Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

November 14

1732 James Oglethorpe spent the day in London taking care of last minute details for the departure of the first shipload of colonists for Georgia in three days. This night would be his last at his London townhouse for almost a year and a half.

1805 In Washington, D.C., Creek chiefs and U.S. commissioners signed the Treaty of Washington.The agreement gave the U.S. permission to construct a road through the Creek Nation to run from Fort Hawkins on the Ocmulgee River (site of current-day Macon) to Fort Mims on the eastern side of the Mobile River in Alabama. More importantly, the treaty extended Georgia westward to the Ocmulgee River.

1864 Gen. Sherman and a portion of his forces arrived back in Atlanta from having pursued Hood's retreating army. The day was spent in last minute preparations in getting the 62,000-man Army of the Tennessee ready to depart on its March to the Sea. Over one million rations have been distributed to the troops, which should last almost three weeks. Additionally, a herd of beef cattle as been assembled to accompany the army. But, recognizing these rations would be insufficient for the march, Sherman days before had issued instructions that his army "forage liberally on the country during the march." As for Atlanta, Sherman later recalled a special assignment he gave for the 14th:

"Colonel Poe, United States Engineer, of my staff, had been busy in his special task of destruction. He had a large force at work, had leveled the great depot [see photo], round-house, and the machine-shops of the Georgia railroad, and had applied fire to the wreck. One of these machine shops had been used by the rebels as an arsenal, and in it were stored piles of shot and shell, some of which proved to be loaded, and that night was made hideous by the bursting of shells, whose fragments came uncomfortably near Judge Lyon's house, in which I was quartered. The fire also reached the block of stores near the depot, and the heart of the city was in flames all night, but the fire did not reach the parts of Atlanta where the court-house was or the great mass of dwelling houses."

1914 In the case of Frank v. State, the Georgia Supreme Court issued its decision turning down all of Leo Frank's motions and appeals, thus affirming both the conduct of the trial and the judgment. [Click here to read about one of Georgia's most famous -- and many would say infamous -- trials.]

1944 The special commission working on a new constitution for Georgia reversed itself from the previous day. After lengthy debate, the commission struck the local government home rule provision approved the day before. Instead the commission voted to ask the legislature to pass a resolution allowing home rule.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1826 One manifestation of sectionalism was a growing belief across the South that it was dangerous for young southern men to be educated in the North because they might be exposed to anti-slavery sentiment. One example of this belief was expressed at a meeting of the University of Georgia's governing body, the Senatus Academicus, on this day:

"This Board cannot but feel and believe that nothing can be so important to the good people of Georgia, as to have their youth educated among themselves, and as long as knowledge is strength, and absolutely necessary to all departments of government, to the council and to the state . . . so long will it be necessary to cherish and diffuse its blessings throughout this rising and flourishing country."

Source: Spencer B. King, Jr., Georgia Voices: A Documentary History to 1872 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1966, reprinted 1974), p. 253.

1860 Following the election of Lincoln as president, the Georgia General Assembly invited the state's political leaders to address that body on the future course of action Georgia should take. On the evening of Nov. 14, Congressman Alexander Stephens gave one of his most memorable speeches in which he called for patience and moderation:

"In my judgment, the election of no man, constitutionally chosen to that high office, is sufficient cause to justify any State to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by and aid still in maintaining the Constitution of the country. . . .

"I am for exhausting all that patriotism demands, before taking the last step. I would ask the same of all the other Southern States, so that if evil has got beyond our control . . . we may not be divided among ourselves, (cheers) but if possible, secure the united cooperation of the Southern States, and then in the face of the civilized world, we may justify our action, and, with the wrong all on the other side, we can appeal to the God of Battles, if it comes to that, to aid us in our cause. (loud applause)

Source: Spencer B. King, Jr., Georgia Voices: A Documentary History to 1872 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1966, reprinted 1974), p. 273.

1864 In his personal narrative of the march through Georgia, Gen. William T. Sherman wrote:

"I reached Atlanta during the afternoon of the 14th, and found that all preparations had been made...Colonel Poe, United States Engineer, of my staff, had been busy in his special task of destruction. He had a large force at work, had leveled the great depot, round-house, and the machine-shops of the Georgia railroad, and had applied fire to the wreck. One of these machine shops had been used by the rebels as an arsenal, and in it were stored piles of shot and shell, some of which proved to be loaded, and that night was made hideous by the bursting of shells, whose fragments came uncomfortably near Judge Lyon's house, in which I was quartered. The fire also reached the block of stores near the depot, and the heart of the city was in flames all night, but the fire did not reach the parts of Atlanta where the court-house was or the great mass of dwelling-houses."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Marching Through Georgia: William T. Sherman's Personal Narrative of His March Through Georgia (New York: Arno Press, 1978), pp. 146-147.

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