Joseph E. Brown to Thomas Jordan, June 20, 1863

General JORDAN: There are in North Edisto nine schooners, four monitors, one transport, and one tug. JOHNSON HAGOOD, Brigadier-General, Commanding. To the People of Georgia: In view of the exigencies of the public service, and in compliance with the request of His Excellency President Davis,* made through the Secretary of War, I again address you upon the subject of our local defense against the threatened raids of our vindictive foe. It is not doubted that our enemies are increasing their cavalr force and making preparations to send raids of mounted men iirouet Georgia, as well as other States, to burn all public property in our cities, destroy our railroad bridges, workshops, factories, mills, and * See also Series I. V. provisions, leaving our country, now the home of a happy people, ittle better than a desolate waste behind them. They have met our brave troops in battle, and have been again and again ingloriously defeated and driven back. Despairing of their ability to conquer us in honorable warfare, they now violate all the rules of war as recognized by civilized nations, disregard the rights of private property, arm our slaves against us, and send their robber bands among us to plunder, steal, and destroy, having respect not even for the rights or the necessities of infirm old age or of helpless women and children. o hold in check the mighty hosts collected for our destruction by the Abolition Government, the President is obliged to mass the provisional armies of the Confederacy at a few important key-points, and cannot, without weakening them too much, detach troops to defend the interior points against sudden incursions. He therefore calls upon the people of the respective States who are otherwise not subject to be summoned to the field under the conscription laws of Congress to organize, and, while they attend to their ordinary avocations at home, to stand ready, at a moment’s warning, to take up arms and drive back the lundering bands of marauders from their own immediate section of country. To this end he requests me to organize a force of 8,000 men in this State who are over the age of forty-five years, or who are not otherwise subject to military duty in the armies of the Confederacy, to be mustered into the service of the Confederate States for six months from the Ist of August next, for home defense. If this force is not organized by the 1st of August by the tender of volunteers, I am notified that he then makes a positive requisition for it, and requires that such requisition be responded to, if need be, by draft. It has never yet been necessary in filling a requisition on this State, to draft Georgians to go to the remotest part of the Confederacy, for the war. They have always volunteered in larger numbers than have been required, and I know it will not now be necessary to draft them to hold themselves in readiness at home to drive the enemy away from their own plantations, workshops, firesides, and churches. The President predicates this call upon the different acts of Congress for local defense, and not for general defense. No volunteer under the requisition will be called into active service, except in case of pressing emergency, and then only until the emergency is passed. In case a raid is made upon a particular point in the State, the troops nearest that point, and those most accessible to it, will be called out, and those more remote will not be disturbed, unless the force of the enemy is so strong as to render it absolutely necessary. In no case is it expected to call out this force to guard bridges, or other public works, longer than the enemy is in the vicinity or threatening an early dash upon it. The State troops now in service are regarded sufficient for such guard duty. ; The Government appreciates the necessity of leaving the productive labor of the country, not subject to conscription, as free as possible to make all the provisions and other supplies, of clothing, &c., which can be made, and it is not intended to call this class of laborers from their occupations at any time for a longer period than is indispensable to drive the enemy from our midst. ill Georgians refuse to volunteer for this defense? The man able to bear arms who will wait for a draft before he will join an organization to repel the enemy, whose brutal soldiery comes to his home to destroy his prop156 ~=s. ¢. AND G. A. COASTS, AND IN MID. AND E, FLA. —[Cuap. X. L. erty, and to insult and cruelly injure his wife and his daughters, is unworthy the proud name of a Georgian and should fear lest he be marked as disloyal to the land of his birth and the Government that throws over him the egis of its protection. The object of mustering this force into the service of the Confederate States is to have it in readiness, that it may be relied upon, and to afford to the volunteers the protection, in case of capture by the enemy, which is enjoyed by other troops in service, including the right to be exchanged as prisoners of war. Pay, rations, and transportation will be allowed to all when on active duty, but no one will receive any pay or allowances while at home, as each is expected to be most of his time, attending to his own. business. The command of the troops now required of this State will, under the act of Congress, belong to the President, and not to me, so soon as they have been organized and mustered into service. The President, however, having called upon me to organize the troops who volunteer, under the acts of Congress, in this State, has thought proper to say, through the Secretary of War, that he places the execution of the organization entirely under my supervision and control. For the purpose of maintaining order and system in the organization, and that I may know when the full number required has been raised, it becomes necessary that all companies, battalions, and regiments which have lately been organized and tendered to the President, or to any Confederate officer, for local defense in this State, as well as all hereafter to be organized, report to me without delay. By virtue of the authority vested in me, I, therefore, require all such organizations, as well those heretofore formed as those hereafter to be formed, to report immediately to the adjutant and inspector general at this cles with their muster-rolls made out in conformity to law, accompanied by their election returns, if they have not already received commissions. And I request the commandants of the different military posts in this State, who have accepted the tender of volunteers for local defense, to see that the companies, battalions, or regiments accepted by them comply with this requirement as early as possible. Cordial co-operation and assistance on the part of all Confederate officers in the State are invited and expected, as harmony between the State and Confederate officers is essential to success in the prompt formation of the organization required by the President. All militia and civil officers of this State are hereby authorized and are expected to unite with these organizations for home defense, and to be active and energetic in assisting to form such organizations. Furloughs of six months, unless sooner revoked, are hereby granted to all militia officers of this State from the time they connect themselves with companies formed under this proclamation, and are mustered into service, and they are authorized to occupy any position, as officer or private, to which the companies may assign them (by election if it be an official position) without prejudice to their commissions as militia officers, and without the loss of the protection which the constitution and laws afford them as such, and no presumption of resignation will be raised against them on account of having entered this service. They are expected to show the same promptness and patriotic devotion to the State in response to this call which they have shown in response to every previous call. As it is not expected that the troops now called for will be on active duty any considerable proportion of their time the civil officers of the State of every grade can do the service required, without much detriment to the public interest in their respective offices, and each of them who is able to bear arms is invited to unite with his fellow citizens for the defense of his home. Any commissioned officer of the militia of this State of the rank of captain, or of a higher grade, is authorized to muster into service any company when organized, and to send muster-rolls of the company immediately by mail to H. C. Wayne, adjutant and inspector general, at Milledgeville. The clerk of the superior court, sheriff, and ordinary of each county are directed to assist such officer, on his application, in making up the muster-rolls in proper form and in a plain, legible handwriting. Proper forms will be sent by mail to the clerk’s office of the superior court of each county as soon as they can be prepared. The patriotism of the civil officers is hereby appealed to for efficient and prompt aid in forming these organizations. An apportionment will be made, having in view the strength and aie condition of each Se and a statement of the number of volunteers required of each will be forwarded in a few days to the commanding officer of the county; and, to provide against miscarriages of the mail, a copy will be sent to ooh ordinary, clerk of the superior court, and sheriff in the State, who are requested to give publicity to it in the county. The citizens of the respective counties of this State are requested to lay aside all other business on the first Tuesday in July next, and assemble at the court-house in each county in mass meeting and organize the number of volunteers required of the county, and report them to the adjutant and inspector general, at Milledgeville, as soon as possible. Every militia and civil officer in the county, from the highest to the lowest, is expected to be present to aid and encourage the organization. In case any county fails to raise its quota on that day, it is hereby required of the civil and military officers of each county to travel through the county without delay and see the citizens, and enroll the names of all who will agree to volunteer, till the number is complete. Let no officer forget that he will be more successful in inducing others to volunteer when he can show his own name upon the list as a volunteer; and let the people of each county mark every one, officer or private, who, without sufficient cause, refuses to volunteer to defend his home. Georgians, I appeal to your patriotism and your pride. Let the people of no other State excel you in promptness of action or in the overwhelming numbers tendered in response to the President’s call. Your brethren in the field have undergone hardships and endured privations to which you have not been exposed, and have nobly illustrated the character of their State when in deadly conflict with the enemy. The time has now arrived when you are expected to defend their homes and your own in the interior while they defend the border. Teerceet sires, your influence and your aid are invoked. The crisis in our affairs is fast approaching. Georgia “expects every man to do his duty.” Fly to arms, and trust in God to defend the right. Given under my hand, and the seal of the executive department, at the capitol in Milledgeville, this 22d day of June, 1863.

JOSEPH E. BROWN,