The Left Flank; Military Operations in the Roswell Area July 5, 1864 - July 17, 1864
Michael D. Hitt (Modifier of Maps) Michael D. Hitt, 1984. Spiral bound wraps. [6], 34, [2] pages. Illustrated cover. Maps. Some Sideline Facts of Roswell's History. Footnotes. Bibliography. Picture credits. Cover has some wear, soiling, and sticker residue at rear. Michael Hitt's interest in history dates back to his early childhood. In high school, his teachers asked him to give lectures about the Civil War to the rest of the students, because of his obvious fascination with the subject. He also participated in Civil War re-enactments and living history programs with the National Park Service. After high school, Michael entered the Armed Forces, first serving with the first of the 15th Field Artillery, 2nd Infantry Division, in Korea. He was later stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, with the First Cavalry Division, during which time, he gave tours as an historical interpreter at the Cavalry Museum. Then he served in the signal corps and military police. Since 1984, Michael has published about numerous subjects of historical interest. Michael currently serves as historian for the Roswell Preservation Commission. The Roswell Mills are best known for their role in producing supplies for the Confederacy during the Civil War. They made "Roswell Gray" fabric to be sewed into Confederate military uniforms. Because it was of great importance to the South’s military supply chain, General Gerrard, a Union official working under the purview of General Sherman, seized the mill on July 5, 1864. Confederate forces burned down the bridge that spanned Vickery Creek before he could get to it. Two days after the taking of the mill, General William T. Sherman remarked, "I have ordered General Gerrard to arrest for treason all owners and employees, foreign and native, and send them under guard to Marietta, whence I will send them North...The women can find employment in Indiana." The reference to the foreigners were made because the mill owners, apparently in a ploy to safeguard the mills, planted a French flag on the mills and put a French millhand in charge. The taking of the mill was not just a capture of infrastructure. The Union troops took about 400 mill workers, all of them women and children, to Marietta to be sent North on trains. The lack of adult male workers in the mill was a result of their fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War at the time the mill was captured. All of the mill workers were charged with treason. They spent a week in holding at the Georgia Military Institute before being sent North, many to Indiana, on trains. During the week while the women were held in Marietta, several Union soldiers allegedly committed acts of assault against their captives. They were then left to fend for themselves in Indiana, in towns already overcrowded with refugees. Many would die from starvation or exposure until a mill opened in 1865 that provided employment. The ultimate fates of many of these women are unknown, but the majority who survived settled in the North. Only a handful ever returned to Georgia.
Keywords: Civil War, Military Operations, William Tecumseh Sherman, Roswell, Georgia, Roswell Mills, Kenner Garrard, Cotton Mill, Roswell Gray, Georgia Military Institute, Joseph E. Johnston, John Newton, Grenville Dodge, James Veatch, Thomas Sweeeney, George
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