Bartow County, GA
Biography for Francis S. Bartow

Francis S. Bartow, born in Savannah on September 6. 1816, graduated from Franklin College in 1835 with high honors. He was a law student in the office of Hon. John M. Berrien and married his daughter, Louisa G. Berrien; he attended the Yale law school and was admitted to the Bryan superior court, in Savannah, in 1837. He had a lucrative and popular practice. He was a member of the general assembly from Chatham county from 1841, and in 1861 was a member of the Confederate Congress in which he served as chairman of the military committee. He was an instructor and captain of the Oglethorpe Light Infantry, which was organized in 1856 and which participated in the seizure of Fort Pulaski on January 3, 1861. With this company he proceeded to Virginia, where he was promoted colonel of the 8th Georgia Regiment and later brevetted a brigadier-general of the 17th and 8th Georgia Regiments. When Bartow and his gallant company went to Virginia, after the refusal of Governor Brown to allow their services there, they were equipped with guns which Governor Brown claimed belonged to the State of Georgia. In an exchange of letters between Governor Brown and Captain Bartow over this matter, Bartow wrote in one of these letters the famous line, "I go to illustrate Georgia."

During the battle of First Manassas, General Bartow, commanding the brigade consisting of the 7th, 8th, 9th Georgia, and the 1st Kentucky Regiments, dashed up to General Beauregard, the commanding officer and asked, "General, what can my brigade do now, and if mortal effort can accomplish it, we will."

General Beauregard, pointing to a stone wall from which cannon was pouring on the Confederates, said, "That battery should be silenced."

General Bartow waving his hat, cried, "Boys, follow me!" While leading this charge his horse was shot from under him, and, mounting another, continued his charge. It was after a few minutes when he seized the colors of his regiment from a falling wounded bearer, that a Federal bullet pierced his heart and he was caught in the arms of Col. Lucius J. Gartrell. He lived long enough to say, "Boys, they have killed me, but never give up the field!"

General Bartow was buried in Laurel Grove cemetery in Savannah and a granite memorial marks his grave.

His mother, Mrs. Frances L. Bartow, had a home at Cave Springs, Floyd county, Georgia, and after her son's death, she came back to her Floyd county home*.

Source: The history of Bartow County : formerly Cass. Cartersville, Ga.: Cunyus, Lucy Josephine Printed by Tribune Pub. Co., c1933.

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