Roswell Manufacturing Company During the Civil War

Roswell Manufacturing Company During the Civil War. . During the Civil War, the cotton mills produced sheeting, tenting, yarn, and rope for the Confederate War effort. Barrington King invested heavily in Confederate bonds on behalf of the Roswell Manufacturing Company., On the 5th of July 1864, Federal troops arrived in the Roswell area to take advantage of the bridge crossing the Chattahoochee River and the nearby shallow ford on their advance towards Atlanta. Union General Kenner Garrard learned that the bridge had been burned by the Roswell Battalion and, upon entering the town, discovered that the cotton mills were engaged in the manufacturing of goods for the Confederacy., The 2nd U.S. Cavalry Division, under the authority of Garrard, was commanded to destroy the mills. General William T. Sherman then ordered Garrard to arrest all the mill operatives (mostly women and children), charge the with treason, and send them under guard to Marietta, where they were transported by troop trains north to Louisville, Kentucky. Eventually, the workers were released upon taking the oath of allegiance., Union Pvt. Silas C. Stevens, of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery, gave a detailed description of the burning of the mills:, The women and the children filed out of the structure at once in quiet wonder on the banks of the stream, watching our preparations for the destruction of the mills. It did seem at first blush, to be a wanton act, to fire these polished machines which filled the building from basement to the top story, after they came to a stand still. But all is fair, as it has been stated, in love and war., At the end of the war, stockholders of the Roswell Manufacturing Company voted to rebuild the 1853 mill. The factory was back in operation by 1867. The 1839 mill was not rebuilt., (captions) , The Sixteenth Army Corps Fording the Chattahoochee at Roswell’s Ferry, July 10th, 1864. Sketch by George D. Sayller. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Courtesy of Michael Hitt, Evacuation of Mill Workers, Sketch by Richard Harrison, Sketch by Pvt. Charles Holyland, Chicago Board of Trade Battery, of the Roswell Manufacturing Company’s Cotton Mills Following Their Burning by Union Forces, July 7, 1864. Courtesy of the Roswell Historical Society, Visual Arts Collection, Sketch of vicinity of 2 Cav. Div. camp, the proposed camp is where the 3 Brig. now is, Signed by K. Garrard, B.G. Courtesy of Library of Congress