Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

July 28

1794 Gov. George Mathews issued a proclamation commanding judges, sheriffs, and citizens to assist in the apprehension of Gen. Elijah Clarke and his followers for illegally settling on Indian lands west of the Oconee River.

1825 Confederate Gen. William Duncan Smith was born in Augusta, Ga. He attended West Point, where he graduated in 1846. During the Mexican War, Smith was assigned to garrison duty. In Jan. 1861, he resigned his commission in the U.S. Army and in March 1861 became a captain, and in July a colonel, in the 20th Georgia Infantry. In March 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general in command of the District of South Carolina. On Oct. 4, 1862, Smith died of yellow fever in Secessionville, S.C.

1864 Sherman's Army of the Tennessee was now in place along a rural road west of Atlanta that lead to Ezra Methodist Church. They were ready to advance on ground that Hood has vowed that Confederate generals Stephen D. Lee and A.P. Stewart should not give up. Just after noon, the Battle of Ezra Church began. Unfortunately, the Confederates had but three divisions to face the 15th, 16th, and 17th Corps of the Army of the Tennessee. Moreover, command blunders for the Confederates meant their attacks were never coordinated. Despite bravery in the face of death, the Confederates withdrew from the battlefield with terrible loses--3,000 dead and wounded compared to less than 600 for Federal troops. Hood had been under intense pressure from Richmond to produce a victory, but how long could he continue to engage the enemy with these types of loses?

1913 One of Georgia's most famous -- and in many ways, most infamous -- trials of the century began in Fulton County superior court, where Leo Frank was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 14-year-old Mary Phagan. Given prevalent prejudices of the time in the South, Frank began the trial with two strikes against him -- he was Jewish and he was from New York. As the trial began, a jury was quickly selected and seated. The first witness called was Mrs. J.W. Coleman, Mary Phagan's mother. She managed to stay collected during most of her testimony, but finally broke down in tears when asked to identify the clothes her daughter had worn on the day she was murdered. Next on the stand was George Epps, a thirteen-year-old boy who also worked at the National Pencil Factory, where Frank was supervisor. Epps had ridden the streetcar with Phagan the morning of April 26th, and the two had agreed to meet for an ice cream and to watch the Confederate Memorial Day Parade at 1:00 p.m. When Mary didn't show, Epps went to a baseball game. The final witness on this day was Newt Lee, the night watchman who discovered Mary Phagan's body and telephoned police. He testified for over two hours, telling the same story he had told police, that he noticed the body when he went into the basement to the restroom. He also told of Leo Frank being nervous because of the presence of John Gantt, who had been recently dismissed from the factory. That night, Frank called Lee to ask if everything was all right, an unusual practice for him. Click here for a detailed accounting of the case.

1992 Georgia swimmer Angel Martino won the first gold medal of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

1994 The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the "General," the locomotive stolen by Andrews' Raiders in 1862 that led to what became known as "The Great Locomotive Chase" on Georgia's Western & Atlantic Railroad. [Click here to read about the story of the General.]

1996 This was tenth day of the 1996 Summer Olympics -- and day 9 of Olympic competition. On this day, U.S. track star Carl Lewis would set an Olympic record by winning his ninth gold medal. 

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1742 William Stephens described an unknown malady afflicting the Georgia colonists:

"What affected us most at present, was to see a grievous Sickness encreasing [sic], many falling down daily ill in Feavers [sic]; and to add to our Calamity, not one to be found capable of administering proper Remedies. Dr. Graham from his plantation was so kind to come today, and see us, tho very weak himself, by reason of the like feaver Seizing him a while past, which he has not yet so masterd [sic], but a fit of it returns once in 24 hours; and his affairs at home will not admit of his absence long from thence. This Sickness comes on at first generally with such a violent shock, that the Patient can scarcely be thought able to sustain it many hours, till an Intermission is found, and thereafter it usually becomes periodical, which for want of good assistance, wears away the Person to the Utmost weakness even to the Grave, tho it has not hitherto proved very Mortal."

Source: E. Merton Coulter (ed.), The Journal of William Stephens, 1741-1743 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1959), p. 114.

1861 From Manassas, Va., W.B.C. Coker wrote to his brother back in Georgia about the Confederate victory at the Battle of First Manassas (Bull Run):

"There never have [sic] been such a fight on the green earth as the one four miles from this place one week ago today! The enemy was completely routed in every sense of the word. Nevertheless we were whipped from 1 o'clock 'till 4, but did not know it. We had but 10,000 men engaged against 40,000 on the other side. The 8th Georgia Regiment held in check 10,000 of the enemy for four hours until reinforcements was forced [force marched] eight miles. . . .

"I have not been out to the battlefield, but several of our men have and from all accounts it is a very horrible sight. No set of heathens in the world was ever guilty of such acts. They never did come back to bury the first one of their dead. . . . We have about 75 commission [Union] officers in prison. We also got 30,000 handcuffs which they intended to put on us and take us to Washington. Poor deluded fools! The battleground lasted eight miles and the men is strewn from one end to the other. Plenty of the Yankees was lying on the field Thursday. Some of them was [sic] not dead then, but plenty of them had live things in their wounds. I have seen lots of the Yankees going down to Richmond under guard and lots of men with one leg and one arm. We had to take all the wounded Yankees we could and have their wounds dressed and provide for them as best we could."

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. 39-40.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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