Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

September 13

1752 Officially, this day did not exist in Georgia. See Sept. 3 entry for reason.

1775 John Zubly, Lyman Hall, Archibald Bulloch, and John Houstoun took their seats as Georgia's delegates at the opening of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

1806 Future planter, Texas Congressman, and Confederate general Joseph L. Hogg was born in Morgan County, Ga. [For biographical information on Hogg see May 16 entry.]

1922 Viola Ross Napier of Bibb County and Atlanta Constitution reporter Bessie Kempton of Fulton County became the first two women elected to the Georgia General Assembly. Both were elected as one of three representatives from their respective counties.

1980 In a game rated a toss-up by football odds makers, Georgia trounced 17th ranked Texas A&M 42-0. Freshman sensation Herschel Walker led the offense with 145 yards rushing and three touchdowns, while the defense shut out an opponent averaging over 460 yards per game. This left the Georgia Bulldogs with a record of 2-0 in a season that would end with the national college football championship.

1981 Losing 17-0 in the fourth quarter, the Atlanta Falcons scored 31 points to beat the Green Bay Packers 31-17 to tie a NFL record for number of points in a single quarter. The Falcons' scores came by touchdowns on a punt return, two by passes, an interception, and a fumble return.

Georgia cities and towns incorporated by acts approved on Sept. 13:

1883 Villa Rica (Carroll County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1772 Savannah merchant James Habersham wrote to royal governor James Wright, then in England, on what he saw as an abysmal state of Georgia politics:

". . . The Chief Justice has involved himself in political Disputes, contrary to my wish and advice, which has ended, as I expected, in the most virulent, personal Invectives, with which our Gazette now Weekly groans, and must make us contemptable sic, and on this account, it gives me real pain, altho' I am not the least concerned in it, and I thank God I have not an apparent Enemy in the Province, altho' I will not say, that I have not a few, I hope very secret ones..."

Source: Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VI, The Letters of the Hon. James Habersham, 1756-1775 (Savannah, Georgia Historical Society, 1904), pp. 210.

1861 Five months after signing a one year enlistment in a Georgia infantry company, Henry Graves had not yet faced battle. From Norfolk, Va., he wrote to his sister in Georgia of life in camp:

". . . I will try and give you some idea of my program for the day. Last night I was up on guard a good deal but had several hours for sleep. And, after standing for two hours, I would go to the guard tent, which is nothing but a piece of tent cloth stretched so as to keep off the dew and rain, and, spreading my blanket down on the bare ground and covering with the other, I could sleep as sound as I would at home in a feather bed. . . . It would be perhaps a strange sight for you to see me fixed up for acting the sentinel in my 'bobtain' uniform, armed with a pistol, musket, bayonet, &c. Take me all in all, I imagine I present a decidedly fierce and formidable appearance. I will be free now from all duty 'till 'dress parade,' which comes off every evening at sundown. I wish you could come and witness our dress parades. You would be delighted with them, I know. the whole battalion have to appear on the ground dressed up in their dress uniform and, after form which is called a 'line of battle,' go through with various forms in the manual of arms and music, &c. Every evening ladies from Norfolk and Portsmouth come out to witness it. There is a great deal of pomp and show in a military life, but there is a great deal that is most beautiful and at times grand and exceedingly impressive. . . .

"Just one week from yesterday, and it will be but seven months before my enlistment will be out, a time I shall hail with the greatest delight. But not because I am dissatisfied with the present. I am perfectly contended, for I find enough in this wild, strange life to interest me at all times and almost to compensate for its hardships. . . ."

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), p. 62.

If you have a date related to Georgia history or people that ought to be included, or if know of entries that should be corrected, send a note to Ed Jackson or Charly Pou.

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