Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3019Carolina, on April 6, 1787. In 1808 he entered the regular army of theUnited States with the commission of first lieutenant in the newly organizedThird Infantry. He was stationed with his command at New Orleans in1809-10, was promoted to captain December 31, 1810, and transferred withhis company to Baton Rouge, where he was stationed from 1811 to 1813. OnAugust 4, 1813,, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and transferred to theTenth Infantry. During that year he commanded six companies of hisregiment at Champlain on the northern frontier, and later was in commandof the First Brigade, first division of the northern army, at Camp Lake Erie,near Buffalo. On May 17, 1815, he was transferred to the Fourth Infantry,and then served with his regiment for several years in North Carolina andGeorgia. It was probably at this period that he acquired property in thestate and became a citizen of Georgia. On April 20, 1819, he was promotedto full colonel and placed in command of the eastern section of the seventhmilitary department, Division of the South, with headquarters at Fernandina,Florida, later at St. Mary's, Georgia. From that date until 1832 he was inactive command of his regiment, the Fourth Infantry, at various posts inFlorida, and during that period, on April 20, 1829, he was brevetted brigadiergeneralfor ten years of faithful service in one grade. In 1832 he was detailedon court martial duty, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Jefferson Barracks,Missouri. He then resumed the command of his regiment at Baton Rouge,and was transferred to Mobile Point, Alabama. In what is known as theFirst Seminole war he took a prominent part and destroyed the place knownas the.'' negro fort,'' killing 270 Indians and negro refugees. In the SecondSeminole war, which broke out in 1835, sometimes spoken of as the SevenYears war, he was in command of the operations during 1835 and part of1836. On December 31, 1835, with only 200 regulars and 460 volunteers herouted the enemy on the Withlacoochie River after a fierce battle, in whichhe lost only four killed and fifty-nine wounded. This was the first checkgiven to the Indians after the struggle began, and only a few days after thefrightful catastrophe which had overtaken Major Dade and his command.Disgusted at the treatment accorded him by the War Department and thelack of support, which made it impossible for him to make his plans effective,he resigned from the army in September, 1836, and settled on his plantationnear St. Mary's, Georgia. In 1844-45 he served as a member of the lowerhouse of Congress, and died at Macon, Georgia, October 28, 1849. In 1852the new county created in the southern part of the state was named in hishonor.MARK WILCOX, legislator and soldier, was born about 1800 in that partof the State of Georgia which was afterwards organized into Telfair Countyin 1807. His father, John Wilcox, is mentioned as one of the pioneer settlersof Telfair County, having lived there several years before the county wascreated. Mark was well educated and of influential family, and after servingas high sheriff for a number of years was sent to the Legislature for severalsuccessive sessions. He became interested in military matters and reachedthe grade of major-general. He was one of the founders of the State SupremeCourt and a promoter of all public improvements. He died in 1850, possessedof a large estate in Dodge County, and in 1856, when "Wilcox County wascreated, his name was bestowed upon it.GEOVEE CLYDE DEKLE. Among the learned professions, the law, perhaps,requires the greatest amount of study along generally accepted uninterestinglines, for the physician is apt to become absorbed in scientific discovery atthe beginning of his reading, while the minister embarks upon his labors withmind illuminated and heart atune. The hard facts of law that have to belearned by themselves and so learned that the understanding is quickened into