Hardeman; Macon volun- teers, Capt. Smith; City light guards of Columbus, Capt. P. T. Colquitt; and the Griffin guards, Capt. Doyal. These were formed into a battalion commanded by Capt. Thos. Hardeman, and made a record unsurpassed for courage and fidelity to the close of the war. But it is not within the scope of this chapter to trace the events of the Confederate war outside of the limits of the state; the history of Georgia troops in Virginia and other states will not be told. Their deeds are worthy of the lofty patriotism which inspired them and the state should not be left without an honorable and enduring record of the services and sacrifices of these, its gifted and gallant sons. It is, however, an interesting legend in the record of this battalion that it reached the immediate seat of war before Norfolk with such promptitude as to be on the ground, even in advance of troops called out from noble, patriotic Virginia itself. And there is the further state- ment, which reflects luster on the military history of the state, that the first gun turned against the enemy and that sent the first hurtling defiance against the invasion of the south was in the charge of this command. Capt. Colquitt had this rare distinction and months afterward he gave up his loyal life in battle. Thus it is history for Georgia that it fired the first gun at Norfolk, and we will see in the sequel that Georgia also fired the last gun at Appomattox.

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Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. I, Part 16

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1294

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1294