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George
Walton -
Revolutionary War Leader
from Augusta, Georgia
George Walton
George
Walton was born in 1741 in the small town of Farmville in Frederick
County, Virginia, to a poor family. His parents died when he was a
child and he was adopted by an uncle. George attended the common
schools but received no classical or higher education because his uncle
didn’t value it and even thought studying books was wasting time and
being idle. George apprenticed with his uncle as a carpenter and began
to study borrowed law books late at night because his uncle wouldn’t
let him study during the day. He didn’t want George studying at night
either and wouldn’t even give him a candle to read by, but George’s
zeal to learn was too great and he would gather scraps of wood and wood
shavings which he burned at night to see by.
When George’s
apprenticeship was completed he moved to Savannah, Georgia in 1769,
where he continued to study law in the offices of Henry Young. In 1774
he was admitted to the Georgia bar and began his practice in Savannah.
George Walton
George
Walton became heavily involved with the patriot movement in Georgia
during this year. He was present at an historic meeting that took place
at Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah around the liberty pole. The people
present discussed various methods of preserving their constitutional
rights from the encroachments of Great Britain’s parliament. Mr. Walton
held a prominent role in this meeting. Those present organized
Georgia’s first Committee of Correspondence in order to pass news
quickly around the state between patriots and to correspond with
patriotic individuals in other colonies as well. The group at Tondee’s
Tavern also called for a provincial congress of delegates from each
parish in Georgia to address how to protect their eroding civil
liberties. Mr. Walton was appointed to the committee that created the
Committee of Correspondence that sent invitations to other parishes
regarding the upcoming congress.
George Walton
The
royal governor and his council strongly derided the activities of this
congress and when they met again on January 12, 1775, the congress was
still sufficiently weak as to choose to send a letter asking for a
redress of grievances to the British monarch, instead of taking the
stronger advice of those advocating separation from Britain. Mr. Walton
openly urged independence. The Georgia congress was the only colonial
legislature at this point that had still not sent a representive to the
Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Mr. Walton not only attended this
congress, but was appointed its Secretary and was made a member of the
Committee of Safety to run the provincial government’s affairs when the
congress was not sitting and soon became the president of this
committee. This made him essentially the governor of the provincial
legislature.
George
Walton goes to Philadelphia
The January provincial congress also placed Mr. Walton on the committee
that wrote the petition to the King of England. The petition, of
course, was disregarded. The continual abuse of colonial rights by the
King and Parliament caused the Georgia Provincial Congress to finally
join the other colonies in their efforts in July 1775, at which time
five delegates were elected to attend the Continental Congress in
Philadelphia. These men were Lyman Hall, Archibald Bulloch, John
Houston, John Zubly and Noble Jones. One of these men turned out to be
a loyalist and in February 1776 George Walton was elected to take his
place.
Click
here to read the text of the actual letter explaining their
instructions given to George Walton and the other Georgia delegates by
Georgia's Council of Safety.
George
Walton Signature on
Declaration of Independence
Mr. Walton voted for independence from Britain on July 2 and voted for
the Declaration
of Independence
on July 4. Mr. Walton was the only signer from the southern colonies
who was not a plantation owning aristocrat. That fall, when
Philadelphia was evacuated by the Congress, Mr. Walton stayed on in the
city as part of a committee with fellow signers of the declaration
Robert Morris and George Clymer. They were charged with procuring food,
clothing and supplies for the Continental army in New Jersey nearby. He
did so at great risk to himself due to the many loyalists who were
active in the town.
George
Walton is captured by the British!
George
Walton Bust in
Georgia State Capitol
Mr.
Walton was reelected to Congress in 1777 and served there through the
end of 1778. In December of that year he was appointed colonel of the
First Regiment of the Georgia Militia by the Georgia legislature, in
the battalion of General Robert Howe. The British invaded Georgia
during this same month and laid siege to Savannah. A slave showed the
British, led by Colonel Campbell, a path around the city and they were
able to attack from two sides.
During the defense of the city,
George Walton was shot severely in the thigh and tumbled from his
horse. Mr. Walton was taken captive by the British when the city
surrendered. Mr. Walton was transported to the British prisoner camps
in Florida. The British demanded the exchange of a captured Brigadier
General in return for Mr. Walton, but this was refused. Finally, in
September 1779, after 9 months in captivity, Mr. Walton was exchanged
in return for a British naval captain.
The following month,
October 1779, Mr. Walton was elected governor of Georgia, a position he
held for only two months. In January 1780, Mr. Walton was again
appointed to attend Congress. He did not serve the full term this time
because he was elected Governor of Georgia in 1781. He served a full
term in that position through 1783.
Mr. Walton was a political foe of his fellow
Georgian and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Button
Gwinnett.
He was also an ally of General Lachlan McIntosh, Mr. Gwinnett’s
political enemy. As such, Mr. Walton was constantly involved in a party
battle for control of his state that led to his dismissal from office
on several occasions and various criminal indictments.
Mr.
Gwinnett died from wounds he received in a duel with Gen. McIntosh in
1777, in which Mr. Walton assisted the General. For his part in the
duel, Congress formally censured Mr. Walton in 1783. During the same
year, Mr. Walton was appointed as one of several commissioners of the
United States to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee Indians in
Tennessee. Mr. Walton was also appointed the Chief Justice of Georgia
in that year, a position he held until 1788. Mr. Walton was also
accused by General McIntosh of participating in the creation of a
forged letter in 1778 that requested the president of congress to
remove the General from his position. The Georgia legislature
considered this matter in January 1783 and censured Mr. Walton and
recommended that the attorney general institute proceedings against
him. He was censured the day after being appointed Chief Justice by the
same body of legislators.
Colonial Map
of Augusta, Georgia
From
1784-85, Mr. Walton was a member of the Augusta, Georgia Board of
Commissioners. He also represented Georgia in a commission to settle
the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina in 1786. In 1787, Mr.
Walton was elected to attend the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia, but he declined this position. In 1788, he was appointed
to the college of electors and was elected Governor of Georgia again.
In November of that year, Mr. Walton stepped down from that position
because the new constitution of the State of Georgia took effect during
that month. He was immediately appointed a superior court judge for the
eastern federal judicial district, a position he held until 1798. In
1795, Mr. Walton was appointed to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat due to
the resignation of Sen. James Jackson. He served in this position from
November 16, 1795 to February 20, 1796, at which time he was not
reelected.
George
Walton House
Meadow Garden
Augusta, Georgia
Mr.
Walton returned to Augusta, Georgia, where he took up farming. He
became a trustee of Richmond Academy and the University of Georgia. In
1799 he was again appointed a judge of the superior circuit of Georgia,
which position he held until his death in 1804. Mr. Walton suffered
severely from the gout in the later years of his life. He died at the
age of 64 at his home near Augusta on February 2, 1804, where he was
buried in Rosney Cemetary. You can still visit Mr. Walton’s home today.
It goes by the name of “Meadow Garden” and is owned and maintained by
the Georgia State Society Daughters of the American Revolution. George
Washington visited Mr. Walton here in 1791. The Marquis de Lafayette
also visited the Walton family here during his 1825 tour of the United
States.
Monument to
Georgia Signers
George Walton Grave, Augusta
His body was reinterred with that of fellow Declaration of Independence
signer Lyman
Hall
in 1848 under the monument on Greene St. in Augusta in front of the
courthouse. Walton County, east of Atlanta, is named after George
Walton, as are George Walton Comprehensive High School in Marietta,
Georgia, and George Walton Academy in Monroe, Georgia, which is the
county seat of Walton County. His son, George, later became the
Secretary of State for West Florida during the administration of
President Andrew Jackson.
