him very severe language, and they became engaged in a
controversy over that provision of the Conscription Act which exempted
state officials from military service. While the Governor of Virginia
was refusing certificates of exemption to the minor civil officers
such as justices of the peace, Brown by proclamation promised his
"protection" to the most insignificant civil servants. "Will even your
Excellency," demanded Cobb, "certify that in any county of Georgia
twenty justices of the peace and an equal number of constables are
necessary for the proper administration of the state government?"
The Bureau of Conscription estimated that Brown kept out of the army
approximately 8000 eligible men. The truth seems to be that neither
by education nor heredity was this Governor equipped to conceive large
ideas. He never seemed conscious of the war as a whole, or of the
Confederacy as a whole. To defend Georgia and, if that could not be
done, to make peace for Georgia--such in the mind of Brown was the
aim of the war. His restless jealousy of the Administration finds its
explanation in his fear that it would denude his State of men. The
seriousness of Governor Brown's opposition became apparent within a week
of the fall of Atlanta. Among Hood's forces were some 10,000 Georgia
militia. Brown notified Hood that these troops had been called out
solely with a view to the defense of Atlanta, that since Atlanta had
been lost they must now be permitted "to return to their homes and
look for a time after important interests," and that therefore he did
"withdraw said organizations" from Hood's command. In other words, Brown
was afraid that they might be taken out of the State. By proclamation
he therefore gave the militia a furlough of thirty days. Previous to
the issue of this proclamation, Seddon had written to Brown making
requisition for his 10,000 militia to assist in a pending campaign
against Sherman. Two days after his proclamation had appeared, Brown, in
a voluminous letter full of blustering rhetoric and abounding in sneers
at the President, demanded immediate reinforcements by order of the
President and threatened that, if they were not sent, he would recall
the Georgia troops from the army of Lee and would command "all the sons
of Georgia to return to their own State and within their own limits to
rally round her glorious flag."

So threatening was the situation in Georgia that Davis attempted to take
it into his own hands. I