Historical sketch of the Chatham artillery during the Confederate struggle for independence. By Charles C. Jones, jr

"After calm deliberation, appreciating the nature and the consequences of the act, aware, of the already avowed purposes of the Federal government toward a seceding state, and firmly relying upon the patriotism and devotion of a large majority of the people of Georgia, his Excellency Joseph E. Brown, adopting a bold and decided policy worthy the noble state with whose interests and honor he was then specifically charged, late in the evening of the second of January eighteen hundred and sixty-one, issued the following orders to Colonel Alexander R. Lawton then commanding the 1st Regiment Georgia Volunteers: HEAD QUARTERS, GEORGIA MILITIA, Savannah, January 2, 1861."