Banks County Gazette, unknown day July, 1890.
“There was not a more gallant command in the
Confederate Service than the Banks County Guards.” Colonel Allen Candler expressed this opinion to a party of
Georgia guests at his rooms the other night.
“Bill Charlton, whom you all know or ought to know
gave the reputation they enjoyed as a raw, undisciplined mob, and Soc
Pruitt-you all know Soc-was a sergeant in the company, and he added a big
moiety to Charlton’s yarns. As I have
said, no better company of soldiers ever mustered to the tap of a drum. They were attached to Summer’s regiment, the
2nd Georgia, as senior company, and the Second was good metal, every
man of it. The Guards were organized
principally in Franklin county, or what had been Franklin county, for Banks was
cut almost bodily out of that county.
My father, Daniel G. Candler, was the first captain elected, I presume,
because he had seen service in the Florida & Creek Indian Wars. Bill Charlton was the 1st
Lieutenant. Charlton held a clerkship
here in Washington, in the treasury, under Howell Cobb, and had joined one of
those fancy city companies, and had learned how to drill, so he was elected to
the second office. The story that my
father had to dress the Guards against a warehouse down at Augusta when they
were on their way to Va., was one of Charlton’s earliest jokes. Bill gave them the reputation that clung to
them throughout the whole war. I
remember I was on river picket July,-------copy torn and missing.
(continued)
The Guards were twelve months’ men originally. My father retired when this term was up & Bill Charlton was
their 2nd Captain, and after him Joe Brewer, and after Brewer, John
W. Owen, now the Mayor of Toccoa. Owen
entered the service young-a mere lad-and won his way up. He was a chivalrous young soldier, and always
ready for duty.”
Capt. Bill Charlton is still living. I believe he is with Hon. Jim Smith, over in
Oglethorpe. He is well preserved, and
is as full of humor as ever. He has a
remarkable history, and some of you newspaper folks ought to write it up.
--E. Speer in Atlanta Journal.
p. s. Joe Brewer never was Captain. Mr. Owen succeeded Bill Charlton as
Captain.--Toccoa News.
Transcribed 2005 by Jacqueline King from original
newspaper, Historic Courthouse, Banks County, Georgia