Unique in all of America, the City of Fitzgerald was founded as a place of reconciliation between veterans of the Civil War, Union and Confederate. Indianapolis lawyer and newspaper publisher Philander H. Fitzgerald, a former drummer boy in the Union Army, worked with Georgia state government, including then Governor William J. Northern, to select a site on the Ocmulgee River and "Georgia's Colony City” was born. Read more about the history and founding of Fitzgerald. County Seat of Ben Hill County Most People Don't Know The town's streets are named for Confederate and Union Generals Best Kept Secret In the 1960s, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources stocked Burmese chickens all over the state as a game bird to be hunted like quail. The chickens never took hold anywhere else, but for some reason they left their original Ocmulgee River stocking location in Ben Hill County and made their way to downtown where Fitzgeral Wild Chickens have survived ever since Top Annual Event Wild Chicken Festival Don't Miss Blue and Gray Museum Nearby Jefferson Davis Historic Site