Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

November 16

1732 The Trustees traveled to Gravesend to visit the first Georgia colonists, who were scheduled to sail the next day. Aboard the Anne, the Trustees asked if any of the prospective settlers would prefer not to embark on the voyage. Only one man--whose wife was sick and not able to make the trip--decided not to go. The Trustees then bid James Oglethorpe and the 114 colonists farewell.

1737 At this day's meeting, the Georgia Trustees learned that the British government had just assigned ships to transport 300 soldiers in James Oglethorpe's new regiment to Frederica on St. Simons Island, along with 150 wives and 130 children. More importantly, King George II had agreed to pay the regiment's expenses for the first six months out of his own funds.

1864 With much of Atlanta in ruins, Gen. Sherman and his 14th Corps departed the city one day after the other three corps has started their March to the Sea.

1911 President of the Georgia Senate John M. Slaton was sworn in as acting governor following the election of Gov. Hoke Smith to fill the unexpired term of U.S. Senator Alexander S. Clay. In a January 1912 special election, Joseph M. Brown was elected governor to fill Smith's term, but he chosen not run for reelection. In late 1912, Slaton overwhelmingly won the race for governor, taking office in June 1913.

1962 The LaSalle Corporation, headed by Bill Bartholomay, purchased the Milwaukee Braves from the Perini Corporation for $5.5 million.

1998 One day before the 37th anniversary of the launching of the "Albany Movement," the Albany Civil Rights Museum opened in Albany, Ga. Created as an educational center highlighting the role the Albany-area played in the civil rights movement -- particularly during the early 1960s -- the museum is housed in the restored Mount Zion Church, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2000 Long-time civil rights leader and minister Hosea Williams died in Atlanta at age 74 after a long battle with cancer. Born in Attapulgus, Georgia on Jan. 5, 1926, Williams attended Morris Brown College and Atlanta University. In 1963, he was recruited to join Martin Luther King's civil rights campaign. Williams became a community organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and one of King's key aides. In 1987, Williams led over 20,000 civil rights supporters in a march in Forsyth County, Georgia. In addition, he had a political career that included ten years in the Georgia General Assembly and ten years on the Atlanta City Council. Williams is perhaps best remembered for his annual "Feed the Hungry" program in Atlanta that provided free meals for 30,000 people at Thanksgiving and 40,000 at Christmas.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1850 Over a decade before Georgia's secession, there was talk of Georgia withdrawing from the Union. In response to Congress' passage of an act two months earlier admitting California as a new state (in which slavery would be prohibited), the Southern Rights Association at Mercer University adopted a resolution stating:

"Resolved: That we recognize no such State de jure as California, and hence, that her admission into the Union as such, with a Constitution, prohibiting slavery, was a gross fraud upon Southern rights, and a palpable violation of the Constitution, which expressly limits the power of Congress to the admission of States. . . .

"Resolved, That in the present state of public sentiment at the North, we can find no evidence of future security; on the contrary, we have the most convincing proofs of a decided and permanent hostility to our rights, which, if not arrested, will continue to increase until slavery in the States is abolished or the Union destroyed. . . .

"Resolved, That we would demand of the people of the North such acts and such practical assurances of good faith as will convince us we may remain in the Union without further molestation, and that without such assurance we would dissolve the Union which is used as a instrument to oppress us."

Source: Spencer B. King, Jr., Georgia Voices: A Documentary History to 1872 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1966, reprinted 1974), p. 262-263.

1862 Upset over Atlanta merchants exploiting local residents by raising the price of food and necessities, an angry Mrs. Welborn wrote Georgia governor Joseph E. Brown in Milledgeville:

"Here in Atlanta they will keep both dry goods and provisions stored away in cellars and upstairs, and let the poor soldiers' family perish before they will let them have anything for less than three or four times its value. And if there is any talk of putting down the prices of the necessaries of life, they will run off all they can to get it out of reach of the city authorities. Is there no way to stop the tide of extortion that is sweeping over the Confederacy and threatening to devastate and ruin it. What encouragement have soldiers to fight for a government that will allow a set of blackhearted Tories to remain at home and perish their families at home? They are as black-hearted as the wretches who have invaded our soil, for they are enemies in our midst that are doing, this day, more towards subjugating the South than those Northern vandals that spread consternation and terror wherever they go. . . .

"Even here in Atlanta, where there is an abundance of provisions, there is a great deal of suffering among the poor class in consequence of the high price of provisions and the low price of labor. There are many of the poor who cannot obtain meat at present prices, bacon at 75¢ per pound, port at 35¢, butter at $1.50 per pound, lard at 50¢, potatoes $2 per bushel, salt $1.50 per pound, syrup $2.50 per gallon, coffee is out of the question, calico $1.50 per yard, bleach domestic $1.50 and all other goods according[ly]. Such are the prices. There is a plenty stored away for higher prices. I saw a merchant in Atlanta pull out goods from under his counter that usually stay on the shelves.

"The men who take government contracts are speculating on the poor that have to do the work. Where government allows them $3 for making a soldier's suit, they will only allow the poor women $1 for making the same. Thus they realize a fortune in a few months. So it is in Columbus, Georgia, where some of the contractors' wives boast that if the war will only continue a few months longer, their husbands will be a millionaire. Such people would not have this war to end! The poor soldiers are often compelled to eat meat that is spoiled or none at all, such as the commissary can buy at very low figures. There are instances where men who have had government contracts have realized $100,000 in six months! There is the grandest scheme of speculation and fraud going on in the Confederacy that the world ever knew. . . .

"I do think that Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia, are the crowning points of all the cities in the Confederacy for speculation and fraud. When the war first began I thought there was a great deal of patriotism among us, but, alas, where is it? Avariciousness has almost conquered it!"

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Georgia: History written by Those who lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), pp. 158-160.

1864 In his memoirs, Sherman wrote of this day:

"About 7 a.m. of November 16th we rode out of Atlanta by the Decatur road, filled by the marching troops and wagons of the Fourteenth Corps; and reaching the hill, just outside of the old rebel works, we naturally paused to look back upon the scenes of our past battles. We stood upon the very ground whereon was fought the bloody battle of July 22d and could see the copse of wood where McPherson fell. Behind us lay Atlanta, smoldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in air and hanging like a pall over the ruined city...Then we turned our horses' heads to the east; Atlanta was soon lost behind the screen of trees, and became a thing of the past. Around it clings many a thought of desperate battle, of hope and fear, that now seem like the memory of a dream. The day was extremely beautiful, clear sunlight, with bracing air, and an unusual feeling of exhilaration seemed to pervade all minds -- a feeling of something to come, vague and undefined, still full of venture and intense interest."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Marching Through Georgia: William T. Sherman's Personal Narrative of His March Through Georgia (New York: Arno Press, 1978), p. 148.

1864 From his plantation near Rockbridge, Thomas Maguire wrote in his journal his fears that Union soldiers were on the way to his house:

"Up last night nearly all night. News that Yankees were coming this way after burning Atlanta, Decatur and some houses at Stone Mountain. Hid out box, tools, horse, buggy and other things. Mr. Anderson left after breakfast. We are now waiting for the worst to come, still hoping they will not come this way. If they are coming there will be here by nine o'clock. It is now 7. I went to see Mr. Anderson and while I was gone the Yankees came sure enough. I did not like to go back home so I stayed with David. A little after ten the Yankees were here and coming. Slocum's corps came and camped all around the house. At every side hogs and sheep are being shot down and skinned to regale the Yankee palates. Mr. Anderson and I slept in the woods all night, not very pleasant for either body or mind not knowing what was going on at home."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Its Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of original 1954 volume), p. 648.

1864 From her plantation near Covington, Ga., Dolly Lunt Burge wrote in her journal:

"As I could not obtain in Covington what I went for in the way of dye stuffs, etc., I concluded this morning, in accordance with Mrs. Ward's wish, to go to the Circle. We took Old Dutch and had a pleasant ride as it was a delightful day, but how dreary looks the town! Where formerly all was bustle and business, now naked chimneys and bare walls, for the depot and surroundings were all burned by last summer's raiders. Engaged to sell some bacon and potatoes. Obtained my dye stuffs. Paid seven dollars [Confederate money] a pound for coffee, six dollars an ounce for indigo, twenty dollars for a quire of paper, five dollars for ten cents' worth of flax thread, six dollars for pins, and forty dollars for a bunch of factory thread. On our way home we met Brother Evans accompanied by John Hinton, who inquired if we had heard that the Yankees were coming. He said that a large force was at Stockbridge, that the Home Guard was called out, and that it was reported that the Yankees were on their way to Savannah. We rode home chatting about it and finally settled it in our minds that it could not be so. Probably a foraging party. Just before night I walked up to Joe Perry's to know if they had heard anything of the report. He was just starting off to join the company [the Home Guard], being one of them."

Source: A Woman's Wartime Journal: an Account of the Passage over a Georgia Plantation of Sherman's Army on the March to the Sea, as recorded in the Diary of Dolly Sumner Lunt (Mrs. Thomas Burge)

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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