Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

May 2

1886 After a two-day visit in Atlanta to attend dedication ceremonies for the new Ben Hill Monument, Jefferson Davis boarded a special train bound for Savannah. Knowing of Davis's plans to be in Atlanta for the May 1 monument dedication, Savannah officials had successfully solicited Davis to attend a variety of special ceremonies and events being planned in Savannah. On the way, the train stopped briefly in Forsyth and Macon, where the ex-Confederate president was greeted by crowds and spoke briefly from the back of his train. Although he didn't leave the train, Davis would return to Macon the following year for a more formal visit.

1899 Minister, author, and publisher William J. Scott died in Atlanta, Georgia. Scott was a devout Methodist who ministered to Georgians in many different areas of the state, holding various positions in eleven locations in Georgia throughout his career. He also did newspaper work in LaGrange and Rome. He was working at a church in Atlanta when the Civil War broke out; here he helped organize and operate hospitals for soldiers, eventually becoming director of the Georgia Hospital Association. After the war he began publishing Scott's Monthly Magazine, a vehicle for writers that had a successful four year run and published a number of the state's writers, most notably Sidney Lanier. Scott himself published several works including Southside Views (1883), From Lincoln to Cleveland and Other Short Studies in History and General Literature (1886), Biographical Etchings of Ministers and Laymen of the Georgia Conferences (a church history, 1895), and an autobiographical work – Seventy-one Years in Georgia (1897).

1913 In talks with an Atlanta Constitution reporter, both Newt Lee and Leo Frank strongly insisted they were innocent of Mary Phagan's murder. Frank was confident his name would be cleared in the process of the investigation. Click here for more information on the Leo Frank case.

1928 The day after Pitcairn Airlines began airmail service between Atlanta and New York, St. Tammany-Gulf Coast Airways began Contract Air Mail Route 23, which provided airmail service between Atlanta and New Orleans, with intermediate stops in Birmingham and Mobile. As with first flight mail on May 1, letters carried aboard the first flight of CAM 23 were stamped with a special cancel in purple ink marking the the initial flight.

1979 Atlanta Braves general manager Bill Lucas died the day after suffering a massive stroke.

1981 Danny Hansford was shot and killed in Savannah by Jim Williams; Williams claimed he was acting in self defense, but was charged with murder in the case. This case was dramatized in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, later made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood.

1982 The Weather Channel, with headquarters in Cobb County, Georgia, began broadcasting.

1996 The U.S. Postal Service issued a new set of 20 Atlanta 1996 Olympics stamps. Official first day of issue ceremonies were held in Washington, D.C.

As a concession to the host city of the 1996 Summer Olympics, the Postal Service also allowed the sheet of Olympic stamps to be sold on May 2 at one Atlanta post office – the downtown Peachtree Center postal station. At the station, clerks cancelled envelopes bearing the new stamp with a hand cancel using red ink – thus providing a rare unofficial first day cancellation.

2000 Playing in Los Angeles, the Atlanta Braves extended their franchise record established the night before for consecutive wins to 15 by beating the Dodgers 5-3.

2001 Atlanta Braves pitching ace Greg Maddux pitched a masterful game in a 1-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Turner Stadium. Maddox threw a career-high 14 strikeouts.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1861 From Warington, Fla., Georgia Confederate soldier H.L. Lindley wrote his wife:

"Dear aney this is to inform you that i am well and in good helth at time an hope these lines may finde you good helth i rote to you from Columbus But received no answer yet i hered from you yesterday A.B. Noyes come rite from there he sayes you was all well so fare as he node about you i was very sorey to here of Jack geting cut i hope it ante Bad Noyes sayed it was a prity Bad cut Wee have a grate time here though wee have harde Dutey to Do we are at work most of the time eather cleaning up ground or Down on the Beach Building Sande Bateres or Standing picket gard the kepe a gard of men all a Long the Beach there is some talk of fort pickings Sending troopes over in the nite But still they make us Do it there now about eight thousand troopes here now we or the floriaday troops or Stasioned about one mile Back of the navy yird in the piney woods we have got a varey good plase our tentes Leekes though when it ranes i would have rote Before now But i cant get eney invelepes her nor non in pensacola nether i give 25 centes apese for these that i got from one of the Boys that had it i hante Been out of the Campes since i come Down here onley when i go Doon on the Beach to work wee Stop in pensacola about 6 oures i Sen Barey and nick they com whare we we as or i should not seene them they keepe us rite in campes all the time But i had just as soon Bee up here as Down at the navey for you cant get a drop of eney thing to Drink i hante had but one dring Sence i Been Down here an that i got of ove a Shuner that i com from orlenes with Sholgers an i Beged that from to cook the Boyes ar all ancious for the Ball to commence an i donte think it will Bee Long Before it will commence not more than 8 or ten days at the furerethest But it ante going to Bee as much fun as the Boys thinkes for when it Dose commence But if there is going to Bee eney fiting Don i should like for it to commence Rite off for the sooner it is commenced the soon wee will get off from here i dont think it will tak us Long to Clene them felers over at fort pikene up not more than on or too Days at fartherest When it is commenced we are bound to take the fort But i think we will a good meney men in the fight for ou men Dont understan shuting them big gunees if it was with the Baonet and muscut we could whip them in 4 hours i dont now of eney thing more to rite to you you must excuse Bad Riting for all that wee have to Rite on is our nap sackes on the ground the is But one table in the camps and that Belongs to the offersers Give my love Joseph tell him to Bee a good Boy till i com Back Laud Says tell his mother that he is well even is in good helth to we ar all in fine helth for the way we hafto Live and so meney meney as there is here som off all Kinde too Give my Respectes Jackes famley and taylors famley thad is on Dutey this morning But tell Elisa that he is well and Doing well tell all of our friendes there i should Like to here from them ofen if they will Rite wee hante got much chance to Rite Gariet is in good helth he is off on Duty to this morning he sends his Respects to you all Rite to me when you get this Leter you must Rite your Leteres to me in care of Capt. Hilton L (name is scratched out).

"Fla troopes to Warington Nothing more But Remain your till Death."

Source: Vickie Montgomery Ashely, Letters from H.L. Lindley

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

1865 Once again, Gertrude Thomas and Eliza Frances Andrews witnessed similar events and recorded similar thoughts on this day in 1865. Thomas wrote from Augusta:

"Tuesday, May 2, 1865 Seated by the window I look out upon what to me appears a sad commentary, or mockery of the times – The boys in the street playing soldier! Armed with guns and old rusty swords...these boys unable to see the humiliation of having been conquered are enjoying their sport. . . . Again I hear that Confederate money is to be worth 50 cts on the $100. . . . Mr. Thomas [her husband] has a few thousand dollars in Confederate money which he says he will keep to see what will happen."

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), p. 262.

1865 From Washington, Ga, Eliza Andrews wrote:

"The disorders begun by the Texans yesterday were continued to-day, every fresh band that arrived from the front falling into the way of their predecessors. They have been pillaging the ordnance stores at the depot. . . . A number of paroled men came into our grove where they sat under the trees to empty the cartridges they had seized. Confederate money is of no more use now than so much waste paper, but by filling their canteens with powder they can trade it off along the road for provisions."

Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), pp. 195-196.

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