Newspaper Page Text
The Henry County Weekly
VOL. XXXIII
If
Gen. Joe Wheeler
Chapter, U. D. C.
The Gen. Joe Wheeler chapter
was organized at the home of Mrs.
Annie Hawkins Swann in Stock
bridge, Feb 15th 1906, the charter
members being Mrs. Harriet Tuck
er, Mrs. Annie Hawkins Swann,
Mrs. Leila Ragsdale Parker, Mrs.
Missouri Glass Ward, Mrs. Corne
lia Dodson Hightower, Mrs. Olivia
Swann Ward, Mrs. Ida Hightower
Grant, Mrs. Nora Hightower Lee,
Miss Esther Embry, Miss Mary
Hightower, and Miss Ella Berry.
Since its organization it has
grown both in interest and num
bers until is now one of the most
enthusiastic and flourishing chap
ters in the Georgia Division.
Its organizer and president Mrs.
Harriet Tucker Hawkins, to whose
untiring efforts and efficient man
agement is largely due the success
of the chapter, is the daughter of
Crawtord Tucker, who came from
Raleigh, N. C., to Henry county in
1827, and at once becamo promi
nently identified with the interests
of his county, acting as its repre
sentative in the legislature for two
terms. She is also the widow of
Charles A. Hawkins, who served
in the Confederate army through
out the entire war in the Second
Georgia Regiment.
For some years Mrs, Hawkins
has been greatly interested in the
work having been a member of the
first organization in St. Louis,
which was then working for the
Confederate Home of Missouri,
and later serving for four years as
president of a Missouri chapter.
The members of tne Joe Wheeler
Chapter represents some of the
best families of the county and are
the descendants of some of Geor
gia's staunchest Confederates.
They have been loyal in their
support of the interests of the or
ganization, and have responded
promptly to all demands made
upon them. Entertainments have
been given and funds raised and
contributions have been made to
the Wirz Monument, the The Ra
bun Gap school, and the Confeder
ate Cemetery at Marietta.
The monthly meetings have been
well attended and have been
pleasant, harmonious, and helpful.
In addition to the authorized
monthly program, the noted bat
tles of the war, and the lives of the
Generals have been taken up and
studied with much interest.
Davis’ and Lee’s birthdays have
been celebrated, and Memorial day
fittingly observed each year. A
few good books have been pur
chased and two have been donated,
one from the Kennesaw chapter of
Marietta, and one from their pres
ident, Mrs. Nesbitt, who is also
Vice-president of the Georgia Di
vision. These books form the nu
cleus of a library which will be ad
ded to from time to time. Plans
are now being formulated for the
purchase of a building which will
be used for a library and ether
purposes.
In its organization and subse
quent work the Chapter has sought
not to awaken or revive feelings
of sectionalism or enmity toward
the North but to instil and
strengthen in the hearts of South
ern posterity a due love and rev
erence fur the Cause their fathers
cherished, and to guard with jeal
ous care the sacred traditions of
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“FIGHTING JOE WHEELER”
After Whom the Stockbridge Chapter of United Daughters of
Confederacy is Named.
Hon, T, A. Ward.
Hon. T. A. Ward was horn in
Henry, now Clayton County, Ga.,
June 26th, 1839.
He obtained his education at
Bowden College and later engaged
in teaching.
When the war broke out he was
one of the first to volunteer for ser
vice from Henry county and joined
Company B, organized at Stock
bridge in the summer of 1861. In
the organization he was made first
lieutenant of his company, which
later, at Fairborn, became a part
of the Thirtieth Ga. Regiment.
the Confederacy which are so dear
to the hearts of the Southern peo
ple ; and in all its undertakings it
has endeavored to do nothing un
worthy the honored memory of the
man whose name it so proudly
bears.
McDONOUGH, GEORQIA, FRIDAY APRIL 24. 1908.
For three months the regiment
camped and drilled at Griswold
ville, and was then ordered to Sa
vannah, where in April 1862 it was
reorganized, Ward being appointed
ordinance sergeant, which position
he held until the summer.
He was active in the battles of
Jackson, Miss., Chicamanga and
1 Missionary Ridge, and was with
j the regiment when it went into
winter quarters at Dallis, Ga. In
the summer of ’6-1 at Atlanta he
was stricken with fever and at the
time of the surrender of the citv,
i
was at his home on sick leave. He
recovered in time to be with his
regiment on its march to Tennes
see, taking part in the battles of
Franklin and Nashville. From
Tennessee the regiment went to
North Carolina, where it engaged
in the battles of Bentonville, one
of the closing struggles of the war.
On April 26, ’65 Ward, with one
other member of his company, J
A. Berry, surrendered, with John
ston's men at Greensboro, N. C.
After the close of the war he re
turned to his home in Clayton
county, and in 1868 was married to
; .Miss Missouri Glass, of Henry Co.
He was successful in his business
ventures and in 1884 was elected to
the legislature from Clayton Co.,
serving one term. A few years
later he moved to Stockbrige where
he took an active interest in the
affairs of his town and church. He
was a prominent Mason and a loyal
J member of Concord Methodist
| church, serving as its steward for
thirty three consectutive years.
Adding to t..is force of character
and upright principal, a well bal
anced intelligence, held the esteem
and confidence of all who knew
him, and in every capacity, ns sol
dier, legislator and citizen, he dis
plaved the highest qualities of pe-r
--j sonal worth, capacity and integrity
He died at Stockbridge June Ist,
1898, and was buried with Masonic
honors at Concord cemetary.
SECTION 2
Gen. Joe Wheeler.
Gen. Joseph Wheeler, soldier and
legislator, was born at Augusta.
Ga., Sept. 10, 1830. There he spent
his boyhood and here had instilled,
into ins young heart the love and
reverence for the Southland, the
land of his birth, which in after
years dominated his whole life.
La.er he went to West Point,
where he graduated in 1859. After
his graduation he served as second
lieutenant of a company of dra
goons until April 22, ’6l,' when he
enlisted in the Confederate army
as lieutenant of artillery. He ra
pidly gained distinction and later
received a staff appointment with
rank of colonel.
As the war progressed he grew
in favor with the head officials. He
was made colonel of the nineteenth
Alabama infrantry, and at Shiloh
commanded a brigade and captured
Prentiss’ division. During Bragg’s
campaign in the West, Gen. Wheel
er commanded the calvary corps as
brigadier and as major general, ul
timaiely rising to lieutenant-gen
eral.
From Chickamauga, with Hood
and J. E. Johnson, ho opposed
Sherman through Georgia and
South Carolina distinguished him
self greatly at, Savannah, Macon,
Augusta and Waynesboro in Geor
gia, and Aiken in South Carolina.
For these services he received
votes oi thanks from the Confed
erate congress and from the South
Carolina legislature. He was three
times wounded, and during the
war sixteen horses were shot un
der him. Ever k’ud and consider
ate of their comfort by his wise
management and just dealings, he
soon won the love and respect of
his men and to the day of his death
he was one of the most loved Gen
erals of the Confederacy.
In 1866 he was offered the chair
of philosophy in the Louisiana
State Seminary but declined this
position, and subsequently settled
at Wheeler, Ala., where he com
bined the profession of law with
the business of planting. In 1880
his political disabilities being re
moved, he was elected as a Demo
crat from Alabama to the 47th
congress; was returned again in
1884 to the 39th and in 1888 to the
41st congress, after which time ho
sat continuously with the excep
tion of the period of bis constitu
tional disability consequent upon
his accepting a military commis
sion during the Spanish-American
war.
In 1888 he was also appointed a
regent of the Smithsonian Institu
tion at Washington.
On the 4th of May 1898, General
Wheeler was appointed major gen
eral in the United States’ Volun
teers, and on the 16th was assigned
i to the command of the calvary di
i vision at Tumpa, Fla. A large
i share of the land campaign in Cu
jba fell to Gen. Wheeler’s calvary
I which, however, fought as infantry
Throughout the entire war they
j displayed magnificent courage, al
though in the actions of the Ist and
2nd of July Gen. Wheeler was at
first so ill as to be unable to take
the field except in an ambulance.
Itwaslargely to General Wheeler’s
persistence that the victories be
fore Santiago were saved from be
ing turned into a retreat, and after
the fightnig was over, and the fev
er stricken men were transported
1 to Camp Wickoff at Montank Point
1 Long Island, General Wheeler, tho
I not yet recover* d from bis own se
rious illness, was untiring in his
attention to tl e suffering troops.
It was while thus engaged he
suffered a heavy loss in the death
of liis son by drowning.
When til*! Peace Jubilee was held
in Atlanta just after the close of
the Spanisli-American war he was
lone of the citv s most honored
trnests. riding in the procession
with President McKinley and Lieut
tenant Hobson.
He died in January 1906, and was
buried at Arlington Heights cemc
‘ tery with much ceremony.
$i A YEAR
