Pulaski County, created in 1808 and named for Count Casimir Pulaski, sent multiple infantry and cavalry companies and a battery of artillery into Confederate service, with the Pulaski Volunteers becoming Company G of the 8th Georgia Infantry Regiment and serving from 1861 through the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865. Four years after that company left Hawkinsville, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, his family, and other Confederates were captured near Irwinville, Georgia, about fifty miles south of Hawkinsville, on May 10, 1865, after Union Brigadier General James H. Wilson directed Colonel Henry Harnden's 1st Wisconsin Cavalry east toward Dublin and Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin D. Pritchard's 4th Michigan Cavalry south along the Ocmulgee River in a search that followed Davis's crossing into Georgia on May 3. Pritchard's men rode down the west bank of the Ocmulgee, passed through Hawkinsville on May 8, camped south of town, and were ordered to secure ferries below Hawkinsville, picket the river, and scout both sides for Davis's party. After continuing south on May 9 and leaving pickets behind, a detachment under Pritchard's personal command captured Davis and most of his travel party near Irwinville at dawn on May 10. Harnden and a detachment of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, present at Irwinville but not involved in the actual capture, rode to Hawkinsville that day, camped overnight, and continued toward Macon on May 11. Pritchard's slower escort with prisoners camped in Abbeville and then about four miles south of Hawkinsville on May 11 before passing through Hawkinsville again early on May 12, closely guarding Davis and the other Confederates.