Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

April 19

1775 The American Revolution began with the "shot heard round the world" as a British force of 700 Redcoats fired on 77 Minutemen at the village of Lexington, Mass. Eight of the patriots were killed and 10 wounded.

The British force then moved on to seize patriot military supplies at Concord, but along the way American patriots began firing on the advancing force of Redcoats. Unsuccessful in a battle at Concord, the British force retreated to Boston after losing 250 killed and wounded soldiers during the course of the day. [Click here to read more about the battles of Lexington and Concord.]

1861 President Abraham Lincoln issued an executive proclamation directing U.S. naval forces to blockade Southern ports.

For more, see This Week in Georgia Civil War History.

1865 About 30 miles west of Macon, a skirmish known as the Battle of Culloden was fought as a part of Wilson's Union force, moving toward Macon, encountered the Worrill Grays near Culloden.

Source: Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The Grays – a company of Georgia Reserve Militia consisting of 200 teens, old men, and wounded veterans – was forced to withdraw after a two-hour battle with a much larger Union force. [There is some uncertainty about the actual date of the battle, with it possibly having occurred on April 20 – and even as late as April 25.]

For more, see This Week in Georgia Civil War History.

1865 The day following Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Gen. William T. Sherman's signing of an armistice agreement, Confederate soldiers began large-scale desertion. Between April 19 and 24, some 8,000 Confederates left ranks and departed for home.

For more, see This Week in Georgia Civil War History.

1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived in Warm Springs, Ga. for his thirty-seventh visit to his "second home."

Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

1963 Milwaukee Brave Hank Aaron hit career homer No. 300 against the New York Mets.

1979 Gov. George Busbee signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly [see text] designating the azalea as the official state wild flower.

1989 Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris signed a bill into law officially establishing the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame to be located at the Museum of Aviation at Robbins Air Force Base in Houston County south of Macon.

1991 World Boxing Association champion Evander Holyfield out-pointed 42-year-old George Foreman in a 15-round bout.

1995 Savannah-born songwriter Johnny Mercer was honored by the Georgia House of Representatives when it adopted a resolution on Feb. 27, 1995 declaring April 19 as "Johnny Mercer Day" in Georgia.

Source: Library of Congress

1995 Gov. Zell Miller signed legislation [see text] designating the peanut as Georgia's official state crop.

1998 The University of Georgia men's golf team won the 1998 S.E.C. championship by one shot over South Carolina. The team win was the 22nd S.E.C. championship for the Bulldog, but the first since 1988.

2006 Marietta, Georgia native Larry Nelson was selected to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1744 The following entry from William Stephens' journal for this day shows the diligent efforts some made at cultivating silk worms, but also hints that the efforts would not be successful:

"The care of Feeding Silk Worms was now over, and the attendance on them at present was in providing for their Commodious Spinning. Such people as had employ'd themselves in propagating that Manufacture began to bring in what Balls they had got; before after the frequent Notice before taken by me of the backwardness I found among too many to take any thought about it, and giving their Reasons Why, it was not now to be expected we should see great matters arise, where little was done towards it. The People of Ebenezer and our Orphan house have best shewn [sic] their good Will to it by their Works, and delivered already an handsome Quantity, besides whats yet to come; to which may be added some other small parcells that are looked for from a few."

Source: E. Merton Coulter (ed.), The Journal of William Stephens, 1743-1745 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1959).

1865 For 67-year-old planter and businessman John Banks in Columbus, Ga., the Civil War was now over, as he recorded in his diary:

"Since I made my last entries on the 13th inst., we have passed days of trial and tribulation. On Sunday, the 16th, the Yankee Army reached Columbus. We made fight with them on the east side of the river, where we had made some breastworks. They came in overwhelming force so that they soon overpowered us. We had burnt the lower bridge. They soon got possession of the upper bridge and crossed over into town, so cut off the main body of our troops and captured them. They then had control of the city, destroyed the government stores, workshops, and exploded the magazine. Burnt the factories and public buildings. They came out to the Academy lot adjoining my home and camped.

"The soldiers had great privilege, roamed about as they pleased, pillaging where they chose. They annoyed me much, came into my house, searched every room. Went to my meat house, corn crib, negro houses and robbed me of about five thousand dollars worth of plunder and my negro boy (my body servant, Tunx). None of my sons were with me fortunately, or they would have been captured. My age and infirmity protected me from capture. They took off many of our citizens, stayed two days and moved off, to our great satisfaction. My loss must have been five or six thousand dollars, besides the negro boy."

Source: John Banks, Autobiography of John Banks, 1797 - 1870 (Austell, Ga.: privately printed by Elberta Leonard, 1936), p. 36.

1865 Returning to her home in Washington, Ga., 24-year-old Eliza Frances Andrews wrote in her journal from Milledgeville of the previous day's events, including a brief meeting with one of Georgia's most famous poets:

"Milledgeville. – They began to evacuate the city [Macon] at dusk yesterday, and all through the night we could hear the tramp of men and horses, mingled with the rattle of artillery and baggage wagons. Mr. Toombs was very averse to spending the night in Macon, and we were all anxious to push ahead to the end of our journey, but it was impossible to get a conveyance of any sort. Sam Hardeman, Jule's devoted, spent the evening with us, and as they are both very musical, we tried to keep up our spirits by singing some of the favorite war songs, but they seemed more like dirges now, and we gave up and went to our rooms. We got to bed early, knowing we must be at the dépot betimes in the morning, to secure seats on the train for Milledgeville . . . . We were up almost by daylight, and even then found others starting to the dépot ahead of us. . . . We did not wait at the hotel for breakfast, but started off on foot with cold biscuits in our hands, which were all we had to eat. We reached the dépot at least an hour before the schedule time. Three long trains, heavily laden, went down the South-Western, and Brother Troup got aboard one of them. I am glad he will be with sister in these trying times. There were enough people and baggage still at the dépot to load a dozen trains, and the people scrambled for places next the track. Sidney Lanier, a friend of Fred's, was there, trying to get aboard one of the outgoing trains. Fred introduced him, but we soon lost each other in the crowd. The poor fellow is just up from a spell of typhoid fever, and looked as thin and white as a ghost. He said Harry Day was left behind sick, in Macon. When the Central train backed up, there was such a rush to get aboard that I thought we would have the life squeezed out of us. I saw one man knock a woman down and run right over her. I hope the Yankees will catch him. . . ."

Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl: 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), pp. 155-159.