Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

April 18

1733 In London, Georgia's Trustees voted to ask Prime Minister Robert Walpole when they could make a motion in the House of Commons to petition King George II for government funding in order to allow the Trustees to continue sending England's worthy poor to the new colony of Georgia. It had quickly become clear to the Trustees that Georgia was going to need more than voluntary contributions to succeed.

1737 In London, Georgia's Trustees named William Stephens secretary for Georgia to serve for a term of six years.

1861 Following Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, Gov. Joseph E. Brown called for Georgia men to volunteer for military service.

1865 Union General William T. Sherman and Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston signed an armistice memorandum at Durham Station, North Carolina.

1912 President Taft had waited until the final tally of survivors from the Titanic sinking was available, hoping in vain to find the name of his military aide and friend Major Archibald Butt of Augusta on the list. "I never had any idea that Archie was saved at all. As soon as I heard that 1200 people went down I knew he went down too. He was a soldier and was on deck where he belonged. I know Archie died like a soldier."

1932 Former Georgia U.S. Senator William Harris died. Born in Cedartown, Ga. on Feb. 3, 1868, he attended the University of Georgia for two years (1888-1890), but returned home to enter the insurance business. In 1904, U.S. Senator Alexander Stephens Clay hired Harris to be his private secretary. During this time, Harris made a number of contacts with Georgia political figures. Harris resigned his position in 1909 and was elected to the Georgia Senate the next year. In 1912, Harris helped managed Woodrow Wilson's Georgia campaign for the presidency. After Wilson's election, the new president appointed Harris to direct the U.S. Census Bureau. He held several federal position before resigning to run for the U.S. Senate in 1918. Harris was elected for three terms in the U.S. Senate. Early in his third term, he died in Washington, D.C., with his funeral held in the U.S. Senate chamber.

1947 At New York's Polo Grounds, Jackie Robinson hit his first major league home run off of New York Giant pitcher Dave Koslo. When Robinson returned to the dugout, no Dodger shook his hand.

1974 Soul-singer James Brown was awarded a gold record -- this time for his single "The Payback." Two years earlier, he received his first gold record for "Get On The Good Foot Part 1." Interestingly, the "Godfather of Soul" had 42 other chart-ranking hits during his career. Though none won gold records, many -- such as "I Feel Good," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," and "Living in America" -- are more widely known.

1975 Gov. George Busbee signed a joint resolution [see text] of the General Assembly declaring the honeybee as the official state insect of Georgia.

1982 The Atlanta Braves defeated the Houston Astros 6-5 to go 11-0 in the 1982 season. This tied a major league record for most consecutive wins to open a season (incidentally established by the Oakland A's the previous year). The win also set a new franchise record for the Braves.

1983 Alice Walker won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel "The Color Purple."

1998 In the NCAA women's gymnastic finals in Los Angeles, the University of Georgia defeated the University of Florida for the NCAA national championship.

1999 Playing in Denver, the Atlanta Braves scored 10 runs in the 9th inning. Added to the 10 runs scored in the previous 8 innings, the Braves beat the Colorado Rockies by a score of 20-5. This marked an Atlanta Braves record of most runs scored in a game. In terms of Braves' history, this was the most runs in a game since the Milwaukee Braves knocked in 23 runs in 1957.

2004 - the University of Georgia men's gold team won the SEC championship at Sea Island, GA.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1774 In Savannah, Georgia's royal governor James Wright addressed a delegation of Indians about recent murders by both sides. He reminded them of previous peace treaties and warned of the consequences if the violence continued:

"FRIENDS AND BROTHERS,

"I mean to speak to you as a Friend, plainly freely and with Candour as Friends ought to talk with one another, and therefore I will not hid or Conceal anything from you, but before I give you my Talk, will acquaint you that I have been Informed that a Creek Indian who went by the Name of the Elk was killed by some White Men in the Cherokee County about a Month ago -- and that three Weeks ago an Indian who went by the Name of Mad Turkey was murdered by a White Man in Augusta -- This Man lived in, and came from South Carolina, and is certainly a very great villian, the people at Augusta wrote me that they did all they could to take him, but he made his Escape back again into Carolina -- When I heard of this I was very sorry and it made me very angry and I offer'd a Reward of One Hundred pounds Sterling to any person that would catch him and bring him here, as I very much wished to have got him before you Came Down, that you might have been present and seen him hanged here. . . . And I shall speak to you on the subject of the Murders committed by your People. -- By the several Treaties made and subsisting between Us, as well as those which were Made by our Ancestors it is agreed that there should be 'peace and Friendship between the White People and the Red, As long as the Sun shines, and rivers run, and that we should be as one people, and our children grew up together as Friends and Brethren, and if any Injury of Damage is done by the White People to the Indians, or by the Indians to the White People, It should make no Quarrel between Us, . . .' And our Ancestors were wise men, and knew that Warr is very destructive to all parties. . . . We can have Soldiers Enough, the GREAT KING will send us as many as we want, if there is Occasion, & we ask for them, but we don't want to Quarrel with our OLD FRIENDS, the Consequences of a Warr are very bad and distressful, and we WISH to avoid them, and to live in Peace and Quietness, to raise our Stocks, and plant our Ground, and carry on Our Trade; this is what we WISH and WANT to do; and what are you to get by a WARR? The Trade with you will be stop'd from all parts, the People all round you now belong to the GREAT KING GEORGE, and they will take part with us, and none of them will supply You with any thing; And what can you do? Can you make Guns, Gun powder, Bullets, Glasses, paint and Cloathing &c.&c. You know you cannot make these things, and where can you get them if you Quarrel with the white people, and how will you Women and Children get supplied with Cloaths Beads Glasses Scissars, and all other things, that they now use and cannot do without? . . . And if you make Warr with us in Georgia, It is the same as making Warr with the GREAT KING, who has Soldiers every to fight for his subjects."

Source: Spencer B. King, Jr., Georgia Voices: A Documentary History to 1872 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1974 reprint of 1966 original volume), pp. 40-41.

1861 From Columbus, planter and businessman John Banks recorded in his diary of the early news of the Civil War:

"Some troops have succeeded in reinforcing Fort Pickens. Otherwise they remain in statu quo.

"Tuesday [April 16] was a solemn day. Thousands came in to see the troops leave. Many tears were shed. Some speeches made, etc.

"Today the cannon had been booming again. Virginia has seceded and may possible arrest the war. Had she done it earlier, others would have followed her. We still expect her example to influence North Carolina and we hope all the other slave-holding states. Preparations are being made on both sides for a conflict."

Source: John Banks, Autobiography of John Banks, 1797 - 1870 (Austell, Ga.: privately printed by Elberta Leonard, 1936), p. 23.

1865 Fanny Andrews' journal entry for April 18, 1865 clearly shows the effects of the impending loss of the Civil War:

"The first train on the Georgia R.R., from Atlanta to Augusta, was scheduled to run through to-day, and we started off on the Macon & Western so as to reach Atlanta in time to take the next one down, to-morrow. There was such a crowd waiting at the depot that we could hardly push our way through, and when the ladies' car was opened there was such a rush that we considered ourselves lucky to get in at all. . . . Many people had to leave theirs [baggage] behind, and some decided to stay with their trunks; they contained all that some poor refugees had left them. The trains that went out this morning were supposed to be the last that would leave the city, as the Yankees were expected before night, and many predicted we would be captured. There was a terrible rush on all the outgoing trains. . . . People who could not get inside were hanging on wherever they could find a sticking place; the aisles and platform down to the last step were full of people clinging on like bees swarming around the doors of a hive. . . . A party of refugees from Columbus were seated near us, and they seemed nearly crazed with excitement. Mary Eliza Rutherford, who was always a great scatter-brain when I knew her at school, was among them, and she jumped up on the seat, tore down her back hair and went off into regular hysterics at the idea of falling into the hands of the Yankees. Such antics would have been natural enough in the beginning of the war, when we were new to these experiences, but now that we are all old soldiers, and used to raids and vicissitudes, people ought to know how to face them quietly . . . ."

Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), pp. 149-151.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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