Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

February 18

1780 Stephen Heard took office as president of the patriot government's Executive Council -- an office equivalent to that of governor after the Revolution.

1833 Confederate general James Deshler was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. After graduating from West Point in 1854, he served cavalry duty in the West. In 1861, Deshler resigned his U.S. Army commission to become an artillery captain and later colonel in Confederate service. In July 1863, Deshler was promoted to brigadier general and given command of his own brigade in Cleburne's Division. He was killed in the Battle of Chickamauga on Sept. 20, 1863.

1854 Gov. Herschel Johnson signed legislation establishing Charlton County as Georgia's 111th county. Created from portions of Camden County, the new county was named for Georgia U.S. Senator Robert M. Charlton of Savannah. Charlton, who served two years (1852-53), had been elected by the legislature to fill the seat of John Berrien, who resigned in 1852.

1861 In Montgomery, Ala., Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens were inaugurated as provisional president and vice president of the Confederate States of America.

1862 In Richmond, Va., Georgia's delegation to the First Confederate Congress was sworn into office. Representing Georgia's ten congressional districts were: Julian Hartridge (1st), Charles J. Munnerlyn (2nd), Hines Holt (3rd), Augustus Kenan (4th), David Lewis (5th), William Clarke (6th), Robert Trippe (7th), Lucius Gartrell (8th), Hardy Strickland (9th), and Augustus Wright (10th).

1879 Confederate general Robert Hall Chilton died in Columbus, Ga. Born Feb. 25, 1815 in Loudoun City, Va., he graduated from West Point in 1837. During the Mexican War, Chilton was a captain of Dragoons, later serving as a paymaster. He resigned from the U.S. Army in 1861 and was given the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army's Adjutant and Inspector General's Department. Chilton served as Robert E. Lee's chief of staff and given the temporary rank of brigadier general (confirmed in Feb. 1864). After the war, Chilton became involved in manufacturing.

1937 Former Gov. Lamartine Hardman died in Atlanta. [Some sources cite Feb. 19.] Politician Lamartine Griffin Hardman died in Atlanta, Georgia. Born in Harmony Grove (now Commerce), Georgia, Hardman began his career in the field of medicine, where he was innovative in further developing the field of anesthesiology begun by fellow-Georgian Crawford Long. Hardman was also a very successful businessman, owning cotton and roller mills, a bank, a drug company, and founding the Commerce Telephone Company.

Hardman was first elected to the Georgia legislature in 1902. He served as both a representative and senator over the course of the next ten years, primarily sponsoring agricultural legislation. He also introduced the bill creating a state board of health, and wrote Georgia's prohibition statute. After serving in the General Assembly, Hardman served as Georgia's fuel administrator during World War I and also directed the Georgia Experiment Station in Griffin. In 1926, Hardman was elected governor after two unsuccessful attempts. He won reelection despite being seventy-six years old and in ill health. His terms as governor were noted primarily for promoting business-like efficiency in government through appointment of the Commission on Simplification and Coordination, headed by Ivan Allen, Sr.

1960 Gov. Ernest Vandiver signed legislation making it unlawful to refuse to leave a business upon request by the owner or manager of such establishment. The General Assembly enacted the law in response to the growing wave of sit-ins in the civil rights movement.

1960 Future University of Georgia head football coach Mark Richt was born in Boca Raton, FL.

1984 Joe Bennett, Jimmy Carnes, George Griffin, Roger Kaiser, Oscar Keller, Mel Pender, and Bill Stanfill were inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

1989 Danny Birchmore, Joe Geri, Jimmy Hightower, Wallace Moses, Randy Rhino, Ken Rice, and L.W. (Chip) Robert Jr., were inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved by the governor on Feb. 18:

1854 Palmetto (then Campbell, now Fulton County), Swainsboro (Emanuel County), and Vienna (Dooly County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1732 In London, John Percival, James Oglethorpe, and other supporters of a new colony in America to the south of South Carolina were frustrated that their charter was still unsigned, as noted in the entry in Percival's diary:

". . . Perceiving an unaccountable delay in the putting his Majesty's seal to the Carolina Charter, and that it sticks with the Duke of Newcastle, all our gentlemen concerned as trustees are much out of humour and some are for flinging it up, and restoring the money arising from the lottery tickets which were given up to tell for the advantage of the colony. I told my mind freely to Horace Walpole, sitting by him this morning, that we thought ourselves ill used, and that if it was expected by the Government that we should entreat any more the passing this charter, he was mistaken, for it is a matter we think they ought to entreat us to undertake; that being restrained at our own desire by oath from making any advantage directly or indirectly of the charter, this delay must be the highest reflection on us as if we did not intend to regard our oaths, for this delay cannot possibly be given but from a suspicion we should abuse our trust. If, therefore, he did not think it a good thing, I desired he would tell us, and we would quit it. He replied, he thought it a good thing . . . .

"Soon after, Mr. Oglethorp came to me, and said that upon his complaining to Drummond of the usage, Drummond replied Sir Robert was very hearty for the charter, but that it happened the day before we waited on the Duke of Newcastle to desire he would forward the King's signing the charter, his Grace had carried the charter in a bag with five other things for his Majesty to sign, but that the King not being in right humour, refused to sign any one of them . . . ."

Source: U.K. Historical Manuscripts Commission, Diary of the First Earl of Egmont (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1923), Vol. I, p. 223.

1739 George Whitefield's journal entry for this day shows his dedication to his calling, James Oglethorpe's willingness to help the church, and the beginnings of the Bethesda orphanage Whitfield helped establish in Georgia:

"Rose this morning by one O'Clock. Took boat in order to go to St. Andrew's; but the Rudder breaking, we were obliged to return back and desist from our intended Voyage. Went to Bed and slept for a few Hours. Spent a good Part of the Day with the General. Received from him a Bill of Exchange for 150 pounds which he advanced me in order to begin a Church at Savannah. About seven O'Clock set off for Darien, whither I promised to return, to take Mr. Macleod and the Orphans with me to Savannah. The Passage to that Place is generally about four Hours: But the Wind being high and contrary, we were obliged to come to a Grapling, near an open Reach, and did not get to Darien the next day at noon. Mr. Macleod and his Friends received us with Joy, and finding me ill, advised me to lie down; by which I was much refreshed, was was thereby enabled at Night to give God Thanks in Family Prayer."

Source: [No author or editor cited], Our First Visit in America: Early Reports from the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1740 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1974), pp. 300-301.

1793 A frequent problem on Georgia's frontier occurred when whites would either settle or graze their cattle on Indian lands, as in this case noted by Timothy Barnard at Buzzard Roost in a letter to Maj. Henry Gaither:

". . . I have certain information that the inhabitants of the upper frontiers have drove over a number of cattle into the fork of the Tallapatche, which ground the Indians look upon as theirs. Therefore [they] are determined to go down and drive off all the stock they can find and, if they meete with any opposition, will kill those that oppose them, as you may be sure there will be a body large enough to execute their designs. I have prevailed on the head men to restrain them for twenty days and am setting off to the towns to do the same there and am in hopes they will be stopped that long till the people can get their cattle back. But there is a great probability that the hunters in the woods may collect and endeavor to drive them off. If so, these people that have put their cattle over must abide by the consequence, as they have no right to carry on such irregular proceedings. I am amazed at the headds of the country, that they will not opposed such measures at this critical junction. There is now ten Indians from the Northward Nations trying all they can to set the Creeks on the frontiers of Georgia and such proceedings as they will be the effectual means to make the Creeks take their talks, besides ever putting it out of the power of any person to have a boundary line. . . .

". . .I can assure you if those cattle are not removed and soon the owners will lose them all and some of their lives, too. It is vain to strive to keep the peace when the white people go so headlone to work before the boundary line is settled."

Source: Edward J. Cashin, A Wilderness Still The Cradle of Nature: Frontier Georgia (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1994), pp. 80-81.

1797 While making a tour of the Creek Indian towns, Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins met a chief who gave him a description of the Okefenokee Swamp land:

". . . This part of the country is sometimes so infested with musquetoes as to destroy horses, by runing and heating of them, when water is not to be had for them, but by getting it out of aligator holes for them. He had seen most of the border of the Okefinacau, and once attempted with some young lads to pursue a bear he had wounded; they went in several hours, and were compelled to return. The whole earth trembled under them, and at several places, where the surface was pressed with the foot, the water would spout out. One of his lads sunk in so deep that he called for help, and they took him out. There are some large cypress, but the growth mostly dwarf. Some of the Tallassee people had been in much farther than he had; they saw some ponds, many aligators, turtles and snakes, particularly a small snake with a button at the end of a tail like the rattlesnake; they saw considerable number of them, and some times 20 or 30 in one view, coiled up on the small grassy nobs; two of these people were killed by the bites of them. He knew of one man who attempted a settlement near this swamp, but he gave it up because the tygers killed his hogs, cattle and sometimes horses."

Source: Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. IX, Letters of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1806 (Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1916), p. 86.

1839 Two days after moving from Butler Island to St. Simons Island, Fanny Kemble Butler noted a dramatic difference in the number of mulattos -- even though the two islands were within ten miles of each other. Her husband, Pierce Butler, gave an explanation, which left her feeling uncomfortable:

". . . I observed, among the numerous groups that we passed or met, a much larger proportion of mulattoes than at the rice island [Butler Island]; upon asking Mr. [a reference to here husband] why this was so, he said that there no white person could land without his or the overseer's permission, whereas on St. Simons, which is large island containing several plantations belong to different owners, of course the number of whites, both residing on and visiting the place, was much greater, and the opportunity for intercourse between the blacks and whites much more frequent. While we were still on this subject, a horrid-looking filthy woman met us with a little child in her arms, a very light mulatto, whose extraordinary resemblance to driver Bran (one of the officials who had been duly presented to me on my arrival, and who was himself a mulatto) struck me directly. I pointed it out to Mr.[Butler], who merely answered: 'Very likely his child.'

"'And,' said I, ' did you never remark that driver Bran is the exact image of Mr. K [Butler's overseer Roswell King]?'

"'Very likely his brother,' was the reply; all which rather unpleasant state of relationships seemed accepted as such a complete matter of course, that I felt rather uncomfortable, and said no more about who was like who, but came to certain conclusions in my own mind as to a young lad who had been among our morning visitors, and whose extremely light color and straight, handsome features and striking resemblance to Mr. K[ing] had suggested suspicions of a rather unpleasant nature to me, and whose sole acknowledged parent was a very black Negress of the name of Minda. I have no doubt at all, now, that he is another son of Mr. K[ing], Mr. [Butler]'s paragon overseer. . . ."

Source: John A. Scott, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 by Frances Anne Kemble (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984), p. 201.

1863 From Vicksburg, Confederate soldier William Chunn wrote to his wife back in Georgia:

"It has been raining almost incessantly for four days and nights, making it quite impossible to walk anywhere on foot. The roads are in a wretched condition, and it is with difficulty we can transport our supplies from the city which is only a mile distant. . . The soldier is now truly drinking the bitter dregs of war. But notwithstanding the hardships, you would be surprised what degree of endurance they display and the cheerfulness they exhibit. Never in the annals of history was thee recorded such deeds of noble daring, such heroism and such disinterested patriotism. I think the Confederate soldier has proven to the world that he is eminently worthy to wear the laurel of victory and enjoy in peace the dear old hearthstones and the society of those loved ones that at nightfall cluster around its cheerful firelight.

"Although it has seemingly been clearly demonstrated that we are worthy of liberty and peace, how backward are foreign nations to recognize the fact. Yet we find nations, like individuals, loath to extend a helping or sympathetic hand, unless it is to their pecuniary interest to do so. It is money that controls the human heart! It is to the 'shining God' that man bows a willing suppliant. The theory of recognition and foreign intervention has long ago been exploded, and I must confess that I am not sorry of it, for that fatal delusion will no longer deceive us. We are now thoroughly convinced that the only hope of peace is in our prayers to the Almighty God and the proper use of our own stalwart arms. . . ."

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), p. 222.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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