Crawfordville
A.H. Stephens State Historic Park
Alexander St., Crawfordville 706-456-2602
Alexander Hamilton Stephens, a native Georgian, was a major figure of the Civil
War, serving the Confederacy as vice president. A.H. Stephens
State Historic Park features his home Liberty Hall,
his gravesite, and an excellent Confederate
Museum housing one of the finest collections of Civil War artifacts in the
state. Stephens was born in a log cabin near Crawfordville and orphaned by his
parents. Nicknamed "Little Aleck" or "the Little Giant,"
Stephens was 5 feet, 7 inches tall and seldom weighed over 90 pounds, and usually
in frail health. He was raised and educated by an uncle, Brig. Gen. A.W. Grier,
a distinguished soldier in the Indian and Mexican wars. Stephens graduated in
1832 at the head of his class at Franklin College (now the University of Georgia)
and taught school for two years before returning to Liberty Hall to study law.
From 1836-50, he was a member of the Georgia State House of Representatives,
and in 1842 he was 
elected
to the state senate. From 1843 to 1859, he served as a member of the U.S. House
of Representatives, helping to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and in 1860 was
Presidential Elector on the Democratic ticket of Douglas and Johnson. In 1861,
Stephens opposed secession at the Georgia Secession Convention in Milledgeville,
but supported his state's decision once it passed, and he was elected vice-president
of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama. He helped draft a moderate Confederate
constitution, worked for prisoner exchanges, and opposed Davis' centralization
of power and suspension of civil rights. He was Commissioner of the Confederacy
at the Hampton Roads Conference in February of 1865, where he met with Lincoln
to negotiate for peace.
Stephens was arrested at Crawfordville and imprisoned at Fort Warren in Boston
Harbor, Massachusetts for half a year. After the war, he was again member of
the U.S. House of Representatives from 1873-82, then served as governor of Georgia
briefly until he died at the age of 71 in Atlanta on March 4, 1883. Briefly
interred at Oakland Cemetery, his body was reinterred at his beloved Liberty
Hall property in 1884. He wrote Constitutional View
of the Late War Between the States, as well as other books on U.S. history.
His home has been restored to excellent condition, and many of Stephens' effects
and furniture are found in the house, including his complete bedroom furnishings.
Notice all of his medicine bottles. In the backyard is a grave and monument
to a favorite family pet, Rio. In front of Liberty Hall is a flattering statue
of Stephens and some interesting inscriptions. The museum has more than 300
fascinating items relating to the Confederacy and A.H. Stephens.
During the Civil War, a factory which produced Leech and Rigdon pistols operated
in Greensboro, west of Crawfordville. From 1863-1865,
the town was also the home of several Confederate hospitals. In the Greensboro
City Cemetery (off the Penfield Road) are buried approximately
45 Confederate soldiers, men who died locally of wounds or disease.
On GA 47 between Sharon and Raytown is the gravesite of Gen. Aaron W. Grier.
Two miles northeast of Sharon on GA 47 is a historical
marker titled "Ray's Place — Now Raytown." The parents and
grandparents of Jefferson Davis owned plantations near Rayton in the early 1800s.
Mrs. Davis, fleeing Federal forces in 1865, spent a night in Raytown.
- Exit 148 off I-20, go north on Hwy. 22 for 2 miles. Go east on U.S.
278 1 mile to Crawfordville. Follow signs to the Park.
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