John Payne of the 1861 Payne Cabin
at the Historical Society’s Mountain Life Museum
answered the call of this recruiting poster and joined the Confederate army.
Headquarters 1st Regt Partizan Rangers,
Blairsville Union County, Georgia
May 5th, 1862
I have been authorized by the Secretary of War to
raise a Regiment of
PARTIZAN RANGERS,
For three years or the war. The non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates will receive a bounty of Fifty Dollars each, and are entitled to the same pay and organization as the other troops.
Men of the Mountains! The same sanguinary and re-lentless foe who is visiting the cities and seaports of the Confederate States with fire, sword and devastation, is now approaching with slow but measured tread your own mountain begirted homes. Can you supinely await longer their approach? Nay: up, up, my Countrymen, and to arms!
Three hundred Spartans, fighting for the sanctity of home and fireside, dared meet, in mortal combat, the armed millions of a Persian despot. Is home, country and liberty less dear to you than to them, and the men of 1776? If nay, then let us in the hour of our country and freedom’s peril, rally to their standard, and swear to make each pass in the grand bulwark of mountains which God has upheaved around our homes, a Thermopylae in which the heroic deeds of the noble Spartans shall be emulated.
We can defend our country, repel the foe, and transmit the priceless heritage of freedom to our children if we will. Failing we can but die. Death is such a struggle is glory. Submission to the Federal tyrant is infamy and slavery.
Parties wishing to form a portion of my Regiment, will address me at Blairsville, Union County, Georgia.
S. J. SMITH
This is a copy of an original recruiting poster. An identical poster exists except it names the adjoining county of Fannin and it's county seat of Morganton.
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History of Smith’s Legion
Sumner J. Smith (1823-1869) who raised Smith’s Legion was a lawyer, politician and large property holder. He was authorized to raise a legion by Georgia Governor Joe E. Brown. Beginning as the First Georgia Partisan Rangers, on May 21, 1862, this unit's name was changed on July 1, 1862, to Smith's Legion, Georgia Partisan Rangers. The unit consisted of a Cavalry and Infantry Battalion. At first the legion was under the command of Col. Sumner J. Smith from Towns County. See below a copy of his commission. Smith resigned his commission upon recommendation of an Army Medical Board and died as an invalid. Tendered resignation Mar. 9, 1863. Resignation Accepted Apr. 27, 1863.
The Cavalry Battalion, consisting of six companies, raised some of its members from Union, Polk, Floyd, Gilmer and Towns counties. It was attached to the Department of East Tennessee and was involved in the Kentucky Champaign.
The Infantry Battalion recruited many of its men from Gilmer, Fannin, Floyd, Lumpkin, Union, Pickens, White, Towns, and Habersham counties. Assigned to the Department of East Tennessee, it served in Kentucky and later was stationed in Cumberland Gap and Loudon, Tennessee.
In the spring of 1863, Smith’s Legion two battalions were separated. The Cavalry Battalion became part of the new 6th Georgia Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. The Infantry Battalion was merged into the new 65th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment.