Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

October 21

1790 Thomas Glascock, who would serve as a general in the War of 1812 and Seminole War, speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, and member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1835-1839), was born in Augusta. As a member of Congress, Glascock led a successful effort to ban debate over slavery in the U.S. House. In 1857, the Georgia General Assembly created a new county named in Glascock's honor.

1841 Lawyer and politician John Forsyth died in Washington D.C. Born in Fredericksburg, Va. in 1780, Forsyth moved to Augusta, Ga. with his family when he was five years old. Forsyth attended Princeton University, returning to Augusta to read law. He was admitted to the bar in 1802 and after six years of practice was elected Georgia attorney general by the General Assembly. Forsyth was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1812, where he served until 1818. That year he was elected to fill an unexpired Senate term until 1819. As a supporter of the Madison and Monroe administrations he was awarded with an important role as ambassador to the court of Spain. He was influential in obtaining Spanish agreement to the Adams-Onis Treaty, in which the United States secured Florida from Spain. In 1822, Forsyth was reelected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1822. Four years later, he successfully ran for governor of Georgia.

He was an able chief executive but is probably best remembered for his efforts to force the Cherokee removal from Georgia. In late 1827, he warned the U.S. War Department that within a year Georgia would be extending state law over any Cherokees remaining in the boundaries of the state. Upon leaving the governor's office Forsyth was again chosen to fill an unexpired Senate seat. In 1831 he was reelected to a full six-year term, but he resigned to become Pres. Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State on July 1, 1834. He remained in this position for the remainder of Jackson's administration and throughout the eight year term of Jackson's successor – Martin Van Buren (a close friend of Forsyth's). His public duties ended when Van Buren left office in 1841. Forsyth died later that same year. He is remembered by a Georgia county created by the General Assembly in the Cherokee Nation and named in his honor on December 3, 1832. 

1891 A bronze statue of Henry Grady was dedicated in front of city hall at the corner of Marietta and Forsyth Streets in downtown Atlanta. Grady's daughter unveiled the statue of her father in ceremonies attended by 25,000 onlookers. Principal speaker for the event was New York Gov. David Hill.

1964 Seven years after winning the World Series, Milwaukee Braves team owners announced that the Braves were leaving Wisconsin and moving to Atlanta, where they would play the 1965 season.

1976 As Jimmy Carter and President Gerald Ford campaigned in New York the day before their final debate. Carter's brother, Billy, gave his lighthearted views of the campaign to an Albany, Georgia audience.

On his brother Jimmy's drinking habits, Billy said, "Jimmy used to drink liquor. Now he's running for president he drinks Scotch, and I've never trusted a Scotch drinker." Billy preferred the alcohol choice of his brother's running mate, Walter Mondale – "I liked him the best of all the ones who came to Plains. He's from a small town and he's a beer drinker." Billy went on to add that he found the Playboy Magazine centerfold "more interesting" than his brother's interview in the same magazine.

1992 After losing the first game of the World Series, the Toronto Blue Jays beat Tom Glavine and the Atlanta Braves 2-1 to win their third consecutive game.

1993 The Ivan Allen III Pavilion and Cecil B. Day Chapel were dedicated at the Carter Center.

1995 In the first game of the World Series, Greg Maddux allowed only two hits as the Atlanta Braves beat the Cleveland Indians 3-2.

1996 After an impressive 12-1 victory the previous night, the Atlanta Braves beat the Yankees in New York by a score of 4-0. With two straight wins, and the next three games to be played in Atlanta, it looked as though the Braves would easily win the 1996 World Series.

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on Oct. 21:

1891 Milan (Telfair and Dodge counties)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1847 William N. White, a recent graduate of Hamilton College in New York, had just arrived in Atlanta to open a school. In his journal, he wrote the following description of the rapidly growing town:

". . . The city now contains 2,500 inhabitants [actually less]; thirty large stores; to hotels, that would accommodate 150 each; three newspapers; and two schools, one of them taught by a gentleman, and the other by a lady, who teaches A, B, Cs; 187 buildings have been put up this summer within eight months, and more are in progress. The woods all around are full of shanties, and the merchants live in them until they can find time to build. The streets are still full of stumps and roots; large chestnut and oak logs are scatter about, – but the streets are alive with people and the stores full of trade and bustle. Not a church has yet been built, though the Baptists, Methodists and Episcopalians each have one ready to raise in a short time. Preaching is held in the railroad depot, and in the school-houses or 'academies' – as they are called.

". . . Nearly half the population are northern men. Board is cheap, only $8 a month, and three scholars in the higher branches would board me for a year. There are lots of children, who I am assured would go to a school worth patronizing, and from what I can see I am sure with a good building, in a very short time I could make a thousand dollars a year. But there is the difficulty, the only building I can get is a miserable shell of a thing without ceiling, and it cannot be finished this winter. I have been to all prominent men of the place, who promise their influence, and those who have children, their patronage. . . .

"There are several beautiful springs in the village and the water is good; – the land is rolling. there are not 100 negroes in the place, and white men black their own shoes, and dust their own clothes, as independently as in the north. . . . Carpenters get but ten shillings a day here, and labor commands about the same price as at the north. Tuition is $12, $16, $24 and $32 a year, according to what they study. I have been here two days and am becoming quite an old settler. The people here bow and shake hands with everybody they meet, as there are so many coming in all the time that they cannot remember with whom they are acquainted. . . ."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of original 1954 volume), Vol. I, pp. 248-249.

1862 The Confederate Union of Milledgeville printed an editorial correctly predicting that a long, bloody war still lay ahead, and that it would come to Georgia.

1864 From the Chattahoochee River, Col. Fredrick Winkler of the 26th Wisconsin Infantry wrote his wife from Atlanta:

"I am glad to be back again in my own tent. My regiment was not here when I arrived; it went out on a foraging expedition day before yesterday morning and has just now returned, all safe and sound. On Tuesday last over four hundred mules, belonging to a pontoon train stationed here, while grazing at some little distance, were captured by rebel cavalry. The six mules of our team and all our private horses were out there. The driver lost five of his mules; our horses were saved by the heroic action of Theodore. . . . The rebels also burned a railroad train four miles from here and fired into and tried to capture a train on the way from here to Atlanta. It arrived there just as I was to leave and they started a train of truck cars with a regiment on it and we came through unmolested. There are detachments of cavalry, probably numbering not more than fifty men, that are doing this mischief. The main rebel army seems to be retreating into Alabama. Since my return from Atlanta our mess has been much improved. Farmers bring butter, eggs, chickens, etc. to our picket line and are there met by our men, who trade coffee and sugar for them. Our foragers have also brought in a few things, geese, ducks, apples, etc."

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

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