USA > Georgia > The history of the State of Georgia from 1850 to 1881, embracing the three important epochs: the decade before the war of 1861-5; the war; the period of Reconstruction, v. 1 > Part 20
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Another incident in connection with Pickens county will show with what consummate tact Gov. Brown dealt with the Union feeling of the northern part of Georgia. At Jasper, Pickens county, where the Union loyalty was very ardent, a United States flag was raised upon a pole, soon after secession, and kept afloat in bold open defiance of Con- federate authority for several weeks. It was just such an incident as could have been injudiciously inflamed into a local breach that would have given infinite trouble during the whole war, and resulted in an
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THE UNITED STATES FLAG IN PICKENS COUNTY.
angry, cancerous and unhealable sore in our very midst. The provoca- tion was very irritating to the people after we had seceded, to have the flag of the repudiated Union floating defiantly, the insulting symbol of a rejected authority, the aggressive emblem of a hostile power seeking our subjection. Appeals upon appeals were made to Gov. Brown to send troops to cut it down. To all of these the astute Executive was wisely deaf. He preferred to let the Union ebullition spend its force. There were very few slaves in that section, and in consequence the slavery sentiment was not strong, while the devotion to the government was very ardent. The veneration for the United States flag was espe- cially earnest. Gov. Brown declined to have the flag cut down. He said:
" By no means ; let it float. It floated over our fathers, and we all love the flag now. We have only been compelled to lay it aside by the injustice that has been practiced under its folds. If the people of Pickens desire to hang it out, and keep it there, let them do so. I will send no troops to interfere with it."
The flag continued to float for a while, until the people became ashamed of this sort of action, and took it down themselves without any disturbance whatever; and the county soon after came in with its troops, and did good service in the Confederate cause.
As a further evidence of Gov. Brown's sagacious diplomacy in deal- ing with this tender-footed. section with its intense Union drift, his conduct in the acceptance and organization of troops may be mentioned. Mr. Davis, the President of the Confederacy, made a requisition upon Gov. Brown for the first Georgia regiment that was called into the Confederate service, to go to Fort Pickens at Pensacola, to aid in its defense. Gov. Brown made a call for troops. Some idea of the boom- ing war fever may be gleaned when it is stated that over 250 companies were tendered for this service, out of which one regiment was to be selected. There was the greatest possible jealousy among the Captains of the different companies, each being anxious to secure a place in the regiment. The companies were selected according to priority of the date of their tender, a list having been kept, and the time when each was offered being carefully noted. The only exception made to this rule was in the single case of the tenth company, which he gave to the corps of Captain Harris of Dahlonega, and the regiment was detained two days at Macon before the organization was completed, waiting for Harris's company to reach there, as the Governor learned they were on their way. The delay was occasioned by the company having to march from Dahlonega to Atlanta. On their arrival the preference was given
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GOV. BROWN'S HAPPY DEALING WITH UNIONISM.
to them in arms, accoutrements and equipments, conceding to them the best of everything. These courtesies were written home to their friends, who were among the good families of Lumpkin county, and they were written by men then in the service of the Confederacy. Their friends, of course, took an interest in them, and their feelings naturally began to be drawn out after them. The result was that when another call was made, Lumpkin county tendered another company.
A company was tendered from Fannin county, away across the Blue Ridge. A place was left for the Fannin men until they had marched to Atlanta, where regiments were being organized, and they were put in in the same manner. This policy was pursued, giving preference to the mountain companies in every case. In this way the Governor soon had one or more companies in the service from each county in that section; and it was not long until the great mass of the people there had changed about, and stood with their friends who had gone into the Confederate service. Some, it is true, remained Union men to the last, and some few gave trouble, but not a great many. Had a different policy have been pursued and coercion been attempted, or any unkind means used against them at the start, there would have been serious trouble with that section of Georgia. As it was by this astute and well-considered course, pursued with tact and persistence, a largo and troublesome Union element was not only neutralized, but absolutely enlisted in the cause heartily. In nothing that happened did Gov. Brown more beneficially use his shrewd practical judgment for the South than in this matter. It was a serious peril and he discerned it at once. But for this masterly management, North and North East Georgia most probably would have become as dangerous a union stronghold as the memorable country of East Tennessee. The value of Gov. Brown's statesmanship in this peril has never been understood or appreciated. But it was a great service, timely, and of an inestimable benefit.
Governor Brown began to purchase arms before the legislature passed the act calling the secession convention, and he pressed the matter vigorously, importing every weapon he could until the firing upon Fort Sumter cut off our means of purchasing them from the Northern States. Even after that time, however, until the blockade was considered a serious obstruction, the importation of arms into the state was contin- ued by Governor Brown. No state in the South did so much in this matter of furnishing armed troops to the Confederacy as Georgia did under Gov. Brown's vigorous administration. Fully thirty regiments were turned over to the Confederate government armed with weapons
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BOATS FOR COAST DEFENSE.
bought by the State of Georgia. And in addition to these, there was a large number of arms retained for our state troops.
Governor. Brown was authorized to purchase some boats for coast defense, which he did immediately, placing this little navy in charge of that heroic old seaman, Commodore Josiah Tattnall, who had resigned from the United States navy and offered his services to his native state. The strong points upon the coast around Brunswick were fortified to the best of our means, and manned with six months' troops.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE BLAZING WAR FEVER OF THE FIRST OF 1861.
The State a Military Camp -Eagerness to Enlist .- Pecuniary Sacrifices .- Miss Hen- rietta Kenan .- " Mrs. Joe Brown's Boys."-Forty Georgia Regiments by October. -Gov. Brown's Marvelous Energy .- The People's Demand for Him to be Gover- nor a Third Time .- The Famous Letter of Themas C. Trice -" No Time for Fool Parties or Swelled-Head Governors." -- The Striking Press Comment .- " The Man for the Times."-The First Georgia Regiment .- The Volunteers' Privilege of Electing Officers .- Gov. Brown's Ardent Speech .- The Great "Corner-Stone." Speech of Alex. Stephens .- The Most Momentous Utterance of the Century .- Its Immeasurable Effect .- The Anti-Slavery World Set against Us by It .- Georgia's Continuance of a Dominant Factorship in the Struggle .- Georgia Troops for Vir- ginia .- Hardeman's Battalion -Military Ardor and Womanly Grief .- The Ogle- thorpo Light Infantry .- Brown and Bartow .- The Rape of The Guns .- A Hot Controversy .- " I Go to Illustrate Georgia."-Col. A. H. Colquitt -Bad Practice of Enlistment.
DURING the year 1861 the military activity in the State of Georgia was incessant and ubiquitous. The commonwealth was one vast re- cruiting camp. The roll of the drum and the stirring notes of the fife resounded from mountain to seaboard. Hill and valley echoed to the tread of armed men gathering, organizing and leaving home and com- fort for the tented field and the soldier's life. It was a wild time-a continuous day of fevered enthusiasm. Men, women and children par- ticipated in the exaltation of patriotic spirit. There was no looking back. A brave people had turned their energies to war, and they went at it as a business. The war spirit boomed like a storm. The rivalry to enlist was universal and unquenchable. Letters poured in upon the Governor seeking commissions for perilous service, until the burden be- came so heavy that he was forced to advertise in the papers that he did not have the clerical labor to even answer. For every requisition of troops there was a fifty-fold proffer of eager soldiers. Such a spirit of willing chivalry as was exhibited was never exceeded in the annals of warfare. And to show the character of the men and organizations, a cavalry company in Rome, the Floyd Cavalry, represented a money property of 8:30,000 among 40 men, while another of 35 men in Mil- ledgeville, the Governor's Horse Guards, stood for two and a half mil- lions of wealth on the tax books.
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PATRIOTIC GENEROSITY OF THE PEOPLE.
All over the State citizens were offering to make pecuniary sacrifice- for the cause. Gov. Brown himself, subscribed and paid one thousand dollars toward the support of the Georgia troops in the service, and determined to appropriate the net income of his farm to the same great cause. His wife devoted her time, as did thousands upon thousands of other noble and delicate women, to making clothing for the soklier .. Miss Henrietta Kenan, of Milledgeville, a daughter of Col. Augustu. H. Kenan, a brilliant, queenly woman, tendered to Gov. Brown in behalf of herself and her mother, for the use of the state, their silver plate of considerable value. The Governor said if it became a necessity he would accept it. A company was organized below Gaddistown, in Fannin County, and named " Mrs. Joe Brown's Boys." In recognition of the compliment, Mrs. Brown, the wife of the Governor, fitted this company with a suit of clothes, purchasing the cloth in Milledgeville and making and sending one to each member. All over the state volun- tary generous patriotism was shown.
Some idea may be formed of how gloriously Georgia responded to the demands upon her manhood, from the fact that up to the first of October, 1861, she had sent forty magnificent regiments to the battle field. This makes a grand fact in her war record. And during this whole seething time Gov. Brown stood the central figure and guiding intelligence, winning opinions that seem almost extravagant, so laud- atory were they of his energy, management and patriotism. His genius for organizing was something marvelous. His cool impetuosity and comprehensive forecast, his wise audacity and calculating, methodica! ability for any occasion, were matters of universal recognition and panegyric. The Southern press united in admiring his peerless admin- istration, while the people and press of Georgia idolized him. In the midst of all of the sweeping war excitement the thoughts of the people, clear in advance of the end of his term began to look to him for the unprecedented distinction of a third term, of gubernatorial service.
Early in March, 1861, a communication appeared from Mr. Thomas C. Trice of Pike county, urging the people of Georgia without distinction of party to re-elect Gov. Brown. The letter of Mr. Trice was a plain, brief, matter-of-fact document, striking right to the point in a few homely words, but it had a wonderful effect. There are times when men make a happy strike by voicing the public thought. Said Mr. Trice in his. homely way:
"I do not believe there is another man in Georgia, who is every way as well calenl.t. ted for Governor as Joseph E. Brown. I do not mean by this that Joe Brown has more
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193
THE MAN FOR THE TIMES.
sense than everybody else. I mean just what I say-that no man in Georgia will make such an Executive as Joe Brown, and therefore I think that he should be re-elected.
" We need just such a plain, sensible, practicable man as Joe Brown is to attend to the Executive business of the State, while we try to make bread at home. It is no time now for fool parties among farmers, nor for swelled-head Governors. We need strict economy at home, and prudent, plain, investigating men to manage our State affairs."
This sententious, blunt-spoken expression of choice started a deluge of responses from all parts of the state endorsing the idea. Mr. Trice awoke to find himself famous as the unexpected announcer of a univer- sal notion. His crisp letter was a formulation of the public wish. Some of the endorsements were in very strong words. One writer declared Gov. Brown, " with the single exception of Jefferson Davis, as first in the affections and confidence of the Southern people," and said that he was wanted in the Senate of the Confederate States. 'At that time, and since, it has been asserted that Gov. Brown aspired to Con- federate office. But a day or two ago in the United States Senate, where Gov. Brown now is, Senator Mahone of Virginia asserted that Gov. Brown desired to be President of the Confederate States. There was not the slightest basis for such an assertion. As will be later seen, Gov. Brown had the honor of a Cabinet position in his grasp. But it is the truth that he had not only no wish for any Confederate office, but under no circumstances would he have given up the place of Governor of Georgia for any position in the gift of the people. His measure of ambition was to serve his state as Executive. Perhaps the most com- prehensive summary at the time of the estimate in which Gov. Brown was held in those days, and at the same time the most vivid picture of the situation, are found in the following editorial from the Georgia Forester, which was universally copied then. The writing was headed, " THE MAN FOR The Times," itself a volume of meaning. The editorial thus discoursed:
" Perhaps there never was a time when strong will, iron nerve and common sense, combined in a single character, were more to be valued, or when they were more needed than in the present crisis. A great revolution, civil and political, is progressing. One of the most powerful governments on earth is fast crumbling to pieces, and in its con- vulsive death-struggles shakes the civilized world. The wildest passions are blazing with infuriate madness from the breasts of thirty millions of people.
" Amid this war of elements, this storm of contending factions, and this whirlwind of evil passions, there is one man who stands like the towering sea-built rock, that breasts, breaks and scatters the angry, surging waves. One who calmly watches the quick, revolving wheel of events, and with daring intrepidity and dignified deliberation con- fronts every issue that is presented, and foils every effort to circumvent his movements or to interrupt his quiet progress. Conscious of the vast responsibilities that rest upon 13
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THE FIRST GEORGIA VOLUNTEER REGIMENT.
him, and appreciating fully the dangers that surround and threaten to engulf the pluri ous ship he commands, with iron nerve and a will that increases in strength and rist in grandeur as he approaches the Scylla and Charybdis of his voyage, right onward }" directs her course and bids defiance to the swelling wave and the lightning flash. Firm in the right, with truth in his heart, and God o'er his head, he acts while others pair to reconnoitre and negotiate ; and wins the victory, while others stop and calculate t1 ... cost of defeat.
"Combining wisdom with patriotism, prudence with nerve, and boldness with justice. and deliberation, Joseph E. Brown is emphatically the man for the times."
These strong words bear the mark of the intensified fervor of the time which called them forth, but they constitute a remarkable tribute for any man to win, and they show the part Joe Brown was enacting and the manner in which he was impressing days when force and equi- poise were the regnant and inexorable qualities for leadership. From this time on the idea of the blunt-phrased Trice for Brown's re-election went on steadily to consummation, over-riding custom with the resistless current of the popular will,-that incarnation of the voice of God as embodied in the voice of the people.
Returning to the current of war progress, the organization of the first regiment for Pensacola at Macon, was a matter of general state interest. Gov. Brown went over and reviewed and addressed the troops. The companies consisted of the Augusta Oglethorpe Light Infantry, Capt. Clark; Augusta Walker Light Infantry, Capt. Camp; Dahlonega Volunteers, Capt. Harris; Bainbridge Independent Volunteers, Capt. Evans; Forsyth Quitman Guards, Capt. Pinckard; Atlanta Gate City Guards, Capt. Ezzard; Perry Southern Rights Guard, Capt. Houser: Newnan Guards, Capt. Hanvey; Sandersville Washington Rifles, Capt. Jones; Columbus South Guards, Capt. Wilkins; Etowah Guards, Capt. Larey; Ringgold Volunteers, Capt. Sprayberry; Macon Brown Infantry, Capt. Smith; and Macon Independent Volunteers, Capt. Adderhold.
The appointment of officers by the Military Department of the Gov- ernment has been the practice of war and of regular armies of profes- sional soldiers; but the privilege of the election of officers by the men they command is the delight of volunteers, the outcome of the spirit of our free institutions, and the very foundation of an efficient volunteer service. It was this privilege, so dear to our volunteer soldiery, that inspired one of the historic controversies that Gov. Brown had after- wards with President Davis. It was under this system of election that all of our State regiments were organized, except the 1st Georgia Regu- lars, which was raised under a special law of the convention. The elec- tion for field officers for the regiment bound for Pensacola, was held
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195
ALEX. STEPHENS' GREAT CORNER-STONE SPEECHI.
at Camp Oglethorpe, as it was appropriately named, and resulted : James N. Ramsay, Colonel; J. O. Clarke, Lieutenant Colonel; and G. 7H. Thompson, Major; Col. Ramsay was a Lieutenant, and beat Cap- tains Jones and Pinckard. The regiment was organized the 3d of April, 1861. On the 5th, Gov. Brown reviewed the troops before a vast assem- blage, and then delivered an eloquent and powerful speech, full of an impassioned feeling unusual with him, that stirred an over-mastering enthusiasm. He retrospected concisely but burningly the causes and progress of the revolution. In his references to their mission, he was especially happy. He said truthfully, " My whole soul is in this move- ment, and my heart swells with emotions I cannot utter." He con- cluded amid a prolonged burst of applause with these solemn words:
" Go then, and may the God of battles go with you, and lead, protect and defend you, till the last foot-print of the invader shall be obliterated from the soil of our common country."
One company of this regiment was the Bainbridge Volunteers, uniformed in coarse flannel shirts, and pantaloons of the coarsest negro cloth, yet representing over a million dollars of wealth. A battalion was organized at the same time, with Capt. Larey as major.
It was but a few days before this that Hon. Alexander H. Stephens delivered a lengthy speech to an immense audience in Savannah, that went over the civilized world. It was a remarkable utterance in many respects, but in nothing more remarkable than in being regarded as one of those advance pioneer expressions of a cardinal idea of new and orig- inal statesmanship, that are only formulated by master minds, and come but once in generations of men. The great eloquence of the man, the wonderful attraction attaching to him in view of his slender physical tenure of life, so disproportioned to his genius, the exalted position he held as Vice-President of the new Confederacy, and the resultant authoritative character of this deliverance, all made the speech a marked one. But the great theory of the address-a bold. immense and revolu- tionary innovation upon the settled convictions and prejudices of man- kind-gave the speech its celebrity, and made it the theme of universal discussion among the ruling minds of the English-speaking language. The address was dubbed the "Corner-Stone " speech, and the grand central idea was that:
"Our new government was founded upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man-that slavery, subordination to the superior race, was his natural and moral condition. This stone, which was rejected by the first builders, 'is become the chief corner stone ' in our new editice."
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THE WORLD SET AGAINST THE SOUTH.
The enunciation of this startling philosophy by Mr. Stephens evoke ! an overwhelming enthusiasm at home, and in the South, and excited a profound feeling North and abroad. It became the representative idea of the Confederacy. It fixed clearly and simply the question of the rev- olution. It was unanimously accepted by the South. It put the civil- ized world upon notice as to what a recognition of the Confederacy meant. It propounded a prodigious issue, moral and political. It pre- cipitated an unappealable arbitrament of the issue which concerned the most humanitarian convictions of mankind upon the essence of human freedom. Georgia again exercised that leading agency in this colossal agitation to which she seemed by some strange destiny fated. To one of her great spirits belonged the crowning honor of originating and formulating in his eloquent and masterly utterances, the very funda- mental thought of the gigantic movement.
Mr. Stephens left nothing unsaid that perfected his great idea. He stated distinctly that the Union just split, rested upon " the fundamen- tally wrong idea that the enslavement of the African was a violation of the laws of nature." He said that it was apprehended that we would " array against us the civilized world." He continued in a magnificent display of eloquence, that drew deafening applause that he "cared not who, or how many they may be, when we stand upon the eternal prin- ciples of truth, we are obliged and must triumph."
The moral effect of this great speech was beyond all calculation. It put squarely against the Confederacy the abolition sentiment of the world. It prevented foreign recognition. It narrowed the issue from the broad domain of political independence founded upon a contract that had been violated, and upon which the sympathy of the world was with us, to the untenable foothold of the intrinsic righteousness and supreme good policy of slavery, in which civilized mankind stood immutably against us. The slavery question had been a large one in the agitation, but it simply represented a greater question of self-gov- ernment. This speech of the Vice-President of the Confederacy claim- ing slavery to be a divinely originated institution based in truth, and the soul of the new government, set it up as the vital question of the conflict. It changed the battle-ground, shifted the war-flag, substituted a new slogan, and put us in isolation. It was an heroic thing, and it worked to the great scheme of Providence for human freedom. And it continued Georgia as the decisive factor of the revolution.
On the 13th of April, 1861, the siege of Fort Sumter ended by the surrender of Major Anderson. On the 15th of April, President Lincoln
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A WILD TIME OF PATRIOTISM AND PARTING.
made his call for 75,000 men to suppress the rebellion. On the 18th of April, Virginia seceded from the Union. On the 19th of April, Presi- dent Davis telegraphed Gov. Brown for two or three companies to go immediately to Norfolk, Virginia, and inquired when he could have them ready. Gov. Brown went to the telegraph office in Milledgeville and telegraphed for volunteer companies in Macon, Griffin and Colum- bus, asking each Captain whether his company would like to go, and when they could be ready. The responses in every case were: " We would like to go; how much time can you give us?" He replied, "You must start to-morrow." While some of them said they would need more time, yet rather than lose their place in the battalion, they would go thus hastily. In twenty-four hours the battalion was on the cars in motion for Norfolk, and they were said to have arrived there about the first troops that reached the place, and a little before the Virginia troops arrived at the sea-board of their own state. This inci- dent will show the eager war spirit of the people, and Gov. Brown's swift celerity in answering requisitions. The four companies forming this battalion were the Macon Floyd Rifles, Capt. Thos. Hardeman; Macon Volunteers, Capt. Smith; Columbus City Light Guard, Capt. P. H. Colquitt, and a Griffin company under Capt. Doyal. Col. Thomas Hardeman, ex-member of Congress, was made the commander of this gallant corps, and he and they did some of the finest service per- formed in the war.
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