Contents

• Captain Edward White – Marvin Sowder
  
• Ainsworth Emery Blunt – Joanne Lewis
  
• General Duff Green – Anita Thornton
  
• The Legend of Charles Prater – Judson Manly, Jr.
  
• Joseph John Martin and the Tilton Armory – Marvin Sowder
  
• Joseph Emerson Brown – Dr. John Fowler
  
• John Brown and The Rest of the Story – Robert Jenkins
  
• Varina Howell Davis, First Lady of the Confederacy – Kathryn Sellers
  
• William P. Chester, Confederate Postmaster, Dalton, GA. – Marvin Sowder
  
• The Reverend Clisby Austin Sr. of Tunnel Hill, Georgia – Marvin Sowder
  
• General Joseph E. Johnston: A Tribute Part One – Dr. Elizabeth Hoole McArthur
• General Joseph E. Johnston: A Tribute Part Two – Dr. Elizabeth Hoole McArthur
• A Brigadier General from North Georgia – Dr. Elizabeth Hoole McArthur
• C.B. Wellborn, Mayor of Dalton – Marvin Sowder
• Captain James Morris & The W&A Hotel – Marvin Sowder
• Carl Franz August Rauchenburg – Kurt Graham

by Joanne Lewis

      Who was Ainsworth Emery Blunt, the blue eyed third son of John and Sarah Eames Blunt, born in Amherst, New Hampshire, on February 27, 1800? Over and over again we hear he was Dalton’s first Postmaster, first Mayor, and a founder of the first Presbyterian Church. This does not really tell us enough about this man who stood out among the pioneer families of Dalton.

Following his education in Amherst, Blunt moved to Boston to work in his brother’s store. Here he learned of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, applied for a position, and at age twenty-two was chosen to help educate and Christianize the Cherokees living at Brainerd Mission in Tennessee. In his diary, he writes that he was called by the voice of God to labor among the Cherokees. He did not feel that his parents or his brothers prayed enough. He hoped that becoming a missionary would bring the blessing of God on his family and remove the curse long held against it. The nature of this curse is not known.

Ainsworth Emery Blunt

by Anita Thorton

      “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is certainly a quote that aptly describes General Duff Green. By appearance, the General was a tall, lanky man with a long white beard and small, sharp, dark eyes. Over the years, he was occasionally described as an uneducated frontiersman, hot-tempered, and prone to fisticuffs. Actually, Green was well-educated, versed in politics, law and economics as well as a shrewd businessman.

Duff Green was born August 15, 1791 in Wofford County, Kentucky. He served in the Kentucky Militia during the War of 1812, and led the Missouri Brigade in the Indian Campaign. During his military service, Green earned the rank Brigadier General and nickname of “General”. While living in Missouri, he started his vocation as a school teacher. In 1820, Green was elected to the Missouri State House of Representatives, followed by a term in the State Senate. Thus, he began his career and fascination with politics.

Later, General Green moved to Washington, DC and purchased the “United States Telegraph”. He employed his persuasive editorial powers to help Andrew Jackson win the 1828 Presidential election. Green was an influential member of President’s Jackson’s inner-circle, which was often referred to as Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet.

Most assumed that Green not only shared Jackson’s pioneering spirit but his political views as well. Actually, Green’s support was purely the art of a political deal. The General’s true loyalties were to Jackson’s Vice President, John C Calhoun. As part of the political deal and alignment, Jackson had pledged to support Calhoun for president following Jackson’s own two terms in office. However, Old Hickory switched horses mid-stream or more accurately, Vice Presidents – Jackson ousted Calhoun and selected Martin Van Buren as his next VP – and the rest is history. This ended Jackson’s and Green’s political relationship, but Green continued his high-ranking influence by serving as an advisor on the Annexation of Texas and a delegate to England.

Railroads and gambling brought Duff Green south to Dalton, Georgia. Above all, Green was an entrepreneur and was willing to take a gamble for a fast dollar on a business deal. Duff came to this area in 1851 to take advantage of the building of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad from Knoxville that would connect with the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Knowing the importance of the land surrounding the tracks, he made strategic land purchases. As Dalton grew he profited from his investments. Green donated land for many public projects, including the land that was dedicated for West Hill Cemetery.

Green maintained his friendship with the South Carolinian, John Calhoun. As tensions between the North and South grew and the secessionists pushed for independence, Green is quoted as stating, “The Union is dear to us, but liberty is dearer.” For him, the central issue was not slavery, but State’s rights and a smaller Federal Government. Green supported the Confederacy by organizing three iron manufacturing plants to produce iron, nails, horseshoes, and rails to support the Confederate Army. In 1862, he and his son, Ben, established the Dalton Arms Company.

War raged all around Dalton and many landmarks were completely demolished; however, Green’s beautiful home place, Hopewell, survived. After the war ended, because of his significant financial contributions to the Confederacy, Green had to personally appeal to President Andrew Johnson for a pardon and pay a $20,000 fine. Green’s waning years were occupied with writing and speaking engagement primarily on the economic issues of his day. Green died June 10, 1875 surrounded by his beloved family and was buried in West Hill Cemetery.

General Duff Green

By Judson Manly, Jr.

John Pitner was my ancestor who had settled near Cohutta in 1837 in what is now Whitfield County. He apparently had a special relationship with his slaves whom he called “servants” in his will.

“The Legend of Charles Prater” maintains that Charles was a Cherokee Indian boy whose parents chose to legally stay in Georgia by voluntarily becoming slaves of a white settler who was John Pitner.

Charles must have had two or more siblings, since the 1840 census for John Pitner’s slaves showed one older adult male and one adult female under 25 and three children under ten. Shortly afterwards John received some more slaves. His older brother Elias Pitner had left Sevier County earlier and had been a white planter in Troup County, Georgia in 1830 and Cass County (now Bartow) Georgia in 1834. Presumably the land lottery interfered financially and Elias moved to Bradley County, Tennessee by the 1840 census. I have John Pitner’s 1842 Will showing that John was in poor health, and he instructed the Executors to settle with Elias in some way for the slaves “he got of him.” The number of slaves was not listed and they were probably acquired by John in 1840 or 1841.

The 1850 census showed seven living, at least temporarily, with the Pitner family of four. Some must have been involved in the building of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad that ran adjacent or through Pitner land. They included a 24- year -old farmer born in North Carolina, a 30-year-old stonemason and his wife born in New York and Vermont, a 32-year-old engineer and his wife born in Tennessee, a 21-year-old assistant engineer born in New York, and a 24-year-old salesman born in Tennessee. The first track was laid for this railroad about six months later on January 1, 1851. With fifteen slaves the Pitners had twenty-six people living at their farm. The number of “slaves” is misleading since only four males were age twelve or more. The ages of the male slaves were 34, 16, 14, 12, 8, 1, 1 and 2/12 with females 39, 19, 14, 4, 3, and 3.

In 1854 during the last year of John Pitner’s life, he financed and collaborated with his new son-in-law Ben Prater in a family project to build what is now Prater’s Mill. John’s slaves were used to build the mill. Charles should have been the sixteen-year-old in the 1850 census. Charles married the African slave Rebecca and they were willed to Ben Prater. After the Civil War, Ben gave land to his former slaves. They chose the name Prater and have been valued citizens. Mr. Billie Prater, who is descended from the original slave child, Charles and his wife Rebecca, still lives here.

As a descendant of John Pitner, I was recently able to publicly convey my thanks to him in 2010 for his Prater Mill volunteer efforts to preserve the mill “OUR” ancestors built. The fascinating story of the three Prater families inspired Richard Kent Streeter to write the song “The Legend of Charles Prater”. After Sonja Hall heard the story, she wrote a play also called “The Legend of Charles Prater” that is performed at the Prater’s Mill Country Fair each fall.

By Marvin Sowder

Tilton, Georgia, was a thriving little town in the early 1860’s and was situated along the Western & Atlantic Railroad in southern Whitfield County. Several essential services were provided there to the surrounding farming community. There were two resident physicians, two school teachers, three ministers, a brick mason, stone mason, carpenter, miller, wheelwright, dry goods and grocery store merchants, two gunsmiths and five blacksmiths. While the community was comprised mostly of farmers, still many others worked for the railroad in varying capacities.

One of the blacksmith shops was owned and operated by Joseph John (J.J.) Martin (1813 – 1884). In 1854 J.J. Martin, his wife Jane Thurman Martin and their four children moved from Atlanta and eventually to a farm in Whitfield County located in the bend of the Conasauga River above Tilton. He sold this farm in 1858 and purchased a home in Tilton and another farm directly across the river from Tilton in Murray County Georgia. The home in Tilton faced east on the newly completed railroad and was operated by the Martins as an inn and “eating house” where the crews and passengers from the trains stopped  to rest and dine.

On August 12,1862, the Confederate Government paid J.J.Martin $24.30 for boarding three men from Company A, 9th Georgia Battalion for eight days. They had been ordered there by General Braxton Bragg to guard the railroad bridge across Swamp Creek.

J.J.Martin was a blacksmith and a proficient gunsmith. His shop was a short distance northwest of his home facing the Spring Place Road. It was here that he trained his two older sons, Micajah David Martin (1841 – 1909) and William Henry Martin (1842 – 1895) in the trade.

A reference is made in the Cyclopedic History of Georgia about an armory located at Tilton, Georgia. “The armory at Tilton turned out a large number of swords and sabers for the Confederate services.” This statement is supported by granddaughter Eulalie Martin Lewis in her chronology of the Martin family history. She adds, “The armory was in my grandfather’s blacksmith shop. He, with the assistance of a few other men who were too old for military service, manufactured these weapons.”

On February 20,1862, Governor Joseph Brown of Georgia issued an executive letter addressed to the mechanics of Georgia with a patriotic appeal to the artisans of the state (e.g. machine shops and blacksmiths) to make ten thousand Georgia Pikes with a six foot staff and an accompanying steel knife with an eighteen inch blade weighing about three pounds. These were to be used to arm his Georgia Troops when no firearms were available. In a Confederate Ordnance Letter Book for Georgia 1862, J.J.Martin is shown to have sold to the state of Georgia at least twelve pikes as part of the governor’s plea.

At other times in his nearby gun shop, handmade guns, though not for military use, were made by J.J.Martin and his son William Henry Martin. There is in the Virginia Historical Society collection a rare example of a Tilton Rifle. It appears to be made from old parts. It has an unmilitary type lockplate marked, “Tilton, Ga. 1861.” It has a walnut stock with a shotgun trigger guard and buttplate made of brass, two barrel bands and front sight also of brass. It is a model 1841, .58 caliber with an overall length of forty eight and three quarter inches. It is uncertain how many Tilton Rifles were produced but one or two others are still around.

On April 20,1861, Micajah D. Martin, the eldest son of J.J.Martin, enlisted in Company D, 2nd Battalion Georgia Infantry at Griffin Georgia. He was promoted to First Sergeant in 1863 and was captured at Gettysburg on July 2,1863, and sent to Fort Delaware, then transferred to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, March 2,1864, and three days later he was forwarded to New York and released on his oath. After the war he settled in Monroe County, Arkansas.

On March 10,1862, William Henry Martin, second son of J.J.Martin, enlisted in Company B,39th Georgia Volunteer Infantry at Dalton. He was wounded at Vicksburg and later captured at Franklin, Tennessee, December 17,1864. He was released from Camp Chase, Ohio, on his oath May 16,1865 and returned home to Tilton.

On August 1,1863, J.J. Martin enlisted as a Tilton Volunteer in Company B, 1st Georgia Volunteer Infantry, State Guards for six months. He did this duty up till October 11,1863 at which time he was detailed as Post Master at Tilton. Company B mustered out of service January 31,1864.

The Martin family then packed their belongings and removed to Randolph County, Georgia, until after the war. There are many stories to be told about the war and its effects on the citizens of the Tilton community.

by Dr. John Fowler

     Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1895) was one of the most controversial and important politicians to serve Georgia. He led the state as governor during the crucial period of secession and the Civil War (1857-1865), and he is the only man ever to have been elected to four terms in that office. He also served as circuit judge, state senator, U.S. senator, and chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.

Brown was born in Pickens County, South Carolina, in 1821, but his family moved to Union County in North Georgia in 1840. Brown returned to his native state of South Carolina to attend school but returned to Canton, Georgia, afterward to accept a position as a headmaster. Ambitious and eager for advancement, he decided to seek a law degree from Yale in the late 1840s, again returning to North Georgia upon graduation to practice law, marry, and rear a family. Brown’s passion for politics blossomed shortly thereafter.

He was elected to the state senate in 1849 and quickly emerged as a leader in the Democratic Party. He won elections first as a state circuit court judge in 1855 and then as governor in 1857. As governor, he committed himself to the plight of the common people, which heralded his popularity among the middle and lower classes. By championing the causes of ordinary whites, Brown easily won a second term in 1859. The growing divide between the North and South, however, soon clouded his agenda.

The secession of South Carolina precipitated a contentious debate among Georgia politicians as to which course the state should follow. Governor Brown advocated secession strongly and worked tirelessly to sever Georgia’s ties to the Union. After much debate, delegates to a state convention approved an ordinance of secession by a final vote of 208-89 on January 19, 1861. Georgia left the old Union, following South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.

Anxious to protect Georgia from possible federal attack, Brown sought and received funds from the state legislature to equip a military force and issued orders to seize Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah River, the federal mint at Dahlonega, and the arsenal at Augusta. Brown’s ardent belief in states’ rights drove him to support secession. His fear of centralized authority, however, meant that he would also resist the Confederate government’s efforts to consolidate power even during the national emergency of war.

Brown loathed Jefferson Davis, going so far as to denounce him as a tyrant. The first disputes over controlling and equipping Georgia forces escalated in April 1862 when Brown directly and openly challenged the new Confederate draft. Despite a lack of support by the state supreme court and the legislature, Governor Brown continually worked to create a state military force exempted from the ever-expanding draft. He also opposed the army’s impressment of goods and slave laborers. In essence, even though Brown vehemently supported secession, his stance on states’ rights showed no bias to the Confederate government. Throughout the war, he continued to frustrate Confederate efforts to seize the Western and Atlantic Railroad and to impose occasional martial law, to bitterly criticize Confederate tax and blockade-running policies, and to vigorously denounce the Confederacy’s belated plan to arm slaves in exchange for their freedom. Brown’s obstinance to the Confederate government was balanced by his benevolence to the citizens of Georgia.

Under Brown, the state established a welfare system that supplied necessities such as salt for meat curing to needy families. This support paid off when Georgians and their families reelected him in 1861 and again in 1863. Yet, his strong affinity for his state inevitably hurt the Confederate war effort time and again, especially his calls for peace. Following the war, Federal authorities imprisoned Brown briefly in Washington, D.C. Upon his release, he lost no time in rebuilding his career and amassing a fortune. He served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 1865 to 1870, resigning to take over as president of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. He began investing in stocks and bonds and engaging in real estate development across the state. He supported President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction policy, even becoming a Republican “scalawag” for a time.

After Reconstruction, he returned to the Democratic Party and dominated Georgia politics for decades by joining fellow Atlantans Alfred H. Colquitt and John B. Gordon in what was known as the “Bourbon Triumvirate.” This group, like other “Bourbons or Redeemers” across the South, sought to reestablish the power and influence of former Confederates in state politics. After serving two terms in the U.S. Senate in 1880 and 1885, Brown finally retired from public office in 1891 due to poor health. He died in 1894 in Atlanta and was buried in Oakland Cemetery. His son, Joseph Mackey Brown, followed in his father’s footsteps and served as a two-term governor of Georgia.

A consummate politician with a gift for expediency, Brown managed his career and business interests with a savvy that few could equal.

Joseph Emerson Brown

by Robert Jenkins

For Dalton shopkeeper Kathy Jenkins, who owns and operates the Toys in the Attic stores in Dalton, the name John Brown sparks a wide range of emotions.

The name of John Brown, the famous or infamous Abolitionist who is largely credited for igniting the fires which led to the Civil War, still sparks today intense feelings among Americans both pro and con.  Whether he is remembered as a martyr or a murderer depends upon your point of view.  History has mostly remembered the name John Brown as a man ahead of his time – one who understood that it would take much bloodshed to rid the nation of the evils of slavery – and history proved him right.  Even the founding father and our third President, Thomas Jefferson, understood that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” written a half-century before the struggle which would become America’s greatest test.      Perhaps Jefferson understood that the issue of slavery could never be resolved without bloody conflict.  Perhaps Jefferson could never reconcile with his own inner conflict, for while he lived in the luxury provided by the institution of slavery – and maintained a life-long love affair and fathered several children with one of his slaves – he also wrote of the horrors of the “institution,” a polite term used to hide the ugliness of the means for his Southern agrarian society.  But whether Jefferson ever imagined that a civil war over the institution of slavery would tear apart the very nation that he and so many others risked it all to create, John Brown certainly did – he longed for it – and when it would not come quickly enough for him, he set about to start the war one way or another.     One way John Brown tried to ignite a national war was to initiate bloodshed in “Bleeding Kansas,” a term which he helped create though his actions.  After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces from the North and South poured into the territories to try and tip the balance of power for their side.  While Nebraska was never really seriously considered open to slavery – it being too far North and too populated by free-soil Northerners already – Kansas was a different story.  Kansas was located west of the slave state Missouri, and it seemed to be ripe for pro-Southern expansion which would include the use of slavery.  For many in the North who abhorred the idea that slavery would expand any further than in the area it now covered, expansion of slavery was unthinkable.  A smaller, but much more vocal group in the North, did not believe that slavery in any form, or in any place in the country, should be allowed to continue for even one more day.  These people were called Abolitionists, and their mission was to abolish slavery whenever and wherever it could be done.     For decades, the fledgling nation had tip-toed around the questions of expansion of slavery and keeping a balance of power among the Southern and Northern states by reaching compromise after compromise, such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which enabled the slave state of Missouri to be admitted into the Union at the same time that the free state of Maine joined the Country.  In 1850, the Nation again avoided secession and war with the Compromise of 1850 which was designed to put an end once and for all to the question of the expansion of slavery in the Western Territories, but it only raised more questions than answers, and was the catalyst to the race for Kansas by both sides to determine its “popular sovereignty.”  Then, in 1854 came the Kansas-Nebraska Act, where the future of Kansas was up for grabs.  Enter John Brown.     As more and more settlers from both sides arrived in the Kansas Territory in the fall of 1855 and spring of 1856, tensions increased and several threats and demonstrations of force by both sides led to the sacking of Lawrence, a free-soil community, and to the killing of a free-soil man, Thomas Barber.  John Brown decided that his side had waited long enough and that it was time to act and retaliate.      So, on the night of Saturday, May 24, 1856, Brown and a group of anti-slavery militia which he termed the “Northern Army,” knocked on the door of the little cabin of James Pleasant Doyle, an Irish-American, who had come to Kansas the year before from Walker County, Georgia, near Chattanooga, following the dream of a new home and farm.  While Doyle and his family were Southerners, and they had traveled westward with a wagon train of pro-slavery settlers from Tennessee and were associated with some of the pro-slavery leaders who had been stirring up things in the territory, neither Doyle nor any of his family or neighbors owned any slaves and they were too poor to ever likely own any.  However, they felt just as threatened that their way of life – one of self-determination and local government without foreign intervention – was threatened by Northerners much the way that the Scottish and Irish had felt threatened by the British in “the old country.”  This thought pervaded among most Southerners and helped to provide reason far beyond the issue of slavery for Southerners to be wary of Northerners.  Doyle’s grandfather had come to America in the 1700’s and had fought for the American Colonies against England during the Revolution.  Doyle, a native of Knox County, Tennessee, had moved his family to Walker County, Georgia, below Chattanooga before migrating west to the Kansas Territory.  He never owned a slave, and none of his Doyle relatives ever owned a slave, but he was Pro-Southern.

A little after 10:00 P.M., Brown and his little army, which included two of his sons, called into the Doyle cabin, inquiring if one of the Southern leaders named Wilkerson was there or where his place was located.  When it was obvious that only the Doyle family was there and that they had all been asleep, Brown demanded that all of the men come out of the cabin.  James Pleasant Doyle and his three sons, William age 22, Drury age 20, and John C. age 17 all came outside.  James’ wife Mahala, with a little girl draped around her feet then begged John Brown to spare her youngest son, saying that “he’s all I’ve got.”  Brown agreed to her request and allowed the boy to return to the cabin and his mother.  The next morning, Mrs. Doyle and her younger children found the slain bodies of James and William about a hundred yards from the cabin along the road where they had been butchered with swords and scythes.  Young Drury had tried to run, and his body was not found until the next day when the odor of his remains took the family to the ravine where he, too, was struck down.  Additionally, during the night of the killings, Brown and his group subsequently went to two other cabins and killed two more men making the death toll five in what was to become known as the Pottawatomie Massacre.

Kathy Jenkins, who is half Irish-American and half Cherokee Indian Native American, is tied to the Doyle family.  Her full name is Kathleen Doyle Jenkins, her Doyle family having descended from the line of Doyles who were massacred at Pottawatomie Creek.  Actually, the Doyle cabin and the cabins of the other two men who were slain was located along the banks of the little Mosquito Creek, a tributary which flows into the Pottawatomie a little west of the village of Lane, Kansas.  After the massacre, the surviving Doyle family returned to the South and settled in the Tennessee Valley in Walker County, Georgia, below Chattanooga.  Mrs. Doyle was pregnant at the time of the massacre and gave birth to Miss May Doyle in Cass County, Missouri, on their journey back to Georgia.  “Miss May” later became Mrs. May Doyle Saunders of Chattanooga and the worst thing she would ever say was “I’ll be John Brown,” a popular expression shared by many Southerners over the years when expressing their dissatisfaction over someone or something.

A few years later, Mahala Doyle and her son, John, received an invitation from Governor Henry Wise of Virginia to attend the hanging of John Brown at Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), and for John Doyle, who was now 20, to pull the pin to drop the gallows on Brown.  John Brown had just been captured after his attack on the United States’ Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia where Brown had hoped to start a slave revolt.  The citizens of Chattanooga raised the fare for Doyle’s train ticket and John was on his way, but a landslide between Morristown and Bristol prevented him from making it to the hanging.  Two years later, when the Civil War broke out, John Doyle, now 22, joined the 2^nd Tennessee Cavalry in June 1861, and he served with distinction with Wheeler’s Cavalry until the end of the war when he surrendered with his unit in May 1865 in North Carolina at the age of 26.

John C. Doyle returned to Walker County, Georgia, and resumed farming, married, and raised a family.  A year before he died, he answered a questionnaire from the Tennessee Civil War Veteran’s Project.  In it, John explained that he had been a stage coach driver and farmer prior to the war, and that during the war his mother lived in Chattanooga until 1863 when the town was shelled.  She then moved south to Chickamauga where Rosecran’s Yankee Army took all of her family’s food and destroyed everything they had on their retreat.  John also explained that “my father never owned a Negro and never expected to.  Brown simply murdered them (his father and brothers) because they were from the South.”  Ironically, had he and his family been left alone in Kansas, they probably would have either fought for the North or sat out the war.  He died on December 29, 1922 at the age of 84, and is buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Chattanooga.  And now you know, in the words of the famous columnist Paul Harvey, the rest of the story!

John Brown

John C. Doyle

By Kathryn Sellers

Varina Howell Davis, wife of Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, was a well-educated, refined woman from her home plantation, The Briers, near Natchez, Mississippi.  She was very cultured for the day, speaking French, playing the piano and becoming fascinated with politics and current affairs.  After their first meeting at his older brother’s plantation, the Hurricane, Davis was taken by Varina’s beauty and intelligence and only two months later she and Davis were engaged.   Jefferson Davis was 18 years her senior and a widower, and her family was resistant to the marriage although they knew the two were very much in love.

Jefferson intended to live the life of a planter, but shortly after their marriage in 1845,  entered politics, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, and later as senator and secretary of war.  Varina executed her social duties beautifully as hostess to dignitaries, even helping him write his speeches and letters.  Although she believed strongly in the Whig party, she gave up those beliefs for the Democratic views of her husband.

As the Civil War approached, Jefferson Davis resigned his seat in the Senate.  Mrs. Davis was deeply alarmed by the secession crisis, and by the summer of 1860, she was aware that Jefferson was being considered as a possible head of the seceded states.  Of secession, she told a friend that “the whole thing is bound to be a failure.”   She was both pro-Union and pro-slavery, so if she had had the right to vote, she probably would have voted for the pro-Union Southerner John Bell in the presidential election of 1860.

Shortly after returning to their Mississippi plantation, Davis became the President of the Confederate States of America.  Varina proved to have immeasurable inner fortitude as Jefferson had not wanted the presidency and she thought he didn’t have the right temperament for the job.  Their lives changed as they moved first to Montgomery, Alabama, the temporary capital, and then to Richmond, Virginia, the permanent capital.  In June 1861, she confided to her mother that the South did not have the resources to win the war, but she had to do her duty; when it was all over, she said, she would “run with the rest.”

Her new role as first lady in Richmond was at first comfortable as the Confederacy was enjoying much public support and adulation.  Because she knew that trials of his office would affect his “super-sensitive temperament,” she cared for their children, one of whom tragically fell to his death from their balcony.  She also constantly tended to her sickly husband and helped manage many of his official affairs.  Her influence over her  husband was such that some commanders and cabinet ministers “took pains to cultivate her good will.”

During the second year of the war, as living conditions deteriorated and commodities became scarce, people began to speak out and criticize the President and the first lady.  While acknowledging her intelligence, critics claimed she put on airs, and that she wasn’t as well-read as she claimed.  She was accused of being uncouth and domineering, having far too much influence over the President.  Some accused her of entertaining too lavishly in such trying times, more in the style of the Yankee capital of Washington, while others thought she was too skimpy and accused her of hoarding the President’s salary.  Some even questioned her loyalty to the Confederacy.  Her cordial remarks about her Northern friends and relatives made her unpopular, as did the rumor that she corresponded with them – a charge that was, in fact, true.

All during this war time, she supported Jefferson, cared for the children, and did what she thought was her duty for the Confederacy and her husband.  She endured the criticism and continued to support the troops.  She knitted countless articles of clothing for soldiers, donated rugs for blankets and made shoes of the scraps.  She spent hours visiting both Northern and Southern wounded soldiers in the hospitals although she did not serve as a volunteer nurse as her husband requested.

Following Jefferson Davis’s arrest at the end of the Civil War, Varina and the children were sent to Savannah and were placed under house arrest and forbidden to leave the city.  She rarely ventured out, but allowed her children out until they were treated cruelly by Union supporters.  She sent them to Canada with her mother and then set about tirelessly petitioning to gain her beloved husband’s release from prison as she worried for his health.  For a while she was allowed to join him in prison because he was  emaciated from poor prison conditions.  He was finally released in May 1867 and they returned to Mississippi to, Beauvoir, an estate that was inherited from a friend.  The Davises struggled for a few years as Jefferson unsuccessfully tried to establish himself as a businessman.  After her husband’s death in 1889, Varina wrote her memoir, Jefferson Davis: A Memoir.   In doing so, she reiterated her love for him and her constant concern for his worry about the country.  She also said that her husband’s temperament was not suited for political office as he was so determined to do the right thing and did not have the ability to compromise.

Varina sold most of the property of Beauvoir to the Mississippi division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and stipulated in her agreement that Beauvoir be used as a home for Confederate veterans and widows and be preserved as “a perpetual memorial sacred to the memory of Jefferson Davis” and the Confederate cause.  It houses the Jefferson Davis library and memorabilia of Civil War times.  She later moved to New York, where she supported herself as a writer until her death in 1905.

Varina Howell Davis, First Lady of the Confederacy

Beauvoir, the last home of the President and Varina Davis, near Biloxi on the Gulf coast, is on the US National Register of Historic Places and a US National Historic Landmark, and is still open to the public.  It sustained severe damage in Hurricane Katrina and has been partially restored.

By Marvin Sowder

In 1848, several important events took place in Northwest Georgia. The new town of Dalton was chartered and the Western & Atlantic Railroad tracks were completed as far as Dalton. Work began on a railroad tunnel through Chetoogeta Mountain and a small village sprang up at the western end of the proposed project. Work crews and supporting infrastructure including mechanics, merchants, blacksmiths, tavern keepers and railroad bosses all moved in. Later that year, the little village was incorporated as Tunnelsville, Georgia, and remained so for the next eight years. During this era of change and development the forty-six year old Reverend Clisby Austin, a farmer and business man from east Tennessee, appeared on the scene.

Who was Clisby Austin? He was born in Morristown, Tennessee, the son of Archibald and Rebecca Austin, in January 1802. Twenty years later he married Sarah Robertson and moved to Hawkins County, Tennessee. Sarah died in 1842, leaving twelve children behind. In a few months, Austin married Jane Ann Hammond, and they moved to Murray County, Georgia, which included the land which is now Whitfield County.  He purchased one hundred and sixty acres and established himself as a farmer. By 1850, Austin opened a store in Tunnelsville and his eighteen year old son, James C. Austin,  clerked there. In May of 1850 the first train passed through the tunnel and the town was on the move. The new County of Whitfield was created and Dalton became the county seat. By this time, Tunnelsville had added a new depot, hotel, several mercantile stores, and a school, and in 1856 it was chartered as Tunnel Hill, Georgia. Austin now owned three hundred and twenty acres and a nice new two story brick home he called “Meadowlawn.” It is still standing today and known as the Austin House.

In the summer, people from the coast of Georgia known as “low landers” would visit Tunnel Hill and stay for weeks at a time, often at the Austin House. A board walk ran from the depot platform to the steps of the Austin House for easy access. Austin also served as Post Master for a while. In a letter to his daughter he wrote, ” I surely am the best situated that I ever was in my life. I feel thankful to the Good Lord. I see nothing on earth as yet to make me think I shall ever move from this place.”  Austin added, “We have a splendid Sunday School of over one hundred scholars.” In 1858, the Tunnel Hill Methodist Church was organized and a two story brick building was erected with funds supplied by Reverend Clisby Austin. The Tunnel Hill Masonic Lodge #202 occupied the second floor.

The hotel he built was run by his daughter and son in law, Rebecca and George Lacy. In 1860 he had three sons at home, Frederick 14 years, Clisby Jr.13 years, and Henry 11 years old. He hoped that Frederick would run his store when he became of age. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Austin’s desire to remain in the Union was well known in the community.  He had prospered in the South, however, and owned two adult couples as slaves and their two children. His son James C. was a member of the Tunnel Guards and he had seven sons-in-law serving the South.

Rev. Austin witnessed the chase of the General as it rushed by his home in April of 1862. Soon thereafter at his hotel, he boarded five men of Company A 9th Georgia Battalion for eight days while they guarded the railroad tunnel. On July 13, 1862, Austin sold his farm and all his holdings in Tunnel Hill and began the process of moving back to Hawkins County, Tennessee, leaving his older children and grand-children behind.

Why did Austin feel compelled to leave Tunnel Hill soon after the Andrews Raid?  Could it have been to remove his three young sons out of harm’s way? In the May 2nd 1861 session of Whitfield County Superior Court, the Grand Jury entered a True Bill of the State v. Clisby Austin on a charge of Assault and Battery. This charge was so out of character for the Reverend Clisby Austin.  Perhaps a threat was made against his home or family which could have provoked him to such an end? For whatever reason, Austin left Tunnel Hill in the summer of 1862 and never returned. There are records from east Tennessee where C. Austin supplied bacon and flour to the Confederate Commissary Department and thousands of wooden shoe pegs to the Quarter Master Department from September 1863 through June of 1864.  From the business district to the Methodist Church to the Masonic Hall to the Clisby Austin House, his legacy lives on today in Tunnel Hill, Georgia.

The Clisby Austin House

Rev. Clisby Austin

By Marvin Sowder

William P. Chester and his family moved to Cross Plains, now Dalton in the mid 1840’s from Spring Place, Georgia, and purchased the northeast corner lot on Hamilton and King Street.  Here he erected a large three story brick hotel and named it the “Chester House” where he continued in the hotel business, one in which he had begun with the Chester Inn during the 1830’s at Spring Place.  The Chester House was well known for its good food and many patrons dined there regularly. Mr. Chester was very active in community affairs and served as Trustee of the Dalton Academy in 1851.  He served as Judge of the Inferior Court and as Alderman on the Dalton City Council for a number of years.

Mr. Chester was appointed Post Master of Dalton on January 12, 1858 and ran the Post Office from the hotel.  Thus, you could have breakfast and pick up your mail with one visit. After Georgia seceded from the Union, Mr. Chester continued to serve as Post Master. After the war he spoke of his service in the following manner. “I discharged the duties of Post Master in good faith so long as the state remained in the Union. Immediately before the state seceded I wrote to the Department giving my opinion that the state would secede and asked for instructions but received no answer. When Georgia seceded I was continued in office under the United States government and was instructed to pay over all moneys of the office to mail contractors. I done [did] so and continued to pay over to the same being instructed by the Confederate authorities. I feel I acted in good faith to the powers as they instructed. Situated as I was I naturally went with my state.”

On October 16, 1861 the Confederate Government issued its first postage stamp. It was a green colored five cent stamp containing the portrait of President Jefferson Davis. This made him the first living American to appear on a postage stamp. Shortly after, they were being issued from the Chester House. Many startling events were to be witnessed from the Chester House during the next four years.

On August 30, 1863 Mr. Chester enlisted in Company H, 1st Regiment, Georgia State Guards, an independent company formed by Edward Harden for the defense of Dalton which was known as the Whitfield Defenders. It never left Dalton and was active at least to May of 1864.

The Confederate Army of Tennessee evacuated Dalton in May of 1864 and many of the citizens of Dalton who were able to do so moved south as well. It is thought the Chester family left about this time.

On June 21, 1865 William P. Chester sought a pardon and amnesty from his home in Palmetto, Georgia. In a letter to President Andrew Johnson he wrote, “I am and always have been a constitutional old line democrat. I believe in the Monroe Doctrine, my interests and feelings were with the South. I do not deny my position, I am now and ever expect to be a loyal constitutional citizen of the United States and proud of our institutions and government.” In asking for a pardon he stated, “I am sixty five years old and the fates of war have reduced me to almost penury and want. I have four widowed daughters and families to care for. I wish to have a clear record and if I can do something for my family, to do so.” He was given a full pardon on August 31, 1865 in Atlanta, Georgia. The Chester family returned to Dalton began to rebuild their lives.

Mrs. Chester died in 1877 and Mr. Chester passed away in 1886 in his eighty-fifth year. Both are buried in West Hill Cemetery, Dalton, Georgia.

William P. Chester, 1801-1866

First Confederate Postage Stamp (issued October 1861)

Part I:  The Idea and the Event

by Dr. Elizabeth Hoole McArthur

Today, in a little park in downtown Dalton at the intersection of Crawford and Hamilton Streets, a handsome bronze gentleman stands sixteen feet high, quietly presiding over an active business district. He has stood this way, frozen in time, since 1912—a full century.  Busy shoppers and hurried drivers rush by, sometimes giving him a nod, sometimes barely noticing his presence.

But that is about to change.

Now, after one hundred years, this veteran of the Mexican-American War, Seminole Wars, and American Civil War, who served as a brigadier general in the United States Army and, later, as a general in the Confederate States Army, will be honored once again.

On Saturday, October 20, 2012, the Private Drewry R. Smith Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, will sponsor a rededication of the General Joseph E. Johnston monument.  For the occasion the stately statue, which is owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, is being professionally restored by Ponsford Ltd., the largest conservation group in the southeast. The ceremony will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the monument on Crawford Street, followed by a reception from 11:00-12:00 at the Southern Railways Freight Depot. The public is cordially invited.

In 1912, when the Johnston monument was first dedicated, forty-seven years had passed since the Civil War.  The Girl Scouts had just been founded, the recent sinking of the Titanic still stirred strong emotions, Jim Thorpe was the hero of the Stockholm summer Olympics, and Woodrow Wilson was on the way to being elected to his first term as president.  It was a new century, and a new generation, with a new spirit.

Yet the Civil War was not forgotten, nor was the desire for veterans on both sides to be remembered and honored. “The war,” declared Dalton’s newspaper The North Georgia Citizen, “with its blighting desolation is gone….We are one people, and [along with others] we can say ‘there is no north, south, east or west,’ but it is fitting that those who made history…be remembered.”

Colonel Tomlinson Fort, former mayor of Chattanooga, had been the initial inspiration for the monument in a 1908 Memorial Day address in Dalton.  He had praised General Johnston as one of the greatest generals the world had ever seen, and expressed regret that there was no monument  to his memory.  He argued that Dalton was the proper place for the monument, as it was here Johnston had assumed command of the Army of Tennessee, reorganized it during the winter of 1864, and commenced his long retreat to Atlanta in the face of General William Sherman’s vastly superior Federal army.

The Bryan M. Thomas Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, had been organized ten years earlier, in 1898. Like most chapters of the U.D.C., it had arisen as an outgrowth of the Soldiers Aid Society, formed during the Civil War to care for soldiers, and the Ladies Memorial Association, formed after the war to care for graves and memorialize veterans.  Colonel Fort, who was a frequent and popular guest speaker for the chapter, challenged them to create the Johnston memorial.  When they   embraced his idea  later in 1908, he contributed the first $100 to initiate the project.  Sadly, he would not live to see its completion.

A concerted effort was  undertaken by chapter members over the next several years to raise the fund, with Mrs. F.W. Elrod, Mrs. F.E. Shumate, and Mrs. W.C. Martin serving as enthusiastic champions of the project.  The first $2000 was raised by private subscriptions, benefit entertainments, and sale of quilts and baked goods. The state legislature appropriated $2,500, and the City of Dalton and Whitfield County each contributed $250. . The total raised was $5300, covering not only the monument, but expenses for its proper presentation.

On Thursday, October 24, 1912, the statue of General Joseph Eggleston Johnston was unveiled in downtown Dalton. Visitors came from near and far, an estimated five thousand people attending the ceremonies. For a county of barely sixteen thousand at the time, it was a “mega” event. The Dalton newspaper declared it was “probably the largest gathering in the city’s history.”

Dalton was decked out in its finest holiday attire for the occasion. Businesses closed, and storefronts were decorated with United States and Confederate flags and bunting.  Newspaper headlines enthusiastically announced the event:  “Joseph E. Johnston Monument Unveiled with Appropriate Exercises Here Today,” “High Tribute Paid This Great Leader,” and “Visitors Thronged City.”

The day’s events included dignitaries not only from Dalton, but from surrounding towns. Distinguished guests included the niece and grand-niece of General Johnston (Mrs. Henry Lee and her daughter Miss Ann Mason Lee of Richmond), the editor of the Confederate Veteran (of Nashville), the mayor of Chattanooga, the sculptor (of Nashville and New York), an officer of the L&N Railroad (of Nashville), as well as others from Atlanta, Rome, and Chattanooga.

Kicking off the event was a luncheon for honored guests at the Elks’ Club.  A parade followed, forming at the courthouse, extending down King Street to Hamilton Street, then moving southward to the monument.  The long train included over one hundred veterans, followed by Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of the Confederate Veterans, Boy Scouts, school children, and decorated automobiles.

The exercises were conducted from a platform constructed in the rear of the monument in the center of Crawford Street.  Seating was provided for 1,500, but, with the huge crowds, many local citizens packed around the speaker’s stand and overflowed into adjoining streets and sidewalks.

The program began at 2:00 p.m. with band music, followed by an invocation offered by Rev. W.R. Foote of Dalton’s  First Methodist Church, a choral presentation of “How Firm a Foundation,” and a reading by renowned Dalton poet Robert Loveman of  his poem “The Ode to Joseph E. Johnston,” written specially for the occasion. The Hon. W.C. Martin, president of the Bank of Dalton, introduced the featured speaker, Judge Moses Wright of the Superior Court of Floyd County.  Judge Wright thrilled the audience with his remarks, referring to Johnston as “one of the genuinely great generals the world has produced.”

The sculptor of the monument, Miss Belle Kinney, shared the symbolism behind her design, and the monument was unveiled by Miss Suesylla Thomas, granddaughter of the General Bryan M. Thomas, for whom the local U.D.C. chapter was named.  The monument was then formally presented to the state and the city by State Senator M.C. Tarver and acceptance addresses were made by former Solicitor General S.P. Maddox and Mayor J.F. Harris, all of Dalton. Twelve crosses of honor were then presented to citizens who had contributed their time and talents.

From inception to fruition the Johnston monument had been the work of the Bryan M. Thomas chapter of the U.D.C. When this chapter was disbanded in 1976, the Private Drewry R. Smith chapter, chartered in 1986, carried on their work, nurturing and caring for the monument, which it continues today. The excellent historical records of the project were maintained through the years by the Georgia Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and are provided courtesy of the Dalton U.D.C. chapter.  The chapter invites everyone to share in this important part of Dalton’s history on Saturday, October 20, 2012.

Caption: “Miss Belle Kinney, Designer, at the Johnston Monument Dedication, Oct. 24, 1912. Credit for the image: “Courtesy of the Georgia Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy.”

 Part II:  The Statue and the Man

by Dr. Elizabeth Hoole McArthur

On Saturday, October 20, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. the stately statue of General Joseph E. Johnston, located in downtown Dalton, will be rededicated.

For one hundred years—since 1912—this impressive memorial to one of America’s finest generals has stood in a small park at the intersection of Crawford and Hamilton Streets.  Now, on its centennial anniversary, it will receive a special tribute once again.

On October 24, 1912, the day the monument was first dedicated, The North Georgia Citizen, Dalton’s newspaper, declared, “It has been stated… that he [Johnston] was the most successful strategic general of the Civil War, on either side. If General Sherman were alive no doubt he would bear witness to this fact, for it was Johnston who gave him the most trouble in his march to the sea.”

A native of Virginia, Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891) was a career army officer, trained as a civil engineer at West Point Military Academy. He was a veteran of the Mexican-American War, Seminole Wars, and the American Civil War, serving as a brigadier general in the United States Army and, later, as a general in the Confederate States Army.

During the Civil War Johnston commanded Confederate troops at First Manassas (Bull Run), defended the Confederate capital of Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, participated in the Vicksburg and Atlanta Campaigns in 1863 and 1864, and commanded Confederate forces in the Carolinas Campaign in 1865.

Dalton was considered a most fitting place to honor General Johnston’s memory, for it was here he was appointed on December 27, 1863, by Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, to command the Army of Tennessee, replacing General Braxton Bragg.

During the winter of 1864 in Dalton Johnston reorganized the dispirited army, strengthened discipline, and created a strong fighting machine.  The Confederate Veteran praised Johnston’s effectiveness, declaring, “[His] discipline was so thorough as to electrify the troops; and no matter whether advancing or retreating in the great Georgia campaign, the same implicit confidence was maintained that ‘Old Joe’ knew the best thing.”

Departing Dalton May 12, 1864, Johnston’s Army of Tennessee withdrew toward Atlanta in the face of successive flanking maneuvers by General William Sherman’s vastly superior  Federal forces. Though in retreat, it was to Johnston’s credit that Sherman progressed as slowly as he did, a point stressed by The North Georgia Citizen on the occasion of the 1912 dedication: “With a little handful of men, comparatively speaking, he menaced and harassed General Sherman, who had a vast army, until it must have seemed to him impossible to ever make the distance from Dalton to Atlanta, taking him something like a hundred days to go a hundred miles.”

Despite his best efforts, however, Johnston could not stop Sherman’s war machine, and President Jefferson Davis removed him from command just outside of Atlanta on July 17, 1864, replacing him with the more aggressive Lieutenant General John Bell Hood.  It was a decision that became one of the most controversial of the war.

Less than a year later, after General Lee was placed in command of all Confederate forces, he called Johnston from retirement to command the Army of Tennessee once again, along with an assortment of other units.  In March 1865, near Bentonville, North Carolina, Johnston gave his best, but, with scarcely 20,000 against Sherman’s 60,000, it was a futile, desperate, and final fight.

Following Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Johnston surrendered his Army of Tennessee and all Confederate forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, on April 26 near Durham, NC. His was the largest share of Confederate troops still in the field, and essentially brought the long war to an end.

In planning for the construction of their Johnston monument, the Bryan M. Thomas Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, considered numerous handsome proposals before awarding the contract for the design to Miss Belle Kinney, of Nashville and New York. Construction of the granite base was granted to the Southern Granite and Marble Company of Dalton, owned by Mr. H.P. Colvard, a decision that was most pleasing to local citizens.

The monument, including the base, stands sixteen feet in height, is of the same width, and is ten feet from front to the rear of the base. The figure was cast by Tiffany Studio of New York City in standard United States bronze, faces east, and stands at “parade rest.” The statue portrays General Johnston with an expression of deep thought, with his sword resting at his feet. Miss Kinney explained her reason for adopting the pose: “General Johnston, in command of an army vastly inferior in numbers to General Sherman’s army, had to use his brains more than his sword; hence I made the sword subservient to the brain.”

The base of Georgia granite forms a semi-circle rising in three tiers, gradually diminishing in size until reaching the block on which the figure rests. Two large arms carved in laurel leaves extend from the rear of the monument outward and forward, joining the base. At the front of the stone on which the statue rests, beneath a laurel wreath, is inscribed: “Joseph E. Johnston 1807-1891, Brigadier General, U.S.A., General C.S.A.  Given command of the Confederate forces at Dalton, in 1863, he directed the 79 days’ campaign to Atlanta, one of the most memorable in the annals of war.  Erected by Bryan M. Thomas Chapter United Daughters of Confederacy, Dalton, Georgia, 1912.”

After the war Johnston served briefly as president of the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad, then established a successful insurance company in Savannah.  He later moved to Richmond, was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1877, and was appointed U.S. Commissioner of Railroads in 1885 by President Grover Cleveland.

Johnston ultimately became close friends with both Ulysses Grant and William Sherman, both of whom he held in high esteem.   When Sherman died in 1891, he served as honorary pallbearer at his funeral in New York City.  It was a bitterly cold day, but Johnston, out of respect for his old friend, refused to don a hat. Because of the exposure he caught a serious cold and died of pneumonia a month later, on March 21, 1891.

For many years the Dalton monument to General Johnston was his sole memorial.  Then, during World War II, the United States Navy named a Liberty Ship (cargo vessel) in his honor, and in 2010 a statue was erected by the Sons of Confederate Veterans on private land near the Bentonville Battlefield in North Carolina.

The Dalton monument today is cared for and preserved by the Private Drewry R. Smith Chapter, U.D.C, which is sponsoring the event October 20, 2012.  The public is cordially invited to attend the ceremony honoring this distinguished veteran who played an important role in Dalton and Whitfield County’s history.  The program begins at 10:00 a.m. at the monument on Crawford Street, followed by a reception from 11:00-12:00 at the Southern Railways Freight Depot.

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston Statue
Photo by: Hal Jesperson

by Elizabeth Hoole McArthur

When the Civil War erupted in April 1861 thousands of Southern men raced off to join the Confederate army.  Most were young, naïve, daring, and enthusiastic.

One who joined the fight, however, a native son of north Georgia, was neither young nor naïve. Enlisting at age 55 on July 12, 1861, he was considerably older, and far more experienced, than most of his fellow Confederates.  Yet he was no less daring or enthusiastic in his support of the Southern cause.

He received his commission as colonel soon after enlistment and eventually rose to the rank of brigadier general.  An excellent soldier, outstanding leader, and fierce warrior, he was described as “zealous and able, diligent and attentive to orders and duties.”

Soldiers under his command saw action in August 1861 at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, a victory that guaranteed the South’s hold on southwestern Missouri and made him a Confederate hero. He and his men distinguished themselves in 1862 in Arkansas at the Battle of Pea Ridge, when they captured a Union battery and covered the Confederate withdrawal. His regiment participated in 1864 in the second battle at Cabin Creek, Oklahoma, considered the greatest victory in Indian Territory, capturing a Federal wagon train of about 300 wagons with over $1.5 million worth of supplies. One of his finest accomplishments was the 1864 capture of the Federal steamboat, the J.R. Williams, and its valuable cargo of quartermaster stores on the Arkansas River.

Over four years of war this extraordinary Confederate and his troops participated in eighteen battles,  and  many more skirmishes and raids, primarily west of the Mississippi River in the Indian Territory, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. His soldiers effectively diverted thousands of Union troops to the west, when they were desperately needed on the eastern front. So adamant were his loyalties to the Confederacy that he would be the last Confederate general to surrender, finally laying down his arms June 23, 1865.

Who was this famous Confederate general?  Many may recognize his name, though most likely in association with his other historic deeds. He was, in fact, a significant figure, even before the war began.

Born to a half-Cherokee, half-European, mother and a full-Cherokee father, his name at birth was Degadoga (sometimes spelled Degataga), meaning “stand firm” or “he stands.” When his father was baptized into the Moravian Church as David Watie (originally spelled Uwatie), he  was renamed Isaac S. Watie. He later combined his Cherokee and Christian names into the name by which he would be known to history: Stand Watie.

The son of a wealthy slave-owning planter, Watie  was born in 1806  near present-day Calhoun, Georgia.  He  was educated at the Moravian Mission School at Springplace (now Spring Place). The Moravians established the  mission near present-day Chatsworth in 1801, and a school soon thereafter. Native American elders welcomed the school, believing the best way to preserve their homeland and culture was to create a young educated elite to provide future leadership for their people.

To receive the full benefit of the school, most children boarded at Springplace. Some also attended classes at nearby schools, such as Brainerd. Stand and his brother Buck (later changed to Elias Boudinot) both benefitted from the mission’s training, and valued education throughout their lives. Elias eventually became editor of the bilingual newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, and Stand served as Clerk of the Cherokee Supreme Court and Speaker of the Cherokee National Council.

The discovery of gold in north Georgia in 1828 led to the encroachment of thousands of white settlers on Cherokee land. Despite  federal treaties and a Supreme Court ruling protecting Indians from state actions, Georgia confiscated most of their land in 1832.

Two factions quickly arose in the Cherokee Nation.  Some, called the “Treaty Party,” realizing the futility of resisting the movement, and fearing slaughter of their people, sought to compromise and negotiate the best possible terms.   Major Ridge, Stand Watie’s uncle, led this faction, joined by others, including Stand, his brother, and his cousin John Ridge. Adamantly opposing them were those who wanted to fight for their homeland and establish an independent, sovereign Cherokee nation within the state of Georgia. This faction, comprising about 90% of their  people, became known as the “National Party,” and was led by Principal Chief John Ross.

In 1835, in defiance of Ross, Watie and his faction signed the Treaty of New Echota which authorized selling all remaining Cherokee land to the U.S. and removal of the Cherokees west of the Mississippi. Two years later Watie voluntarily left his Georgia home,  traveled west by river boat, and settled in the northeastern corner of the Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) near Honey Creek.

The majority of Cherokees, led by Ross, refused to leave their Georgia homeland. After more broken promises, they were forcibly removed in 1838-39 on the “Trail of Tears,” the tragic journey to the west on which a quarter of the Cherokees perished.

Once in the Indian Territory, bitter feelings continued for years between the two factions.  Watie remained popular with the Treaty faction, and, after his brother and the Ridges were assassinated, became its leader. The bitter feud over removal was just beginning to wane when the American Civil War broke out, creating new hostilities.

Like the nation as a whole, the Cherokees were divided between the Confederate and Union causes. Ross and his followers, while initially declaring neutrality, under pressure sided with the Confederates. Soon thereafter, however, Ross repudiated the Confederate alliance and moved away, living in Washington and Philadelphia until the war ended. In his absence, Watie was chosen principal chief of the Cherokees, a position he held from 1862-1866.

When war broke out Watie, who over the years had become a prosperous slave-owning planter in the new Cherokee Nation West,   immediately embraced the Southern cause, and remained a loyal, steadfast Confederate to the end. He raised a regiment of cavalry volunteers known as the Cherokee Mounted Rifles that eventually became one of the most famous Confederate units west of the Mississippi.

Using guerrilla war tactics, Watie’s regiment achieved a fearsome reputation.  Instead of forming a battle line in clear view of the enemy (the accepted strategy early in the war), Native Americans used  hit-and-run tactics and wild cavalry charges. They would often go into battle wearing traditional Indian attire, with painted faces and long hair, wielding tomahawks and bows and arrows, and screaming the dreaded Indian Rebel Yell.

In May 1864 Watie was promoted to brigadier general and given command the first Indian Brigade. Of the estimated 12,000 Native Americans who served in the Confederate army, and about 6,000 in the Union army, he alone achieved this rank. (Ely Samuel Parker, a Seneca Indian who was lieutenant colonel on the staff of Union Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant, came the closest,  receiving the rank of brevet brigadier general after the war.)

After the war the U.S. officially recognized Ross as principal chief, replacing Watie, a move that threatened to split the Cherokee nation once again. But Ross died in 1867, and a new chief managed to unite the Cherokees. Watie lived in exile until 1867, when he returned to his home in Honey Creek, Oklahoma.

Now aging, his home having been destroyed by Federal forces, and suffering the loss of his three sons, he faced financial ruin. Remaining true to his Georgia roots, however, and to his belief in the value of education, he spent his last resources to provide opportunities for his daughters. Only weeks before his death he wrote one of them, away at school, “You can’t imagine how lonely I am up here at our old place without any of my dear children being with me. I would be so happy to have you here, but you must go to school.”

Stand Watie died September 9, 1871, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He was buried in Ridge Cemetery, later renamed Polson’s Cemetery, Delaware County, Oklahoma.

by Marvin Sowder

Chapley Booth (C.B.) Wellborn was born January 5, 1817, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He married Miss Mary Ann Foster of Forsyth County, Georgia, married on September 10, 1837, and resided there for the next thirteen years. During this time, Wellborn served as Postmaster at Cumming, Georgia, from June 16, 1841 through 1844. By 1850, he was a successful merchant in Cumming living there with his wife and five children. Shortly after he moved his family to Dalton, Georgia and established himself in business as a retail merchant.

The Wellborn family became members of the First Methodist Church of Dalton where C.B. served as Trustee. The Reverend Levi Brotherton recorded in his diary that on August 24,1852, brother Wellborn’s one year old child little Henry Bascom Wellborn died.  Brotherton officiated the burial the next day.  In 1855, C.B.Wellborn was elected to the Georgia Senate for a two year term (1855 – 1856). While serving in the Senate on June 21, 1856, Wellborn lost a second child, little two year old Mary Ann Wellborn. She was laid to rest beside her brother in West Hill Cemetery.

After completing his senatorial service, C.B. was elected Mayor of Dalton for the year 1857.  In 1858, he was succeeded in office by Councilman Theodore S. Swift who then died while in office on February 28, 1858. C.B. Wellborn was again elected Mayor of Dalton and served in 1862.

On June 11, 1861, C.B.’s oldest son, Robert Penn Wellborn, enlisted in Company E 9th Regiment Georgia Infantry and was quickly promoted to Captain.  On August 14, 1861, another son, Fleming Olin Wellborn, enlisted in Company E 12th Regiment Georgia Cavalry, later called Avery’s 4th Georgia Cavalry, and was also promoted to Captain.

When the War broke out in 1861 Wellborn became a partner in the firm of Wellborn, Nichols and Oliver. They secured a contract with the Confederate Government to supply certain items for the military. On December 31, 1861, a summary report was prepared by C.S.A. Inspector E. Andrews of their activities for the year 1861. ” I have inspected 2,500 sets of accouterments consisting of cap boxes, scabbards, belts, and cartridge boxes and 625 knapsacks all of which have been shipped. $11,781.25 was paid for them in 1861. They were manufactured by Wellborn, Nichols and Oliver in the town of Dalton, Georgia. I find them to be of quality conforming to their contract.” James H. Bard was the local inspector and shipped them to the Augusta, Ga., Arsenal and Fort Smith, Arkansas.  Wellborn additionally proposed to Major Larkin Smith of Richmond, Virginia to furnish the Confederate Government with 20,000 pairs of brogan shoes, 1000 soldier tents 8×7 and 1000 tents 10×10 to be delivered at Dalton or Atlanta, but the offer was apparently not accepted.

On February 8, 1862, Mayor Wellborn published a detailed financial report in the North Georgia Times for the city of Dalton during the year 1861. “The city had collected for the year $2,203.20. Expenditures, appropriations, etc. for the same time were $1,753.00 leaving a balance in the treasurer’s hands of $450.20. Respectfully Submitted, C.B. Wellborn, Mayor.”

In the months of April, May and June 1862, Wellborn, Nichols and Oliver manufactured and shipped 967 knapsacks and 13,270 sets of accouterments for which they were paid $15,845.95. After these shipments were made apparently their contract was fulfilled and none were renewed. Wellborn then dissolved his partnership with the firm and it closed. Oliver and Nichols secured a new contract with the government and began operations as meat packers under the name of Oliver, Nichols. Their Pork Packing Factory was located in the Willowdale area northwest of Dalton.

One of Wellborn’s duties as Mayor was the issuance of passes for individuals to travel about without being detained by the military. One such pass was issued to Mr. C.S. Dorsett of Gordon County to go on an errand of mercy to secure salt for his neighborhood and for the wives of absent soldiers.  A pass was issued to Mr. James McIntire to visit east Tennessee on business and another was given to Mr.G. M. Moore to visit Knoxville, Tennessee, on business to buy salt.

In June 1862, Wellborn rented a store house on King Street to the Quarter Master Service @ $12.50 per month then sold them a large box stove and stove pipe in November for $37.00. Winter was coming on.

On September 20, 1862, Military District # 4 was established in Dalton, Georgia by order of General Braxton Bragg.  C.B. Wellborn was appointed Provost Marshal by General Samuel Jones. Because of riots among the guards and the convalescents in the hospitals it became necessary to impose Marshal Law for the preservation of good order at Dalton. The sale of all liquors was banned for three miles around Dalton.

An incident occurred on December 10, 1862, when a Mr. Taylor and Mr. Prosser of Tennessee brought four barrels of Tennessee Whiskey into the area and were caught red handed parceling it out by the gallon just north of town. They claimed ignorance of the law but the whiskey was seized, confiscated and after some deliberation turned over to Post Surgeon Falknor H. Evans, Commander of Post to be used for medicinal purposes in the hospitals here.

On December 11, 1862, acting as Trustee for the First Methodist Church of Dalton, Wellborn received $75.00 from the Quarter Master for five months rent of the church building for hospital purposes. On the 15th he was issued 1000 blank passport tickets (passes) from the Quarter Master to be issued at his discretion.

Two days before Christmas 1862, Mayor Wellborn wrote a letter to the War Department in Richmond, Virginia, on behalf of Mrs. Lucinda Sconce, widow of Private Berry F. Sconce of Co. A 41st Regt. Ga. Infantry who had been killed during the battle at Perryville, Kentucky on October 8, 1862. “Enclosed find claim of Mrs. Sconce for amount due her husband – please forward to her in this case the amount due and oblige, Yours Truly, C.B.Wellborn.” As scores of homes began to feel the pains of war, Christmas and New Years celebrations were somewhat subdued in 1862.

On January 10,1863, Wellborn sold his letter press to the Quarter Master for $15.00. On the 24^th, Post Surgeon F.H. Evans sent the following letter to the Honorable J.A.Seddon, Secretary of War C.S.A., “Sir, Provost Marshal C.B. Wellborn has discharged the duties of that office promptly and efficiently. He has resided in Dalton for years, has extended acquaintances with an influence over the people in this vicinity. The population of this section of country are not disposed to render the assistance to the government that circumstances demand of them. We have been compelled to resort to impressment to procure Negroes as nurses in the hospitals and for all public works. We are of the opinion that C.B.Wellborn from his extended acquaintances and influence over the people of this vicinity can perform the duties of the office of Provost Marshal with a greater advantage to the public interest and with more satisfaction to the community than could any stranger. In the circumstances and because he has to this time performed the duties of his office with energy and exercised a control (beneficial to the public interest) over the citizens with but little disturbance. We would recommend that he be continued in his office by your order.  F.H.Evans, Post Surgeon – W.F.Ayes, Major & Quarter Master of Post.” Apparently Wellborn continued in office until the arrival of the Army in Dalton in November 1863.

On January 31,1863, C.B.Wellborn and Reverand John M. Richardson wrote letters of support to the War Department on behalf of Mr. Elius E. Bates to receive any money due his son Private Nelson Bates of Co. A 36th Regt. Ga. Infantry who died in the hospital here September 20, 1862. Cause of death not stated.  On March 3, 1863, Wellborn wrote another letter to Richmond asking for Mr. George T. Tate to be paid what money may have been due his son at the time of his death. “Please give this your attention and forward the amount per express or in check to Augusta, Georgia. Yours Truly, C.B.Wellborn.” Mr. Tate’s son was Private Walton W. Tate of Co. D 60th Regt. Ga. Infantry. This was Dickerson Taliaferio’s Company of “Whitfield Volunteers.” He had enlisted in Dalton September 19, 1861, and died of fever in a Richmond, Virginia, hospital on August 10,1862. No doubt there were many other such letters written. But who was to write a letter for Wellborn?

At the last of November 1863, in the midst of all the turmoil created when the Army of Tennessee came to live in Dalton for the next six months following their defeat at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, Wellborn received word that his son, Captain Olin Wellborn of Co. E 4th Regt. Ga. Cavalry, had been wounded in action around Kingston, Tennessee on the 27th. He was taken to a hospital and ordered to be sent home to recover. But if that wasn’t bad enough, on the first of December C.B. received word that another son, Robert Penn Wellborn of Co. E 9th Regt. Ga. Infantry had been killed in action at Knoxville, Tennessee, on the 29th while leading his company. The winter was very cold and rough on the soldiers who had lost most of their tents and bedding in their rout from Chattanooga. On December 14^th, Wellborn sold 3,000 pounds of wheat straw to the Quarter Master for $15.00. This would help to keep many of them warm that winter.

Christmas 1863 was a sad occasion for the Wellborn family. His oldest son was dead, another one wounded, his term as Mayor of Dalton was over, the hospitals had packed up and left Dalton, and the town and the surrounding area was now winter to about 40,000 soldiers. He did what many others were doing. He packed up what he could and moved his family further south to another town until the after the cessation of hostilities.

He was succeeded as Mayor of Dalton by Mr. Elbert Sevier Bird who became known as the War Time Mayor of Dalton—because Bird served in 1864, a year where Dalton would become front page news as the War’s front lines came to her doorsteps.

After the War in 1865, Wellborn paid taxes in Dalton, but by 1866, he was paying his taxes in Fulton County with a Peachtree Street address. On January 11, 1867 C.B. was granted a Presidential Pardon by President Andrew Johnson in Atlanta, Georgia, and his citizenship was restored. In 1870, the Wellborns were living in Atlanta where C.B. operated a Fire and Insurance Agency. In the middle 1870’s he moved his family to Dallas, Texas, and set up shop as a Real Estate Agent. There on April 20, 1890 at age 73 he passed away ending a long life of giving and caring for his fellow man.

by Marvin Sowder

One of the early settlers in North Georgia, James Morris, married Harriet Bell in Carnsville, Georgia on May 18, 1823. They never had any children. They moved to Spring Place, Murray County, Georgia, in the latter part of 1839 and it was here he built for Harriet a beautiful two story brick house that is today the lovely home of Carlton and Henrietta McDaniel. He owned a 1,120 acre farm south of Spring Place where he engaged in farming and merchandising. The farm he called the Holly Creek Settlement.

On June 20, 1836, he raised a company of men in Franklin County Georgia that were known as Captain James Morris Company of Georgia Mounted Volunteers and mustered into Federal service as an independent company during the Creek Indian War. He distinguished himself on March 24, 1837, at the Battle of Pea River Swamp in Alabama where he acquired proprietorship of a Indian boy that he brought home with him and raised. The boy went by the name of Tobe and after reaching manhood returned to his native people.

Morris visited all parts of the Cherokee country as a scout for Georgia Governor George R. Gilmer in March of 1838. In a letter to the governor he stated that the general impression is that the Cherokee will have to be removed by force. He respectfully declined a request from the governor to raise an independent company of men to help in the Cherokee removal.

When Whitfield County was formed in 1852 James and Harriet Morris moved to Dalton where he continued his work and helped organize The Planters and Mechanic Bank. He served as its president until December 13, 1859, when the name was changed to the Bank of Whitfield. He continued to serve as president through 1860.

During this time he also got into the hotel business.  He constructed the Morris Hotel, a large three story red brick building that covered nearly half of a city block on the northeast corner of Crawford Street and Hamilton Street across from the depot.  The construction utilized local materials and workers.  Early in 1857 Doctor C.C. Hammond delivered from the kiln 51,111 red bricks at $5.00 per thousand. Rufus K. Ford was paid for carpentry work, plastering, painting, blacksmithing and for materials furnished during the construction of the hotel. Parts of the hotel were still unfinished as late as 1863. At some point Morris changed the name to the W & A Hotel, perhaps to secure more business from the railroad.

With the coming of the Civil War, things began to change around Dalton. In April of 1862 hundreds of sick and wounded soldiers began to arrive by way of the railroads. Hospitals were hastily set up in all the public buildings as well as in churches, store buildings and some private homes. Morris rented out the hotel to the Confederate Medical Service for $250.00 per month and it became known as the Cannon Hospital. On September 22, 1862, Post Surgeon F.H. Evans wrote to Surgeon General S.H. Stout asking if any more sick and wounded would be sent to Dalton. If not, he would close the hotel and save the rent. Many more would be sent here for treatment.

While a patient in the Cannon Hospital on July 21,1863, Corporal John A. Powell of Company K, 8th Mississippi Infantry, wondered out onto a fourteen feet high unfinished balcony and fell to the brick pavement below suffering a concussion from which he passed away the next day.

Just prior to the Battle of Chickamauga all the hospitals in Dalton were removed to cities south of Dalton with the exception of a Receiving and Distribution Hospital. It remained here till April of 1864 and is thought to have also occupied the W. & A Hotel. The Cannon Hospital transferred to LaGrange, Georgia.

As war activities approached Dalton, James and Harriet Morris journeyed south to Randolph County, Georgia, in early 1864 and remained there until after the war.

During the Union occupation of Dalton in 1864 – 1865, a Post Hospital was set up in the hotel by a detachment of the 1st Brigade, 17th Army Corps, District of Etowah. Many provisions and supplies were received there and signed for by Assistant Surgeon George W. Fay. Besides being used for a hospital, the Union soldiers used it as headquarters of operations, a commissary store and a prison. Their horses were stabled in the basement at times. It is estimated that ten thousand sick and wounded soldiers of both armies were treated there during the war.

There are no records or receipts for rents or compensation for the use of any of Morris’ properties after he left Dalton. His home in Dalton was located on an eight acre farm just south of the Dalton-Springplace Road ( now Morris Street) that was named for him, on the east side of Depot Street (now Glenwood Avenue) and north of Emery Street. The home was used by the notorious James G. Brown, commanding the 1st Georgia Infantry (USA) from which his band of spies and scouts operated.

On June 21, 1865, just two months after General Lee’s Surrender, James Morris, age seventy one, passed away in Randolph County, Georgia. He left his entire fortune to his wife Harriet during her lifetime. Two of his brothers were the executors of his estate. His large fortune consisting mainly of cash and realty was valued at $250,000 in 1857. It simply melted away and no one knows how, but his wife and his brothers and sisters to whom large legacies were left received nothing.

In September 1865, the W & A Hotel was leased from the estate of James Morris by Colonel William H. Tibbs for ten years and he renamed it the Tibbs House. He eventually bought the hotel property and named it the National Hotel.

Harriet Morris passed away on May 6, 1880 at age seventy eight and is buried in the Morris Family section in West Hill Cemetery.

by Kurt Graham

Carl Franz AUGUST Rauschenberg was born July 7th 1831 to Johann Andreas and Anna Rosina Toepfer Rauschenberg in the village of Rauschenberg, Germany. His father died February 21, 1843 at age 42. The eldest son, Christian Wilhelm Rauschenberg came to America in early 1848 and his three younger brothers, Emil, 21, August, 19, and Fritz, 17, joined him in American in 1850. The brothers settled in Middle and North Georgia and were so pleased with their new home that they soon sent for their mother and sister, thus reuniting the family. Sadly, their sister, Wilhelmine died March 24th, 1854 at 14 years of age. The boys pursued their studies in arts and crafts and by 1861, all had married except August.

By the outbreak of the Civil War, 29 year old August was living in Dalton, Georgia. He was an expert mechanical draftsman, pattern designer and maker. In addition he was also an accomplished musician and excelled as a cornetist. By the Spring of 1861, he had joined the elite Dalton Militia company known as the Dalton Guards. In early June 1861 the company journeyed to Camp McDonald at Big Shanty, Ga to join the newly formed 4th Georgia State Brigade under command of State Brigadier General William Phillips. This brigade was eventually disbanded about the end of July and it’s rifle and cavalry battalions were joined to become the Phillips Legion under now Confederate Colonel William Phillips. The Dalton Guards became Company B in the Infantry Battalion. August’s records at this time show him as a private so it is unclear whether or not he was performing musician’s duties yet.

After a grueling winter campaign in the mountains of western Virginia, the Legion was sent to the South Carolina coast in January 1862 to rest, recruit and refit. During this period it was determined to form a formal Legion band and on May 1st 1862, the musicians of the various infantry companies were transferred to the Legion’s Staff under the direction of newly appointed Bandmaster, August Rauschenberg. Regimental Bands in the Civil War performed in multiple roles. At reviews or on other ceremonial occasions the band would perform in it’s musical function. At other times while in camp, the band would conduct concerts. On the march, the band would play to liven the tedium and keep the men’s spirits up. Franz wrote of one musical occasion that he dreaded having to perform. In a letter written home on April 12th 1864 he wrote, “Yesterday I had a very painful duty to perform. A Private of our Brigade, 24th Ga. Regiment, was shot for desertion and I had to play a Dead March from the Guard House to the place of execution. It was a very solemn and affecting scene. The prisoner seemed willing to die, he was firm and resigned, and received the fatal bullets fired by his countrymen like a man. God grant I may never witness another such spectacle.” Research into Confederate Court Martial records reveals the identity of this unfortunate soldier to be Private W H Tanner of the 24th Georgia’s Company K.

On occasions when the Legion was going into battle, the musicians would put away their instruments and serve as stretcher bearers, carrying wounded soldiers to field hospitals located close by.

August served through the entire war until captured with most of the Legion Infantry at Sailors Creek on April 6th 1865. He was imprisoned at Newport News, Virginia until his release on June 24th 1865. His Oath of Allegiance describes him as being five foot six inches tall with light hair, light complexion and gray eyes. Shortly after his release, 34 year old August married Miss Annie Elizabeth Kanerian in Richmond, Va. They returned to Georgia and spent the remainder of his life in productive and creative pursuits, mostly in Atlanta. August passed away on March 14th 1911, outliving all of his siblings by many years.