In 1803 Georgia ceded to the general government all her territory west of the Chattahoochee, amounting to nearly 100,000 square miles, out of which the States of Alabama and Mississippi were subsequently formed. The cession of Louisiana to the United States was of great benefit to Georgia in ending hostilities which the Spaniards were continually inciting the Indians to commit upon the scattered settlements. By a treaty with the Creeks, Georgia became possessed of a large tract in the south-west of the State. The second war with England (1812–15) involved Georgia in hostilities with the Indians on her western border, who were finally subdued by General Andrew Jackson. In 1821 the cession of Florida to the United States relieved Georgia from the long series of Spanish aggressions beginning with her existence as a colony.
In 1825 a serious difficulty arose between the State and national authorities in consequence of proceedings by the Georgia executive to extinguish the title to lands in the State held by the Creeks and Cherokees. The head chief of the Creeks, M‘Intosh, was assassinated by his people for signing away these lands to the whites. By an Act of Congress passed in 1830, these Indians were subsequently removed to the Indian territory west of the Mississippi.
Georgia formally seceded from the Union in January 1861. The Government forts and arsenals were seized. The first military operations were on the coast. In April 1862 Fort Pulaski, one of the defences of Savannah, was recaptured by the Federal forces under Com. Du Pont. St Mary’s, Brunswick, Darien, and St Simon’s island were also occupied.
In the beginning of 1863 the Federal forces were in possession of middle and west Tennessee. In September they occupied Chattanooga in strong force, the Confederates falling back by the Western and Atlantic Railway to Lafayette, Ga. A further advance by General Rosecrans, the Federal commander, brought on the severely contested battle of Chickamauga, on the creek of that name (September 20). The Federals retreated to Chattanooga, which was soon threatened by the Confederates under Bragg. In November the Union army under General Grant drove Bragg from all his positions. In the spring of 1864 the southern army was at Dalton, Ga., on the railway to Atlanta, which it covered. In May General Sherman moved forward against this force a numerous and well-appointed Union army. Severe battles took place at Resaca, Kingston, and Allatoona Pass. A series of strategical movements, signalized by frequent bloody conflicts between the rival armies, resulted in the possession of Atlanta by the Union forces, September 2. From this point Sherman began in November his memorable march across Georgia to the sea. On December 10th he arrived in the neighbourhood of Savannah, captured Fort M‘Allister by assault, and occupied the city on the 21st. A cavalry force under General Wilson entered Georgia from Alabama in April 1865, capturing Columbus, West Point, and Macon, and making Davis, the Confederate States president, prisoner. In June 1865 a provisional governor was appointed for the State by the president of the United States. A convention assembled in October at Milledgeville, which repealed the ordinance of secession, abolished slavery, and declared the war debt void. A new constitution was framed and ratified in 1868, and Rufus B. Bullock inaugurated as governor. The restoration of civil government under the new forms was not effected in Georgia without complications which retarded its re-establishment on a solid foundation, but the amendments to the national constitution were at length adopted, and her senators and representatives were admitted to seats in Congress in December 1870. During the war Georgia furnished about 80,000 soldiers for the Confederate armies. She emerged from it with her industries prostrated, her treasury empty, her social and political system revolutionized, her most flourishing cities in ruins. Her great natural resources are fast advancing her to a commanding position among her sister States; and these resources are developing in the hands of a free people with greater rapidity and advantage than when half the population was enslaved. Texas possibly excepted, no southern State has a greater future than Georgia.
GEORGSWALDE, a town of Northern Bohemia, on the borders of Saxony, in the circle of Leitmeritz, about 35 miles E. of Dresden, with a station on the North Bohemian railway. Besides Old and New Georgswalde, it comprises Wiesenau and Philippsdorf, the latter a place which since 1868 has attained celebrity through the miracles attributed to its image of the Virgin. Georgswalde was founded in the beginning of the 17th century, and ranks as one of the oldest industrial centres of Bohemia, sharing with the neighbouring town of Rumburg a reputation for excellent linen. The parish church is a fine building. In 1809 the total population was 8220, of whom 5071 were in Old Georgswalde.
GERA, the chief town of the principality of Reuss-Schleiz, stands in a valley on the banks of the White Elster, 35 miles S.S.W. of Leipsic. It has been all rebuilt since a great fire in 1780, and the streets are in general wide and straight, and contain many handsome houses. The principal buildings are the churches of St Salvator’s and St Trinity, the town-hall, the buildings of the imperial bank and of the Gera bank, the music hall, and the central hall. Its educational establishments include a gymnasium, a general town school (which contains a real school of the first order, a higher female school, and three citizen schools), a commercial school, a normal school, and a weaving school. The castle of Osterstein, the residence of the prince of Reuss, dates from the 9th century, but has been nearly all rebuilt within the last thirty years. Gera has long been noted for its industrial activity. Its manufactures comprise woollen, cotton, and silk goods, tapestry, artificial flowers, oil-cloth, leather, hats, tobacco, soap, beer, vinegar, chocolate, glue, porcelain and other earthenware, bricks, musical instruments, and carriages.
Gera was raised to the rank of a town in the 11th century, at which time it belonged to the counts of Groitch. In the 12th century it came into the possession of the lords of Reuss. It was stormed and sacked by the Bohemians in 1450, was two-thirds burned down by the Swedes in 1639 during the Thirty Years’ War, and suffered afterwards from great conflagrations in 1686 and 1780, being in the latter year almost completely destroyed. The population in 1875 was 20,810, nearly all of whom are Protestants.
