American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Interesting site about the history of Darien, Georgia. Short excerpts below:

http://home.sprintmail.com/~ejb/Darien.htm

New Inverness is the "Plymouth Rock" of Scottish heritage in the Southeastern United States. General James Oglethorpe, seeing the need to settle the Spanish-threatened coast below Savannah with soldiers whose fierceness in battle was legendary, sent out recruiters to Scotland to choose "the Freemen of Gentlemen's families...Industrious, laborious and Brave; speaking the Highland language." Only married men who were between 17 and 45 years of age and willing to take up arms would be allowed passage. The settler must agree to remain for at least three years. Each Highlander was provided with passage, provisions for one year, and granted fifty acres for himself and each member of his family; those who could afford to pay their own freight received 500 acres. On January 19, 1736, one hundred and seventy-seven Highlanders, mostly MacKays
from the Strathnaver region under Hugh Mackay; and members of Clan Chattan, mostly MacIntoshes from Inverness under John ‘Mohr’ MacIntosh; arrived aboard the Prince of Wales. They disembarked on the northern bank of the Altamaha River, where they founded New Inverness. Their primary mission after settling the land was to protect the colony from the French to the west, the Spanish to the south, and fend off attacks from marauding Appalachicola and Yemassee Indians from Florida, who were supported by the Spanish. By the mid-1740s soldiering employed more men than any other occupation in Georgia. Originally named "New Inverness" the name was later changed to "Darien" to recall the ill-fated Scottish colony on the Darien Isthmus of Panama, which came to grief in 1698. Darien was the only Gaelic speaking community in the Georgia Colony. In many ways these people were unique - especially from the viewpoint of the Native Americans. The Scots enjoyed the best relationship with Native Americans, especially the Creeks. Most Scots did not wear boots like most other Europeans, but brogs; soft leather footwear similar to moccasins. They did not wear pants, but the feileadh mhor, or great kilt, and for the most part spoke Gaelic, not English. Their family structure was similar to the Native American's; tribal, or clan. The Scottish women had rights under the law and were allowed to own property. Women in the Darien community were trained in the "Manual of Arms" for muskets and were capable of serving the battery of cannon at Fort Darien when the men were on patrol or fighting the Spanish. On February 22, 1736, James Oglethorpe made his first visit to Darien. The occasion marked the first military parade of British troops to be held in Georgia. In their honor, Oglethorpe wore Highland dress. As they marched in review before him, the kilted Highlanders made an impressive sight in full regalia, with broadswords, targes, and dirks. In 1739 the Scots of Darien petitioned the Trustees of Georgia that no slavery be allowed in their colony, and so it remained until 1749, when that clause in their Charter was removed despite the strong protests of the Scots. The Scots of Darien made a re-statement of this anti-slavery position on the eve of the American Revolution in 1775. This petition, together with that of the Salzburghers (German immigrants at the colonial Georgia settlement of Ebenezer) was the earliest anti-slavery petition in the South.
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The War Between The States

In 1862 the descendants of those Highlanders would again fight to defend their homes, this time as mounted cavalry; Company H, (Lamar’s Rangers; James B. McIntosh, 1st Lieutenant) and Company K, (The MacIntosh Light Dragoons); 5th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Cavalry, Allen's Brigade, Kelly's Division, Wheeler's Cavalry Corps, Army of Tennessee, CSA. The 5th was very well equipped and military discipline was reported as excellent. Each trooper was well clothed with regulation uniform, and armed with new Sharps carbines, sabers and pistols, which were purchased for the regiment by donations of the citizens of Savannah. After fighting some minor skirmishes along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, and arriving by train a day too late to take part in the Confederate victory at Olustee, Florida, from 1864 onward they were involved in some of the heaviest fighting of the war, taking part in the Battles of Atlanta. Following the burning of Atlanta Wheeler’s Cavalry fought valiant rear guard actions against Sherman’s entire combined force during their infamous “March to the Sea”, outnumbered twenty to one. The veteran troopers of Darien surrendered with the rest of the survivors of the Confederate Army of Tennessee on April 26, 1865 at Hillsboro, North Carolina. Sadly, while the men of Darien were off fighting for their country, in one of the first engagements by African-American troops, undefended, defenseless, and strategically irrelevant Darien was looted and burned to the ground by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry under Colonel Robert Gould Shaw on June 11, 1863.

You may remember the scene in the movie, "Glory" where Col. Robert Shaw is ordered against his will to "fire the town" or be removed from his regimental command and court-martialed.