Support team: Crew finishes work that will protect Georgia textile mill ruins for decades

Wooden support shortly before it was removed near end of project

Arch now supported by ring of steel plates (Don Scarbrough photos)

Add Tropical Storm Irma to the list of hazards that the remains of the Civil War-era New Manchester textile mill have weathered.

Crews wrapping up a 10-week stabilization of the towering brick ruins at Sweetwater Creek State Park in Douglas County, Ga., were concerned by approaching high winds and the potential for flooding.

“It did fine. The park lost only a few trees,” said park interpretive ranger Don Scarbrough. While Sweetwater Creek rose, water did not flow into the mill’s interior, as it did in 2009.

Contractor Aegis Restauro recently completed a $375,000 stabilization of the New Manchester Manufacturing Co. factory, which at five stories was the tallest building in North Georgia. Thread, yarn and cloth were initially produced when the mill began operations in 1849.

It produced a variety of material for the Confederacy before it was burned in July 1864 by Federal cavalry moving on Atlanta. Nearly 100 New Manchester residents, mostly female workers and their children, were sent north by train to spend the rest of the war. Many took an oath of allegiance to the United States. You can read details of that sorrowful story here.

Graffiti includes Gilbert, a Union soldier part of unit that took mill

“There were some interesting discoveries, like more Civil War graffiti as they cleaned the walls,” Scarbrough said of the project. Some of the initials are believed to have been etched by Federal soldiers, though officials are not certain how many of the new discoveries were made by them.

Workers put in steel rods, applied specialized mortar and installed concrete caps on pillars and around windows, stabilizing the 160-year-old bricks and protecting them from moisture. Some of the bricks are still scorched from the fire that sent tons of machinery crashing to the bottom floor.

Ricky Day, an engineer with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said the slaved-made bricks were solid, but made of softer material than today’s versions.

Mill now includes capstones on top of brick (Photo by Don Scarbrough)

The project was meant to keep the ruins stable at least for several decades and “to keep it from tilting out,” said Day.

A few years ago, Scarbrough said, a group was paddling near the rapids and took a closer look. A member of the Friends of Sweetwater Creek State Park “thought a column was leaning slightly.” Engineers visited the interior in late 2014 and closed it. This summer’s work is the most significant since about 1990.

The work crew had to contend with loose bricks through the structure, including at the tops of brick columns. They used bricks strewn on the floor to make repairs. The top of the tallest wall lost a little height because the masonry was so deteriorated, Day said.

Photos by Don Scarbrough

Plate used to buttress many remaining windows, openings

For at least three decades, a wooden piece supported the arch connecting the mill race (or stream) and the giant wheel that drove the mill machinery. The piece was finally removed in the renovation, and steel plates are supporting the historic arch, making for a more authentic appearance.

Now that the project is complete, the picturesque mill interior will be available again for guided tours by park staff, weddings, photo sessions and filmmakers – all a source of revenue for the state. The mill is enclosed and locked.

While the interior is accessible to only those with a guide, you can get impressive views of the mill from several angles outside the fence.

Courtesy of Don Scarbrough

Action! Civil War mill ruins near Atlanta will resume tours, filming inside after stabilization

Don Scarbrough surveys portions of New Manchester mill 

Work along one of factory walls

As he has for the better part of 20 years, Don Scarbrough trudged with a visitor along Sweetwater Creek State Park’s Red Trail. Our objective on this muggy summer afternoon was a towering piece of Georgia’s Civil War history that’s long been in ruin.

“I never get tired of it,” Scarbrough said of the walk. He used a trekking pole to reach the fenced site of a creek-powered mill that produced cloth and other textiles for the Confederacy.

The interpretive ranger loves the natural beauty and creatures that reside in this park in Douglas County, just west of Atlanta. What about the humans who lived here?

“I talk about a lot of sad history,” Scarbrough said of his guided tours. There were the Native Americans who had to sell their land so that whites could scour Sweetwater Creek and environs for gold. There were the slaves who were loaned out by white citizens to do much of the hard work.

Graffiti believed left by Federal soldiers

The remains of the brick mill tell another disturbing story.

After it was torched by Union cavalry in July 1864, nearly 100 New Manchester residents, mostly female workers and their children, were sent north by train -- under protest -- to spend the rest of the war. Many took an oath of allegiance to the United States. Some never came back to Georgia. You can read details of that sorrowful story here.

Scarbrough and other staff members are looking forward to the day they can unlock the gate and again take park visitors inside the ruins, where they can gaze upon graffiti left by Federal soldiers, bricks damaged by the fire and the impressive wheel room.

They have not been able to do so for nearly three years because of worries about the ruins’ stability and safety.

Wooden arch will be removed after stabilization

Since early July, workers for Aegis Restauro LLC have been toiling on a $375,000 stabilization of remains of the New Manchester Manufacturing Co., which at five stories was the tallest building in North Georgia. Thread, yarn and cloth were initially produced when the factory began operations in 1849.

Workers are installing steel rods, new mortar and concrete caps on pillars. The project is expected to be completed by the end of September.

Once the project is complete, the picturesque mill interior will be available again for tours, weddings, photo sessions and filmmakers – all a source of revenue for the state.

The 2014 movie “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1,” starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, was shot at the mill. “Killing Season” (2013), with John Travolta and Robert DeNiro, included Sweetwater scenes, and another movie crew recently used the park.

While the interior will be available to only those with a guide, you can get impressive views of the mill from several angles outside the fence.

Mill was built to last, but didn't

It’s easy to see why investors chose the site for what was then called Sweetwater Factory. The creek bed drops in elevation, speeding the flow of water. A 1,400-foot millrace -- a channel into which water was funneled to the factory -- was built by slaves.

Today, when the water is high, kayakers scoot past the ruins. When the creek flow is lower, visitors “rock hop” through Sweetwater Creek.

Volunteer noticed middle column was leaning.

A few years ago, Scarbrough said, a group was paddling near the rapids and took a closer look. A member of the Friends of Sweetwater Creek State Park “thought a column was leaning slightly.”

Engineers visited the interior in late 2014 and it has been closed since. This summer’s work is the most significant since about 1990.

Slaves made the bricks and cut the lumber for construction of the mill and performed much of the labor. Stones quarried a mile or two below the site were carried by oxen-led wagons over Jack’s Hill to the site.

Courtesy D. Scarbrough

“This mill has an awesome foundation (left),” said Scarbrough, adding the builders’ skills and talents are evident today. Besides the structure, the millrace stones have largely stayed in position for nearly 170 years.

While fire was the chief danger for New Manchester in the mid-19^th century, today it’s water. Rainfall and other moisture cause damage to seams in the brick, especially when they freeze and expand. The facelift is addressing that and other issues. The mill is fragile in places and there are loose bricks.

Officials hope the stabilization will preserve the historic site for at least several more decades.

Charlie Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said New Manchester “helps people understand both Civil War and industrial history, including the use of water power. It fits in well with Atlanta's origin story as a transportation, manufacturing and distribution center.”

'Operatives' marched off from ruins

The community that supported the mill – a store, post office, a leather goods shop, homes and a lumber mill – are long gone, making New Manchester a ghost town. When the mill was burned all of the metal machinery tumbled to the foundation. Much of that was removed in 1942 during a World War II scrap drive, the park learned.

(Picket photo)

Machinery remnants found after 2009 flood (Don Scarbrough)

If the ghosts are talking, they are likely the spirits of women who worked in the mill during the Civil War while their menfolk were at the front. They produced fabrics, including osnaburg, for assembly elsewhere. 

“A lot of cloth was made into Confederate uniforms in Atlanta,” said Scarbrough.

Bill Cahill, former president of the park friends group, said, “It was such a high-quality material, after they finished making a wagon load it was sent to Marietta or Atlanta.” 

Mary Deborah Petite’s book, “The Women Will Howl,” tells of the forced relocation of workers at New Manchester and a much larger group of 500 people at profitable mills in Roswell, a suburb just north of Atlanta.

Rendering of mill at visitor center

About the same time Federal cavalry was burning sites in Roswell, troopers with the 1^st and 11^th Kentucky Cavalry and 14^th Illinois Cavalry – among other units -- occupied the town of New Manchester without firing a shot. They were surprised to see that of the 120 workers, all but 15 or 20 were women and children, Scarbrough said.

“Detachments from Stoneman's cavalry went to the mill twice,” said Crawford. "On 2 July they pulled out the belts that powered the machinery, and on 9 July they broke and burned the (mill).”

Torched were the factory and the company store, along with other buildings. From the Northern perspective, the workers were American citizens in open rebellion – a policy that outraged Southerners.

The so-called “operatives” were marched to Marietta for shipment north. They were placed in the Georgia Military Institute while they awaited trains.

There would be no trials at which they could defend themselves.

The 600 were shipped out July 10 and 11, with stops in Chattanooga and Nashville. Many were sent to Ohio and Indiana after they arrived in Louisville, Ky., where they were initially imprisoned in a hospital. A few died of typhoid, measles and other diseases.

“First housed and fed in a Louisville refugee hospital, the women later took what menial jobs and living arrangements could be found. Those in Indiana struggled to survive, many settling near the river, where eventually mills provided employment,” the New Georgia Encyclopedia says. “Unless husbands had been transported with the women or had been imprisoned nearby, there was little probability of a return to Roswell, so the remaining women began to marry and bear children.”

Very few ever made it back to Georgia. Mills were reopened in Roswell, but not at New Manchester. “They didn’t stay here. There was no way to make a living,” said Scarbrough.

From a preservation perspective, the discernible nature of the mill ruins help people understand what it did, said Crawford.

“By comparison, Roswell is also a neat site, but only the drawings give one an idea of what was once there, whereas New Manchester Mill provides a more tangible example.”

Lives touched by war

Synthia Stewart

Scarbrough and I continued talking about New Manchester’s history as we walked back up to the park office.

Once inside, I revisited exhibits associated with the mill and props left after the production of “Killing Season.” Visitors can read the transcript of a recording by Synthia Stewart, who was a girl when the Yankees came to town. Her father served in the Confederate army. Stewart, among those transported north, was about 92 when the recording was made.

Many of those who worked at the mill for $1 day were fixtures in nearby Lithia Springs and other communities. The park hosted a reunion of descendants in 2004, the 140th anniversary of the mill's turning

Cahill said about 60 people from all over the country attended and swapped stories about their relatives. "It was awesome."

“We had one lady who came up here from Florida who was related to one of the mill workers, but had no idea of anything about him. She had only the name, he said. “We showed her all kinds of photographs of the guy she was related to.” 

At the park office, Scarbrough thumbed through files about the mill. One binder contained a census of New Manchester from 1860 to 1864. When known, the workers’ duties and whether they were in the Georgia militia are noted.

The remarks sections perhaps are the most interesting. “Andy’s father”; “town drunk”; “manufactured shoes with brothers”; “17 year old Confed. Soldier Captured at Factory.”

Howls of protest: Women mill workers were forced north from Georgia

New Manchester Manufacturing Co.’s mill about 18 miles west of Atlanta was fed by the roiling waters of Sweetwater Creek and bales of cotton brought in by wagon.

The mill, at five stories, was the tallest building in North Georgia. Natural light filled the brick structure, and a massive 25-ton waterwheel powered the machinery that produced cotton yarns and material.

So it was no wonder that the Confederate government in 1861 contracted with the mill’s owners to produce muslin and osnaburg, a fabric lighter than canvas, for its army.

The deal sealed the factory’s fate.

Subsequently viewed as a military target, the mill within three years was torched by Union troops who made Georgia howl during Gen. William T. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign and subsequent March to the Sea.

Tuesday afternoon, I ventured to Sweetwater Creek State Park to enjoy its natural splendor and gaze at the ruins of the mill, which was built in 1849 and initially dubbed Sweetwater Factory.

The surrounding community – a store, post office, homes and a lumber mill – are long gone, making New Manchester a ghost town.

But if the ghosts are talking, they are likely the spirits of women who worked in the mill during the Civil War while their menfolk were at the front.

After the mill was torched by Union cavalry, nearly 100 New Manchester residents, mostly female workers and their children, were sent north by train, under protest, to spend the rest of the war. Many took an oath of allegiance to the United States.

They were called traitors or “operatives” for their efforts to supply the Confederate military.

“The horror of the Civil War was not confined to the field of battle. It invaded cities, small towns and oft times the hearths and homes of innocent victims, leaving only destruction and despair in its wake,” writes author Mary Deborah Petite. “The little known story of the North Georgia mill workers is just one more heartbreaking example.”

Petite’s book, “The Women Will Howl,” tells of the forced relocation of workers at New Manchester and a much larger group of 500 people at mills in Roswell, a suburb just north of Atlanta.

One of those Roswell mill incidents involved a ruse featuring a French flag that I wrote about in a popular Picket article in October 2010.

On July 5, 1864, Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard and his Union troopers were battling the home guard for a vital bridge at Roswell, but the Rebels set it afire. Garrard was surprised to see a most unexpected banner above the Ivy Woolen Mill at the river. It was a French national flag.

Garrard rode in to investigate and was met by mill workers claiming to be English or French citizens.

Theophile Roche, a journeyman weaver from Paris who claimed at least part ownership of the mill, had concocted the idea of flying the French flags to show the mill was not part of the Confederacy, therefore not subject to seizure or destruction.

Garrard walked into Ivy Woolen Mill on July 6 to discover bolts of cloth with the letters CSA woven in. He was shown records indicating the material would be used to make uniforms for Confederate troops.

Garrard ordered the mill burned and moved along the river to the Roswell Manufacturing Co., a larger complex that had nothing to do with the French flag incident but did make goods for the South. Federal forces set it afire, too. 

Meanwhile, back at Sweetwater Creek, troopers with the 1^st and 11^th Kentucky Cavalry occupied the town of New Manchester without firing a shot.

Brig. Gen. Garrard

A week later, on July 9, 1864, Northern troops burned the factory buildings and the company store to the ground.

Union troops rounded up 400 of the Ivy Woolen and Roswell mill workers (a contingent that included 87 men -- some soldiers, some deserters), and then added those who worked at the Sweetwater Creek mill, for a total of nearly 600 people. Five hundred were women and children.

From the Northern perspective, the workers were American citizens in open rebellion – a policy that outraged Southerners.

Sherman wrote to Garrard: “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...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.”

The prisoners were marched to Marietta for shipment north. They were placed in the Georgia Military Institute while they awaited trains.

Georgia militia uniform

There would be no trials at which they could defend themselves.

The 600 were shipped out July 10 and 11, with stops in Chattanooga and Nashville. Many were sent to Ohio and Indiana after they arrived in Louisville, Ky., where they were initially imprisoned in a hospital. A few died of typhoid, measles and other diseases.

“First housed and fed in a Louisville refugee hospital, the women later took what menial jobs and living arrangements could be found. Those in Indiana struggled to survive, many settling near the river, where eventually mills provided employment,” the New Georgia Encyclopedia says. “Unless husbands had been transported with the women or had been imprisoned nearby, there was little probability of a return to Roswell, so the remaining women began to marry and bear children.”

Very few ever made it back to Georgia. Mills were reopened in Roswell, but not at New Manchester.

Of course, the captured white workers and residents of New Manchester were not alone in an absence of rights.

Slaves, after all, had made the bricks and cut the lumber for construction of the mills, and had performed much of the labor. A millrace (left), a channel into which water is funneled to the factory, was built by slaves at Sweetwater Creek.

The museum at Sweetwater Creek State Park includes exhibits about the mill and affected families, including Synthia Stewart, who was a young girl when the Yankees came to town. Her father served in the Confederate army.

Stewart, while in her 90s, described the privations the family suffered and the burning of the town.

One account is a story of hunger, with Lizzie being Synthia’s mother:

The next day there came a crowd of northern soldiers. Before they came through, Grandma said, “Well, Lizzie, let’s cook the children one more meal of victuals.” We had lots of chickens, but we had nothing else much though to go with them, so they cooked the chickens and fixed dinner. before we could get through, why, the yard was full of men, looked like. They just come on down, and we children walked to the door, and they said, “Well, we’re just in time.” They didn’t ask if they could or not, they just walked in and sat down at the table and ate up all the dinner we had cooked, so we didn’t have anything more left to cook another day.”

Upcoming on Picket: French flag incident

Georgia's new 150th map recounts the story of women and children captured and sent north after an infamous incident during the Atlanta Campaign. It's not a new story, but it is one with which I was not familiar. I'll include a conversation with Michael Hitt, who wrote about the bizarre Roswell confrontation in "Charged With Treason."