Post-reconstruction Reconciliation - Fitzgerald, GA

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Colony POst gar_post14 1895.jpg

Members of the GAR Colony Post #14 ca. 1895 http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sccdjsuv/History/GAR_GASC.html

"Best known as a place of reconciliation among Civil War veterans, Fitzgerald, GA, located in the heart of south central Georgia, was settled in 1896 by a land company under the direction of Philander H. Fitzgerald. Its story is unique in America because it is the only town founded in harmony by Union and Confederate veterans.


Early on, the prospect of so many Northerners inhabiting the Deep South was a strange concept, but as soon as settlement began, local residents offered their cooperation. An early nickname of Fitzgerald, the "Colony City," is still in use today. Through this harmony the idea that the town would be a spotlight of post-Reconstruction reconciliation was assured.

There was little strife among the new colonists, who proved their dedication to unity by naming an equal number of streets for Union and Confederate notables. Seven of the 14 north-south streets are named for Union generals: Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Logan, Meade and Hooker. The others bear names of Confederate generals: Hill, Bragg, Gordon, Longstreet, Jackson, Johnston and Lee. In one of the first public works construction projects in the United States, a mammoth four-story hotel was built; it was named the Lee-Grant Hotel, to honor the leaders of the opposing sides of the Civil War.

Veterans from both sides are buried in Fitzgerald’s Evergreen Cemetery,...."
Read the entire story http://www.gacivilwar.org/story/fitzgerald-georgia
 
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