A genteel and sophisticated English emigree, (George Hewitt) Daniel had established a small grocery business in Covington, acquired land, and become thoroughly Southern in his convictions. Twice married but now a widower, the forty-seven-year-old father of three young daughters had been serving as adjutant of the 8th Regiment of Georgia militia in the trenches north of Atlanta until sometime after July 3, when he came home on sick leave.
There are several versions of what happened in Covington on July 22, but the two earlier accounts insist Daniel had gone to the depot to see his youngest daughter off on the morning train to Conyers. When word arrived after her departure that the Yankees had captured the train, he became frantic with fatherly concern. The two stories differ slightly over just what happened next, but everyone agrees Daniel was "a very quiet, passionate man...acting on the impulse of the moment...a man of high prejudice...desirous to carry everything his own way."
According to Allie Travis, a nurse at one of the Covington hospitals, the distraught father vowed to rescue his daughter or die trying. He was at the depot, waiting for someone to bring him his horse, when some of Garrard's men rode up, saw he was wearing a cartridge box, and took him prisoner.
The other account, printed only two weeks after the event, maintained Daniel was still waiting for his horse when a friend advised him his daughter was safe. Greatly relieved, Daniel returned to his store but had scarcely gotten inside when Yankee troopers barged in and asked if he was a soldier. When Daniel admitted he was, his interrogators seemed skeptical. Two of them went outside. "Who is this man George Daniel?" they demanded of a passerby. The frightened civilian, perhaps thinking the Yankees would make prisoners of any Confederate soldiers they found in Covington, unwittingly sealed Daniel's fate by describing him as "a citizen and merchant."
"We'll have that man to shoot," declared one of the troopers.
Convening a mock trial, they summarily convicted Daniel as a bushwhacker. Since a neighbor had identified him as a civilian rather than a soldier, his captors refused to treat him as a prisoner of war. Instead, two of them led Daniel to a grove of oak trees on Colonel W.W. Clark's property and shot him dead. Daniel's three daughters did not learn of the tragedy until later that afternoon, when a neighbor heard a Yankee soldier say something about leaving "a dead Reb in the woods."
From "Sherman's Horsemen" by David Evans.
There are several versions of what happened in Covington on July 22, but the two earlier accounts insist Daniel had gone to the depot to see his youngest daughter off on the morning train to Conyers. When word arrived after her departure that the Yankees had captured the train, he became frantic with fatherly concern. The two stories differ slightly over just what happened next, but everyone agrees Daniel was "a very quiet, passionate man...acting on the impulse of the moment...a man of high prejudice...desirous to carry everything his own way."
According to Allie Travis, a nurse at one of the Covington hospitals, the distraught father vowed to rescue his daughter or die trying. He was at the depot, waiting for someone to bring him his horse, when some of Garrard's men rode up, saw he was wearing a cartridge box, and took him prisoner.
The other account, printed only two weeks after the event, maintained Daniel was still waiting for his horse when a friend advised him his daughter was safe. Greatly relieved, Daniel returned to his store but had scarcely gotten inside when Yankee troopers barged in and asked if he was a soldier. When Daniel admitted he was, his interrogators seemed skeptical. Two of them went outside. "Who is this man George Daniel?" they demanded of a passerby. The frightened civilian, perhaps thinking the Yankees would make prisoners of any Confederate soldiers they found in Covington, unwittingly sealed Daniel's fate by describing him as "a citizen and merchant."
"We'll have that man to shoot," declared one of the troopers.
Convening a mock trial, they summarily convicted Daniel as a bushwhacker. Since a neighbor had identified him as a civilian rather than a soldier, his captors refused to treat him as a prisoner of war. Instead, two of them led Daniel to a grove of oak trees on Colonel W.W. Clark's property and shot him dead. Daniel's three daughters did not learn of the tragedy until later that afternoon, when a neighbor heard a Yankee soldier say something about leaving "a dead Reb in the woods."
From "Sherman's Horsemen" by David Evans.
A genteel and sophisticated English emigree, (George Hewitt) Daniel had established a small grocery business in Covington, acquired land, and become thoroughly Southern in his convictions. Twice married but now a widower, the forty-seven-year-old father of three young daughters had been serving as adjutant of the 8th Regiment of Georgia militia in the trenches north of Atlanta until sometime after July 3, when he came home on sick leave.
There are several versions of what happened in Covington on July 22, but the two earlier accounts insist Daniel had gone to the depot to see his youngest daughter off on the morning train to Conyers. When word arrived after her departure that the Yankees had captured the train, he became frantic with fatherly concern. The two stories differ slightly over just what happened next, but everyone agrees Daniel was "a very quiet, passionate man...acting on the impulse of the moment...a man of high prejudice...desirous to carry everything his own way."
According to Allie Travis, a nurse at one of the Covington hospitals, the distraught father vowed to rescue his daughter or die trying. He was at the depot, waiting for someone to bring him his horse, when some of Garrard's men rode up, saw he was wearing a cartridge box, and took him prisoner.
The other account, printed only two weeks after the event, maintained Daniel was still waiting for his horse when a friend advised him his daughter was safe. Greatly relieved, Daniel returned to his store but had scarcely gotten inside when Yankee troopers barged in and asked if he was a soldier. When Daniel admitted he was, his interrogators seemed skeptical. Two of them went outside. "Who is this man George Daniel?" they demanded of a passerby. The frightened civilian, perhaps thinking the Yankees would make prisoners of any Confederate soldiers they found in Covington, unwittingly sealed Daniel's fate by describing him as "a citizen and merchant."
"We'll have that man to shoot," declared one of the troopers.
Convening a mock trial, they summarily convicted Daniel as a bushwhacker. Since a neighbor had identified him as a civilian rather than a soldier, his captors refused to treat him as a prisoner of war. Instead, two of them led Daniel to a grove of oak trees on Colonel W.W. Clark's property and shot him dead. Daniel's three daughters did not learn of the tragedy until later that afternoon, when a neighbor heard a Yankee soldier say something about leaving "a dead Reb in the woods."
From "Sherman's Horsemen" by David Evans.
There are several versions of what happened in Covington on July 22, but the two earlier accounts insist Daniel had gone to the depot to see his youngest daughter off on the morning train to Conyers. When word arrived after her departure that the Yankees had captured the train, he became frantic with fatherly concern. The two stories differ slightly over just what happened next, but everyone agrees Daniel was "a very quiet, passionate man...acting on the impulse of the moment...a man of high prejudice...desirous to carry everything his own way."
According to Allie Travis, a nurse at one of the Covington hospitals, the distraught father vowed to rescue his daughter or die trying. He was at the depot, waiting for someone to bring him his horse, when some of Garrard's men rode up, saw he was wearing a cartridge box, and took him prisoner.
The other account, printed only two weeks after the event, maintained Daniel was still waiting for his horse when a friend advised him his daughter was safe. Greatly relieved, Daniel returned to his store but had scarcely gotten inside when Yankee troopers barged in and asked if he was a soldier. When Daniel admitted he was, his interrogators seemed skeptical. Two of them went outside. "Who is this man George Daniel?" they demanded of a passerby. The frightened civilian, perhaps thinking the Yankees would make prisoners of any Confederate soldiers they found in Covington, unwittingly sealed Daniel's fate by describing him as "a citizen and merchant."
"We'll have that man to shoot," declared one of the troopers.
Convening a mock trial, they summarily convicted Daniel as a bushwhacker. Since a neighbor had identified him as a civilian rather than a soldier, his captors refused to treat him as a prisoner of war. Instead, two of them led Daniel to a grove of oak trees on Colonel W.W. Clark's property and shot him dead. Daniel's three daughters did not learn of the tragedy until later that afternoon, when a neighbor heard a Yankee soldier say something about leaving "a dead Reb in the woods."
From "Sherman's Horsemen" by David Evans.
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