Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsGeneral Willcox Had To Share Troublesome 1836 With "Old Fuss And Feathers"
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
Yes, 1836 was a long year for everybody. Especially for General Mark Willcox. Things were not going so well.
As General Willcox reviewed the reports of the Indian hostilities against the settlers in lower Telfair County (became Coffee in 1854), he again lamented the fact that settlers were so widely dispersed in the various areas of south Georgia as to render protection almost impossible. At least Redding Metts and John Peterson and others across the Ocmulgee River had constructed a stand (fortification) for the protection of their families. He needed to ride that way again. At least he could give them moral support if nothing else.
As he cared for his horse after a long day of riding, he probably thought about the great differences of the frontier he was living in and the civilization of Milledgeville, Georgia's capital city. Why, in this very year, 1836, the city was incorporated and constituted a city by the legislature. And in this same year Oglethorpe University was chartered by the Presbyterian Church. And Scottsboro Female Institute was renamed Georgia Female College. And in Macon, to the delight of his father, Captain John Willcox, a subscriber to the fund, proud Wesleyan College would open her doors. Education was important. And the economy was important. In 1836, The Bank of Milledgeville was organized. And way down here, when there was little time to pay to educational endeavors, Jacksonville Academy received as much attention as could be afforded. Mark Willcox wanted that school and its students to do well.
But these were two Georgias, for sure - the frontier of the Ocmulgee and the capital city of the Oconee. There was a great difference and Mark Willcox could tell you. He had been in both worlds - a soldier in one and a legislator in the other.
And now, to add to the contrast, comes the great military hero (or was going to be), General Winfield Scott. General Scott had been assigned the job of rounding up the Cherokees in North Georgia and defeating the Seminoles of South Georgia and Florida. He was soon to see he had quite a task at both ends.
First off, General Scott seemed to have just a little streak of vanity running around somewhere in his rather large frame. He paid so much attention to having an ornately gold-trimmed military uniform fashioned and produced that he spent hours before the mirror after the tailor turned the outfit over to him. So much was he enamored of his own six-foot five-inch frame draped in the resplendent finery of gold buttons, braids, feathers, and anything else gaudy or shiny attached to it, that he gained the nickname, "Old Fuss and Feathers."
But General Mark Willcox wanted to give Scott his due. Because Georgia needed all the help it could get with the Indians. He knew also that he needed to be careful with him. He also knew he would be aggravated with him for commandeering his military supplies at Hawkinsville. We got the distinct notion of this when we read one of his "excited feelings" letters to the Governor of Georgia. He couldn't accomplish a heap if Scott siphoned off his supplies.
We can almost hear him say, "Now, isn't this a fine state of affairs. There General Scott is - requisitioning arms and supplies for his Florida troops, and ordering himself another gold-trimmed uniform, and here we are down here on the Ocmulgee, wishing we had a rifle and horse for every volunteer."
We are not told anywhere that General Willcox ever swore, but he would probably have come closest to it when he discovered that General Scott not only procured those things for his troops but also carried a live band as part of his military entourage! Not that the playing of the band did not soothe the hardships of camp life; it probably did. But the sweet sounds also signaled the Indians as to where the encampment was located and provided snipers with live objects for target practice. Talk about a world of contrast. Now, here we have it! It seemed to Mark Willcox that Old Fuss and Feathers would be of little use to the Georgia militiamen.
He was correct in his thinking. Not long after, the government recalled General Scott to Washington to answer to charges of dilatoriness ("the slows") and of casting slurs on the fighting qualities of volunteers. General Willcox was proud to get volunteers; he surely didn't see the point of General Scott's attitude toward them. He was also probably thinking that Scott would show up in his finest apparel and win the hearts of those who questioned him. He was right again. Scott, as before, was slapped on the hand and it was no time that he was up in North Georgia rounding up Cherokees and putting them on the Trail of Tears.
It was also ironic that part of Scott's failure in Florida was because General Gaines used Scott's supplies. General Willcox probably thought of his own empty pockets at Hawkinsville because of Scott's use of his supplies. He might have smiled just a little about this.
General Willcox would later see "his old acquaintance" become the hero of the Mexican War. Scott developed a plan to take Vera Cruz by sea. It worked a heap better than did his foiled "three-prong attack" on the Seminoles of Florida. His Florida planning was OK - he just didn't realize how big and uncharted and undeveloped Florida was and how evasive the Seminoles could be in such an environment. But give old "Fuss and Feathers" his due as General Willcox might say. He went on, as an old, but wise man, to develop the "Anaconda Plan," which, though initially rejected, won the Civil War for the Yankees. It squeezed the life out of the South (see Civil War articles for more on that).
But, General Willcox could not spend a great deal of time wondering about his gaudy contemporary. He had to deal with the here and now in 1836.
And these terrible things were happening in that fateful year: Roanoke in West Georgia was attacked and several citizens massacred and the town burned. The Battle of Brushy Creek in what is now Cook County had cost the lives of some settlers and soldiers. Hostilities were taking place in other parts of Irwin and on the Alapaha. Redding Metts and John Peterson saw increasing hostility in lower Telfair. The Okefenokee seemed to have a lot more Seminoles hidden in it than the 200 estimate of General Winfield Scott. Racepond, near the swamp, was not a good outpost to be stationed at, even if you could race your horse around the pond in idle hours. Idle hours could get you killed. General Willcox saw firsthand the results of the Battle of Chicksawachee Swamp. There was action everywhere and he couldn't be everywhere.
It was about time to write another letter to the Governor. The General needed all the help he could get and then some and all "Old Fuss and Feathers" had shared with him was a troublesome 1836. But he was trying - trying hard.
Credits:
Ann Carswell for letters of and notes on Gen. Mark Willcox;
Willcox Family History by Martha Albertson;
Pioneer Days Along the Ocmulgee by Fussell Chalker;
Telfair Newspaper Clippings (1810-1892) by Tad Evans;
History of Telfair County (1807-1987);
info furnished by Chris Trowell;
info furnished by Gertrude Wilcox Williams and Diane Williams Rogers and others.
