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McLaws's Augusta Childhood |
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Augusta,
Georgia grew as a community during Lafayette McLaws's
childhood years.
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| "In
1823, Robert Raymond Reid was elected mayor of Augusta
and reelected in 1824....[he] was then reappointed
judge of the Middle Circuit; then became judge on
the City Court of Augusta." |
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| James
McLaws, Lafayette's father, was elected to the newly
established post of superior and inferior court
clerk of Richmond County in 1882 and served with
Reid. |
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| "The
future governor of the Territory of Florida, Robert
Raymond Reid, mused that 'among his first friends
in Augusta was James McLaws, always my friend, and
afterward my brother-in-law.'"
(1) |
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| Political
friendships were important to the McLaws family during
this time. As an example, political connections opened
investment opportunity doors in 1833 for James McLaws.
Augusta historian Charles C. Jones wrote, James McLaws |
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"helped
organize the railroad from Augusta to Athens, which became
the original segment of the famed Georgia Railroad."
"The first one [railroad] constructed in America
was the South Carolina road, from Charleston to Hamburg,
opposite Augusta. It was begun in 1830, and by July, 1833,
was completed and in running order....The fare from Hamburg
to Charleston, one-hundred and thirty-six miles, was $6.75,
with seventy-five pounds of baggage; for less distances,
five cents per mile." |
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| The
South Carolina railroad's success stirred the citizens
of Augusta into action. James McLaws, along with John
Pendleton King, were two of the five organizers for a
public meeting called on July 20, 1833. The organizer's
intent was to build a railroad from Augusta to Athens.
King would later be elected to the U.S. Senate and recommend
Lafayette McLaws's appointment to the U.S. Military Academy
at West Point.(2) |
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| McLaws
attended Augusta's Richmond Academy during his youth.
The Academy, |
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"one
of the oldest schools of its kind dating to 1785,
it was the oldest seat of learning in the United
States with the exception of Yale, Harvard, and
Princeton." The rigorous curriculum included
"Latin, Greek, French, German and English languages,
a thorough mathematical course from arithmetic to
calculus, a popular course of natural philosophy,
theoretical and analytical chemistry, astronomy,
geology and also a course of physiology and hygiene." |
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It was during this time that Lafayette McLaws would meet
his future West Point classmate and Confederate Corps
commander, James Longstreet. Longstreet attended the Richmond
Academy while he lived with his uncle, the prominent Georgia
educator Augustus Longstreet.(3) |
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McLaws
also attended the Georgia Male Academy. This school
was operated by Thomas S. Twiss, a former army officer
and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy.(4)
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(1)
Jones, Charles C., Jr. Memorial History of Augusta, Georgia:
From Its Settlement in 1735 to the Close of the Eighteenth Century.
Syracuse: D. Mason and Co., 1890,170; ASG, 4.
(2) Jones, Memorial History, 171-172.
(3) Jones, Memorial History, 157.
(4) ASG, 7. |
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