I wanted to share this story with you and correct the historical record because I am not sure if the author will.

Please read the link provided below and then see my comment below that for the correction. I have sent the author an e-mail with this information, the Summerville News, and to my point of contact with the Chattooga County Historical Society. I intend to contact Mr. Duncan Shropshire directly too.

I applaud the efforts of Mr. Shropshire in attempting to preserve the cemetery in Gore. There are many, many cemeteries, both black and white, that are being lost because of neglect of the generations of descendants that have moved away or just were not taught to appreciate those that came before them.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/26/forgotten.graves/index.html?hpt=C2

Wesley Shropshire was not a Confederate Colonel. He was a Unionist slave owner who was a delegate from Chattooga County to the Georgia Secessionist Convention and he and the other delegate from the county (like the vast majority of delegates from the counties of Cherokee, Georgia) voted against secession.

He was fifty-nine years old in 1860 and owned forty-one slaves according to the 1860 Federal Census Slave Schedules during the war he assisted at least fifty refugees and Confederate deserters through the Federal lines and he passed on information to Federal scouts and military.

Many of his slaves remained with him throughout the war and many of them remained working for him and living in the local area as evidenced by this descendant. He provided a building for a church and school for them after the war and attempted to educate them but the Klan interfered the his efforts.

During Reconstruction he was what is commonly known as a scalawag. He served in the Reconstruction government of Governor Bullock and was on the Chairman of the state finance committee.

History is more complex and interesting than many give it credit. Often following generations want to oversimplify it for numerous reasons. Unfortunately, this does not give credit to the people and their times or to us in understanding the issues then and now.

Thank you for your time.

Respectfully,

Gerald D. Hodge, Jr.
M.A. Military History - Civil War Concentration
Research - Preservation
Historian: 39th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment