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 31
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Before Gen. Lawton reported for duty in May, 1863, the Confederate
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A. R. LAWTON,
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL, C. S. A.
205
GENERAL A. R. LAWTON'S GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES.
congress had conferred additional rank on the office of Quartermaster- General, and thus gave the President the opportunity to confer that rank on the officer then at the head of that Bureau, or to assign some General officer to the discharge of its duties. The President and Secre- tary of War decided to assign General Lawton to that position. He ob- jected strenuously to the assignment, declaring that he had entered the service for duty in the field, that he had no experience whatever in bureau service, and that the resources at the command of the Quarter- master-General were so reduced that no hand new at the business could reorganize it with success. His objections were such as to cause a delay of two or three months in ordering him to that duty. When it was pressed upon him a second time, President Davis said that he considerel the position one of such importance to our success that there was no man, of any rank whatever in the Confederate service, save only the com- manders of the two great ar.nies, whom he would not withdraw from the field, and assign to that duty, if he could find the person who was best fitted for it. Under these circumstances Gen. Lawton was ordered to the head of that Bureau, and took charge of it in August, 1863, and con- tinued to perform its great and invaluable duties until the close of thewar.
This assignment was a strong tribute to this distinguished officer, and it curiously continued the masterful instrumentality of Georgia in the revolution. The responsibilities thus assumed by Gen. Lawton were appalling. The Quartermaster's department had charge of all field and railroad transportation over the whole immense theater of war, includ- ing the furnishing and foraging of horses for all branches of the service; it furnished all buildings, tents, and camp and garrison equipage, even to cooking utensils; all the clothing of the army; and was charged with the payment of the troops. Its supervision extended from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. Railways, destroyed by the ravages of war, had to be kept in condition for transportation in a country practically without iron, without locomotive works or rolling mills. Horses had to be fur- nished for all the exigencies of war, within a territory which had never supplied one half the demand, even for farming purposes and pleasure rid- ing. Clothing had to be created where there were not wool and leather enough within the territory at our command for a complete outfit for twelve months. These were some of the vast difficulties to be overcome.
A prominent Englishman, near the close of the war, remarked that it was casier for his people to understand how one man, suffering under wrongs and injuries inflicted, could meet and vanquish two or even three, than it was for them to understand how we made one horse serve the
296
SOME OF GENERAL LAWTON'S ACHIEVEMENTS.
purpose of three, and one pound of iron, or leather, or wool, perform the service of three. These great difficulties were met by Gen. Lawton, our capable and resolute Georgian, with an unsurpassable tact and energy. His enterprise and resources were boundless. While the papers of Richmond especially, and of other places, were constantly declaring against and finding fault with the other supply departments of the government, not one word of censure was ever written against the administration of the Quartermaster-General's office while Gen. Lawton was at the head of it. This constitutes remarkable testimony to the efficiency of his administration of this stupendous duty, for he had in the very nature of things to refuse five applications where he could grant one, so limited were our resources and so great the wants. It was a colossal responsibility nobly borne.
Nor were his difficulties lessened by the fact, that nearly every one of the appointments to office were made under the administration of his predecessor, and therefore he had to deal with the personelle of a department which he had no hand in selecting. He availed himself of every opportunity to diminish the number of Quartermasters, and steadily refused to increase them. He had to transport nearly all of the food and horses of Gen. Lee's army a distance of six to eight hundred miles by land, a thing never before accomplished in the history of war. Perhaps the most striking case of prompt transportation on worn-out railroads that ever occurred, was the transfer of Longstreet's Corps from the Rapidan in Virginia to the Chickamauga in Georgia, in time to change the results of that bloody battle of the "River of Death." Gen. Lee had a long and serious interview with Gen. Lawton about sending that corps away, it being a most critical moment, and he feared that the absence of these troops might expose his army to great danger. while they might be too late to help Bragg .. Gen. Lawton had all the calculations made, based upon our resources, and promised to land this corps at its destination by a certain day and hour. The corps reached it twelve hours before the promised moment. Gen. Longstreet's corps had quite a sprinkling of Georgia troops. It was a striking coincidence that the administrative genius of this Georgia Quartermaster-General in the extraordinary movement of this body of troops, composed to a considerable extent of Georgians, should have given to the Confederate arms on Georgia soil one of the greatest victories of the war. Gen. Sorrell, Adjutant-General to Gen. Longstreet, expressed the opinion that this feat of transportation was one of the most successful of the revolution.
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297
COLUMBUS, GEORGIA, AS A DEPOT OF SUPPLY.
There were many brilliant features of Gen. Lawton's administration of this great department-features marked by that fine, discriminating judgment that constitutes one of the most essential qualities of execu- tive capacity. He found that most of the factories had been stranded by the irregular and arbitrary manner in which the government had taken control of their wares. He first appointed inspectors to visit them all and ascertain their resources, capacity and probable results. They were then required to sell only a certain portion to the govern- ment, leaving them free to sell the rest to the people, so that they could procure the money, or other things by barter, necessary to keep them running. Thus was avoided the danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The same course was pursued as to leather and other articles required for the army.
In this connection every Georgian will take pride in the fact, which also runs in the line of our State supremacy to which so many allusions have been made, that the city of Columbus, Georgia, furnished more manufactured articles of every kind to the Confederate Quartermaster's department than any place in the Confederacy except Richmond, which had all the protection and fostering care of the government. This superiority was not relative, according to population; but absolute, producing more clothing, shoes, hats, cooking utensils, axes, spades, harness, etc., etc. Gen. Lawton found that clothing and other articles coming to us through the blockade were at once distributed and con- sumed under the orders of commanders controlling the ports where they arrived; and of course those in " safe places " got the lion's share. This was all stopped, and every bale of cloth, box of shoes and other supplies were put under the exclusive control, on arrival, of the Quartermaster- General, and thus they reached the men in the field.
Every branch of this vast and varied department was thus systema- tized, improved and more economically administered by this clear-headed, capable, positive Georgian, and from the civil and military heads as well as the armies and people, there was a continuous and universal approval of his masterly regime.
The Quartermaster-General did not hold money or property; not be- ing a bonded officer, no funds were placed in his hands by the Treasury department, and he never receipted for any property. The confusion of the surrender found him with nothing left in his charge, but the records and papers of the Bureau, which were all destroyed in the great fire at Richmond on the day of the evacuation.
Perhaps nothing can demonstrate more vividly the stress of the
255
298
COLORED ENLISTMENTS URGED.
Southern cause in the last days of the conflict, and the desperate pur pose of its defenders to succeed than the following extraordinary dora ment, which not only urged the enlistment of negro soldiers, but por- posed to take colored recruits into white regiments. Gen. Lee and G.s. Cleburne favored the policy of negro soldiers, but the people, the armi. . `and the leaders, were against. Public sentiment was so much opposed : this method of recruiting our armies, that it was never done. The obj tions offered to it were two-fold-that it would take away the laborer. from the field who were raising provision to feed the soldiers, and it wa. equivalent to practical emancipation. But as large numbers of the colored men were enlisted in the Federal army and fought against us. it is a grave question whether it would not have been wise to have thus utilized the blacks, offering them freedom for their service. Whether it would have had any appreciable effect upon the result is a matter of speculation. The experiment was not tried on the Southern side of the struggle, and the failure to make it was a conspicuous example of the strength of sentiment in directing an immense practical matter.
" CAMP 49TH GA. REG. Near Petersburg, March 15, 1865. S 1
"COL. W. HI. TAYLOR, A. A. G. :
" Sir : The undersigned commissioned officers of this regiment, having maturely considered the following plan for recruiting this regiment, and having freely consulte ! with the eulisted men, who almost unanimously agree to it, respectfully submit it, through you, to the Commanding General for his consideration.
"FIRST, That our companies be permitted to fill up their ranks with negroes to the maximum number under the recent act of Congress.
" SECOND, That the negroes in these counties of Georgia, from which our companies hail from, be conscribed, in such numbers and under such regulations as the War De- partinent may deem proper.
"THIRD, That after the negroes have been so conscribed, an officer or enlisted main from each company be sent home to select from the negro conseripts such who may have owners, or may belong to families of whom representatives are in the company, or who from former acquaintance with the men, may be deemed suitable to be incorpo- rated in those companies.
"For the purpose of carrying out more effectually and promptly the plan, as incli- cated under the third head, it is respectfully suggested that each man in the regime:t be required to furnish a list of relatives, friends or acquaintances in his county, of whom. it is likely, that negroes may be conscribed, so as to facilitate the labors of the officer or man who may be detailed to bring the negroes to the regiment.
" When in former years, for peenniary purposes, we did not consider it disgraceful to labor with negroes in the field or at the same work bench, we certainly will not look at it in any other light at this time, when an end so glorious as our independence is to be achieved. We sincerely believe that the adoption throughout our army of the course indicated in the above plan or something similar to it, will ensure a speedy
-
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299
GENERAL LEE APPROVES COLORED ENLISTMENTS.
availability of the negro element, in our midst for military purposes, and create or rather cement a reciprocal attachment between the men now in service, and the negroes highly beneficial to the service, and which could probably not be otherwise obtained.
We have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servants,
"J. T. JORDAN, Colonel,
J. B. DUGGAN, Major,
M. NEWMAN, Adjutant,
L. E. VEAL, First Lieutenant Co. A,
L. L. WILLIAMS, Captain Co's B and G,
J. F. DUGGAN, Captain Co. C,
L. M. ANDREWS, Captain Co. D,
C. R. WALDEN, Lieutenant Co. E,
A. G. BROOKS, Lieutenant Co. F, S. J. JORDAN, Lieutenant Co. II, W.M. T. MULLALY, Captain Co. I,
R. S. ANDERSON, Captain Co. G."
" HEAD-QUARTERS THOMAS BRIGADE, March 18, 1865.
" Respectfully Forwarded: Approved.
"EDWARD L. THOMAS, Brig. Gen."
" HEAD-QUARTERS WILCOX'S LIGHT DIVISION, March 21, 1865.
" Respectfully Forwarded : Believing that the method proposed within is the best that can be adopted.
"C. M. WILCOX, Maj. Gen." " HEAD-QUARTERS, THIRD CORPS, A. N. VA. { March 22, 1865.
" Respectfully Forwarded : The plan proposed is commended as worthy of attention and consideration.
"HI. HETH, Maj. Gen. Comd'g."
" Respectfully Returned: The Commanding General commeuds the spirit displayed by this regiment. The plan of organization which has been regarded most favorably, proposed a consolidation of the regiments of ten companies as they now exist, into six companies, and that the regimental organization be maintained by attaching to the six thus formed four companies of colored troops. Each regiment would then preserve its identity.
" Perhaps this plan would be equally as acceptable to the 49th Georgia Regiment. "By command of Gen. Lee. " W. II. TAYLOR, A. A. G. " March 27, 1865."
This novel and earnest document is an historie curiosity, a brave, prac- tical, patriotic paper, that will have a vital interest in all annals of this great war. Gen. W. S. Walker, now living in Atlanta, urged the policy in 1863 and 1864, and made the prediction, that the measure would be proposed when it would be too late.
1
CHAPTER XXX.
SHERMAN'S PEACE EFFORT AND FAMOUS MARCHI TO THE SEA.
The First Attempt at Peace .- Gen. Sherman its Author .- Georgia Keeps up her Momentous Play in the War .- Gov. Brown and Alex. Stephens .- Mr. Lincoln Looks with Interest .- Joshua Hill .- Judge A. R. Wright -Hood's Fatal Tennessee Programme .- Sherman's Peril Ended by Confederate Folly .- Georgia Gashed .- "Smashing Things."-Atlanta Destroyed .- Milledgeville Captured .- Gov. Brown and Gen. Ira Foster .- The Convict Soldiers -The Cabbage Calumny upon Gov. Brown Corrected .- The Cadets -Battle of Griswoldville by Joe Brown's Militia .- A Dreary Narrative of Ruin .- Union Sentiment Stamped Out .- Fort McAllister Taken .- Hardee Leaves Savannah .- The March to the Sea Ended .- The Death Blow of the Southern Canse .- Georgians out of the State .- Olustee and Alfred HI. Colquitt .- Gen. J. B. Gordon .- The Georgia Militia at Honey Hill .- Gen. Ranse Wright .- Two Governors .- The Legislature .- Gov. Brown's Message .- State Property .- Our Indigents .- Our War Millionaires .- Fabulous Prices .- Bewilder- ing Aspects of the Pending Downfall.
IMMEDIATELY after the capture and occupation of Atlanta, Sherman conceived and attempted the execution of an idea, that if he could have carried into operation, would have ended the war much earlier. When the history of our great civil war comes to be written, one of the most interesting chapters will be the account of the episode here referred to, the first effort that was made at peace. Gen. Sherman, as has been stated, was the author of this attempt, and Georgia was both the theater and object of his endeavors. The event was a continuation of Georgia's momentous play in the war. She appeared fated to figure in every possible rôle.
The facts of this important peace movement show it to have been subtly conceived, important in its results of possibility to the conflict and eagerly watched by Mr. Lincoln, the President of the United States. Gen. Sherman, in his Memoirs of the War, makes brief allusion to this peace matter, but he gives such meager details that the interest and curiosity of the reader are only whetted for fuller information. By an accident the writer's attention was called to it, and by direct application to all the parties connected with it, including Gen. Sherman, Hon. A. H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, Gov. Joseph
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S INTEREST IN SHERMAN'S PEACE EFFORT. 301
E. Brown, Hon. Joshua Hill, Judge Augustus R. Wright and Mr. William King, the full particulars of this striking and valuable episode of the great war were obtained.
Gen. Sherman knew that Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederacy, had so differed from Mr. Davis and his advisers as to lead- ing measures of his administration, that he took no share in the direc- tion of affairs, and seemed. to be in no sort of active connection with the ruling powers. He opposed conscription and favored the govern- ment buying up the cotton crop and sending it to Europe to be used as a basis of supply of munitions and recruits. Gen. Sherman also knew of Gov. Brown's controversies with the Confederate authorities, that had culminated in what seemed an embittered antagonism. These pow- erful public men were known to represent a large and popular sentiment in Georgia.
In this state of things, the main cause discouraged, the Confederacy riven into fragments, Georgia half overrun, and her leaders-many of them -- believed to be disaffected, and with the prospect of a complete devastation of the Commonwealth imminent, Gen. Sherman, with that prolific fertility of resource and ready discernment of opportunity that belonged to the man, seized the occasion to strike what, if it had been successful, would have proved a powerful blow for the Union. It was practically the attempt to eliminate the powerful state of Georgia with her large forces from the opposition, and at one stroke to have blood- lessly disintegrated the Confederate cause. If Georgia, through her Governor and his coadjutor in the work, the second officer of the Con- federacy, had withdrawn Georgia from the war, or even induced her to take the resolute initiative in peace, the great struggle would have been practically ended.
Gen. Sherman, in his dispatch to President Lincoln, states his high hope in the matter, and the tremendous importance that he attached to the movement when he says: "I am fully conscious of the delicate nature of such assertions, but it would be a magnificent stroke of policy if we could, without surrendering principle or a foot of ground, arouse the latent enmity of Georgia against Davis." And Mr. Lincoln, in his response, said: " I feel great interest in the subjects of your dis- patch." And when later Mr. Davis made his visit to Macon and Hood's army, Mr. Lincoln believed, as he telegraphed to Gen. Sherman, that the object of Mr. Davis' visit was to see Mr. Stephens and Gov. Brown, to stop the peace mischief that Gen. Sherman had inaugurated with those two dangerous gentlemen. Gen. Sherman's idea was to appeal
302
THE DEFECT OF SHERMAN'S PEACE EFFORT.
to Georgia's safety from further war ravage and work it through officials supposed to be hostile to the Confederate administration. No less than three messengers were sent by Gen. Sherman. Mr. William King was his ambassador to both Gov. Brown and Mr. Stephens. - Judge A. R. Wright, of Rome, was sent to Washington, to talk with President Lincoln, and by him entrusted with messages for Mr. Davis. Hon. Joshua Hill, of Madison, Ga., was sent as messenger to Gios. Brown. Mr. King was a citizen in private life, an elderly gentleman of high character, old family, fine intelligence and unquestionable patriot- ism. The other gentlemen have been spoken of in this volume.
The fundamental idea of Gen. Sherman was separate State action of Georgia; and herein was its intrinsic weakness. As much as Mr. Stephens condemned the policy of the administration of his Executive- Mr. Davis-and as antagonistic as Gov. Brown felt to certain leading measures of the Confederate authorities, neither of them was capable, in any stress of disaster, and under any possession of State influence, of deserting the fortunes of the Confederacy and leaving the other men- bers of the compact to bear the calamities of failure. While it was simply an impossibility that the soldiers or people of Georgia would have been willing to purchase exemption from the common peril and universal ruin by abandonment of the cause, thus securing safety by dishonor. And both Gov. Brown and Mr. Stephens, from their very supposed attitude of disaffection and hostility to Mr. Davis, were necessarily the more careful in their conduct that no possible sus- picion of bad faith should attach to them.
Both Mr. Stephens and Gov. Brown declined to accept Gen. Sher- man's invitation to visit him on this peace mission. Mr. Stephens con- sidered that neither he nor Gen. Sherman had the proper authority to represent and bind their respective governments, though if Gen. Sher- man should think that there was any prospect that he and Mr. Stephens could agree upon terms of adjustment to be submitted to the govern- ments, he would, with the consent of the Confederate authorities, meet him and enter upon the task of restoring peace. This reply of Mr. Stephens dissipated the idea that he would act in the slightest degree independ- ently of Mr. Davis and take part in a separate negotiation by the State.
Gen Sherman, in his dispatch to President Lincoln, discloses the agency he hoped Mr. Stephens would play in this shrewdly conceived peace project, in these significant words: "The people do not hesitate to say, that Mr. Stephens was and is a Union man at heart; and they say that Davis will not trust him, or let him have share in his govein-
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303
GOV. BROWN'S ACTION IN THE SHERMAN PEACE MOVEMENT.
ment." Mr. Stephens, by his reply, completely dropped himself out of the project. Gov. Brown was unwilling to enter into any negotiations . involving separate State action. His dismissing the State militia for a time to go home and harvest the crops, and his calling the Legislature together to consider the critical state of affairs, impressed Gen. Sherman with the belief that Gov. Brown was leaning to the peace idea; that the temporary disbandment of the State troops was an initiatory movement in the matter, while he wanted the Legislature to share the responsibility. Mr. Davis made his visit to Georgia at that time, and so strongly had the peace plan of Gen. Sherman, by securing Georgia's disaffection through Mr. Stephens and Gov. Brown, seized and impressed Mr. Lincoln, that the President conceived and telegraphed Gen. Sherman: "I judge that Brown and Stephens are the objects of his (Davis') visit."
But Gen. Sherman and Mr. Lincoln were both mistaken. They mis- conceived Gov. Brown, who never for a moment entertained the idea of withdrawing Georgia from her Confederate alliance. It is due to him to say this, and it is also due to say that the people of Georgia would not liave entertained such a proposition. They were committed to the Confederacy, and meant to rise or fall with it. There is no ground for believing, as Mr. Lincoln imagined, that Mr. Davis visited Georgia at that time to look after Mr. Stephens and Gov. Brown, and stop their supposed peace mischief. His mission was to confer as to the proper direction to be given to Hood's army in this critical juncture.
The peace mission was so important a one that Gov. Brown, at the time, made a note of the whole matter so far as he was concerned, which was published for the information of the people. His action involved an exceedingly able presentation of the question, showing that he gave the matter profound and conscientious reflection. That Georgia, in her sovereign capacity, had the right to withdraw from the Southern Con- federate compact, not through her Executive, but through a convention of her people, he had no doubt. But while she possessed this power, she would never violate her faith pledged to her Confederate allies, never shrink from the suffering that fell to her lot, never make separate terms to save herself, and " whatever may be the opinion of her people as to the injustice done her by the Confederate administration, she will triumph with her Confederate sisters, or she will sink with them in one common ruin." Gov. Brown argued, that Gen. Sherman and he had no power or right to represent the government of the United States and the government of the Confederate States, or in any way bind them.
Ilon. Joshua Hill, in his interesting and graphic account, gives
304
JUDGE A. R. WRIGHT'S VISIT TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
some valuable information, showing Gen. Sherman's desires, and also contributes convincing testimony as to the stubborn fidelity of the people to the cause. He made a strenuous effort to influence the Legis- lature to take some peace action, but could get no encouragement, and finally desisted. Gen. Sherman, however, began to doubt the possibility of success on his original idea of detaching Georgia from the Confed- eracy, and he widened his project to include broader negotiations and larger agencies. Here comes in Judge Wright, who was sent by Gen. Sherman to see President Lincoln, and, learning his pacific temper and views, convey them to Mr. Davis.
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