Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

June 13

1751 The first general muster of Georgia's colonial militia was held in Savannah.

1775 Three hundred or more Georgia patriots assembled in Savannah and erected a Liberty Tree and a flag in defiance of royal governor James Wright.

1786 Winfield Scott was born in Petersburg, Virginia. In 1838, as a U.S. Army general, Scott would later be responsible for rounding up the last 15,000 Cherokee Indians in Georgia for the "Trail of Tears" – a responsibility he was not enthusiastic about but still performed to the best of his ability.

Scott served in the U.S. Army almost fifty years – from the War of 1812 through the Civil War. In 1852, he ran as the Whig candidate for U.S. President, losing to Democrat Franklin Pierce. Scott died May 29, 1866, and was buried at West Point (although he never attended the military school).

1913 After a brief hearing Judge L.S. Roan released Jim Conley from custody. He was immediately re-arrested as a material witness to the Mary Phagan murder case and would be kept at Atlanta police headquarters, where detectives and solicitor Hugh Dorsey wanted him – so they could easily interview him whenever needed. Click here for a detailed accounting of the case.

1963 Former University of Georgia student and journalism graduate; Commerce, Georgia radio disc jockey; songwriter; and recording and performing artist James Anderson II struck it big when his song "Still" hit the top of the Country and Western charts. James Anderson is better known by his stage name, Bill Anderson.

1974 The U.S. Postal Service released a commemorative stamp featuring amethyst – the purple variety of crystallized quartz, Georgia's state gem. Click here to read the text of the 1976 resolution of the General Assembly designating amethyst as the state gem.

1979 Former Athens-area resident Kenny Rogers made it to the top of the popular record charts with "She Believes in Me."

1987 The U.S. Postal Service released a sheet of 50 stamps commemorating American wildlife. Among the animals featured were the tiger swallowtail (Georgia's state butterfly) and the bobwhite quail (Georgia's state game bird). Click here to read the text of the 1988 act of the General Assembly declaring the tiger swallowtail as Georgia's official butterfly, and click here for the text of the 1970 resolution declaring the bobwhite quail the state game bird.

1996 In the year he would win the Cy Young award, Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz tied a franchise record with a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers for his 13th consecutive win.

1999 In an inter-league game with the Baltimore Orioles played in Atlanta, the Braves lost 22-1. The 21-run loss margin was the worst in Atlanta history, surpassing by two the previous record – a 19-0 loss to Montreal. In the game, Baltimore's Cal Ripkin got six hits (a Oriole record for one game), and Brave pitchers gave up runs in every inning but two.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1737 Thomas Causton's journal entry for this day vividly illustrates the lack of adequate medical care in early colonial Georgia:

"13 June: . . . Mr Bradley's wife having sometime Since miscarried, & since that fell into the Jaundice, dyed [sic] this Evening. Her latter complaints were violent pains in her Stomach, attending with an intermitting fever; her pains Seemed to be eased by vomiting, & she was judged by the Doctor to be out of Danger 2 hours before She dyed [sic]. . . ."

Source: [no author or editor cited], Our First Visit in America: Early Reports from the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1740 (The Beehive Press, Savannah, 1974), p. 253.

1738 In a letter to fellow Trustee the Earl of Egmont, James Oglethorpe wrote from Frederica:

"The Governour of Augustine is wonderful civil, but I believe the reason is patience perforce. We are as civil but will not trust them, nor permit any of their boats, not so much as one of their men, to come amongst us, but correspond by sea from Charles Town. . . .

"They [Spanish officials in St. Augustine] receive runaway Negroes and have strove to bribe our Indians among us. But my party among the Creeks, particularly those who were in England, stick firmly to us. Yet there are some priests and other sent up by the French and Spaniards with presents to bribe the mercenary part, so that my friends in the [Creek] Nation have invited me to come us. They are to have a general meeting in July, where they either will renew their assurances of fidelity to the King or go into the Spanish interest. My friends have sent down to invite me to be there and do not doubt but my presence will entirely settle them in an unanimous resolution to adhere to His Majesty. There are 1500 warriors belonging to this Nation. Their meeting is to be at a town of the Coweta about 500 miles from the sea . . . .

"This would have been an excellent occasion for introducing a missionary had I had a good one here."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), p. 405.

1772 Things looked much better in Georgia by 1772, as reported in a letter from James Habersham to royal governor James Wright, who was then in London:

"I sit down with great pleasure to acquaint you, that after a long drought, we have now very fine rains, and an Appearance of their continuing, they are gentle, and the parched Earth must drink them up. . . .Your Fields look well here. I thought I had fully answered all your letters . . . but find I have omitted to answer a Question you put, whether there would be setlers [sic] enough offer to take up and purchase the Lands, if ceded, – I answer in the affirmative, as I am well informed, there are hundreds of reputable and industrious families waiting to settle, when the Cession may take place. I had an Application in writing from two Presbyterian Congregations in North Carolina, and signed by 360 Men, principally Heads of Families, who requested a reserve of those Lands of 20 Miles square, to settle at least two Large Congregations. . . . [T]here were upwards of 600 Families on the North side of the Savannah River waiting that Event, an Indication, that those Lands are of the richest Quality, which I believe is the Case, and from the Account, I have had of their Fertility and healthy Situation, one would be tempted to reside there. . . ."

Source: Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VI, The Letters of the Hon. James Habersham, 1756-1775 (Savannah, The Georgia Historical Society, 1904), pp. 184-185.