Go for it. Augusta is a great town. It is not that small. It is about the size of Akron, OH or Providence RI. It is a fabulous place to be if you are into the outdoors. There is great fishing (large mouth bass and trout) close by and deep sea fishing two hours away. There are a number of great places for whitewater river running and flat water canoeing/kayaking all around Augusta. You can go up north for skiing in the winter or hit the Appalachian trail for hiking. Day trips to Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah and great coastal resorts like Hilton Head will keep you from ever getting board with smaller town life in Augusta. There are good schools in Augusta. Better schools will be private, but will have a religious component. But these schools tend to be pragmatic about how they teach the religious component, knowing that they cannot alienate people who are just coming for the educations and still be able to have enough students to pay the bills.
People in Georgia are much more progressive than the boneheads that get elected to the legislature would lead you to believe. Atlanta has a huge gay community. The really hard core right wing nutbags are actually in the affluent far flung suburbs of Atlanta where people self segregate themselves and stew in their collective intolerance. In the rest of Georgia, people actually get along very well across racial and sexual preference lines.
Of course, Augusta is very, very small compared to Boston, NY, LA, Chicago. If you need the culture and diversity of a major metro, you will not find it in Augusta. But, if you want a 15 min commute, a neighborhood where you can open your door and let your kids run out and play without having to watch their every step and an area that has everything from coastal estuary to riparian to mountain ecosystems, then Augusta will be a great place for you.