Morgan County: The Town Sherman Refused to Burn

Morgan County was carved from Baldwin County on December tenth, eighteen oh seven, named for General Daniel Morgan, the Revolutionary War hero whose victory at Cowpens in seventeen eighty-one helped turn the war in the South. Its county seat, Madison, was incorporated in eighteen oh nine, named for the sitting president. What came next was a cotton boom that filled the town with grand antebellum homes still standing today.

When Sherman's army marched through in eighteen sixty-four, Madison was largely spared because pro-Union senator Joshua Hill appealed personally to Union officers. Nearly one hundred antebellum homes still stand, making Madison one of Georgia's best-preserved nineteenth-century towns.