Civil War

James and John Somersall were white brothers who lived in rice-growing, slave-owning Liberty County, Georgia. They were poor. They owned a few acres of land, grew their own food, milked their own cows, and didn’t own people.John was in his late 30’s when the clouds of the Civil War appeared on the horizon, and his view of the matter was that he had nothing to fight for. His mother, Elizabeth, a widow, tried telling her neighbors that they shouldn’t fight to keep their slaves. Link She told them that if she did own slaves, even a lot of them, she [...]

Before 1864 Liberty County was quite prosperous. Hinesville invested in naval stores, which are products from pine resin like turpentine, while plantations and farms produced indigo, rice, and cotton. All of this changed in the winter of 1864, when Union general William T. Sherman’s march to the sea reached the area. Link Hinesville’s history during the Civil War (1861-65) includes a series of skirmishes in and around the town. With nearby Midway and Flemington under the control of the Seventh Illinois Infantry, Hinesville was a target for scouting and raiding parties. During a raid on December 1, W. P. L. [...]