Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsGeneral Willcox Complains Of Wrongful Treatment Of Indians
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
The General (Mark Willcox) gritted his teeth that morning as he stood on the steps at the old courthouse at Jacksonville, Georgia, and watched the soldiers as they directed their horses and wagons to the nearby jail. They tried not to look his way in an effort to avoid the glare of his piercing eyes and the meaning and intensity of his tense jaws. They had crossed the Ocmulgee River from the south and were now ready to deposit their sad and pitiful cargo in one of the few places on the frontier equipped to handle wounded Indians. Under the circumstances they were not proud of what had been done and they knew The General was not proud of the deed either. And not proud of them.
It had happened as it had so many times before and it would happen again. Some Indians had been shot up bad and the groans were not coming mostly from seasoned warriors but from women and children and old men trying to live peaceably. They had been the victims of another "Indian hunt." Innocent red people had been attacked without provocation or reason.
Some settlers and soldiers had done little to even try to come to terms with the red men. True, some Indians retaliated, and even more violently than their white enemies, but that left no excuse for shooting the innocent noncombatants.
It seemed to The General that there would be no end to this lasting and hateful animosity between the two peoples. Why, right across the road in one of the stores in Jacksonville, you could buy an Indian scalp for thirty dollars. What were people coming to?
As The General reviewed the particulars and read the report of Colonel Thomas Hilliard he was even more upset. Below is Hilliard's letter to the Governor explaining the situation (just as written, errors and all):
"I neglected to state to you (writing to the Governor) in my last that had bin four Indian prisianers (prisoners) brought to Waresboro which still remains thare two of which ware badly wounded. they ware taken on the east side of St tilla [river] some time sinse in this county they ware discovered at camp at knight a small company of men about ten in No went on them next morning befor they left camp and captured them all being ten in No six of which ware kild (killed) the prisuaners (prisoners) consists of two male one quite small and two females as thare ware no Jail near and they not able to travel in consequence of thare wounds they ware left at waresboro whare they have bin attended to and are well of thare wounds or nearly so I don't know what better to do with them than to send them to Telfair Jail [at Jacksonville, Georgia] to await your Excellencys orders The arms ammunitions, &c have been received that were sent to this county I shall be at Milledgeville shortly whare I can communicate to you more fully on the Indian subject --"
Evidently, Colonel Hilliard was not one of The General's favorite officers. The Colonel was not very good at spelling, either. However, it appears that no one spent too much time mastering that skill. It was probably way down the list of survival techniques.
A month earlier, in another case of what The General deemed as unwarranted violence upon the red men, he wrote this in a letter to the Governor:
"Our troops in [Ware County have] been guilty of some shameful Massacres of the Indians," and added:
"Major (Colonel) Hilliard has been calling on or ordering out Troops in your name the officers called on refused to furnish the men unless he could show his authority from you ---"
Morale was at an all-time low and so were communications and logistics. Even supplies getting to their appropriate destination seemed a miracle:
"Efforts to re-establish order were frustrated. When the Governor attempted to send arms to the militia in Lowndes and Thomas Counties, the wagoneer refused to transport them any farther than Jacksonville (Ga.) on the Big Bend of the Ocmulgee River in Telfair County. He claimed that his horse was crippled, the roads were bad and the waters too high, and his wagon was overloaded. He unloaded the weapons at (General) Mark Willcox's house and returned home. Willcox reported this to the Governor ---."
Returning to the subject of the wrongful treatment of the Indians referred to by General Mark Willcox, we find these words in an extensive compilation done by historian C.T. (Chris) Trowell:
"Obviously, the "Indian problem" was out of control on the southern frontier. Vigilante volunteers tracked and attacked wandering Indian families in 1836, but they did not know what to do with Indian women and children who survived the attacks. Hilliard's experience in Ware County was not an isolated case. Letters in Georgia Military Affairs and Creek Indian Letters during this period record that several vigilante groups "dumped" wounded survivors on authorities after "Indian hunts."
This report came from Irwin County:
"--- after organizing a company of 38 men they had tracked the Indians into Irwin County where they found them. They charged in an attack "promptly and gallantly."
The Indians broke and ran. After a 20 minute "battle" the company found eighteen Indians dead, including seven women. Gay noted that "the women so resembled the men in their dress that we could not discriminate between them in the engagement. We took three women and two children prisoners, two of the women are badly wounded."
"--- we have the prisoners [with us] and are at a loss to know what to do with them. We wish your Excellency would inform us what disposition to make of them."
Historian Trowell continues: " Some of these letters reflect remorse. It was not one of the finest hours of some pioneers on the Georgia frontier."
Even "General Andrew Jackson, one of the War's fiercest advocates, had this to say: "disgraceful --- to the American character," --- "a long long and inconclusive succession of debacles and humiliations that lasted for almost eight years, took the lives of more than two thousand officers and men and, failing even to achieve its original purpose, cost the nation between forty and sixty million dollars."
And what happened to the Indians who died at the Jacksonville, Georgia, jail? Something told to me by a long-time resident of Jacksonville leads me to believe their remains were deposited in an Indian cemetery down the hill from the courthouse. Bill Lowe told me that he and his brothers used to play around this Indian cemetery and his mother, Mrs. Blanche Lowe, always told them not to walk into the cemetery or disturb the graves because they were people also - and these dead ones, the Indians, deserved respect.
General Mark Willcox thought the same thing. And he let people know it, the Governor included.
Credits:
C.T. (Chris) Trowell for Exploring The Okefenokee Letters And Diaries From The Indian Wars, 1836-1842;
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 History (1807-1987);
info furnished by Gertrude Wilcox Williams and Diane Williams Rogers and others.
