Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

July 17

1739 At the advice of Tomochichi, James Oglethorpe set out with only a small escort to meet Creek Indian chiefs at Coweta Town on the Chattahoochee River 250 miles inland. His purpose was to prevent the Creeks from allying with the Spanish as hostilities between Britain and Spain moved ever closer.

1864 Gen. William Sherman (see photo) crossed the Chattahoochee River into Fulton County and set up his headquarters on Powers Ferry Road near the river.

1864 In face of the continuing Union advance on Atlanta, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Secretary of War James Seddon decided to replace Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (see photo), commander of Confederate forces defending Atlanta. Around 10 p.m. that night, the following message was delivered to Gen. Johnston at his headquarters north of Atlanta:

"Lieut. Gen. J.B. Hood has been commissioned to the temporary rank of general under the late law of Congress. I am directed by the Secretary of War to inform you that as you have failed to arrest the advance of the enemy to the vicinity of Atlanta, far in the interior of Georgia, and express no confidence that you can defeat or repel him, you are hereby relieved from the command of the Army and Department of Tennessee, which you will immediately turn over to General Hood."

An hour later, Gen. John Bell Hood (see photo) received the following telegram from the Confederate Secretary of War:

"You are charged with a great trust. You will, I know, test to the utmost your capacities to discharge it. Be wary, no less than bold. It may yet be practicable to cut the communication of the enemy or find or make an opportunity of equal encounter whether he moves east or west. God be with you."

1961 At age 74, baseball immortal Ty Cobb died of cancer in Atlanta. Known as one of the best hitters ever to play professional baseball, the "Georgia Peach" played the game with great intensity, never hitting under .320. A strong believer in himself, Cobb once described his philosophy of life as: "I've got to be first all the time -- in everything."

2007 Paul Broun defeated Jim Whitehead in a special election runoff for Georgia's tenth United States Congressional district seat vacated by the death of Charlie Norwood.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1734 From Savannah, Mary Musgrove wrote to James Oglethorpe (then in England with Tomochichi and a group of Yamacraw Indians, along with Mary's husband, John, as interpreter):

"I make bold to acquaint you that Thomas Jones is returned from the Choctaws and, according to Your Honour's desire, he has brought the Choctaws down and they have received great favours from Colonel Bull and Mr. Causton and all the rest of the colony, and a great deal of respect showed them, which they are wonderfully pleased at. . . .And the Choctaws are so glad that some white people whom they called their masters has taken such care of them as to send for them. And they was very glad of the opportunity to come, for they lived very poor before and now they are in good hopes to live as well as the other Indians do. For they had no trade with the French and their skins lie by them and rot. . . . The Choctaws are all amazed to see the Creeks drink as they do, and they think the Creeks are saucy to the white people. The Choctaw king thinks the Creeks are saucy to the white . The Choctaw king thinks they are obliged to the white people and thinks they cannot do enough for the white people, especially the English. And since they have been here there has not one of them been disguised in liquor or any ways saucy upon any account.

". . .The colony is in good health and I hope Your Honour and all your family is in good health and my husband [John} is the same. And I beg Your Honour will take great care of him, he being in a strange place and not able to take care of himself and to send him home as soon as possible. . . ."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), Vol. I, pp. 44-45.

1742 William Stephens received more encouraging news regarding the Spanish attempt to invade Georgia; this time from a future Georgia governor:

". . . In the Evening arrived John Milledge . . . who had been at Frederica, was with the General, and brought from his Excellence a Packett [sic] of Letters, wherein was one for me of the 13th with a continuation of his proceedings from the 9th to which time his former reached; and the Success he met with against the Enemy, was wonderfull [sic], even beyond our Immagination [sic]; the Spaniards attempting to attack the Town by water, being repulsed there also, whereupon their whole fleet was now fallen down to the mouth of the Sound . . ."

Source: E. Merton Coulter (ed.), The Journal of William Stephens, 1741-1743 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1959), p. 110.

1864 Atlanta merchant Samuel Richards recorded news of Gen. Johnston's replacement in his diary:

". . . The enemy draws nearer and nearer to our city. All of a sudden General Johnston has been relieved of the command of the army and Gen. Hood or 'Old Pegleg,' the soldiers style him, placed in command. So there is thought to be a prospect for a fight before Atlanta is given up, as Hood is said to be a fighting man if he has only one leg. . . ."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1954), p. 606.

1864 Gen. Joseph E. Johnston issued General Order No. 4 relinquishing command of the Army of Tennessee:

"In obedience to orders of the War Department, I turn over to General Hood the command of the Army and Department of Tennessee. I cannot leave this noble army without expressing my admiration of the high military qualities it has displayed. A long and arduous campaign has made conspicuous every soldierly virtue, endurance of toil, obedience to orders, brilliant courage. The enemy has never attacked but to be repulsed and severely punished. You, soldiers, have never argued but from your courage, and never counted your foes. No longer your leader, I will still watch your career, and will rejoice in your victories. To one and all I offer assurances of my friendship, and bid an affectionare farewell."

Source: U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compiliation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), Vol. 38, Part 5, pp. 887.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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