September 19, 1863

1863 The Battle of Chickamauga began marking the first major engagement between Confederate and Union troops in Georgia. Twelve days earlier, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg had been forced to pull his Army of Tennessee out of Chattanooga. They had retreated to a point on the W&A Railroad near Ringgold, Georgia. Union Gen. William Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland had pursued Bragg. After some skirmishes on the 18th, the two sides engaged in a major battle at Chickamauga Creek (which ironically was a Cherokee name that means either "River of Death" or "River of Blood"). Despite heavy loses on both sides, the first day’s results are inconclusive.

September 19, 1868

1868 Philip Joiner, a black representative expelled from the Georgia General Assembly and other local Republican leaders in Albany led a 30-mile march of several hundred African Americans and a few whites to Camilla to attend a Republican political rally. However, some white Mitchell County residents were determined that the rally would not occur. As the marchers entered the courthouse square in Camilla, whites opened fire, killing at least thirteen of the marchers and wounding nearly forty. News of the Camilla Massacre flashed over telegraph wires and was reported in newspapers across the nation. Both Republicans and Democrats used the massacre to fortify their positions on Reconstruction in the 1868 presidential campaign. [For more information, see Lee W. Formwalt, "The Camilla Massacre of 1868: Racial Violence as Political Propaganda" 71 Georgia Historical Quarterly Fall 1987, pp. 399-426.]

September 19, 1889

1889 An act of the General Assembly was approved prohibiting the sale of cigarettes, tobacco, or cigarette paper to minors.

September 19, 1891

Georgia cities and towns incorporated by acts approved on Sept. 19: 1891 Hoschton (Jackson County)

September 19, 1895

1895 Dedication ceremonies were held for the Chickamauga National Battlefieldin extreme northwest Georgia. Because thousands of Civil War veterans were expected to attend that event, organizers of the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta designated Sept. 21st as Blue and Gray Day.

September 19, 1900

1900 Chancellor Walter Bernard Hill conducted opening exercises at the University of Georgia by noting this was the centennial of the University’s first graduating class. Actually, Chancellor Hill didn’t have the correct facts. The University was chartered by the General Assembly in 1785, but at that time its future campus was located on Cherokee land. It was not until 1801 that classes actually began and 1804 that the first nine students graduated.

September 19, 1928

1928 - Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived in Warm Springs, Ga. for his fourteenth visit to his "second home." On this trip he would finally be persuaded to run for the governorship of New York, after declining several invitations from New York Democratic officials and presidential candidate Al Smith - who hoped Roosevelt could help him carry New York. Smith did not carry New York or win the presidential election, but Roosevelt was victorious in his campaign. This marked his return to active politics (though he had been campaigning for Smith) after being stricken with polio in 1921.

View Sources from the GHS Collection

September 19, 1970

1970 The U.S. Post Office Department issued a stamp commemorating the completion of the carving of the huge carving on the face of Stone Mountain showing Confederate president Jefferson Davis and generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The stamp’s issuance came just over four months after the formal dedication ceremonies on May 9.

September 19, 1976

1976 The Atlanta Braves named Bill Lucas Director of Player Personnel, making him the first black in baseball history to hold a front office position.

September 19, 1997

1997 Atlanta’s Ted Turner announced a $1 billion donation to United Nations’ charities -- reportedly the largest philanthropic contribution by a single individual in world history. Prohibited from donating directly to the U.N., Turner indicated he would transfer $100 million in his Time-Warner stock each year for ten years for use by U.N.-supported charities. Turner further called on other wealthy individuals to also step forward to assist the U.N.

September 19, 1998

1998 On the 130th anniversary of the Camilla Massacre, a plaque was erected in Camilla, Ga. with the following inscription:
In Memory
of those who died for freedom
in Camilla, Georgia
on 19 September 1868

Doc Polhill Monroe Jordan
James Ingraham A.B. Collins
Bill Washington Tom Washington
George Washington’s son Jno. Watson
John Slaughter Jerry Davis
Barney Morris Daniel Childs
an unknown freedwoman all other unknown victims

They died as a result of exercising their lawful right to peaceful assembly
during the 1868 election campaign.


Dedicated on the 130th Anniversary of
the Camilla Massacre
19 September 1998
by the participants in the 3d annual FREEDOMWALK
sponsored by the Prison and Jail Project
Americus, Georgia

September 19, 1998

1998 In ceremonies attended by 1,200 people at the Georgia World Congress Center, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame held its 20th awards program. Inducted into the Hall of Fame for 1998 were:


the Allman Brothers Band for best group performance,
Peabo Bryson for best individual performance,
J. Lee Friedman for nonperforming accomplishments,
Emma Kelly, the piano player Johnny Mercer called the "lady of 6,000 Songs" and who was featured in novel and movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," for pioneer award, and
Gov. Zell Miller for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame President’s Merit Award