Tellico Iron Works

Tellico Iron Works. Gripped in the War's Iron Fist. Throughout the Civil War, both sides depended on the iron industry for vitally important munitions. The Tellico Iron and Manufacturing Company, then located one mile east, caught the attention first of the Confederate army and eventually of Union Gen. William T. Sherman himself., In 1843, Elisha Johnson, former mayor of Rochester, N.Y., and his brother Ebenezer Johnson (died 1849) purchased the Tellico Iron Company. Established in 1824 amid rich deposits of brown hematite, it produced what was touted as “the finest grade of iron ore in the world.” After the war began, the high quality of Johnson’s iron influenced the Confederacy to seize his company. Col. H.B. Latrobe supervised the works to ensure that Johnson’s Union sympathies did not affect the production., Early in December 1863, Union Gen. William T. Sherman marched into East Tennessee to relieve Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s troops in Knoxville, where Confederate James Longstreet besieged them. On learning of the Confederacy’s use of the ironworks, Sherman accompanied Gen. Morgan Smith and his troops there. They established headquarters at the Johnson house on December 9-11. Johnson was accused of operating the ironworks to support the Confederate army. Sherman presided over a trial in the house and acquitted Johnson, perhaps because of Johnson’s Northern birth and sympathies., Elisha Johnson’s Union loyalties saved his house from Sherman’s torch, but Union soldiers completely demolished the Tellico Iron Works before leaving for Chattanooga on December 12., (captions) , (lower left) Elisha Johnson Courtesy Monroe County Archives; Gen. William T. Sherman Courtesy Library of Congress , (upper right) Elisha Johnson house - Courtesy Sharon Cain , (lower right) Iron bars, Tellico Iron Works - Courtesy Charles Hall Museum