A hard choice during 'hard war': Federal soldiers gave women at burned New Manchester mill in Georgia two options. Only one ensured food on the table

Much has been written about Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s "hard war" in Georgia, and the debate over the accompanying destruction continues today. Did he focus almost completely on military targets, or was civilian property fair game, too?

There was no ambiguity when it came to textile mills and factories around Atlanta that supplied the Confederacy. “This whole region was devoted to manufactories, but I will destroy every one of them,” Sherman wrote to a subordinate the same week cavalry units burned textile mills in Roswell and at New Manchester in Douglas County, about 35 miles to the southwest.

The impressive ruins of the New Manchester mill today are the prime attraction at Sweetwater Creek State Park near Lithia Springs. I recently asked interpretive ranger Adrian Fox to detail its operation and the fate of the nearly 200 men, women and children there, and the tough choice they had to make.

This is among the records kept by Adrian Fox at Sweetwater Creek State Park (Picket photo, click to enlarge)

But let’s start with the Roswell mills, which were destroyed first, on July 6, 1864.

Sherman wrote he wanted 400 Roswell workers to be charged with treason, given the Ivy Woolen Mill was flying a French flag when Federal troopers rode by. The ruse was meant to show the mill was not subject to seizure or destruction. It failed.

From the Northern perspective, the workers were American citizens in open rebellion. Southerners said the women were eking out a living as menfolk defended their homeland.

Click to enlarge Sherman correspondence in Official Records about the mill workers

On July 7, Sherman wrote to Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard about the Roswell employees, who had been making material for uniforms:

“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. We will retain them until they can reach a country where they can live in peace and security.”

The prisoners were placed in the Georgia Military Institute while they awaited trains. There would be no trials, so no one actually was formally accused and convicted of treason.

New Manchester, then the tallest building in the region, was burned on July 9. It manufactured muslin and osnaburg, a fabric lighter than canvas, for the Rebel army.

Fox said the historic site is “so instinctively human.”

This for a time was a thriving company town. But as conditions worsened and the war ground on, there was always the threat of homes being looted by desperate families who lived nearby.

A 1932 article (below, click to enlarge) in The Atlanta Journal newspaper described the memories of S.H. Causey, a worker at New Manchester:

“Shortly after the burning of the mill, Mr. Causey recalls, the Federal officers assembled the Sweetwater people and announced they were going to be allowed to take their choice between two courses. One was that they would be paroled upon signing an agreement that they would not again engage in the occupation of making cloth for the Confederacy, although they might remain where they were or find homes elsewhere on southern soil. The other choice was that they should be furnished free transportation to some point beyond the Ohio River, behind the Federal lines, and there given their freedom. Most of them chose the latter course, since under the circumstances it offered them the only means of earning a livelihood.”

Some of the workers had highly prized skills. The mill was in ruins and Atlanta was about to fall. As Fox said, they were given a "strong-arm choice."

“For the working poor, the priority was the safety and survival of their children.” So they chose to go north, where -- as it turned out -- they had no real freedom or autonomy.

Workers were sent to Marietta, where they were put together with the Roswell workers. After that, they were all treated basically the same. A monument in Roswell, funded by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, says they were effectively deported (Picket photo, click to enlarge).

The 600 (500 of whom were women and children) 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.”

Lore has it few made it back to Georgia, but there are examples.

Sara Frances “Fannie” White Clay was a daughter of one of the New Manchester Mill workers.  She went north with her mother to Louisville, according to Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association. She was called “Sissy” while growing up.

“Don’t believe that ‘they were never heard from again’ baloney,” said Crawford. “Sissy, her older sister and her mom returned to New Manchester area when the war was over and were reunited with the father/husband. When Sissy grew up, she married Alexander Stephens Clay, who became a U.S. senator. One of their sons was General Lucius D. Clay, commander of the Berlin Airlift. One of their grandsons was General Lucius D. Clay Jr., who was commander of Pacific Air Forces when I was in stationed in Vietnam and Hawaii. So much for Sissy never being heard from again.”

Depiction of mill workers assembled in Marietta, Ga., for transport north

After the Civil War, mills were reopened in Roswell, but not at New Manchester.

It became a ghost town.

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Rendering of New Manchester mill in operation, exhibited at park visitor center (Picket photo)

'Unsung heroes' painstakingly ensure uniforms live to tell their compelling stories

Uniform of Sgt. Alfred May before conservation (NC Museum of History)

The work is tedious and tough on the back. An individual item can take up to 200 hours to complete. But the efforts pay off, especially when a uniform can be put back in condition that, when put on display, will help tell the personal stories and cost of the Civil War. Textile conservator Paige Myers of the North Carolina Museum of History will explain her craft in a live streaming webcast on Sept. 10. Myers recently spoke with the Picket about her work.

Q. What do you do?

A. The conservator physically works with an object to arrest the deterioration and do hands-on cleaning and stabilization of the object. We don’t add anything new and don’t make it look grand new or add new parts. We add support, but we do not interfere if something is missing. Science and chemistry are involved.

The May coat after conservation. (NC Museum of History)

Q. The museum has about 100 uniforms. Can you tell us a little about them?

A. The majority came in in between 1903, when the museum was founded by Col. Fred Olds, and 1920. Most are frock coats, because those are what lasted. The majority are those belonging to prominent men, upper-grade officers. We have very few from the average soldier. We have Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew’s frock coat and sash. As you work with them, you get to know them (the wearer) by name. Col. Charles Fisher died in 1861. His coat has unusual buttons. We have a few shell jackets.

Q. Tell us about the uniforms’ condition.

Alfred May

A. Many are too fragile to put out. Col. Fred loved to put them on display. We try to rotate our textiles after six months to a year. And with some, a lot of the dyes were not color-fast: they faded pretty early. The wool uniforms are pretty stable. Sometimes the interiors can be very fragile. One was stored in tobacco leaves and did not do well. It is very rare, belonging to to Sgt. Alfred May, Company F, 61^st NC Regiment.  We now have it restored after more than two years’ work.  We sent it to a conservation team in New York. They had to sew in support for whatever little bits of wool were left.

Q. Can you give us examples of good and improper storage?

A. Bad is putting a trunk in the attic. It is hot up there. The combination of the heat and the acid from the wood, the tannins, over time affects cotton and linens more than it does wool. It can affect dyes and actually stain things. People did not have closets like we do today and hangars did not come until the 20^th century. A lot of these uniforms were so loved in their families that they were really taken care of. Pettigrew was wealthy and his had a yellow lining. Sometimes a trunk protected them but, today, the best place is in an acid-free box and acid-free tissue. That will keep pests away. The main thing with the wool uniforms is carpet beetles, silverfish and moths because they will eat holes in the uniforms. Mothballs do no good.

Q. What about the museum’s large flag collection?

A. Most are made of wool bunting. The majority are battle flags and, generally, they are in fairly good condition. A lot of times they are in poor condition from the battle. The majority have soot, possibly specks of shrapnel. Some of have been "souvenired" -- parts cut away by whoever captured it. We have some silk flags. They have not been as conserved as much as other battle flags. We have groups pay for some of these flags’ conservation. Some are made from women’s clothing – one from a dark blue shawl.

Q. What are some of your techniques?

A.  When we put a support on a wool patch we have to make sure everything we do is reversible. The technology is evolving and we are learning new techniques to conserve and stabilize things. Sometimes the stitching where we think it is helping it is not helping. We used to use just cotton threads. We now have very fine polyester threads that are thinner and just as strong as cotton. It makes the repair that we have done less visible. We discuss things with curators because we want to know the history of the garment to know if it is a bullet hole or original damage.

Q. How about items worn or repaired after the Civil War?

Gen. Leventhorpe

A. We get a lot of dresses that have been worn into the early 20^th century. If (an earlier repair) is damaging to an object, modern stitching with sewing machine, you might take those out. The Brig. Gen. Collett Leventhorpe coat now on display – there was some debate when we looked at it. There is some stitching done by Leventhorpe after the war. It was damaging the inside of the coat. We did the repair and kept the original threads. Conservation is much like putting a puzzle together.

Q. Can you tell us about display and storage?

A. The idea is to keep everything flat. We usually have them in hanging storage with padded hangars. If they are too fragile, they are boxed. Our flags are usually rolled if not in conservation. The flat-stored objects are in baker’s-type trays. Humidity is 55%.

Q. How has the approach to conservation evolved?

A. Museum collecting in the 1960s and 1970s was not considered the science that is now. Things might have been repaired to a heavier degree than we would now. Things might have been machine-stitched and a modern patch may have been used. Anything that I do is hand sewing.

Q. Can you tell us about how uniforms were made?

A. A lot were made by tailors or by women. Certain women would make a sleeve, one would make a front part of it and they would put it together. A good tailor could make a frock coat in 16 hours and there were lots linings and pockets. These were meant to last, and soldiers would not have had more than one or two coats. It was what everybody wore -- it was the style and fashion. You can see the wear of button holes, and some are not as a worn as others. They may not have buttoned all of them, so they could have ventilation go through.

Q. Do you have any emotional reactions to the items?

A. Sometimes there can be. When you see bullet holes and the possibility they died, it can leave you with sad thoughts. With one soldier, Cox, his vest and coat were shot all to pieces and the arm of the coat was cut open by surgeon scissors to get it off of him. He was shot 11 times during the war and survived. The coat never can go on a mannequin again. The entire left sleeve is cut open.

Paige Myers works on an 1860s Quaker frock coat

Q. Were men really smaller then?

A. The cut of the uniform can be deceptive. People were skinnier in some regards. Most of these guys have a 36-inch chest. If you are between 16 and 25 there are still a lot of skinny guys now who have a 36-inch. You don’t know exactly how they wore the uniform. That is where photography and knowing a little bit about that person comes in. The majority of these uniforms are pretty consistent and most are double-breasted. Pants, many were 28-30 inches, some 34s inseams for pants, Guys wore them higher, above their belly button. Most jackets around 38. They would be your young skinny 20-something today.

Q. OK, this work can be pretty tedious, right?

A. You really have to have a level of concentration to do this and you want to get your stitches precise to not damage something further. I use a magnifying glass and do the work in stages. It is hard on your back. You don’t want to move the object -- you have to move yourself. Sometimes you have to walk away. My lab is pretty bright, but it is controlled with UV filtering.

Q. What about the colors?

A. I try to match colors, swatches. When I dye a patch, I don’t go back to the original color of the uniform. I match the aging. Sometimes, I have a gray coat or uniform with a greenish cast and my support fabric will be green. Green grays can be tricky. Even a brown is not a brown -- often it is darker. Not every (Confederate) soldier wore butternut or brown.

Q. How do you see your role at the museum?

A. Conservators and curators don’t always agree. The curator’s job is to get it out to the public; the conservator says sometimes you cannot put it display. We have to compromise. You have to be careful how long you put them out and it can take up to a year to conserve one of these uniforms or flags. We are sort of the unsung heroes. I always think I could do more for an item, but we were taught less is more. Sometimes, it is what you don’t do to an artifact, as opposed to what you do, that will help preserve it.