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Charges were brought against Seagrove, who, it was claimed, had influenced the Creeks not to cede the lands as far as the Ocmulgee. A bitter controversy grew out of this. It was, in fact, very nearly the beginning of the discussion that has continued from that day to this, in some shape or other, over the rights of the States and the power of the General Government.
By uniting two such sections together, we could make a bridge of eighteen hundred feet, enough for any river we had to traverse; but habitually the leading brigade would, out of the abundant timber, improvise a bridge before the pontoon-train could come up, unless in the cases of rivers of considerable magnitude, such as the Ocmulgee, Oconee, Ogeechee, Savannah, etc.
Between the Flint and Ocmulgee Rivers the Creeks declared was a spring of life, on an island in a marsh, defended from approach by almost impenetrable labyrinths, a heaven where the women were fairer than any other on earth. The romantic and superstitious Spaniards believed these legends, and spent years and treasure in searching for these springs.
Under this agreement, and the Indian treaty based upon it, nearly all of the lands lying between the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers were opened up for occupation and cultivation. All the Territory of Georgia was looked upon by the people as a public domain, belonging to the State for distribution among the citizens.
As in fulfilment of the axiom that a murderer is sure to revisit the scene of his crime, one of the men found himself at the Ocmulgee, a long time afterward, in sight of the new town Macon. In response to his halloo a skiff shot forth from the opposite shore, and as it approached the bank he felt a stir in his hair and a touch of ice at his heart, for the ferryman was his victim of years ago.
The Chickasaws and Cherokees have sold us the country between and adjacent to the two districts of Tennessee, and the Creeks the residue of their lands in the fork of the Ocmulgee up to the Ulcofauhatche.
At 11 A.M. mustered the crew for the first time, and caused to be read the Articles of War, to which they listened with great attention. At 3.30 P.M., having approached sufficiently near the town of Lagens, on the south side of the island, we sent all the prisoners on shore, having first paroled them in the three whale-boats belonging to the prize, Ocmulgee.
He had to drop his prisoners and fight his way out, losing about six hundred men in killed and captured, and then returned with the remainder to his position at Turner's Ferry. This was bad enough, but not so bad as had been reported by Colonel Brownlow. Meantime, rumors came that General Stoneman was down about Mason, on the east bank of the Ocmulgee.
He then fetched his record books, and we took the following down from his lips: "The ships we have captured were the Ocmulgee, of 400 tons, thirty-two men on board; we burned her. The Alert, a whaler of 700 tons; we burned her. The whaling schooner Weathergauge; we burned her. The whaling brig Altamaha; we burned her. The whaling ship Benjamin Tucker; we burned her.
Some say that the expedition moved parallel with the coast until the Savannah River was reached, at a point twenty-five miles below Augusta; but it is just as probable that the route, after reaching the Ocmulgee, was along the banks of that stream and in a northwesterly direction. At Toalli the Indians had summer and winter houses to live in, and they had storehouses for their maize.
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