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 33
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It is a dreary narrative to chronicle the ruin wrought by this " March 'to the Sea" in the proud old state. It would take volumes to record the details. There had been in Georgia a growing drift in public opin- ion to the idea of reconstruction of the Union. But the march of Sherman killed it. Men standing amid the ruins of their dear homes, with starvation for their loved ones staring upon them, and bitter men- ories of insult and injury rankling in their bosoms, had no gentle feeling towards the foe that had done the ruin. The work of devastation had but one redeeming feature,-it was, while complete, very brief.
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LICEN. HARDEE.
THE FALL OF SAVANNAH. 313
On the 10th of December, 1864, Sherman reached and invested Savannah. On the 13th, Gen. Hazen with his division, carried Fort McAlister after a gallant resistance by Major Geo. W. Anderson and his heroic garrison of 250 men. Gen. Win. J. Hardee had about 10,000 troops in Savannah manning the fortifications. On the night of the 20th of December, Gen. Hardee, finding that he could not hold the city, quietly withdrew into Carolina, having on the 17th refused to sur- render. Gen. Sherman took possession of the beautiful Georgia City by the Sea, and Sherman's March was an accomplished historical fact. The Northern exultation over this achievement was delirious, and Con- gress, voicing the public delight, passed warm resolutions of thanks to Gen. Sherman and his army. Concurrently with this substantial victory came the news of Hood's hopeless and irretrievable defeats at Franklin and Nashville, and the practical annihilation of his army that could not be replaced. Surely there never was a swifter dissolution of a noble and indispensable force under a purposeless lead of incapacity.
These tremendous movements really ended the war. The surrenders of Lee and Johnston did not come until April, 1865, several months later, but it was a hopeless struggle from this time. But the end was approaching. The Georgia campaign gave the death-blow to the cause for which so much blood had been shed, so much treasure expended and so much splendid heroism wasted. It is remarkable, however, and evinces the stern purpose of the Southern people that during these last, hopeless, bloody months of the struggle they were more determined than ever to succeed, and with the cause palpably crumbling before their eyes, they persisted and fought to the last. The various State Legisla- tures passed resolutions against reconstruction, and the State Execu- tives made messages full of ring and defiance.
During this year, 1864, the Georgia troops out of Georgia had main- tained their wonted renown. Gen. Alfred H. Colquitt had earned the splendid title of the " Hero of Olustee" in the famous little battle in Florida, which at one stroke had ended Federal operations there. Upon every battle field in Virginia our Georgians had illustrated the State. Gen. John B. Gordon, according to a correspondent of the London Times, had become the rising military genius of our armies. In South Carolina, at Honey Hill, Gen. Gustavus W. Smith, at the elose of the year, with his division of Georgia militia, had defeated the Federals in a heavy engagement, Gov. Brown having instructed him to carry the Georgia militia into Carolina if the good of the cause required it. Gen. Dick Taylor, in his book called " Destruction," makes statements in ref-
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314
TWO GOVERNORS OF GEORGIA.
erence to the militia, on this point, that are wholly unauthorized by the facts. We had lost many fine officers, Gen. George Doles, Col. Ed. Willis, Col. John M. Millen, Col. J. H. Lamar, Lieut. Col. Van Valkenburg and others.
The occupation of Atlanta was immediately resumed. The Atlanta Intelligencer issued a little sheet amid the ruins, on the 10th of Decem- ber, 1864. It was printed on one side only, and was about twelve by eighteen inches in size. Gen. Howell Cobb, accompanied by Col. I. W. Avery, rode up there from Macon, picking a way carefully through the débris. Col. L. J. Glenn was made commandant of the post as early as November 26th. The Atlanta exiles had been carried and quartered near Dawson in Terrell county, at "Exile Camp." Some 300 were cared for there at public expense.
A novel collision of civil authority occurred, that constitutes a very interesting incident of that chaotic time. On the 21st of November Gen. Ranse Wright, who had been assigned to command in Augusta, and who was president of the Georgia Senate, issued an order at Augusta, that as Gov. Brown was cut off from communication with the portion of the State east of the Oconee river by the interposition of an hostile army, it became his duty, as president of the Senate and e.c- officio Governor, during the disability of the Governor, to assume com- mand of all Georgia out of the jurisdiction of the Governor. He revoked all orders of Gov. Brown, and directed all militia east of the Oconee to report to him. Gen. Wright wrote to Gov. Brown explaining his action, and asking if he approved of it. Gov. Brown replied stat- ing that Gen. Wright's course was unnecessary. The press made some exceedingly piquant commentary upon the matter at the time, though Gen. Wright's conduct was highly patriotic, but it was speedily forgot- ten in the rush of events and the tragic drift of the revolution.
The General Assembly met on the 3rd of November,. 1864. Gov. Brown's message was a frank criticism of the campaign, and a candid statement of the situation, but it was also a bold, stirring exhortation to a continuance of the struggle. While the fight lasted, Gov. Brown aided and pressed its unyielding prosecution. In the darkest hour he . urged the conflict, and flung the resources of the state, both men and money, into the affray without stint. The Northern Democratic party had advised a convention of the sovereign states, to negotiate an adjust- ment of the contest. Gov. Brown favored such a movement, the action of such a convention having to be submitted to the states for ratifica- tion or rejection. He argued the idea masterfully, but at the same time
315
THE DREARY FIGURES OF GEORGIA'S CONDITION.
he urged that every arms-bearing man in the South should go to the front to sustain our armies. The war had reached the point where statesmanship might aid arms in the settlement of the great issue. Looking at the situation then, Gov. Brown's strong advocacy of this plan was a timely piece of judgment, and could it have been carried out, would have saved a failing cause:
The State's finances exhibited strikingly the effect of the war. The property of the State had been inflated from $840,041,127 to $1,612,- 592,806, the inflation evidencing the ruinous depreciation of Confeder- ate currency. Polls had fallen from 52,764 to 39,863, demonstrating the ravages of the war upon our men. The State's expenditures for 1864 had run to $13,288,435. The public debt had grown to the enor- mous sum of $23,980,692. But a most ominous fact was that bank capital had fallen from $70,713,048 to $44,816,979, or nearly one-half. The number of indigent people, families of soldiers, had swelled to the appalling size of 117,889, or the full proportion of the entire voting population of the State at the beginning of the war. Could the rav- ages of this terrific contest be more strikingly shown than by this awful statistic of wholesale impoverishment ? Chatham county had 3,058 indigents, Cherokee county 2,598, Gordon county 2,390, Gilmer 2,106, Paulding 1,875, Gwinnett 2,390. These are frightful figures, and must be appreciated to understand the crushing tale of misfortune and misery that they reveal. The shocking aggregate of want and distress cannot be conveyed in its full practical meaning.
There is another side of this economic question, equally as interesting and suggestive as these dreary numbers of personal indigence and family bereavement. There had been such speculation by the non-com- batants that there was a wonderful aristocracy of sudden wealth. Of 91,505 tax-payers fifteen were worth over half a million; thirty-six over $300,000; 131 over $200,000; 829 over $100,000; 2,628 over $50,000; 4,047 over $30,000; 4,780 over $20,000; 10,648 over 810,000; 13,215 over $5,000; 10;438 over $3,000; 8,742 over $2,000; 13,681 over 81,000; and 22,311 were worth $1,000 and under. This was estimated according to Confederate values.
There is a strange and dramatic teaching in these figures-a lesson of pathetic and momentous import. While the brave soldiers were strik- ing at the enemy in the field, and their families were practical paupers at home living upon. the bounty of the State, there was behind the pro- tecting ægis of a craven non-combataney thousands of enterprising citi- zens filling their coffers, and gorging their purses with the profits of
316
THE FABULOUS PRICES OF 1864.
some sort of greedy trading. Think of fifteen millionaires in our war-smit- ten commonwealth in that destructive day, and a thousand men worth over $100,000 each. Georgia, in her palmiest prosperity of peace, never made such a prodigal showing of rich citizens. There was something dreadfully wrong. It was a cruel incongruity, and it sapped the cause with an unseen but immeasurable potency.
Not less interesting is the range of prices for all articles of trade. It took, on the 31st day of December, 1864, forty-nine dollars in Confed- erate money to buy one dollar in gold. And the private soldier was receiving his $11 a month for his bloody service. A month's pay would buy him a pound of meat that he could eat in two days. Hats were worth several hundred dollars; a horse several thousand; a bushel of wheat from $10 to $50; a drink of poor whiskey, $5, and good, $10. The government churned out its money prodigally, but the soldiers had little chance at it. There was little to buy, and what there was brought fabulous sums. The commercial aspects and features of that Confed- erate period were among its most romantic characteristics.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE CLOSING THROES OF THE REVOLUTION AND THE TRAGIC END.
The Destruction at Milledgeville .- The Legislature in Macon .- The Last Session un- der the Confederacy .- Enlisting the Slaves for Soldiers .- Gov. Brown Against it. -Gov. Brown urges a Southern Convention .- An Eloquent Message .- War Pluck. -Toombs, Cobb, Hill and Stiles make war speeches .- Attacks upon Brown .- L. J. Alred arrested for Treason .- Judge Lochrane releases Him .- Gen. W. T. Wofford. -North Georgia a Ruin .- Federal Rule in Savannah .- Submission Meeting there. -Salt for Carolina .- The Hampton Roads Conference .- Mr. Stephens .- Georgia Figures Foremost to the Last .- Gordon, the Companion Figure with Lee, in the Last Throes .- Surrender. - Davis and His Cabinet Fly to Georgia, where The Con- federate Administration Dissolves .- Last Act of the Confederacy -Romantie Inci- dents .- The Gold Bullion -Gen. Toombs .- Major R. J. Moses .- Davis Captured in Georgia .- The Stupendous Losses of Georgia .- Gov. Brown.
THE legislature of Georgia had adjourned upon the 18th day of Novem- ber, 1864, upon the approach of Sherman's army. The occupation of Milledgeville by the Federal force, while it did not witness the destruc- tion of the state buildings, yet it was marked as has been stated by great and irreparable injury to our public records, the floors of the cap- itol and the grounds around being strewed with the debris of valuable papers, and many of them were. burned. The penitentiary was burned. Gov. Brown reconvened the legislature on the 15th of February, 1865, in Macon. The Senate met three days in succession before there was a quorum. In the absence of the presiding officer, Hon. T. L. Guerry was elected temporary President. Gov. Brown's message to the General Assembly was alike a symbol of the man and of the desperate crisis. Ile put the dreadful situation plainly. He discussed unmineingly the causes that had led to the stress. He criticised Mr. Davis freely. He placed blame where it lay. He concisely argued the great, grave ques- tion, which was then in everybody's mind as an extreme expedient to get out of our peril, whether we should arm our slaves and put them to fighting. Gen. Lee favored the policy, and he was a strong authority for any measure. Gov. Brown took a square stand against it, and his argument was practical and very strong. He condensed the objec- tion to it in the idea that negroes wouldl not fight heroically to continue
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GOVERNOR BROWN'S MESSAGE.
the enslavement of their wives and children. Lincoln could ' disband them by brigades, by a proclamation of freedom and protection. If we offered them freedom to fight, it was an abandonment of slavery.
Gov. Brown capped his message by urging the call of a convention of the Southern states to consider the crisis and provide a remedy. He pressed the abandonment of the fatal conscription policy and the return to the constitutional method of raising troops by the states; the reor- ganization of the troops under officers of state selection, which would put into the army the hordes of enrolling officers and other exempts; the repeal of impressment laws; and the appointment of a commander- in-chief with full control, except subject to removal by the President and Senate. The concluding sentences of this message are well worthy of quotation, and convey vividly the stern spirit of the Executive and the tottering condition of the cause.
" The further pursuit of our present policy not only endangers our rights and our lib- erties, but our independence also, by destroying the institutions and breaking the spirits of our people. . Let us beware how we trifle with the rights, the liberties, and the happi- ness of millions.
" I am aware that the freedom and plainness, which a sense of duty to my country has compelled me to exercise. in discussing the measures of the administration, and the policy of the government, may subject my motives to misconstruction. I feel the proud consciousness, however, that I have been actuated only by a desire to promote the cause so dear to every patriot's heart, and thereby secure the independence of the Confederacy, with the civil and religious liberties and constitutional rights of the people, without which independence is an empty name, and the glory and grandeur of our republican system is departed forever. No one can be more vitally interested than myself in the success of our cause. I have staked life, liberty and property, and the liberties of my posterity, upon the result. The enemy have burned my dwelling and other houses, de. stroyed my property, and shed in rich profusion the blood of nearest relatives. My des- tiny is linked with my country. If we succeed, I am a freeman. But if, by the obsti- nacy, weakness or misguided judgment of our rulers we fail, the same common ruin awaits me which awaits my countrymen .. It is no time to conceal ideas in courtly phrase. The night is dark, the tempest howls, the ship is lashed with turbulent waves, the helms- man is steering to the whirlpool, our remonstrances are unheeded, and we must restrain him, or the crew must sink together submerged in irretrievable ruin."
The legislature remained in session until the 11th day of March, 1865. The body refused to call a convention. Resolutions were passed to continue the war. Addresses of war encouragement were made by Gen. Toombs, Gen. Cobb, Ben Hill and W'm. H. Stiles, to the members and citizens. Gov. Brown's message excited a varied contrariety of comment. Like everything else this positive man uttered and did, it evoked warm commendation and hot censure and a spirited antagonism. The friends of Mr. Davis abused Goy. Brown, and the latter's friends
319
L. J. ALRED AND JUDGE O. A. LOCHRANE.
defended him. One or two papers, the Macon Telegraph especially, in editorial charge of a bright, little black-eyed poet, Harry Flash, who has written some of the finest war lyrics in the English language, struck at the Governor savagely, and he came near having a duel in consequence thereof with J. Henly Smith, editor of the Atlanta Confederacy. The soldiers and the people were with the Governor, however, in spite of the bitterest kind of denunciation from a fierce minority, that hit him from first to last with merciless malignity. Every conceivable charge had been brought against him. He had been accused of speculating and making money out of corn and salt and cotton and everything else. He struck down these slanders, one by one, with vigorous blows. It has been one unfailing peculiarity of Gov. Brown, that he has met attack, whether in the shape of slander or argument, promptly and aggressively. His opposition to the conscription act brought against him constantly a torrent of crimination that he was untrue to the Con- federate cause. But against all of these calumnious accusations stood his sleepless practical devotion to the cause and sacrifices and labors in its behalf.
A very interesting episode of this General Assembly was the action it took against Hon. Lemuel J. Alred, the member of the legislature from Pickens county, so long connected with public matters in Georgia, and who to this day preserves his potential agency in the local affairs of his county, and represents it in some capacity in all of the conventions and legislatures of the State. He was charged with treason and dis- loyalty, and resolutions of expulsion were introduced. It was alleged that he had raised a tory company, and stood to the United States flag. He was imprisoned in jail and released upon a writ of habeas corpus by Judge O. A. Lochrane of the superior court, who thus pronounced against the truth of the charge after an investigation of the matter. This release by Judge Lochrane was a peculiarly courageous and credit- able exercise of judicial duty. Judge Lochrane had been appointed by Gov. Brown, and his confirmation was pending in the Senate. Yet he antagonized the body by his prompt reversal of their action and the release of Alred.
This session of the General Assembly was a notable one in that it was the last held in Georgia under the Confederate government; and, notwithstanding the disheartening condition of matters and the gloomy war outlook, it sustained the manhood and honor of the State with an unshaken courage, and kept its shining faith to the Confederacy in the darkest calamities of its own ruin.
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320
GENERAL WILLIAM T. WOFFORD.
During this woful period one of the distinguished soldiers of the State did a service that entitles him to the State's gratitude. This officer was Gen. Wm. T. Wofford. He was a firm anti-secessionist, and carried his county against secession. On the 23rd of January, 1865, by the request of Gov. Brown and the people of Georgia, and by his own desire, he entered upon duty as a department commander in North Georgia. This favored section of the State, rich, healthy, beautiful, was a continuous ruin. It exemplified the horrors of war. The white section of the State, it furnished the bulk of the Union element. The arena for contending armies for a long period, it was desolated in its entirety. Left for months outside of the protecting ægis of both gov- ernments, the hiding-place of guerillas of both armies, the theater of that worst of all strifes that exist between inimical local factions, it realized in all its dread malignancy the miserable suffering conveyed in the realization of anarchy. The melancholy condition of this section is the saddest picture of all of the sad ones of the late war. Those able to flee, fled. Those unable to get away staid in armed despair, ever present peril, and subject to daily rapine and death. Courts were silent, schools empty, churches deserted. Dwellings were burned and fences destroyed, until the civilizing demarkations of home and farm were lost in indistinguishable ruin. Strolling bands of deserters and robbers herded in the mountain caves, made predatory excursions from their fastnesses, and in their inhuman collisions and murderous orgies kept up a reign of terror. It was once a smiling country, peaceful, prosperous and happy, converted by the fell Moloch of war into a bloody scene of utter desolation. And to these awful horrors, universal and unmitigable, the possibility of starvation was superadded. No crops could be raised in this hideous time, and charity could not penetrate this wilderness of devastation.
To redeem this cursed land, certainly a blessed mission, Gen. Wofford was sent by Mr. Davis at the request of Gov. Brown, who knew his fit- ness for the duty. It was a labor of love for Gen. Wofford, and he en- tered upon his difficult duty with zeal. He called in and organized over 7,000 men, large numbers of them deserters and stragglers. He exhib- ited decided executive ability in his work. The railroad track was torn up and twisted, so that railway transportation could not be used. He overcame with masterly will and ability the intrinsic difficulties of his position. He obtained corn and distributed it among the starving peo- ple. His cool, resolved tact was the very quality to handle the turbu- lent lawlessness of the section. He sent a flag of truce to Gen. Judah,
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321
THE DISTRESS OF CAPTURED SAVANNAII.
the Federal commander in North Georgia, and obtained a personal con- ference, in which he induced Gen. Judah to do the noble act of distrib- uting corn to the starving people furnished by Gen. Wofford.
The capture of Savannah was a very valuable one to the Federals. Gen. Sherman sent the following agreeable dispatch to President Lincoln:
" SAVANNAH, GA., Dec. 22, 1864.
" To HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Washington, D. C.
"I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.
W. T. SHERMAN, Major General."
It turned out that there were 250 coast guns and 31,000 bales of cot- ton. The city was placed under military government. An order was issued, that among other things, restricted the publication of newspa- pers to two, and threatened the editors and proprietors with severe punishment in person and property for " any libelous publication, mis- chievous matter, premature news, exaggerated statements, or any com- ments whatever upon the Acts of the constituted authorities." This was freedom of the press with a vengeance. The wives of Generals G. W. Smith and A. P. Stewart of the Confederate army were in the city, and were accorded special protection. The capture was a sore crisis for many elegant people. Savannah is a city of unusual culture, and was inhabited by a citizenry of wealth and high-bred refinement and luxury. Ladies of the best families were compelled to vend cakes and pastry at their basement windows to raise means to subsist. Gen. Sherman issued provisions to many families. A meeting of citizens was held upon call of the Mayor, Dr. R. D. Arnold. Dr. Arnold was made chairman, and A. S. Hartridge and Robert Irwin secretaries. A committee consisting of Col. Rockwell, Alderman Lippman, Dr. Willis, Alderman Villalonga, Martin Duggan, J. G. Wills, W. D. Weed, Alder- man Lachlison and Alderman O'Byrne, reported resolutions which were unanimously adopted, seeking peace by laying down arms and submit- ting to the national authority, claiming the immunities and protection of the Federal government, and asking the Governor to call a conven- tion of the people of Georgia to give them an opportunity of saying whether the war should continue.
This action of Savannah was the initial note of submission. On the 19th of January, 1865, Gen. Sherman made the first general orders for his move into Carolina, the continuation of his march. In speaking in his memoirs of this movement, he uses this language:
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322
THE GEORGIA AND CAROLINA MILITIA.
" We were all anxious to get into the pine woods again, free from the importunities of rebel women asking for protection, and of the civilians from the North who were . coming to Savannah for cotton, and all sorts of profit."
No words could better convey the condition of the people of this cap- tured city than these few simple words of the General of the Federal army. Between the conquering soldiery and the rapacious speculators the citizens had a hard time. The correspondence between Gen. Sher- man and the Federal authorities throws full light not only upon the march through Georgia, but its continuation through Carolina. Says Gen. H. W. Halleck:
" Should you capture Charleston I hope that by some accident the place may be de- stroyed, and if a little salt should be sown upon its site, it may prevent the growth of future crops of nullification and secession."
To this gentle suggestion Gen. Sherman replied:
" We are not only fighting hostile armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies. . . Before we have done with her, South Carolina will not be quite so tempestuous. . . I will bear in mind your hint as to Charleston, and do not think 'salt ' will be necessary. When I move, the fifteenth Corps will be on the right of the right wing, and their posi- tion will naturally bring them into Charleston first; and, if you have watched the his- tory of the corps, you will have remarked that they generally do their work pretty well. The truth is, the whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South Carolina. I almost tremble at her fate, but feel that she deserves all that seems in store for her. . . I look upon Columbia as quite as bad as Charleston, and I doubt if we shall spare the public buildings there as we did at Milledgeville."
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