Scope and Contents The bulk of the collection deals with the financial transactions of (and especially debts owed to) Seaborn Jones, the records of his (and to a lesser degree Benning's) law practice, and the Civil War correspondence and records of Henry L. Benning. T he legal papers contain copies of suits and various estate proceedings for a wide variety of individuals; these items reflect other aspects of antebellum life in Georgia, particularly the institution of slavery. Jones's papers included a leather...

Scope and Contents The manuscript, Radical Rule: Military Outrage in Georgia. Arrest of Columbus Prisoners: Facts Connected with their imprisonment and Release, provides a background sketch of the 1868 murder of George W. Ashburn in Columbus, Georgia and the trial that followed. Included are the proceedings of the Military Commission that convened at McPherson Barracks, Atlanta, Georgia in June of 1868. Ashburn was a local Republican, known as a radical Scalawag. Many historians speculate that the Ashburn...