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 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
26th Regiment, Colonel W. H. Atkinson.
27th
L. B. Smith.
28th
T. J. Warthen.
29th
66
W. J. Young.
30th
D. J. Bailey.
31st
C. A. Evans.
32d
Geo. P. Harrison, Jr.
33d
A. Littlefield.
34th
J. A. W. Johnson.
35th
E. L. Thomas.
36th
66
J. A. Glenn.
37th
.
A. F. Rudler.
38th
66
66
George W. Lee.
39th
66
J. J. McConnell.
40th
66
66
Abda Johnson.
41st
66
C. A. McDaniel.
42d
66
R. Henderson.
43d
66
- Skid Harris.
44th
«
66
R. A. Smith.
45th
66
Thomas Hardeman.
46th
66
P. H. Colquitt.
47th
G. W. M. Williams.
48th
Wm. Gibson.
٢
24S
WAAR MEASURES IN GEORGIA.
49th Regiment, Colonel A. J. Lane.
50th
W. R. Manning.
51st
66
W. M. Slaughter.
52d 66
Wier Boyd.
53d
6
L. T. Doyal.
54th 66
C. H. Way.
55th 66
C. B. Harkie.
56th
66 E. P. Watkins.
57th
W. Barkaloo.
59th
$6
Jack Brown.
60th
W. H. Stiles.
While our Georgia coast was constantly threatened, the summer had witnessed comparative quiet on account of our warm climate. The fall brought more activity. The Brigadier General in command, H. W. Mercer, had made strenuous efforts to get Savannah and other points properly entrenched and fortified. He had called upon the Confederate authorities for assistance, which was refused. He had then appealed to Gov. Brown, who issued a proclamation asking the planters to promise a portion of their slaves for such work. The response was meager. And when the legislature met the necessity for labor to complete the defenses of Savannah was reported to the body.
Gov. Brown's message gave to the General Assembly the military work of the year in Georgia. Of the five millions appropriation $2,081,004 had been expended: 8,000 state troops had been employed and supported for six months; the state's quota of Confederate war tax, $2,494,112.11, had been paid; a state armory had been established in the Penitentiary which was turning out 125 good arms a month; and arrangements had been made in Virginia for the manufacture of salt. The Governor recommended measures for the prevention of the distilla- tion of grain; provision for soldiers' families; the seizure of factories and tanneries to furnish clothing for the soldiers; a tax upon cotton to prevent its production; the continuance of state military; and the appropriation of three millions for military purposes.
Governor Brown sent a special message to the General Assembly upon the subject of conscription. The' Confederate Congress had passed an additional act, extending conscription to embrace all men between 35 and 45 years, and compelling them to enter old organiza- tions until they were filled to a maximum number. Gov. Brown had immediately written to Mr. Davis that he should not permit enrollment under the new law the few weeks until the Legislature met and acted
£
249
THE GREAT CONSCRIPTION ISSUE.
on the subject, as it would practically disband his state militia, and urged Mr. Davis to call for the troops he wished as he was authorized to do under the old laws. His special message furnished to the Legis- lature a copy of his letter to Mr. Davis, and proceeded to discuss-the- whole subject in a lengthy paper of surpassing ability, presenting the issue whether Georgia, ready to furnish more than her quota of men and means, should submit to a method of enlistment that degraded her soldiers and violated the very state sovereignty for which the war was inaugurated. He covered the ground embraced in his correspondence with Mr. Davis, a summary of which has been given before in this volume.
This clear vigorous message created a profound sensation and a con- flicting variety of comment. There was little difference of opinion upon the illegality of conscription. But there was a decided conflict upon the policy of insisting upon state rights and constitutional re- strictions in the existing emergencies of the war. And there was also a fixed diversity of view upon the policy of conscription. Some of the ablest men in the State thought with Governor Brown, among them the Stephens brothers, Gen. Toombs, ex-Gov. Johnson and others. The Cobbs, Mr. Hill, and others were for sustaining conscription. A case was made before Judge Thomas and another before Judge Iverson L. Harris, to test the constitutionality of conscription. Judge Thomas decided it unconstitutional, and Judge Harris sustained its constitution- ality. Both decisions were able and elaborate. The case decided by Judge Harris of Asa O. Jeffers conscript, versus John Fair, enrolling officer, was carried to the Supreme Court, and the decision of the con- stitutionality of conscription affirmed, Judge Jenkins delivering the opinion. The court held, however, that the officers of the State were not subject to conscription.
A warm discussion of the matter was precipitated in the General Assembly by a message from Gov. Brown on the 13th of November, 1862, communicating the fact that an incursion of Federal negro soldiers had been made in Camden county, and property destroyed and ladies insulted. Col. Henry Floyd, commanding the Camden militia, asked leave to call out the militia to defend the county. Doubting his authority under the Conscription Act, and its approval by the Georgia Supreme Court to call out the militia, Gov. Brown requested the legis- lature to give direction in the matter and instruct him whether as Gov- ernor he had the right to use the militia to defend our imperiled homes. He stated in this message that the decision of our Supreme
250
LINTON STEPHENS' GREAT SPEECHI.
Court had been made under heavy outside pressure, and the counsel on both sides had agreed in their individual opinion that the decision should be made as it was made.
The Senate promptly passed a resolution authorizing the Governor to call out the militia. The resolution was immediately transmitted to the House and there occasioned an able and warm debate. Strange to say there was opposition to the resolution. Judge Cochran moved a substitute to inform the Secretary of War and ask help, and in the mean- time to call out the militia. Judge Cabaniss moved the reference of the whole matter to the military committee, which was done. On the 14th the military committee reported, adopting the part of Judge Cochran's substitute that called on the Secretary of War, but instead of authorizing the call of the militia, in the meantime resolving to take immediate action upon bills then pending. The discussion that ensued upon this matter continued for days, and was marked by a good deal of bitterness.
Judge Linton Stephens made a speech of great power, taking strong ground against the Conscription Act. He showed that conscription had been put upon the country " from no necessity, from no conviction of necessities, but from premeditation and deliberation." This speech was, perhaps, the finest ever made by this sinewy debater, and made a profound impression. He defended Governor Brown from the charge made by Judge Cabaniss, that the Governor had uttered a calumny upon the supreme court, a charge showing the heat that was pervading the discussion. The interesting question was also sprung that the decision of the court was not binding upon the legislature, which was a coordi- nate power of the government. Mr. Norwood replied to Mr. Stephens with great vigor and ability. The debate went on for days. Some idea may be formed of the interest it excited and the intensity of feeling that existed from the fact, that at the election for Confederate States Senator on the 18th of November the issue was openly raised by Mr. Whittle as to the position of the candidates on the conscript law and the decision of the supreme court. This was after the first ballot, which had resulted in: H. V. Johnson, 84 votes; James Jackson, 59; R. Toombs, 24; Howell Cobb, 6; T. R. R. Cobb, 12; Alfred Iverson, 3; A. H. Chap- pell, 1; Wm. Dougherty, 1; J. W. Lewis, 2; J. E. Brown, 1; A. R. Wright, 1; H. V. M. Miller, 2.
None of the gentlemen voted for had been put in nomination but H. V. Johnson and James Jackson. When Mr. Whittie sprung the con- scription issue, Mr. Vason remonstrated against such an issue. Mr.
251
H. V. JOHNSON ELECTED CONFEDERATE STATES SENATOR.
Whittle said that he understood Gov. Johnson to believe the conscrip- tion act unconstitutional, but he would support the law and the administration. Judge Jackson and Mr. Cobb favored the law and sustained the administration. Mr. J. H. R. Washington and Mr. Candler both thought the discussion inappropriate, while Mr. Stephens protested against the proceeding as extraordinary and out of place, and calculated to convert the legislative hall into a hustings and to draw party lines. The second ballot gave the election of Herschell V. Johnson, he receiv- ing 111 votes; Jackson, 40; Dougherty, 24, and Toombs, 14.
The House appears never to have acted on the Camden county matter. The joint committee on the State of the Republic made majority and minority reports on the conscript law. The majority report was pre- sented by Judge E. A. Cochran, chairman, and declared that the Con- federate government could not raise armies by compulsion, only through requisitions on the states, leaving each state to exercise such compulsion as may be necessary in her own case and to appoint officers; and all laws of the Confederate Congress using direct compulsion without requisition and impairing the right of the states to choose officers were unconsti- tutional. The majority report, however, declared that Georgia would furnish her just quota of troops and leave the conscription acts undis- turbed, reserving such rightful remedies as may be demanded by future emergencies.
Judge E. G. Cabaniss presented the minority report, signed by him- self and J. A. L. Lee, S. L. Barber, W. J. Reese, Z. B. Hargrove, Geo. S. Black, Peter E. Love, O. L. Smith, L. D. Carlton and Geo. T. Barnes. This report declared the Conscript Acts constitutional, recommended acquiescence in the decision of the Supreme Court, and that the Gov- ernor countermand all orders suspending the execution of the Conscript Act. These reports were discussed in both houses by the ablest men, and numerous substitutes were offered, but the legislature adjourned on the 13th of December, 1862, without taking any action, to convene on the 4th Wednesday in April. The General Assembly passed acts limit- ing the cultivation of cotton to three acres to a hand; appropriating 8500,000 to supply the people with salt; $100,000 for cotton cards; 8545,000 to obstruct our rivers; $400,000 for the Georgia Relief and Hospital Association; $1,500,000 for clothing for our soldiers; $2,500,- 000 for the support of the indigent widows and families of deceased or disabled soldiers; $1,000,000 for a military fund; $300,000 to remove indigent white non-combatants from any part of the State threatened with invasion. This aggregated over six millions appropriated for war
252
ASSUMING THE CONFEDERATE WAR DEBT.
purposes. The Governor was authorized to raise two regiments for home defense, and to impress hands to perfect the defenses around Sa- vannah. The General Assembly further passed a resolution that " Savannah should never be surrendered, but defended street by street and house by house, until if taken, the victors' spoils should be alone a heap of ashes."
Just before the adjournment of the legislature, Governor Brown sent in a message urging that some action be taken to secure to our volun- teers the right which they were seeking to elect their own officers in vacancies occurring in regiments already in service. But nothing was done.
Gov. Brown convened the legislature by special proclamation, on the 25th of March, 1863. This was done to urge that the law be altered allowing the planters to cultivate three acres of cotton to the hand. The great question of the revolution was one of BREAD, and the farmers must produce bread and not cotton. In his message this matter and others were discussed. The project was mooted at that time of the states assuming the Confederate war debt, and several states, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina had agreed to do this. Gover- nor Brown opposed the policy with wonderful acumen, taking ground for giving aid to the Confederate government by direct taxation. This measure occasioned a heavy struggle in the General Assembly. There were majority and minority reports and debates and substitutes innu- merable, but finally a bill authorizing the guarantee of the bonds of the Confederate States on Georgia's proportionate share of $200,000,- 000 was defeated by four votes.
The fund of two and a half millions for the indigent families of sol- diers was distributed between the two sessions, and the distribution reported at the March session. The figures are interesting and pathet- ically demonstrative of the devotion of our people to the cause and the ravages of that great war among our patriotic population. The vast total of the unfortunate beneficiaries of this generous fund was 84,119. Of this terrible number of war indigents, 45,718 were children, and 22,637 kins-women of poor living soldiers; 8.492 were orphans, and 4,003 widows of deceased and killed soldiers, and 550 were helpless soldiers, disabled in service. These are appalling figures for less than two years' warfare for a single state of the Union, and they testify with over- whelming emphasis to the awful magnitude and destructiveness of the struggle. No words can bear such impressive witness to the deadly drift and extent of that revolution as these simple statistics.
GEORGIA'S DESPERATE STRESS.
- 253
The plain, unvarnished truth is that the pressure of that day was something desperate. Georgia had three-fourths of her voting popu- lation fighting in other States, who were clamoring for proper clothing and food. Her own borders were threatened by a merciless enemy. And poverty and destitution were raging among her people. The orders and appeals with which the papers were filled, will afford some conception of the stress. There were calls for troops, orders for desert- ers, appeals upon appeals for clothing and shoes, proclamations doling out salt by the half bushel, savage prohibitions of whiskey distillation, impressments of negroes for fortifications, begging for hospital funds, lists of. dead and wounded and diseased soldiers. It was a dolorous and incessant activity. Every heart and every hand were busily at work, thinking, toiling, straining in the single, overshadowing cause of brutal war.
Gov. Brown devoted himself with an herculean and grandly self- abnegating zeal to the war. A beautiful incident is related of him, that touches even at this long day, from its occurrence. He went up to his farm in Cherokee for a day, in March, 1863. A gentleman on officia. business followed him. As he neared the farm, the gentleman overtook a large number of wagons and carts, and foot passengers, going the same way as himself. When he arrived at his destination he found a host of other vehicles and people, and Gov. Brown in person, engaged at his corn crib in the gratuitous distribution of some four thousand dollars' worth of corn and shucks to the poor people of the county in proportion to the size of their families and their wants. These people receiving his generous bounty were the families of the soldiers from Cherokee county, and he was giving to them every bushel of his sur- plus corn. Said the narrator of this incident :
" The sight was a most grateful one to our traveler, who came back to Atlanta, im- pressed with the double conviction of Gov. Brown being not only a good Governor, but a good man. The grateful tears which he saw in the eyes of the good women of Chero- kee who were being made the recipients of Gov. Brown's patriotic liberality, made an impression upon him which he says will be lasting, and which has taught him not to be chary in his charities in the future."
It is little to be wondered at that Gov. Brown had gained such a hold upon the masses of the people in that dreadful time. He not only drove straight to practical success in every measure he urged or attempted, but he gave practical daily evidence of his sympathy with the wants and sufferings of the unfortunate. He showed the most subtle perception of the popular wishes, and at the same time he boldly
254
GEN. LEE'S TRIBUTE TO GEN. T. R. R. COBB.
ignored the trammels and circumlocution of official red tape. Every controversy he had with any authority or power but strengthened him with the masses, and was a battle in their interest. In the Camden . county matter, he was protecting the coast, and the delay and oppo- sition of the General Assembly but magnified his own daring and eager readiness to go to the aid of the alarmed. His fight against conscrip- tion was for the two-fold purpose of vindicating the cherished sover- ignty of the State, and assuring to our volunteers a recognition of their rights and manhood. Add to all this, unquestioned championship of the people's wishes and interests, his boldness and common-sense genius, and then cap the whole with his unsolicited devotion of his means to a generous charity, and it would have been a marvel if he had not clutched the public heart with a resistless grasp.
During the year 1862, the Georgia troops suffered very much. Gen- erals Toombs, Lawton, and Ranse Wright were all wounded, and Col. C. A. McDaniel of the 41st Georgia, and Gen. T. R. R. Cobb were killed. The death of Gen. Cobb was the occasion of the following beautiful and feeling letter from Gen. Lec.
" CAMP NEAR FREDERICKSBURG, - Dec. 18, 1862.
"Gen. Howell Cobb. General, I beg leave to express my deep sympathy in your great sorrow. Your noble and gallant brother has met a soldier's death, and God grant that this army and our country may never be called upon to mourn so great a sacrifice.
"Of his merits, his lofty intellect, his accomplishments, his professional fame, and above all his Christian character, I need not speak to you who knew him so intimately and well. But as a patriot and soldier death has left a deep gap in the army, which his military aptitude and skill render it hard to fill. In the battle of Fredericksburg he won an immortal fame for himself and his brigade. Hour after hour he held his posi- tion in front of our batteries, while division after division of the enemy was hurled against him. Hle announced the determination.of himself and his men never to leave their post until the enemy was beaten, and with unshaken conrage and fortitude he kept his promise.
" May God give consolation to his afflicted family, and may the name and fame of the Christian statesman and soldier be cherished as a bright example and holy remembrance. " With great esteem, your obt. svt.,
"R. E. LEE."
Such a letter as this from the moderate and pure-souled Lee, using words so strong, is a crown of honor worthy of all esteem. Consider- ing the source and the terms it is as high a panegyric as any man ever won. Less for its beauty, great as that is, than its inspiration and truth, should it be valued. The two men, Bartow and Cobb, were a glorious brace of martyrs that Georgia gave to the cause of Southern
. :
B. M. Nice
255
GOVERNOR BROWN AND BEN HILL.
liberty, and it was an ominous incident that these two men, who thus grandly yet uselessly perished, were the two most representative cham- . pions and zealous enthusiasts in the Disunion movement. Purer men never gave up life in any cause.
It was at this time that Hon. Benjamin H. Hill became prominent as the congressional prop of the Confederate administration. And from this time on no man in the Confederate Congress was more potential with that administration. Georgia, in Mr. Hill, resumed her influence in the direction of the revolution. Closely linked to Mr. Davis in sym- pathy, a constant and devoted personal friend and official adviser, entrusted with frequent and important missions of delicacy, a brilliant and earnest defender and exponent of the Confederate policy, through the remaining two lurid years of the struggle, Mr. Hill and Mr. Davis stood in a warm cooperation with each other. Georgia could not evade her inevitable destiny of leadership in this war. Mr. Hill came to Georgia and made to the Legislature a magnificent speech in favor of conscription, and in it he handled Gov. Brown with the gloves off.
It has been curious how interwoven have been the political careers of Governor Brown and Mr. Hill, sometimes antagonistically, and then in a remarkable harmony. When Gov. Brown first ran for Governor it was Mr. Hill whose glittering oratory, his homely but magnetic common sense vanquished. It was Mr. Hill's burning utterances that vitalized the next campaign of Governor Brown, though he was not the figure- head as before. In Reconstruction days Brown and Hill locked shields in a famous encounter of brains. And to-day, in warm accord, they focalize the celebrity due to two masterful senators of the United States, splendid complements to each other's rare and most different endowments. In that day of conscription, Hill, representing the Davis policy, came at Brown with hard blows. Brown struck back as he always strikes, with vigor. And he rather obtained the advantage of Mr. Hill, who made the mistake of giving his argument a personal direction. The flaw in Mr. Hill's logic was that he voted against the conscription in Congress, which he was so ably advocating, and Gov. Brown used it unsparingly. No man ever had a keener perception of the weak places in the armor of his foemen than Gov. Brown, nor drove the hammer upon the flaws more mercilessly.
The adjournment of the legislature without any action upon con- scription left Gov. Brown uninstructed. He had refused to let his militia officers be enrolled as conscripts, the Supreme Court having held that they were not subject, and the elamor was very boisterous
256
GOVERNOR BROWN ORDERS THE MILITIA OFFICERS OUT.
The opposition press rang with abuse of his favoritism to his pets. He took the storm of abuse with his wonted coolness, and soon gave his abusers a dose of practical punishment that created a lively clatter. Gen. Beauregard was commanding the Southern coast. Savannah was threatened in February, and Gov. Brown was called on for help. It was a rare inspiration, blending a grim patriotism with a certain rich- flavored humor, that led the Governor to order his whole legion of militia officers, from the Generals down to the humblest company rank, into service at Savannah. The order was perfect in its lively details. It transformed Major Generals into Captains of companies, turned Brigadiers into Lieutenants and Captains and Lieutenants into pri- vates. If any officers refused to go, their exemption from conscription was incontinently withdrawn. This novel order commanded immediate service, and it concluded with these inimitable words:
" The high character, intelligence and military training of the persons of whom this force will be composed, justifies the expectation entertained by the Commander-in- Chief, that they will not only render the State the most effective service in this hour of trial, but that they will display an intrepidity of valor upon the battle field, which will make them invincible, and will satisfy all that injustice has been done the militia officers of Georgia by those who have doubted their willingness to sacrifice their lives, if need be, in the defense of their State."
This order created a wonderful sensation in the State. Even the opposition press gave in to its felicity and relished and approved it. . A grin, so to speak, spread over the State, that added a tinge of relief to the impending horrors of invasion and the darkness of a really grave situation. The papers commented upon it spicily, and Governor Brown with a stern complacency surveyed the conclusive effect of his happy order. Men that had reviled him for shielding favorites from conscription, frankly owned that they were mistaken, and that he had shown that he was actuated by an honest desire to maintain the con- stitutional rights of the State. The Macon Telegraph, a persistent opposer of Gov. Brown, declared that it was a good conception of his, that it would give new vigor to the volunteer movement, and that the example of officers shouldering their guns and taking place in the ranks as privates, would stimulate the spirit of self-sacrifice in all classes. And Mr. Clisby, the editor of that paper, with a fine humor that belonged to him, gave a vivid account of the effect of the order upon the astounded militia officers. The Confederate authorities had conceded to Gov. Brown the exemption of these militia officers from conscription, and they were taken aback at this reduction in rank and
257
TORY TROUBLE IN NORTH-EAST GEORGIA.
summary injection into service. They obeyed promptly, however, and reported in Savannah, but the emergency passed and they were sent back home subject to recall if required.
At this time also began trouble in the north-eastern counties of the State, Rabun, Union, Gilmer and adjoining counties, that continued more or less to the end of the war. At the beginning there was some Union feeling in that section that threatened formidable resistance to secession, and which as we have shown, was quieted by Governor Brown's admirable tact. That section in the latter part of 1862 and the first part of 1863 became the refuge of a band of deserters and Union sympathizers, who organized a rebellion on their own account against Confederate authority and the peace of the State. They plun- dered about generally. Gov. Brown issued his proclamation outlawing these men, and sent Maj. Galt and Maj. Wynn, commanding detach- ments of reserve infantry and cavalry, to break up the mischief. These officers seized some 50 of the ring leaders, headed by a deserter named Jeff Anderson, returned some 200 men directly to their commands, and hustled out fully 2,000 absentees.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.