Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

July 12

1682 John Percival (see portrait) was born in County Cork, Ireland. Percival was three when his father died, and the family went to live with his father's uncle in England. At age 16, Percival entered Magdalen College at Oxford, where he studied for 18 months before leaving without a degree. In 1704, Percival returned to Ireland, where he was elected to the House of Commons in the Irish Parliament. Later that year, he was appointed to the British Privy Council, a seat he would hold for almost a half century. After a two-year tour of Europe, Percival moved to Charlton, his country estate near London. When King George I ascended to the British throne in 1714, Percival's ties to the royal court increased. The next year, Percival was offered an Irish barony, which allowed him to set in the House of Lords. In 1722, Baron Percival became Viscount Percival. In Aug. 1727, he was elected to the House of Commons, where two years later served on the Gaols Committee, chaired by James Oglethorpe. The next year, Oglethorpe shared with Percival his proposal for sending London's poor to a new settlement on the southern frontier of Britain's colonies in America. Next to Oglethorpe, Percival became the most important advocate for the creation of the colony of Georgia. He was named in the colony's charter as a member of the Georgia Trustees, in which capacity he kept both a journal of Trustee proceedings and a private diary that detail much information about the Georgia experiment. In Aug. 1733, Percival was awarded with an Irish earldom -- the first Earl of Egmont. Through most of the first decade of Georgia's existence, Egmont was the most important and faithful member of the Trustees. However, his health declined, and he attended his last board meeting on Feb. 13, 1748. Less than three months later -- on May 1 -- he died.

1742 James Oglethorpe decided to launch a surprise night attack on the much larger Spanish force camped out on the south end of St. Simons Island. He marched a large force of soldiers, rangers, Indian allies, and volunteers from Frederica to within a mile and a half of the Spanish quarters. There, they waited while he went ahead to scout the situation. In his absence, a Frenchman in the group of volunteers fired his gun and deserted to the Spanish side. Knowing they had been discovered, Oglethorpe had to make a quick decision. His much smaller force would have no chance if the Spanish decided to take the initiative and launch an attack. So he took a gamble. Since it was dark and the Spanish sentries couldn't see the size or location of his force, Oglethorpe divided his drummers up and positioned them at different locations around the northern perimeter of the camp. For a half hour, he then had them beat the grenadiers' march so that it would appear that a large British force was about to attack. The ruse worked. The Spanish units were disorganized and decided to defend themselves rather than take the offense. Once he saw that the gamble worked, Oglethorpe signaled the drummers to stop. Under cover of darkness, they retreated in silence back to Fort Frederica. Although they suffered no casualties, Oglethorpe begins to worry. By now, the French deserter surely had told Spanish officers about the size and composition of the island's defense force. Would Gov. Manuel de Montiano now decide to marshal his infantry and naval flotilla for an all-out land and river attack on Fort Frederica?

1864 Union Army forces completed the rebuilding of a 650-foot wagon bridge over the Chattahoochee River at Roswell. The 16th Corps crossed the river and set up defensive fortifications to protect the bridge.

1888 Ex-Confederate artillery commander, civil engineer, and railroad manager Bushrod W. Frobel died while on business in Monticello, Georgia. Never heard of B.W. Frobel? Little is known about his early life, but at some point prior to the Civil War he moved to Georgia. With the outbreak of the war, he enlisted in the Confederate Army, where he became an artillery major in Hood's Division, ultimately rising to the rank of colonel and serving as chief engineer in the Army of Tennessee. In the summer of 1864, Frobel helped plan additional defensive fortifications for Atlanta. After the war, Frobel served as Georgia's superintendent of public works and was responsible for the rehabilitation of Georgia's capitol and other important state buildings. Later, he served as a U.S. civil engineer with responsibility for improving Georgia's rivers and harbors. At the time of his death, he was general manager of the Covington and Macon Railroad.

1930 Playing in Minneapolis, Bobby Jones won his fourth U.S. Open golf tournament. More importantly, this followed victories in the British Amateur and British Open. Later that year, he would win the U.S. Amateur championship--becoming the first and so far only golfer to win the four major golfing tournaments (or Grand Slam) in a single year. [Click here for more.)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1736 The importance of silk to the success of the colony of Georgia is suggested by a letter of this day to the Trustees, as recorded by the Earl of Egmont in his journal:

"Mr. Paul Amatis wrote us there was no doubt of Succeeding in raw Silk in Georgia, in the utmost perfection as Soon as there are a Sufficient quantity of balls or Coquons, a building erected for the purpose, and Spinners enough. That Rome was not built in a day. When he first came there was not a white Mulberry tree in the Province, but he brought 40000 plants in Carolina & transplanted them thither in to the Trustees garden for a nursery. That as Mr. Oglethorp's [sic] arrival he gave out to the Inhabitants 15000, and he had 25000 Still in the garden, the greatest part of which were to be distributed this Autumn, and he hoped in two years they would receive the fruits of their labour."

Source: Robert G. McPherson, The Journal of The Earl of Egmont: Abstract of the Trustees Proceedings for Establishing the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1738 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1962), p. 179.

1740 From Ebenezer, John Martin Boltzius wrote of some of the problems of raising crops in Georgia:

"This year the raccoons, a kind of wild cat, are said to be doing great harm once more in the corn by pulling the young ears or cobs down to the ground with the stalks and, because they find few grains of corn, they reach out all the further. Every crop has its enemy. The corn has the raccoons at the planting as well as at the harvest; the beans, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes have the deer, and the rice has the birds which many a year settle on the stalks like a cloud . . ."

Source: George Fenwick Jones and Don Savelle (ed. and trans.), Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America . . . Edited by Samuel Urlsperger (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1983), Vol. VII, p. 190.

1745 William Stephens recorded problems some Indian Traders were having with a certain unnamed individual [Thomas Bosomworth, who would continue to be a thorn in the side of colonial officials]:

"July 12. Friday. Whatever time I could spare from other matters, was appropriated toward dispatching those Indian Traders, that came to renew their Licenses, and to return home again, whereof I had now done about half. During the few days of their stay here on that occasion, scarce one passed over without Reproaches being cast from among them against a Certain Person who lately lived at Savannah in a Reputable Station, wherein the Honble. Trustees has appointed him but had taken wing from hence about three weeks ago for England, leaving several of these people in the lurch. . . ."

Source: E. Merton Coulter (ed.), The Journal of William Stephens, 1743-1745 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1959), p. 226.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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