BAD DAY AT BAKER'S CREEK

THE CHARGE UP CHAMPION'S HILL

This week marks the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Baker's Creek (also known as the Battle of Champion's Hill to Southerners.)   As Civil War battles go, it doesn't rate near the top of the list of the most important battles.  You probably have never even heard of it.  Before the day ended, it would be the most bloody and vicious battle of the war for more than one hundred and fifty Laurens County men of the 57th Georgia Infantry.  More men in the regiment  were killed on that one day than in the entire war.  Almost as many men in the 57th were wounded that day than in the four years of fighting.  The date was May 16th, 1863.  The place was Baker's Creek near Champion's Hill in Hinds County, Mississippi.  Ironically the battle took place within a few miles of U.S. Highway 80 between Jackson and Vicksburg and also runs through the heart of Laurens County.   

The 57th Georgia was organized in May of 1862.  Company B and Company C of the regiment were formed in Laurens County.   Some of the soldiers, like the Garnto brothers, were residents of western Johnson County.  Company I was formed by soldiers from Laurens and Wilkinson County.  Lt. Col. Cinncinatus Saxon Guyton of Laurens County was second in command of the regiment.  

Vicksburg, Mississippi, according to most military authorities, was the key to entire Civil War.  Its commanding heights allowed Confederate artillery to control shipping up and down the Mississippi River.  On the 13th of May, Gen. Johnston, C.S.A., decided to unite his forces in one concentrated attack on the forces of U.S. Grant.  Johnston ordered Gen. Pemberton to attack the Federals at Clinton, east of Vicksburg.  The plan failed.  The Confederates began a retreat toward  Vicksburg.  On the night of the 15th, Pemberton's forces were camped at a crossroads south of Champion's Hill.  Federal forces were surging ahead, moving by their right flank.   The Confederates did an about face and turned toward what they thought was the rear of the Yankee column.   Before the maneuver could be completed, Pemberton's men ran head long into the advancing Federal troops.  

The 57th , under the command of Gen. Stevenson, took the left.   His mission was to protect the wagon trains on the Clinton Road.   Just as the 57th had formed in their lines, the skirmishers of Hovey's Division engaged them near the foot of the hill on the Champion plantation.    About 10:30, the Federal skirmishers began their advance up the hill.  Two  more brigades, McGinnis' and Slack's, were thrown into action against Stevenson.   By noon, Federal forces were attacking Stevenson's entire front.  The Confederates were forced to retreat for six hundred  yards.  Three hundred prisoners were taken and eleven artillery pieces were lost.   With their backs in the woods, the Confederates rallied and forced the Federals back down the hill.   

As the afternoon progressed, fresh Union troops were brought in.  The 57th and the other regiments under Stevenson's command were falling, one after another.  The Union forces advanced and took the hill.   Stevenson and his men were forced further to the right.  Stevenson reported that he was outnumbered nearly ten to one.  Years after the war, John L. Keen of Brewton wrote. "In this battle, our First Lieutenant was killed and several others of our regiment.  The color bearer was shot down, and the next man hoisted the flag;  he was suddenly shot down until the third man was killed ."  The men found themselves cut off from the main body of the Confederate  army.  The tide of the battle began to turn.  On the north side of the battle field, elements of Logan's division had advanced to the top of the hill.  Stevenson found his entire division cut off from the main body.   He was forced to make a long sweeping detour to the South.  They arrived the next day with no baggage, cooking utensils, or wagons at Crystal Springs.  

The Union Army was victorious.  The battle at Baker's Creek or Champion's Hill was devastating to the 57th.   The casualties totaled forty killed, ninety-six wounded, and forty- eight prisoners of war.    It was the worst day for any Laurens County company in the war.  The carnage was more savage than their fellow Laurens Countians had suffered at Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, and Fredericksburg.  1st Lt. Virgil C. Manning of Laurens County was the highest ranking officer killed in the battle.   5th Sgt. Washington Hobbs, and privates, Wilkinson C. Price, John L. Stewart, Jordan Surmons, Alonzo Walker, John Walker, and James R. Witherington were also killed.  

Fielding J. Bass, John English, Fielding Fordham, Thomas Garnto, Martin Hightower, John Hobbs, Larry Hobbs, Thomas Holmes, Aaron Hutchinson, Joshua Hutchinson, David Maddux, Alfred L. Morgan, Moses L. Pope, Sr., F.J. Ross, Samuel F. Scarborough, Richard N. Smith, Wingfield B. Smith, William M. Snellgrove, Joshua J. Underwood, Wingfield W. Underwood, Thomas B. Winham, and Green S. Young were wounded.  Some of these men, like Thomas Garnto, had limbs amputated.  Garnto's amputation was performed by a Union surgeon after he was captured and while he lay dying on the battlefield along side privates Ross and Richard Smith.   Smith was taken to Ft. Delaware and died there in prison.   Thomas White and Elbert Underwood were also captured. 

With the news of the battle and its toll, the citizens of Laurens County went into mourning.  A memorial service was held at Boiling Springs Methodist Church. The church is still located across the road from the old muster grounds where Company B trained in preparation for war.  The members took it especially hard, since James Boatright, a member of the community had been killed.  

 The Battle of Baker's Creek proved to be the turning point in the Vicksburg Campaign.  Federal Forces had tried for over a year to capture the strategic port city.  The seven week siege of Vicksburg  was about to begin.   On July 4th, the city of Vicksburg fell,  just one day after Lee's defeat at Gettysburg.   The tide of the war turned in favor of the United States.  All 342 remaining members of the 57th Georgia, along with all of the defenders of Vicksburg, were captured.  The men were paroled after a couple of months.  They returned to Georgia, disheartened and demoralized.  The 57th was sent to Savannah where they fought a battle on Whitemarsh Island in February, 1864.   From there they were transferred to Andersonville, where they served as prison guards until the spring.  The 57th also participated in the battles of the Atlanta Campaign, seeing the most action at Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, and Jonesboro.  In the last major engagement of the Army of the Tennessee, they lost fifteen men at Bentonville, North Carolina.  

On April 26, 1865 the 57th Georgia, then a part of the 1st Georgia Consolidated Infantry surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina.  The long journey home began.  The fighting, the dying, the starving, and suffering was over - finally.  The bodies of the dead never made it home from Baker's Creek.  They lie in unmarked graves somewhere between the creek and Vicksburg, known only to God.  

THE FIRST COLA WARS

If you think that the Cola Wars started in the 1980s when the Coca Cola and Pepsi companies went head to head with massive advertising campaigns, new flavors and promising promotions, you would be quite incorrect.

A century ago in the spring of 1913, the marketing wars between the makers of a variety of soda water manufacturers were just beginning to heat up.

John Pemberton, a Columbus, Georgia pharmacist, formulated his Pemberton’s French Wine Coca in his Eagle Drug and Chemical Company drugstore in “The Fountain City.”  In the mid 1880s, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola,  a nonalcoholic version of his coca beverage. The new drink was first sold at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886, 127 years ago.

Prior to the sale of Coca Cola in Dublin, small private companies like Prince & Kellam and the Dublin Artesian Bottling Company, sold their own versions of soda water in the Emerald City.  The Artesian Bottling Company, under the management of George Elbert, received 30,000 bottles in a single day at its plant on East Madison Street in 1905.

Three of Georgia’s pioneer bottlers were sons of James Russell Holmes and Alice Hester of Laurens County.  Robert H. Holmes, Joseph F. Holmes and Charlton B. Holmes left their homes in Laurens County and moved to South Georgia, where they enjoyed long and successful careers in the bottling business.  Robert, the elder brother, moved to Valdosta.  Joseph followed in 1896 joining Robert.  Charlton worked with both of his brothers before moving to the nearby city of Tifton.  Other members of the Holmes family, Charles Wesley Holmes, Willie Holmes, Luman Holmes and Harmon Holmes, were long time employees of the Dublin Coca Cola plant. 

Although the Coca Cola Company had previously operated in Dublin for several years, it wasn’t until 1912 when the Dublin Coca Cola Bottling Company was officially incorporated by J.W. Geeslin of Dublin along with Herbert F. Haley and J. T. Lupton, who operated the main office of the business in Macon. 

It will be  said with some authority that the first Coca Cola bottling plant (ABOVE) was located just northeast of the corner of South Franklin Street and what was once Harrison Street and is now known as Hughes Street on the site of a Dublin Construction Company warehouse.  Geeslin established his highly popular ice cream plant on the site in 1920.

Coca Cola Company Employees, 1935

Pepsi Cola came into the market in 1903 when it was patented by Caleb Bradham.  It would be another five years before the first Pepsis were bottled in Middle Georgia, specifically in Macon in 1908.

By the end of the first decade of the 20th Century, Pepsi entered the Dublin market under the name of the Georgia Pepsi Cola Bottling Company in a plant located at the southwest corner of East Jackson and South Decatur Streets. BELOW  The company, under the management of Aldine Hawkins, added ice cream to its line of products to compete with the local Coca Cola plant.  Hawkins boasted that his employees  could manufacture 40 gallons of Hokey Pokey and other kinds of ice cream per hour.

Lime Cola Bottle 

Acme Bottling Works, located on Lawrence Street and operated by J.B. Karrant, was charged with violating the pure food and drug act and was not in business for very long. The Lime Cola Bottling Company was established here by Wilkes Roberts, T.J. Freeman, E.A. and J.E. Evans of Blakely in J.O. Barnes warehouse on Jefferson Street in 1916. By 1922, the company was out of business. 

Claud A. Hatcher, yet another Columbus pharmacist, developed a new soft drink in 1905.  In 1910, the company became known as the Chero Cola Company.  W.E. Vann and R.M. Campbell opened the first Chero Cola Bottling Company in Dublin in 1913.  In 1915, they were bought out by  Robert Davis and J.C. Mathis of Tennille.

T.J. Kelly came to work for the plant as a young man.  After serving  in World War I, Kelly came back to work for the plant.  He was promoted to manager when Mathis left for Sandersville in 1920.  At that time,  the plant’s capacity was 1000 cases per day or 24,000 bottles.  At full capacity, the Dublin plant could conceivably produce upwards of 7.5 million bottles of pop a year.

One distinctive feature of Chero Cola was that it was only sold in bottles and not sold  in soda fountains.  One less than distinctive feature of Chero Cola bottles, made by the Graham Glass Company of Evansville, Indiana, were their striking similarity to the Coca Cola bottles.

At the height of the cola wars between Coca Cola and Chero Cola, a 1921 court decision banned Chero Cola from using the word “cola” in their product’s name.    The court found evidence that particularly in Dublin, the bottles of the two companies were so similar in appearance that employees of both companies picked up each other’s empty bottles.  Nearly a decade and half  later,  Hatcher revived his business by starting the NEHI line of flavored drinks and changing the name of his original cola to Royal Crown Cola. 

Not everyone in Dublin was enthusiastically in favor of Coca Cola.  Alderman G.H. Williams, a diehard Republican,  proposed an annual $5,000  tax on businesses selling Coca Cola, which he proclaimed was irreparably injuring the people of the city.  Williams also sought to discourage the sellers of cigarettes and near bear. It will be noted here that Williams was adamantly opposed to another Georgia icon, “Gone With the Wind,” which he asserted would ruin the South.

Coca Cola Plant - South Jefferson Street, ca. 1940.

Locally, Coca Cola was the eventual winner in the Cola Wars.  A modern plant was built in the early 1940s on South Jefferson Street, across from the current Dublin Police Department. The company moved to its present site on East Jackson Street while Royal Crown Company moved into the former Coke Building, before moving to East Dublin into a building now occupied by Irish Moving and Storage.

A popular pastime of kids and adults alike began in the years of World War I when Coca Cola began embossing its  bottles with the names of their bottling companies around the country.  The first Dublin bottles arrived in the winter of 1917. 

And to all of those of you who are over the age of fifty, do you remember the days when you would collect old coke bottles and return them to the Coke Company or your nearest neighborhood grocery?  You know, the days when a crate of two dozen empty bottles would land you nearly a half dollar, good for a trip to a matinee movie, a small pop corn and a thirst quenching  fountain drink -Coca Cola of course -  or the price of a new baseball to play with on the sand lots.

The domination of the Dublin market by Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola and Royal Crown Colas did not deter other entrepreneurs from entering the market. Williams Bottling Company was established at the bend of South Jefferson on the site of Williams Body Shop. It’s Pop Kola and fruit flavored drinks were cheaper alternatives to those of the big three soda makers.

 

So whether you can’t beat “The Real Thing,”  prefer the “Great Taste of an RC” or if  you are member of “The Pepsi Generation,” remember that the fight for the best soft drink started a century ago during the Golden Age of the Emerald City an entire century ago.

PARAMOUNT PRESERVATIONIST

Like Forrest Gump, Jeff Davis finds himself just drifting and floating around in time, being int the right place at the right time.  So said the Dublin businessman, who was honored by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation this past Friday at its annual meeting in Milledgeville.  The members of the trust honored Davis’ restoration of the Old Dublin Post Office on Madison Street with its Marguerite Williams Award.

The award, named in honor of the first vice president of The Georgia Trust and a  longtime proponent of historic preservation in Georgia, is periodically given out to the project that has had the greatest impact on preservation in the state.   

“This project sets an excellent example of how to preserve and repurpose a decommissioned historic government building, a particular issue facing preservationists today,” the Trust proclaimed.  

“I am grateful to be a part of this award.  The building deserves it historically and architecturally,” Davis commented on receiving the prestigious award. 

The Post Office was originally completed in August 1912 after a long series of delays of funding and alterations of plans. Davis completed the bulk of the work and held an open house on the 100th anniversary of the opening of the building as a Post Office.  

“When I bought the building, it took me about four or five times in there to realize that about 85 percent of the building was still here,” remarked Davis, who personally flyspecked every nook and cranny of the sturdy structure finding hidden clues to its past.  Sometimes the clues came to him in the form of stories of bygone days and visitors to the building.  He discovered secret windows in the top of the work room, where the postmaster and inspectors could spy on employees, looking for sticking fingers while they were sorting mail and taking money orders.  

Calling the project a team effort between himself, local banks, businesses and interested citizens, Davis claims as his only credit of simply putting back a building which was already there.

Now that the project has made it through it first phase, Davis is taking a short break before marshaling his resources to make his hometown an even more special place in the future.

“A lot more good things are going to happen in downtown Dublin in the future,” Davis asserts. 

The Georgia Trust was organized in 1973 to help Georgians to understand and  appreciate the irreplaceable value of historic buildings and places and their relevance to modern life.  Its members strive to be careful stewards of our state’s historic buildings. The group hopes to boost local economies by stewardship by reinforcing downtown areas and historic neighborhoods.

At the 36th annual Preservation Awards ceremony, Davis’ award included a citation for Excellence in Preservation.  The Trust also acknowledges projects in restoration, rehabilitation and stewardship. 

“There will never be another one like this building.  Even though I am the caretaker of it now, this building belongs to everybody.  When you put yourself in that context, you can’t really say that you own this building,” Davis believes. 

“It’s a special building. It holds a special place in people’s hearts,” remarked  Davis, who operates a data-technology business inside the 101-year-old building.  

"This year's winners represent a tremendous dedication to restoring and revitalizing Georgia's historic buildings and communities," said Mark C. McDonald, president of The Georgia Trust.

  

For more than 35 years, the Trust has recognized preservation projects and individuals throughout Georgia who have made significant contributions to the field of historic preservation.  Awards are presented on the basis of the contributions of the person or project to the community and/or state and on compliance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

Now celebrating 40 years of work, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation is one of the country's largest statewide, nonprofit preservation organizations. The organization is committed to preserving and enhancing Georgia's communities and their diverse historic resources for the education and enjoyment of all.

The Georgia Trust generates community revitalization by finding buyers for endangered properties acquired by its Revolving Fund and raises awareness of other endangered historic resources through an annual listing of Georgia's 10 "Places in Peril." The Trust also helps revitalize downtowns by providing design and technical assistance in 102 Georgia Main Street cities; trains Georgia's teachers in 63 Georgia school systems to engage students in discovering state and national history through their local historic resources; and advocates for funding, tax incentives and other laws aiding preservation efforts.

To learn more about Historic Preservation in Georgia, go to www.georgiatrust.org.

THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE

The Stars of Night Contain The Glittering Day       

         One hundred and fifty years ago on May 3, 1863, the wheels were set in motion to begin the climatic end to the Civil War.  A Confederate victory at Chancellorsville made General Robert E. Lee and his men feel unequivocally  invincible.  Two months later, the Confederate hopes were crushed at the Battle of Gettysburg.  A group of Laurens County men, who called themselves the Blackshear Guards and the Laurens Volunteers, were assigned to the 14th Georgia Infantry Regiment of Thomas’s Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia.  And, they were right in the middle of this horrific fight.

Following the devastating Union loss at Fredericksburg in December of 1862, Gen. Hooker, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, planned a bold move to attack Gen. Robert E.  Lee’s (left) forces on the opposite side of the Rappahannock River.  Hooker sent the major part of his force north up the river where they crossed and turned south.  The move went totally unnoticed by Lee, who discovered the movements at the last moment.  

Lee’s  commanders, Ambrose Powell Hill and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, moved from Fredericksburg west along the Mine Road toward Tabernacle Church in late April, 1863.  Jackson arrived at Chancellorsville on the 1st of May.  Gen. Hill was located to his rear along the Orange Plank Road.  By nightfall, the 14th Ga. was located about one mile east of Catherine's Furnace.  Thomas relieved Posey's brigade just after sun up on the 2nd.   

Jackson devised the boldest plan of his military career.  He planned to take his entire corps on a long forced march south and west, all the way around Chancellorsville.  At first, the Federals  thought Jackson's men were moving away from their lines.  Thomas's Brigade was sent to the rear of the column to assist the artillery train just after noon.    

The Volunteers, under the command of Gen. A.R. Wright, came to the aid of their fellow Laurens Countians to prevent  Geary’s attack on Thomas and the Blackshear Guards.  Thomas and Archer were forced to turn their brigades back to help Wright and Posey in front of Catherine's Furnace.  After the Federal attack was repulsed, Thomas and Archer double-timed along Jackson's route along the Brock Road.  By six o'clock that afternoon, Thomas was still two miles below Catherine Furnace - miles away from Jackson's front. 

Just after dark, Jackson moved to front of the column to scout for the Federal flank or rear.  While he was returning from the Federal lines, “Stonewall Jackson” (left) was struck by elements of the North Carolina Infantry.  Jackson fell and was taken away.  The highly beloved General died  at Guinea Station  on the 10th of May.  Many say that the hopes of the Confederate Army died with him.  A.P. Hill succeeded to the command of Jackson’s corps. 

“Everybody vacated the road, and lay flat on the ground. I did the same; and, while thus "hugging the ground", four litter bearers, carrying a wounded man, on account of that awful cannonading put the wounded man down so close to me that I could have touched him with my hand. I soon found it was "Stonewall" Jackson. He moaned frequently and piteously. When his friends proposed to move him out of the line of fire of the Federal batteries,  he told them "not to mind him, but look out for themselves," wrote Washington Lafayette Goldsmith, who began the battle as Captain of Company K and after the battle was promoted to Major of the regiment.

Thomas’s Brigade marched up the Orange Plank Road, reaching Wilderness Church about ten o’clock that night.  Thomas finally  arrived west of Chancellorsville just before  midnight.  His command was placed on Pender's left, north of the turnpike and just west of Bullock Road.  The moon was bright.  Shells were bursting.  The battle raged on until  after midnight.  By dawn, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, now commanding Hill's Corp's, had ten brigades massed, waiting for an early morning attack.

The climax of the Chancellorsville battle began just after dawn.   Carr's Federal troops began to pull back as they were threatened by Pender and Thomas.  Thomas's brigade at the northern line of the attack rapidly turned the Federal flank.   At 7:30,  Pender and Thomas attacked Huger, striking Hay's right line south of the Orange Plank Road.  Thomas found the enemy two hundred and fifty yards away, and drove  them  from their works.  A second attack met with a similar success.  Gen. Hooker sent French's division of Couch's Corps to attack Thomas on his left flank and at his rear.  At this point, Thomas had no troops to protect his flanks.  Carroll's Federals threatened Thomas’s men, who were forced to retreat over Berry's and Slocumb's log works.  Thomas joined with Pender and Hall.  About ten o'clock that morning,  the Confederates pushed the Federals across the Orange Plank Road and back north of Chancellorsville. For the next two days, Hill's Corps kept Burnside's Army in check north of Chancellorsville.  

Captain Goldsmith wrote, “Next morning, the 3rd of May, the order came to "charge, and remember Jackson," was given, it was said, by Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, who had taken command of Jackson's corps. A.P. Hill was also wounded. Instead of Jackson' death casting a gloom and damper on the troops, it acted just the opposite. I never saw our soldiers act so much like insane demons; they moved forward utterly regardless of the blinding rain of bullets. The Federals fought with great bravery. My company was the first to gain the breastworks, and I was the second man across them. Here I first saw hand-to-hand fighting. A young Federal soldier came at me with fixed bayonet. With sword in my right hand, I knocked up his musket and grabbed it with my left hand. The tussle was a fearful one; but George Kelly, a sergeant in Company D, shot and broke the Federal's thigh. The poor fellow fell, but continued to fight game. I could have cleaved his head with my sword, and Kelly started to brain him with his clubbed musket; but I forbade it, and called on my brave enemy to surrender, or I would have him shot, which he did in broken English. He was a German, and a brave fellow, and elicited our hearty praise.”

Private George W. Hall of Company G described the scene at Chancellorsville: “The shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying as I lay nearly insensible around me that night, displayed all the horrors of war and put feelings and imaginations through the mind that I never wish to experience again.  There scattered over the fields and immense forest the battle field encompassed lay thousands of poor wounded and dying soldiers far away from home and friends, writhing in the agonies of death with no one to speak a soothing words to their ears." 

Gen.  Lee’s top aide, Col. Charles Marshall, described the scene as the triumph, as the oh so beloved Virginia general rode on the battlefield after the fighting subsided.  " The fierce soldiers with their faces blackened with the smoke of battle, the wounded crawling on feeble limbs from the fury of the devouring flames, all seemed possessed with a common impulse.  One long unbroken cheer, in which the feeble cry of those who lay helpless on the earth, blended with the strong voices of those who still fought, rose high above the roar of the battle, and hailed the presence of the victorious chief."   

Thomas’s Brigade lost 177 killed and wounded, including Lt. Colonel James Fielder, who was killed along with three captains in the brigade. No Laurens Countians lost their lives.

            The Laurens County men  took the rest of the month to rest and reorganize the regiment. David Bush and John J. Dominy, Robert L. Hill and Francis A. Linder of the Blackshear Guards were wounded during the fighting.  Of the Laurens Volunteers, William Henry Harrison Ashley, a musician, and Henry Curl were also wounded.  

George Washington Brooks, who would later move to Dublin, was captured during the battle and taken to Elmira Prision in New York, from which he escaped, only to be recaptured at the Battle of Petersburg and taken back to Elmira at the end of the war.  John Davidson lost his eye during the fighting.  Other future Laurens Countians who were injured during the fighting were John Thomas Floyd, John Benjamin Roberts and Peyton Shy. 

During the lull in the war, the 14th Georgia and Thomas's Brigade were placed in Pender's Division.  By mid-June, Lee launched his offensive into the North.  Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia moved through the Shenandoah Valley with their sights set on Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

In the first three days of July, the Guards and the Volunteers would witness Lee’s greatest defeat, “The High Water Mark of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.  Fortunately for the men and their families, the men of Laurens County were not totally engaged in the several skirmishes in and around Gettysburg. They survived those horrible days, only to be engaged in the vicious fighting next spring west and south of the battle known as Chancellorsville. 

The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson 
by Sidney Lanier, Signal Corps, C.S.A.

The Stars of Night contain the glittering day
And rain his glory down with sweeter grace
Upon the dark World’s grand, enchanted face—
        All loth to turn away.

And so the Day, about to yield his breath,
Utters the stars unto the listening Night,
To stand for burning fare-thee-wells of light
        Said on the verge of death.

O hero-life that lit us like the sun!
O hero-words that glittered like the stars
And stood and shone above the gloomy wars
        When the hero-life was done!




The phantoms of a battle came to dwell
I’ the fitful vision of his dying eyes—
Yet even in battle-dreams, he sends supplies
To those he loved so well.


His army stands in battle-line arrayed;
His couriers fly: all’s done: now God decide!
And not till then saw he the Other Side
Or would accept the shade.    

 Thou Land whose sun is gone, thy stars remain!
 Still shine the words that miniature his deeds.
 O thrice-beloved, where’er thy great heart bleeds,
 Solace hast thou for pain!

WILLIAM MCINTOSH

 Thle-Cath-Cha  - The Broken Arrow

He was a man of two people - one white and one red.  His mother’s people, the Lower Creek Indians, called him “Tustunnugee Hutke,” or “White Warrior.”  His father’s people were Scottish Highlanders, who immigrated  to Georgia during the state’s  infancy.  William McIntosh never abandoned either of his people, all the time struggling to maintain the precarious balance between the two nations during the first quarter of the 19th Century.  It was his desire for peaceful coexistence that led to his death - an untimely and senseless death at the hands of his own bitterly divided people on April 30, 1825.  This occasional  visitor to Laurens County was one of the most important and influential Indian leaders in Georgia history.

William McIntosh, a son of a  British officer during the  American Revolution, was born in Wetumpka, an Indian village in eastern Alabama northwest of Columbus, Georgia.  He was nurtured in the Indian ways of life by his mother, Senoya, and his Coweta Indian uncles.  His father, William McIntosh, Sr., sided with King George during the War for American Independence.  William and his half-brother Roley,  son of their father’s second Indian wife, were put on board a ship bound for Scotland, where they would receive a formal education.  William was interested in learning.  Roley was somewhat less interested.  The boys were spirited away from the ship by their Indian uncles.  Their father, oblivious to their absence until the ship had sailed, continued on the voyage to his ancestral homeland.  Discouraged by the way his sons were being raised, the elder McIntosh left his family and returned to McIntosh County on the southeast Georgia coast. William’s uncles taught him all of the things he needed to know about life.  As he approached manhood, William was given leave to visit his father’s home.  William made one final trip to the coast to attend his father’s funeral.

About two hundred years ago, William was chosen as Chief of the Coweta town, at the age of twenty five.  He married Eliza Grierson, a woman of Scottish and Creek parents.  The couple’s first son, Chilly, was born at their home on the Tallapoosa River.  McIntosh, then Chief of all of the lower Creek towns, encouraged commerce with white merchants and traders.  The Lower Creeks believed that their “mixed-blooded” leaders were best suited to deal with the leaders and the people of the United States.  McIntosh stood more than six feet tall -  a height which made him a near giant during his day.  He was light skinned, but retained his Indian features of dark eyes and hair.  He wore buck skin pants and a calico shirt.  His headdress consisted of a turban with a single feather plume.

As tensions became more strained between Georgians and the Creeks (and even among the Creeks themselves), a war between England and the United States broke out in 1812.  McIntosh was commissioned a major in the U.S. Army.  He led a contingent of Indian warriors under the command of Generals John Floyd and John Coffee.  McIntosh led his warriors in support of Gen. Andrew Jackson’s legendary victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.  In near total disregard of the Indians who remained steadfastly loyal to the U.S. Army, Jackson negotiated a treaty.  McIntosh believed the treaty took too much lands from the tribes who had supported Jackson.

In the years which followed the war, McIntosh and his family moved to a new home on the Chattahoochee River.  It was during this time when McIntosh maintained a home near the springs on the west bank of the Oconee River.  The springs, known later as Well Springs, is located south of Dublin  in the Rock Springs Community.  While he was visiting in Laurens County, he sent his son Chilly to school in Dublin.

Relationships between the Americans and the Seminoles flared up again in 1817.  McIntosh was commissioned a brigadier general and was placed in command of thirteen hundred Creek warriors.  They fought in several engagements with their mortal enemies, known as “The Redsticks.” After six years of fighting, McIntosh left the army, still torn by the strife between his two peoples. His uncle, Chief Howard, the leader of a friendly Cheehaw village, was killed by members of the Laurens County Dragoons under the leadership of Captains Obed Wright and Jacob Robinson.

McIntosh established a ferry across the Chattahoochee at Coweta.  He was assisted by Joe Baillie.  The Chief built a large tavern and inn at the famed mineral water springs in Monroe County, which became appropriately known as Indian Springs.  As more and more of Georgia was being settled by white settlers, McIntosh became involved in negotiations between Creek and Georgia officials.  A meeting was held at the McIntosh Inn at Indian Springs in 1821.  Despite his deep-seated objections to the U.S. government’s treaty proposals, McIntosh reluctantly signed a treaty ceding more lands to Georgia.

In 1823, George M. Troup of Laurens County was elected governor of Georgia.  Troup pushed for the removal of all Indian tribes from Georgia. Relationships with the Creeks became more tenuous.  Various towns of the Creek Nation were at odds with each other.  Troup, in an ironic quirk of fate, had an ally in his efforts to rid Georgia of the Creek and the Cherokee.  Chief McIntosh’s father was a brother of Catherine McIntosh, the mother of Governor Troup, making the two leaders were first cousins.

While some have questioned the closeness of the cousins because of their strong efforts in support of their respective constituents, the two men consulted with each other on the matters of Indian lands.  According to local legend, an accord was reached between the two leaders at McIntosh’s home at Well Springs.  McIntosh stood firm in his belief that interaction with the white people would strengthen his tribes.  Troup took an opposite view.  His determination to remove the Indian tribes led to a war of words with President John Quincy Adams. President Adams eventually backed off of his demands for Troup to desist with his plans for Indian removal.

A second treaty between the United States and a council of  Lower Creeks, led by McIntosh, was signed at Indian Springs in 1825.  The new treaty provided for the ceding of all lands claimed by the Creeks in Georgia in exchange for a comparable amount of land in Arkansas.  A bonus of addition land and cash was awarded to McIntosh for his role in convincing other chiefs to agree to the terms of the agreement.  When the leaders of the Upper Creeks learned of the treaty, the outraged Creeks attacked Chief McIntosh in his home,  setting his elaborate house on fire and stabbing and scalping the martyred leader. 

It is said that his son Chilly, who went on to become the first School Superintendent of the Oklahoma Territory and a Confederate field officer, ran from the scene all the way to the capitol in Milledgeville to inform the state of the massacre. 

Chief William McIntosh has been called a hero by some - a traitor by others.  He was one of the most intriguing characters in our state’s history.  His murder was condemned by both of his two peoples.  Eventually the members of his family were pardoned by the tribal council.  They left Georgia for the Indian territory of Oklahoma, where they followed in the footsteps of this once great Creek leader.

AND TEARS ARE HEARD WITHIN THE HARP I TOUCH

The Murder of James Sheffield

IRWINTON: April 28, 1888: Mr. James Arthur  Sheffield was taking a pleasant stroll down the street near Irwinton's Academy on a warm, fair  Saturday night one hundred and twenty five years ago.  A waning gibbous moon was just coming up in the East casting a pale white glow on  just another peaceful spring  night in the capital of Wilkinson County.  

At the appointed closing time of 8:00 p.m.,  Sheffield, accompanied by Messers Rutland,  shut and locked tight his store doors and set out for home.  The men parted at the fork in the road,  just as they usually did.

  

Shortly thereafter, the 46-year-old Sheffield left the town's business district. As he was within hailing distance of his home, where his wife Winnie and daughter Minnie were near their front door awaiting his arrival, a shot gun blast rang out in the near darkness. The Rutlands saw the bright flash and heard the loud report of gunfire.  Not hearing any fatal screams, the Rutlands thought not too much of the commotion and went on to their homes in preparation for the upcoming Sabbath. 

The murderer rifled through Sheffield's pockets, grabbed his loot and dashed off into the darkness, crossing the split rail fence at the school house yard and leaving blood stains to mark his incriminating trail.

The murderer rapidly ran across the abandoned campus for nearly 150 yards before stopping to rip open Sheffield's satchel to look for folding money and silver coins - Sheffield's usual cargo on his evening  strolls home.  The gunman sprinted across a pasture to the northwestern corner of town.  Across a freshly plowed oat field, the distinctive footprints  of the killer marked his westward escape route.    

Just as the town's clocks were striking nine o'clock, an older black man and a young white boy came upon Sheffield's bloody, lifeless body.  At first, the pedestrians thought that the man lying in the road was simply intoxicated from an excessive bit of Saturday night revelry. Upon further examination, a fatal, massive wound was found in the back of Sheffield's head.  The boy quickly raced to the nearest home to report the matter.

It was said that early on Sunday morning every male inhabitant of Irwinton joined a posse formed by Sheriff I. J. Fountain.  That may or not be true, but it reasonable to believe that the justice seeking squad was quite large and doggedly determined to find their man, whoever he was.

The posse moved out from the resting place of the abandoned satchel, cut open by a somewhat dull knife, with their eyes focused on the ground and looking for any sign of footprints and blood drops. Sheriff Fountain's deputies followed the trail up to the home of one Martha Collins.  Inquiring of the whereabouts of her son Will Collins, Mrs. Collins, a colored woman not suspected of any complicity  in the matter,  responded that her son had gone up to the home of Shade Coates. 

The posse followed that same trail three quarters of a mile up to Coates home, where they found the barefooted, capitulant twenty-year-old Will Collins. When the lawmen burst into the room, they found Collins sitting on a bed playing his harp as if he had not a care in the world. 

Sheriff Fountain questioned Collins as to his whereabouts at the time of his murder. Collins responded that he had gone to bed early, but after being awakened, he went to the home of Coates.

A search of the Collins' pockets revealed just more than twenty one dollars in cash, over half of it in "V" nickels and silver Liberty dimes - an agglomeration that a retail merchant would be carrying home with him after closing his store.

The investigators found a double barreled shot gun, one of its barrels having been recently fired.  Inside the other unfired barrel were tiny scraps of  newspaper wadding - in particular, fragments from the February 8, 1888 edition of the Wrightsville Headlight.  Bits and pieces of the same issue  were found at the murder scene.   It was surmised that the blood got on Collins' gun when the killer reached inside the clothing and the bag of the victim to retrieve the missing money. A small blood stain was also  found on the Collins' vest. The blood evidence was sent to Dr. Clifton, a renowned microscopist, for analysis.  

Collins explained how he came upon such an unusually large sum of money, at least for him,  by stating that an unknown man approached him and offered to pay him $20.00 for the use of his gun and his shoes for an hour.   His account changed when he claimed that he borrowed $25.00 from his uncle to help him out of a financial "scrape."   That claim was discounted by the uncle, who told law enforcement officers that he could barely put together $2.00 to lend. More seemingly ad-libbed and totally contrary  accounts followed. 

Highly damning evidence came from eyewitnesses who saw Collins in town during the hours following the murder.  Shade Coates, a shoe maker in Sheffield's store, was initially arrested as an accomplice because of his ability to provide the killer (his friend Collins) with inside information and the testimony of witnesses who saw Coates at the Collins home the night of the murder.  

Will Collins was taken to a Macon jail for his own safety.  While there, witnesses said that he was always at ease, describing the prisoner as "the gayest of the gay."  Not a bit of trouble was brought the way of his captors, who stated that he played sports with his fellow prisoners without a single indication of the villainous crime he was charged with. 

A trial was held in the first week of October 1888.  With no direct evidence to prove Collins' guilt, prosecutors put together a solid, logically connected case of circumstantial evidence sufficient to establish the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

After listening to all of the evidence, the jury carefully deliberated and pronounced a verdict of guilty with a recommendation of life in prison, a sentence which began with hard labor in the coal mines of Dade County, Georgia. When Collins, who was constantly complaining of chest pains,  left his prison cell, he was described as "a living skeleton." 

   

To the unanimous jurors, their decision was solely based on a series of circumstances.  Many of them firmly believed that new evidence would surface to implicate the true killer.  But in the end, none of the twelve  white men wanted to allow Collins to get off scot free and to strike his harp and ignore the trickling tears of little Minnie

WILLIAM ROUNTREE

Emissary from Emanuel

William Rountree made his life as he  traveled around the world seeking peaceful relations with the United States.  This native of Swainsboro served for more than a quarter of a century as one of our country's diplomats and  ambassadors to countries in the Middle East, Africa and South America in a time when the Earth was a ticking political, social and military time bomb.  This is his story.

William M. Rountree was born in the capital of Emanuel County on March 28, 1917 - a son of Clerk of County Court William M. Rountree, Sr. and his bride, Clyde Brannan. 

William's father died when he was still a toddler. The Rountrees remained in Swainsboro until 1923, when they moved to Atlanta, where William graduated from high school.  

After graduation, Rountree moved north to Washington, D.C., where he landed a job with the United States Treasury Department -  thanks to the assistance of Georgia Senator, Walter F. George.

In 1941, Rountree was appointed to a task force by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to formulate plans for the creation of an agency to administer the lend-lease program.  To top off his education, Rountree graduated from Columbia University just before the beginning of World War II. 

Rountree made his first major trip overseas in 1942 to Cairo, Egypt, where he worked with the British for the remainder of World War II.  It was during the war years when Rountree began to travel to most of the counties in the Middle East.

"I came back to Washington as special assistant and economic advisor to the Director of the NEA Bureau," recalled the newly appointed diplomat, who began to receive impressive assignments in Greece and  throughout the countries of the Mediterranean Sea as the United States assumed her role as the leader of the Free World. 

"I had not viewed our role as being the world's policeman, nor do I think President Truman did. But I think the responsibilities that were thrust upon us at the end of World War II required that we do many things in many parts of the world that were new to our philosophy," said Rountree in an interview with Niel M. Johnson of the Harry S. Truman Library.

In 1948, Rountree was directed to return to Washington to serve as  Deputy Director and later as Director of the Office of Greek, Turkish and Iranian Affairs. Later as Director of the Office of Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs, the Emanuel Countian worked with the British and other countries in stabilizing the region militarily, politically and economically.  In particular, he helped to stabilize the Middle Eastern oil industry from political agitation emanating from within and from outside the region. 

The ascent up the chain of command in the State Department  came quite easy to Rountree, who served as Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission in Tehran from 1953 to '55 and then as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs from 1955-59. Rountree's region included Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Ceylon.

President Dwight Eisenhower appointed the Georgian as Ambassador to Pakistan in 1959.  After three years, Ambassador Rountree was named by President John F. Kennedy as the new ambassador to the North African country of Sudan.  After another three-year term, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Rountree as our country's ambassador to South Africa, where he served until 1970.  Rountree's last three years of this 15-year tenure as an ambassador were spent closer to home in  South America as United States Ambassador to Brazil. 

As The Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, Mr. Rountree was deeply involved in the 1956 Suez crisis and in the 1958 uncivil tumult in Lebanon. Just before Christmas in 1958, a roguish mob threw eggs, mud balls and rocks at him in effort to force him out of Iraq. Of all of situations which Ambassador Rountree had to deal with, the most difficult was the tense relationship with Iran.  

"We always had influence with the Shah, but not a compelling influence. That is, the Shah always valued his relations with the United States, and enjoyed, during his life, remarkably good relations with every American administration," Rountree recalled. 

"Many people overestimate the extent to which American influence can be effective in any given country. Our advice to the Shah over the years could have been better, but on the other hand, if the Shah had adhered to the advice which he received from us, Iran would have been in a much better position at the time of the his demise. In other words, I do not go along with the idea that his failure was the result of the lack of good advice from the United States," the Ambassador concluded.

While serving as Ambassador to South Africa in the late 1960s,  Rountree had to deal with the bitterly divisive issue of Apartheid.

"The United States has strongly opposed Apartheid, and every administration has voiced that opposition in one form or another. Certainly, when I was there during the Johnson and Nixon administrations, part of my duty and responsibility was to make clear United States objection to Apartheid and the principle of that kind of discrimination. We joined with the international community generally in imposing certain restrictions in relationships, and in refusing to ship military or police equipment to South Africa. Our opposition was reflected in the United Nations, at the International Court, and elsewhere," Rountree asserted in the Truman Library interview.

Rountree had favorable opinion of the way in which the United States instantly recognized the State of Israel in one of the more momentous foreign relations matters of the 20th Century.

"President Truman made some of the most courageous and correct decisions of any President dealing with international relations. I have nothing but admiration for his decisions on Greece and Turkey, which we've discussed here, and also on NATO, the Marshall Plan, Point IV, and Korea," said Rountree in reflecting on his career in the 1950s.

After retiring in 1973, Ambassador Rountree, who became a close and trusted  aide of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, retired to Florida.  He died on November 3, 1995 in a Gainesville hospital.

IN SEARCH OF SNIPPETS

When my days are too long and the nights are all too short and deadlines approach with the speed of a tornadic cold front,  I often have to scavenge through my files to find a story to bring to you week after week.  And in this, my 850th week of writing "Pieces Of Our Past,"  I had to dash to my computer to pluck out a few snippets, you know "real pieces of our past,"  to fill my space.  I hope you enjoy them. 

THE NIGHT OF THE TWISTER - Rarely and fortunately does a strong tornado ever strike Laurens County.  On April 30, 1953, little Glenn Register, the four year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Register of Dublin, was in Warner Robins.  About dusk a powerful twister struck the city nearly leveling eight city blocks.  Glenn was rushed to an Atlanta hospital but died on the way.  The storm reeked havoc on an area mostly inhabited by Air Force personnel.  When it was over, seventeen were dead and nearly four hundred and fifty were injured. Reuben Lindsey, principal of the elementary school, died as a result of a heart attack he suffered just before the storm.  Dozens of the injured were brought by state troopers to the newly constructed Laurens County hospital.  The city of Dublin sent four trucks to Warner Robins to help in the cleanup. Dublin Courier Herald, May 1, 1953, p. 1.

JACK OF CLUBS - Thomas Randolph Ramsay was born into one of the most prominent families in Laurens County.  His father, Rev. W.S. Ramsay, was a colonel in the Confederate Army, a well known Baptist minister, and founder of our present school systems in Dublin and Laurens County.  His Randolph family was one of Virginia's oldest and most famous families.  His cousins included Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, and Chief Justice John Marshall.  By trade, he was a businessman involved in automobile sales, crate manufacturing, and a nursery and floral business. Ramsay, like his father, was active in civic affairs, perhaps more so than anyone else in the history of Laurens County.  He was associated with nine fraternal and civic organizations.  Ramsay was a Mason, Knight of Pythias, Odd Fellow, Elk, Kiwanian, Knight Templar, Shriner, Sportsman, and Rotarian. Laurens County History, Vol. 1, pp. 455-6.

SODA POP WITH A KICK - The weather was warming up.  Folks needed to quench their thirsts on the warm spring days.  A.H. Cowart, a member of the foreign colony, set up his drink stand on South Jefferson Street near the depot.  Deputy Sheriff E.E. Clark noticed the large crowds which started gathering around Cowart's stand.  The bottles, which appeared to be lemon soda, seemed to be selling well - too well.  Upon further examination Deputy Clark discovered that the bottles did not contain lemon soda, but moonshine.  Much to the dismay of the thirsty customers, Clark took Cowart and his stock to jail. Dublin Courier Herald, May 5, 1919, p. 1. 

THE FIRST CONSUMER WATCHDOGS - Early in 1919 a new corporation was organized in Dublin.  R.I. Stephens, C.P. Ennis, J.C. Moore, H.W. Nalley, and J.P. Tomlinson formed the Producers and Consumers Alliance of America.  The goal of the organizers was to confer on all public questions and to inform the public.  They also planned to inform the public on the conclusions of their conferences.  The organization was a non- profit one and open only to those over sixteen with good morals. Dublin Courier Herald, Feb. 21, 1919, p. 5.

FIGHTING OVER THE AG SCHOOL - The competition was stiff.  Dublin and Cochran were vying for the 12th District Agricultural College.  Each congressional district in Georgia maintained a school to teach the young men of the district in the fundamentals of agricultural techniques.  Cochran was initially awarded the school, but failed to live up to its promises.  Gov. Dorsey opened the competition up again by asking for a re-submission of the bids.  Dublin, backed by all members of the business community, submitted a strong bid.  Dublin had five railroads and was the center of agricultural commerce in the region.  The Dublin Committee headed by E.D. White, President of the Chamber, E.E. Street, M.H. Blackshear, and J.M. Finn promised to raise $95,000.00 within 60 days after the contract was awarded.  Dublin promised 202.5 acres of land for farming, 13.5 acres of land for the campus, one 8 room brick college - valued at $40,000.00, and one 8 room frame dormitory - valued at $4,000.00.  Additionally the city promised $25,000 in cash and free utilities for five years.  Cochran promised an equal amount of land and free utilities.  All of Dublin was shocked when the state awarded the school to Cochran.  Dublin Courier Herald, Feb. 14, 1919, p.1, March 20, 1919, p. 1.

FREE THE TROUT - Fish naturally swim up stream. The men along the lower end of Turkey Creek knew that and knew that they could place traps in the creek preventing them from swimming up the stream.  The men of northwestern Laurens County sought the help of the Georgia Legislature.  On October 24, 1870 a law was passed directing the sheriffs of Laurens and Wilkinson counties to remove any traps or obstructions.  Any officer failing to comply with the directive was subject to a fine up to five hundred dollars. Georgia Laws, 1870, p. 457.

THE GALLIMORE TRAIL - Before the first white men settled in our area, one man blazed a trail across the northwestern corner of Laurens County.  The Gallimore Trail appears on the original survey of the land lots of the 22nd Land District.  The trail originated east of Montrose at Turkey Creek where the  the Old Montrose Road, also known as the Chappell School Road or County Road No. 435 crosses the creek.  From the creek the road ran west along the Old Montrose Road crossing the Chappell Mill Road and passing north of Montrose and running into the current day Montrose-Allentown Road (Co. Road No. 388).   The trail was likely named for the progenitor of the Gallimore family who established a mill along Turkey Creek in central Twiggs County.  In 1811, citizens of Laurens County began the work of improving the trail to Bell Springs Road.  Legal Records of Laurens County, 1833-1857, p. 17; Records of the Surveyor General of Georgia, 1807 Land Lottery, 22nd Land District, Lots 239, 243, 296,  

BUCKEYE "SKEETERS" - Dr. Charles Hicks spent 25 years of his life observing the cases of malaria in the southeastern United States and especially in Laurens County.  At the 52nd Convention of the Georgia Medical Association, Dr. Hicks, President of the Association, spoke to his fellow physicians on the subject of geology, mosquitos, and malaria.  A line following a vein of limestone rock forms the dividing line between the occurrence of malaria cases.  A line that runs from Cape Hatteras, N.C., to Texas runs  through the center of the county striking the Oconee River near Dublin.  The line is also characterized as dividing the red clay lands covered with oak and hickory from the light sandy soil lands filled with yellow pines.  Dr. Hicks charted the occurrences of malaria which were confined to the area of cretaceous formation where wells were only 30 to 80 feet deep.  Most of the cases of malaria were confined to the Buckeye District, while no permanent residents of Dublin ever reported a single case of the hemoglobic form of malaria.  Dublin's water comes from 250 to 500 feet deep artesian wells.  The mosquitos of the Buckeye District were of particular interest to Dr. Hicks.  In the western part of the district plain and hemoglobinuric fever was found.  In the eastern part only the plain type occurred.  In the northern part both types were found, but in the south only the hemoglobinuric fever was found.  Dr. Hicks found that many of the early settlers, especially the men along the river flats, died prematurely from malaria.  Those persons living away from the rivers and streams seemed to have a longer life expectancy. Transactions of the Medical Association of Georgia, 1902, MAG, Atlanta, 1902, pp. 171-183. 

DEATH ON THE DIAMOND

The Killing Game 

On almost any day of any baseball season, a team gets killed.  No, not literally, but figuratively.  And, over the last century and a half in the history of baseball in America, many people have been killed by pitched, batted and thrown balls, as well as by player collisions and flying bats.   Some are even killed by Mother Nature and bad boys up to no good.  

My interest in players getting killed in a game came when I read a 1920 issue of the Macon Telegraph. My grandfather, Irving Scott of Macon, was sitting among 21,000 fans  in the grandstands at the Polo Grounds in New York watching the August 16, 1920  game between the New York Yankees and the visiting Cleveland Indians.  There were no lights in those days. It was late in the afternoon. when Cleveland's Ray Chapman walked up to the plate to lead off the top of the 5th inning.  Babe Ruth, on his way to his first 50 plus home run season,  was settling down to his usual spot in right field.

Yankee submarine-style pitcher, Carl Mays,  (LEFT) threw his third pitch of the inning.   The ball hit Chapman, the Indian shortstop,  squarely in the skull.  The ball bounced quickly back to the pitcher. Thinking that the loud pop was the sound of Chapman's bat striking the ball, Mays threw the once white, but then slightly brown, ball  to first base. As the Yankee infield was throwing the ball around the diamond celebrating an easy out, first baseman Wally Pipp noticed that something wasn't just right.  In his score book, the official scorer would simply note that Mays hit Chapman with a pitch on that fateful day.

The prevailing thought today is that Chapman never saw the tobacco-stained, dirt-rubbed ball in the oncoming twilight.  Scott, known as "Great Scott" on Lanier High's 1919 Southern High School Basketball Championship team, saw it differently.

"From where I was sitting, I could not say whether Chapman crowded the plate or not," Scott recalled.  The ball that Mays delivered was not a "bean ball, but not more than waist high, said Scott, who postulated, "If Chapman had  stood up or not moved at all, the ball would have not hit him any higher than the waist line.  As it was, he was fooled by the break the ball took, and instead of getting out the way, dodged right into it." A United Press reporter, who somewhat corroborated Scott's account, wrote, "Chapman  was crouching down and crowding the plate and moved into the sharply breaking curve ball."  

Chapman (LEFT) stumbled a few steps and fell to the ground.  After medical help arrived, Chapman was able to stand and walk, if only briefly, before once again collapsing before he made it to the dugout.  Ray Chapman, to this day, remains the only player ever killed by a pitch in a major league game. Cleveland scored a fourth run that inning and held off a last at bat comeback by the Yankees, 4-3. Mays, understandably devastated, never fully recovered from that horrible day.

Now run the clock forward 45 years.  That's the day when I saw a pitcher get hit square in the middle of the chest with a batted ball.  It was my chest.  In fact, it was in that same grandfather's front yard when I threw my best fastball to my father, a pretty fair country boy, baseball player.  As he always taught me, Daddy met the ball as it crossed the plate. He blasted the ball right at me, some forty or fifty feet away.  I still remember the  ball coming at me some forty-eight years ago.  A few moments later I woke up.  My father was standing over me.

I only ever saw my Daddy cry twice.  Once, when his 16-year-old great-nephew drowned and on that day when thought he had killed me.  You see, Daddy knew that hitting someone in the heart between beats can often be fatal.  Most of the deaths which take place on the baseball diamond come from players being hit by batted or thrown baseballs in the chest or in the head.

Catchers have been killed by pitchers too.  W.H. Williams, brother of Dublin attorney G.H. Williams, was catching for the Soperton team on the afternoon of July 25, 1906.  He wasn't wearing a chest protector that day.  A fast ball struck Williams above the heart.  The catcher collapsed, dead before he hit the sandlot. No one remembered what the score was that, nor was it noted who threw the pitch  or if the teams even finished the game. The score wasn't important that day.  Williams, a popular young man, was dead on the diamond.

Ephraim Jones was struck and killed too.  In southwestern Cordele on July 3, 1912  the outfielder was practicing baseball when a fly ball slipped through his hands, struck him just over the heart and killed him dead.

A Negro convict was not watching when another convict threw a ball in anger at another convict.  The errant ball missed its target, striking the bystander and causing a fatal injury at McRee's Convict Camp near Valdosta in the summer of 1899.

Flying bats are often dangerous and can be extremely fatal.  Sometimes they inexplicably fly out of the batters hands in the direction of a player or sail randomly into the stands.  In 1908,  Little Willie Watson, of LaFayette,  was playing with his friends, when a bat slipped and struck the ten-year-old over the heart, killing him on the spot.  And, sometimes, players get so angry that they pick them up and whop another player up said their head.  This was the case in Fitzgerald, when in a late spring game at Pearson's Mill, Cato Mack walloped Melvin Wilson in his head with a bat and immediately left the diamond for parts unknown.

Teams from Evans and Sandtown were playing a game when Fred Dozier and Russell Morton converged toward a line drive in right center field.  So intent on stopping the bounding ball, Morton, quite smaller than his teammate, never saw the sprinting Dozier. Morton's head struck Dozier's upper abdomen.  No serious after effects were noticed until later that night when Dozier, 17, began to have violent attacks of pain. He died within two hours.  

Fans are not immune from being killed as well. Four-year-old William Evans, of Sandersville,  was standing close to a batter when a pitched ball hit him in the head, paralyzing and killing him instantly.   Ironically, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George C. Evans, were attending a funeral at the time of the incident.

With today's technology and more stringent rules, umpires and game managers suspend ball games when there is any hint of lightning in the area.  Such was not the case in the early 1900s when  a bolt of lightning would strike with no warning and kill anything within its path.  Dan Harrell and a Negro man were victims of a savage strike in lightning  a 1908 game at Bullards, in northwestern Twiggs County.

Five people were killed in New York City alone in 1910.  In 1914, there were an estimated 35 deaths in baseball, 20 from pitched balls, 5 by flying bats, 4  from collisions, 4 from heart attacks and 1 from fighting.  Three hundred and fourteen  limbs were broken, 13  skulls were fractured, and 317 lower extremities were sprained. And,  that was only what was reported.

So as you see, America's pastime can be and has been somewhat deadly. Most of us rightly think that the most deadly major sport is football, but now you know baseball can be deadly too.   So as you watch your favorite team this season, keep your eyes on the ball and the bat all the time.  And, by the way, watch the skies too and don't' get into any brawls.