USA > Georgia > The Confederate records of the State of Georgia, Vol 2 pt 2 > Part 23
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STATE PAPERS OF GOVERNOR JOS. E. BROWN
persons thus appointed report to this Department, at each burning, the amount of each denomination of Notes and Bills thus burned, which shall be entered upon the Minutes of this Department.
JOSEPH E. BROWN,
A PROCLAMATION.
To the Officers and Members of the General Assembly :
In conformity to the Resolution of the General As- :sembly, passed at the close of its last Session, request- ing the Governor to convene the Legislature at such time and place as he may think best, to complete the necessary legislation which was unfinished at the time of adjourn- ment on the approach of the enemy, I hereby require the officers and members of the General Assembly to convene at the City Hall, in the City of Macon, at ten o'clock, A. M., on Wednesday, the 15th day of February next.
Given under my hand and the Great Seal of the State, this the 25th day of January, 1865.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
The following message was this day transmitted to the General Assembly, to-wit:
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EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
MACON, GEORGIA,
February 15th, 1865.
To the Senate and House of Representatives :
Since your adjournment in November, the army of invasion, led by a bold and skillful General, have passed through our State, laid waste our fields, burned many dwelling houses, destroyed county records, applied the torch to gin houses, cotton and other property, occupied and desecrated the capitol, and now hold the city of Savannah, which gives them a water base from which they may in future operate upon the interior of the State.
The army of Tennessee, which contained a large num- ber of Georgia troops, and was relied on as the only bar- rier to Sherman's advance, the removal of which left Georgia at the mercy of the enemy, was ordered off be- yond the Tennessee river upon a campaign which has terminated in disaster. In the midst of these misfor- tunes Georgia has been taunted by some of the public journals of other States because her people did not drive back and destroy the army of the enemy. Those who do us this injustice fail to state the well known fact that. of all the tenss of thousands of veteran infantry, inclu- ding most of the vigor and manhood of the State, which she had furnished for Confederate service, but a single Regiment (the Georgia Regulars) of about three hun- dred effective men, was permitted to be upon her soil during the march of General Sherman from her North-
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western border to the city of Savannah; and even that gallant regiment was kept upon one of our islands most of the time, and not permitted to unite with those who met the enemy. Nor were the places of our absent sons filled by troops from other States. One brigade of Con- federate troops was sent by the President from North Carolina, which reached Georgia after her capitol was in the possession of the enemy.
Thus abandoned to her fate and neglected by the Confederate authorities, the State was left to defend her- self as best she could against a victorious army of nearly fifty thousand of the best trained veteran troops of the United States with only the Georgia reserves and mili- tia, consisting of a few thousand old men and boys, while her army of able-bodied gallant sons were held for the defense of other States, and denied the privilege to return and strike an honest blow for the protection of their homes, their property, their wives and their children.
While the Confederate reserves in other States have been but little of their time in the field of active duty, and the militia, consisting of boys between sixteen and seventeen, and old men between fifty and sixty, and agri- culturists detailed by the Confederate Government, have not i. most of the States been called out at all, the Con- federate reserves, the reserve militia, the detailed men, the exempts from Confederate srvice and most of the State officers, civil as well as military, have in this State been kept in the field almost constantly for the last eight months.
These troops of classes not ordered to go elsewhere, were placed under the control of the Confederate Gen-
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eral commanding the department, and have participated in every important fight from Kennesaw in this State, to Grahamville or Honey Hill in South Carolina. The important victory at the latter place was achieved by the Georgia militia, the Georgia reserves, the Georgia State line, the Forty-seventh Georgia Regiment and a very small number of South Carolinans, all commanded by that able and accomplished officer, Major-General G. W. Smith, of the Georgia militia. As I have seen no Con- federate official account of this important engagement, which gives the credit where it is justly due, I mention these facts as part of the history of our State.
If all the sons of Georgia under arms in other States, of which nearly fifty Regiments were in Virginia, besides those in the Carolinas, Florida and Tennessee, had been permitted to meet the foe upon her own soil, without other assistance, General Sherman's army could never have passed from her mountains to her seaboard, and destroyed their property and their homes. He had nearly four hundred miles to march over an enemy's, country ; he was entirely dependent upon the wagon train which he carried with him for a supply of ammunition, without the possibility of replenishing after what he had was consumed. Had he been resisted from the start by a competent force, and compelled to fight, his ordnance stores must soon have been exhausted, and he forced to an unconditional surrender. Such another opportunity to strike the enemy a stunning blow will not probably occur during the war. The destruction of this army would have re-inspired our people with hope, depressed the spirits of our enemies, and might have prepared the way speedily for the negotiation of an honorable peace.
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It could have been by the Georgia troops if permitted. It should have been done at the expense, if necessary, of the evacuation of Richmond and the use of General Lee's whole army thrown rapidly into Georgia for that pur- pose. No one would regret more than I to see that city, which has been so long and so nobly defended, surrender to the enemy ; but it must be admitted, since the devasta- tion of the country beyond, that it is now only a strong out-post of little military importance, compared with the great interior. It must also be admitted that Richmond is rendered insecure by the successes of General Sher- man in the interior, and the position he has gained in the rear of that and other strongholds, which were relied on for defense. If his unobstructed movement through Georgia must result in the loss of Richmond, how much better would it have been if we had given the evacuation of Richmond for the destruction of his army.
I have felt it my duty to refer to these facts in justice to my State, of which it may be safely said that she has had a larger proportion of her white male population under arms for the last eight months, in defense of our cause, than any other State in the Confederacy. On ac- count of the attachment of her people to the cause of State sovereignty and Constitutional liberty, and their remonstrances against unjustifiable usurpations of power by the Confederate Government, Georgia has been sys- tematically, if not wilfully, misrepresented by Govern- ment officials and organs, who give circulation to the most reckless and unjust comments upon the conduct of the people of the State and her Government, without the magninimity or common honesty to publish the facts when laid before them, which show their statements to be without any real foundation in fact. As an instance,
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I mention the fact that it has been industrionsly cir- culated that I, as Governor of the State, have kept fifteen thousand men out of service under the Exemption Acts. I corrected this misrepresentation by a published state- ment, which showed that I had put into service classes of persons not ordered out in other States and that the whole number of State officers in Georgia who have been held by me under the legislation of the State to be exempt from military service, was only 1,450, of whom a large proportion are over military age. This correction was passed in silence by many who had given publicity to the groundless charge, which was intended to be injurious to the Governor of the State, to the persons exempted by her laws, and to the character of her people. I am satisfied, however, that impartial history will do justice to the Government and people of Georgia, as well as to the con- duct and motive of her assailants, who have stripped her of her strength and left her to the ravages of her foreign enemies.
THE MILITIA.
Experience has shown the necessity for amendments in our militia laws. The laws should be so changed as to provide for a separate organization of the old men over fifty years of age, under officers of their own num- ber, to be elected by them. All civil officers of the sey- eral counties exempt from service should be made sub- ject to militia duty in these organizations.
When organized, the Reserve Militia of this class should be required to do all necessary police duty in their several counties and to arrest and turn over to the proper authorities all deserters from State or Con-
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federate service, and all persons subject to State service, who do not immediately report for duty, when required by General Orders. On failure to discharge this duty faithfully and efficiently, the Governor should be author- ized to order them into the field for active duty in place of those permitted by them to remain at home who owe active service.
As the detail of men over fifty years of age for this service at home, who were called out prior to the organi- zation of part of the brigades now in the field, has re- duced them below the proper number of a brigade, and has left supernumerary officers, provision should be made for a re-organization by election of the Brigades, Regi- ments Battalions and Companies now in service, reduc- ing the number of organizations as may be proper, and the commissions of all not elected should be suspended and they be required to do service. This would make the organizations more effective. The militia under fifty years of age, organized as above suggested, should be known as the Active Militia.
A permanent General Court Martial should be estab- lished for the trial of deserters and other delinquents. This would secure the enforcement of discipline, and the execution of a few guilty persons, would stop desertion. The militia organization completed upon this basis should be kept by the State during the war for the defense of her territory, and the execution of her laws, and should in no case, be turned over to the unlimited control of the Confederate Government or any other power. Nor should it be sent out of the State, unless it is for the pro- tection of some part of our border, except in such cases
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of emergency as in the opinion of the Governor make it proper that Georgia give aid for a limited time to a sister State.
The Confederate Constitution authorizes the State to keep troops in time of war. This is a reserved right, the exercise of which by the State violates no right of the Confederate Government, and infringes upon no dele- gated powers; nor is the exercise of a plainly reserved right by the State a breach of faith either to the Confed- eracy or any sister State.
Our recent sad experience has shown the wisdom of the reservation. But for the troops kept by the State, the city where you are now assembled would have been occupied, plundered and sacked by the enemy in their late march through the interior.
The Constitution limits the State to no particular class or age. She may keep troops composed of any part of her citizens whom she may choose to organize. If we admit the Constitutionality of conscription which authorizes Congress to conscribe our citizens to raise armies, that provision of the Constitution must be con- strued with, and limited by the reservation in the same instrument of the right of the State to keep troops in time of war. This would make the jurisdiction of the Confederate and State Governments concurrent over the arms bearing population of the States in time of war. It follows in that case that the Government which first organizes and places the troops in actual service has a right to hold them as against the other. The State acted upon this rule in the organization of the two Regiments of the State Line, composed of persons of all ages able
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to do service who volunteered. Her right to keep these troops has never been questioned by the Confederate Government, nor indeed can it be.
That portion of the militia organization not composed of Confederate exempts are generally of the most useful class of agriculturalists, whose services at home during the more critical period of the crop, are indispensably · necessary to the production of supplies. Whenever these men can be spared from home they should be kept in service, if the emergency requires it. But they should not be turned over to unlimited Confederate control to be carried away from the State permanently, to the ruin of her material and productive interests. So long as they faithfully discharge their duty when called out, the State should keep them, giving them furloughs at such times as are necessary to secure their crops, if it can possibly be done. All who are absent without leave, when ordered out by the State, should be turned over to Confederate service for the war without regard to rank or age. This would stimulate them to prompt obedience to order when called. The chief difficulty in the way of granting furloughs for limited periods when the troops could be spared, grows out of the fact that they often fail to respond promptly at the end of the time allowed them.
On the 30th of August last, when the militia under the command of Major-General G. W. Smith, were in the trenches around Atlanta, a very short time before the fall of the city, the President made a requisition upon me for them, with all others that I might be able to organize. At the time the requisition was made these troops had been for months in active service with the Army of Ten-
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nessee, under the command of the General who controlled it. They had participated in several engagements-had acted with distinguished gallantry and had been about forty days almost constantly under fire around the city. Rations were issued to them by order of the Confederate General in command-and he had promised that they should be payed as other troops in the Confederate ser- vice.
These troops were composed mostly of boys between sixteen and seventeen and old men between fifty and fifty-five years of age, who are not subject to service by the laws of Congress, in the army of the Confederacy. No law of Congress makes them in any way subject to the President's control. The statute of the State de- clares positively that they shall not be subject to any draft or compulsory process to fill any requisition made by the President of the Confederate States upon the Governor of the State. They were the last reserve force of the State able to do service. If they were turned over to Confederate control with no power on the part of the State to recall them, she would be left without any ade- quate force for the execution of her own laws.
The State had much more than filled every requisition made upon her in common with other States for troops. No call was made at the time upon the other States for troops of this class; nor had the other States ordered out and placed in service their militia of these ages.
It was quite clear that the requisition was not made for the purpose of getting the militia into service, for they were there at the time under the command of Gen- eral Hood. Looking at all these facts I could not doubt
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that the President had other motives in making the call- and that the main object was to get them out of the control of the State, subject to his command, and to dis- band the State organizations; and enable him to appoint the General and Field Officers to command them. This was more evident from the fact that he required all within General Hood's department to report to him in Atlanta, and all within the department of South Carolina and Georgia to report to the commandant of that de- partment, whose headquarters were then at Charleston. The line dividing these two departments cuts in two. not only General Smith's Division, but three out of the four Brigades and a large proportion of the Regiments. If the requisition had been obeyed the organization would have been disbanded, and a large proportion of the mili- tia, who were then under the fire of the enemy, defending Atlanta, would have been ordered off to report to Gen- eral Jones at Charleston, when no enemy was pressing us upon the coast.
Under these circumstances I felt it my duty to refuse to fill a requisition made by the President, without au- thority of law, for a class of troops which I could not turn over upon his requisition without a violation of a positive statute of the State, who, were in service, act- ing gallantly at the times, under officers of distinguished merit, with a thorough organization, which must have been disbanded by my compliance with the President's demand and the troops scattered at a most critical period in the defence of Atlanta.
I earnestly request the General Assembly to say, by resolution, whether my conduet in refusing to turn over the reserve militia, organized by the State for her own
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defence, is approved, or whether it shall yet be done, and the State stripped of her last strength, and left without a man to aid in the execution of her laws, and to strike a blow in her defence when Confederate aid is withdrawn, and the enemy devastating her fields, towns and cities.
THE GEORGIA MILITARY INSTITUTE.
The number of cadets in this institution has been considerably increased.
Upon the advance of Sherman's army the battalion of cadets was ordered into active service. At the Oconee bridge and other places where they met the enemy they acted with distinguished gallantry. The State has much reason to be proud of this gallant young corps.
I must not omit to mention with my warmest appro- bation the conduct of the State Scouts under Captain Talbot, who has shown himself to be a gallant, fearless leader.
Pruden's Artillery and the other troops of Major Caper's Battalion, are also entitled to honorable notice. This whole battalion under its chivalrons leader, in pres- ence of Adjutant and Inspector-General Wayne, who ac- companied them during the campaign from Gordon to Savannah and thence to Augusta, discharged their duty energetically and faithfully. The report of General Wayne will be laid before the Military Committee of the two Houses upon application.
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MILITARY APPROPRIATION.
I beg leave again most respectfully to invite the at- tention of the General Assembly to that part of my late annual message which relates to the military appropria- tion. The sum appropriated will be wholly inadequate. If it is not increased, I shall be under the unpleasant necessity, so soon as it is exhausted, which will be in a short time, of again convening you to supply the de- ficiency. We cannot conduct the operations of war with- out money.
IMPRESSMENTS.
I beg leave to call the attention of the Legislature to the necessity for the passage of a law authorizing the impressment of provisions in the hands of persons under bonds to the Confederate Government, or others who refuse to sell their surplus at market value for the use of indigent soldiers' families, and of persons who are left destitute by the ravages of the enemy, or our own cavalry, who receive aid from the State under legislation enacted for that purpose. The cases are very rare when it would be necessary to resort to impressment, if the people were left free to sell their surplus in the market ; but they are denied that privilege by the Confederate Government, having been compelled to give bond to sell all their surplus to its agents at schedule prices, which are far below market value. These persons would gladly sell to State or county agents, but they are threatened with a revocation of their details, and with immediate compulsion to enter the service if they do so. The State should never submit to be driven out of her own markets and denied the privilege of purchasing from her own
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citizens by the act of any other Government or power. I therefore recommend the passage of a law authorizing the Justices of the Inferior Court of each county, with the consent or order of the Governor, to impress provis- ions in their respective counties, for soldiers' families and indigent refugees, when, from the cause above men- tioned, it may be necessary to enable them to procure the supplies required for that purpose; and also author- izing the Quartermaster-General and Commissary-Gen- eral of the State to make similar impressments, with the like order, for their respective departments.
The Act should provide, in case of such impressments, for a fair valuation of the property impressed, and for payment of market value as just compensation to the owner. Without the passage of this Act, it will be im- possible for the State and county agents within the limits of the State to purchase the supplies which are indis- pensable.
The appropriation of money will avail nothing if the Confederate agents can lock the cribs and smoke houses of the people of the States against her purchasing agents. I have been unable under the late appropriation, to sup- ply the demands of those in great distress, for want of this law. If it is not passed, a great deal of suffering will be the inevitable result.
PENITENTIARY.
The enemy having destroyed the work-shops, cells, and buildings of this institution by fire, it will cost a very heavy appropriation, probably one million of dollars, in currency, to rebuild it. From seven years close obser-
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vation I am satisfied the institution does not serve the objects for which it was created. It does not seem to be, as its name imports, a place of penitence; it is cer- tainly not a place of reformation, but it is rather a school for theft, lawlessness and villiany, where those more hardened in crime act as teachers of those who are younger and of less experience. Honest men who, in the heat of passion, commit crime which consign them, under our present laws, to this den of theives, generally come out corrupted and contaminated.
In view of the above facts, I recommend that the Penitentiary be abolished as soon as it can legally be done, and that other modes of punishment, such as hang- ing, whipping, branding, etc., be substituted. The South Carolina Code, it is believed, would furnish a safe guide for our legislation on this subject. I know of no State in which the criminal laws are more faithfully executed, or in which less crime is committed.
In accordance with the request of the General As- sembly before your late adjournment, I offered pardon to all the convicts who were not of the worst class, who would volunteer to enter the military service, making the pardon conditional on the faithful discharge of their duties as soldiers. This was accepted by nearly all to whom it was tendered. They organized into a company and did good service at the Oconee river, where they met the enemy and acted gallantly. I regret to learn, however, that over half of them have since deserted. These will be subject to serve out their time when they can be arrested. There are also several life convicts now within the walls; to keep these and such as may here- after be sentenced for crime committed before the change
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of the mode of punishment, it will be necessary to rebuild so far as to provide accommodations and work- shops for the limited number. One hundred thousand dollars in currency may be sufficient to do this.
In this connection I will further remark that the ex- igencies of the times, in my opinion, require such amend- ments in the penal Code as will make death the punish- ment of robbery, burglary, and horse stealing. To pre- vent our people from taking the execution of the law into their own hands, I recommend that the law be so changed as to authorize the Judges of the Superior Courts to call extra sessions of their respective courts, whenever it is, in their opinion, necessary for the speedy trial of offenders. As many of the jails are insecure and as robber bands rescue their companions in crime, the present provisions for the trial of criminals are too tardy for the vindication of public justice. Whipping should be the punishment inflicted upon those who are convicted of illegal traffic with slaves.
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