Georgia Natural Wonder #144 - Roswell - Antebellum & Civil War (Part 2). 2,071

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Georgia Natural Wonder #144 - Roswell - Antebellum And Civil War (Part 2)

Alright, we were brought to Roswell by the Natural Wonder of Vickery Creek and the ruins of Roswell Mill along it's banks. Now we move uphill to the high ground on the northern bank of the Chattahoochee River.


Highest ground belongs to Barrington Hall.

Roswell is a city in north Fulton County, Georgia, United States. In the official 2010 U.S. Census it had a population of 88,346. The 2018 estimated population was 94,650, making Roswell the state's eighth-largest city. A suburb of Atlanta, Roswell has an affluent historic district.


Canton Street and Presbyterian Church.

History

In 1830, while on a trip to northern Georgia, Roswell King passed through the area of what is now Roswell and observed the great potential for building a cotton mill along Vickery Creek. Since the land nearby was also good for plantations, he planned to put cotton processing near cotton production.  Shortly after 1832 a survey of the area was conducted by Nathan Crawford Barnett as part of the Cherokee Purchase in preparation for the sixth state administrated land lottery culminating in the Cherokee removal. 


Roswell King and his town.

Toward the middle of the 1830s, King returned to build a mill that would soon become the largest in north Georgia – Roswell Mill. He brought with him 36 African slaves from his own coastal plantation, plus another 42 skilled carpenter slaves bought in Savannah to build the mills. The slaves built the mills, infrastructure, houses, mill worker apartments, and supporting buildings for the new town. The Africans brought their unique Geechee culture, language, and religious traditions from the coast to north Georgia.



King invited investors from the coast to join him at the new location.



Roswell Town Square was built in 1839 as part of the original design of the town envisioned by founder Roswell King. The bandstand was added in 1905 on the occasion of President Theodore Roosevelt's visit to his mother's girlhood home. Today, the square is the site of art shows and other festivals and events, including weddings.



During the Civil War occupation of Roswell, 400 mill operatives, mainly women and children were charged with treason and held overnight under guard in the Town Square until they could be sent by wagons to Marietta and transported by train to the north. More on that later in post.


TRD walk through Roswell Square.




Downtown Roswell has some new and antebellum buildings restored around the Square.


Roswell Visitor Center.

Roswell King was also joined by Barrington King, one of his sons, who succeeded his father in the manufacturing company. Roswell only lived another 6 years.


Barrington King.

He built the grand mansion of Roswell, Barrington Hall.


This brick structure behind the main house, was 20 degrees cooler than outside and was dug down into dirt for food storage.

It was closed but we managed to gather these images.



Barrington Hall is an 1839 Greek Revival-style plantation, there was a boxwood garden along side.



The house was designed by Willis Ball. He built Bulloch Hall and the Howell Cobb House in Marietta too. He used a pattern book by Asher Benjamin for the home’s design.It was held by the family until 1995 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.



I recall a Tour story about how children had kittens in the attic and one had fallen into one of the porch columns. He was meowing and they were about to cut a square at base of column when grand dad thought to lower a picnic basket with food and they raised the kitten out after he crawled in basket. Got him out without damaging column.



Barrington King selected the highest point in Roswell for his home, Barrington Hall. It was built by Willis Ball in the Greek revival style of architecture. When the house was finished in 1842, Barrington lived in it with his wife, Catherine, until his death in 1866. The Kings had nine children who survived to adulthood: eight sons and one daughter.


Pam walks up front path just like Margaret Mitchell did as she walked up to house as reporter for AJC who wanted to interview the Maid of Honor for Teddy Roosevelt's Mom.

Bulloch Hall (the childhood home of President Theodore Roosevelt's mother, Mittie Bulloch) has been preserved and restored. Both Barrington Hall and Bulloch Hall are now open to the public.



James Stephens Bulloch moved his family from Savannah in 1838 to north Georgia to partner with Roswell King in establishing a cotton mill.There in what developed as the town of Roswell, he built Bulloch Hall in 1839.


James and daughter Mittie.

President Roosevelt came to Roswell to visit his mother's childhood home. He stayed at Barrington Hall overnight. Funny story because Evelynn King wrote him wanting to meet when he came to Roswell and he sort of ignored her. When press got word of him jilting her, he made it a big point to visit and linger.



Martha Stewart Bulloch Roosevelt was the mother of US President Theodore Roosevelt and the paternal grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a great-granddaughter of Archibald Bulloch (1st Governor of Georgia), grandniece of William Bellinger Bulloch, and granddaughter of General Daniel Stewart. Stewart County is named after him. A true Southern belle, Roosevelt is thought to have been one of the inspirations for Scarlett O'Hara.



It is believed by some that the character of Scarlett O'Hara, in Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone With the Wind, was based partly on Mittie. Mittie was a true Southern belle, a beautiful and spirited woman at her best, not unlike the fictional Scarlett. Mitchell had, in fact, interviewed Mittie's closest childhood friend and bridesmaid, Evelyn King, for a story in the Atlanta Journal newspaper in the early 1920s. In that interview, Mittie's beauty, charm, and fun-loving nature were described in detail.



After Major Bulloch's death in 1849, the family's fortunes declined somewhat, but Mittie was given a grand wedding to Theodore Roosevelt Sr. in 1853. Later, as was expected of young southern gentlemen, Mittie's brothers Irvine and James fought in the Civil War as Confederate officers. They both lived in England after the war. Her brother Dan also fought as a Confederate and was killed in action.


Marriage to Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

Mittie married Theodore "Thee" Roosevelt Sr. on December 22, 1853 at the Greek Revival-style family mansion Bulloch Hall in Roswell; they were wedded in front of the pocket doors in the formal dining room.



After their honeymoon, the couple moved into their new home at 28 East 20th Street, New York, a wedding present from C.V.S. Roosevelt. Each of C.V.S.'s elder sons lived near his own house at 14th Street and Broadway in Union Square. Shortly afterward, her mother, Patsy, and sister, Anna Bulloch, moved north to join Thee and Mittie in New York.


Mittie with her husband, Theodore.

Mittie Roosevelt died of typhoid fever on February 14, 1884, aged forty-eight, on the same day and in the same house as her son Theodore's first wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt, who unexpectedly died of Bright's disease. Devastated, Teddy went west to round up cattle and to develop a deep love for Western Natural Wonders later to become National Parks. T.R. described his mother with these words, "My mother, Martha Bulloch, was a sweet, gracious, beautiful Southern woman, a delightful companion and beloved by everybody. She was entirely 'unreconstructed' [i.e., sympathetic to the Southern Confederate cause] to the day of her death."


Slave quarters and out house. Tour story about how buckets of water had to be toted up hill to house. They couldn't get a well deep enough on top of this hill. Servant kid was toting water buckets all day long.

Her brother, James Dunwoody Bulloch was the Confederacy's chief foreign agent in Great Britain during the American Civil War. Based in Liverpool, he operated blockade runners and commerce raiders that provided the Confederacy with its only source of hard currency. He arranged for the construction and secret purchase of the commerce raider CSS Alabama. Bulloch arranged for the unofficial purchase by Britain of Confederate cotton, and the dispatch of armaments and other war supplies to the South. His secret service funds are alleged to have been used for the planning of Lincoln's assassination.


James Dunwoody Bulloch and Irvine Stephens Bulloch

During the 1880s, Theodore Roosevelt persuaded his "Uncle Jimmie" Bulloch to write and publish an account of his activities during the Civil War. The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe was published in two volumes published in 1883. Uncle Jimmie spent considerable time schooling his energetic nephew on the operations of wind-powered ships in the Age of Sail and explained much about ship-to-ship fighting tactics, as Theodore had no personal experience or training in early 19th-century naval warfare.


C.S.S. Alabama.

Irvine Stephens Bulloch was an officer in the Confederate Navy and the youngest officer on the famed warship CSS Alabama. He fired its last shot before it was sunk off the coast of France at the end of the American Civil War.



Although T.R. at first seem to show no interest in his uncle's exploits, his childhood had been filled with stories told him by Mittie. T.R. would write that his mother used "to talk to me as a little shaver about ships, ships, ships and the fighting of ships, until they sank into the depths of my soul."


Uncle James (left) and Irvine (right)

Denied amnesty, Irvine Bulloch remained in Liverpool after the war. He worked as a cotton merchant with his brother, who also was denied amnesty.



Annual Festivals held on grounds of Bulloch Hall year round.



Archibald Smith was another one of the planters who migrated to Roswell to establish a new plantation, also bringing enslaved African Americans from the coastal areas. His house is the final leg of the Roswell trilogy of homes to visit. We will get there in a minute.


Smith's were ancestors of Rankin Smith, first owner of Falcons.

According to the 1850 Slave Schedules, these three "founding families", together with the next three largest planters, held 192 slaves, 51% of the total 378 slaves held in Roswell District. Archibald Smith had a 300-acre cotton plantation. According to the 1850 Census, Barrington King held 70 slaves. Half of these slaves were under the age of 10. These slaves worked in Barrington's household. Barrington King "leased" or "rented" some of his adult male slaves to the Roswell Manufacturing Company, but they did not work around the mill machinery. Interesting how Wikipedia gets all these slave information edits on this Southern history.

TRD Addendum

I have conducted walking and driving tours of Roswell. There are so many homes that survived the Civil War. First as you are coming up Roswell Road just after crossing the Chattahoochee River where the center lane is reversible, you will see an old house on the right.


This is the Allenbrook House from 1840, built of handmade brick. Originally home and office of the Lauren Woolen Mill manager.



Near Allenbrook is historic site of Laurel Woolen Mill (burned by Sherman’s Forces)



Also the sign says there is a Lovers Rock, popular antebellum picnic spot. Always just sort of overlooked last part of that sign till I saw some images and hike descriptions from Atlanta Trails site.


The main attraction here is the rock face where rock climbing and repelling is practicable. Perfect location to picnic overlooking Big Creek.


Overlooks Big Creek and has very nice rock formations that you will hopefully find interesting. It can be a bit of a challenge on hot muggy afternoon's. Holy Cow, trail closed now, will have to revisit area to explore this better.

As you come into Roswell take a left on King Street just before Barrington Hall and park at the stables coach house converted into visitor center offices, to at least walk around grounds of Barrington Hall.


Or you can splurge $10 and take the tour inside.

Now, Roswell Road (Hwy. 9) is the main drag through town, but Mimosa Boulevard leads to the front entrance of Barrington Hall and used to be the main Boulevard of Roswell. Go right on Barrington and scoot across Marietta Highway 120. Roswell Square is to the right and there is also a fantastic restaurant (The Mill). Head north on Mimosa and Bulloch Avenue is just to left. As you head toward Bulloch Hall, Mimosa Hall pops up on your right.



Mimosa Hall & Gardens is a nine-acre antebellum estate located at 127 Bulloch Avenue in Roswell, Georgia. The 6,308 square-foot home has four bedrooms and four bathrooms. It was originally built in 1841 for John Dunwoody, a shareholder in the Roswell Manufacturing Company. His son, Charles Archibald Alexander Dunwoody  is the namesake for the DeKalb County village of Dunwoody.



It was rebuilt after a disastrous fire. Originally named Phoenix Hall, it had burned during the house warming/wedding reception of Dunwoody's daughter because carpenters had failed to remove the internal scaffolding from a fireplace. It was rebuilt in stone and was later renamed Mimosa Hall.


The famous Atlanta architect, Neil Reid, lived in Mimosa Hall which he bought in 1916 and extensively renovated including designing the gardens.

He died there in 1926. He is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon.



The house presently in possession of the heirs of Edward Granger.



At one point you stop in front of Mimosa Hall and look ahead to Bulloch Hall, and you have really stepped back into time. Also on Bulloch Avenue is Jimmy Carter's Roswell White house. His aunt, Emily Dolvin, lived there.


Not antebellum, but Jimmy stayed here before.


His Presidential Motorcade coming down Bulloch Avenue.

You come back up to Mimosa and take a left and there are three antebellum homes to your left.



Holly Hill was built circa 1845. This Greek Revival raised-cottage-style home of Savannah cotton broker Robert Adams Lewis. His wife was Catharine Barrington, as niece of town founder Roswell King. A later resident was noted author Evelyn Hanna, whose 1938 novel Blackberry Winter rivaled Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind.  It was later renamed Blaze Of Glory. It traced the fortunes, loves, and sorrows of three generations of the Merriman family, who were an increasingly rich middle Georgia cotton-raising clan. When the marauding Yankee army appears near the end of the book, they are unbelievably evil. It was a mere 482 pages.



Holly Hill is hard to see, built up off ground so air can circulate underneath like Jefferson did at Monticello or they did at Hay House in Macon.



Executives of Mill had homes along Mimosa.



Then there is Primrose Cottage, built in 1839 for Roswell King's daughter, Eliza King Hand.



It is the first permanent home in Roswell and is a Wedding Reception Facility now days.



Across the street is a beautiful Victorian Era home.



Roswell Presbyterian Church is next on Mimosa Boulevard, on the right when traveling north.



In July, 1864, the advance guard of Gen. Garrard`s Cavalry Corps commandeered this church for a hospital, removing the furnishings.



Except the pipe organ, these were returned intact after the war. The silver communion service in use today was hidden by Miss Fannie Whitmire in a barrel at her home until the end of the war.



Then you have the fabulous Great Oaks on your left.



Built in 1842 by Reverend Nathaniel Pratt , one of Roswell's founders and the founding minister of the Roswell Presbyterian Church, it was the manor house of a farm that produced sorghum, corn, and wheat. The home was to have been built of lumber but while while waiting on the wood to cure, the stacked lumber was destroyed by fire. The Reverend, determined to build a home for his bride, Catherine Barrington King Pratt, resorted to brick. The bricks were made from Georgia clay and water from a meadow stream.



During the Union occupation of Roswell, Great Oaks was the headquarters for Garrard's cavalry. Prior to the arrival of troops, Reverend Pratt's sons ran the blockade to be sure everything was safe with their parents. Arriving home, they went into the third story and loosened the wide pine boards leading to the eaves. Everything of value was hidden there and then the boards were slipped back into place. The hiding places were never found during the two-week occupation.



The Roswell area was part of Cobb County when first settled, and the county seat of Marietta was a four-hour (one-way) horseback ride to the west. Since Roswell residents desired a local government, they submitted a city charter for incorporation to the Georgia General Assembly. The charter was approved on February 16, 1854. There aren't any more antebellum homes along Mimosa Boulevard, but there is a noted boarding house.





Then you take a right on Magnolia Street and there is a marker for Roswell King's log house where the bank is now on your left.



As you take a left on Canton Street, you come to the really exciting part of Roswell, which is full of night life and almost a mile of shops and restaurants. Now I will cover this area in part 3 because it really pertains to modern Roswell, but there is some antebellum history in this stretch.


Early 1900's Canton Street.


Can still see Hotel on right.


These brick structures date back to antebellum origins and house high end bars and restaurants now.


The Brickwork really vintage.


The Stonework hearkens back.

By the time of the Civil War, the cotton mills employed more than 400 people, mostly women. Given settlement patterns in the Piedmont region, they were likely of Scots-Irish descent. As the mill increased in production, so did the number of people living in the area. There is at least one more antebellum home up Canton Street.



Built in the 1840’s by Barrington King for H.W. Proudfoot and his wife, Euphemia, the original part of what would later become Naylor Hall was built as a home featuring a four room clapboard cottage with a central fireplace. Mr. King, son of the city of Roswell’s founder, employed Mr. Proudfoot as a bookkeeper in his newly constructed Roswell Mills, which would later become famous in its own right for its production of Roswell Grey cloth used in Confederate uniforms.


Reportedly, in anticipation of Sherman’s march, huge supplies of Confederate uniforms were taken from the mill and secretly stored at Naylor Hall.

Sadly, in the summer of 1864, the Proudfoot’s home was heavily damaged by Federal troops. However, after occupation, Proudfoot began to rebuild the home. He remained with Roswell Mills and in his home until his death in 1871. In the late 1930’s Colonel Harrison Broadwell purchased the property, naming it as it is known today as Naylor Hall in honor of his wife’s family. He additionally added many of the improvements that can still be found today, such as the columns, the handcrafted woodwork, and the portico encompassing the original structure.

Smith House Plantation

Just across Highway 9 from Canton Street district is the Archibald Smith Plantation. It is nestled among the new Roswell City Hall and Performance theater. It is the third part of the homes tour of antebellum Roswell.



The home was built in 1845 by one of Roswell's founders, Archibald Smith, and housed three generations of his family. The home was restored by the third generation, Arthur and Mary Smith, in 1940. The home was sold to the City of Roswell in 1986 and opened to the public as a house museum in 1991.



In addition to the home, the grounds include a guest house, slave quarters, cookhouse, carriage house, barn, spring house and water well.



One last area of antebellum history is found behind the visitor center on Sloan Street. This is the way you travel down to the Mill and Vickery Creek.



First you pass the first apartments in America.


Back in the day.

The Old Bricks were originally constructed in 1839 by Scottish masons to house factory workers who worked for Roswell King at his nearby Roswell Cotton Mill.


Today.

Subsequently, the building served for a short time in 1864 as a hospital for wounded Federal troops.



According to the Georgia Historical Commission, the structure is believed to be the oldest apartment building in the United States.



You pass by the Lost Workers Monument (Will be discussed in a bit) and pass through the Mill House neighborhood to get to Founders Cemetery.



This Cemetery, the first in Roswell, was the burying ground of the village from 1840 to 1860.

 

Lot of signage.



Among the distinguished dead who rest here are Roswell’s founder, Roswell King,



Major James Stephens Bulloch, grandfather of President Theodore Roosevelt and grandson of Archibald Bulloch, first President (Governor) of Georgia.



and John Dunwoody ESQ., builder of Mimosa Hall, and his wife, Jane Bulloch Dunwoody.



An outbreak of scarlet fever in 1841 resulted in the death of many children. Among them was Charles Irving Bulloch, infant son of Major and Mrs. James Stephens Bulloch. Another child buried here was three-year-old Ralph King Hand, son of the widowed daughter of Roswell King, Eliza Hand, for whom the first permanent home in Roswell was built, Primrose Cottage.


Reverend Pratt and Little Daisy.

Slaves of the families were buried in Founders’ Cemetery. There are many unmarked graves.



The last burial was May 18, 1860--James A. Burney, the only son of Dr. and Mrs. P.J. Burney.


The gorgeous Pam is a wonderful travel companion and excellent tour bus driver.

So we have covered the Old Times Days that are not forgotten. Roswell has natural beauty and antebellum history galore. It was all dashed a day after Independence Day 1864.  Now there is no train coming to Roswell, it was a several hour horse and buggy ride from Marietta.

Civil War

During the Civil War, the city was captured by Union forces under the leadership of General Kenner Garrard. Under orders of General Sherman, Garrard shipped the mill workers north to prevent them from returning to work if the mills were rebuilt. This was a common tactic of Sherman to economically disrupt the South. The mill was burned, but the houses were left standing. The ruins of the mill and the 30-foot dam that was built for power still remain. Most of the town's property was confiscated by Union forces. The leading families had left the town to go to safer places well before the Federal invasion, and arranged for their slaves to be taken away from advancing Federal troops, as was often the practice. Some slaves may have escaped to Union lines.



Capture of Roswell Details

July 5th 1864

Sherman stopped by Johnston's River Line GNW #140 yesterday, shuffles his troops to do an end around sweep from the right side to the left side. He had flanked right all the way through Georgia since the beginning of May in the Atlanta Campaign. Now he flanks left for the only time from Smyrna and Mableton to Roswell and Sope Creek GNW #142 . It was a bad day for Mills in the area.


Roswell Mill - Sope Creek Mill.

On July 5, 1863, Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard´s Calvary (USA) reached Willeo Creek and camped for the night. A detachment of the 7th PA Calvary force the Confederates defending Roswell to retreat. The Confederate troops fall back across the Chattahoochee River, burning the bridge behind them. The Pennsylvania Calvary then burned the cotton and woolen factories at Roswell.



Garrard & Newton Move on Roswell Marker stands at the entrance to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, off Johnson Ferry Road. July 5. Garrard reached this point on Willeo Creek, where he camped. From here a regiment was sent to burn the Soap Creek Paper Mills. On the same day a detachment moved to Roswell & while the 7th Pa. Cav. drove the Confederate defenders across the bridge, the cotton & woolen factories were burned.



With the bridge in flames, General Garrard turned his attention to the mills. A French flag was flying over the woolen mill in a futile attempt to save it from destruction. An inspection of the mill determined that it was, in point of fact, supplying goods to the Confederate army. Angered by the false claim of neutrality, Garrard ordered the burning of all three mills.

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY DIVISION, 
July 5, 1864.

Captain DAYTON,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General:

CAPTAIN: I have to report for the information of the major-general commanding that my command is camped on the Willeyo Creek near Roswell Factory. My advance is at the Factory. I will destroy all buildings. The bridge at this point over the river is burnt by the rebels. The ford is passable; so reported by citizens. I sent a regiment to the paper-mills, burnt the paper-mills, flouring-mills, and machine-shops. The citizens report the banks of the river high at Powers' Ferry and batteries in position on south bank. They had a pontoon bridge at Pace's Ferry, a few miles below, where a portion of their army crossed. There is a road running from Roswell Factory down the river below the paper-mills, and near the mills and above passes on the bank of river. As fast as possible I will send information of the roads, fords, ferries, &c.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, K. GARRARD, Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.

Drawing a map on his arrival the day before, Garrard made a brief notation along the right hand side of the sketch.  “Roswell is a very pretty factory town of about four thousand inhabitants.  Mills & private property not injured by me.” But before handing the map to the courier, Garrard took a pencil and crossed out the word “mills.”  For Garrard did indeed put the factories to the torch, and as the mill workers, mainly women and children, stood on the bank of Vickery Creek and watched the mills go up in flames, not one could have foreseen the tragic fate that lay before them.



July 6th 1864

After the mills were burned, Garrard sent a lengthy dispatch to Sherman detailing the destruction of the mills.

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY DIVISION, Near Roswell, July 6, 1864-7 p.m.
Major-General SHERMAN,Commanding Army:

GENERAL: Roswell was occupied by my command with but small opposition, the few hundred rebels on the roads falling back before my advance, and burning the bridge after crossing. There is a good ford at this place, so I am informed (the shallow ford), but as the opposite banks command this one, and pickets lie on the other side, I have not crossed any of my men. The approach to Roswell from Marietta can be made on two roads-one, as it approaches within two miles of Roswell, is by a crooked, hilly road that could be easily defended; the other, the river road, passes so close to the river as to come under the fire of the enemy's rifles. I had one man shot on this road from the other side. There are branch roads which lead into the Cummings road and the old Alabama road, and the approach on the latter is the best and safest in case the enemy is in this vicinity or secrecy is desirable. The position in rear of Roswell for me is not good, as roads come in from all directions, but by being on Soap Creek I can watch all this country, the fords, &c., and passing west of Sweat Mountain will have the short line on the enemy. There is a road leading over to the old Alabama road, a distance of about two miles. As fast as I can gain information I will send it to you.
 
My impression is that Johnson will make no attempt on this flank, but that his cavalry has gone to his left. He will try to keep his communications with the source of his supplies westward. All information from citizens and his acts in this vicinity lead to this belief. His cavalry instead of falling back to the fords and bridges in this locality crossed on the bridges, &c., with the infantry. Everything is taken out of this country; the grain cut by the rebel soldiers and hauled off. All citizens of property also have left. There were some fine factories here, one woolen factory, capacity 30,000 yards a month, and has furnished up to within a few weeks 15,000 yards per month to the rebel Government, the Government furnishing men and material. Capacity of cotton factory 216 looms, 191,086 yards per month, and 51,666 pounds of thread, and 4,299 pounds of cotton rope. This was worked exclusively for the rebel Government. The other cotton factory, one mile and a half from town, I have no data concerning. There was six months' supply of cotton on hand. Over the woolen factory the French flag was flying, but seeing no Federal flag above it I had the building burnt. All are burnt. The cotton factory was worked up to the time of its destruction, some 400 women, being employed. There was some cloth which had been made since yesterday morning, which I will save for our hospitals (several thousand yards of cotton cloth), also some rope and thread. I have just learned that McCook is near the paper-mills, on Soap Creek, and I may not take up the position first proposed in this letter. I will try to disguise the strength of my command.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

K. GARRARD, Brigadier-General, Commanding.



July 7th 1864

Sherman reports.....

NEAR CHATTAHOOCHEE, GA., July 7, 1864-11 a.m.
Major General H. W. HALLECK, Chief of Staff:

General Garrard reports to me that he is in possession of Roswell, where were several valuable cotton and woolen factories in full operation, also paper-mills, all of which, by my order, he destroyed by fire. They had been for years engaged exclusively at work for the Confederate Government, and the owner of the woolen factory displayed the French flag; but as he failed also to show the United States flag, General Garrard burned it also. The main cotton factory was valued at a million of United States dollars. The cloth on hand is reserved for use of United States hospitals, and I have ordered General Garrard to arrest for treason all owners and employed, foreign and native, and send them under guard to Marietta, whence I will send them North. Being exempt from conscription, they are as much governed by the rules of war as if in the ranks. The women can find employment in Indiana. This whole region was devoted to manufactories, but I will destroy every one of them. Johnston is maneuvering against my right, and I will try and pass the Chattahoochee by my left. Ask Mr. Stanton not to publish the substance of my dispatches, for they reach Richmond in a day, and are telegraphed at once to Atlanta. The Atlanta papers contain later news from Washington than I get from Nashville. Absolute silence in military matters is the only safe rule. Let our public learn patience and common sense.

W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General.

Sherman directs Garrard ....

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, In the Field, near Chattahoochee, July 7, 1864.
General GARRARD, Roswell, Ga.:

GENERAL: Your reports is received and is most acceptable. I had no idea that the factories at Roswell remained in operation, but supposed the machinery had all been removed. Their utter destruction is right and meets my entire approval, and to make the matter complete you will arrest the owners and employee and send them, under guard, charged with treason, to Marietta, and I will see as to any man in America hoisting the French flag and then devoting his labor and capital in supplying armies in open hostility to our Government and claiming the benefit of his neutral flag. Should you, under the impulse of anger, natural at contemplating such perfidy, hang the wretch, I approve the act before hand. I have sent General Schofield to reconnoiter over on that flank, and I want a lodgment made on the other bank as soon as possible anywhere from Roswell down to the vicinity of Soap Creek. I have no doubt the opposite bank is picketed, but, as you say, the main cavalry force of Wheeler has moved to the other flank, and we should take advantage of it. If you can make a lodgment on the south bank anywhere and secure it well, do so. 

General Schofield will be near to follow it up and enlarge the foothold. He had just started from Ruff's Station a few minutes before I received your dispatch, but I telegraphed the substance to be sent to overtake him. Keep a line of couriers back to Marietta and telegraph me very fully and often. I now have the wires to my bivouac. By selecting some one ford, say the second or third below the mouth of Willeo Creek, on your sketch, and holding a force there concealed, say a brigade, with your battery, then have the heads of each your other two brigades close by above and below at the nearest fords, let detachments from these latter brigades cross at night at the nearest fords, and, without firing a gun, close in front of the brigade in position ready to cross with artillery. When across with artillery the best position on a commanding hill should be fortified. I will see that the cavalry is relieved by General Schofield at once. I merely suggest this plan and it execution about daylight to-morrow, and I prefer you should do it.

I assure you, spite of any little disappointment I may have expressed, I feel for you personally not only respect but affection, and wish for your unmeasured success and reputation, but I do wish to inspire all cavalry with my conviction that caution and prudence should be but a very small element in their characters.

I repeat my orders that you arrest all people, male and female, connected with those factories, no matter what the clamor, and let them foot it, under guard, to Marietta, whence I will send them by cars to the North. Destroy and make the same disposition of all mills save small flouring mills manifestly for local use, but all saw-mills and factories dispose of effectually, and useful laborers, excused by reason of their skill as manufacturers from conscription, are as much prisoners as if armed. The poor women will make a howl. Let them take along their children and clothing, providing they have the means of hauling or you can spare them. We will retain them until they can reach a country where they can live in peace and security.
 
In your next letter give me as much information as you can as to the size and dimensions of the burned bridge at Roswell across the Chattahoochee. We have plenty of pontoon bridging, but I much prefer fords for so large an army as we have.

I am, with respect, yours, truly, 

W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General, Commanding.

That Son of a Bitch was an LSU man never forget that.





Another Ohio man led LSU to National prominence again this last year.

Tangent Lost Mill Workers

Just down from the Visitors Center is Sloan Street Park. At the far end of the park is a ten-foot Corinthian column, shattered at the top to symbolize the lives torn apart by the Civil War tragedy. This monument was erected and dedicated on July 8th, 2000 to the memory of the 400 mill workers, mostly women and children, arrested and charged with treason during the Civil War. 



Theophile Roche, a French citizen, had been employed by the cotton mills and later the woolen mill. In an attempt to save the Roswell Manufacturing Company mills during the Union occupation of Roswell, he flew a French flag in hopes of claiming neutrality. However, the letters "CSA" (Confederate States of America) were found on cloth being produced. For two days the mill was spared, but on July 7, 1864 after it was proven that the claim of being neutral was false, General Sherman wrote: "I repeat my orders that you arrest all people, male and female, connected with those factories, no matter what the clamor, and let them foot it, under guard, to Marietta, which I will send them by cars to the North…The poor women will make a howl."



The four sides of the monument.





It was dedicated in 2000.



The nearby cotton mills and woolen mill were destroyed. Mill workers, women, their children, and the few men, most either too young or too old to fight, were rounded up on the square, arrested, and charged with treason. They were transported by wagon to Marietta and imprisoned in the Georgia Military Institute, by then abandoned.



Then, with several days' rations, they were loaded into boxcars that proceeded through Chattanooga, Tennessee, and after a stopover in Nashville, Tennessee, headed to Louisville, Kentucky, the final destination for many of the mill workers. Others were sent across the Ohio River to Indiana.



First housed and fed in a Louisville refugee hospital, the women later took what menial jobs and living arrangements could be found. Those in Indiana struggled to survive, many settling near the river, where eventually mills provided employment. Unless husbands had been transported with the women or had been imprisoned nearby, there was little probability of a return to Roswell, so the remaining women began to marry and bear children.



The tragedy, widely publicized at the time, with outrage expressed in northern as well as southern presses, was virtually forgotten over the next century. Only in the 1980s did a few writers begin to research and tell the story. Even then, the individual identities and fates of the women remained unknown.



In the New York Commercial Advertiser, dated September 9, 1864, the editor of the Louisville Journal recalled visiting the prisoners in an article entitled, "Sherman's Female Captives": As we ascended the steps, the first object that greeted our eyes was a child full of robust health engaged at play in the hall. Passing the lower apartments, the doors standing wide open, we found, on an average, three double beds in each room and seated around and on the beds, engaged in sewing, and other occupations common to ladies, were women, some with the bloom of eighteen years upon their cheeks and others advanced in years beyond the hey-day of life. . .Some moved about the building in sprightly manner, others with their robes gathered negligently about them, and with all the languor to be found in the invalid, or in the person prone to yield to gloomy thoughts, and grow sad and morose."



A northern newspaper correspondent reported on the deportation …"only think of it! Four hundred weeping and terrified, Ellens, Susans, and Maggies, transported in springless and seatless army wagons, away from their loves and brothers of the sunny South, and all for the offense of weaving tent-cloth."



Although the women mill workers were charged with treason, they were never tried for that crime. Shipped north, imprisoned and ordered to declare allegiance, they were eventually released, but without provisions or assistance to get back home. Some of the women would make their way back to Roswell, but what happened to others remains a mystery. We can only speculate. Because many of the women were young, they might have stayed in Indiana, married and settled. Some may have found employment in Indiana mills or other locations. If their fathers, husbands and brothers had been killed in the War, they may have had no reason to try to find their way back to Roswell.



The women were very young. According to the 1860, 40% of the Roswell women were 17 or younger. It is likely that a number of the young women married men in Kentucky or Indiana and settled there. Some eventually found employment. Although there was no work to be found in 1864 in the Cannelton Cotton Mill, the only mill of any size in Indiana, the mill was up and running by mid 1865. Some of the Roswell families obtained work in the mill that year and a good number were still employed there in 1870.


Cannelton Cotton Mill, Perry County, Indiana

Here are two stories of women that survived the deportation and managed to come back to Georgia:

One of the women involved in this tragedy was pregnant and working as a seamstress at the mill. She was sent north to Chicago and left to fend for herself. It would take five years before she and her daughter would return, on foot, to Roswell. Her soldier husband returned to Roswell after the war. Thinking that his wife must be dead, he remarried before she returned. 



Another young woman was just a teenager working in the Roswell Mills with her mother and grandmother. All three were charged with treason and deported. The mother died on the train between Chattanooga and Nashville. The grandmother died on a steamship on the Ohio River, after being carried on board sitting in a rocking chair. The young woman married a Confederate veteran in Louisville, KY. The newlyweds tried to make a new life in Indiana but her health had been ruined by the deportation. A doctor advised that she would not live through another Indiana winter. The couple moved south to Cartersville, GA, back to the South she loved.



Sherman directs transfer of women....

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, In the Field, near Chattahoochee River, July 9, 1864.

General WEBSTER, Nashville:

I have ordered the arrest of the operators at the Confederate manufactories at Roswell and Sweet Water, to be sent North. When they reach Nashville have them sent across the Ohio River and turned loose to earn a living where they won't do us any harm. If any of the principals seem to you dangerous, you may order them imprisoned for a time. The men were exempt from conscription by reason of their skill, but the women were simply laborers that must be removed from this district.

W. T. SHERMAN, 

Major-General, Commanding.

Crossing The Hooch

Meanwhile Garrard reports about crossing the Chattahoochee River at Roswell. At least two brigades of Garrard's cavalry division at Shallow Ford below Roswell. That day too, farther downstream at Cochran's Ferry, a detachment of the 1st Tennessee under Col. James Brownlow, stripped nude, waded across the river, and secured lodgment wearing only their weapons and gear.



Naked Union soldiers quietly crossed the Chattahoochee River, followed by Sherman's entire army-they were clothed. 



Further north, near the present day Huntcliff neighborhood, the Confederate cavalry reported seeing the enemy on the Roswell side of the Chattahoochee River, west of the present day Roswell Road Bridge. They were witnessing Federal troops cutting down trees for artillery to have a clear field of fire upon Sandy Springs.


Garrard's Cav. & Newton's Division Marker is on Azalea Drive 0.1 miles west of Roswell Road (Georgia Route 9), on the right when traveling east.


The trail through the trees leads to the river and to the shallow ford.
 
ROSWELL, July 9, 1864-9 p.m.
Major-General SHERMAN:

I have to report the arrival of General Newton with his division, Fourth Corps. All was quiet, and he relieved me about dark. My cavalry pickets are about two miles from the river, on the Atlanta road. There has been but slight opposition to-day, though my cavalry pickets stand opposite to those of the enemy, and have had some skirmishes. No sign of large force of the enemy's infantry. The ford is very rough and about belly deep. Wagons might be passed over, though it would be better to have the bridge built. Dimensions of old bridge: Length, 642 feet; 6 spans; good stone piers 14 feet from water.

K. GARRARD,Brigadier-

General, Commanding Cavalry.

McPherson's wing of Sherman's Army came from way over in Mableton to Roswell to cross the Chattahoochee River.


The Shallow Ford of the Chattahoochee River are now under Bull Sluice Lake, created by the Morgan Falls dam in 1904.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, In the Field, near Chattahoochee, July 10, 1864.

Major-General McPHERSON,Commanding Army of the Tennessee:

GENERAL: I have pretty much made up my mind as to the next move, but would be glad to hear any suggestion from you. I propose that General Stoneman shall attempt to break the road below Atlanta, to accumulate stores at Marietta and increase our guards to the rear, then suddenly to shift you to Roswell, General Dodge in the mean time to get you a good tete-de-pont and bridge. 
 
General Schofield is already at Phillips' Ferry, across and fortified. He too will make a good trestle bridge. General Thomas will group his command at Powers' and Pace's Ferries. But for the next three days, while these preparations are being made, I want you to demonstrate as though intending to cross at Turner's or below, and General Thomas the same at the railroad bridge. 

When General Stoneman is back, I will give you the word to shift rapidly to Roswell and cross, and in anticipation you can get your wagons back to Marietta, except such as you need. General Thomas will need yours and his pontoons to cross at Powers' and Pace's. At the right time I will leave Generals Stoneman and McCook to cover the front, and cross all the balance of the army and advance its right on or near Peach Tree Creek, and the left (you) swing toward Stone Mountain. Johnston will be found to occupy his redoubts about Atlanta and also Stone Mountain and Decatur. We can maneuver so as to compel him to weaken his center or one of his flanks, when we can act. If he neglects his right or center we get on his Augusta road.

If he neglects Atlanta, we take it. If he assumed the offensive, we cover our roads and base and can make as good use of Peach Tree Creek as he. If General Stoneman could break the road, so much the better, but if he cannot, I calculate that General Rousseau will do so within a week, quite as early as we can be at or near Cross Keys. The ground opposite still continues rough, but that we cannot help. I find all the roads leading back from Roswell, Phillips' and Powers' Ferries to Marietta are good, but the cross-roads are hilly and steep. The advantage of this plan over the one crossing to the south is, that we are all between the enemy and our base, and now that he has destroyed his own bridges he cannot get over without fighting us. Study your maps and be ready, but in the meantime stir up the enemy all you can on that flank and make feints as though designing to cross.

W. T. SHERMAN,Major-General, Commanding.


McPherson's Troops at Shallow Ford Marker is on Azalea Drive 0.1 miles west of Roswell Road (Georgia Route 9), on the right when traveling east. The trail through the trees leads to the river and to the shallow ford.


Looking West on the bike path along Azalea Drive. Both markers are together.

Sherman reported sending a division to Roswell Factory-a position of great importance to us, and to which I have ordered Dodge's corps, with strong pioneer parties, to fortify and rebuild the trestle bridge.



Dodge reports...........

HEADQUARTERS LEFT WING, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Roswell, Ga., July 11, 1864.
Major General J. B. McPHERSON, Commanding Department and Army of the Tennessee:

GENERAL: I arrived here yesterday at noon, the command crossed and the troops were all in position before night, and now have intrenchments up. I have over a mile of ford and bridges to cover, and cannot make a tete-de-pont very far out that will cover it. I have taken and extended the line selected by General Newton. Our trains are all on the north side of the river. The ford is very rough, but shallow, and the bridge we will have to build is 650 feet long and 14 feet high. I put a foot bridge across last night, so that troops can pass. It is very difficult for them to wade, the water is swift and bottom full of holes. The enemy's pickets are near Buck Head, and men out of Atlanta to-day say that there is no infantry after you get four miles this side of Atlanta, and that Stewart is on their right. Johnston's headquarters are at a little house three miles this side of Atlanta, on the railroad. Atlanta papers of the 10th instant say that a council of war was held that day, and that it is rumored that Johnston would make a fight for the city. This would tend to show that it is not their intention. All trains belonging to the army have gone toward Augusta, and everybody fleeing. Eight miles up the river from here is a good bridge that is not destroyed. I will work hard on the bridge here and finish it as soon as possible. It is a big job as you will perceive from the length. Everything was burned up here that we could use - houses, mills, lumber, and all.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. M. DOGE, Major-General, Commanding.

OK that covers Roswell up through the Civil War. I will try to squeeze in all the rest of the history and the exciting current vibe in our third wrap up post on Roswell. Today's GNW Gals are in bondage for kidnapping to Indiana.


Tricky Google "Classy images Women in bondage"