Allen Daniel Candler
Published: 2017-11-17
Total Pages: 584
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Excerpt from The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, Vol. 1 The compilation of the Colonial and Revolutionary records of Georgia has been attended with unusual difficulties. These difficulties were due to the loss or destruction of many of the most important documents and record-books pertaining to those two periods of the history of the State. When Savannah fell into the hands of the British in December, 1778, the Secretary of State, Captain John Milton, by order of Gov cruor Houstoun, conveyed the most important records of his office and that of the Governor to Charleston to prevent their capture by the enemy; but the older records, pertaining to the early Colonial period, and many of those relating to the period of the Royal Governors, were left behind and lost. Georgia's earliest historian, Captain Hugh mccall, who wrote about the beginning of the last century, in speaking of the records saved by Captain Milton says: These records, principally belonging to the office of Secretary of State, were almost the only public papers of Georgia which were preserved. Of those thus saved at that time many were doubtless subsequently lost in their frequent removals from place to place in the efl'ort to save them from capture; and many of those still in exis tence are in a mutilated and fragmentary condition. Prior to the fall of Charleston, in May, 1780, Secretary Milton again removed his records, this time overland in wagons from Charleston to Newbern, North Caro lina, where he left them in the care of Governor Nash of that State, and returned to the army. Later on, when Georgia and South Carolina had been entirely overrun by the British and Tories. And North Carolina was invaded, and the Georgia records were again in danger of capture, Cap tain Milton got leave of absence from his command and carried them to Maryland, where they remained until after the close of the war, when they were brought back to Georgia. Thus were saved through the War of the Revolution most of the papers and documents pertaining to the office of Secretary of State, and a part, and only a part, of those belong ing to the office of the Governor. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.