Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

The University of Georgia

June 23

1865 Over two months after Lee's surrender, Cherokee Stand Watie became the last Confederate general to surrender his forces. Born in Georgia, Watie was the brother of Elias Boudinot, cousin of John Ridge, and nephew of Major Ridge. In 1835, all had sided with the Cherokee faction supporting removal to the West and signed the Treaty of New Echota -- for which all but Watie would be assassinated in 1839. At the time of the outbreak of the Civil War, Watie was a planter and slave-owner in the Indian Territory.

He sided with the Confederacy and was commissioned as a colonel in July 1861. Watie raised a regiment known as the Cherokee Mounted Volunteers and fought in Arkansas and the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elk Horn Tavern). Because many Cherokees were loyal to the Union, Watie spent much of the rest of the war waging guerrilla warfare in the Indian Territory and adjacent states. In May 1864, he was promoted to brigadier general -- becoming the highest ranking Indian to fight in the Civil War. After the war, Watie unsuccessfully tried to rebuild his fortune. He died on Sept. 9, 1871 in Delaware County, Oklahoma. [Click here to view Stand Watie commemorative stamp.]

1887 George Scott Candler was born in Decatur, Georgia. He is best noted for his tenure as the sole commissioner of DeKalb County between 1939 and 1955. During this period, the county's population tripled and DeKalb County went from a rural area of dairy farms to an urban county. Candler would be responsible for the provision of county-wide "municipal" services (e.g., water, sewer, police, fire protection, parks, libraries), hundreds of miles of new roads, and construction of DeKalb-Peachtree Airport.

1933 Two Fulton County deputies served Governor Eugene Talmadge with papers in a $25,000 damage suit brought by deposed state highway chairman J. W. Barnett. Talmadge publicly tore up the papers and had the deputies arrested and kept in custody for four hours.

1996 Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones got on base for the 34th consecutive game -- tying a Braves' franchise record held by Rowland Office (1976) and David Justice (1994). 

2000 The Herndon House in Atlanta, former residence of African-American entrepreneur Alonzo Herndon, was designated a National Historic Landmark.

2003 Former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson died from a heart attack in Washington, D.C. See March 23, 1938 entry of This Day in Georgia History for biographical information.  

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1742 - As it frequently did, the weather proved troublesome for the Georgia colonists on this day, as William Stephens recorded in his journal:

"June 23, Wednesday. What I found only to take notice of at this time, was the excessive heat, and uncommon Showers of Rain, which interchangeably took place during the whole day, to such a degree, that 'twas expected great floods would soon be heard of, the River Savannah being already brimfull [sic]. . . ."

Source: E. Merton Coulter (ed.), The Journal of William Stephens, 1741-1743 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1959), p. 98.

1864 From near Marietta, Maj. Fredrick Winkler wrote with sadness of today's losses by the 26th Wisconsin Infantry:

"I left off writing about twenty-four hours ago, just as we were to move. The result proved that we moved out to a hard day's work. We advanced upon and took a line of rebel breastworks and held it and entrenched it under a constant fire from another line of stronger works. It is with a heavy heart that I contemplate the loss of five men killed and thirty three wounded in what was little more than a skirmish. We were very much exposed all day after we advanced into this position, and the enemy with the protection of his works was enabled to fire deliberately. The bullets flew around and over us thick and fast. As soon as I can get another, I will send you my hat, to show the narrowness of my escape from a fatal bullet; it tore out a large piece of the brim and passed within half an inch of my head. Another ball which had glanced from something else, probably a tree, and was without force, struck my left knee, but did not hurt me at all. I picked it up, and it was so hot that I could not hold it in my hand. I was interrupted here by orders to march. We have marched to the right considerably and are now on the extreme right of our corps, where it Joins the left of the 23rd Corps. We are at present massed in rear of the front line, but we are to go forward soon."

Source: Civil War Letters of Major Fredrick C. Winkler, in 26th Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers Home Page

1867 Frances Butler, daughter of coastal planter Pierce Butler, wrote a letter to a friend or relative only designated as "S" from her father's plantation about the progress of Reconstruction. In only two months, her father would die, leaving his 29-year-old daughter as mistress of three plantations:

"We are, I am afraid, going to have terrible trouble by-and-by with the Negroes, and I see nothing but gloomy prospects for us ahead. The unlimited power that the war has put into the hands of the present government at Washington seems to have turned the heads of the party now in office, and they don't know where to stop. The whole South is settled and quiet, and the people too ruined and crushed to do anything against the government, even if they felt so inclined, and all are returning to their former pursuits, trying to rebuilt their fortunes and thinking of nothing else.'

"Yet the treatment we receive from the government becomes more and more severe every day, the last act being to divide the whole South into five military districts, putting each under the command of a United States general, doing away with all civil courts and law. The true reason is the desire and intention of the government to control the elections of the South, which under the constitution of the country they could not legally do. . . . Meanwhile, in order to prepare the Negroes to vote properly, stump speakers from the North are going all though the South, holding political meetings for the Negroes. Do you wonder we are frightened? The one subject that Southerners discuss whenever they meet is, 'What is to become of us?'

Source: Mills Lane (ed.) Georgia: History written by Those who lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), pp. 211-212.

1880 Gertrude Thomas and her husband were facing the humiliating prospect of losing their Richmond County farm because of the debts they owed, as she noted in her journal:

". . . For several months Mr. Thomas has made effort after effort to make arrangements with the various city merchants to advance money or supplies but in vain. I do not know why it was so for certainly the security offered was sufficient, a mortgage on the Rowell Swamp land. Week after week he would go in town hoping to make some definite arrangement but without success. . . . The month passed on. From week to week we did not know how the farming operations would be carried on. Mr. Thomas applied to Ma for assistance, very much against my wishes but she did not wish to run any risk. Mrs. Tubman was applied to but she was not willing to make the arrangements -- It is humiliating for me to think of such things, much less to write of them. . . ."

Source: Virginia Ingraham Burr (ed.), The Secret Eye: The Journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990), pp. 404-405.

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