Sept. 5, 1863

To the arms bearing people of Georgia:

Thus far you have experienced but little of the horrors of war, and while you have been obliged to dispense with the luxuries which you might otherwise have enjoyed, you have suffered comparatively little privation except the loss of friends on battle fields in other States. Now, a powerful army, commanded by one of the most unscrupulous of the Generals of the enemy, is  advancing upon your North-western border, threatening to violate your homes, lay waste your fields, destroy your cities, desecrate the graves of your fathers and the altars where you worship the Living God.

If the enemy is successful, you must flee from your native country, and as outcast paupers, wander in foreign lands; or must submit to tyranny with chains of oppression the most galling that were ever worn by an enlightened people.

Let no one hope to escape by mean abandonment of our cause in the midst of our troubles, or by swearing allegiance to a government that has wantonly shed so much precious Southern blood, and laid his friends and relatives cold in death. Our noble dead slain by the enemy would rebuke such dastardly conduct from their property by favoring a reconstruction of the old Union, or by any re-union with our heartless invaders! All such dreams are worse than delusions. Three quarters of a century of experience has proved that no covenant, agreement, or constitutional compact will bind the people of the Northern States, as communities, longer than it is their interest to observe the obligation. It would take all the property of the South to pay the immense war debt of the North, and to satisfy Yankee cupidity in possession of unrestrained power. Reconstruction is nothing but submission, and submission plunges us in the deepest degredation, and the most abject poverty and misery. If there be any who favor such means to secure peace, let them remember the sentiment of the great Carolina statesmen. It is the peace which the kite gives to the dove, the wolf to the lamb, Russia to Poland, and death to its victim. If we prefer to die free rather than live slaves, we must put forth our whole enemies in this crisis of our fate.

Georgia has never failed to respond to every call made by the President for troops from the commencement of the war to the present day, and she has, in every case when a call has been made for volunteers, tendered more than the number required. In response to the late call for 8,000 men for local defense, I shall have the gratification to tender to the President over 15,,000 without counting the drafted men. The draft was only necessary in a few localities to compel each county to do its part, when some had tendered three times the number required, and to compel a few men to enter service who could not otherwise be influenced to do so. The result has been a triumphant vindication of the character and volunteer spirit of the State. There yet remain in our beloved State, including the organizations formed for home defense, over forty thousand men able to bear arms in an emergency. If but half this number will reinforce the Confederate army now on our border, we can drive the enemy out of East Tennessee and free our State threatened invasion.

Georgians, you who remain in the State, owe this to the gallant men who have left their homes and gone to distant fields to meet the foe. You owe it to the orphans of the immortal dead who have lost their lives in your defense. You owe it to the noble women of Georgia who with hearts full of patriotism, have by their untiring energy clothed the naked, and contributed millions of dollars to the support of our cause; and who like guardian angels, have ministered to the comfort and soothed the agony of the sick and wounded of every State, who  on their passage over our territory have come within their reach. You owe it to your own wives and children, to the families of our soldiers now in service in other States, and to unborn posterity. Will you not rise in your might and put forth all your manliness for this glorious consummation?

Having been asked by the authorities at Richmond, to call out the Home Guards, to assist in this emergency, I invite their attention to the accompanying order of the Adjutant and Inspector General of this State, and direct that it be promptly obeyed.

Men of Georgia, who have stout hearts and strong arms, when you leave your farms and your merchandise to assist in driving the vandals from our borders, the remembrance of the fate of New Orleans, Nashville, and other places which have surrendered to the enemy, must unalterably fix your determination that they shall not occupy Georgia territory, and tyronize over Georgia's citizens; and must nerve your arms for the contest, and impel you to strike for the preservation of your property, the purity of your wives and daughters, and the transmission of your liberties to the latest posterity.

Dark clouds hang around us and we are passing through a trying ordeal, but truth and justice are on our side, and if every man will put his trust in God, and do his whole duty, our cause will triumph, and we shall not only conquer a peace, but we shall establish Constitutional Liberty, without which our struggle will have been in vain.

Joseph E. Brown.

Macon Weekly Telegraph: 1863-09-08

State of Georgia, Adjt. and Inspector General's Office, Atlanta, Sept. 5, 1863

In conformity to the foregoing proclamation of his Excellency the Governor of this State, I am directed to issue the following orders:

1. All volunteer organizations for home defense, whose prescribed limits embrace Atlanta, or any part of the State between that point and the Tennessee line, are herby ordered to report immediately, at Kingston, on the State Road, or at Atlanta, as may be most convenient to the commanding officer of the Confederate States army, at those points, except the Floyd County Legion, which is now in camp on special service, and the companies in Rabun, Habersham, Towns, Union, Fannin, White, Lumkin, Gilmer, Walker, Chattooga, and Dade, which will await special orders, as their services are considered indispensable at their homes, holding themselves in readiness to obey orders at a moment's warning, and drilling twice a week until the present exigency is passed.

2. Every man who has a shot gun or rifle, fit for use, will bring it, and each man will bring with him either a blanket or other covering, and will leave home with provisions enough to carry him to one of the places of rendezvous named above, and to serve him one day after his arrival.

3. In counties where almost the entire population have volunteered, only a number as large as the quota required from the county will be called upon to respond to this order. More may come if they choose to do so, but those who remain will hold themselves in readiness to assist in repelling any raid that may approach their neighborhood. In these cases the commanding officers will collect the whole force and select from them for the present service the most able bodied soldiers of their commands.

4. The remaining companies in the State whose boundaries of service do not embrace the upper portion of the State are invited to volunteer for this particular service; and other persons not members of the companies, who are able to bear arms, are invited to join them and aid in repelling the enemy. Under the law, none of the home organizations can be compelled to go out of the State, but if asked to do so, it is not doubted that they will promptly volunteer to cross the line if they can better defend Georgian on Tennessee soil. Those who may volunteer to cross the line will lose none of their rights by so doing, and will be permitted to return as soon as the exigency shall permit.

5. Infantry companies will supply themselves with the best means of transportation they can procure to the nearest railroad depot, from which point they will be transported to the place of rendezvous, as is usual in such cases, on the certificate of the commanding officer. Cavalry will march by the most direct roads usually traveled.

6. The captain of each company is authorized to make details of men, who, in consideration of the public interests, and their efficiency in rendering service to the community, are most necessary at home; provided that the number detailed to remain at home shall not exceed, in an case, one-sixth of the company.

7. Drafted men attached to companies will be required to go with them, unless prevented by bodily infirmity absolutely disqualifying them for a short term of service. Drafted men attached to companies who may refuse, from any other cause, to obey this order, will be arrested by the commander of their company and compelled to serve.

8. Companies organized for the local defense of cities, factories, workshops, or iron works will remain at their positions and drill twice a week, awaiting orders. As such points are most likely to be first attached by raids of the enemy, the companies at them will, at all times, hold themselves ready for action at the shortest notice.

9.Companies throughout the State not called into service by this Order, or volunteering under it, will drill at least once a week. From this drill only Ordinaries will be exempted, on account of the business in their offices which is necessary to the production of the estates of deceased soldiers. They will be expected, however, to turn out when threatened by a raid in their vicinity.

10. While in service under this order, both officers and men must expect to endure some hardships. The Quartermaster's and Commissary's Departments, however, will do all in their power for their comfort and health, and contribute, as far as in them lies, to make the service agreeable and pleasant. It would be well, though, for every man to look to his own probable wants as much as he can without needlessly burdening himself with baggage.

By order of the Commander In-Chief.

Henry C. Wayne,
Adj't And Insp'r Gen.

Macon Weekly Telegraph: 1863-10-10

Major Lee's Expedition into North Georgia

From Lt. R. F. Holmes we have ascertained the following interesting [particulars] of Maj. Lee's expedition into North Georgia.

Major G. W. Lee having received orders to go with a sufficient force into the section of the State adjoining North Carolina and Tennessee for the purpose of arresting deserters and putting down tories, left this city with his battalion, numbering about five hundred men, (a portion of them mounted) on the 12th of September last, and arrived at Dalton on the 15th. Here he divided his battalion, placing one part under the command of Capt. J.D. Hendricks, and retaining that of the other himself.

From Dahlonega, as a starting point, the two portions of the battalion were carried into the country West, passing through the towns of Morgantown, Ellijay, Blairsville, up into North Carolina. The people in the country were generally friendly to the mission of Maj. Lee, and rendered him every assistance in their power in his good work; but in the country were found many persons dissatisfied with the war, and to some extent, with the Government.

Major Lee learned that Bryson, a person of notorious bad character, having been a horse thief, and a murderer of two or three persons, had under his command an organized band of seven or eight hundred, under authority, as it reported, from the Yankees, after they had come in possession of East Tennessee. This Bryson hearing of the advance of Major Lee with his command, left the country for more congenial society amongst his Yankee associates, leaving most of his partners in iniquity, behind. Some forty or fifty of the desperadoes were captured. While about fourteen miles distant from Morganton, in Fannin County, Major Lee and Lieut. Holmes undertook an adventure that came near resulting in serious consequences to both. Thinking that they could obtain important information by leaving their command for a short time and making a tour of observation incog, they laid aside their uniforms, and rode in plain dress. They had not gone far before they met up with a party of tories about a hundred in number, all well armed, under the leadership of two Yankee recruiting officers. With this party they held a short parley without being suspected. These tories, however, were two intent on escaping the clutches of the force which they had heard were in pursuit of them, and went on their way as rapidly as possible.

As soon as they were left alone, Major Lee and Lieut. Holmes returned to their command, and with it went immediately in pursuit. They soon came up with them, when a regular battle ensued. Four of the tories were killed and a number wounded, (Col. Lee losing none,) and capturing thirty or forty, amongst whom was one Yankee recruiting officer, well armed with a brace of pistols and an Enfield rifle. The rest of the tories were armed with common country rifles. Among these men was a preacher who acted as Chaplain to the tories. The most of the captured have been brought to this city and lodged in the barracks; others of them were confined at Dahlonega and Morgantown.

But the fruits or this expedition were not alone confined to the dispersion and arrest of the tories. As a consequence of the presence of an armed force in their midst, a large number of deserters from the army returned to their respective commands.

Nor is the result of the expedition yet over. Col. Lee left a large portion of his command in the country to operate against these disaffected and open violators of the laws, he having been ordered to do duty in another part of the State.

It cannot but be gratifying to all in our State except the small numbers who are themselves unfaithful to our country, to learn that Col. Lee's effort to rid the country of tories and traitors has been crowned thus far with such complete success. The presence of the enemy in East Tennessee in near proximity to these traitors stimulated them to do their utmost to organize into armed bands, and to spread dissatisfaction with the Government wherever they had opportunity. In addition to this, the Yankee recruiting officers gave these tories encouragement, and taught them how to use their power so as to give the most trouble to the country. For this high handed crime the one that has been captured will doubtless be made to suffer.

That portion of our country affected by the presence of these tories, whose main object was plunder, is now comparatively tranquil. It is not to be inferred that portion of our State is, to any great extent, Union in feeling. It must be remembered that there are still large numbers of the population remaining at home loyal to our government, while the largest portion of the male population is manifesting their loyalty by services in the army.

Adjutant Holmes, it will be remembered by our readers, was the very efficient assistant, or aid of Major Lee, when the latter officer was acting as Provost Marshall and commandant of this post. He is the son of the Rev. A.T. Holmes, of Decatur, in this State, and bids fair to win reputation, especially in the service in which he is now engaged. To another section of our State Major Lee's command is now ordered on an important expedition, where we have no doubt our young friend will again distinguished himself under the lead of his resolute and indomitable chief.

Atlanta Intelligencer