Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

May 28

1542 Following the death and burial of Hernando de Soto, the remaining leaders of his expedition feared the consequences of Indians finding his body -- so the Spaniards dug up De Soto's body and placed in the Mississippi River.

1830 President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act, which mandated that all Native Americans resettle west of the Mississippi River.

1838 In response to Pres. Martin Van Buren's request that the four affected states grant the Cherokees two additional years to move west, Georgia Gov. George Gilmer replied in a letter to the president denied the request. Gilmer further charged that the request was a challenge to Georgia's sovereignty and indicated that he personally would take charge of the removal if the federal government did not.

1864 After three consecutive days of Confederate victories, Union forces achieved a reversal as the fighting moved westward from Pickett's Mill to Dallas, Ga. Here, in the Battle of Dallas, Confederates suffered 3,000 casualties compared to 2,400 for the Federals. [Click here to see a detailed 1864 map showing the location of the battle.]

1913 Samples of the handwriting of Leo Frank, Newt Lee, and Jim Conley were released -- along with a portion of one of the notes found near Mary Phagan's body. Jim Conley had admitted to writing the notes, but on this day he changed his story dramatically. Previously, he claimed Frank asked him to write the notes on Friday, the day preceding the murder. Now, Conley claimed he wrote them on Frank's order after the murder. He added Frank had asked him to watch at the bottom of the stairs leading to Frank's office, but he [Conley] had fallen asleep until he heard Frank whistle. When he went to Frank's office, he testified that the supervisor was shaking so badly he had to hold onto Conley for support. Then, according to Conley, Frank had asked him to write the notes and muttered the ominous phrase "Why should I hang?" Click here for a detailed accounting of the case.

1944 Rhythm-and-blues singer Gladys Knight, and lead singer of Gladys Knight and the Pips, was born in Atlanta.

1960 In Montgomery, Ala., an all-white jury acquitted Martin Luther King Jr. of tax evasion charges.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1742 From Frederica, just six weeks before the Spanish invasion of St. Simons Island, James Oglethorpe wrote the Trustees accusing Spanish Florida as being behind the vocal protestations of the malcontents in Savannah, as well as other intrigues:

"The mutinous temper at Savannah now shows itself to be fomented by the Spaniards and that the destruction of that place was but part of their scheme for raising a general disturbance through all North America. Their correspondence with the Negroes too fatally manifest itself in the fires at New York and Charles Town and the insurrection of the Negroes in Carolina when Mr. Bathurst and above twenty white people and forty Negroes were killed. . . . You have had a constant history of their [the Spaniards'] bribery from Savannah when they found all their cunning of no effect. They showed their last effort of impotent rage against the rest of the Trustees and me by scolding and raising virulent and malicious lies which they even ventured to print. . . . I believe this will be the Spanish faction's last effort at Savannah. . . . We hope for a great crop of Indian corn upon the island. The soldiers hold the spade in one hand and the sword in the other and both successfully, for since we destroyed seven Spanish forts in Florida in the [1740] campaign against Augustine, we have held them into this very house, so that they have not been able to rebuild any one of them."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), Vol. II, pp. 612-613.

1864 From near Petersburg, Va., Pvt. Edmond Hardy Jones of the 64th Georgia wrote his wife a letter with numerous spelling and grammatical errors:

" . . . Every thing has been qiet here for several days until this morning they commence cannonadeing round at a short distance. we are here at the same place we was when I writ to you last but I hav no idey how long we will remain here. we expect to be ordered to Lees army before a grate while. as they are sending a grate many troops up thare to reinforce Lee as I suppose he has lost a grate many men in his last battles above Richmon. Thare does not appear to be any more excitement here about the war than thare is at home. I recon Johnson has fought a big battle in the upper part of Georgia before this time from what I can gather from the Virginia papers. I hav jest received a letter from Carter writen April the 28th which stated that himself & Bud was both wel at that time and doing about as wel as could be expected. we fare about as wel here as we ever did anywhare since we left Camp Randolph. we have had no tents to sleep under since we left Savannah last winter to go back to Florida. we make us bush shelters to keep the hot sun off and when it rains we stretch blankets & oil clothes to brake it off: hour washing we do hour selves when we get it done attawl. I bought me $5.00 worth of soap the other day and got a piece about 3 inches long off of a bar jest a common bar at that. we hav no way of boiling hour clothes we jest take them to the creek and set on a log or sume other convenient place and wash them in cold water. I can wash better than you would suppose. my shirts is getting pritty much thred bare but we will draw sume in a few days as hour quarter master has them in hand for us and he will issue them out to us before a grate while: I begin to knead sume socks vary bad but I recon we will draw sume when we draw shirts and drawers and if we dount I see no chance to get any from home. Jest know too I will try to make sume shift if we dount draw. I hav plenty of other clothing at preasant so you kneed not be uneasy in refference to my clothing. I hav never received any pay yet and dount know when I wil but I hav got plenty of money yet to answer my purposes. One kneeds but little in this country as thare is scasly any thing here to sel and what little thare is, it is so high that a soldier cant by it if we get a glass of butter milk we pay $1.00 for it $2.00 for a mes of greens and every thing elce in proportion. I hope the hardest of the fighting will be over with here before long and whenever it does I think there will never be much more hard fighting during the war. I strong hope that this war will close between now and next spring as I think both partys will be exhausted fully by that time. when you write send me sume little brades of the childrens hair & you own allso. I do want to se you all so bad I dount know what to do. Keep the [?] a going to school if you se they learn any worth speaking of. I hope I will get to come home by Christmas and se you all wonce more. Tell Georgia & Minnie they must learn fast so they can write to Pa. tell them they must be good little girls at school. You must write to me as soon as you get this. I hav writ you about all I can think of at preasant. Give my love to all and acept a large portion yourself. I remain yours as ever until death."

Source: Thomas R. Fasulo (ed.), Battle of Olustee Web Page

1865 Eliza Frances Andrews seemingly never tired of berating the Yankees. On this day she learned a new way to do it from some visitors, recording in her journal:

"...They taught us some thunderous German words to say when we feel like swearing at the Yankees, because Cora said she felt like doing it a dozen times a day, but couldn't because she was a woman. I remember this much: 'Potts-tousand-schock-schwer an oat___' and my brain could carry no more. I don't know how my spelling would look in German; I would prefer a good, round, English 'damn' anyway, if I dared use it. A fresh batch of Yankees have come to town under the command of a Capt. Schaeffer. I have not seen any of them, but I know they are frights in their horrid cavalry uniforms of blue and yellow. It is the ugliest thing I ever saw; looks like the back of a snake. The business of these newcomers, it is said, is to cram their nauseous oath of allegiance down our throats."

Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), pp. 272-273.