Effects of the Civil War on the Roswell Manufacturing Company

Effects of the Civil War on the Roswell Manufacturing Company. . During the Civil War, the Roswell Manufacturing Company produced supplies for the Confederate States of America. The cotton mills were filling orders for muslin, rope, and cotton duck cloth for tents. Further downstream, Ivy Mills, owned by James Roswell King and his brother Thomas Edward King, manufactured “Roswell Grey” woolens with the CSA insignia. The Confederacy supplied the raw wool for the wool weft, and the area’s cotton mills supplied the cotton warp. Ivy Mills then sent the cloth to Atlanta, where seamstresses turned out Confederate uniforms., In 1864, Union General Sherman was invading Georgia to the north. Federal troops were dispatched to Roswell, which was a target on their march to Atlanta, having one of the few bridges over the Chattahoochee River. Upon their arrival, Union forces were amazed that the mills were still in operation. General Sherman ordered the arrest of the operatives and the burning of the mills., Pvt. Silas C. Stevens of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery wrote of his involvement in the burning of the mill on July 7, 1864:, I caused to be placed on each floor, beginning at the top, saturated cotton with oil, in large quantities, and carefully arranged everything ready to fire my building….I lighted the combustibles which went off with a flash, at the upper story first, then each successive floor, from the top downward to the basement, so that I had a very interesting blaze…., My idea was not to endanger the buildings of the residents of the place, whose houses were in the immediate vicinity, and if my fire was communicated by floors, from the top downward there would possibly be less danger from flying sparks, and each floor would fall quickly as burned into the basement and the waters of the stream., (captions) , Receipt for a total of 30,804 yards of brown muslin sold to the Confederate States of America by the Roswell Manufacturing Company, dated March 17, 1864. Courtesy of the Roswell Historical Society, Inc., Sketch drawings by Private Charles Holyland of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery showing the burning of the mills of the Roswell Manufacturing Company. Courtesy of the Roswell Historical Society, Inc.