3 August 1864: Union Prisoners Held in Athens

On this day in 1864, at approximately 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Colonel William Campbell Preston Breckinridge's Kentucky Cavalry escorted into Athens over 200 Union prisoners. The men were members of Colonel Horace Capron's brigade, captured during an early morning raid after a day of fighting at Barber Creek. The prisoners were held on the University of Georgia campus for several days while other Union soldiers, scattered during the fighting, were caught and processed as prisoners of war. A total of 431 men were temporarily interned at UGA.

The Southern Watchman described the men thusly:

The prisoners presented a sorry spectacle. Ragged, some of them bare headed, some bare-footed, and all very dirty, we have never seen an equal number of men looking so badly. The great mass of them appeared to be the "rag, tag and bobtail" of the communities from whence they came. We recognized "the Irish brogue and sweet German accent" among them. It is true that, now and then, a respectable looking man was to be seen among the officers and men. The great mass of them, however, looked like "hard cases."

The University was not in session, and some buildings on campus had been put to use as hospitals. Phi Kappa Hall was used as a quartermaster depot and New College as shelter for refugees driven from their homes around the south. Prisoners of war were kept outdoors in open, fenced areas. The day after the prisoners arrived, the citizens of Athens gave an afternoon banquet for the cavalrymen, complete with a musician-led parade through town to lead the Breckinridge brigade to the banquet site in the campus Chapel.

The arrival of the prisoners in Athens was, according to the account in the Southern Watchman, "great excitement, as this was the first squad of Yankees who had visited us since the beginning of the war." Many of the local residents ventured to campus to see and talk to the prisoners; one man cursed a prisoner roundly, ending his verbal attack with a firm kick. An young observer noted that, "Boy as I was I boiled over with indignation and I felt like apologizing to the prisoner for the whole State of Georgia; and I never saw that man afterwards--and he lived twenty years after the war--that I did not say to myself 'there goes a coward.'"

The Union prisoners spent their time in Athens under the guard of an Athens home defense unit known as the Mitchell Thunderbolts. The Thunderbolts consisted of mostly well-established, well-educated professional men who were too old for the Confederate draft. Confederate law had recently allowed such local "minute-man" style companies to be formed whose only role would be to defend their home towns if attacked, and could not be co-opted by the Confederate Department of War. They were allowed to make their own rules and elect their own officers, and were not under orders of any higher military authority.

The Mitchell Thunderbolts, named for Private William L. Mitchell, were widely known as more independent than most home guards, much to the consternation of General Howell Cobb, who was Georgia's commander of reserve forces. One member of the Thunderbolts, John Gilleland, invented the double-barreled cannon. Though it's intended use was not successful, it may have been used as a regular cannon to defend Athens at Barber Creek the day before the prisoners arrived in town.

According to the Watchman, Athens held the prisoners for only a few days before they were shipped "to Andersonville, where they will be properly cared for." However, by August of 1864, the 26 1/2-acre Andersonville held more than 33,000 Union prisoners of war, far more than the space was built to allow. The site is now a National Cemetery and home to the National Prisoner of War Museum.

Learn More:

• Southern Watchman, Aug. 1861 - Aug. 1864 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Southern Banner, Aug. 1862 - Dec. 11, 1864 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• These Men She Gave: Civil War Diary of Athens, Georgia by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Confederate Athens by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens, 1861-1865: As Seen Through Letters in the University of Georgia Libraries, edited by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Annals of Athens, 1801-1901 by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
  
• College Life in the Old South by E. Merton Coulter in the Heritage and general collections.
• Hell's Broke Loose in Georgia: Survival in a Civil War Regiment by Scott Walker in the Heritage and general collections.
  
• The Confederate Nation, 1861-1865 by Emory M. Thomas in the Heritage and general collections.
• Camp Sumter: The Andersonville Chronology, October 28, 1863-November 21, 1865 by Ken Drew in the Heritage collection.
• This Was Andersonville by John McElroy in the Heritage collection.
• Andersonville Journey by Edward F. Roberts in the Heritage and general collections.
  
• Ghosts and Shadows of Andersonville: Essays on the Secret Histories of America's Deadliest Prison, edited by Robert Scott Davis in the Heritage collection.
  
• Civil War Heartland Leader's Trail website.
• Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System website.
• The Southern Homefront 1861-1865 web page, part of UNC Library's Documenting the American South website.
• Battle of Barber Creek website.

27 May 1931: "Two meat-eating plants are growing in Mrs. G. W. Brown's front yard..."

On this day in 1931, the Athens-Banner Herald reported on two pitcher plants growing at 347 Hancock Avenue, home of Mrs. G. W. Brown.

The article quotes University of Georgia botany professor Dr. J. M. Reade as saying "there are not many in this section of the state," then describes how the pitcher plants catch and digest their prey. The carnivorous pitcher plant lures insects into the top of the plant with a sweet nectar. Rather than close down on its prey as the Venus Flytrap does, the pitcher is a passive killer, allowing the insect to simply slip or slide down into the basin of it's pitcher-shaped body where a liquid filled with digestive enzymes consumes the prey.

Though the reporter described the plants as "Nepenthaceae, or the American pitcher plant," the pitcher plants native to Georgia and other parts of North America are actually part of the Sarraceniaceae family; the Nepenthaceae family are indigenous to "tropical habitats in Australia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, the Seychelles, Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka." The natural habitat for Sarracenia pitchers is bogland, which is why they are more common in central and southern Georgia.

In 1973, Georgia passed the Wildflower Preservation Act, which protects rare species of plants on state-owned and unowned land. Rare plants on privately-owned property are protected only so far as the property owner makes their preservation a priority. Development and wetland drainage have destroyed 97.5% of pitcher plant habitat in the southeast.

Several species of pitcher are considered endangered or threatened in Georgia, such as:

• White-top pitcher plants are considered Endangered by the state of Georgia, and are primarily confined to Sumter County.
• Green pitcher plants are considered Endangered by both the state of Georgia and under the United States Endangered Species Act, and are only found in a single site in Towns County.
• Sweet pitcher plants are considered Threatened by the state of Georgia, and while there have been up to 40 natural sites found, only two of these are protected.
• Purple pitcher plants are found both on the coast and in mountain bogs. There is only one mountain site left, and the remaining four coastal preservation sites are protected by a management agreement the state has with Georgia Power.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources lists over 150 protected plants in the state, ranging in status from Endangered, for plants facing "extinction throughout all or part of its range," to Unusual, for those plants that are rare and are "subject to commercial exploitation."

Learn More:

• Athens Banner-Herald, Mar. 1931 - Aug. 1931 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Georgia by Linda G. Chafin in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Curious World of Carnivorous Plants: A Comprehensive Guide to their Biology and Cultivation by Wilhelm Barthlott in the general collection.
• Carnivorous Plants by Elaine Pascoe in the children's collection.
• Plants that Eat Animals by Allan Fowler in the children's collection.
• Wildflowers of Georgia by Hugh O. Norse in the Heritage and general collections.
• Give Plants a Voice! An Activity Guide to the Protected Plants and Habitats of the Southeast United States by Ann Blum in the children's collection.
• Protected Plants of Georgia: An Information Manual on Plants Designated by the State of Georgia as Endangered, Threatened, Rare, or Unusual by Thomas S. Patrick in the Heritage collection.
  
• Georgia's Protected Plants by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in the Heritage collection.
• The Natural Environments of Georgia by Charles H. Wharton in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Private Life of Plants: A Natural History of Plant Behavior by Sir David Attenborough in the general collection.
• Green Inheritance: The World Wildlife Fund Book of Plants by Anthony Julian Huxley in the general collection.
• Restoring Diversity: Strategies for Reintroduction of Endangered Plants by Donald A. Falk in the general collection.
• Soil Survey of Schley and Sumter Counties, Georgia by Jerry A. Pilkinton in the Heritage collection.
• Soil Survey of Rabun and Towns Counties, Georgia by Winfield S. Carson in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Native Plant Society website.
• Pitcherplant Growing Guide on the North American Sarracenia Conservancy website.
• The Restoration of Pitcherplant Bogs Project page on the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance website.
• Slide Show of the Interior of a Pitcher Plant on the Atlanta Botanical Garden website.