19th century

May 5, 1864

Atlanta Campaign Begins

General William Tecumseh Sherman introduced himself to the people of Georgia on this day in 1864. The Confederacy still had a chance to win the Civil War if Robert E. Lee could hold onto the capital at Richmond, and if Joe Johnston could keep Sherman from taking Atlanta, the South’s major railroad hub. President Lincoln […]

May 3, 1816

Montgomery Meigs

He was a Georgia native responsible for turning Robert E. Lee’s plantation into a national cemetery. Montgomery Meigs was born in Augusta in 1816 and graduated from the U.S. Military academy at West Point. Meigs was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers and oversaw the construction of many of Washington’s most important buildings, including […]

May 1, 1886

Jefferson Davis

It was a comeback tour for the man who had been Confederate president. Jefferson Davis lived quietly at his Mississippi home in the decades after the Civil War. But in 1886, he laid the cornerstone for a Confederate memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. Henry Grady, the enterprising editor of the Atlanta Constitution, invited Davis to Atlanta […]

April 30, 1825

William McIntosh

On this day in 1825, 200 Creek warriors set fire to a plantation house, and shot and stabbed the owner to death. The owner was William McIntosh, a Creek Indian chief killed by his own people. McIntosh was born around 1778 to a white Scotsman and a Creek woman. Though raised among the creeks, he […]

April 28, 1894

Young Harris College

His namesake college in north Georgia is small. Its effect has been anything but. Young Loftin Harris was born in Elbert County around 1812. He became a lawyer, judge, and state representative, but he made his money in the insurance business. Harris joined the Southern Mutual Insurance Company in 1849. Over a 45-year career, he […]

April 26, 1856

George Troup

When Georgia had its first showdown with the federal government in the 1820s, Washington blinked. George Michael Troup had faced down the president. Originally from Alabama, Troup served in the Georgia Legislature, and the U.S. House and Senate, before his election as Georgia governor in 1823. In 1825, determined to drive the Creek Indians from […]

April 25, 1898

Spanish-American War in Georgia

“Remember the Maine” – three simple words that helped propel the United States into a major conflict with Spain. And Georgians played an important role in it. The Spanish-American War grew out of American support for Cuba’s rebellion against Spain. After the American battleship USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, Americans clamored for war. Georgia […]

April 21, 1836

Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar

A Louisville, Georgia native would become president of the Republic of Texas. Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was born in 1798 and led a colorful life, to put it mildly. Lamar opened a store in Alabama; it failed, so he moved back and became secretary to Governor George Troup. He married, started a family, then moved to […]

April 16, 1865

Columbus Captured in the Civil War

Columbus was one of the South’s most important manufacturing centers before the Civil War. Georgia’s third largest city lay out of the U.S. Army’s path until Easter Sunday, 1865, a week after General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. U.S. General James Wilson and his cavalry—13,500 strong—launched a night attack that captured the city and more than […]

April 20, 1824

Alfred Colquitt

Alfred Colquitt had an imposing resume: Ivy League graduate, Mexican War veteran, Confederate general, congressman, governor and senator. Born in Walton County in 1824, Colquitt graduated from Princeton, then practiced law in Monroe until he fought in the Mexican War, rising to the rank of major. He was elected to the U.S. Congress during the […]