Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

April 22

1837 Politician and jurist David Brydie Mitchell died in Milledgeville, Georgia. Born in Scotland on Oct. 22, 1766, Mitchell came to Georgia in 1782 to assume ownership of land left him by his uncle. Mitchell soon became a fierce devotee of his new country, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1789. He served three terms in the Georgia legislature, two as a representative and one in the Senate. In 1809, the General Assembly elected Mitchell governor in 1809 and again in 1811. Ironically one of the pieces of legislation he supported as governor was a measure to outlaw dueling. Like a number of other Georgia politicians, Mitchell had been involved in a duel in 1802, in which he killed his opponent. Mitchell also foresaw trouble with England after his re-election in 1811, and was praised for having Georgia's frontier fortifications prepared. Mitchell went on to serve one more term as governor (1815 to 1817), and then was appointed U.S. agent to the Creek Indians. He was dismissed from this post after being erroneously accused of slave smuggling. In 1828, Mitchell became inferior court judge of Baldwin County. He returned to the Georgia legislature in 1836 as a senator representing the new States Rights party. Mitchell died and was buried in Milledgeville the following year.

1882 Educator and prolific author Benjamin Brawley was born in Benedict, S.C. He became a professor of English, teaching at Morehouse College and Howard and Shaw universities. Brawley also served as dean of Morehouse College, where he wrote a history of the school. Among his long list of of book were A Short History of the American Negro, Negro Builders and Heroes, Early Black American Writers, The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States, and A New Survey of English Literature. He died in 1939.

1891 Asa Candler purchased Coca-Cola for $2300. Earlier, he had bought a partial interest in the rights to and formula for a "brain tonic" from John Pemberton called Coca-Cola! Candler believed Coca-Cola had a better future as a refreshing fountain drink than as a medicine, and turned his advertising and financial talents to that end. It was largely due to Candler's innovative advertising and positive employee relations that Coke became such a remarkable worldwide success.

1929 - Frankin D. Roosevelt arrived in Warm Springs, Ga for his sixteenth visit to his "second home."

1966 The Atlanta Braves won their first home game in Atlanta, beating the New York Mets 8-4.

1982 The Atlanta Braves' major league record of 13 consecutive season-opening wins ended as the Braves suffered a 2-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

1985 CBS's board of directors turned down Ted Turner's bid for a controlling interest in a major national television network.

1994 After regaining the IBF-WBA heavyweight boxing championship the previous year, Evander Holyfield fought Michael Moorer in Las Vegas in his first title defense. Appearing tired and listless, Holyfield lost a 12-round decision. Complaining of chest pains after the fight, Holyfield was examined by a doctor, who found a hole in his heart. As a result, Holyfield would subsequently announce his retirement. Later, however, he would announce that the problem was not as bad as originally thought, thus prompting his return to the ring.

2005 The University of Georgia Women's Gymnastics team won their sixth national championship.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1734 After first arriving at Savannah, the Salzburgers traveled by boat up the Savannah River to Abercorn on April 9. Here they stayed while some of the men traveled five miles inland to construct shelters at the site of Ebenezer, their new home [see map]. On this day, John Martin Boltzius, a Lutheran minister who accompanied the Salzburgers to their new home, wrote in his journal:

"Because the weather is clear again, the people have begun to unpack their things in order to take them little by little to Ebenezer. We are all very happy that God will soon get us out of these restless circumstances and lead us into solitude where we will be able to serve Him and do our work without interference. The name of our earthly fatherland [Ebenezer] reminds us of the good deeds of God nearly every time we hear it, and it encourages us to glorify Him. Because there are no garden plants, we search the forest for good herbs. There are many healthful and useful plants to be found, such as spinach, young onions, hyssop, and leaves which we cannot name but which can be used very successfully in place of lettuce. During our hours of exercise we shall apply ourselves diligently to the study of plants with our apothecary, Mr. Zwifler, who knows the subject well. . . ."

Source: George Fenwick Jones (ed.), Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America . . . Edited by Samuel Urlsperger: Volume I, 1733-1734 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1968), p. 78.

1793 The decades after the American Revolution saw considerable conflict on Georgia's frontier caused by settlers violating treaties and moving onto Indian lands, which in turn led to Indian raids in retaliation. In the following statement, Michael Cupps of Greene County testified to one such raid on April 22, 1793:

"I was near the Oconee River on Monday, the 22nd of April 1793, and heard a gun on the opposite side of the river and immediately saw about thirty Indians firing upon and massacring Richard Thrasher, two children and a Negro wench. At the same time the wife of the deceased, with an infant of about five or six weeks old, run and leaped into the river, the Indians firing upon her as she fled. The woman was found alive, scalped, wounded in both her thighs, her right breast with balls and stabbed in her left breast with a knife, her left arm cut nearly off, as is supposed, with a tomahawk, of which wounds she died in about twenty-four hours. The infant was found drowned a small distance from the mother without any marks of violence upon it. I with others pursued the trail of the Indians about two miles and found from their tracks that there were thirty-seven in number."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Georgia: History written by Those who lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), p. 56.

1861 From Dawson, Ga., Edwin Bass wrote to his sister with an impassioned statement of his feelings that honor and duty required him to volunteer for military service :

". . . And now I must speak to you and to Ma and all the rest about a matter that must so deeply interest us all and stir our hearts with deep emotions of sorrow. We know, my Sister and Mother, that our country is threatened [with] destruction by an inveterate enemy that is willing to show no regard for humanity nor the rights of our section and people. A Call has been made upon the young, brave and chivalrous sons of Georgia and the South to leave home and the endearments that bind us to our families to defend the rights and interests of our mothers and sisters and homes. that they will be defended successfully I have no doubt. Your interests and rights, my Mother and sister, must [be] defended and fought for, too. Would you have me and my Brother remain inactive and contented at home, while others, more ready than we, are fighting for you and us? We are the ones to fight for you, and we are the ones that will fight for you! I know it is hard for you to consent that such a necessity exists. And I know you will agree that none will shoulder their muskets to use them against their enemies who has to fight [more] than Johnnie and myself. Our appreciation and love for you all is measured only by yours for us, and we cannot and must not consent that you should be defended and protected by others and we look on inactive at the contest. And you, I know, would bid us go, though with sad and heavy hearts.

The company in Dawson will perhaps be called out this week, though I do not know that it will, and I want you all to join in bidding me to go and fight bravely like a soldier and not let our family want for a brave and patriotic heart and arm to fight for them. Your liberties and rights are dear and sweet to you. Who shall fight to defend them if not your own sons and brothers, Johnnie and I? . . . ."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), "Dear Mother: Don't grieve about me. If I get killed, I'll only be dead.": Letters from Georgia Soldiers in the Civil War (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), pp. 5-6.

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