The Signer's Monument

Dedicated on July 4, 1848, this monument honors Georgia’s signers of the Declaration of Independence: George Walton, Lyman Hall, and Button Gwinnett. Walton and Hall lie buried in crypts beneath the shaft, but Gwinnett’s burial place, though his body was to have been reinterred there, has never been found. George Walton, born in Virginia, settled in Georgia and served as a colonel in the Revolutionary Army, twice as governor of Georgia, as a judge of Superior Court and chief justice of Georgia, was elected to Congress six times, served one term as United States Senator, and was wounded and captured by the British at Savannah. Dr. Lyman Hall, born in Connecticut, was among the ardent revolutionaries from Midway, Georgia, who helped lead Georgia into open rebellion in 1776, and he represented Georgia in the Continental Congress. Button Gwinnett, born in England, settled in Savannah shortly before the Revolution, became a magnetic and fiery figure in the war’s early days, served as president of Georgia in March 1777, and after a quarrel with General Lachlan McIntosh arising from the ill-fated expedition to Florida, was mortally wounded in a duel on the outskirts of Savannah in May 1777.

Augusta-Richmond County consolidated government (balance), Georgia · United States