Taborin Georgia |
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Georgia, the southernmost
of the original thirteen States, was the latest of them
settled by white men. It was named after George II., who,
June 9, 1732, granted the territory to a corporation
entitled the "Trustees for settling the colony of
Georgia." Prior to this time it was nominally
included in the Carolina charter, but was also claimed by
Spain. In January, 1733, Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe,
with a colony of 120 persons, arrived safely at
Charleston, and early in the spring Savannah was founded.
The Spanish war occurred in 1739-42. In 1752 the colonial
charter was surrendered, and Georgia became a royal
province. In 1755 a general assembly was established. On the breaking out of the Revolution the Georgians were loyal to the patriot cause, and suffered greatly during the war, the British troops capturing Savannah and other cities, and devastating the entire country. Augusta and Sunbury fell into the hands of the enemy in 1779 and it remained in the hands of the invaders until 1782. Wars with the Creeks and Cherokees followed, but in 1790 and 1791 treaties of peace were concluded, and in 1802 the Creeks ceded their lands in the southwest to the United States. Georgia also ceded to the United States all its claims to lands west of the existing State limits, which had been granted under the English charter. The Cherokee Indians were removed to the Indian Territory in 1838, and thus the lands which they had held came into the hands of the government. A convention met at Milledgeville, Jan. 16, 1861, and on the 19th passed au ordinance of secession. In May, 1864, Georgia became the field of active land operations. Atlanta had been strongly fortified, and it was not evacuated until September . Sherman, having removed the inhabitants and destroyed everything of value to the enemy, left Atlanta November 15 and began his famous march to the sea. Milledgeville was reached on the 23rd, and the coast on December 10. Fort McAllister was taken by storm on the 13th, and on the night of the 20th Savannah was evacuated. Thus the Confederacy was cut in half; and the operations of Gen. Wilson, who entered Georgia from Alabama, in April, 1865, took Columbus, West Point and Macon, and on May 10 captured Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, at Irwinville, ended the war in this section. The process of reconstruction was not completed until 1870. In that year the Georgia senators and representatives were admitted to Congress, all the amendments having been previously ratified, and colored men declared eligible to office by the State supreme court. |