Back To Colonial Park Cemetery

Today we are going to spend a bit of time with another one of the notables who resides in Colonial Park Cemetery. He is once again a person of importance in American history who slipped through the ever widening gaps in my college education.

Hugh McCall was born in 1767 in Mecklenburg County North Carolina the second of James and Elizabeth McCall's eight children. James McCall was born in Pennsylvania in 1741 and moved to North Carolina where he was involved in the Regulator Movement against British taxation practices in the 1760's. He served as an officer in the Revolutionary war eventually rising to the rank of Colonel. He led troops in 17 engagements during the war until his death from smallpox and a war wound in April 1781. This family history may explain why Hugh McCall felt his life calling was writing the first history of Georgia. It is a two volume set with the first volume published in 1811 and the second in 1816. He is known as Georgia's first historian.

Nothing is none of Hugh McCall's early years and the history of the man is spotty at best. While he was interested in recording the history of Georgia he had little interest in sharing the details of his own life. It is not known when he moved to Georgia. The first mention of him in historical records is 1794 when he is 27 years of age. U.S. Army records list him as an ensign. He was able to advance through the ranks becoming a captain in 1800 and a brevet major in 1812. He left military service in 1815. His first recorded notation with Savannah is 1806 when he became the city jailor. He held this position until 1823.

Hugh McCall's early histories of Georgia are impressive for a number of reasons. At the time he was writing there were no archival collections of documents or correspondence which modern historians rely on to create a historical record of the sort he wrote. McCall relied on informal and scattered materials he had to gather himself and on interviews with Revolutionary War veterans. The veterans were interviewed decades after the events and were getting up in age. As a result his history is marked by some inaccuracies which were corrected by the works of later historians.

Hugh McCall remained a bachelor throughout his life and died in Savannah in 1824. In 1994 the Georgia Association of Historians created the Hugh McCall Award which is given every third year to a historian in recognition of scholarly attainment, excellence in teaching and/or encouragement of the study of history.

Mike and I were talking after our visit last weekend about death. I think he and I are both in agreement that you do not truly die until there is no one remaining who remembers you. Hugh McCall continues to live on because his contributions to our history and knowledge of our country's founding make us recall his work. Here is a picture of Hugh McCall.