Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

November 10

1809 David B. Mitchell was sworn in as governor of Georgia for the first of three terms (1809-13 and 1815-17). [See Nov. 9 entry for biographical information on Mitchell.]

1864 Sherman's forces -- including several thousand Union hospital patients -- evacuated Rome. During the evacuation, Sherman gave the following order to Brig. Gen. John Corse:

You will destroy tonight all public property not needed by your command, all foundries, mills, workshops, warehouses, railroad depots or other storehouses convenient to the railroad, together with all wagon shops, tanneries, or other factories useful to the enemy. Destroy all bridges immediately, then move your command tomorrow to Kingston. [Order in collection of Rome City Library]

1865 Confederate prison commander Henry Wirz died by hanging in Washington, D.C., becoming the only Confederate military leader executed for his part in the Civil War. Born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1822, Wirz graduated from the University of Zurich, later obtaining medical degrees from the medical colleges of Paris and Berlin. In 1849, he immigrated to Kentucky, moving six years later to Louisiana. With the outbreak of the Civil war, Dr. Wirz joined a regiment Louisiana volunteers as a sergeant. He was severely wounded in battle and promoted to captain for his bravery. Wounds to his arm made it almost useless, so he was sent to work with the provost marshal in charge of Confederate prisoner of war camps. He subsequently commanded prison camps in Richmond, Va. and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

In Nov. 1863, the Confederacy was faced with growing numbers of Union prisoners and no place to put them. The War Department decided to build a large prison in the small southwest Georgia town of Andersonville. Though officially designated Fort Sumter, the facility commonly was known as Andersonville Prison. In Feb. 1864, the first 600 Union prisoners were sent to Andersonville, and the next month, Capt. Wirz was placed in command. By April, 10,000 Union prisoners had been sent to Andersonville, 19,000 by May, and more than 33,000 by August, when the population reached its peak. In its fourteen months of existence Andersonville [see photo] housed more than 45,000 federal prisoners, of which almost 13,000 died. Conditions at the prison were horrible. However, while Wirz was "harsh and rancorous in his demeanor and unusually coarse in his speech," he was operating under extremely difficult circumstances. His appeals for help went unanswered. With the Confederacy crumbling there was often not enough food, clothing, and shelter for their own troops in the field; the situation for the prison camp was even more desperate. Moreover, Gen. Grant had stopped the practice of prisoner exchanges.

Wirz remained at Andersonville throughout the remainder of the war with his family. After the war, Wirz was taken to Macon, Georgia where Union officers questioned him at length about the prison, but then released him to return to his family at Andersonville. Apparently, they had second thoughts, for while Wirz was waiting for the train, he was arrested and transported to Washington. On May 10, 1865, Wirz was placed in the Old Capitol Prison to await trial on charges of "murder, in violation of the laws and customs of war." The trial lasted from Aug. 23 to Oct. 24. With his abrasive personality, Wirz was undoubtedly a poor choice for prison commander but no evidence exists to show that he ever intentionally murdered a prisoner. In fact, at his trial, he produced copies of numerous letters he had written to the Confederate government pleading for food, clothing, and medicine. However, Lincoln had recently been assassinated and the mood in the nation's capitol was not one of sympathy for the South. Wirz was convicted, and on Nov. 10 he was hanged in the yard of the Old Capitol Prison. [Click here to view Library of Congress photos of the execution.] He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The simple gravestone says, "Captain Henry Wirz, C.S.A., Confederate Hero Martyr, Died Nov. 10, 1865."

1931 A monument honoring Nancy Hart was dedicated in Hartwell, Georgia -- the county seat of Hart County--reputed to be the only county in the U.S. named for a woman.

1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived in Warm Springs, Ga. for his twenty-eighth visit to his "second home."

1943 Georgia congressman Saxby Chambliss was born in Warrenton, N.C. Obtaining a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Georgia (1966) and a JD from the University of Tennessee College of Law (1968), Chambliss moved to Moultrie, Ga., where he practiced business and agricultural law. Unsuccessfully running in 1992, he came back and won election as the Republican nominee for the 8th congressional district seat.

1980 Sixteen year old Patrick Rogers disappeared. At first it was thought he had run away from home, but he was the latest victim in the Atlanta Child Murders case.

2005  Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox was named National League Manager of the Year.
 
 
 

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1736 Georgia founder James Oglethorpe was not allowed to hold public office, receive a salary, or accept land grants in Georgia. However, because of his opposition to slavery and unrestricted female land inheritance, some Georgia colonists began sending allegations against Oglethorpe to the Trustees in London. Though never documented, two charges were that Oglethorpe personally was benefiting from the deer skin trade with the Indians and additionally had become a major land holder in South Carolina, as recorded by the Earl of Egmont in his diary:

". . . Mr. La Roche acquainted us that the Bristol merchants complain Mr. Oglethorp is turned merchant and hath bought up skins at 21 shillings per hundred, whereas they used to give but 20 shillings, so that he has monopolised that trade. Mr. Vernon also told us that he has obtained a grant in Carolina of 12,000 acres. This exceedingly displeased us all, and we express our resolution that if we found Mr. Oglethorp convert this public undertaking to private views of interest, we could no longer be concerned in it. . . . "

Source: Source: Historical Manuscripts Commission [U.K.], Manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont. Diary of the First Earl of Egmont (Viscount Percival) (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1923), Vol. II, p. 307.

1740 Seven and one-half years after the founding of Georgia, a group of Savannah's leading citizens -- including John Milledge, Pat Graham, William Stephens, and Noble Jones -- completed and signed a report for the Trustees, entitled "A State of the Province of Georgia." Excerpts from their report included:

". . . [T]he Town of Savannah was laid out, and began to be built, in which are now 142 Houses, and good habitable Huts. The Soil in general, when cleared, is productive of Indian Corn, Rice, Peas, Potatoes, Pumpions, Melons, and many other Kinds of Gourds, in great Quantities; Wheat, Oats, Barley, and other European Grains, 'tis found by divers Experiments, may be propagated in many parts (more especially in the Uplands toward Augusta) with Success. . . . Ships of about three hundred Tons can come up to the Town . . . and the River is navigable for large Boats, as far as the town of Augusta, which . . . is 250 Miles distant from Savannah by Water; small boats can go 300 Miles further, to the Cherokees. . . . [T]here is in this Town a Court-House, A Gaol [jail], a Store-House, a large House for receiving the Indians, a Wharf or Bridge, a Guard-House, and some other publick Buildings; a publick Garden of ten Acres cleared, fenced, and planted with Orange-Trees, Mulberry-Trees, Vines, some Olives which thrive very well, Peaches, Apples, &c. It must be confessed, that Oranges have not so universally thriven with us. . . .Three Miles up the River there is an Indian Town, and at Six Miles Distance are several considerable Plantations: At ten Miles Distance are some more, and at Fifteen Miles Distance is a little Village, called Abercorn. Above that, on the Carolina Side, is the town of Purysburgh, twenty-two Miles from Savannah; and on the Georgia Side, twelve Miles from Purysburgh, is the Town of Ebenezer, which thrives very much; there are very good Houses built for each of the Ministers, and an Orphan-House; and they have partly framed Houses, and partly Huts, neatly built, and formed into regular Streets; they have a great deal of Cattle and Corn-Ground, so that they sell provisions at Savannah; for they raise much more than they can consume. . . ."

Source: Williams Stephens, A Journal of the Proceeding in Georgia ([no city cited]: Readex Microprint Corporation, 1966), Vol. II, pp. 510-513.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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