Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

November 17

1732 After repeated delays, the frigate Anne set sail from Gravesend down the Thames River into the Straits of Dover, then southward into the English Channel, and then westward along the southern coast of England before embarking into the Atlantic Ocean. At last, James Oglethorpe and the 114 colonists being sent at Trustees' expense were on their way to build the first settlement in the new colony of Georgia. Also on board, as reported by Gentleman's Magazine, were "10 tons of Alderman Parson's best beer . . . for the service of the colony."

1800 Georgia's congressional delegation joined those of other states as Congress held its first session in the partially completed Capitol building in Washington D.C.

1864 This marked day three of the March to the Sea for three of the four columns (Sherman and the 14th Corps started a day late). One of the important assignments was to destroy railroad tracks in their paths. This was done in three steps. First, soldiers separated the steel rails from wooden ties.

Next, the steel rail was stacked atop the wooden ties along the rail bed.

Next, each stack of wooden ties were set on fire heating the center section of the metal railroad track.

The final step was to bend the heated area of the rail around a tree, thus producing what Union troops dubbed "Sherman's neckties."

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

1864 Anticipating the arrival of Sherman's forces, Confederate authorities abandoned the large stockade for Union prisoners known as Camp Lawton just north of Millen, Georgia. The stockade had been built in 1864 to relieve overcrowding at Andersonville. Encompassing 42 acres, it was considered the largest prison stockade in the world. Camp Lawton only operated briefly, from its opening on October 10, 1864 until its abandonment on November 17.

Confederate Prison Camp Lawton Located Near Millen, Ga.

1867 George Stallings, manager of the Boston Braves miracle team of 1914, was born in Augusta, Georgia.

1912 Former governor Joseph M. Terrell died in Atlanta. Born in Greenville, Georgia on June 6, 1861, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1882. His political career began two years later when at age 23, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. At age 29, Terrell was elected to the Georgia Senate, and two years later he was elected Georgia Attorney General.

In 1902, at age 41, he was elected governor to the first of three consecutive two-year terms (1902-07). A popular chief executive, he is best remembered for his efforts to promote education in Georgia. After retirement, he resumed the practice of law briefly. When U.S. Senator Alexander Clay died in 1910, Gov. Joseph M. Brown appointed Terrell to fill Clay's unexpired term. However, a stroke forced him to resign in 1911. He died the next year at his home.

1930 Bobby Jones announced his retirement from competitive golf.

1930 Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived in Warm Springs, Ga. for his twentieth visit to his "second home." One of his favorite respites was to swim in the naturally heated waters at the special pool for victims of polio at the Warm Springs treatment center.

1948 Herman Talmadge was sworn in as governor of Georgia bringing to an end the famous "Three Governors Affair." Herman's father, Eugene, was elected governor in November 1946 but died in December before taking office. Herman claimed the office for two months (Jan.-Mar. 1947) but stepped down after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that newly elected lieutenant governor Melvin E. Thompson should fill the vacancy until the next general election. Herman Talmadge defeated Melvin Thompson in the September 1948 primary and then won the Nov. 2, 1948 general election to fill the term of his deceased father.

1955 In Montgomery, Alabama, Coretta Scott King gave birth to Yolanda Denise King – the first child in the Martin Luther King Jr. family.

1961 The NAACP Youth Council, the Black Ministers Alliance, and other local groups began the Albany Movement to coordinate the variety of civil rights protests that had developed in Albany.

1998 Atlanta Braves' pitcher Tom Glavine won the 1998 National League Cy Young award.

With a 20-6 record, Glavine was the National League's only 20-game winner in the 1998 season. The win gave the Braves' pitching staff an amazing hold on the Cy Young award during the 1990s, with Glavine winning twice (1991 and 1998), John Smoltz once (1996), and Greg Maddux a four-time winner (1992 (as a Cub), 1993, 1994, and 1995.

1999 Atlanta Braves' third baseman Chipper Jones was awarded the National League's Most Valuable Player Award. Jones hit .319 for the season, knocking in a career-best 45 home runs.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1864 From his devastated plantation near Rockbridge, Thomas Maguire wrote in his journal of the damage and losses inflicted by Union soldiers:

"Still in the woods. Slept but little, was dodging about in the woods trying to see the Yankees from our hiding place. The Yankees all gone about 11 o'clock. I came home at 2 tired enough and sleepy but glad to find that home folks were not abused although there was great destruction of property. Gin house and screw burned, stables and barn all in ashes, fencing burned and destruction visible all around. The carriage and big wagon burned up, corn and potatoes gone, horses and steers gone, sheep, chicken and geese, also syrup boiler damaged, one barrel of syrup burned, saddles and bridles in the same fix. Now engaged in gathering up the fragments of the spoils. It is useless to try to record the destruction of property, still I hope we can live. I think we have plenty of corn & wheat & syrup hid out. There was some 20 bushels of wheat burned in the gin house of our own, some of Mr. Minor's and others. Had much to do to save the corn cribs, gin house still burning and the straw piles, also three bales of cotton burned and the other cut open to make beds for the soldiers, all belonging to Mr. Ed Turner. The gin thrash and fan burned, the castings laying to cog wheel and other parts of machinery in ruins; the destruction of Jerusalem on a small scale."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Its Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of original 1954 volume), pp. 648-649.

1864 Sherman's military secretary Henry Hitchcock made the following entry in his diary with reference to the March to the Sea:

"[S]econd day out . . . we did not start until 7 A.M. . . . Marched three miles to town of Lithonia, on the railroad, halted say an hour: troops busy destroying track. Capt. Poe's hooks enable a few men to do pretty much upsetting . . . Poe reports railroad depot was burned at L. [Lithonia] and sparks set fire to and destroyed some two or three dwellings. Merely bending rails in ordinary way, by piling ties, laying rails across, and allowing their own weight at ends to bend them, thus, is not effectual. If thus merely bent, they can be restored by reverse process. But if twisted, even a little, they are ruined and must be rerolled. Poe has provided wrenches with which his pioneers very quickly and effectually do this -- one man at each end of a rail pulling in opposite directions, and thus twisting the heated middle."

Source: M.A. DeWolfe Howe (ed.), Marching with Sherman: Passages from the Letters and Campaign Diaries of Henry Hitchcock, Major and Assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers, November 1864-May 1865 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), pp. 63-64.

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

1864 Georgia citizens would lose considerable food, livestock, and property to Union foragers during Sherman's March to the Sea. With varying success, Union generals tried to control foraging excesses, as indicated by this directive from Brig. Gen. John Corse to members of his command near Jackson, Georgia:

"In order to secure to the soldier an equal share of stores gathered from the country, each brigade commander will send out daily, until further orders, foraging parties composed of fifty privates and an adequate number of commissioned and non-commissioned officers, whose duty it will be to gather forage and meat rations. These parties will in no case go beyond supporting distance from the main column. The supplies collected must be brought to the roadside and there loaded in their respective brigade wagons and turned over to the brigade quartermasters. Cattle and sheep are to be driven on the hoof whenever practicable. The officers in charge of these parties should enforce the strictest discipline and order. Foraging parties will on no pretense be permitted to enter houses except by written authority from the division commander. The assistant provost-marshal will see this last clause strictly enforced, and will arrest all soldiers found in houses without competent authority."

Source: U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1893, reprinted by The National Historical Society, 1971), Series I, Vol. XLIV, p. 480.

1864 From Macon, Robert Toombs wrote Georgia governor Joseph E. Brown:

"Things are very bad here. Sherman in person is leading, say, 30,000 men against us. We are retreating as rapidly as possible, consistent with good order and efficiency. The militia are retreating in admirable order and good discipline, as General Cobb reports. I will meet them between this and Forsyth this evening. I believe the legislature will grant you large and liberal powers. Tell them the country is in danger. Let all of her sons come to her rescue.

"P.S. – We have called for the troops in Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah. If we do defend here they will be on us by Monday. Cavalry force said to be below 6,000. Send all the troops you can. If we do not get help we must abandon this place."

Source: Source: U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), Vol. 44, p. 862.