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November 20, 2009

Area residents divided ... in 1860

By Charles Oliver

Many people in Northwest Georgia did not want to secede from the United States in the months leading up to the Civil War, University of West Georgia historian Keith Herbert said.

“But only a small few outright opposed it,” Herbert said Thursday night at Dalton State College’s James E. Brown Center.

Herbert’s speech “From Reluctant Confederates to Boisterous Rebels: Bartow County and Northwest Georgia During the Secession Crisis” kicked off the Bandy Heritage Center’s Civil War lecture series.

Herbert told an overflow crowd of about 150 that the issue of secession deeply divided Northwest Georgia in in 1860 and 1861 with many agitating for immediate secession as the only way to preserve Southern institutions including slavery. Many others believed that secession should be used as a last resort, but held out hope that some compromise could be found on issues such as expanding slavery to the western territories and states.

“But even the cooperationists agreed that the chance of a meaningful compromise were slim,” Herbert said.

Herbert said two events pushed many of those who wanted to avoid secession to embrace it. The first was John Brown’s 1859 raid on the armory at Harper’s Ferry, Va., and his attempt to start a slave rebellion. The idea of slaves rising up frightened Southerners, Herbert said.

The second was the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

Even after Lincoln’s election, the residents of Northwest Georgia were still deeply divided on whether the state should leave the union. But Herbert said that once the vote was taken, even many who had been lukewarm embraced the cause and many cooperationists quickly joined the military or local militia.

Herbert said that many were motivated by a sense of adventure, with many convinced the war would be over soon and the Yankees would capitulate quickly.

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