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CHAPTER 42 1864 T WOULD have been difficult indeed to have found two more dissimilar American cities than the Atlanta of January 1, 1864, and the Atlanta of January 1, 1865. On the first day of the former year the city was throbing with all the manifold activities of an industrial center in a wartime economy. Its population, much of it temporary or transient, had increased nearly fifty per cent since 1860. With all its hustle and bustle, the city never had resembled, and certainly did not, at the beginning of '64, resemble any other ante-bellum Southern community. In a twelvemonth all was swept away. The teeming population was scattered to the four winds. The industrial and business sections of the city lay in fire blackened ruins. Those lusty seeds from which the city grew, its railroads, had been subjected to the most thorough plan of destruction ever visited upon a transportation system. On January 1, 1865, Atlanta appeared almost as dead as Pompeii. But the city was not destined to lie buried for long under its ashes. Sherman's army did not possess the potency for destruction of a Vesuvius. Most of Atlanta's permanent population returned , and they together with newly acquired post-bellum citizens created a new city upon the ashes of the old. But that is another story. Atlanta's crucial war year opened with some of the coldest weather yet experienced in the city. S. P. Richards recorded on January 2nd that the thermometer stood at eight degrees and that "it was so cold that we could hardly keep comfortable in bed." Further, "that it had been too cold to do anything but sit over the fire." The following day, being Sunday, he wrote, "we nearly froze at church [Second Baptist], the fires being a failure." Later in the year fires were to become a triumphant success insofar as destruction was concerned, heat then being an incidental factor. Two years having elapsed since elections for county officers in Fulton and De Kalb had occurred, some new faces appeared in both court houses early in 1864. In De Kalb, Oliver Winningham of Stone Mountain succeeded James O. Powell as sheriff; John M. Hawkins, previously clerk of the Superior Court, assumed also the duties of clerk of the Inferior Court, succeeding Thomas R. Hoyle; W. W. Davis, since 1862 both tax receiver and collector, relinquished the former office to W. J. Williams, and continued in the latter. John B. Wommack, of Shallowford District, replaced William Wilson as coroner.1 In Fulton County, on February 16th, Aaron G. Grier succeeded S. B. Love as sheriff; John H. Lovejoy succeeded G. M. Walker as clerk of the Inferior Court. W. I. Hudson relinquished the office of tax receiver to James I. Miller, but retained the duties of tax collector. T. E. Whitaker became surveyor , vice T. A. Kennedy.2 Ordinary Robert E. Mangum died in office in April, as had his predecessor J. H. Mead two years before. In a special election held on May 21, 1864, Daniel Pittman was elected to the office over a plethora of candidates, among whom were M. W. Rasbury, Colonel Alexander M. Wallace, Isaac Bartlett, JHenry C. Holcomb, and Benjamin F. Edwards.3 The office of coroner having been vacant since February 16th, it was filled at the same special election, William B. Chapman being the successful candidate over a large field. Chapman's appeal to the voters, as it appeared in the local press, read as follows: I THE EIGHTEEN-SIXTIES 563 "Old Dad" for Coroner MR. EDITOR:—Please announce the name of W. B. CHAPMAN as a suitable candidate for Coroner. Mr. Chapman is one of the oldest citizens of this place, and withal an exempt from military duty., and therefore entitled to receive the unanimous support of the public. MANY VOTERS.4 In December, 1863, Mayor James M. Calhoun was elected to a third consecutive term, becoming the first chief executive of the city to attain this distinction. Councilmen elected at the same time were: First Ward—Levi C. Wells and Dr. James A. Taylor. Second Ward—Edward E. Rawson and William Watkins. Third Ward—Robert Crawford and John T. Jones. Fourth Ward—Zachariah A. Rice and James E. Gullatt. Fifth Ward—Perino Brown and Noah R. Fowler. All of these men served through the year except Dr. Taylor, who resigned March 4th. Dr. Thomas S. Powell was sworn in to fill the vacancy on March 18th.5 The...

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