Who Was Daniel Newnan?

Who was Daniel Newnan?

By Lawrence W. Reed

When a town is named for a particular person, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the person was born there, or lived there, or visited the place, or did something special for the community, or perhaps was buried there.

In the case of our beloved home and its namesake, Daniel Newnan, none of those things are true.

In 1828, we named the town for him to commemorate his service to the people of the state. He wasn’t born here, he never visited or lived here, he had no special relationship with the town, and he’s buried in another Georgia town that also bears his name—Newnan Springs, Georgia—a nearly three-hour drive north of here.

Daniel Newnan’s record was more than a little noteworthy. I’m not aware of a biography of him but he does figure into historian Gordon Burns Smith’s impressive four-volume History of the Georgia Militia, 1783-1861, published in 2000.

Daniel Newnan was born about 1780 (the exact date is uncertain) in Rowan County, North Carolina. He was one of 41 students attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1796, the school’s second year of existence. At age 22, he moved to Georgia and settled in the Milledgeville area where he became a planter. His keen interest in the military showed itself early. In 1806, he began an 11-year stint as adjutant general of the state’s militia. He held that position again from 1837 to 1840, reaching the rank of brigadier general. That makes him one of only five men in our history to hold the post twice. Consider these additional facts on his impressive resume:

Commander of the Georgia Militia in federal service in East Florida at the start of the War of 1812. Representative from Putnam County in the Georgia House of Representatives, 1820-1821. Keeper of the Georgia Penitentiary from 1823-24. Secretary of State for Georgia, 1825-27. Member of the U.S. Congress from Georgia, 1831-33 (elected as a Jacksonian small-government Democrat).

Daniel Newnan, courtesy the Newnan Times-Herald.

As adjutant general, he shaped up the ragtag Georgia militia, which badly needed proper training, uniforms, procedures, and a morale boost by the time the War of 1812 broke out in June of that year. In response to the declaration of war against Britain, Newnan raised a battalion of Georgia volunteers for federal service in East Florida. He issued this call:

War is declared! Volunteers to arms! Volunteers for the Florida expedition are now assembling on the plains of St. Augustine before the arrival of the British. Let Georgia have the honor of commencing the war.

While the war with Britain raged, a civil war amongst the Creek Indians broke out in Georgia and Alabama. The larger faction of Creeks, known as the “Red Sticks,” joined with the Seminoles and the British to take on the Americans as well. That took Newnan to Florida to lead the fight on behalf of Georgia. He was wounded three times in one battle.

Unfortunately for Newnan, his unit of 200 men was thrashed in Florida during late summer and early fall of 1812. The Georgia men retreated and when Governor David Mitchell asked them to extend their time with the militia by two months, most refused and went back home to their families. Newnan posted desertion notices for many, prompting an accusation of “unsoldierly conduct” against him. The charges never stuck.

After the war, he moved to Henry County near McDonough. From his property there, he farmed and held the various political positions cited above. He was, for a part of his life, a slaveholder, a blot on an otherwise commendable life.

For health reasons, he relocated to Peavine Ridge near the Tennessee line in the last decade of his life. Never married, he was alone in his house when he died on Christmas Day, 1850. He was buried at Newnan Springs in Catoosa County.

Daniel Newnan, warts and all, was a military and political leader who answered the call to duty in Georgia’s early days.

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(Lawrence W. Reed, a Newnan resident, is President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education in Atlanta. His forthcoming book, Born of Ideas: How Principles, Faith and Courage Forged America, is available for pre-order now on Amazon.)