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 28
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91,562 to 60,168. The State road paid in to the treasury, $1,650,000. The public debt had grown to $14,149,410. The Bank capital of the State had enhanced to 870,613,048. An income tax had been imposed which showed $15, 737,479 of profits on business in the state, yielding a tax of $683,235. But the most striking and honorable statistical fact- placing Georgia in a position of unequaled distinction for the patriot- ism and valor of its people, and its guiding agency in the war, was her greater loss of soldiers than any other Southern State. The Second Auditor at Richmond, published the following statement of soldiers' deaths to December 31, 1863: Georgia, 9,504; Alabama, 8,987; North Carolina, 8,261; Texas, 6,377; Virginia, 5,943; Mississippi, 5,36; South Carolina, 4,511; Louisiana, 3,039; Tennessee, 2,849; Arkansas, 1,948; Florida, 1,119.
It was during this year that two small but most conspicuously brill- iant military exploits took place on Georgia soil, the fame of which a just and appreciative history will not permit to die. The raid of Streight the Federal cavalryman into Georgia, with a splendid band of 1,800 dar- ing and thoroughly equipped troopers was thwarted, and the whole command captured at Rome by the unparalleled Forrest with but 600 men. Following them night and day, assaulting them at every stand, he finally compelled a surrender at the very threshold of the picturesque little mountain city, and saved the state some dreadful devastation.
The other equally historic and glorious incident was the repulse of a fleet of seven Federal monitors and gunships by the intrepid little gar- rison of Fort McAllister, at the mouth of the Ogeechee river on the Georgia coast, in March, 1863, under command of Capt. Geo. W. Ander- son. Major John B. Gallie, the commandant, was killed at the begin- ning of the engagement. This was the seventh attempt that had been made to take this Fort, a simple earthwork with sand parapets, all of which had failed. This was the last and crowning effort. The garrison resisted an eight hours' desperate bombardment with guns, throwing as large as 15-inch shot and shell, and finally drove off the attacking ex- pedition crippled and whipped. The papers rang with the splendid achievement, and the General commanding complimented it in a general order, directing the garrison to inscribe on their flags, " Fort McAllister, March 3rd, 1863."
The history of war may be searched in vain to find two more heroic and dauntless achievements than these matchless instances of skill and valor. They were unsurpassable exhibitions of chivalrie courage and sublime patriotism.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE FIRST HALF OF THE MOST THRILLING YEAR OF GEORGIA ANNALS, 1864. -
Georgia becomes the Crucial Battle Ground of the War .- Virginia and Georgia .- Georgia the Hope of the Confederacy .- Gov. Brown Convenes the Legislature .- His Great Message .- A Document that Vivified the Confederacy .- Extraordinary Press Comment .- The Focal Southern Governor .- It Evokes, also, Savage Censure .- Linton Stephens' Resolutions and Memorable Speech on Gov. Brown's Line .- Gov. Brown Endorsed .- The Repeal of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Recommended .- Alec Stephens' Strong Speech .- Protest against the Resolutions .- Linton Stephens' Famous Adjustment Resolutions .- Gov. Brown's Fixedness .- Special Message that the Legislature must act or he would Re-convene it Immediately .- The Grapple of Joe Johnston and Sherman .- Resaca .- Tanners Ferry .- The Anguish of Leaving Homes to the Enemy .- Cassville .- New Hope Church .- The Dead Lock .- Kenne- saw and its Twenty-three Savage Days of Fight .- Over the Chattahoochee .- Joe Johnston Removed, and the End Begun .- The Protest against Removal .- Davis' Misgivings .- The Anomaly of Johnston's Career .- Georgia Adhering to her Fate of Supreme Agency in the War.
THE year 1864 was a vivid and memorable one in Georgia annals, the most dramatic, thrilling and eventful in her century and a half of august history. From the first to the last week of this fateful twelve months there was a continued succession of throbbing and vital incidents that involved the fate of the Confederacy and the destiny of the conti- nent. The State became the crucial point of the war, the decisive battle ground of the conflict, in strange pursuance of that mysterious fortune that seemed to make her the foremost instrumentality of the revolution. Both in civil and soldierly matters she was the scene, during this salient year, of controlling occurrences that shaped and settled the struggle. With the result of events in Georgia in 1864 the war was practically ended. The conclusion was clearly in sight from the smitten and smouldering wreck of our noble State-ravaged, battle- charred and desolated out of recognition. The bloody swath through this State of four hundred miles, from the Tennessee line to the ocean border, quartering the Confederacy, and destroying the Confederate base of supplies, left the Southern cause crushed, quivering and doomed. The Georgia campaign made the Virginia campaign simply a question of time, after which the end was at hand, close, final, deadly.
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269
GEORGIA THE HOPE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
The difference between Virginia and Georgia, in their relative situa- tions and importance in the anatomy of the revolution, was very striking. Virginia was a gate-way on the border. Georgia was the very vitals of the Confederacy. When Vicksburg fell it was a gloomy halving of the young republic of the South. Georgia became the heart of the cause. This State was the main source of grain supplies. It was also the chief manufactory of military stores, Atlanta being the grand center of production and distribution. Back in the supposed interior point of safety, the thousands of Federal prisoners in our hands, held under a Federal policy of non-exchange, were huddled at the famous Anderson- ville stockades in South-Western Georgia. But the living, dominant spark of Confederate existence and power lay in the grand army, one . of the two that propped up the super-incumbent and massive yet tottering cause of Southern nationality. This army reposed on Georgia soil, gathering its wounded energies for the last, conclusive, desperate ordeal.
The war was at length focalized in Virginia and Georgia, and the crucial point was Georgia. The loss of Georgia was not only the destruction of one army, but it was the cutting off the source of subsistence and munitions for the other army, and therefore the more important prize. The operations everywhere save at these points were about ended. The Mississippi Valley was practically gone, Tennessee, Missouri and Ken- tucky were riveted, beyond hope, back to the Union, and in the other states resistance was barren. The unspeakable importance of the cam- paign in Georgia can be imagined, and the vital value of the Southern army here in that vivid year can be but faintly estimated.
The hope of the Confederacy rested upon the commonwealth of Georgia, and the year 1864 records the most romantic, sustained and versatile passage of arms on a large scale with the mightiest results known to modern history. As the year 1863 broke in gloom, so the year 1864 began for the South in the same darkness. After the bat- tle of Missionary Ridge our army lay crushed at Dalton. Bragg was forced by public opinion to yield its leadership. Gen. Hardee took temporary command, but in the grand spirit of patriotism, as morally heroic as it was unexampled, he declined the permanent generalship. That incomparable organizer, Gen. Joe Johnston, was placed over the shattered force, and the work of rehabilitation proceeded thoroughly under his superb direction. The Federal head-quarters were at Chatta- nooga, and a magnificent army was organized there, ready when the " tugging leash " was slipped to precipitate upon the devoted soil of
270
WARM COMPLIMENTS TO GOVERNOR BROWN.
Georgia the glory and the woe of this last trial of the stupendous revolution.
The whole country pulsed with the thrill of the impending storni. The authorities at Richmond and Washington looked with equal and fierce anxiety to the clash. The South gazed in breathless suspense. The people of Georgia braced their unquailing and intrepid energies for the encounter, and their dauntless Executive, composed and self- reliant, masterfully met the emergency with every resource of a power- ful state and every sympathy of its gallant citizens. Gov. Brown called the legislature together to convene Thursday, the 10th of March, 1864. He sent in to that body the best message of his Executive career. It was a genuine inspiration. He incarnated in its glowing sentences the central idea of constitutional government and the very genius of South- ern heroism. It fell upon the Confederacy with the vivifying potency of a blended slogan of battle and of law. From every part of the Con- federacy came back the answering echo of encomium and approval. Said the Selma (Ala.) Reporter, "From the sea of blood whose fell waves threaten to sweep away the guerdons that encircle the Ark of our Covenant of Freedom, there rises, in the person of Joseph E. Brown of Georgia, a nucleus around which a summoned resistance will aggre- gate which it were madness to oppose."
Said the Mississippian : "The country, the PEOPLE are with Gov. Brown in sentiment. We hear it on steamboats, in cars, in hotels, in private and public circles." Said the Charleston Mercury : "Our sym- pathies are in unison with the whole course of Governor Brown's argu- ment." Said the Petersburg Express : "The Governor of Georgia is devoted heart and soul to the cause of the South." Said the Memphis Appeal: "Such action by the Sovereign States is at this time needed to prevent usurpation, centralization of power, and preserve intact the personal liberty guaranteed to us."
These extracts, taken at random from the mass of contemporaneous expression of opinion out of the State, will give an idea of Gov- ernor Brown's prominence in the South, and how he loomed above the whole file of Sonthern Governors in that animated day. His influence went out beyond state bounds. He was the acknowledged leader and exponent of the large element of citizens in his way of thinking. In ' the State the majority of the press was against him, as curiously enough it has been during the greater portion of Gov. Brown's long and successful public career. But he received from a powerful minority of the State press some striking commendation upon his message.
271
GOVERNOR BROWN'S WAR MESSAGE.
The Columbus Sun, Augusta Chronicle, Atlanta Intelligencer, Atlanta' Confederacy, and Milledgeville Union all endorsed the Governor in strong terms.
The message covers forty-five pages of the journals of the General Assembly, and .a perusal of its burning sentences and unanswerable arguments will explain the profound sensation it created over the . South. The message recommended some additional war measures, and then entered into a fervid, powerful discussion of two great subjects. One was the passage by the Confederate Congress of an enlarged con- scription act, enrolling citizens from 17 to 50 years of age, and of an act suspending the writ of habeas corpus. The other subject was the principle involved in the war, and the conduct of the struggle by the North. These two vital and gigantic public themes were treated with a vigor and exhaustiveness, with an ability and energy, that could not be surpassed, and the overmastering document fell upon the public mind . with tremendous effect. Some parts of this stern, dominant paper are magnificent expressions of sentiment and thought clothed in lofty language. There pervades the whole document a sublimated spirit, born of the extraordinary times, and as exalted as the majestic subjects discussed. There was a high and sustained power in it that showed a wonderful ability wrought up to a sublime exercise of its strength. The seemingly extravagant encomiums of the press out of the state given before will demonstrate how able minds regarded this remarkable state paper. It was at once a logical protest against cen- tralized despotism in friend and foe, and a masterful plea for the sanctity of our cause.
Looking at the message, with its ability proportioned to the subject, and this is saying much, it was a rare exhibition of discernment and courage, a profound and philosophical discussion of the principles of constitutional liberty and a bold, timely admonition of statesmanship. An Alabama paper voiced the public estimate in these strong words:
"It is a majestic pyramid of impregnable facts, built with the skill of a scholar and a logician-a pyramid whose base is as broad as the sovereignty of the states, with an apex as lofty as the ambition of all lovers of constitutional freedom. It is an epitome of the war in its vital aspects, and luminous with a grasp of practical statesmanship adequate to the salvation of the Confederacy, provided its admonitions and teachings find a lodgment in the popular mind at the South."
Perhaps the most valuable personal tribute to this message was the one paid by Gen. Toombs, who wrote to Gov. Brown a characteristic and lengthy letter, presenting some additional arguments in its sup-
272
LINTON STEPHENS' GREAT SPEECHI.
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port. In this letter he tendered Gov. Brown his " sincere thanks for the ability, firmness and success with which you have supported the cause of personal liberty." And he went on with these strong words:
"Among your many and well-merited claims upon the confidence and gratitude of the people of Georgia and of the whole Confederacy for your great, valuable and unwearied services in the cause of Southern liberty, none rank higher or endure longer than this noble defense of the most valuable of all human rights."
The message also elicited some very harsh and opposing criticism, and there was a warm diversity of opinion upon the policy of question- ing the acts of the Confederate authorities in the desperate pressure of the conflict. Some very hard names were applied to Gov. Brown, " dis- organizer," "madman," " marplot," etc. Hon. Linton Stephens intro- duced resolutions enforcing Gov. Brown's views. The debate was able and earnest. Outside gentlemen made speeches at night. Howell Cobb, A. H. Kenan and Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi made strong, eloquent addresses in support of the Acts of the Confederate administration. Alexander H. Stephens delivered a lengthy and elab- orate speech upon the line of Gov. Brown's message. Linton Stephens made perhaps the strongest speech on the subject-an enunciation of great power and intensity, in which he uttered with nervous fire the memorable and ringing expression, "I AM FOR THE CAUSE AND NOT FOR DYNASTIES !" The Augusta Chronicle is responsible for the statement that the lobby of the Legislature was filled with prominent administra- tion officials opposing Gov. Brown's policy. The resolutions passed by a majority of three in the House and eight in the Senate. They declared the act of Congress suspending habeas corpus unconstitutional, recommended repeal by the next Congress and obedience to the act until repealed. A protest was entered against these resolutions, signed by 43 members, among them Thos. G. Lawson, M. Dwinell, J. D. Mat- . thews, Thos. Hardeman, Jr., D. P. Hill, W. S. Holt, W. O. Fleming and others. The protest was based upon the ground that the law should be acquiesced in until decided unconstitutional by the courts.
Georgia thus led off in the protest against this infringement upon liberty, and took the initiative as the honored sentinel, in the language of Alex. Stephens, to preserve Constitutional liberty and independence as objects " co-ordinate, co-existent, co-equal, co-eval and forever insep- arable."
Nor was this action without practical and solid results. The states of Alabama, North Carolina and Mississippi, the home of Mr. Davis, followed Georgia and Gov. Brown in this vital matter and protested
273
THE FAMOUS GEORGIA PEACE RESOLUTIONS.
against the suspension of habeas corpus. But this was not all. The second Confederate Congress after a powerful, exhaustive and heated discussion refused to continue the suspension though Mr. Davis insisted upon it. It was a signal triumph of the Georgia policy inspired by Governor Brown.
A resolution was also passed expressing unabated confidence in Mr. Davis. Another very celebrated action of Georgia through her General Assembly at this time was the passage of some resolutions, also the work of Linton Stephens, declaring the ground on which the Confed- crate States stood in the war, and the terms on which peace ought to be offered to the enemy. These resolutions have become famous, and stand as a monument of that governing statesmanship that during the revolution Georgia so supremely and without rivalry exercised. The resolutions declared the object of good government and the right of the people to alter government to secure those objects; that the Declaration of Independence was the outcome of this principle; that Georgia was such a nationality as was entitled to exercise the full right of self-gov- ernment; the causes of separation and a justification of secession; the vindication of secession by the subsequent policy of Mr. Lincoln, especially the proposition to establish governments in the seceded states if one-tenth of them were loyal to the North; that an honorable close of the war was highly desirable, and to put an end to the unnatural, unchristian and savage work of carnage and havoc, the Confederate government, after signal successes of arms, should officially tender peace on the great principles of 1776, allowing the border states to make free choice of future associations; that the effect of such a course would be salutary upon the foe and upon our soldiers and people; but renewing pledges of the prosecution of the war, defensive on our part, until an honorable peace was obtained and the independence and nationality of the Confederate States established upon a permanent and enduring basis.
An incident illustrating Gov. Brown's fixedness of purpose was this: . The legislature passed a resolution to adjourn on the 19th of March, 1864, at 12 o'clock M., without acting on the Habeas Corpus and other matters. The morning of the 19th Gov. Brown sent in a message noti- fying the General Assembly that unless the great questions requiring action were finally settled in some way, he should convene the body in extra session on the 21st. The session was prolonged until night and action taken. Among the acts passed by this General Assembly, of an aggressive war character, was a law allowing loyal Southern females in 18
274
JOHNSTON'S FAMOUS RETREAT BEGINS.
Georgia to secure total divorces from husbands in the military service of the United States, or voluntarily in the lines of the enemy furnishing them aid and comfort. The battle flags of the 10th and 50th Georgia Regiments were placed in the archives. The. Georgia troops whose time had expired had generally re-enlisted and resolutions of compli- ment were passed.
On the 4th day of May, 1864, began the great Georgia campaign that ultimately ended in the downfall of the Confederacy. Gen. Joe Johnston had in the interval between the 27th day of December, 1863, and May, 1864, brought up the army to the highest point of efficiency from its sadly disorganized condition after the calamitous defeat of Missionary Ridge. His force was 42,856. Gen. William T. Sherman, commanding the Federal army, had 98,797 and 254 cannon; or more than double Johnston's army. It is to be doubted if there was ever in military annals a more consummately conducted campaign. It was a game of chess between masters. It was a grapple of giants. It was a joust of arms of unsurpassed skill between two warriors who exhibited each the highest art of warfare. Both were wary, adroit, sagacious strategists, and both were bold fighters. Johnston's policy was to pre- serve his precious army at the sacrifice of territory, draw Sherman away from his base of supplies, and give battle, only where he had the chance of success, and where defeat to Sherman would be most disastrous.
The writer was with Johnston during a large portion of the retreat, commanding cavalry, and participating in the actions until wounded at the battle of New Hope Church. He therefore knows practically the man- agement of the campaign by Johnston. It was a faultless demonstra- tion of soldierly genius. The fighting was continuous. Johnston fought under shelter of entrenchments, preserving life to the utmost extent, administering all the punishment possible, and when flanked, leisurely falling back without the loss of a gun or canteen or wheel-spoke, his army intact, deliberate and orderly as on parade. There were no sur- prises, no discomfitures, no disorders. The men were troubled at giving up their homes to the enemy. But their confidence in Johnston never abated.
Sherman's policy was to precipitate a great battle and crush Johnston at one blow. Failing in this, he shied around the strong fronts and compelled Johnston's retirement. The two captains both showed a marvelous subtlety in penetrating each other's adroit designs. Between Dalton and Ringgold where the two armies confronted each other, lay
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TANNER'S FERRY COMPELS RESACA GIVEN UP.
Rocky Face Mountain with Johnston impregnably settled against direct attack. Making a vigorous show of assault on the front with Schofield's and Thomas' armies, Sherman sent MePherson's army through Snake Creek Gap on the left, to Resaca, eighteen miles below Dalton on the State road. Johnston had seen the trap and made Resaca too strong for assault, and the catch failed. Johnston quietly gave up Dalton and concentrated his army around Resaca.
The town of Calhoun is six miles below Resaca. At Calhoun was Johnston's base and reserves. The Oostanaula river runs by Calhoun down to within a mile of Calhoun, when it turns and goes in the direction of Rome. At Tanner's Ferry, two and one-half miles, a near point of the bend to Calhoun, Col. I. W. Avery of the 4th Georgia Cavalry was stationed with a brigade of cavalry and a battery of artil- lery defending two miles of the river. A mile behind him was Gen. John T. Morgan's brigade of cavalry in reserve, and at Calhoun Gen. W. H. T. Walker's division of infantry, both of which commands he was directed to call upon if too heavily pressed. On the afternoon of the 14th of May, 1864, Sherman made a general attack on Johnston's army at Resaca, and simultaneously threw a heavy force at Tanner's Ferry to drive a crossing. Col. Avery's brigade, extending along two miles of river, presented a thin line of defense. Immediate dispatches were sent both to Gen. Morgan and Gen. Walker of the attack, and a most stubborn resistance was made, but the crossing was forced after several hours' fighting, in which one half of the brigade was destroyed. Gen. Morgan arrived a short while after the enemy were over, and after dark Gen. Walker arrived. The Federals entrenched and strangely delayed to move upon Calhoun, to which they were three and one-half miles nearer than Johnston's main army at Resaca. The next morning, Gen. Walker, deceived by the enemy's quiet, and against the opinion of the cavalry officers in front, dispatched Gen. Johnston that the report of the passage of the Oostanaula was unfounded, and caused a change of plan. Gen. Walker then threw Gen. Jackson's brigade of infan- try against the quiet enemy and met with a quick and bloody repulse, and immediately notified the army commander. That night Gen. John- ston retired from Resaca, having repulsed the Federals with a loss to them of 5,000 men, while his own was inconsiderable.
On the morning of the 16th, Gen. Hardee rode out to the Picket line where Col. Avery was, and after a close inspection of the enemy's lines, came to the conclusion from the inactivity that no movement was threatening. In five minutes after he left, there was an advance sweet-
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276
SOLDIERS GIVING UP HOMES TO THIE FOE.
ing the cavalry back, and a lively brush occurred between Hardee and McPherson. Johnston fell back to Cassville. Rome was abandoned to the Federals. At Cassville, Johnston determined to give battle. It was a very strong position for us. The men were burning to fight. The writer remembers well the afternoon of the 19th of May, 1864, reading Johnston's ringing battle order-a model of terse, fiery rhetoric to his brigade in the falling twilight, in an old field environed by solemn woods. The men called for a speech, and in common with others, the writer made a few words of deep-felt appeal from a convenient stump. The delight of these grim soldiers at the prospect of fighting for their beloved homes was inspiring. The writer's command was composed mostly of men from the section we were giving up, and in retreating they were leaving their wives and children behind them to the ruthless mercies of the foe. It is such a test as this that tries brave men to the very depths. None can understand the anguish of such a retreat, save those who have undergone it. Death almost were preferable to an or- deal so full of agony of soul and wretched dread for loved ones. This was bringing home to soldiers the last and worst horror of the blighting war. And when it was announced that a stand was to be taken and the battle fought, there was such a thrill of joy pulsing the hearts of these brave patriots as gave stern token of the unconquerable fight they would have made. Men were never more earnest, and they would have never yielded that field. But the battle purpose was unwisely re- linquished by Gen. Johnston, and the golden opportunity of the cam- paign was lost against his decided judgment. Gen. Johnston afterward traveled with the writer in the fall of 1864, from Macon to Charlotte, and said that the battle was renounced by him at the urgent entreaty of Generals Hood and Polk, two of his corps commanders, who said they could not hold their positions; while Gen. Hardee, the other corps com- mander, who had the weakest place in the line, declared his ability to maintain his ground. Gen. Johnston himself, said he regarded it as the loss of the best chance of the retreat, and that he had always regretted that he did not give battle then. He apprehended, however, that Hood and Polk would not fight with zeal if they did it in fear of defeat, so he yielded to them. The army was discouraged at not fighting this battle, but soon recovered, and it shows their stern sense of duty and sturdy patriotism, that they remained in the ranks, though they were leaving their homes in the hands of the enemy.
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