Historic Macon

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In 1889, local architect D. B.
Woodruff designed the first building
built to house Macon’s public library.
The Macon Heritage Foundation
preserved it from demolition. Its
two-story reading room with oak
ship’s beam rafters and clerestory
windows is intact and the building
has been restored.
Macon’s military governor, General Wilson,
was given the name Spooney in Virginia
because his men were known for taking
private property, especially silverware. However,
when he took the house owned by Mrs. Bond
for his use she asked him to see that her
valuables were untouched. Months later, when
she was allowed to return she was pleased to
find nothing missing.
Stealing did become a serious problem as the
war ended. Soldiers, or other hungry people,
stole chickens and livestock from people’s yards
at night. Citizens took turns patrolling their
neighborhoods from dusk until sunrise.
General Wilson hung a large American flag in
front of his office on Mulberry Street. One
morning a young Macon man and three young
ladies, all members of the Ross family, walked
by. They stepped off the sidewalk into the street
rather than walk under the flag, the symbol of
the enemy. Soldiers stopped and questioned
them and the young man was made to pace
under the flag for a half-hour.
In May 1865, a search party sent by General
Wilson captured Confederate President,
Jefferson Davis, in south Georgia. Hundreds of
people gathered at the Lanier House to watch as
Davis was brought there to face Wilson. Neither
the Macon people nor the Union soldiers made
any sound as the captive was led into the hotel
where he had once spoken to cheering crowds.
Wilson treated Davis with courtesy, but he was
sent to prison and made to wear chains for
two years.
Howell Cobb also was arrested and put on a
train for Washington, D.C. General Wilson
telegraphed the Secretary of War that unless
Cobb was released, he, Wilson, would resign
34 ✦ HISTORIC GRAND PRAIRIE