Washington, Georgia | |
---|---|
City of Washington | |
Coordinates: 33°44′12.5″N82°44′21.5″W / 33.736806°N 82.739306°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Georgia |
County | Wilkes |
Settled | 1774 |
Incorporated | 1804 |
Founded by | Stephen Heard |
Named for | George Washington |
Government | |
• Mayor | Bruce Baily |
• Council | Washington City Council |
Area | |
• Total | 7.75 sq mi (20.08 km2) |
• Land | 7.70 sq mi (19.94 km2) |
• Water | 0.05 sq mi (0.14 km2) |
Elevation | 607 ft (185 m) |
Population (2020) | |
• Total | 3,754 |
• Density | 487.66/sq mi (188.29/km2) |
Demonym | Washingtonian |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
ZIP code | 30673 |
Area code(s) | 706/762 |
FIPS code | 13-80704 [2] |
GNIS feature ID | 0356620 [3] |
Website | cityofwashingtonga |
Washington is the county seat of Wilkes County, [4] Georgia, United States. Under its original name, Heard's Fort, it was for a brief time during the American Revolutionary War the Georgia state capital. It is noteworthy as the place where the Confederacy voted to dissolve itself, effectively ending the American Civil War.
The population was 4,134 as of the 2010 census. The city is often referred to as Washington-Wilkes, to distinguish it from other places named Washington.
Heard's Fort was established in 1774 by colonist Stephen Heard. The settlement served as the temporary capital of the new state of Georgia from February 3, 1780, until early 1781. [5]
The Battle of Kettle Creek, one of the most important battles of the American Revolutionary War to be fought in Georgia, was fought on February 14, 1779, in Wilkes County, about eleven miles (17.7 km) from present-day Washington. The American Patriots were victorious, taking 75 prisoners and killing roughly 70 Loyalists, while losing 32 of their own men.
As a child, Alexander H. Stephens had studied at the school in Washington presided over by Presbyterian minister Alexander Hamilton Webster. He later became a politician and was elected as Vice-President of the Confederacy.
No major battles of the Civil War were fought in or near Washington, but the city is notable as the site where Confederate President Jefferson Davis held his last meeting with his cabinet. On April 3, 1865, with Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant poised to capture the capital at Richmond, Virginia, Davis escaped for Danville, together with the Confederate cabinet.
After leaving Danville, and continuing south, Davis met with his Cabinet for the last time on May 5, 1865, in Washington, along with a hand-picked escort led by Given Campbell, including his personal body guard, Sgt. Joseph A Higgenbotham, Jr., of Amherst/Nelson County, Virginia. The meeting took place at the Heard house [6] (now used as the Georgia Branch Bank Building), with fourteen officials present.
Several historic sites in Washington are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Wilkes County Courthouse, the Robert Toombs House State Historic Site, the Washington-Wilkes Historical Museum, [7] the Mary Willis Public Library, [8] Cherry Grove Baptist Church Schoolhouse, and the recently restored historic Fitzpatrick Hotel, built in 1898. [9]
Washington is located at 33°44′7″N82°44′29″W / 33.73528°N 82.74139°W (33.735394, −82.741420). [10]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.9 square miles (20 km2), of which 7.8 square miles (20 km2) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km2) (0.25%) is water.
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1810 | 596 | — | |
1820 | 695 | 16.6% | |
1850 | 462 | — | |
1870 | 1,506 | — | |
1880 | 2,199 | 46.0% | |
1890 | 2,631 | 19.6% | |
1900 | 3,300 | 25.4% | |
1910 | 3,065 | −7.1% | |
1920 | 4,208 | 37.3% | |
1930 | 3,158 | −25.0% | |
1940 | 3,537 | 12.0% | |
1950 | 3,802 | 7.5% | |
1960 | 4,440 | 16.8% | |
1970 | 4,094 | −7.8% | |
1980 | 4,662 | 13.9% | |
1990 | 4,279 | −8.2% | |
2000 | 4,295 | 0.4% | |
2010 | 4,134 | −3.7% | |
2020 | 3,754 | −9.2% | |
U.S. Decennial Census [11] |
Race | Num. | Perc. |
---|---|---|
White | 1,226 | 32.66% |
Black or African American | 2,277 | 60.66% |
Native American | 12 | 0.32% |
Asian | 24 | 0.64% |
Other/Mixed | 122 | 3.25% |
Hispanic or Latino | 93 | 2.48% |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 3,754 people, 1,646 households, and 904 families residing in the city.
The Wilkes County School District holds pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of one primary school, one elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. [13] The district has 116 full-time teachers and over 1,858 students. [14]
Dr. Rosemary Caddell is the Superintendent of Schools. [15]
One of Washington's most lingering mysteries is that of the lost Confederate gold. [16] As the last recorded location of the remaining Confederate gold, the Washington area is thought to be the site where it is buried. Worth roughly $100,000 when it disappeared in 1865, at 2016 prices its value would be around $3.6 million. The cable television channel A&E produced a documentary focusing on this legend.
Montgomery County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,610. The county seat is Mount Vernon. Montgomery County is part of the Vidalia, GA micropolitan statistical area.
Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The city is located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity during the American Civil War, due to its strategic location on the Richmond and Danville Railroad. In April 1865 it briefly served as the third and final capital of the Confederacy before its surrender later that year.
Wilkes County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,565. The county seat is the city of Washington.
Toombs County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,030. The county seat is Lyons and the largest city is Vidalia. The county was created on August 18, 1905.
Jeff Davis County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,779. The county seat is Hazlehurst. The county was created on August 18, 1905, and named for Jefferson Davis, the only Confederate president.
Irwin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,666. The county seat is Ocilla. The county was created on December 15, 1818. It was named for Governor Jared Irwin.
Crawfordville is a city and the county seat of Taliaferro County, Georgia, United States. The population was 479 in 2020.
Tignall is a town in Wilkes County, Georgia, United States. The population was 485 in 2020.
Chatham is a town in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Pittsylvania County. Chatham's population was 1,232 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Danville, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town was originally called Competition, but the name was changed to Chatham by the Virginia General Assembly on May 1, 1852.
Robert Augustus Toombs was an American politician from Georgia, who was an important figure in the formation of the Confederacy. From a privileged background as a wealthy planter and slaveholder, Toombs embarked on a political career marked by effective oratory, although he also acquired a reputation for hard living, disheveled appearance, and irascibility. He was identified with Alexander H. Stephens's libertarian wing of secessionist opinion, and in contradiction to the nationalist Jefferson Davis, Toombs believed a Civil War to be neither inevitable or winnable by the South.
Alexander Hamilton Stephens was an American politician who served as the first and only vice president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, and later as the 50th governor of Georgia from 1882 until his death in 1883. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented the state of Georgia in the United States House of Representatives before and after the Civil War.
Waynesboro is a city and the county seat of Burke County, Georgia, United States. The population was 5,472 at the 2024 census. It is part of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area.
Richmond, Virginia, served as the capital of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War from May 8, 1861, before that date the capital had been Montgomery, Alabama. Besides its political status, it was a vital source of weapons and supplies for the war effort, as well as the terminus of five railroads, and as such would have been defended by the Confederate States Army at all costs.
At the end of the American Civil War, the devastation and disruption in the state of Georgia were dramatic. Wartime damage, the inability to maintain a labor force without slavery, and miserable weather had a disastrous effect on agricultural production. The state's chief cash crop, cotton, fell from a high of more than 700,000 bales in 1860 to less than 50,000 in 1865, while harvests of corn and wheat were also meager. The state government subsidized construction of numerous new railroad lines. White farmers turned to cotton as a cash crop, often using commercial fertilizers to make up for the poor soils they owned. The coastal rice plantations never recovered from the war.
James Crawford Freeman was a Georgia planter and slaveowner who after serving in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War received a pardon and became a banker, jeweler and politician who served one term in the U.S. Representative as a Republican.
Dudley McIver DuBose was an American lawyer, Confederate field officer and politician. He rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Afterward, he later served one term in the United States House of Representatives from Georgia, 1871-1873.
The Robert Toombs House State Historic Site is a historic property located at 216 East Robert Toombs Avenue in Washington, Georgia. It was the home of Robert Toombs (1810–85), a U.S. representative and U.S. senator from Georgia who originally opposed Southern secession but later became a Confederate Cabinet official and then a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Operated as a state historic site, the 19th-century period historic house museum features exhibits about the life of Toombs. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.
Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site is a 12.668-acre (5.127 ha) state historic site located in Irwin County, Georgia that marks the spot where Confederate States President Jefferson Davis was captured by United States Cavalry on Wednesday, May 10, 1865. The historic site features a granite monument with a bronze bust of Davis that is located at the place of capture. The memorial museum, built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration, features Civil War era weapons, uniforms, artifacts and an exhibit about the president's 1865 flight from Richmond, Virginia to Irwin County, Georgia.
The Wilkes County Courthouse is a historic government building and clock tower located in the city of Washington, Georgia, the seat of Wilkes County. The latest in a series of courthouses in the county's history, the current building was completed in 1904 and since that date has been the official home of Wilkes County's Superior Court, and the base of the county's government. On September 18, 1980, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.