Georgia's "Gone With the Wind" Trail-- Part 4

JONESBORO

Thirty minutes south of Atlanta.  Home to Margaret Mitchell's maternal parents, the Fitzgeralds, who owned a plantation outside of town.  In 1969, Clayton County and Jonesboro designated it as "The Official Home of "Gone With the Wind."

Sherman did not destroy the plantation, but the main house caught fire after the war, leaving only the fireplaces standing.  It was moved to the Margaret Mitchell Memorial Park on the 1839 Stately Oaks Plantation, considered to be the inspiration for her Tara.

In downtown Jonesboro, there is the Road to Tara Museum located in the 1867 train depot.  It has a large collection of "Gone With the Wind" artifacts, even a "Sherman Necktie," a piece of railroad track twisted into a loop that Sherman's men were so good at making.

More info at the Gone With the Wind Trail at www.gwtwtrail.com.

--Old Secesh

Confederate Colonel Candler Protected Hated Union Officer: "One Wife, One Baby, One Dollar and One Eye"

From the January 12, 2014, Gainesville (Ga.) Times "Johnny Vardeman Column: 'Col. Candler defied mob to protect Union officer.' "

A.D. Candler of Gainesville, Georgia, was mayor, U.S. representative and Georgia's governor. But before that, he was a Confederate veteran.

At age 26, he enlisted in the Army as a private and one month later had been elected as 1st lieutenat and then captain within a year. Eventually, he rose to the rank of colonel.

He was once put in charge of transporting captured Union General Neal Dow to Richmond to be exchanged. Dow was an ardent abolitionist and much hated in the South. On the way to Richmond from Mississippi, Candler and his prisoner stopped in Montgomery, Alabama, and stayed at the Exchange Hotel (not bad for a prisoner to overnight in a hotel, I guess being a general, even an enemy general, has its privileges.)

Townspeople heard about Dow being there and a mob soon gathered with intentions of killing him. Candler hid him and eventually made a getaway.

Later, Candler lost his left eye at the Battle of Jonesboro. He made a famous statement at the end of the war that all he had was "one wife, one baby, one dollar and one eye."

During his political campaigns, he was referred to as "The One-Eyed Plough Boy From Pigeon Roost."

Old One-Eye. --Old Secesh