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Photo Gallery: Colonel William Cumming
Marker text:
The town of Cumming (incorporated 1834) is named in honor of
Col. William Cumming, distinguished Georgian, born July 27, 1788, son of
Thomas Cumming and Ann Clay, daughter of Joseph Clay, of Savannah. William
Cumming graduated from the College of New Jersey at Princeton and studied
law at Gould's Law School, Litchfield, Connecticut. The War of 1812 brought
him military prominence. Captain of the Augusta Independent Blues in 1812,
he was commissioned Major, USA, in 1813, and appointed Adjutant General of
the Northern Army the following year with the rank of Colonel. In 1815,
however, he resigned from the Army and the Board of War, on which he served.
Although in 1818 he was appointed Quartermaster General of the Army by
President Monroe and, in 1847, Major General by President Polk, he declined
both appointments and spent the remainder of his life in Augusta, where he
died February 18, 1863.
A series of duels in 1822 with Senator George McDuffie of South Carolina
received nationwide attention and illuminated the larger political
controversy between proponents of states' rights (Cumming) and those
favoring a strong central government (McDuffie).
058-3 Georgia Historical Commission 196?
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