[Illustration: Georgia in the War 279]
When the Southern Confederacy was organized at Montgomery, Ala., there
was great enthusiasm all over the South, especially in Georgia; and this
feeling kept up until the State had given to the Confederate armies
a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers, twenty thousand more than its
voting population. By reason of the fame and number of its public men,
Georgia had a controlling influence in the organization of the new
government. Howell Cobb was president of the convention of the seceded
States that met in Montgomery on the fourth day of February, 1861;
and it is well known that the convention itself was in favor of making
Robert Toombs president of the provisional government that was there
formed. Mr. Toombs, however, expressly forbade the use of his name.
The Georgia delegates then concluded to support Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi for president, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia for
vice-president.
Only a few men doubted that the South would conquer the North, and
among these was Herschel V. Johnson. There was an idea abroad, that one
Southerner could whip a dozen Northerners. Nobody knows how this idea
got out, nor why the absurdity of it was not plain to all; but the
newspapers were full of it, and the speech makers insisted on it so
roundly that the people began to believe it. One orator declared that he
could take one company of "Southrons," arm them with popguns, and run a
regiment of Yankees out of the country. Another stated that he would
be willing to drink all the blood that would be shed as the result
of secession. It is said that both of these orators were asked for an
explanation by their constituents after the war was over. The first
said that the reason he didn't run the Yankees out of the country with
popguns was because they wouldn't fight that way. The second one, who
had promised to drink all the blood, said that exposure in camp had
interfered with his digestion, and his appetite wasn't as good as it
ought to be.
At this time and afterwards there was an overwhelming sentiment in favor
of the Union in some parts of North Georgia. The people of that section
had few slaves, and the arguments in favor of the protection of slavery
in the Territories did not appeal to them: consequently they were
opposed to secession. There was but one thing that prevented serious
trouble between these Union men and the State government, and that
was the fact that Joe Brown was governor. He knew the North Georgians
thoroughly, and he knew precisely how to deal with them. General
Harrison W. Riley, a leading citizen of Lumpkin County, declared that
he intended to seize the mint at Dahlonega, and hold it for the United
States. This threat was telegraphed to Governor Brown by some of the
secession leaders in that part of the State, and they appealed to him to
send troops to Dahlonega at once, and seize the mint by force. But the
governor knew Riley and the people of North Georgia too well to make any
show of force. He knew that any such demonstration would excite sympathy
for Riley, and inflame the Union sentiment there.. So Governor Brown
wrote to some of Riley's friends, telling them what he had heard, and
saying that he had known General Riley too long, and had too high an
opinion of his good sense and patriotism, to believe the report. At the
same time the governor informed the superintendent of the mint that the
State of Georgia now held that institution. The superintendent said he
was willing to act under the orders of the governor.
At Jasper, the county seat of Pickens County, the feeling of loyalty to
the Union was very strong. The delegate from that county to the State
convention had refused to sign his name to the ordinance of secession.
Soon after the State had seceded, the citizens of Jasper planted a pole,
and raised on it a United States flag, and kept it floating there for
several weeks in open defiance of the Confederate and State authorities.
This was an event to be delicately handled. The slightest mistake would
have created a state of feeling in North Georgia that would have given
no end of trouble during the whole war. But the Union flag floating in
Pickens County irritated the rest of the State; and hundreds of appeals
were made to Governor Brown to send troops to Jasper, and have the flag
taken down by force. To these appeals he made but one response, and then
turned a deaf ear to all criticism. "Let the flag float there," he said.
"It floated over our fathers, and we all love the flag now. We have only
been compelled to lay it aside by the injustice that has been practiced
under its folds. If the people of Pickens desire to hang it out and keep
it there, let them do so. I shall send no troops to interfere with it."
While this wise management on the part of Governor Brown did not change
the sentiments of the Union men of North Georgia, it prevented any
serious outbreak, and kept them soothed and quieted throughout the war.
Matters were managed differently in East Tennessee; and the result
was, that the Union men of that section went into the business of
bushwhacking, and created a great deal of trouble. While Governor Brown
exercised authority without regard for precedent, the time and the
occasion being without precedent, he was very wise and very prudent in
meeting such emergencies as those that arose in North Georgia.
By the time the election for governor came on, Joe Brown had aroused a
good deal of opposition. He had had a controversy with the Confederate
authorities because the latter had enrolled troops from Georgia without
first making a requisition on the governor. He had seized several
cargoes of salt which the speculators had been holding for higher
prices. There was at that early day, and all during the war, a salt
famine in the South. The farmers found it difficult to save their meat,
owing to the scarcity of salt. It is a curious fact, that, when the
famine was at its height, a pound of salt was worth a pound of silver.
Foreseeing this famine, a great many shrewd business men had laid in
large stocks of salt, storing it about in large warehouses in different
parts of the State. They were about to realize immense fortunes out of
the sufferings of the people, when Governor Brown stepped in and seized
all the salt the State authorities could lay hands on, and prohibited
the shipment of the article out of the State. The Legislature afterwards
came to the support of the governor; but if the matter had been
discussed in the Legislature in advance of the action of the executive,
the speculators would have had timely notice, and the State authorities
would have found no salt to seize.
[Illustration: The Salt Famine 284]
This salt famine was almost as serious as any result of the war, and
it hung over the State until the close of the contest. In thousands of
instances the planters who had been prodigal of salt before the war, dug
up the dirt floors of their smokehouses, and managed to extract a small
supply of the costly article. The Legislature was compelled to
organize a salt bureau, and for that purpose half a million dollars was
appropriated. The State, in self-defense, took into its own hands the
monopoly of manufacturing salt and of distributing it to the people.
The next difficulty with which the people of Georgia had to contend was
the Conscription Act. This act passed the Confederate Congress in April,
1862. It had been recommended by Mr. Davis in a special message, and
Congress promptly passed it. Nobody in Georgia could understand why
such a law had been recommended, or why it had passed. It was the most
ruinous blunder of the Confederate Government during the war. If such a
law was necessary, it showed that the Confederacy had fallen to pieces.
If it was not necessary, its enactment was a stupendous piece of
folly; and such it turned out to be. Under the last call for troops
for Confederate service, Governor Brown had no difficulty in furnishing
eighteen regiments. He could have gone on furnish ing troops as long as
there was any fighting material left in the State; but as soon as the
Conscript Act went into operation, the ardor of the people sensibly
cooled. The foolish law not only affected the people at home, but hurt
the army in the field. It was a reflection on the patriotism of the
whole Southern population. The law was the occasion of a controversy
between Governor Brown and President Davis, in which Brown, in the
nature of things, had a decided advantage; for the Conscript Act wiped
out the whole theory of State rights, on which the people of the South
depended to justify secession. But Georgia did not stand in the way of
the law. It was enforced, and the terms of its enforcement did the work
of disorganization more thoroughly than the hard times and the actual
war were doing it.
In March, 1863, the governor issued a proclamation convening the
Legislature in special session to discuss the subject of bread. This was
a very important subject at that time. In his message, the governor said
that the time had come for the farmers to raise bread instead of cotton.
He also laid before the Legislature' the reports of the distribution of
the fund of two and a half millions of dollars for the support of the
indigent families of soldiers. These reports showed what havoc the war
had created among the people of a State which, not much more than two
years before, was one of the most prosperous in the country. The fund
had been distributed among more than eighty-four thousand people.
Of this number, about forty-six thousand were children, twenty-four
thousand were kinswomen of poor living soldiers, eight thousand were
orphans, four thousand were widows of dead soldiers, and five hundred
were soldiers disabled in service. Governor Brown, out of his own barn,
gave the people of Cherokee County four thousand dollars' worth of corn.
These events show the straits to which the people had been reduced by
two years of actual war.
It should be borne in mind, however, that the people had to fight the
Union army in front, and the speculators and extortioners in the
rear. Governor Brown tried hard to make the lives of this latter class
entirely miserable, and he succeeded in a way that delighted the people.
Wherever he could get his hands on a speculator or extortioner, he shook
him up. He made many seizures, and confiscated the hoards of a great
many men who had influence with some of the newspapers; and in this way
life in the State was made almost as exciting as the experience of the
soldiers at the front.
In 1863, Governor Brown wanted to retire from office. The strain on
his health and strength had been very severe, and he felt that he was
breaking down. He wanted to make Toombs, who was then a general in the
army, his successor. But Brown's friends insisted that he should make
the race. The public opinion of Georgia and of the whole South
insisted on it. So he became a candidate for a fourth term. He had two
opponents,--Joshua Hill, who had been a strong Union man; and Timothy
Furlow, who was an ardent secessionist and a strong supporter of the
Confederate administration; but Governor Brown was elected by a large
majority over both candidates.
The war went steadily on, and during the year 1864 Georgia became the
battle ground,--the strategic point. This fact the Union commanders
realized very early, and began their movements accordingly. Virginia
was merely the gateway to the Confederacy, but Georgia was very near
the center of its vitality. This was shown by the fact that when Atlanta
fell, and Sherman began his destructive march to the sea, it was known
on all sides that the Confederate Government was doomed. This movement,
strange to say, was hastened by the Confederate authorities. General
Joseph E. Johnston, one of the greatest commanders of the war, was
removed at a critical moment, when his well-disciplined army had reached
Atlanta. He was ordered from Richmond to turn his army over to the
command of General Hood, and within a very few days the fate of
the Confederacy had been decided. Hood at once ordered an attack on
Sherman's lines. He was repulsed, and then compelled to evacuate the
city. General Sherman detached General Thomas from his main army to
follow Hood on his march toward the Tennessee, and moved across the
State to Savannah. Within a very few months thereafter the war was
brought to a close. Colonel I. W. Avery, in his "History of Georgia,"
says that on the thirty-first day of December, 1864, one dollar in gold
was worth forty-nine dollars in Confederate money. The private soldier
received eleven dollars of this money for a month's service. He could
buy a pound of meat with his month's pay. He could buy a drink of
whisky, and have one dollar left over. With four months' pay he could
buy a bushel of wheat. General Toombs once humorously declared that
a negro pressman worked all day printing money, and then until nine
o'clock at night to pay himself off. There was a grain of truth in this
humor,--just enough to picture the situation as by a charcoal sketch.