Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

February 22

1765 James Oglethorpe was appointed full general in the British Army. Ultimately, he would become the oldest general officer in the British military.

1766 Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, though official announcement did not reach Georgia until July 6.

1850 Gov. George Towns approved Georgia's first law providing grounds for divorce. Prior to this legislation, a divorce could only be granted "upon legal principles" as determined by juries in two consecutive trials. Because Georgia had no statutory definition of what was included by the term "legal principles," Georgia's Supreme Court in 1847 interpreted "legal principles" under British common law to mean religious grounds as defined by the Church of England. The General Assembly subsequently amended the state constitution to provide that grounds for divorce be "upon such legal principles, as the General Assembly may by law prescribe." At the 1850 session, these principles were statutorily established as:

• Intermarriage "within the levitical degrees of consanguinity or affinity"
• Mental incapacity at the time of marriage
• Impotency at the time of marriage
• Force, menace, or duress in obtaining a marriage
• Pregnancy of the wife at the time of marriage without the husband's knowledge
• Adultery by either party after marriage
• Willful and continuing desertion by either party for a period of three years
• Conviction of either party of an offense involving moral turpitude for which the party is sentenced to prison for two years or longer

The 1850 statute further provided that in cases of cruel treatment or habitual intoxication, the jury could determine whether to grant a total divorce or a divorce "from bed and board." Further, all other allegations would only allow a divorce from bed and board.

1861 At the Provisional Confederate Congress meeting in Montgomery, Ala. Georgia delegate Augustus Wright introduced a bill "to form a Volunteer Division in the Army of the Confederate States of America." The legislation would subsequently be adopted.

1865 Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of all Confederate armies, issued Special Order No. 3 naming Gen. Joseph E. Johnston commander of the Army of Tennessee and all troops in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The order also placed Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard under Johnston. Privately, Lee telegraphed Johnston with instructions: "Concentrate all available forces and drive back Sherman." Johnston, however, had to telegraph Lee back: "It is too late to expect me to concentrate troops capable of driving back Sherman. The remnant of the Army of Tennessee is much divided. So are other troops. I will get information from General Beauregard as soon as practicable. Is any discretion allowed me? I have no staff."

1892 The Cyclorama painting of the Battle of Atlanta was placed on exhibit in a new building on Edgewood Ave. The painting had been purchased in September 1890 at auction by Paul Atkinson -- a Georgian -- for $2500. Atkinson had then exhibited the mammoth historical painting in Nashville and Chattanooga before bringing it to Atlanta in February 1892. After being on display for a year, Atkinson sold it to H.H. Harrison of Florida, who planned to exhibit it at the Chicago's World Columbian Exposition in 1893. Exposition officials, however, demanded that he build a brick building to house the painting, which Harrison was unable to afford. On Aug. 1, 1893, the painting was auctioned off for $1100 to Ernest Woodruff, who sold it a week later to George Gress and Charles Northern, who devised plans to exhibit the painting in Grant Park.

1937 Professional golfer Tommy Aaron was born in Gainesville, Ga. In 1973, he became the second of three Georgians to win the Masters.

1974 Paul Anderson, James (Doc) Harper, Dot Kirby, Marty Marion, Jim Parker, and Everett Strupper were inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

2005 Former Georgia governor Ernest Vandiver, Jr. died at his home in Franklin County. He was born July 3, 1918 in Canon, Georgia. See the July 3 entry for This Day in Georgia history for biographical information. 

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved by the governor on Feb. 22:

1877 The Rock (Upson County)

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by order of superior court on Feb. 22:

1905 Graymont (Emanuel County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1864 From Pine Mount, Ga., Samuel D. Knight wrote Gov. Joseph E. Brown about a growing lack of loyalty to the Confederate cause:

"Permit the liberty of writing you these few lines in regard to the state of our country at this time through the Second Congressional District and no doubt but many other portions of the state. I have been travelling through this district for the last three months and mingling freely with the common people and have found with much regret that among that class generally there is a strong Union feeling existing . . . . I also learn from good authority that the same feeling exists among the soldiers in the field to an alarming extent.

"It is now manifest that the late military bill is not approved by the people, neither citizen nor soldier, and especially in regard to the militia officers so far as killing their commissions and making them liable to conscription is concerned, has caused much confusion among the soldiers as well as the people. . . .

"There is also a loud cry raised against so many enrolling officers in the county, and the general talk is that, if they need men in the army, why don't they take these loafering enrolling officers who is doing the country more harm than that many Yankees could do, for there [are] more than twice as many enrolling officers as conscripts and so on also that poor people has to pay all the tax and do all the fighting, while the gentlemen and their sons are loafing over the country, pretending to hunt conscripts. . . . I regret to say that there is many deserters now in Georgia that say they will die before they will go back to the service under present circumstances.

". . .Many of the soldiers are complaining about their treatment in regard to furloughs. It is true that many of them has never had a furlough, while others have been at home on furlough almost half of their time. I am sorry to say that I know of my own knowledge that many of the soldiers' families in this district are almost upon a starvation at this time. Many of them are living entirely without meat and not half enough bread . . . . And there is a great many of [the people] that cannot make any farm at all for the want of implements to farm with. The people is generally without iron to make plows with and without food for horses to plow. And, kind sir, I do hope you will give this thing your most candid attention and endeavor to fall upon some plan that will be more harmonious than those which are now being pursued and, if possible, bring the two classes to a more harmonious point than that what they are at now. For it is a certain fact that the Southern people are fast becoming as bitterly divided against each other as the Southern and Northern people ever has been. I have not written this letter to exaggerate these things. I only write such as I know to be true."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Georgia: History written by Those who lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), pp. 174-175.

1868 Unhappy with the constitutional convention then underway, Atlanta merchant Samuel P. Richards wrote in his journal:

"Washington's birthday! -- If the 'Father of his Country' could now see to what a pitiable condition the land he fought for has come in these latter days he would be sorry I think that he ever rescued her from British thraldom. And our Radical Anti-Constitution Convention dared to adjourn over to do honor to his memory."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of 1954 original volume), Vol. I, p. 775.