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A More Perfect Union

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sixtieth Regiment of Foot

Sixtieth Regiment of Foot

Three companies of the British Sixtieth Regiment of Foot were sent to the Georgia colony in 1763 by King George III to strengthen the defense of colonial garrisons against attack by the French and Spanish.

Courtesy of The Company of Military Historians

Henry McDaniel

Henry McDaniel

Henry McDaniel was elected governor in 1883 to replace Alexander Stephens, who died while in office. McDaniel was subsequently reelected to a full term in 1884. During his tenure, he oversaw a substantial reduction of the state's debt, the construction of the state capitol, and the establishment of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

David B. Mitchell

David B. Mitchell

David B. Mitchell served three terms as governor of Georgia early in the nineteenth century. Before his election to the governor's office, he served as mayor as Savannah. Mitchell resigned in 1817 from his third gubernatorial term to accept the post of U.S. Agent to the Creek Indians.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

James Johnson

James Johnson

James Johnson served as the provisional governor of Georgia, appointed by U.S. president Andrew Johnson, for most of 1865. A native of North Carolina, Johnson lived much of his life in Columbus, Georgia, where he established a law practice.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

George R. Gilmer

George R. Gilmer

George R. Gilmer served two terms as the governor of Georgia, first from 1829 to 1831, and again from 1837 to 1839. Relations with the Cherokees following the discovery of gold in north Georgia dominated his first term, while skirmishes with Seminoles in south Georgia occupied much of his second. Gilmer County, in the north Georgia mountains, is named in his honor.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

Gilmer Childhood Home

Gilmer Childhood Home

Georgia governor George R. Gilmer's childhood home originally stood in the Goose Pond community of Oglethorpe County. The house is now located at the Calloway Plantation in Wilkes County.

Photograph by Carol Ebel

Thomas Ruger

Thomas Ruger

Thomas Ruger, a Union officer, was appointed military provisional governor of Georgia in 1868, during Reconstruction. During his six-month tenure, Ruger instituted the state's convict lease system.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

Charles McDonald

Charles McDonald

Charles McDonald, a lawyer and businessman, was elected governor of Georgia in 1839 and served until 1843. As governor, McDonald worked to improve the state's precarious financial situation, brought about by the panic of 1837.

From The History of the State of Georgia, by I. W. Avery

James M. Smith

James M. Smith

James M. Smith, a Confederate veteran and native of Twiggs County, served as the governor of Georgia from 1872 to 1877. Smith's election marked the end of Reconstruction in the state.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

James Jackson and the Yazoo Land Fraud

James Jackson and the Yazoo Land Fraud

James Jackson, a U.S. senator from Georgia, destroys records connected with the Yazoo land fraud in 1796, after the passage of the Yazoo Rescinding Act. Josiah Tattnall Sr., a state representative, helped Jackson secure the votes necessary in the legislature to pass the act.

From A History of Georgia for Use in Schools, by L. B. Evans

William Schley

William Schley

William Schley served as the governor of Georgia from 1835 to 1837. Before his gubernatorial term, Schley was elected judge of the Superior Court of the Middle District in Georgia and U.S. representative from the state.

From A History of Georgia for Use in Schools, by L. B. Evans

Peter Early

Peter Early

Peter Early, governor of Georgia from 1813 to 1815, also served as a U.S. congressman, state superior court judge, and state senator during his political career. A trustee of the University of Georgia, Early served as the school's interim president in 1817.

From A History of Georgia for Use in Schools, by L. B. Evans

George W. Towns

George W. Towns

George W. Towns served as the governor of Georgia from 1847 to 1851. Earlier in his career, Towns served as both a state legislator and a U.S. congressman. Although he entered politics as a Unionist, Towns was known as an ardent states' rights secessionist during his governorship.

William Y. Atkinson

William Y. Atkinson

As the governor of Georgia from 1894 to 1898, Democrat William Y. Atkinson condemned lynching, reformed the convict lease system, and decreased the state's debt. The portrait of Atkinson, painted by James Pope Field, hangs in the state capitol in Atlanta.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

Atkinson Hall

Atkinson Hall

Students on the campus of Georgia Normal and Industrial College (later Georgia College and State University) in Milledgeville walk past Atkinson Hall, circa 1900. The first college for women in the state, the school was named for Georgia governor William Y. Atkinson, who was instrumental in its founding.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # bal098.

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Tallulah Falls

Tallulah Falls

George Cooke's Tallulah Falls (1841) features elements typical of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, particularly in its depiction of the picturesque and sublime. Tallulah Falls, located in the northeast Georgia mountains, comprises four waterfalls, three of which Cooke captures in his painting. Oil on canvas (35 3/4" x 28 3/4").

Courtesy of Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; gift of Mrs. William Lorenzo Moss. GMOA 1959.646

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Allen D. Candler

Allen D. Candler

Allen D. Candler served as governor of Georgia from 1898 to 1902 and was a resident of Banks County. Candler County, created in southeast Georgia in 1914, was named for him.

John Forsyth

John Forsyth

John Forsyth served as a U.S. congressman and senator and as the minister to Spain before becoming the governor of Georgia in 1827. In 1833 U.S. president Andrew Jackson named Forsyth secretary of state, making him the only Georgian to hold the office until Dean Rusk in 1961.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

John Milledge

John Milledge

John Milledge, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, served as the state attorney general and in the state legislature before being elected governor of Georgia in 1802. Milledgeville, which served as the state capital for much of the nineteenth century, was named in his honor.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

Alfred H. Colquitt

Alfred H. Colquitt

Alfred H. Colquitt joined the Confederate army as a captain in 1861 and rose to the rank of major general by the end of the Civil War. Although his service during the 1863 battle at Chancellorsville, Virginia, was considered questionable, Colquitt redeemed himself the following year at the Battle of Olustee in Florida.

Reprinted by permission of Alabama Department of Archives and History

Alfred H. Colquitt

Alfred H. Colquitt

Alfred H. Colquitt, a veteran officer of the Civil War, was a native of Walton County. Before the war, Colquitt served in the U.S. Congress, and in 1876 he was elected governor of Georgia. In 1883 he returned to Congress as a senator.

Portrait of Brigadier-General Alfred Holt Colquitt, Southern Illustrated News, 1863. Image from Wikimedia.

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Alfred H. Colquitt

Alfred H. Colquitt

Alfred H. Colquitt, a member of the Bourbon Triumvirate, was elected governor of Georgia in 1876. Although his tenure was marked by controversial finances and other scandals, Colquitt is credited with advocating industrialization in the state as a means of recovering from the economic hardships of the Civil War.

From The History of the State of Georgia, by I. W. Avery

Charles Jones Jenkins

Charles Jones Jenkins

Charles Jones Jenkins accepts a scroll bearing the governor's seal and the motto In Arduis Fidelis (Steadfast in Adversity) in this portrait by Poindexter Page Carter. In 1872 the state presented the seal and motto to the former governor in appreciation for his resistance to the dictates of the federal government during Reconstruction.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

Charles Jones Jenkins

Charles Jones Jenkins

The Georgia Platform established Georgia's conditional acceptance of the Compromise of 1850. Much of the document followed a draft written by Charles Jones Jenkins, who later served as Georgia's governor from 1865 to 1868.

George Troup

George Troup

George Troup served two terms, from 1823 to 1827, as the governor of Georgia. During his tenure, Troup removed the majority of Creek Indians from the state and opened their lands to white settlement.

John Clark

John Clark

John Clark, a Revolutionary War veteran, was the governor of Georgia from 1819 to 1823. During the war, Clark served under the command of his father, Elijah Clarke, at the battles of Kettle Creek and Musgrove Mill.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

Herschel Johnson

Herschel Johnson

Herschel Johnson, a nineteenth-century Georgia politician, is pictured in an 1860 Currier and Ives portrait. That same year, Johnson was the vice-presidential running mate for Democratic candidate Stephen Douglas, who lost the election to Abraham Lincoln.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

1860 Presidential Election

1860 Presidential Election

Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln, with running mate Hannibal Hamlin, steams toward a wagon named "Democratic Platform" that is trapped on the tracks between two teams of candidates. Stephen Douglas and Hershel Johnson pull toward the left, while John Breckinridge and Joseph Lane pull toward the right.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

George W. Crawford

George W. Crawford

George W. Crawford was the first and only Whig to be elected governor of Georgia. He served two terms, from 1843 to 1847. A native of Columbia County, Crawford also served as a state representative and as Georgia's attorney general.

From The History of the State of Georgia, by I. W. Avery

Zachary Taylor’s Cabinet

Zachary Taylor’s Cabinet

In 1849 George W. Crawford, a former governor of Georgia, joined U.S. president Zachary Taylor's cabinet as secretary of war. From left, Reverdy Johnson, William M. Meredith, William B. Preston, Zachary Taylor, Crawford, Jacob Collamer, Thomas Ewing, and John M. Clayton.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

William J. Northen

William J. Northen

During his tenure as governor, from 1890 to 1894, William J. Northen limited the workday for railroad employees to thirteen hours and granted the Georgia Railroad Commission power to regulate telegraph companies. He also advanced agricultural inspection and education.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

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Mount Zion Academy

Mount Zion Academy

William J. Northen began teaching at Mount Zion Academy in Hancock County soon after his graduation from Mercer University in about 1853. Over time, he rose to assistant principal and finally became headmaster of the school, a post he held until his health forced him into retirement in 1874.

John B. Gordon

John B. Gordon

John B. Gordon rose to prominence during the Civil War, entering as a captain and emerging as a major general. He later served as a U.S. senator and as the governor of Georgia.

Photograph by Wikimedia

John B. Gordon

John B. Gordon

John B. Gordon, a renowned Confederate officer and political leader, was a member of the Farmers' Alliance in Georgia until the organization's split with the Democratic Party in 1892. A member of the Bourbon Triumvirate, Gordon served multiple terms in the U.S. Senate and, from 1886 to 1890, as governor of the state.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection.

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John B. Gordon

John B. Gordon

General John B. Gordon, for whom Gordon State College is named, was a Confederate officer during the Civil War and later served as governor of Georgia and as a U.S. senator.

Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society, Georgia Historical Society collection of photographs, #GHS 1361PH-24-09-4694.

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Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens

A lifelong politician, Alexander Stephens is perhaps best remembered as the vice president of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Courtesy of National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens was selected in 1866 by the Georgia legislature to represent the state, along with Herschel Johnson, in the U.S. Senate. Because he had served as vice president of the Confederacy, however, the Senate did not allow Stephens to take his seat.

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens, a native of Taliaferro County, was a prominent member of the Whig Party during the sectional crisis that arose in the wake of the Mexican War (1846-48). He later joined the ranks of the Democratic party and served as vice president of the Confederacy during the Civil War (1861-65).

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president and a Georgia native, was a master at managing relations with journalists, and he used his stable of press supporters, including the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel and the Southern Confederacy of Atlanta, to spread his peace doctrine.

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens. After the Civil War Stephens was elected to the U.S. Senate, but that body refused to seat the former vice president of the Confederacy. He then was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives and finally as governor, an office he held for only a few months before he died.

Image from Clement Anselm Evans

Liberty Hall

Liberty Hall

Liberty Hall in Taliaferro County, home of Alexander H. Stephens, is pictured in 1936.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, #HABS GA,133-CRAWV,1--2.

The Hercules of 1861

The Hercules of 1861

In this political cartoon, a Union officer (unidentified) swings a club labeled "Union" in defense against a many-headed serpent labeled "Secession." The serpent's heads are: Floyd, Pickens, Beauregard, Twiggs, Davis, Stephens, and Toombs, all leaders of the Southern secession movement and the resulting Confederacy.

Courtesy of Civil War Treasures, New York Historical Society

A. H. Stephens Historic Park

A. H. Stephens Historic Park

The A. H. Stephens Historic Park, in Crawfordville, is part of the Georgia state park system. The park includes Alexander Stephens's restored home, Liberty Hall, as well a museum containing Civil War artifacts.

Courtesy of Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Photograph from Georgia State Parks.

Wilson Lumpkin

Wilson Lumpkin

Wilson Lumpkin served as governor of Georgia from 1831 to 1835. During his long political career, Lumpkin was also elected to office in the U.S. House and Senate and held the position of U.S. commissioner to the Cherokee Indians. Painting by J. T. Moore.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Tours

Wilson Lumpkin

Wilson Lumpkin

Before embarking on his political career, Wilson Lumpkin also worked as a farmer and as a teacher. Upon his death in 1870, Lumpkin's daughter deeded his farm in Athens to the University of Georgia.

From The Removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia, by Wilson Lumpkin

Rufus Bullock

Rufus Bullock

Rufus Bullock was Georgia's first Republican governor (1868-71) and a staunch supporter of African American equality.

Joseph E. Brown

Joseph E. Brown

The Civil War governor of Georgia, Joseph E. Brown was one of the most successful politicians in the state's history. A member of the Bourbon Triumvirate, Brown served as a U.S. senator from 1880 to 1890.

Joseph E. Brown

Joseph E. Brown

In 1857 Joseph E. Brown edged aside better-known politicians to become the Democrats' gubernatorial candidate. He won decisively, and from then on he was unbeatable in statewide elections.

Howell Cobb

Howell Cobb

Georgia native Howell Cobb served as congressman (1843-51; 1855-57), Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1849-51), governor of Georgia (1851-53), and secretary of the treasury (1857-60).

Howell Cobb

Howell Cobb

Following Georgia's secession from the Union in 1861, Howell Cobb served as president of the Confederate Provisional Congress (1861-62) and a major general of the Confederate army.