1831 Annual Return of 2d Brigade of 7th Division GA militia
Posted By Steven on January 25, 2009
Here is a bit of history you don’t see every day. This is the annual “return” (report) of the 2nd Brigade of the 7th Division, Georgia State Militia. At this time in our nation’s history, most of the armed forces were state militias, and in Georgia’s case, their troops were for anything but show. Tensions and outright war between Georgia and the indigenous Indian tribes was almost constant until the tribes were forcibly expatriated west of the Mississippi River in the infamous “Trail of Tears.”
In 1829, gold was discovered in Georgia, which resulted in the first “gold rush” in the United States. The problem was, the gold was mostly on land belonging to the Cherokee Indians. This didn’t stop most people from invading their lands in search of fortune, and hostilities soon broke out. The 2d Brigade, 7th Division, stationed in Decatur, Georgia, would have remained on a high state of readiness during this time.
On this Annual Return, dated August 10, 1831, William Ezzard is listed as Brigadier General Commanding, Thomas Akins is Brigade Major, Cyrus Chance is Adie de Camp and William J Howard is Brigade Quartermaster. Brigade strength is 3,008 infantry, 105 cavalry, and 58 artillerymen.
Link to this auction on eBay: Ends February 1st, 9:30pm Eastern Time
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.