Speaking ill of the dead: jerks in Georgia history

262 Pages·2012·26.393 MB·English

by  McKay, John

M
c
K
a
y
S
at the badly behaved characters who
p
shaped the history of Georgia through
e
their deeds and misdeeds
a
Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Georgia History features fifteen short k Georgia
profiles of notorious bad guys, perpetrators of mischief, visionary if i
n
misunderstood thinkers, and other colorful antiheroes from the history
g
of the Peach State. It reveals the dark side of some well-known and

i
even revered characters from Georgia’s past—both part-time Jerks and l
others who were Jerks through and through. They include: l

• Thomas Brown, a gentleman planter who was brutalized by the o
Sons of Liberty and developed a reputation as a rogue and a f

merciless Loyalist guerilla fighter in the American Revolutionary War t
h
• US Senator Thomas Watson, who used his power as a political
e
“king maker” in Georgia and his nationally distributed news

publications to resurrect the Ku Klux Klan in the twentieth century D
e
• John S. Williams, one of America’s last known peonage masters, a
who resorted to mass murder in an unsuccessful attempt to hide D
the sordid truth

John McKay is a near-native of Atlanta who grew up in the Brookhaven J
e
area near Buckhead and Lenox Square, and has rarely left the area. He is
r
k
a historian specializing in military subjects, especially the Western Theater
s
of the American Civil War, and a high school history and government
i
n
teacher. He is a veteran of the US Army and Georgia Army National

G
Guard, worked for many years as a paramedic and firefighter in and
e
around Atlanta, and lives in the northern suburbs with his wife, Bonnie, a o
nurse, professionally trained chef, and recovering debutante. r
g
i
a

H
Cover design by Bret Kerr
i
Cover photos: bottom (John B. Hood and Blackbeard) and s
top (William Sherman) courtesy of Library of Congress t
o
r
y
®
Globe Pequot Press
Guilford, Connecticut John McKay
GlobePequot.com
GeorgiaJerks.indd 1 8/15/12 12:51 PM
GeorgiaJerks.indd 2 8/15/12 12:51 PM
Speaking ill of
the DeaD:
Jerks in Georgia History
SpeakingIll_GA_Final_CS4.indd 1 8/15/12 12:54 PM
SpeakingIll_GA_Final_CS4.indd 2 8/15/12 12:54 PM
Speaking ill of
the DeaD:
Jerks in Georgia History
John McKay
®
Guilford, Connecticut
® globe pequot press
Guilford, Connecticut
www.GlobePequot.com
SpeakingIll_GA_Final_CS4.indd 3 8/15/12 12:54 PM
®
Copyright © 2012 by Morris Book Publishing, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing
from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn:
Ri®ghgtslo abned pPeeqrmuoists piorness sDepartment, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.
Guilford, Connecticut
Text wdweswi.gGnlo: bSehPeeqruyol tP.c.o Kmober
Project editor: Lauren Brancato
Layout artist: Justin Marciano
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN 978-0-7627-7881-2
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
SpeakingIll_GA_Final_CS4.indd 4 8/15/12 12:54 PM
Contents
Acknowledgments .................................. vii
Introduction ....................................... ix
Chapter 1: Edward Teach, aka “Blackbeard”: Pirate on
the Georgia Coast ......................... 1
Chapter 2: John Wesley: Jilted Fugitive from the
Savannah Colony ........................ 13
Chapter 3: Thomas Brown: Loyalist Guerilla Fighter
during the Revolution ..................... 25
Chapter 4: Major Ridge: Cherokee Chief and Signer of
the New Echota Treaty .................... 42
Chapter 5: Harrison W. Riley: The “Meanest Man in
the Mountains”........................... 57
Chapter 6: John P. Gatewood: Confederate Guerilla
Fighter ................................. 68
Chapter 7: William T. Sherman: Pyromaniac across
Georgia................................. 81
Chapter 8: John Bell Hood: Hotheaded Southern
Commander Who Jeopardized the
Confederacy ............................ 103
Chapter 9: Henry Wirz: Commander of the
Andersonville POW Camp................. 122
Chapter 10: Charles B. Blacker: Deputy US Marshal in
the Georgia Moonshine War, 1876–77 ....... 140
Chapter 11: Tom Woolfolk: Mass Murderer of His Own
Family................................. 156
SpeakingIll_GA_Final_CS4.indd 5 8/15/12 12:54 PM
CONTENTS
Chapter 12: Thomas Watson: Populist Politician,
KKK Supporter ......................... 168
Chapter 13: George R. Harsh: Thrill Killer Turned
“Great Escape” War Hero ................. 180
Chapter 14: John S. Williams: Peonage Master and
Mass Murderer ......................... 193
Chapter 15: John Wallace: Perpetrator of the Famous
“Murder in Coweta County” ............... 211
Bibliography...................................... 227
Index ............................................ 239
About the Author.................................. 244

vi
SpeakingIll_GA_Final_CS4.indd 6 8/15/12 12:54 PM
Acknowledgments
In addition to the staffs of the Atlanta Historical Society, the Geor-
gia Department of Archives and History, the Library of Congress,
the National Archives and Records Administration, and a number
of libraries, genealogical groups, and historical societies around
the state of Georgia, who maintain very useful online and physical
archives, there are several people I would like to thank by name,
who lent great assistance and marvelous support to the stories of
the sometimes difficult, sometimes embarrassing, and almost always
highly controversial people who are written about in this book.
I am most grateful to Anne Amerson and Jimmy Anderson of
the Lumpkin County Historical Society, for their assistance with
uncovering some new material on Harrison Riley. Darinda Staf-
ford of Georgia Backroads magazine was a great help in obtain-
ing some material that appeared in long-unavailable copies of the
magazine.
Mark Hickman of the Pegasus Archive and Dr. Jonathan F.
Vance of the University of Western Ontario were most helpful
in clearing up some misperceptions and pointing me in the right
direction for finding a photo of George Harsh. Yvonne Oliver of
the Imperial War Museum in London was equally as helpful in
running down, at long last, the rare and difficult to locate image of
Harsh that appears in this book.
Gerald Flinchum and Larry Stephens of Georgia Highlands
College were of great help with both background and direct infor-
mation about the Confederate guerilla John P. Gatewood.
Laron and Ruth Waite were exceptionally helpful and most
kind in their assistance and permission to use some of the mate-
rial from their own work, in relation to their ancestor Charles
Blacker; I only wish that I could have related his story in a more
positive light!
Marian Presswood is exactly the kind of archivist and researcher
whom any historian would love to collaborate with; she went far
vii
SpeakingIll_GA_Final_CS4.indd 7 8/15/12 12:54 PM
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
above and beyond the call of her entirely volunteer duties to help
run down every available scrap of information on both William Fain
and John Gatewood. I can honestly say that I have never in all my
years of research and writing had any such archival help provide
me with the exact GPS coordinates of something I was looking for
in the field, much less the location of the obscure, abandoned, and
nearly forgotten grave of what was a peripheral character in the
story! She is a marvel and jewel in the field of historical research
and genealogy, and I treasured both meeting her and touring the
facility she put together for such work in Benton, Tennessee.
Gail Miller DeLoach of the Georgia Archives was another
archivist who went far above and beyond what would be expected
in locating information about several different people who appear
in this book.
I also want to extend my thanks to Lynn Garwood, Mary
Lou Jordan, and Erica Rohlfs of the Dawson County Library,
all of whom lent their kind assistance on a particularly difficult
research case.
My mother, Peggy Carden McKay, father James Edward
McKay, and sister, Phyllis Ann McKay, were all very helpful with
both oral stories and written materials related to parts of the John
Wallace story, especially about the eccentric character Mayhayley
Lancaster in Heard County.
As always, I am most grateful to my chief proofreader, partner
on research trips, primary critic and most steadfast champion, the
dearest love of my life and my wife, Bonnie Kathleen McKay. I
have so enjoyed our adventures thus far, and look forward to what
the Lord has in store for us next!

vviiiiii
SpeakingIll_GA_Final_CS4.indd 8 8/15/12 12:54 PM