he
trenches, and are immediately under the enemy's fire all
day. We shall trust to a kind Providence alone to preserve
them from a great disaster, and make them useful to the
army and the country. The pressure is so great that we are
compelled to put them to the work of veterans without an
hour's preparation. I am doing my utmost to get them in the
best possible position. Georgians are all coming up well
except the cities.

Speaking of men who try to shirk duty, Mr. Toombs wrote, "Poor
creatures! What do they want to live for?"

General Toombs had the task of organizing the recruits and getting them
ready for the field. He writes to his wife: "Since I began this letter,
the Yankees have begun an attack on a part of our line and I was obliged
to ride with General Hood to look after our defenses." General Toombs
alludes to General E. C. Walthall of Mississippi, as "a splendid officer
and a gentleman." He says: "The enemy are evidently intending to starve
us rather than to fight us out. I have, at the request of General Hood,
not less than twenty letters to write on that very subject. Sherman
shells the town furiously every day. Not much damage yet."

It has been customary to speak in light terms of the Georgia militia,
who, late in the day, took the field to man the defenses when Sherman
was marching to the sea. They were frequently made up of old men and
boys who had been exempt from the regular service, and these were
hurried into action with poor equipment and scant preparation. General
Toombs, in a letter written to his wife, July 25, 1864, says:

The militia have behaved with great gallantry. This is
sincerely true. They have far exceeded my expectations, and
in the fight on Thursday equaled any troops in the line of
battle. If they will stand and fight like men, our homes
will be saved. God give them the spirit of men, and all
will be well!

In another place he writes:

We have a mixed crowd, a large number of earnest, brave,
true men; then all the shirks and skulks in Georgia trying
to get from under bullets.

General Toombs commended and endorsed the policy of Governor Brown
during his six years' administration of the office from 1857 to 1863.
These two men were warm friends and political allies. When Governor
Brown's third term was drawing to a close, he preferred the selection of
General Toombs as his