This Week in Georgia Civil War History

 

January 13, 1861

January 14, 1861

January 15, 1861

January 16, 1861

January 17, 1861

January 18, 1861

January 19, 1861

January 13, 1861: Georgia writer Augusta Jane Evans wrote her cousin, Henry Lewis Benning (a Muscogee County delegate to Georgia's secession convention), requesting that her name not be associated with a pro-Union memorial to be presented at the convention.

See the text and an image of the letter itself here.

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January 14, 1861: While the nation's attention was about to be turned on Georgia with the opening of its secession convention in two days, another pivotal Southern state made an important decision on this day. The Virginia Assembly approved a convention to consider secession, to convene in April of 1861.

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January 15, 1861: On the eve of Georgia's secession convention, the Columbus Enquirer ran an editorial entitled "The Important Position of Georgia" which showed that support for immediate secession was far from unanimous, although the need to have the South's grievances addressed was so.

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January 16, 1861: Georgia's secession convention convened and opened in Milledgeville. While Georgia began its official process of secession, one of the last attempts to avoid the splitting of the Union failed in the U.S. Senate. The Crittenden Compromise had been proposed on December 18, 1860, but on this day the Senate - both Republicans and Southern Democrats (those still serving) - refused to consider it.

See Secession article from the New Georgia Encyclopedia

As the Georgia secession convention began, the Southern Watchman of Athens hoped that they would still try to lay their grievances before the U.S. Congress, attempting to cooperate instead of seceding immediately.

Their counterparts at the Southern Banner had no such qualms; they were confident Georgia would be the next state to secede, but far from the last.

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January 17, 1861: Alexander Stephens delivered a speech against secession at the convention (the precise date of the speech is not given). In his introduction he uttered what turned out to be some prophetic statements about the consequences of secession.

This step, once taken, can never be recalled; and all the baleful and withering consequences that must follow, will rest on the Convention for all coming time. When we and our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war which this act of yours will inevitably invite and call forth; when our green fields of waving harvests shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war sweeping over our land; our temples of justice laid in ashes; all the horrors and desolations of war upon us - who but this Convention shall be held responsible for it? and who but whom who shall have given his vote for this unwise and ill-timed measure (as I honestly think and believe) shall be held to strict account for this suicidal act, by the present generation, and probably curse and execrated by posterity for all coming time, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now propose to perpetrate? ...

Alexander Stephens

Read the entire text of the speech here.

See Secession article from the New Georgia Encyclopedia

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January 18, 1861: In Georgia's secession convention, Eugenius A. Nisbet introduced a resolution calling for Georgia to immediately secede from the Union and cooperate with other seceded states to form a Southern Confederacy. Herschel Johnson offered a substitute resolution calling on southern states to send delegates to a congress to be held Feb. 16, 1861 in Atlanta to decide on a joint course of action. According to this proposed resolution, the essential elements for Georgia remaining in the Union were:

Congress taking no action to abolish or prohibit slavery in the territories.
Return of fugitive slaves, prosecution of anyone rescuing slaves, protection of slave property in the territories, admission of states as free or slave as determined by the residents of the state.
No blacks being allowed to hold federal office.

Johnson's resolution failed, while Nisbet's was adopted. Following the vote, Nisbet was named to chair the committee to draft a secession ordinance for Georgia.

Eugenius A. Nisbet

See This Day in Georgia History for January 18

See Secession article from the New Georgia Encyclopedia

The Milledgeville Southern Recorder wasted no time in reporting on this historic vote.

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January 19, 1861: Georgia officially adopted an Ordinance of Secession, by a vote of 208-89, becoming the fifth state to secede from the Union.

Georgia's Ordinance of Secession

The text of the Ordinance of Secession read:

An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of Georgia and other States united with her under a compact of government, entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America: We, the people of the State of Georgia, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained,that the ordinance adopted by the people of the State of Georgia, in Convention on the Second Day of January in the Year of Our Lord Seventeen Hundred and Eight-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was assented to, ratified, and adopted; and also, all acts, and parts of acts, of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying and adopting amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby Repealed, Rescinded, and Abrogated. "We do further Declare and Ordain, that the Union now subsisting between the State of Georgia and other States, under the name of the United States of America, Is Hereby Dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of Sovereignty which belong and appertain to a Free and Independent State." George W. Crawford, of Richmond, President

Click Here for More in Georgia's Ordinance of Secession

See Secession article from the New Georgia Encyclopedia

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