“Not Decatur” (submitted by Rod)

Dave got to this one before me, but at Monday’s Decatur City Commission meeting, Chris Billingsley spoke out in favor of the city doing something in 4 years on the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Decatur to honor the Union Soldier, John W. Sprague, who won the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 22, 1864.

During his comments to the commission, Billingsley stated that roughly 500 men died in battle along what is now North McDonough Street that day.

Here’s Sprague’s write up from the Army’s Medal of Honor website…

Rank and organization: Colonel, 63d Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Decatur, Ga., 22 July 1862. Entered service at: Sandusky, Ohio Born: 4 April 1817, White Creek, N.Y. Date of issue: 18 January 1894. Citation: With a small command defeated an overwhelming force of the enemy and saved the trains of the corps.

Obviously, the Battle of Atlanta took place in 1864, not 1862, so I dare say the Army’s website has its dates wrong.  For clarity, Sprague’s Wikipedia entry reads thusly…

During the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, Sprague was in command of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps. During the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864, at a subaction near Decatur, Georgia, he masterfully conducted a delaying action under heavy enemy fire and received praise from his superiors. With only a small command, he defeated an overwhelming Confederate force and saved the entire ordnance and supply trains of the XV, XVI, XVII, and XX corps.[2][5]

According to Wikipedia, not 8 days later Sprague was promoted to to the rank of brigadier general.

Following up on my slightly tardy “giant Starbucks opens at Emory” post yesterday, TODAY is the actual day that Emory will open its massive new bookstore along Oxford Road.

The Emory Report did a piece on the new building a couple weeks back – including the following video, which gives some internal shots of the space.  The article quotes campus architect Jen Fabrick saying “The building was designed to provide important functional services for the University, but also to provide an active interface between Emory’s campus and the surrounding community,”

While the bookstore will primarily serve Emory students, faculty and staff, the Emory Report says the new B&N  “will offer an increase in titles, Emory merchandise and product offerings for customers.”

Once the strong front-runner for Georgia Governor, Republican candidate John Oxendine’s support proved quite fragile in the final weeks leading up to Georgia’s Primary, as the news narrative abruptly changed last week with Karen Handel’s Sarah Palin endorsement.

Polls leading up to the primary day showed Oxendine falling out of the race entirely, ceeding a second-place run-off spot to Nathan Deal and ultimately when the fingers met the touchscreen yesterday, Oxendine finished 4th behind Eric Johnson.

On the Democratic side, former Democratic Governor Roy Barnes just can’t seem to get enough of the Gold Dome and Democratic voters across the state didn’t stand in his way.  Barnes secured 64% of the Democratic vote yesterday to avoid a run-off.

Closer to home, U.S.  House Representative Hank Johnson easily defeated Vernon Jones in the District 4 Democratic primary.  He will face Liz Carter, who received 55% of the Republican vote, on Election Day – November 2nd.

In the State Superintendent race, Decatur resident Brian Westlake finished third with 59,687 votes behind Joe Martin and Beth Farokhi for the Democratic nod.  Martin will face Republican challenger John Barge in the fall.

For more election results, presented in a readable format, check out the AJC’s results page.

Great video Andrea!