The Georgia Historical Society paid homage to Effingham County’s role in Georgia history by raising a new historical marker Tuesday morning at Ebenezer.
As Gen. William Sherman’s troops closed in on Savannah in 1864, the 14th Army Corps under Gen. Jefferson C. Davis of Indiana made its way down Old River Road, laying pontoon bridges across rivers to deep to traverse.
Throughout the March to the Sea, thousands of escaped slaves followed the Union soldiers.
The Confederate cavalry was gaining on the column when Davis got word from Sherman to make haste to Savannah. The runaway slaves would slow them down.
On Dec. 9, 1864, less than two weeks before Sherman captured Savannah, the column withdrew its pontoon bridge from Ebenezer Creek before the refugee slaves could cross. Faced with the threat of Confederates returning them to forced servitude, the slaves jumped into the murky water, desperate for freedom. Unable to swim, hundreds of men, women and children never made it out of Ebenezer Creek.
Outrage over the drowning caused Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to meet with Sherman and local black leaders in Savannah in January the following year. Out of this meeting came Field Order No.14, which set aside 400,000 acres of coastal property to be divided into 40-acre tracts and given to Freedmen as means to start their lives, although this would be later be countermanded by President Johnson, stifling its intentions.
Nestled between the Old River Road and William Bartram Trail historical markers now stands March to the Sea Ebenezer Creek marker to recognize those who drowned in Ebenezer Creek in pursuit of their freedom.
Todd Groce, president and CEO of the Georgia Historical Society, considers this event one of the most significant of the Civil War. After intense research, Groce believes he has located the exact location of that infamous night. He places the events about a mile from the marker, where Old River Road crossed the creek. Now private property, remnants of a 19th century wooden bridge stab out of the creek where the stranded slaves are thought to have died.
Filling gaps in the Civil War
The Ebenezer Creek site is the first of 10 new markers being unveiled this year that tell the story of the Civil War beyond the battlefield.
Next year is the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and the Georgia Historical Society and the state Department of Economic Development have spawned a project to utilize the state’s Civil War history to attract tourists.
“It seems that every battle and every movement within every battle was already covered by historical markers, but there were a lot of things that had not been told,” said Groce.
The GHS has compiled an index of historical markers on their Web site, and visitors can plot personalized driving tours of Georgia’s history by searching regions and topics. Directions can be printed or downloaded to a GPS navigator. The site, www.georgiahistory.com, also suggests restaurants and lodging accommodations along the way, which can mean an influx of dollars in rural communities.
“You’ll be able to find all of the 1,000 historical markers dealing with all the traditional topics that have been told before, but we’re trying to make a stab at filling in some of the holes along the way too, so that we have a much fuller picture about what happened during the Civil War in the United States,” Groce said.
Free at last
State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond tells the story of the tragedy at Ebenezer Creek in his book “Freedom,” which chronicles the history of black people in Georgia between 1733-1865. Thurmond was the keynote speaker for Tuesday’s event, which was dressed with hauntingly beautiful a cappella renditions of spiritual hymns.
The scent of the previous night’s storm hung in the air amongst an audience, which included state Sen. Jack Hill, Rep. Jon Burns and Rep. Ann Purcell, along with other local officials. As Thurmond spoke the historical acknowledgement transformed into a funeral service for the lives sacrificed nearly 150 years ago.
“We come to commemorate, consecrate and celebrate the nameless and faceless heroes and heroines, the men, women and children, who sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of the precious commodity called freedom,” Thurmond said.
