This article is in the BAxley News BAnner and will be included in Vol. 5 when completed. Hope someone will find this helpful. Sharon Broward Davis Pine Mtn. Ga. Lieutenant Higgs, Mr. Davis, Mr. Summerlin, Mr. Blancett, Mr. Herring, Manning Kirkland- Thursday, 14 December, 1922 First Editor News-Banner Writes of Coleman Creek. Encounter Between Deserters and Details of Appling. Depicts Days of '64. Skirmish Between Provost Guard and Deserters That Took Place at the Ford of Coleman Creek. Judge Warren P. Ward, of Douglas, Ordinary of Coffee County, and the first editor of the Baxley News-Banner back in 1882, has been writing for the Atlanta Sunday Constitution a series of articles on old times in Wiregrass Country. Last Sunday he told about the skirmish between the provost guards and deserters that took place at the ford of Coleman Creek between the Milikin old place and the Allen Dixon place where Jas. W. Morris now lives. His story is as follows: No people were more patriotic and enthusiastic in the confederate war than the people of the wiregrass country. Many of them were the sons and daughters of sturdy stock from Virginia and the Carolinas. Many of them descendants of veterans of the revolution. Most of them had been reared on the frontier, others had fought in the Indian wars. They were fighters by blood and by training. But conditions were all against them and their cause failed. By the fall, of 1864 the confederacy was falling to pieces. Sherman had marched through Georgia; had burned Atlanta, and captured Savannah and many who were at home on furloughs were cut off from their commands and were compelled to remain at home. Some of them had to bear the ignominy of being called a "deserter." Many had lost heart and had come home to stay and take the consequences. While from the beginning of the war a few dared to remain at home and live in the bushes rather then go to the front. The confederate government needed soldiers and sent details to arrest all deserters issue then got to be soldier against soldier and trouble began. Several details and deserters were killed; Among them were Lieutenant Higgs, a detail, killed by a man named Davis. In short time Davis was killed by the details. A man named Summerlin was killed by deserters. Blancett and Herring were killed by detail. A northern man made his appearance in Coffee County, and it was said, made himself too busy in local matters and soon he was killed. In all this time of stress and trouble the ridiculous would appear; I give you an illustration: "Old Bill Wall," as he called himself, was one of the fellows who remained at home Benajah Pearson complained that these fellows were eating his sheep and using his property without leave or license. Old Bill got word to stop. In reply he sent Mr. Pearson the following lines: If it is my choice to stay at home, and the woods in beauty roam; pluck the flowers in early spring and hear the little songster sing; Why then, should I, for the sake of gain leave my conscience with a stain. A traitor who could bear the name with no respect for age or fame; who, for the sake of a little gold, would have his friends in bondage sold! I would rather take the lash than betray them for confederate trash. "You say they kill your sheep and cows, you say they take your hogs and your plows, you say they took your potatoes away, you said they dug your grave one day. All of this may be true; it makes me sorry for you. "Yes sir, if I these men betray and they were all taken away, and they did not in the battlefield fall, they would then come back and kill "Old Bill Wall." Things got so serious that a company of details was organized in Coffee County to capture deserters, if possible and restore order in Coffee and adjoining counties. The company was organized as follows; Silas A. Crosby, captain; Frank Hall, first lieutenant; Alf Sapp, second lieutenant; Dan Miles, third lieutenant; Quill Graham, orderly sergeant; Manning Kirkland, Hiram Ellis, Jack Lott, Neal Curry, William Hinson, Leonard Hinson, William Mizell, Bill Taylor, Jim Hall, Mr. Higgins, Mr. McLeod, Mr. McCrimmon, Mr. Deas, L. Merritt, Mr. Carmichael, Thomas Moore and others. By this time the deserters were getting to be numerous. They organized for the purpose of defense. They had signals and signs by which they understood when there was danger near. One of the saddest tragedies of all the war, in this section of Georgia, was the killing of Manning Kirkland, a detail, by the deserters on Coleman's Creek, in Appling County, in the spring of 1865. A company of details under Captain Crosby was crossing Coleman's Creek at a point about four miles south of where Surrency, Ga., is now located. The deserters knew of their coming and had concealed themselves in the creek. It is said there were more than a hundred deserters in the bunch. There were not more than twenty-five or thirty details. When they entered the creek the deserters rose up in mass, and without a word, began firing. The details cried out, "shoot up, shoot up." but they did not shoot up, they shot to kill. Several were wounded and several horses killed, but only one man was killed and that was Manning Kirkland, a brother of Moses, Joshua and Zenus Kirkland, and also a brother-in-law of Major John M. Spence. This whole section of Georgia was shocked. Conditions wee terrible and unbearable. It was now friend against friend and kinsman against kinsman. Mr. Kirkland was buried at the old Ward Graveyard, where J. M. Tanner now lives on lot of land 664, seven miles east of Douglas.