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CHAPTER 24 1846 IGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIX is remembered chiefly as the Mexican War year, the war having officially begun in May. Its impact upon De Kalb County was relatively mild, much more so, in fact, than the Indian wars of the preceding decade. Two reasons for the lack of excitement locally were the remoteness of the conflict, and the small requisitions made upon the state by the War Department for troops. The requisition called for one regiment of infantry or riflemen to be composed of volunteers. All designated companies were to meet in Columbus, because of its advantageous position for the routing of volunteers to Mexico. While many military organizations over the state offered their services, the first ten companies to meet the War Department regulations were chosen.1 Each of the ten companies was composed of between 80 and 100 men, commanded by a captain elected by the company members. Total strength of the regiment, as assembled in Columbus by June 20, 1846, was 910 men, divided into two battalions of five companies each. While this number filled the requirements of the requisition, the newspapers voiced the opinion that more troops would be needed.2 While the regiment from Georgia was to see a year of service in Mexico, it was never once to join battle with the enemy. Yet its ranks were sadly decimated by disease. Under date of October 11, 1846, Major Charles J. Williams wrote from Monterrey: "The ranks of our regiment have been terribly thinned. We marched across the Chattahoochee River with 910 men and officers, and today, the Regiment numbers all told 600. Though we have discharged many for sickness and disability, still we have deposited nearly 70 beneath the chaparral all in the short space of four months. . . ."3 The Regiment remained at Monterrey guarding money trains and supplies. Later it marched to Tampico, and then to Vera Cruz, but did not, at any time, come within shooting distance of the Mexican Army. It remained comparatively inactive until the service time of the men expired in June, 1847, when the straggling remains of the Regiment returned to Georgia. The shattered companies were wined and dined in their respective communities. The men mustered out of service numbered 450; the number of deaths, 145; discharged , approximately 315.4 While none of the ten companies that composed the Georgia Regiment were from De Kalb County, two of them came from nearby. They were the Canton Volunteers, from Cherokee County, and the Kennesaw Rangers, of Cobb County.5 Captain Kennedy Gramling (1813-1884), of the Canton Volunteers, formerly of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, was long a prominent citizen of Gumming, Georgia, and is buried in the Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta. He was the father of the late John R., Thomas A., and William S. Gramling, well known wholesale shoe and dry goods merchants of Atlanta.6 The roster of the Kennesaw Rangers, comprising 92 men, included several future Atlantans, two of whom served as mayor and one of whom was the father of a future mayor. Captain Allison Nelson, son of the founder of Nelson's Ferry across the Chattahoochee, became mayor of Atlanta in 1855, while Private Cicero C. Hammock filled the same position in 1873, 1875 and 1876. E THE EIGHTEEN-FORTIES 231 John B. Goodwin, son of Private Williamson H. Goodwin, served as Atlanta's mayor in 1883-84 and 1893-94. Other members of the Kennesaw Rangers, all privates, who later settled in Atlanta, were Cicero H. Allen, Abner Sweat, Thomas Shivers (the stage coach driver), John Tiller, and Lewis J. Parr, the latter one of the two musicians in the company.7 A De Kalb County casualty of the Mexican War, though not a member of the Regiment or Companies just cited, was William McLeod, son of Malcolm McLeod, one of the original settlers. William died in April, 1848, en route home from service in Mexico. He is buried in New Orleans.8 On January 8, 1846, a completely new slate of officers moved into the De Kalb County Court House. They were: Thomas J. Perkerson, Sheriff; Daniel Stone, Clerk, Superior Court; Henry B. Latimer, Clerk, Inferior Court; Stephen Terry, Surveyor, and William Johnston, Coroner.9 All were pioneer and well-known citizens of the county. The home of Thomas J. Perkerson still stands at Sylvan and Perkerson roads in South Fulton County. Daniel Stone had served the county in its infancy as Clerk of the Inferior Court from 1824 to...

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