Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

December 29

1778 Savannah fell to a British force of 2,000 soldiers under Col. Archibald Campbell. Gen. Robert Howe and a force of 700 patriots had defended the road into the city, but a black slave named Quamino Dolly led the British on a path through the swamp so that they were able to surprise the Americans from the rear. The patriots were routed and fled. Meanwhile, a British fleet sailed up the river, capturing eleven American vessels. By the end of the day, over 100 patriots had been killed and 450, and the British flag flew over Savannah for the first time in two years.

1835 A minority faction of Cherokees under the leadership of Major Ridge, his son John, and Elias Boudinot met with U.S. commissioners at New Echota, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, and signed the Treaty of New Echota ceding to the U.S. all Cherokee lands in the east of the Mississippi River in return for $5 million. For their role in securing the treaty, the two Ridges and Boudinot would later be assassinated by fellow Cherokees.

1838 Gov. George Gilmer signed the Cherokee Indian Citizenship Act, which granted full citizenship to twenty-two named families of mixed Cherokee and white ancestry that had been exempted from the force removal earlier in 1838. Many of these families were related and lived in the same community along the southern border of the Cherokee Nation near present-day Suwanee. Prior to the Cherokee land lottery of 1832, most of the families had plantations, while some operated ferries on the Chattahoochee River. Their land was taken from them and distributed to whites in 1832, but by the time of the Cherokee removal, most of the families had been able to repurchase their land Thus, they were allowed to stay in Georgia -- but as non-citizens until this act.

1838 Pierce Butler, wife Frances "Fanny" Kemble Butler, and their two young daughters arrived in Savannah after an eight-day trip that began in Philadelphia and would end on Butler Island in the Altamaha River. Though the English actress had married Butler four years earlier, this marked the first time she had visited Georgia.

1847 Gov. George Towns signed an act reincorporating the town of Atlanta as the city of Atlanta.

1888 Gov.John Gordon signed an act creating the Georgia Experiment Station to undertake agricultural research utilizing federal funding authorized by Congress in 1887 and 1888 to promote state agricultural experiment stations.

1956 Georgia Tech beat Pittsburgh 21-14 in the Gator Bowl.

1987 Georgia beat Arkansas 20-17 in the Liberty Bowl.

1991 Georgia beat Arkansas 24-25 in the Independence Bowl.

1997 The city of Atlanta celebrated its sesquicentennary, marking the 150th anniversary of the General Assembly's granting of a charter to the city.

1997 Georgia Tech beat West Virginia 35-30 in the CarQuest Bowl.

2000 Georgia Tech lost to LSU 28-14 in the Peach Bowl.

2001 Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey was named Georgia Tech head football coach. Gailey, whose prior experience also included head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, succeeded former Tech coach George O'Leary.

2006 The sale of Atlanta-based BellSouth and Cingular Wireless to AT&T became official. Including stock and assumption of BellSouth debt, the total cost of the transaction was $106 billion. With the purchase, the BellSouth and Cingular names were replaced with AT&T. Headquarters of the former BellSouth were transferred to AT&T headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, although headquarters of what had been Cingular Wireless remained in Atlanta.

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved on Dec. 29:

1890 Keysville (Burke County), Lake Park (Lowndes County), Sasser (Terrell County), and Tifton (Berrien County)

Other acts affecting cities and towns approved on Dec. 29:

1847 The name of Cross Plains (then Murray now Whitfield County) was changed to Dalton.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1735 Early colonist Benjamin Ingham kept a journal of his voyage to Georgia. After enduring some stormy weather early in the voyage, he recorded a welcome change:

"Monday Dec. 26: We are now past the Latitude of 25 degrees and are got into what they call the Trade winds, which blow much the same way all the Year round. The Air is balmy, soft and sweet. The Ship glides smoothly & quickly along; the Clouds are finely variegated with numbers of pretty colours. The nights are mild and pleasant, being beautifully adorned with the shining Host of Stars. . . ."

Source: [no author or editor cited], Our First Visit in America: Early Reports from the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1740 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1974), p. 172.

1737 An important source of labor for Georgia colonists were emigrants from various European countries who agreed to serve as indentured servants in return for the Trustees providing for the cost of their transportation to Georgia. In his journal, Salzburger minister John Martin Boltzius noted the arrival of one such group from Germany:

"A few days ago a boat full of Germans from the Palatinate [a region of Germany stretching from Heidelberg to the French border] came to Savannah, the passage for whom was provided by the Honorable Trustees, in return for which these people and their children are bound to work as servants for a number of years. . . .

"In the coming week, Mr. Causton desires to speak to these people through my offices, so as to offer some proposals as to how their children, of whom there are many among them, should attend school while pursuing their work. . . ."

Source: George Fenwick Jones and Renate Wilson, Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America . . . Edited by Samuel Urlsperger, Volume Four, 1737 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1976), p. 227.

1864 Just three months from Lee's surrender, Sherman's secretary -- Maj. Henry Hitchcock -- wrote his wife from Savannah:

"There is nothing very new to add. Indications daily increase of the tremendous moral effect our campaign has had and will have in Georgia in 'knocking out the underpinning' of the C.S.A. . . . [W]hile I do not think the war likely to end within a year from this as some do, I do think we now see clearly 'the beginning of the end.' And our General is the man who under God will bring it."

Source: M.A. DeWolfe Howe (ed.), Marching with Sherman: Passages from the Letters and Campaign Diaries of Henry Hitchcock, Major and assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers, November 1864-May 1865 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).