Our Roswell Women, Sisters In the Mists

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Primrose Cottage - one of the historic antebellum Roswell homes that survived the War.
 
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 Willeyo 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.
[Ibid., pp. 76-77]
 
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.
[Ibid., pp. 92-93]
 
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND,
July 10, 1864.

Major-General SHERMAN:

The Roswell Factory hands, 400 or 500 in number, have arrived at Marietta. The most of them are women. I can only order them transportation to Nashville, where it seems hard to turn them adrift. What had best be done with them?

GEO. H. THOMAS,
Major-General.
[Ibid., p. 104]
 
From page 114 of Mr. Hitt's book:

"To shed some light on Sherman's true reason for charging the mill workers with treason, one must look at General Order No. 100, issued by the War Department, Adj. General's Office, in Washington, D. C., on April 24, 1863 (Also known as the Lieber Code). This order was titled Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, Section 10, Paragraph No. 157, which states:

"Armed or unarmed resistance by citizens of the United States against the lawful movements of their troops in levying war against the United States and is therefore treason."

From page 147-148 of Mr. Hitt's book:

Sunday, February 18, 1865.

In Washington D.C., Brig. Gen. Hoffman, Commissary-General of Prisoners had heard reports of female prisoners, in detention, in Louisville, KY. He wrote Captain Jones about this matter.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS
Washington, D.C., February 18, 1865.

Capt. S.E. JONES, Provost-Marshal, Louisville, KY.

Captain: I am directed by the Commissary-General of Prisoners to inquire if there is a female prison or hospital, and to request, if such is the case, that you will report the number of prisoners confined there and the number of employees connected with it to this office.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
G. BLAGDEN,
Major, Second Mass. Cav.,
Asst. to Com. Gen. of Prisoners
 
Thursday, February 23, 1865.

Captain Jones gives this reply to Washingtn, D.C. on the female prison question. His reply shows that the mill workers have been released. The few that remain have been too sick to move.

Louisville, KY,
February 23, 1865.

Respectfully return to Brig. Gen. W. Hoffman, Commissary-General of Prisoners, with the information that there is no female prison or hospital under my charge, but that there is one at this place under command of the post commandant, organized under orders from Brevet Major-General Burbridge, commanding District of Kentucky. It is learned from the officer in immediate charge (whose reports are enclosed herewith) that there are 20 women and 14 children confined in it, and 1 doctress, 1 stewardess, and 1 orderly connected with the hospital department, and 1 commissioned officer, 2 non-commissioned officers, and from 7 to 10 privates acting as guards of the prison.

Stephen E. JONES
Captain and Additional Aide-de-Camp
 
Wednesday, July 19, 1865.

"At the Roswell Manufacturing Company's stockholders meeting, the first since the war ended, Barrington King makes a statement concerning the mill workers on their actions on July 6, 1864.

We regret much to report the conduct of a few men, in our employment for years with the women and children, from whom we expected protction from our property--they plundered & destroyed to a large amount, tearing down shelves in the store to burn, breaking glasses and otherwise injuring the houses, hauling off iron and copper to sell and putting the wheel in motion and seriously injuring it by throwing down rocks.

Mr. Hitt then comments in his book:

"With the war over, most of the mill workers, charged with treason, returned home. Samuel Farr and his family returned to Roswell and they are buried in the Roswell Methodist Cemetery. Many others returned, according to S.H. Causey, a former Sweet Water Factory Employee:

"Great was the rejoicing when the smoke of battle had cleared, and by the end of the summer of 1865 practically all of them rejoined their husbands, fathers and sweethearts in their former Roswell and Sweetwater homes. ...as soon as peace was declared they returned home, making the trip aboardthe same train which had taken them north a year before."

Mr. Hitt also stated in his book:

"The main reason why the true number of Roswell Mill workers sent north or returned is not known, as well as their names, is given in this 1866 military report by Brevet Brigadier General D.C. McCallum:

"No record was kept of the contrabands, refugees, and rebel deserters that poured back of active operations. General Sherman ordered all sent to the rear who could not feed themselves, and they were placed upon the first train going in the direction by post commanders."
 
Thanks, but I can't take credit for this last part of quoting the letters. Because this topic comes up so often, I thought I'd copy some of the quotes from lengthier threads which get into a lot of stuff about Sherman, Lee, Chambersburg that's not about the millworker women. @unionblue and @Johannesteele provided many of these quotes. I just moved them over to this thread where JPK and I have been adamant that the focus will remain on these ladies.
 
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