The town is named for Samuel Griswold who moved his iron foundries and cotton gin factories here from Clinton to be on the railroad. A disastrous unrecorded battle was fought here in 1864 when a force of old men and youths under Gen. Phillips, Capt. Robert H. Barron & Lt. Henry Greaves, sent from Macon by Gen. Howell Cobb in an attempt to force the Federals from the city, fought a bloody diversionary action against Kilpatrick´s Union Cavalry which then proceeded to Irwinton. Griswold´s factories and property were destroyed because he had made arms and ammunition for the Confederacy.
GHM 084-12 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1956
Plaque courtesy Lat34North.com.
Original page, with additional info, here.
Photo credit: Ken Moser.