It has been customary to speak in light terms of the Georgia militia, who, late in the day, took the field to man the defenses when Sherman was marching to the sea. They were frequently made up of old men and boys who had been exempt from the regular service, and these were hurried into action with poor equipment and scant preparation. General Toombs, in a letter written to his wife, July 25, 1864, says:
The militia have behaved with great gallantry. This is sincerely true. They have far exceeded my expectations, and in the fight on Thursday equaled any troops in the line of battle. If they will stand and fight like men, our homes will be saved. God give them the spirit of men, and all will be well!
In another place he writes:
We have a mixed crowd, a large number of earnest, brave, true men; then all the shirks and skulks in Georgia trying to get from under bullets.
General Toombs commended and endorsed the policy of Governor Brown during his six years' administration of the office from 1857 to 1863. These two men were warm friends and political allies. When Governor Brown's third term was drawing to a close, he preferred the selection of General Toombs as his successor. But Toombs declined to make the race. His game now was war, not politics. He preferred the field to the Cabinet. He writes with considerable feeling this letter to his wife:
Whatever fate may befall me, I feel that this is my place, in the field and with the militia, with the men who own the country and who are struggling to preserve it for their children. I am truly thankful to God for the health he has given me to enable me to perform my part of this work.
He called all the sons of Georgia to come, even to "die together rather than let the Yankee overrun and conquer Georgia." He concludes a letter of appeal:
Better be
Where the unconquered Spartans still are free,
In their proud charnel of Thermopylæ.
General Toombs' last military service, after the fall of Atlanta, was on the 20th of December, 1864, when as adjutant and inspector-general he served in General G. W. Smith's division, Georgia militia, at the siege of Savannah. General Dick Taylor, in his "Destruction and Reconstruction," gives a very graphic description of General Toombs' energy. The Georgia militia had left Macon for Savannah, and to avoid capture by the resistless column of Sherman's army, then marching to the sea, was shipped by way of Thomasville. The trains were sometimes slow in moving, and to General Taylor, who was anxious to mass all forces at Savannah, the delay was galling. When Toombs came up, he "damned the dawdling trainmen, and pretty soon infused his own nervous force into the whole concern. The wheezing engines and freight vans were readily put in motion, and Governor Brown's 'army' started toward Savannah." News reached General Taylor about that time that the Federal forces at Port Royal were coming up to capture Pocotaligo on the Charleston and Savannah road. This was a dangerous move, as General Taylor was anxious to hold this line for coast defense. He needed reënforcements to hold this point, and at once thought of "Joe Brown's Army." The position of Governor Brown was, however, as General Taylor understood it, that Georgia troops were to be held to guard Georgia soil. This was one of the points in his discussion with Mr. Davis. General Taylor consulted with General Toombs, however, and they arranged to have the Georgia militia "shunted off at a switch near Savannah and transported quietly to Carolina." At Pocotaligo these troops had a lively brush with the Union forces and succeeded in holding the railroad. The Georgians were plucky whether at home or abroad, but General Taylor declared that Toombs enjoyed his part in making them "unconscious patriots."