Jacob Dryer – Southern Claims Commission
In 1877, Jacob Dryer, described as a “very prosperous and thrifty man,” made a claim against the U.S. government for $485 in property taken by Sherman’s Army from his home on George W. Walthour’s Westfield plantation, Liberty County, Georgia, in December 1864. Witness Samuel Maxwell testified that he saw Dryer every day and knew that […]
Pompey Bacon – Southern Claims Commission
Pompey Bacon, formerly enslaved by Thomas Mallard since birth at the latter’s plantation a few miles from the Midway Congregational Church in Liberty County, Georgia, filed his Southern Claims Commission petition in 1873. He claimed $842.50 for horses, poultry, hogs, rice, salt, a buggy & harness, and household effects stolen by U.S. troops during the […]
Sandy Austin – Southern Claims Commission
Sandy Austin, who had been enslaved on Joseph LeConte’s Syphax Plantation in Liberty County, Georgia, all his life until Emancipation, filed his Southern Claims Commission petition in 1873, asking for $396 in compensation for two horses, hogs, poultry and bees that were stolen from him by U.S. troops in December 1864. Following testimony by witnesses […]