CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERA CASS/BARTOW COUNTY, GEORGIA Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this dissertation is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisory committee. This dissertation does not include proprietary or classified information. _______________________________ Keith Scott H?bert Certificate of Approval: ____________________________ ____________________________ Anthony G. Carey Kenneth W. Noe, Chair Associate Professor Professor History History ____________________________ ____________________________ Kathryn H. Braund Keith S. Bohannon Professor Associate Professor History History University of West Georgia ____________________________ George T. Flowers Interim Dean Graduate School CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERA CASS/BARTOW COUNTY, GEORGIA Keith Scott H?bert A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama May 10, 2007 iii CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERA CASS/BARTOW COUNTY, GEORGIA Keith Scott H?bert Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this dissertation at its discretion, upon request of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. ________________________________ Signature of Author ________________________________ Date of Graduation iv DISSERTATION ABSTRACT CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERA CASS/BARTOW COUNTY, GEORGIA Keith Scott H?bert Doctor of Philosophy, May, 10, 2007 (M.A., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2001) (B.A., State University of West Georgia, 1998) 374 Typed Pages Directed by Kenneth W. Noe A ?white men?s democracy? profoundly shaped aspects of pre-industrial Cass/Bartow County, Georgia?s social, economic, and political landscape. Following the removal of the Cherokee from northwest Georgia, white settlers predominately from western South Carolina and select East Georgia counties and their black slaves transferred their existing bi-racial society to one of the last frontiers remaining in southern Appalachia. During the antebellum period, locals, black and white, rich and poor, male and female, interacted to varying degrees due to their gender, race, and wealth in a variety of social, cultural, and political institutions and organizations that, at least from the perspective of the county?s white males, fostered bonds of communal loyalty and charity that reinforced the existing white men?s democracy. The Civil War challenged the existing white men?s democracy. Internally, questions concerning the timing of secession, military recruitment, and Confederate v governmental intrusions combined with a growing divide between the home front and front line to foster intense bouts of war weariness. War weariness dampened Confederate nationalism locally but it was not until the 1864 Atlanta Campaign that local support for the war effort collapsed. Ultimately, a combination of internal and external pressures defeated local residents and the Confederacy. During Reconstruction, local residents concerned themselves with reforming their tattered communities. Freedpeople enjoyed some of the liberties that emancipation brought yet due to hostile whites, ineffective federal programs, and intra-racial dissension many fell victim to the post-bellum rebuilding process. Many whites saw themselves as victims of the war, emancipation, and divine intervention. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Scholars accumulate enormous personal and professional debts while completing their research and writing. Without the guidance, encouragement, and friendship of Kenneth W. Noe this project and perhaps even my graduate career would have never developed. In addition to molding me into the scholar that I have become, he also taught me a number of other lessons about life that I have found equally valuable. At Auburn University, Anthony Carey and Kathryn Braund too helped hone my research and writing skills. While serving as an instructor at the University of West Georgia, I met Keith Bohannon. Our long talks in the halls of the history department combined with his generosity in sharing enormous amounts of primary source materials greatly benefited this project. My family has been saddled by this project for as long as I have. Rebecca L. H?bert read every version of this manuscript, listened intently for hours to her rambling husband, and faithfully supported my graduate career. Susan H?bert taught me from an early age the value of a college education. Her constant encouragement and support has made everything in my life possible. vii Style manual or journal used: The Chicago Manual of Style. 15 th Edition. Computer software used: Microsoft Word viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter One. Settlement through Cherokee Removal......................................................15 Chapter Two. A White Men?s Community: 1840-1860 ...................................................42 Chapter Three. The Road to Secession.............................................................................80 Chapter Four. 1861 .........................................................................................................130 Chapter Five. A White Community?s War: 1862-1863..................................................175 Chapter Six. The Atlanta Campaign ...............................................................................203 Chapter Seven. Federal Occupation................................................................................244 Chapter Eight. The War at Home: Fall 1864- Spring 1865 ............................................273 Chapter Nine. Reconstruction: 1865-1872 .....................................................................300 Epilogue. The Rise and Fall of a White Men?s Democracy ...........................................347 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................351 ix ABBREVIATIONS ADAH Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama. AHC Atlanta Historical Society Archives, Atlanta History Center. AHQ Alabama Historical Quarterly BCPL Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, Georgia. CWH Civil War History EU Robert Woodruff Library, Special Collections, Emory University, Decatur, Georgia. GDAH Georgia Department of Archives and History, Morrow, Georgia. GHQ Georgia Historical Quarterly JAH Journal of American History JSH Journal of Southern History NARA-ATL National Archives and Records Administration, Southeast Region, Atlanta. NGDPP Northwest Georgia Document Preservation Program SCC Southern Claims Commission SHC Southern Historical Collection, Special Collections, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Slave Rawick, George P., ed. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1972, 19 vols. Slave I Rawick, George P., ed. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, Supplement I. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1977, 12 vols. TSA Tennessee State Archives, Nashville, Tennessee. UGA Hargrett Rare Book and Special Collections, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. UNC-CH Special Collections, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. W&A Western & Atlantic Railroad 1 INTRODUCTION Local history matters. The history of communities, such as Cass/Bartow County, Georgia, is not entirely a function of the history of the State of Georgia or the United States. A county?s history sometimes involves different concerns and unique actors. County residents saw to be sure themselves as citizens of a state and thus identified with its concerns and shared in a common regional culture. The work which follows explores the convergence and divergence of events as seen through the experiences of an understudied northwest Georgia county. The Civil War was a watershed moment in the lives of Cass/Bartow Countians. The following work explores why the Civil War impacted the community the way it did. The Civil War both internally and externally challenged the community?s antebellum ?white men?s democracy? placing into question whether or not a social order dependent upon the preservation of slavery and white supremacy could endure. 1 * * * * * * * * * * * 2 In 2002, Kenneth W. Noe analyzed the recent historiography of the pre-industrial southern mountain region. In that essay, he commented that East Tennessee and western North Carolina still ?receive the lion?s share of attention? from Appalachian scholars, while western Virginia and eastern Kentucky ?remains all but ignored.? Noe might have added northwest Georgia to the list of understudied mountain sub-regions. In 2006, Jonathan Sarris?s A Separate Civil War: Communities in Conflict in the Mountain South appeared, providing scholars with their first opportunity to enjoy a book length discussion of two North Georgia communities? experiences. But except for Sarris?s recent contribution, only a handful of articles and theses explore the sub-region?s history. Given the prominent role that northwest Georgia played during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign and that campaign?s influence upon the overall outcome of the Civil War, it seems odd that so little is known about the counties through which General William Tecumseh Sherman marched. 2 To be sure, several regional and local studies relating to Georgia communities have improved our understanding of the nineteenth-century past of the state as a whole. Recent works examining the Piney Woods, Chattahoochee River Valley, Upcountry, and Blue Ridge regions expand upon previous scholarship that focused on the state?s Black Belt and Coastal Plains regions. Likewise, similar local studies detailing cities and towns such as Augusta, Madison, Macon, Columbus, and Savannah add greater depth to the current historiography. Nonetheless, no recent publication documents Appalachian northwest Georgia?s history from settlement through Reconstruction. 3 This study does, while placing Civil War era northwest Georgia into the context of pre-industrial Appalachian history, further broadening the scope of the current literature. Expanding 3 the existing historiography to include a greater diversity of identifiable mountain sub- regions will further destroy the image of a monolithic southern Appalachia. Likewise, as Noe also observed, ?although antebellum Appalachia as a subject has drawn increasing numbers of scholars, in the last two decades, interest in the Civil War years lagged behind.? 4 While several excellent regional histories of the Civil War in Appalachia exist, only a handful focus their on northwest Georgia, and even fewer mentioned Bartow County. Karen Hamilton?s thesis, for example, provides an excellent analysis of conditions within the county during the federal occupation of Bartow County, spring 1864-fall 1864. My descriptions of that period were profoundly influenced by her superb research and analysis. This study places the nation?s watershed event within the framework of a county?s antebellum and post-bellum history, thereby adding the grand si?cle to a wide body of literature that mostly focuses on either the antebellum, Civil War, or post-bellum histories individually rather than in concert. Likewise, this study benefited from the works of Noe and W. Todd Groce who connected economic developments such as the modernization that occurred in southwest Virginia and eastern Tennessee respectively during the late antebellum period with these regions? later support for the Confederate government. The Western & Atlantic Railroad likewise helped align a majority of the county?s residents with the Confederacy, since its preservation was seen as necessary to the continuation of their recent economic growth. Conducting historical research on a county level has its rewards and obstacles. Local studies complicate existing historical analysis written from a state or national perspective. This research seeks to understand local reactions to national events as well as inject local events into the larger narrative. Census records, manuscript sources, 4 newspaper accounts, and interviews comprise the bulk of the primary sources consulted in this work. While every effort was made to portray the whole Bartow County community, this dissertation unavoidedly does not contain an abundant amount of material pertaining to the lives of its African-American inhabitants. Church records, Works Progress Administration (WPA) interviews, and a handful of manuscript sources provide glimpses of their story, but due to a lack of county level materials, this project regrettably fails to make a significant contribution to our understanding of African- American history. This dissertation is organized thematically around a loose chronology. Chapter One traces Cass County?s development and closely correlates it with the rise and fall of the Cherokee during the early nineteenth century. The Cherokee had a major impact upon the pace of white settlement in northwest Georgia. Prior to removal, the Cherokee underwent an extensive period of social, cultural, and political transformation. By the 1830s, many Cherokee practiced plantation style agriculture, owned slaves, and intermarried with white settlers fostering a tri-racial frontier society that maintained a minimal trade in state and regional markets. The looming possibility of Cherokee removal attracted attention of thousands of white settlers in western South Carolina and Georgia?s eastern counties. They saw northwest Georgia as a land of unequaled potential opportunity. Cass County pioneers shared many similarities with other early nineteenth-century Americans who pushed westward across the Appalachian Mountains before eventually settling the Old Southwest. They constructed communities that espoused the same structures, values, and purposes as their family households and kinship networks. Many migrated from areas 5 plagued by declining soil conditions or from locales where land prices outpaced wages and taxes increased faster than profits. By-and-large, they carried with them the culture and traditions of their places of origin. Theoretically, frontiers such as 1830s Cass County made inexpensive land available to plain folk whose geographic relocations afforded them a previously unattainable degree of upward social mobility. The county, however, due largely to the manner in which land was distributed during the 1832 Land and Gold Lottery, offered no such guarantee. Consequently, as did other American pioneers, a majority of the county?s earliest white inhabitants only remained a few years before heading further west. 5 Chapter Two explores the cultural and economic dimensions of Cass County?s white men?s democracy. Organizations such as churches, fraternal lodges, and agricultural societies provided communal and charitable benefits that strengthened the bonds of loyalty among white residents. 6 This chapter also explores the county?s economy during the 1840s and 1850s. Scholarly interpretations of Appalachia?s economy and relationship to the market have varied greatly over the last three decades. Steven A. Hahn has argued that upcountry Georgia farmers espoused a culture that shunned modernization in favor of existing customs. This dissertation in contrast presents statistical and manuscript evidence illustrating that yeomen embraced the market, especially after the construction of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. Cass Countians shared much in common with southwest Virginians, east Tennesseans, Alabamians, and western North Carolinians who also adapted during the antebellum period to a market-oriented economy. 7 6 No recent scholar has undertaken the large task of producing a history of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. That railroad arguably shaped Cass County?s history more than any other factor. 8 It led to a rise in the county?s slave population, while adversely impacting local persistence rates. Cass County families who remained in the county for more than ten years were more likely to be slaveholders than those who came and left. As addressed by a number of scholars, the county?s ?mountain masters,? despite being vastly outnumbered, harmoniously co-existed alongside their non-slaveholding neighbors. 9 Chapter Three examines the county?s political landscape during the late antebellum period through the secession crisis. A healthy two-party system existed in the county as the dominant Democratic Party faced significant challenges from and was occasionally defeated by candidates representing the Whig and American parties. Chapter Three also analyzes Cass County?s rejection of immediate secession during the secession crisis, as Cooperationists won a narrow victory over Immediatists. Michael P. Johnson argues that Georgia slaveholders promoted secession in an effort to protect the peculiar institution from encroachments made by local non- slaveholders whose lukewarm attitude toward slavery threatened a potential political and social revolution. According to Johnson, a vote against secession cast during the state convention held in January of 1861 represented a rebellion against slavery and the existing social hierarchy. His thesis rejects depictions of the antebellum South as a harmonious herrenvolk democracy intent on preserving racial distinctions above promoting class distinctions. 10 Anthony Gene Carey, on the other hand, contests Johnson?s patriarchal rebellion thesis. Carey sees antebellum Georgia as a white men?s 7 democracy constructed upon the firm foundation of intra-class cultural and social unity. He argues that secession was the simultaneous ?culmination of the parties? long quest to protect slavery? and ?the decisive failure of their quest to secure the protection in the Union.? This study finds that Cass County?s experiences during the secession crisis support Carey?s interpretation. 11 Chapter Four explores how residents responded to the creation of the Confederate States of America in 1861. Most of the county?s whites reacted to the Confederate government?s call to arms with exuberance. Residents eagerly awaited news from northern Virginia detailing the much anticipated first battle. They grew frustrated, however, by the military command?s perceived hesitancy prior to the Battle of First Manassas and the inability to follow up that victory with a quick capture of Washington. Consequently, local support for the Confederacy reached its apex during the winter of 1861 and started its decline as residents realized that the war would be longer than initially expected. Chapter Five considers the impact that war weariness had upon local morale between 1862 and 1863. During that period, a number of internal and external pressures created much uncertainty among Bartow Countians as expectations of a quick Confederate victory faded. Internally, war weariness spread throughout the portions of the populace as soldiers and citizens alike combated separation, material shortages, increased governmental intrusions, death and disease, and contentious slaves. Externally, repeated military setbacks?particularly in the western theater?led some to question the government?s viability. Following the Army of Tennessee?s debacle at Chattanooga, residents prepared themselves for a much anticipated invasion?an offensive that many 8 believed the Confederacy would be unable to stop. But despite rising war weariness and military setbacks, a majority of the county?s citizens and soldiers remained loyal to the Confederate government through the winter of 1863 and 1864. Chapter Six takes the story from the winter of 1864 to the conclusion of the Atlanta Campaign, while chapters seven and eight analyze home front conditions during and after the Federal occupation. The occupation occurred in three distinct phases. During the first, civilian resistance to the occupying force was non-existent. In phase two, lasting from the summer into early November 1864, local resistance to the occupation increased as Confederate regular and irregular forces poured into the county. The third and final phase began with General William Tecumseh Sherman?s March to the Sea. The Federal pullout created a power vacuum within Bartow County that fostered a state of near anarchy as deserters, partisans, home guard units, stragglers and cavalry waged a war against local civilians. Several excellent works of southern Appalachian sub-regions document this topic. This study also addresses the established themes of unionism, guerrilla warfare, and deprivation that characterized the experience of many Cass Countians. The degree to which this work examines the role that women played in the development of these themes, however, differs from most of the existing literature. Women such as Julia Barnsley, Susan Howard, Rebecca Latimer Felton, and Rebecca Hood not only endured the hardships which accompanied home front life but influenced those conditions through their interactions with Union and Confederate soldiers, governments, and households. 12 Chapters Nine explores Bartow County during Reconstruction. The high level of anxiety that residents experienced during the war remained following the Confederacy?s 9 collapse as drought, devastation, and economic recession plagued the county?s immediate post-bellum history. The war destroyed the intra-racial solidarity and bonds of communalism that supported the white men?s democracy. In Reconstruction, whites sought to rebuild their tattered communities in the image of their past social order, but what had been broken could not be repaired. Elite families struggled to redefine themselves as the war stripped them of much of their wealth and social status. Meanwhile, ex-Confederates returned to their homes eager to start anew but soon discovered that a full economic recovery would take years. Likewise, the county?s freedpeople emerged from the war removed from the chains of slavery but still tethered to the demands and racism of local whites. At times, the county struggled as much during Reconstruction as it had during the last two years of the war. This work attempts to analyze a Georgia county that had not been extensively studied and to offer some relevant conclusions about the nature of antebellum settlement patterns, class relations, the relationship between class and economics, and politics. It further explores the role of a southern community during the Civil War era and Reconstruction. Finally it fills some important gaps in southern scholarship and introduces specialists to an unstudied slice of nineteenth-century Appalachia. 10 Notes 1 Anthony Gene Carey, Parties, Slavery, and the Union in Antebellum Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997), 256-57; George M. Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817- 1914 (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 64-96. The term white men?s democracy stresses the prevailing ideas of white male egalitarianism that existed in the antebellum South. While planters exerted a tremendous amount of social and economic power, poor whites too benefited from the region?s deferential and hierarchical social structures. White men could agree that slaves were inferior and that slavery itself must be defended against perceived external threats. This unity was not perfect not uniform. Tensions existed among southern whites. Nevertheless, these internal conflicts were frequently trumped by various external threats to the institution of slavery. 2 Kenneth W. Noe, ?Appalachia Before Mr. Peabody: Some Recent Literature on the Southern Mountain Region,? Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 110 (2002), 5-35; Jonathan Dean Sarris, A Separate Civil War: Communities in Conflict in the Mountain South (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006). 3 Mark V. Wetherington, Plain Folk?s Fight: The Civil War in Piney Woods Georgia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005); LeeAnn Whites, The Civil War as a Crisis in Gender: Augusta, Georgia, 1860-1890 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995); David Williams, Rich Man?s War: Class, Caste, and Confederate Defeat in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998); Keith S. Bohannon, ?The Northeast Georgia Mountains during the Secession Crisis and 11 Civil War? (Ph. D. diss., Pennsylvania State University, 2001); Sarris, A Separate Civil War, and ?Anatomy of an Atrocity: The Madden Branch Massacre and Guerrilla Warfare in North Georgia, 1861-1865,? GHQ 77 (1993): 679-710, and ?Shot for Being Bushwhackers?: Guerrilla Warfare and Extralegal Violence in a North Georgia Community, 1862-1865,? in Daniel E. Sutherland, ed., Guerrillas, Unionists, and Violence on the Confederate Home Front (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999), 31-44; Robert S. Davis, ?Forgotten Union Guerrillas from the North Georgia Mountains,? North Georgia Journal (1998): 30-49, and ?Memoirs of a Partisan War: Sion Darnell Remembers North Georgia, 1861-1865,? GHQ 80 (1996): 93-116, and ?The North Georgia Moonshine War of 1876-77,? North Georgia Journal (1989): 41-46, and ?White and Black in Blue: The Recruitment of Federal Units in Civil War North Georgia,? GHQ 85 (2001): 347-74; Jonathan M. Bryant, How Curious a Land: Conflict and Change in Greene County, Georgia: 1850-1885 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996); Brian Melton, ??The Town That Sherman Wouldn?t Burn?: Sherman?s March and Madison, Georgia, in History, Memory, and Legend,? GHQ 86 (2002): 201-30; Edward J. Cashin and Glenn T. Eskew, eds., Paternalism in a Southern City: Race, Religion, and Gender in Augusta, Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001); Florence Fleming Corley, Confederate City, Augusta, Georgia, 1860-1865 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1960; reprint, Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co., 1995); Richard W. Iobst, Civil War Macon: The History of a Confederate City (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1999); Stewart C. Edwards, ??To Do the Manufacturing for the South?: Private Industry in Confederate Columbus,? GHQ 85 12 (2001): 538-54 and ?River City at War: Columbus, Georgia, in the Confederacy,? (Ph.D. diss., Florida State University, 1998); Whittington B. Johnson, Black Savannah, 1788- 1864 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1996). 4 Noe, ?Appalachia Before Mr. Peabody,? 5-35. 5 John Demos, Past, Present, and Personal: The Family and Life Course in American History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988); Ulrich B. Phillips, ?The Origin and Growth of the Southern Black Belts,? JSH 12 (1906): 780-99; Frank L. Owsley, ?The Pattern of Migration and Settlement on the Southern Frontier,? JSH 11 (1945): 147-67; E. Merton Coulter, Old Petersburg and the Broad River Valley of Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1965); John Solomon Otto, ?The Migration of the Southern Plain Folk: An Interdisciplinary Synthesis,? JSH 51 (1985): 183-200; Jane Turner Censer, ?Southwestern Migration among North Carolina Planter Families: The Disposition to Emigrate,? JSH 57 (1991): 426-44; Carolyn Earle Billingsley, Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004); Ralph Mann, ?Mountains, Land, and Kin Networks: Burke?s Garden, Virginia, in the 1840s and 1850s,? JSH 58 (1992): 411-34. 6 Noe, ?Appalachia Before Mr. Peabody,? 32; See Deborah Vansau McCauley, Appalachian Mountain Religion (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995); Howard Dorgan, Giving Glory to God in Appalachia: Worship Practices of Six Baptist Subdenominations (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987). 7 J. Mills Thornton, Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800-1860 13 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978), 268. 8 Steven Hahn, The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983); Kenneth W. Noe, Southwest Virginia?s Railroad: Modernization and the Sectional Crisis in the Civil War Era 2 nd Edition (Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Press, 2003); Inscoe, Mountain Masters: Slavery and the Sectional Crisis in Western North Carolina (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989); Durwood Dunn, Cade?s Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988). 9 Inscoe, Mountain Masters; Inscoe, ed., Appalachians and Race: The Mountain South From Slavery to Segregation (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001); Wilma Dunaway, Slavery in the American Mountain South (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Richard B. Drake, ?Slavery and Antislavery in Appalachia,? Appalachian Heritage 14 (1986): 25-33; James C. Klotter, ?The Black South and White Appalachia,? JAH 66 (1980): 832-49; William H. Turner and Edward J. Cabbell, Blacks in Appalachia (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1985). 10 Michael P. Johnson, Toward a Patriarchal Republic: The Secession of Georgia (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977). 11 Carey, Parties, Slavery, and the Union in Antebellum Georgia, 250; Thornton, Politics and Power. Thornton asserts that individual liberty was the goal of antebellum society. Jacksonian ideology directly influenced the South?s notion of liberty. 14 Southerners increasingly saw the preservation of slavery as key to maintaining their personal freedom and political equality. 12 Lou Athey, ?Loyalty and Civil Liberty in Fayette County During the Civil War,? West Virginia History 55 (1996): 1-24; Charles F. Bryan, Jr., ?Tories? Amidst Rebels: Confederate Occupation of East Tennessee, 1861-1863,? East Tennessee Historical Society?s Publications 60 (1988): 3-22; Noel C. Fisher, War at Every Door: Partisan Politics and Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee, 1860-1869 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997); W. Todd Groce, Mountain Rebels: East Tennessee Confederates and the Civil War, 1860-1870 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999); William C. Harris, ?East Tennessee?s Civil War Refugees and the Impact of the War on Civilians,? Journal of East Tennessee History 64 (1992): 3-19; Paul Horton, ?Submitting to the ?Shadow of Slavery?: The Secession Crisis in Alabama?s Lawrence County,? CWH 44 (1998): 111-36; Inscoe and Gordon B. McKinney, The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000); Robert Tracy McKenzie, One South or Many? Plantation Belt and Upcountry in Civil War-Era Tennessee (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Kenneth W. Noe, Southwest Virginia?s Railroad; Martin Crawford, Ashe County?s Civil War: Community and Society in the Appalachian South (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001). 15 CHAPTER ONE SETTLEMENT THROUGH CHEROKEE REMOVAL In 1831, John Seaborn, accompanied by his brindled dog Bruno, drove a wagon from western North Carolina to northwest Georgia. There he found employment surveying tracts for the upcoming land lottery. Life as a white surveyor in the Cherokee Nation could be lonely, dangerous work. Seaborn satisfied his desire for human companionship by visiting Hightower, a missionary outpost located along the Etowah River. One evening, according to legend, the unexpected sounds of two individuals moving through the dense woods startled Seaborn and Bruno while returning from Hightower. He sought shelter in some nearby brush. As he quietly watched from his concealed refuge a white woman approached riding a raven-haired horse. A tall Cherokee warrior, armed with a tomahawk in one hand accompanied the woman, while tightly grasping the mount?s bridle. Suddenly, the woman spurred the horse, causing it to lunge forward. The Indian, however, never lost his grip on the bridle and responded by pulling the excited steed backward. As Seaborn debated whether or not to intercede, the warrior raised his tomahawk, threatening his frightened captive. Seaborn leapt from behind the brush, screaming at the nearby assailant. Startled, the warrior released the woman?s arm. For the first time, the North Carolinian saw the Indian?s face. Seaborn recognized that his opponent was George Took, known among 16 the Cherokee Indians as ?Unakayah-wah,? White Man Killer. The two men fought kicking, punching, scratching, and biting their opponent. After several minutes, Seaborn?s dog bit Took on the arm, thus causing him to beg the surveyor to ?take dog off quick, brave white man, no kill chief! Me give up!? Local storytellers failed to mention that no self-respecting Cherokee warrior would have surrendered so easily. 1 The telling and retelling of John Seaborn?s capture of George Took by nineteenth- century Cass County residents instilled mythological images that their community had once been a howling wilderness filled with renegade Indians, damsels in distress, and masculine men who protected the chastity of white women. While the legend contains a litany of gross exaggerations and misrepresentations, it remains significant, since this oft- recited tale reveals much about how white locals remembered their community?s frontier beginnings. This chapter examines the history of Cass County, Georgia, from the late 1790s until the removal of the Cherokee Indians. Cherokee resistance paced white settlement and the development of Cass County society. In 1839, when Federal soldiers evicted the remaining Cherokee from northwest Georgia, a bi-racial slave society replaced the existing tri-racial social order. During the 1820s and 1830s, when white settlers and their black slaves, mostly from western South Carolina and East Georgia, migrated to the region they transplanted many of their existing kin and communal networks onto a new setting. Factors such as kinship, geographic origin, and economic aspirations formed the core of an emerging white men?s democracy. 17 The Georgia General Assembly created Cass County on December 3, 1832, naming it in honor of Democratic Secretary of War Lewis Cass of Michigan. The legislature formed ten counties, including Cass, from Cherokee lands. Today, Bartow County, as it became known in 1861 when it was renamed in honor of fallen Confederate Colonel Francis S. Bartow of Savannah, who died during the First Battle of Manassas, is located in the state?s northwestern region. It is bordered by Gordon County to the north; Pickens and Cherokee County to the east; Cobb, Polk, and Paulding County to the south; and Floyd County to the west. Cartersville, the modern-day county seat, lies fifty-seven miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and thirty-five miles northwest of Atlanta. The county encompasses 460 square miles or 294,400 acres. While the state altered the county?s boundaries on several occasions, overall the current county closely resembles its original 1832 boundaries. Geographically, Bartow County contains sections of the three physiographic divisions that shape the eastern United States. The Coosa Valley, part of the Great Appalachian Valley, runs through the western three-quarters of the county. It contains an expansive river valley and a rolling plateau that lies 900 feet above sea level. Sproull Mountain (elevation 1,200 feet) and Mullinax Mountain (elevation 1,100 feet) are the highest points in this section. The Appalachian Mountain portion of the county, about 15 percent of the whole, lies east and southeast of the Coosa Valley plateau. In some areas, numerous steep ridges and knobs hamper travel. In this section, the topography climbs to around 2,000 feet at Pine Log Mountain. Moving southward, the steep slopes are interrupted by narrow valleys that comprise the Piedmont Plateau region. 18 Prior to white settlement, several Native American societies inhabited Cass County, including Mississippian ?Mound Builders,? and their historic descendants, the Creek and Cherokee. Between 1000-1550 C.E., several thousand Etowah Indians occupied a village along the Etowah River. They constructed at least six earthen mounds, a plaza, borrow pits, and a defensive ditch. The mounds served as the focal point of their ceremonial life. A sixty-three foot flat-topped mound housed their priest-chief. The town declined during the mid-sixteenth century. Ironically, the Etowah mounds have remained largely intact for several centuries, while structures created by the county?s antebellum Indian inhabitants, the Cherokee, have largely disappeared. By the late 1790s, the Cherokee controlled most of modern- day North Georgia north of the Chattahoochee River. In Cass County, they organized several villages and outposts, including several along the Etowah River, most notably at Hightower, a name that derived from E-ta-wa. They explored the county?s rich mineralogical resources, mining saltpeter, manganese, silver, and gold. 2 In 1796, Indian superintendent Benjamin Hawkins passed through what would become Cass County while en route to the Creek Nation. His account depicted a land occupied by people of mixed ethnicity who lived on secluded farmsteads. Unable to speak the Cherokee language, Hawkins communicated with local Indians through an interpreter. On November 28, the superintendent crossed the Etowah River heading along a ?S.W. by W? course through a region filled with ?sharp hills . . . . a large and beautiful savannah? and dense forests. Along his route, he passed peach trees, cotton stalks, sugar cane, and corn stalks sitting idly in the fields, seemingly left unattended. That night Hawkins stayed with a Cherokee woman who worried about the 19 conditions of her corn crop. Hawkins recalled seeing fields lined with corn literally rotting on the stalks. The woman informed him, through the use of his translator, that she had planted her crop too late in the season. Sensing that the woman possessed some industrious qualities, Hawkins informed her of a government initiative designed to introduce a series of agricultural reforms throughout the Cherokee and Creek nation that planned to bolster their production. Upon hearing this news, the woman ?replied she had once made as much cotton as purchased a petticoat, [and] that she would gladly make more and learn to spin it, if she had the opportunity.? Hawkins felt confident that the Cherokee could produce substantial agricultural crops on this land. He learned, however, that carrying any crop to market was an arduous task for these Cherokee women. Immediately prior to his arrival, the women had returned from a seventeen mile round- trip to and from the nearest white settlements, where they had bartered corn in exchange for salt and fowls for binding. The following day, destined for the village of Pine Log, Hawkins traversed a sizeable portion of what would become eastern Cass County. Along the way he encountered a number of whites living among the Cherokees as well as Christian Russell, a Sicilian tanner, who moved to the region with the hopes of selling leather goods to the local market. Throughout most of Hawkins?s journey across the county, the weather remained cloudy and cold. The overcast day cast a poor light upon the land as he entered Pine Log for the first time. He hired a black woman to serve as his interpreter. That evening as Hawkins visited the Downing residence, Cherokee women came to the home asking about the purpose of his visit. The women also told Hawkins that all of the men had left the village to go hunting and that in the future they would grow more cotton. 20 On December 1, Hawkins arrived at Etowah, the largest Cherokee town in what would become Cass County. After some difficulty locating an interpreter, Hawkins finally hired Sally Waters, ?a halfbreed.? The local women pleased the agent informing him that in the spring they intended to grow more cotton and corn if he could help transport the crop to market. The following morning, while preparing to leave the Cherokee Nation for his final destination in the Creek Nation, Hawkins listened as the women complained about how men rarely helped with farm work. The agent left the Cherokee Nation assured that the women wanted to produce additional market goods. 3 During Benjamin Hawkins?s lifetime, the Cherokee had surrendered large amounts of territory to encroaching Georgians. In an effort to convince Americans that their tribe could co-exist alongside their Caucasian neighbors, leaders also adopted a policy of acculturation. In 1801, after years of resistance, they invited the Salem Moravians to organize a mission at a site along the Federal Road. The Moravians developed a close-knit relationship with the Cherokee. Their mission educated many of the tribe?s elite children and prepared several of them, including Buck Watie (Elias Boudinot), for entrance into some of the nation?s leading colleges. In a similar vein, a council of warriors held at Hightower requested the United States president provide funding to educate their children. Such requests allowed the spread of Christian missionaries throughout the Cherokee Nation. 4 In Cass County, Presbyterians opened a mission and school across the Etowah River from the village of Hightower, about five years after starting their central mission at Brainerd, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Three missionaries supervised the Hightower mission: Isaac Proctor, John Thompson, and Daniel S. Butrick. Their work bore fruit as 21 the school educated hundreds of Cherokee children and converted many to Christianity, including the Etowah District Chief John Beamer. 5 Most Cherokees who inhabited Cass County embraced certain aspects of white culture. Today, a few antebellum homes built by wealthy members of their tribe, such as the Georgian-styled Johnson-Howard house in Pine Log, still survive. Elite Cherokees emulated the economic and social practices of their white Black Belt counterparts by practicing plantation-style agriculture that included the use of African-American slave labor. For example, when Lewis Tumlin arrived in Cass County, he surveyed the area, searching for improved farm land capable of sustaining staple crop agriculture. He had seen several large plantations in the area and desired to purchase one, in lieu of clearing the land himself. On a site that housed the Etowah Mounds, Tumlin discovered a vast farm with a rich black top soil. What became known in later years as the Tumlin Plantation thus began as a Cherokee plantation decades before his arrival. 6 Many pioneer settlers, such as Lewis Tumlin, entered the Cherokee Nation traveling along the Alabama Road. In 1819, upon Alabama?s admission into the Union, the Cherokee allowed the federal government to construct a road through their nation. Beginning in 1825, white settlers also used the new Jackson Military Road (Tennessee Road) that ran along Cass County?s northeastern boundary. A few years later, the United States mail service established a post office at Hightower and build a mail road connecting to the Jackson Military Road. In concert, these roads facilitated a white settler?s access to Cherokee Georgia, introducing hundreds of new families into the region prior to the 1829 gold rush and the 1832 land lottery. 7 22 Many white settlers who came to Cass County between 1796 and 1830 married into Cherokee families, forming bonds of kinship that survived the removal period intact. An 1831 census of Cherokee families revealed that at least eighteen white males living in the villages of Hightower and Pine Log had a Cherokee wife and children. Although Georgians identified these mixed race children as ?half-breeds,? the matrilineal Cherokee considered the offspring of Cherokee women as full-blooded members of their society. James Wofford, for example, arrived near Pine Log sometime prior to 1820. Initially, he worked as a cattle herder but soon leased land from a wealthy Cherokee landholder. A few years later, he married his landlord?s daughter. Wofford had previously been married to a white woman who died in childbirth after bearing him several children. The white family now integrated into his new wife?s Cherokee household, enjoying the benefits of their stepmother?s wealth. 8 Between 1827 and 1835, a series of events seriously compromised the Cherokee Nation?s future stability. In 1827, their leaders displayed their national sovereignty by establishing a constitutional government and by building a new capital, New Echota. 9 Georgia?s pro-removal general assembly responded by extending its civil jurisdiction into the Cherokee Nation, breeching existing political boundaries. The state adopted a series of policies that effectively abolished the Cherokee government, seized its lands, and created a mechanism to redistribute that territory to the state?s white citizens. In 1829, the discovery of gold at Dahlonega prompted thousands of white settlers to illegally enter Cherokee lands in search for gold. The following year, with the ardent support of President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It gave the president authority to negotiate removal treaties with Native American tribes. On March 23 12, 1831, state forces arrested Reverend John Thompson for violating a law restricting the travel of whites into the Cherokee Nation without a state issued passport. His incarceration forced the Hightower mission to cease its operations. John Ross, the Cherokee?s principal chief, challenged the state?s extension laws before the United States Supreme Court. In 1831, Chief Justice John Marshall in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia denied the Cherokee?s right to sue the state of Georgia in a federal court. Reverend Elizur Bulter and Samuel Worcester, also taken into custody, challenged the state?s jurisdiction within the Cherokee Nation in another case that reached the United States Supreme Court. In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), Marshall?s ruling struck down the state?s extension laws and demanded the release of the incarcerated missionaries. 10 Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin, a Union Party leader, who in 1831 won a tightly contested gubernatorial campaign over Troupite George R. Gilmer while riding a pro-Indian removal platform to victory, deemed the high court?s decision as ?unconstitutional encroachment.? He felt confident that his removal policies would receive the full support of the popular second-term President Andrew Jackson. Soon after Lumpkin?s election, he dispatched surveyors into northwest Georgia to divide the land into plots that could be distributed through a lottery. The state divided the Cherokee Nation into four sections, each containing an unequal number of land districts that measured nine miles square. Surveyors subsequently partitioned the ninety-three land districts into thirty-three forty-acre gold lots and sixty 160-acre land lots. In all, the state surveyed about 54 thousand lots. Nonetheless, two years later, during the 1833 gubernatorial election, Cass County voters did not give incumbent Governor Wilson 24 Lumpkin a local majority, instead favoring States Rights Party candidate Joel Crawford in a close race 140 to 121. While the reason for this election?s outcome remains unknown, it is likely that the immigration of hundreds of western South Carolina yeoman households during the early 1830s might have provided Crawford an advantage. 11 The 1832 land and gold lottery proposed to parcel out property to large numbers of state residents, creating a region filled with yeomen farmers. Factors such as age, marital status, war service, past lottery draws, and state residency determined eligibility and number of chances. Once winners learned of a successful draw, they paid a fee ranging from three to eighteen dollars to secure a grant providing them title to their allotment. Lottery drawers accounted for a minority of early Cass County settlers. For example, of the 324 successful drawers in the Fifth District, Third Section, less than 20 percent moved to Cass County. Approximately 60 percent resided in counties located in East Georgia such as Elbert, Oglethorpe, and Habersham. An examination of those counties reveals that seven out of ten drawers remained at their pre-lottery residences for at least another decade. 12 In 1834, the state of Georgia compiled a census of the free white population of Cass County. The official count listed the head of each household, omitting such information as the number of slaves in each household, the names of dependents, the ages of county residents, their real and personal property holdings, and the proportion of male/female inhabitants. The census provides a basis for understanding the geographic origins and kinship networks of the county?s early settlers. In 1834, 235 households containing 1,388 people resided in six militia districts. About 60 percent of all heads of households moved to Cass County were native South Carolinians. Many of them lived in 25 East Georgia prior to relocating to Cass. An estimated 32 percent were natives of East Georgia counties, most notably Habersham (10 percent) and Gwinnett (12.6 percent). The remaining 10 percent originated in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and an array of New England and Mid-Atlantic states. Males headed roughly 95 percent of all households, and the average white family contained six members. 13 During the late 1830s, Cass County?s population rapidly expanded as the state of Georgia reaffirmed the Treaty of New Echota and a statewide economic boom attracted out-of-state migrants. In 1840, 9,390 total inhabitants, including 1,995 slaves and 14 free blacks, lived in the county. The average white settler was a 42 year old non-slaveholding yeoman farmer whose household contained a spouse and 5 children. Approximately 27 percent of white heads of households owned slaves, while less than 1 percent owned 20 or more. The median slaveholder owned three slaves. John Rowland, a native North Carolinian and merchant who came to Cass in 1839 after moving from his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina, owned the largest number of slaves with 54, while 80 held only a single bondsman. 14 Unlike white settlers, another large group of people came to Cass County involuntarily. By 1840 slaves comprised 21.2 percent of the total population. Most, like their masters, were native South Carolinians. Many came from farms and plantations in the western part of the state. Thomas Brandon, for instance, brought four slaves to Cass County during the early 1830s. Their labor helped clear about 50 acres of farmland and construct housing so that Brandon?s white family members could relocate. Among the slave population, males slightly outnumbered females (1014 to 981). In fact, as evident throughout Georgia, 37 percent of all slaves were under the age of ten. 26 Masters viewed these young slaves as integral parts of a future domestic economy, as well as chattel value on the slave market. Tom W. Neal recalled that his master encouraged his female slaves to produce offspring. If necessary, the master promised to purchase the females ?a male they liked.? 15 Most slaves frequently ate, worked, and slept in close proximity to their masters. John C. Aycock, a slaveholding yeoman who moved to Cass County from East Georgia during the early 1830s, owned two slaves, both women, who performed a variety of domestic duties and slept under the same roof as their owner. Living in close quarters slaves and owners perhaps developed personal relationships that extended beyond the traditional master-slave dichotomy. Slaveholders who owned one or two slaves sometimes created last will and testaments allocating a small portion of their worldly possessions to their slaves. Aycock, for instance, left a slave a Bible. Others willed items such as furniture, pocket watches, clothing, and various family memorabilia. These actions, though unrepresentative, suggest that some small slaveholders developed bonds with their slaves that were expressed in terms of endearment that extended beyond a master?s lifetime. Slaves performed a wide array of domestic, agricultural, and industrial jobs. Most performed agricultural chores such as clearing, plowing, hoeing, and weeding fields. Many worked as domestics, especially female slaves who lived with small slaveholding masters. Some slaves acquired skills such as blacksmithing, carpentry, milling, or iron making. Iron pioneers Moses and Jacob Stroup, who built the first blast furnaces in western North Carolina, northeast and northwest Georgia, used slave labor, almost exclusively male, for a variety of industry related tasks such as chopping wood, mining 27 iron ore, smelting ore, and molding iron. Some of these skills allowed slaves limited opportunities to earn personal income based on the quality and quantity of their labor. Whites and blacks, free and enslaved, formed the nucleus of a bi-racial slave society in which white masters enjoyed the fruits of black labor and the bonds of intra-racial supremacy. By the 1830s, native South Carolinians comprised about 60 percent of Cass County?s free heads of households. Of those who originated from the Palmetto State, 89 percent came from the state?s upcountry region. This exodus from western South Carolina included a number of yeomen farmers?some slaveholders?seeking relief from the area?s economic depression. Farmers had grown wealthy from their massive annual cotton crop, but their product slowly destroyed their lands and damaged the state?s economy. 16 Upcountry South Carolina farmers produced so much cotton during the early 1800s that, within a few decades, most of the region?s soil was unsuitable for staple crop production. As the situation worsened, the South Carolina legislature commissioned agricultural reformer Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia planter and the nation?s leading agricultural scientist, to dissect the region?s problems. Ruffin told leaders that cotton?s survival depended upon the willingness of farmers to diversify their crops. In the long term, Ruffin?s advice stabilized the state?s cotton industry. In the 1830s, efforts to diversify local production and successive poor harvests convinced many landowners to immigrate westward. 17 Most Cass County white heads of households owned real estate prior to coming to Cass County. Throughout the antebellum period, nonslaveholding yeomen farmers comprised a majority of Cass County heads of households. For example, out of a 28 sampling of 300 heads of households who moved directly from western South Carolina to Cass County during the 1830s, 240 had owned at least 50 acres of land in the Palmetto state and 60 owned slaves. The average Cass County settler who relocated from western South Carolina, therefore, was already a landholding yeoman prior to their relocation. 18 Throughout the antebellum period, kinship bound together many white households, helping reduce any possible intra-racial frictions. A wide array of consanguine, affinal, and fictive kin relationships held greater significance in the Old South since the region contained fewer public institutions than their northern counterparts. 19 The extent to which settlers came to Cass County in association with their relations and established family and kin connections there played an important part in providing people with an essential support network. Among persistent heads of household, those who appear in the 1840 and 1850 census, 75 percent came to Cass County as members of kith and kin associations. Settlers who arrived without the support of extended family members such as parents, siblings, in-laws, and cousins or who failed to foster new relations through marriage typically left the county. Families in association built Cass County. 20 In the spring of 1833, for example, the families of Nathaniel and Lydia Wofford, some twenty persons residing in four households, packed their belongings onto wagons, left their homes in Habersham County, crossed the Etowah River near Canton, and rode west to their new settlement in Cass County?s 827 th Militia District. The Wofford family was one of the most influential pioneer families in Habersham County. Those who left, such as Nathaniel, were the younger sons who moved westward in search of land. The Woffords knew about Cass County since members of their family had lived there among 29 the Cherokee prior to their removal. One such relative, James Wofford, married a Cherokee woman, fathered several children with her, and then accompanied her westward during the Trail of Tears. After surveying their land?they had received draws from their father?s Revolutionary War service during the 1832 land lottery?the party began clearing to grow corn, harvesting the timber to use in the construction of three separate dwellings. Initially, the four families of the Wofford settlement, like the settlers of Sugar Creek, Illinois, described by John Mack Faragher, pooled their labor, tools, and households? resources. Each season, the men cleared and planted another field until several years had passed, and every household could work an independent plot. Through their communal efforts, these families managed to sustain one another during periods of illness or personal injury that might have otherwise doomed any individual effort to create and sustain a farm. The neighborhood gradually took the name of Wofford?s Cross Roads, and the Wofford family emerged as local leaders. 21 In other instances, a single nuclear family first immigrated alone, only to be subsequently joined by relations. In the winter of 1834-1835, Thomas Brandon arrived in Cass County. He was a twenty-two year old married man with two young children and a third on the way. In Gwinnett County, his family owned less than one hundred acres. After the 1832 land lottery, he purchased about 600 acres along Euharlee Creek from individuals and land speculators. Sometime between 1834 and 1840, his three older brothers, Moses, Frances, and Leroy Brandon, moved to Cass County. With the aid of a family slave, the four brothers constructed a farmstead and church that served as the foundation of a growing community. 22 30 Settlers such as the Wofford and Brandon families arrived in Cass County at a time when several thousand Cherokee still remained. Zillah Haynie?s father saw the 1832 Cherokee land lottery as an opportunity to rebuild his tattered fortune. Like many western South Carolinians, he struggled economically during the early 1830s. Haynie purchased several ?lottery shares,? but none were drawn. Haynie then moved his family to Gwinnett County in search of inexpensive and available land; nevertheless, he remained interested in Cherokee territory. Undeterred, Haynie purchased some property along the Etowah River as soon as it came onto the market. Before he could move, however, Gwinnett County voters, much to his surprise, elected him sheriff. Eager for some steady income and for the opportunity to keep his children in school, Haynie postponed moving to Cass County until December of 1835. 23 The land he purchased already had a house on it. As the family approached their new home, they noticed a dim light emanating from between the log structure?s chinking. Northwest Georgia had been plagued by highway robbers and thieves who targeted new settlers. Anticipating the worst, the father moved slowly toward the door. As he peered inside, he discovered a Cherokee family huddled around a small fire. The Cherokee squatters saw the family?s arrival. Without saying a word, the family gathered the few possessions they had carried into the home and left. 24 For months, that Cherokee family camped within sight of the Haynie home. Young Zillah Haynie, age thirteen, commented that ?their whole tribe looked as if the very shafts of desolation was hanging around them.? Fear kept her from feeling any compassion for the Cherokee. One month after the family arrived, a white woman solicited her help. The woman?s Cherokee husband, Peacock, had fallen ill with 31 pneumonia. 25 She hoped that Zillah or her family might provide a cure. Their marriage appalled Zillah and her family, who opposed miscegenation. Thus, they refused to disclose some treatments for pneumonia that might have comforted Peacock and turned the desperate wife away. A few weeks later, Zillah awoke to a chilling sound. The noise came from the woods. As she stared out of her window looking for the source of this commotion, her eyes soon fixed on a group of shadows several hundred yards distant. To her surprise, she soon heard a loud knock at the door. Peacock had died. His brother and another male relative asked the Haynie family if they could spare some wood to make a coffin. 26 Meanwhile, the Cherokee Nation divided into factions as they confronted the determined pro-removal policies of the state and national government. In 1835, as white settlers continued to enter the region, a group led by Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot agreed to the terms included within the Treaty of New Echota. This agreement exchanged Cherokee lands in northwest Georgia for Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma. The pact determined that all of the Cherokees would relocate to this territory within two years and that their government would receive a one-time payment of five million dollars to compensate for the loss of personal and public property and to cover the removal expenses. A faction led by John Ross and supported by roughly 16,000 tribal members vehemently protested the treaty, arguing that a legitimate Cherokee delegation had not engaged in any negotiations with the Federal government. In Cass County, during an assembly at Hightower in July of 1835, a Ridge Party supporter named Crow delivered a prolonged soliloquy that advised the town?s leaders to submit to removal. Shortly after his speech ended, Lee, a Ross Party member, ?stabbed [Crow] 32 with a knife in sixteen places, one of which was mortal.? Crow died a few hours later, a victim of the internal violence erupting within the Cherokee leadership. 27 For six years, Ross Party advocates vainly lobbied Congress to overturn the Treaty of New Echota. In 1838, President Martin Van Buren ordered soldiers under the command of General Winfield Scott to enter northwest Georgia and round up the remaining Indians to be sent west. In Cass County, state militia troops built an open air stockade that housed Cherokee families for months prior to their removal. Poor conditions in these prisons claimed the lives of hundreds of Cherokee. During their forced march to Indian Territory, between 4,000 and 5,000 Cherokees died on what became known as the Trail of Tears. 28 As the 1830s came to a close, numerous communities in Cass County had formed. In 1833, surveyors notably laid out the county seat of Cassville. By 1840, the town had grown in size and prominence and emerged as northwest Georgia?s leading commercial and judicial center. The Georgia Supreme Court decided the fate of the Cherokee Indians while in session at Cassville. Both the superior and inferior courts, along with the Cherokee circuit court, presided in the town, attracting a large number of prominent jurists and promoting the construction of hotels and businesses. During the 1830s, observers and cartographers identified Cassville as the county?s sole organized community. Nevertheless, settlers had constructed several churches scattered throughout the county which in essence formed identifiable communities linked by their common geography and evangelical faith. Pioneers constructed at least eight churches during that decade: five Baptist and three Methodist. In 1836, with the help of family members and neighbors, Thomas Brandon organized a Methodist Church known 33 as Brandon?s Society. The county?s first church began as a Sabbath school held on a bi- weekly basis taught by Brandon and held at his home. Eager to expand the sessions into larger worship services, he donated land upon which the community built a hewn log structure that served as the local church until it was destroyed by a tornado six decades later. Not only did the church serve the religious needs of local whites, but also the slaves of several neighboring families also participated in worship services and Sabbath school classes. 29 In addition to Brandon?s Society, settlers also formed churches at Pettit?s Creek, Connesena Creek and in the Oothcalooga Valley, as well as in Cassville. On average, the founding members of these communities owned a considerable amount of real and personal property. The fact that all of these churches still hold regular services and their membership rolls include many direct descendants of their pioneer ancestors stand as lasting monuments to the strength of those initial frontier communities. Families whose members chartered churches during the 1830s were three times more likely to remain in the county during the next four decades than the general population. 30 By the end of the 1830s, Cass County remained a frontier far removed from the state of Georgia?s commercial and cultural centers located in Augusta, Macon, and Savannah. The county?s frontier environment maintained some critical connections with the rest of the state. Foremost, the county contained a blossoming bi-racial slave society. As thousands of white settlers poured into the region, they established the agricultural, commercial, and cultural foundations for future generations. 34 Notes 1 Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 8-9. 2 Ibid., 190. ?Planter? here is defined as an individual who owned twenty or more slaves or identified himself as a planter in either the 1840 or 1850 federal census or referred to himself as a planter or were referred to by others as such in surviving manuscript sources. Therefore, while Godfrey Barnsley did not own twenty or more slaves, the census as well as manuscript sources identity him as a planter. Poor white here is defined as an individual who does not own any real property or any personal property that exceeds the average personal property held by local yeoman farmers. Elite members of Cass County society routinely referred to these individuals as ?crackers.? 3 C.L. Grant, ed. Letters, Journal and Writings of Benjamin Hawkins, Volume One: 1796-1801 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1980). 4 Quotation in Malone, Cherokees of the Old South, 154. 5 William G. McLoughlin, Cherokees and Missionaries: 1789-1839 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984); Edmund Schwarze, History of the Moravian Missions among the Southern Indian Tribes of the United States (Bethlehem, Pa.: Times Publishing, 1923); Robert Sparks Walker, Torchlight to the Cherokees: The Brainerd Mission (New York: MacMillan, 1931). The precise location of Hightower is difficult to ascertain. Period maps show the town site, but travel accounts by men such as Benjamin Hawkins and M. H. Bunn provide conflicting locales. Much of this confusion, however, might be the result of how the town was identified by the Cherokee. Henry T. Malone noted that ?Hightower (or Etowah) was stated to have a large population . . . upwards of 200 families and to be perhaps 50 or 60 miles in length.? Observers, therefore, could 35 believe that they had visited Hightower in a wide array of locations. In this context, Hightower refers to a Cherokee village and missionary station located within close proximity to the Etowah mounds located outside of Cartersville, Georgia. 6 Michele Rodgers, Architecture of Bartow County, Georgia (Cartersville, Ga.: Bartow History Center, 2003), 10, 61. 7 Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 17-18; Malone, Cherokees of the Old South, 148; Kenneth Coleman, ed., History of Georgia, 2 nd ed. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991), 105-15. 8 ?Whites with Indian Families,? Bartow County Genealogical Society and Family Research Library 10 (2001), 20-21; Wofford Family, Family Genealogy File, GDAH; Mrs. Luther Isbell, Col. William Wofford, R.S., 1812, Nathaniel Wofford, 1812, Gen. William Tatum Wofford, C.S.A. (N.p.: Mrs. Luther Isbell, 1960), 45. Relations between white men with Cherokee wives and Cherokee men were not always harmonious. During White Path?s Rebellion (late 1820s), a group of Cherokee men who identified themselves as full-blooded led an aborted attempt to remove the progressive half-breeds from positions of influence within their nation. This rebellion failed largely because most of the nation?s wealthiest residents and political leaders were of mixed ethnicity. 9 New Georgia Encyclopedia, s.v. ?Worcester v. Georgia (1832)? (by Tim Alan Garrison), http//:newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/ (accessed May 15, 2006). 10 Tim Alan Garrison, The Legal Ideology of Removal: The Southern Judiciary and the Sovereignty of Native American Nations (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 36 2002); Jill Norgren, The Cherokee Cases: The Confrontation of Law and Politics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996). Samuel Worcester had been released by a Georgia court prior to the John Marshall?s ruling in Worchester v. Georgia. 11 David H. Kleit, ??We Wanted the Land?: Cherokee Country during the Era of Removal and Resettlement,? (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 2003); Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 12-13; Coleman, A History of Georgia, 132-33; ?Election Returns,? The Federal Union (Milledgeville, GA), October 30, 1833. In 1831, Georgia appropriated $11,381.00 for the surveying of Cherokee lands and $10,092 for the protection of gold mines. This amount constituted approximately 12 percent of the state?s annual budget. Only Cass, Cherokee, and Gilmer provided Joel Crawford with a majority. 12 Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 12-13; New Georgia Encyclopedia, s.v. ?Land Lottery System? (by Jim Gigantino), http//:newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/ (accessed May 15, 2006); Farris W. Cadle, Georgia Land Surveying History and Law (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991); Manuscript Census, Cass, Elbert, Habersham, and Oglethorpe County, 1830, 1840, Schedule I. 13 1834 State Census, Bartow County File, Telamon Cuyler Collection, Hargrett Rare Books and Special Collections, UGA, Athens. By cross-referencing the names of the heads of households listed in the 1834 state census with the 1830 federal census, I identified the place of origin for 200 of the 235 families. A closer inspection which might include genealogical sources and possible manuscript materials might reveal some errors in my sample caused my mistaken identity, since individuals with common names 37 such as Robert Henderson and William West might have been misidentified due to multiple census listings. 14 Manuscript Census, Georgia, Cass County, 1840, Schedules I, II. 15 Testimony of Tom W. Neal, Slave 10, (a): 181-83. 16 Lacy K. Ford, Origins of Southern Radicalism: The South Carolina Upcountry, 1800-1860 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 42. 17 Ibid, 42; 18 The sampling included 100 Cass County head of households included on the 1843 State Census and/or 1840 Federal Census who were identified as natives of South Carolina. The sampling was limited due to the time consuming genealogical research required to conclusively identify each household?s place of origin. The 1840 Federal Census did not ask residents to provide their state of origin. Determining an individual?s birthplace required consulting several additional resources. Foremost, if that person was included in the 1850 Federal Census?the first to ask respondents to identify their place of birth?than their place of origin could be determined. Several genealogical resources were also consulted including a few on-line genealogical list serves which helped me trace previously unidentifiable surnames through local records which I did not directly consult. For examples of on-line genealogical resources consulted see: Surname Search, Access Genealogy, http//:www.accessgenealogy.com (Accessed on September 15, 2005); World Family Tree, Ancestry.com, http//:www.ancestry.com (Accessed on November 12, 2005). Landownership estimates were compiled using a variety of manuscript and on- line resources. WWW.GenWeb.com provides access to deed indexes and wills for 38 several western South Carolina counties. Using this resource, in combination with several local county histories, I was able to determine the percentage of 1834 and 1840 head of households who had previously owned land in South Carolina. These estimates do not account for individuals who might have lost their land prior to their move to Cass County. For example, a landholder may have owned land in 1830 but might have lost title to it by the time he moved in 1833. Nevertheless, these estimates provide a general sense of the wealth of a sampling of Cass County settlers. 19 Billingsley, Communities of Kinship, 1; John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 56-60. 20 Sixth and Seventh Census, Georgia, Cass County, Schedule I; Faragher, Sugar Creek, 56; Ronald D. Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982), 8; Gene Wilhelm, Jr., ?Folk Settlements in the Blue Ridge Mountains,? Appalachian Journal 5 (1978): 207, 240; Dwight Billings, Kathleen Blee, and Louis Swanson, ?Culture, Family, and Community in Preindustrial Appalachia,? Appalachian Journal 13 (1986): 154-70. 21 Ibid.; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 102-04. 22 Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 47-49. ?Community? is defined throughout this dissertation as the visible representation of a body of families and households who choose to engage in acts of local organization such as establishing churches and schools which enhance an individual?s professed identity. Only on a local level are communities not the products of imagination. Whereas Benedict Anderson persuasively argued that 39 nations are ?imagined communities? since a majority of its residents will never come into contact with one another and frequently hold a wide array of differing values, locally, in units as small as a church, lodge, village, town, or perhaps even county, a large percentage of the population are connected by kinship and come into regular contact with significant percentages of the local populace over the course of their lifetime. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 2 nd Ed. (New York: Verso, 1991). 23 Zillah Haynie Brandon Diary, 1823-1871, SPR 262, Folder 1, ADAH, Montgomery. 24 Ibid. 25 The name Peacock was not a Cherokee name. Haynie?s account incorrectly identified the husband. 26 Ibid; Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, eds. The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford-St. Martin?s Press, 1995), 85-91. In her diary, Zillah Haynie Brandon remarked that the Cherokee that lived around her were quiet people. They had a look of sadness about them. The only time she feared the Cherokee were when they were intoxicated. Zillah complained about how an insidious white man operated a lucrative ?whiskey shop? a quarter-mile from her home. 27 ?Another of the Ridge Party Murdered,? The Federal Union (Milledgeville, GA), August 1, 1835. 40 28 Garrison, The Legal Ideology of Removal; William G. McLoughlin, Cherokee Resistance in the New Republic (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986); Perdue and Green, eds. The Cherokee Removal. 29 Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 130-31; Brandon Family File, Family Vertical Files, GDAH, Morrow. Brandon?s Society also housed the county?s first school. The tuition rates and curriculum offered at this school is unknown. 30 Persistence is here defined as the appearance of a head of household in Cass County on two sequential state or federal census enumerations; persistence rates measure the proportion of the population continuing in the community ten years after enumeration. Cass County crude persistence rates for each decade were 21 percent (1834-1840); 39 percent (1840-1850); 41 percent (1850-1860). Using available genealogical secondary sources combined with county records and state and federal census enumerations, I recalculated Cass County?s persistence rates to include persistent inhabitants who were either not listed as heads of household in one or more census enumeration. Using this method, I discovered much higher rates of persistence among individuals and family surnames than I did by merely counting head of households. This method revealed that Cass County?s crude persistence rates for each decade were 31 percent (1834-1840); 56 percent (1840-1850); 59 percent (1850-1860). Any calculation of persistence rates that includes the matching of surnames risks inaccuracies since it is by no means certain that individuals with the same surname were related. All persistence rates presented in this work assume a degree of error and are meant to suggest population trends rather than present absolute truths. The rigorous analysis of persistence in Hal S. 41 Barron, Those Who Stayed Behind: Rural Society in Nineteenth-Century New England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), in which he corrects the crude rates for estimated mortality, suggests that, so corrected, the Cass County rates might be some five to ten percentage points higher. Steven Hahn?s The Roots of Southern Populism does not provide persistence rates for the state?s upcountry counties. He did, however, conclude ?that as many as 35 percent of the farm operators shared surnames with at least one other farm operator in the same district.? No study of a Georgia county exists, to my knowledge, which offers persistence rate estimates that could be used to indicate the typicality of my findings. 42 CHAPTER TWO A WHITE MEN?S COMMUNITY: 1840-1860 In the summer of 1844, merchant M. H. Bunn traveled through North Georgia in route to Chattanooga, Tennessee. During his journey, Bunn spent several days in Cass County. His writings depict the county?s landscape and towns. Along the Tennessee Road just outside of the Allatoona Mountain range, Bunn noticed a sharp change in the country?s topography. Suddenly, the road rose along deep cuts through mountains. From his horse, he saw the top of those deep cuts some thirty to sixty feet high. He predicted that soon railroads, ?the puffing monsters,? would ?ride majestically over the dales and through the hills of this interesting country.? Several miles from Allatoona Pass, Bunn entered the Etowah River Valley. Outside of Hightower, the site of the Etowah Indian Mounds, Cherokee village, and missionary outpost, he spent a night with ?old Mr. Dickerson.? Nearby, Lewis Tumlin owned a large plantation that supported one of the region?s largest slave populations. With Tumlin?s permission, Bunn climbed the largest mound to gain a bird?s eye view of the Etowah River Valley After staying with Dickerson for an evening, Bunn rode through an uninhabited country. This stretch of land contained dense forests filled with oak and hickory trees. For most of the day, he rode through miles of forest before finally coming upon Vann?s 43 Valley. After exploring Floyd County, he traveled from the unappealing village of Rome to the attractive village of Cassville. He then visited Kingston where he toured the local saltpeter cave. After exploring the cave for hours, he drank water from a natural spring. He commented on the excellent quality of the local water but regretted that it was in such short supply. The next day, July 11, 1844, Bunn rode to the town of Adairsville. The terrain between Cassville and Adairsville contained numerous hills as the landscape ascended from the relatively flat Etowah River Valley. Adairsville?s appearance did nothing to excite his imagination. He described the area as a poor region. Adairsville itself was not a town but rather a collection of isolated households and farms that hardly formed any sort of recognizable community. That evening, he left Cass County moving northward toward neighboring Gordon County. Bunn never visited Cass County again. Bunn?s 1844 account of Cass County?s landscape painted an accurate picture of the land only five years after Cherokee Indian removal. The county contained a number of towns, but only Cassville impressed Bunn. He omitted any mention of churches or schools, and only noted the names of individuals with whom he stayed during his journey. 1 This chapter shows that between the time of M. H. Bunn?s 1844 excursion and the end of the antebellum era in 1860 Cass Countians?black and white, slave and free, rich and poor?led intermingled lives. Households formed interdependent communities bound by a shared culture, economy, and notion of white supremacy. Social and religious institutions and organizations such as churches, fraternal groups, and agricultural associations provided a place for residents to congregate and develop their 44 communal bonds. While economic disparities existed among white households, a common sense of communalism, co-dependence, and attitude regarding race and gender governed class relations. Economically, the completion of the Western & Atlantic Railroad in 1850 provided the county?s predominant self-sufficient farmers with access to transportation technology that encouraged a greater participation in the market economy than previously experienced. The following account argues that Cass County farmers supported the W&A?s construction and engaged in limited market relations with few culturally based objections. The railroad and the market promoted rather than challenged the region?s social ideal: landownership. The 1860 agricultural census, manuscript records, newspaper accounts, agricultural journals, and railroad freight returns indicate that by 1860, a majority of farmers maintained their sense of independence?measured by their continued self-sufficiency and stable tenancy rates?while selling products in state and local markets. Almost every facet of antebellum life in Cass County reinforced the existing white men?s democracy. 2 The antebellum South was a patriarchal slave society filled with paternalistic male heads of households who despite real inequalities of wealth and status maintained the ideological character of a white men?s democracy. White male heads of households were ?masters of small worlds? who exercised their authority over their household?s women and slaves in general. A concept of racial distinction and supremacy separated all whites from all blacks creating a mudsill class of enslaved laborers. Planters, despite their relative small numbers in Cass County and southern society in general, wielded enormous social, cultural, and particularly political clout, but maintained various bonds 45 of loyalty and communalism with their white neighbors that preserved a sense of interdependence that quelled many potential intra-white conflicts. 3 White Cass Countians shared a common material culture. Most ate a similar diet of large amounts of corn and pork. Many white heads of households lived in log dwellings with their spouse and on average five children. Estate inventory records reveal that a majority of locals owned at least three common items: a Bible, a gun, and a bed. Both rich and poor usually possessed a few common household furnishings such as a dinner table, various pots and pans, a spinning wheel, a butter churn, and a lantern. Wealthier inhabitants could afford imported furniture, milled cloth, tapestries, carpets, and numerous other luxury items, but some poor residents also owned some of these items. In all, it was difficult to assume a person?s wealth based on their estate inventory, since many wealthier residents did not purchase luxury items, while some poorer households had acquired a number of those goods either through inheritance, gift, or purchase. 4 In addition to sharing similar material possessions, some white Cass Countians belonged to a number of social and religious organizations that provided meaningful fellowship for rich and poor, black and white, male and female residents. Most white residents neither belonged to nor attended churches, social clubs, schools, agricultural societies, prohibition societies, and Masonic lodges. While churches were the most important social institutions beyond the family household, church members accounted for only 12 percent of the county?s total population. Numerous whites and blacks routinely visited churches without ever joining, but churches only sporadically recorded their presence. 5 46 Geography limited church membership. The average Macedonia Baptist Church member, for instance, lived within five miles of the church. By 1860, twenty-four churches held services throughout the entire county?eight Baptist, three Primitive Baptist, nine Methodist, and four Presbyterian. Baptists, Methodists, and to a lesser degree Presbyterians accounted for an overwhelming majority of the state and county?s church members. 6 Most of the country churches met once a month. Town churches usually congregated twice a month. While a majority of the county?s population lived in rural households, a majority of church members resided in towns such as Cassville, Kingston, and Cartersville and hamlets such as Euharlee, Adairsville, and Stilesboro. Church members in the county?s towns and hamlets, areas located within relative close proximity to the nearest church, represented between 15 and 25 percent of their total community?s population. Compared to statewide findings in Alabama and local studies gathered in the Wiregrass region of Georgia, significantly fewer Cass Countians attended church. 7 To be sure some unchurched Christians residing in Cass County held worship services in their homes for family, friends, and slaves. Godfrey Barnsley, for instance, organized a bi-weekly worship service for his children, white servants, and black slaves. Barnsley, a British citizen and a cotton broker with offices in Savannah and New Orleans, owned a plantation he named Woodlands, located halfway between the town of Kingston and the hamlet of Adairsville. Plantation records from his estate indicate that slave preachers presided over these services on several occasions. Presbyterian Churches in the county and throughout the state and southeast frequently requested that Barnsley?s neighbor Reverend Charles W. Howard preach at 47 their church, but he also worshiped at home during periods when his poor health prevented travel and inhibited his oratory abilities. Howard, a native of Savannah and a former Presbyterian minister, was a statewide religious and agricultural figure renowned for his orations and writings. Throughout the 1850s, he and his wife, Susan Jett Howard, operated a boarding school for girls. As part of their instruction, each student had to attend weekly church services and Sabbath school instruction provided by Howard or, during his absence, a church in nearby Kingston. Like Howard, Mark A. Cooper, a devoted Baptist and affluent owner of the region?s largest industrial town, Etowah, held regular worship services for his free and unfree workers. 8 Slaves also held services outside of established white churches. Julia F. Daniels recalled that on Sundays ?Uncle Joe? held services in front of her master?s home. Carrie Elder?s owner constructed a small church on the plantation. There he held Sunday afternoon services and Wednesday evening prayer meetings. Easter Brown?s master did not take his slaves to church, in part, as she explained due to the fact that they were so tired. While she did not attend church and it is unknown if slaves on her plantation held independent services, Easter believed in and prayed to God. 9 County wide membership estimates thus paint only a portion of the picture. Men such as Barnsley, Howard, and Cooper, as well as many others, held regular worship services in their homes and businesses, but lacked any official membership rolls. Rolls did not list their members? children since membership was limited based upon a person?s age and whether or not they had been baptized. If the average household in Cass County contained five children, then it would be reasonable to assume that perhaps as many as 2,817 children also attended church on a regular basis. Therefore, while members only 48 represented 12 percent of the total population, the addition of their churched children would increase that percentage to 42 percent of the total population. While those numbers are probably too high, perhaps, as many as one third of the total population regularly attended church. 10 As in most southern churches, women comprised a majority, approximately 62 percent, of Cass County?s church members. Of those members, 90 percent were either married or widowed. The typical Cass County congregation member was a married 33- year-old female with at least four children who had migrated to the county within the past decade from western South Carolina. Women occupied several leadership roles within a typical antebellum church. They served on conferences and visiting committees, cast votes that determined church leadership and other related governance matters, represented their church at various state and local fairs, and most importantly helped spread the church?s evangelical message. Women did not serve as ministers or preach, but occasionally taught Sabbath school. While most women were married, a large number attended church without their husbands. Women attended church in greater numbers than men because it was one of the few opportunities for them to congregate with their neighbors. 11 Though women outnumbered men, white males ruled church life in the same manner in which they were the earthly governors of dependent women, children, and slaves in their households. Male church members assumed the duty of maintaining church discipline, thus finding in church governance the legitimization of their household authority. While women outnumbered men, the latter ruled the church. So too did non- slaveholders outnumber slaveholders but nonetheless repeatedly elected them to positions 49 of congregational authority. Surviving church records indicate that 85 percent of pastors, deacons, and elders owned slaves. The church embodied the local community where approximately 17 percent of all heads of households in 1860 owned slaves. 12 The dividing line between a majority of non-slaveholders and their slaveholding brethren was minimal. Most Cass County slaveholders between 1840 and 1860 owned a single slave. While prime field hands were valuable commodities worth potentially over a thousand dollars, approximately 65 percent of slaveholders who owned a single slave owned a female whose value was considerably less. 13 Slaveholders frequently doled out their slaves to neighbors, either in exchange for cash or simply as an act of neighborly charity. Godfrey Barnsley, for instance, hired out slaves in exchange for monetary compensation, as did Mark A. Cooper, Charles W. Howard, and Lewis Tumlin. The farm journal of slaveholder Dennis Johnson includes several accounts of providing slaves to his neighbors during non-peak times of the year to help them prepare their fields, mend fences, or herd livestock. In times of trouble, non- slaveholders also could depend upon the charity of local slaveholders, such as Barnsley, who provided them with sacks of flour and cornmeal. While it is uncertain how many slaveholders acted in such a charitable manner, it would be safe to assume that many devout church members did since their religious beliefs stressed the importance of aiding the poor. 14 Primitive Baptist Churches and their evangelical neighbors, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian, espoused a belief that slavery was a Biblically sanctioned practice that reflected the natural order of the world?s superior and inferior races. The state Baptist newspaper, The Christian Index, printed articles reminding church members that slave 50 ownership created a ?multiplicity of . . . new relationships.? Some churches held masters responsible for the spiritual development of their slaves, while others seemed apethetic. 15 Slaveholders who worshiped at Euharlee Presbyterian Church regularly brought their slaves to Sunday services. Meanwhile, at Macedonia Baptist Church, located five miles from Euharlee, slaves attended services less regularly and their names were omitted from the church?s membership rolls. 16 Slaves comprised a sizeable minority in at least two of the county?s churches. The Euharlee Presbyterian Church identified their body?s ?colored? members. In 1860, eleven slaves became members in this church. Slaves constituted about 15 percent of Euharlee?s total membership. Approximately 93 percent of slave members joined after providing the presbytery with a profession of faith. Malinda Franks obtained membership upon the reception of a letter transferring her membership from a church in South Carolina, where she had lived prior to her master?s, R. H. Taylor, relocation to Georgia. While most southern churches regulated where slaves sat during worship services, the Euharlee Presbyterian Church?s rules of order contained no such designations. The church building did not contain a balcony, nor does its architectural design or floor plan suggest that a separate ?colored? sitting area had been installed. Slaves likely sat in a segregated portion located in the rear of the church. 17 Slaves who worshiped at the Euharlee Presbyterian Church attended services with their masters. Since the church records only list the names of members, and not the names of their dependents or those who might have been too young to have been considered full church members, it is difficult to estimate how many slaves actually attended church services. The Milam family, Riley and Turner Milam, encouraged at 51 least three of their slaves, Hal, Francis, and Chaney, to join the church. Meanwhile, local slaveholding families such as the Sproulls, Speers, Templeton, and Taylor, also had at least one slave listed on the church?s membership roll. 18 Slave members at Nance Creek Baptist Church also attended worship services alongside their masters every fourth Sunday of the month. Most joined the church along with their masters after being baptized by immersion. In September of 1856, the church baptized 63 men and women, including ?Virgil a servant of Col. Edwards,? ?Susan servant of Dr. Milam,? ?June servant of Mr. Todd,? and at least six other slaves. During one ceremony, the church baptized thirty-three white men and women before four slaves entered the water. Mass baptisms were common in this congregation and throughout the South. The custom of allowing slaves to be baptized in the same ceremony as their masters, but only after all of the whites had been dunked, exhibits the bonds masters and slaves shared within an environment that reinforced the latter?s inferiority. 19 Mass baptisms perhaps reflected the hierarchical nature of white society. In September of 1856, Nance Creek baptized 23 white men and 43 white women. The first five men baptized owned slaves. The following fifteen owned real property. The final three men who entered the water were landless day laborers. One month later, the church baptized another fourteen white men and nineteen white women. Again, two slaveholders went first, followed by eight yeomen, and concluded by four laborers and tenant farmers. In each of these baptisms, women either followed their husbands or were dispersed among the yeomen. Mass baptisms at Macedonia Baptist Church and Euharlee Presbyterian Church also followed these general patterns. The ordering of baptism 52 (slaveholders, non-slaveholding yeomen, non-yeomen, and slaves) reflected the hierarchical and deferential nature of antebellum society. 20 Surviving church records reveal that slave members never engaged in white congregational business. They never represented churches during their local conferences and sessions, and they never served on white visiting committees sent to comfort members during times of trouble or to investigate a white member?s transgressions. No record exists of a slave delivering a sermon in an organized church. White church members only mentioned a slave when they joined the congregation or when they were baptized. 21 While slaves regularly attended some Cass County churches, whites interacted in a number of other social and cultural settings that were predominately segregated by race and sometimes by gender. By 1860, the county contained at least six Masonic lodges consisting of approximately 200 white male members. Masons prohibited women and slaves from joining their organization. Approximately 40 percent of the county?s Masons owned slaves. Few non-yeomen belonged, perhaps because of the ten dollar annual dues. Most lodges met once a month for a closed door session that shrouded the body?s activities. The Masons engaged in a social mission that benefited their immediate community performing a number of anonymous charitable acts that reinforced the existing communal bonds. In January 1856, for instance, a poor man died in Cassville. His family could not afford a casket and could not locate a place in town to bury him. Local Masons responded by taking up a collection that paid for the casket and burial. Masons particularly cared for their own members. When a member lost a house to a fire or suffered an unexpected poor crop, the Masons found ways to provide relief to 53 that member. If a member became injured, others helped plant, harvest, or market his crop. In Cassville, Masons who owned gristmills regularly donated corn meal to local impoverished families regardless of their membership. Kinship influenced their communalism since many of their members were related to significant segments of the local population, but their organization?s charity extended beyond the confines of familial relations. While the Masons prohibited slaves from becoming members, unfree laborers nonetheless helped perform many of the group?s charitable deeds. Slaves rebuilt destroyed homes and barns and did much of the donated farm work. Masonic lodges fostered a communal spirit among its white members and non-members that strengthened the bonds of loyalty across their community. 22 White Cass Countians belonged to several local and state agricultural societies. Reverend Charles W. Howard, a prominent local slaveholder and advocate for agricultural reform, helped organize the Etowah Agricultural Society that participated in a variety of state and regional associations. Agricultural societies provided a venue for white male farmers to discuss their occupation with their peers and a chance to receive advice from the region?s leading agricultural scientists. Topics at meetings included animal husbandry, crop rotation, fertilizers, labor management, and market prices. No complete membership roll exists for the county?s agricultural society, but reports published by the Cassville Standard sporadically listed the names of members who attended the most recent meeting. Such reports identified 95 white men who attended society meetings throughout 1859 and 1860. Slaveholders comprised about 45 percent of these individuals, while less than three percent were non-yeoman. Slaveholders dominated the group?s leadership holding approximately 95 percent of all elected 54 positions. These societies sponsored annual county fairs. At the fair white farmers competed for cash prizes rewarding the best livestock, garden produce, and field crops. Agricultural societies and fairs displayed and rewarded the talents of many white farmers fostering a community of farmers who shared a common base of knowledge and agrarian fellowship. 23 * * * * * * * * * * * * The development of Cass County coincided with the construction of ?the State Road,? the W&A. On December 21, 1836, four years after the creation of the county, the Georgia General Assembly passed an act authorizing the use of state funds to construct a railroad from a point near the Chattahoochee River (the eventual site of Atlanta) to the Tennessee border near Chattanooga. The W&A connected western farmers to Macon, Augusta, Savannah, and many smaller towns such as those located in Cass County. The notion of a state-funded railroad network attracted support from Democrats and Whigs alike during the flush economic times of the 1830s, but became a divisive party issue as the state?s economy fizzled during the late 1830s and early 1840s. In 1841, the state suspended construction. At that time, the State Road extended from the Chattahoochee River to the banks of the Etowah River along Cass County?s southeastern border. Despite poor economic conditions, Whig politicians sponsored additional spending bills while a majority of Democrats?especially from the Black Belt?opposed those measures. In 1843, a coalition of eight North Georgia Democratic senators, including 55 Cass?s Lewis Tumlin, and statewide Whigs narrowly passed a W&A appropriations bill. 24 Support for the W&A extended beyond a handful of Cass County Democratic legislators. While some upcountry yeomen and townspeople alike protested the construction of the railroad because they feared that the trains would kill their livestock, escalate land prices, spark forest fires, and introduce undesirable elements such as saloons, vagrants, and prostitutes into their backyards, editorials published in the Cassville Standard and the actions of local leaders reflected a community that favored railroad construction. W&A surveyors determined during the 1840s that the terrain around the town of Cassville necessitated the State Road from passing through the county seat. Initially, residents seemed unconcerned with this decision. Their newspaper published several editorials predicting that the State Road would be a mixed blessing for the region. Two years later, in 1852, editors changed their stance after witnessing the economic boom brought to railroad towns in the county: Kingston, Cartersville, and Adairsville. The town of Cartersville had scarcely existed before the W&A opened. By 1852, this rail town had surpassed the county seat of Cassville in total population, number of businesses, and overall wealth. Kingston and Adairsville too experienced a spike in population and number of businesses. A thriving hotel and resort industry developed in Kingston where none had existed only five years earlier. John Burke, Cassville Standard editor and proprietor, warned Cassville residents that if something was not done their town might decline as businesses and townspeople relocated to Cartersville. In 1852, a group of planters, merchants, and professionals from Cassville paid for a survey that proposed to reroute the State Road through their town. County representatives lobbied 56 for the proposed changes, but due to the burdensome estimated cost, their efforts failed. If large numbers of Cass County farmers and townspeople had opposed the railroad, then no one would have bore the expense of conducting a survey. 25 If yeomen farmers protested the railroad prior to 1850, economic trends during the following decade silenced those critics. During the 1850s the W&A helped many farmers maintain and expand their existing landholdings. The railroad altered the county?s agricultural production, racial composition, and economic foundation. Prior to 1850, Cass County farmers grew small amounts of cash crops. Most farmers devoted the bulk of their improved acreage to corn, raised livestock on the open range, and consumed those items within their household and bartered them among their neighbors. Most farmers were semi-subsistence producers with minimal contact with state and local markets. A typical yeoman during the 1840s might produce a single bale of cotton annually to sell for cash, but few grew more than that. 26 The economic practices of antebellum Cass County farmers reinforced the existing white men?s democracy. Like most rural American communities, approximately 80 percent of the county?s heads of households were self-identified farmers and about the same percentage worked in an agricultural related occupation. Free laborers accounted for a majority of farm work, but slavery existed throughout the county and was especially prominent on farms located along the Etowah River. In 1860, 425 heads of households (17 percent of all heads of households) owned slaves compared to 302 a decade earlier. Masters who owned a single slave accounted for 19 percent (81 slaveholders) of all slaveholders. About 62 slaveholders owned 20 or more slaves, while only two owned more than 100. The median slaveholder owned seven slaves. During the 1850s, Cass 57 County?s slave population increased by over 1,200 slaves. The growth in the percentage change in the total slave population in Cass County between 1850 and 1860 outpaced the state of Georgia as well as the 10 largest slaveholding counties in the state. 27 Table 2.1: Cass County Slave Population Compared With State Aggregate, 1840-1860 County 1840 1850 1860 Net Change Percentage Change, 1840-1860 Percentage Change, 1850-1860 Cass 1,995 3,008 4,282 2,287 36.1 42.3 Georgia 280,944 381,682 462,198 181,254 71.3 20.1 Source: 1840, 1850, 1860 Manuscript Census, Cass County, Georgia. Table 2.2: Slavery in Cass County Compared With Ten Largest Slaveholding Counties (Measured by Percentage of Total Population in 1850), 1850-60 County 1850 No.. 1850 % 1860 No. 1860 % Percentage Change Cass 3,008 22.6 4,282 27.2 42.3 Glynn 4,232 85.79 2,839 73.0 32.9 McIntosh 4,629 76.8 4,063 73.3 12.2 Liberty 5,908 74.5 6,083 72.7 2.9 Putnam 7,468 69.2 7,138 70.5 -4.4 Columbia 8,272 69.2 8,293 69.9 .25 Wilkes 8,272 68.4 7,953 69.6 -3.8 Burke 10,832 67.3 12,052 70.2 11.3 Camden 4,246 67.19 4,413 76.4 3.9 Morgan 7,094 66 7,006 70.1 -1.2 Bryan 2,245 65.6 2,379 59.25 6.0 Source: 1850, 1860 Slave Schedule, Georgia. 58 While the total number of slaveholders increased during the 1850s, the number of farmer heads of households who owned the land they worked remained stable due to out-migration, population increases and rising land prices. In 1850, approximately 65 percent of the county?s farmer heads of households listed on both the manuscript and agricultural census owned their farms. Tenant farmers who rented their land accounted for the remaining 35 percent. One decade later, tenant farmers comprised about 33 percent of the county?s heads of households. 28 Table 2.3: Percentage of Tenant Farmers in Cass County County 1850 % Tenants among County Farmers 1860 % Tenants among County Farmers Cass 35 33 Source: 1850, 1860 Manuscript and Agricultural Census, Cass County, Georgia Throughout the 1850s the county?s white population grew at a slow pace in part due to the large number of residents who migrated westward. The Cassville Standard focused much attention on the out-migration problem, running a series of letters from western correspondents that painted a mixed picture of out-migration. Hawkins F. Price, a local planter and politician, warned potential migrants to ?remain among their friends and the enjoyments of home? rather than endure the hardships of California ?and be swindled by crooks.? Others painted a different scene. Nathaniel T. Wofford, local slaveholder and relative of local leader William T. Wofford, traveled to California during the early 1850s. In a published letter to the editor, Wofford told the Standard?s readers that ?some Georgians here are making from 15 to 20 pennyweights per day.? Those who 59 moved to California, wrote Wofford, soon learned ?that it is the finest country in the world? and the ?greatest hog country I ever saw.? Approximately 200 heads of households, 160 of whom were tenant farmers, listed in the 1850 manuscript census?as well as an undetermined number of dependents?moved westward during the 1850s. Arkansas, Texas, and California were the most popular destinations. Meanwhile, the county?s white population increased from 10,271 to 11,433, a rate of 10.2 percent. 29 A symbiotic relationship existed between tenants and landlords. Tenancy during the antebellum period resembled many of the attributes of farm ownership, and tenants seemed to share the culture and outlook of yeomen. To be sure, some of the county?s wealthier landholders looked down upon their poorer neighbors, but they rarely displayed this condescending attitude in public. George Barnsley, a son of a local slaveholder, for example, referred to tenants who rented land on his father?s plantation as crackers, but he also developed friendships with them and on more than one occasion taught tenant children to read and write. When one of his tenants needed food during the winter of 1854, Barnsley donated several sacks of cornmeal and invited the family to dine with him. 30 The economic gap between a tenant and landholder varied greatly. Many sons of prominent landholders leased property until they received their inheritance. Nathan Land, a prominent Cassville jurist and planter, leased property to a man who owned a farm in Fulton County, but wanted to increase his cotton production by leasing improved acreage. A sampling of 75 tenant heads of households who appeared in both the 1850 and 1860 census reveals that about half lived near landholding family members and some leased land directly from their family. Landholders routinely leased their unimproved 60 acreage to tenants who in return cleared the land and built fences in exchange for any crops he produced. In a cash poor environment, tenants usually paid their lease agreements with their own labor. 31 Most white farmers enjoyed the flush economic times of the 1850s. While slaves accounted for a higher percentage of Cass County?s total population in 1860 than 1850, the economic position of the county?s slaveholders diversified during the same period. Tenant farmers and farm laborers accounted for 15 (3 percent) of the county?s 425 slaveholders. Only two tenant farmers and farm laborers had owned any slaves ten years earlier. About 75 yeoman farmers who lived in Cass County in 1850 and 1860 became slaveholders during that decade. Some large yeoman slaveholders, exactly 18, increased the number of slaves they owned to 20 or more. Meanwhile, the number of slaveholders who owned 20 or more slaves increased from 43 to 62. As Table 2.4 illustrates, three of the wealthiest seventeen planters in southern Appalachia lived in Cass County. 61 Table 2.4: Seventeen of Southern Appalachia?s Richest Planters, 1860 No. Slaves Owned Planter County Total Wealth 188 Selina Coles Albermarle, VA $389,355 182 Walker Reynolds Talladega, AL $392,500 181 Elizabeth Watts Roanoke, VA $282,810 175 W. F. McKeson Burke, NC $265,000 167 T. W. Meriwether Albermarle, VA $242,850 162 Lewis Tumlin Cass, GA $282,099 154 William Massie Nelson, VA $250,973 145 J. S. Rowland Cass, GA $277,513 133 James Woods Nelson, VA $221,586 130 Howell Rose Coosa, AL $375,000 130 William P. Farish Albemarle, VA $309,780 128 Elizabeth Carter Loudon, VA $400,000 123 James R. Kent Montgomery, VA $321,590 122 Nicholas Woodfin Buncombe, NC $165,000 121 Jacob Harshaw Burke, NC $147,150 113 Major L. D. Franklin Jefferson, AL $561,000 110 J. W. Harris Cass, GA $228,750 Source: Wilma Dunaway, ?Slavery and Emancipation in the Mountain South: Sources, Evidence and Methods,? Virginia Tech, Online Archives, Table 1.9. During the antebellum period, the number of and the wealth of slaveholders increased throughout southern Appalachia. By 1860, 40,370 heads of households owned slaves in southern Appalachia. Between 1830 and 1860, the percentage of landowners holding slaves increased from 29.6 to 41.5 percent of the total white population. In Cass County, the growth in the number of slaves and slaveholders measured by the total population and percentage of the total population outpaced the rest of southern Appalachia. With the price of slaves rising by 20.5 percent between 1840 and 1860, those who invested in slaves substantially increased their personal wealth through capital gains. By 1860, Cass County truly was the ?Deep South? of southern Appalachia. 32 The increase in the number of slaves and slaveholders embodied the economic boom experienced in Cass County during the 1850s. Two principal and interrelated 62 factors fueled the expansion of the local economy. In 1850, the state of Georgia completed construction on the W&A. Depots built in the towns of Kingston, Cass Station, Adairsville, and Kingston provided local farmers with greater access to state and regional markets. That same year, a second rail line opened connecting the town of Kingston to the city of Rome, Georgia and its navigable rivers that allowed traffic throughout portions of Alabama and the Tennessee River Valley. Second, throughout the 1850s the price of cotton increased by 22.5 percent from .089 to .109 dollars per pound motivating farmers to clear more land, reduce their livestock holdings, devote less acreage to corn and more to cash crops such as cotton, wheat, and, to a lesser degree, tobacco. 33 Table 2.5: Wheat Production in Cass County, 1860 County 1850 Wheat (bu.) 1860 Wheat (bu.) % 1850 Cass 29,153 136,694 368.9 Source: 1850 and 1860 Agriculture Census, Cass County, Georgia. While King Cotton reigned supreme throughout significant portions of the Deep South, King Wheat dominated Cass County during the 1850s. In 1850, about 1,100 farmers produced 29,153 bushels of wheat or an average of 27 bushels per farm or 1.8 bushels per acre of improved land. Roughly half of all farms grew at least a few bushels of wheat. In 1860, farmers dramatically increased their wheat production to 136,694 bushels, a 368.9 percent increase compared to the county?s 1850 totals. Approximately 76 percent of all farmers grew wheat. 63 Table 2.6: Cotton Production in Cass County, 1850, 1860 County 1850 Cotton (bales) 1860 Cotton (bales) % 1850 Cass 2,385 4,407 +84.8 Source: 1850 and 1860 Agriculture Census, Cass County, Georgia. Farmers also grew more cotton in 1860 than 1850. In 1850, about 30 percent of farmers planted cotton producing 2,385 bales. That year slaveholders who owned more than 20 slaves accounted for 75 percent of the county?s total cotton crop. Few non- slaveholding tenant and yeomen farmers grew cotton. One decade later, about 45 percent of farmers planted cotton producing 4,407 bales, an 84.8 percent increase compared to the county?s 1850 returns. Slaveholders who owned more than 20 slaves grew more cotton but accounted for a lower percentage, 60 percent, of the county?s total crop. Slaveholding yeomen raised 22 percent of the crop, while tenants and non-slaveholding yeomen grew the remaining 18 percent. 34 The fact that in 1860 more farmers grew larger amounts of cash crops on an increased number of improved acres compared to 1850 does not prove that these products were produced for the market. Farm journals and W&A freight records, however, indicate that by 1860 farmers dedicated more of their available farm land to staple crops rather than subsistence crops because of their eagerness to sell their goods for cash. Farmers brought their crops to market in a variety of ways. Many sold their crop to local planters who used factors to negotiate prices with state and regional brokerages. Factors provided planters access to an intricate worldwide marketing system. 35 Some farmers stored their cotton for months waiting for a spike in cotton prices before selling. Farmers 64 routinely sold cotton outside of the county courthouse located in Cassville or at one of the county?s railroad depots. Godfrey Barnsley, for instance, told his overseer John Connelly to visit the cotton market in Cassville, Cartersville, and Rome in search of a good price on some locally produced cotton. Barnsley, an affluent slaveholder and cotton broker, bought cotton locally at prices that were lower than those garnered in Savannah or overseas and then bore the transit costs to those markets earning a handsome profit. The role that local planters played in providing other farmers access to the market reinforced their existing communal bonds. 36 Freight records compiled by the W&A railroad reveal that local farmers shipped substantial amounts of wheat and cotton during the 1850s to state and regional markets. In 1860, Cass County produced 4,407 bales of cotton. That same year, 4,212 bales of cotton were shipped from the Cartersville depot alone. While it is possible that farmers from neighboring counties may have transported cotton to Cartersville to be shipped on the W&A, it is more likely that a majority of the cotton transported at this particular depot came from local producers. Cotton growers in neighboring Cobb County would have been more likely to use the Marietta depot to transport their bales rather than bearing the expense and trouble of transporting it several dozen miles to Cartersville. Gordon County, Cass County?s northern neighbor, grew 432 bales of cotton in 1860 but their depot located in Calhoun transported 1,688 bales of cotton during that year. It is likely that some farmers from the Adairsville and Pine Log area might have found transporting their product to Calhoun easier than carrying it to Cartersville. 37 65 Table 2.7: Corn Production in Cass County, 1850, 1860 County 1850 Corn (bu.) 1860 Corn (bu.) % 1850 Cass 497,769 430,202 -13.6 Source: 1850 and 1860 Agricultural Census, Cass County, Georgia. As the amount of cotton increased during the 1850s, the amount of time farmers devoted to raising cotton rose, while attention given to other crops declined. Corn production declined by 13.6 percent. While 80 percent of farmers in 1860 grew some amount of corn, an overwhelming number grew less than they had in 1860. Wheat and cotton now grew where corn was once planted. The farm journal kept by Oothcaloga Valley farmer Dennis Johnson from 1850 until 1859 reveals much about the county?s transition from subsistence to staple crop production. Johnson did not own slaves, but frequently rented them to supplement his four full-time white laborers. Together his bi-racial workforce cleared fields, constructed fences, harvested timber, butchered hogs, and spread manure. In 1850, Johnson?s farm produced a diverse number of crops: corn, oats, wheat, Irish potatoes, and cotton and included over 100 acres of unimproved farm land that supported his expanding herds of cattle and growing hog population. Five years later, in 1855, Johnson?s had undergone a gradual transformation as he devoted less acreage for subsistence crops and livestock than previously. His laborers had cleared an additional fifty acres of farm land. Johnson planted cotton on 55 percent of his improved acreage and wheat on 25 percent leaving only 20 acres for subsistence crops. His journals mention the transport of cotton and wheat to the W&A depot in Adairsville as well as the sale of a portion of his crop to a local planter. While Johnson clearly sold wheat and cotton to local and regional buyers, he still produced a majority of the food his family consumed. He spent a significant 66 portion of his wheat and cotton profits hiring additional laborers and renting more slaves. That income also provided his family with some additional household items, such as an imported china cabinet and mirror. Johnson represents a sizeable portion of the county?s farmers who sought out the market economy but on terms they dictated, growing cotton and wheat after meeting their household?s self-sufficiency. 38 Table 2.8: Livestock Holdings for Cass County, 1860 Compared to 1850 County 1860 Swine % 1850 1860 Cattle % 1850 Cass 22,482 -6.9 4,322 -47.0 Source: 1850 and 1860 Agricultural Census, Cass County, Georgia. While the production of corn and livestock declined moderately during the 1850s, a majority of county farms maintained self-sufficiency. In 1860, approximately 60 percent of farm households were self-sufficient in grain and 55 percent were self- sufficient in meat. The percentage of farmers who achieved self-sufficiency in grain only fell from 66 percent in 1850 to 60 percent in 1860, meat figures experienced a similar decline. A 6 percent decline in self-sufficiency was minimal given the county?s dramatic rise in cash crop production. Clearly, farmers sought the best of both worlds, a place within the market and a self-sufficient household. 39 The farm diary of James Washington Watts reflects how slaveholding farmers balanced their desire to sell crops on the market and to maintain their existing self- sufficiency and communal bonds. Of the hundreds of entries written by Watts between 1853 and 1857, a majority related to livestock. During that period, Watts?s devoted 67 additional land to the production of cotton, while increasing his livestock holdings. His ledger reveals that Cass County herders bought, sold, and consumed their livestock in a variety of ways using an array of transactions. On average, Watts purchased calves for approximately twenty dollars. He subsequently raised these calves to adulthood, fattening them up by feeding them large amounts of corn immediately before exchanging them. Sometimes, Watts sold his cattle for cash to local residents. In February of 1854, he sold to Colonel James Sproull a heifer for $35.00. Watts purchased this heifer as a calf two years earlier for around $20.00. Minus the cost of feeding and raising the animal, he earned a tidy $15.00 profit. Cattle raising proved to be a profitable enterprise for Watts. 40 Watts also continued the practice of bartering that had typified antebellum transactions in a cash poor region such as northwest Georgia. On February 24, 1856, he sold a milk cow and her calf to a local resident, who return paid him $120.00 worth of sheep. When the local physician inquired about procuring beef for the upcoming winter, the herder traded sixty dollars worth of beef for future medical and veterinary services. When Watts needed a lawyer, he routinely paid him in beef rather than cash. On occasion, Watts?s transactions reinforced communal relations. When Reverend Charles W. Howard faced some trying hardships during the late 1850s, for example, Watts ?freely? gave his old friend and customer some beef. Occasionally, he gave frequent customers or friends cattle as gifts. In October 1857, Watts gave Colonel James Sproull a cow worth twenty-five dollars. These donations and gifts created intense bonds of loyalty between generous herders such as Watts and his benefactors. 68 Watts?s growing household additionally consumed a portion of his livestock. When Watts migrated to Cass County from Laurens County, South Carolina, on January 1, 1853, his household included his wife, four adolescent daughters, and six slaves. It soon expanded with four borrowed slaves. Watts?s white family meanwhile grew with the birth of additional children and the occasional prolonged stay of friends and relatives. When Watts needed meat for his household, he typically slaughtered livestock from his herd that he believed would attract less money on the open market, cattle that were ?too leggy? or ?too fat.? He estimated the value of these animals and entered them into his ledger as a net loss. On average, the Watts?s family consumed livestock valued between ten and fifteen dollars. 41 A relative newcomer to the county, Watts became involved in the local agricultural society and infrequently attended several local churches, and informal services held at the home of Reverend Charles W. Howard. Watts soon developed a statewide reputation as one of the leading herders in the state. In 1848, he began raising sheep. In an effort to prevent dogs and humans from destroying his flock, Watts imported a limited number of Spanish sheep dogs, making him one of the first herders in the state to do so. In addition to helping introduce Spanish sheep dogs to Georgia, he was also one of the first to scientifically breed sheep. Through his research, Watts learned that Spanish merino sheep were superior to all other breeds currently founds in the state. 42 * * * * * * * * * * * * 69 Interdependence and collaboration described the ebb and flow of Cass County?s economic life. Communities shared common patterns of exchange and communal organizations, forms common throughout rural sections of the United States, which molded the core of their daily existence. The reciprocity of mutual obligations helped diminish economic distinctions. Planters and slaveholders dominated county politics in part because of their white neighbors? support. Wealthier members of local society such as James W. Watts and Godfrey Barnsley fostered intra-racial bonds by extending credit to their neighbors, a necessity in a county without a bank, or by donating a sack of corn or small amounts of cash to their poorer neighbors. Mill owners such as E. V. Johnson and Charles W. Howard ground the corn of local tenants which earned them cash that could be used to purchase market goods or possibly land. Slaveholders Dennis Johnson, Thomas Brandon, John Crawford, William H. Stiles, and numerous others occasionally loaned slaves out to their neighbors during times of critical need. In return, their neighbors helped build fences, clear fields, and performed numerous other chores as a sign of their gratitude. 43 While harmonious intra-racial relations were the norm, conflicts occurred creating temporary rifts within the white men?s democracy?s fabric. Sometimes planters argued over matters such as the management of slaves. When a local slaveholder learned that George Barnsley had taught several of his slaves to read and write, he accused the young master of aiding runaways. Charles W. Howard and Godfrey Barnsley, despite their long standing friendship, routinely sniped at one another in their private letters and journals, each believing that the other to be unappreciative of their relationship. Arguments concerning the ownership of free range livestock or the destruction of a fence caused by a 70 farmer?s livestock were commonplace. James W. Watts confronted some of his poorer neighbors when he suspected them of stealing a hog. On several occasions, Watts extended credit to local families who never repaid their debt. While he might have pursued some form of legal recourse, it appears that he preferred to handle the matter by negotiating a labor contract that would satisfy the debt. 44 Churches sometimes experienced difficult moments, especially when leaders confronted members about their sinful behavior. Church discipline allowed wayward members an opportunity to confess their sins and ask for God?s forgiveness, but some members took matters personally. When Macedonia Baptist Church members attempted to visit Allen Martin?s home to discuss allegations of public intoxication and fornication, they were met by the accused party?s son who warned them to go away ?unless they wanted to get hurt for he would certainly hurt them if they come to turn him out.? 45 Disagreements between local residents and the state government occasionally happened. During the 1840s, Colonel John Sproull, a local slaveholder, endorsed the construction of the W&A and during the following decade grew hundreds of bales of cotton that he sold to factors and transported by rail. In 1854, Alfred a twenty-five year old field hand accompanied Sproull to the Cartersville depot. While there a slow moving train crushed Alfred?s foot permanently disabling him. Sproull sued the W&A seeking $1,200?the average price an adult field hand garnered in Cass County in 1854. After a series of decisions and appeals, a federal court ruled in Sproull?s favor. 46 Cass County?s slave population resisted their bondage like others throughout the South. The Cassville Standard published numerous runaway slave advertisements posted by local slaveholders. Godfrey Barnsley?s slaves resisted enslavement in a variety of 71 ways. Activities such as religious services, weddings, and quilting parties strengthened the slave community. From the perspective of the Barnsley family and their overseers, slaves routinely broke tools, stole chickens and wine, and occasionally disappeared for days at a time. Resistance or at least the appearance of resistance led to confrontations between masters/overseers and slaves. Julia Barnsley, Godfrey?s wife, died from consumption shortly after moving to Cass County. She frequently wrote to her husband, who frequently traveled while managing his New Orleans-based cotton brokerage, complaining about how whipping ?disobedient? slaves had little effect on their behavior. When necessary she sent slave couriers to fetch a white male neighbor to give a field hand ?ten lashes for [supposedly] stealing a ham.? The farm journals and personal correspondences of the Barnsley, Howard, Watts, and Johnson families reveal that Cass Countians, just like slaveholders across the South, anticipated slave rebellions. That lingering fear led to the creation of slave patrols and increased militia enrollments that at times healed white disagreements by forming additional communal bonds. Little evidence exists that would suggest that slavery in the northwest Georgia mountains was less harsh or more brutal than in other southern sub-regions. Regardless of their wealth and social status Cass County?s white males claimed rights and privileges that were prohibited by large portions of the total population. White women, a majority of the total population, could not vote, hold political office, join fraternal organizations, or preach. Slaves, regardless of their gender, possessed only the rights given to them by their masters and those they took for themselves. Race trumped class in almost every aspect of Cass County life. The bonds of communal loyalty and a common desire to perpetuate a slave society kept issues such as class in the distant 72 background. The prevailing white men?s democracy would remain intact as long as the slave society that produced it survived. 73 Notes 1 ?Notes on the Trip Upcountry,? NGDPP, [microfilm], Reel #61, Frame #269, Special Collections Library, BCPL, Cartersville. 2 White men?s democracy governed relations among white men. While the planter class held considerable power, white men in general benefited from the peculiar construction of southern society. White men valued racial distinctions that separated all whites from all blacks. 3 Stephanie McCurry, Masters of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households, Gender Relations, and the Political Culture of the Antebellum South Carolina Low Country (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995); McCurry, ?The Two Faces of Republicanism: Gender and Proslavery Politics in Antebellum South Carolina,? JSH 78 (1992): 1245-64. 4 Inventory and Appraisals, Court of the Ordinary, Cass County, Georgia, [microfilm], Drawer 167:9, GDAH, Morrow; Sam B. Hilliard, Hog Meat and Hoecake: Food Supply in the Old South, 1840-1860 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972); Testimony of Sarah Jane Patterson, Slave 10, (a): 286-91; Testimony of William Mead, Slave I, (4): 428-32; Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers, 18-19. 5 Macedonia Baptist Church sometimes listed the names of visitors who attended their monthly services. Their figures suggest that as many as ten visitors attended their services every month. Records do not reveal however whether these individuals were free or slave or if they were repeat visitors. The names are listed too infrequently to draw any meaningful statistical findings. Donald G. Mathews, Religion in the Old South (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), Preface. 6 Manuscript Census, Cass County, Georgia, 1850, 1860. 74 7 Wayne Flynt estimated that 25 percent of Alabamians were church members during the antebellum period. Mark V. Wetherington estimated that 33 percent of wiregrass region inhabitants in the counties he sampled were church members. Flynt, Alabama Baptists, 79; Wetherington, Plain Folk?s Fight, 34-7. In Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers, Ronald D. Eller stated that ?Politics and religion were the two major opportunities for mountain residents to engage in organized community life, but these institutions were themselves organized along kinship lines.? Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers, 9. 8 Plantation Journal, George S. Barnsley Papers, #1521, Subseries 3.1, SHC, UNC-CH; Dunaway, Slavery in the American Mountain South, 127. 9 Testimony of Easter Brown, Slave 12, (a): 136-40; Testimony of Callie Elder, Slave 12, (a): 306-15; Testimony of Julia F. Daniels, Slave 4, (a): 273-77. 10 Estimate derived from 1860 Federal Social Statistics, church membership rolls of Macedonia Baptist Church, Euharlee Baptist Church, Raccoon Creek Baptist Church, Nance Creek Baptist Church, and Brandon?s Society (Methodist Church). Number of children of church members obtained by dividing the number of church members in half, assuming that most members are married, but not accounting for large number of female church members, and multiplying that number by five or the average number of children in a county household. This estimate is too high, but suggests that more people and a larger percentage of the total population attended church than originally believed. 11 Estimates gathered from membership rolls of Euharlee Presbyterian Church, 1853-1900; Macedonia Baptist Church, Raccoon Creek Baptist Church [microfilm], 75 Northwest Georgia Document Preservation Program, Shorter College Museum and Archives, Rome. Mathews, Religion in the Old South, 26, 109, 47-48, 102, 112; Flynt, Alabama Baptists, 40-42. 12 Ibid. 13 Manuscript Census, Cass County, Georgia, 1860. 14 Plantation Journal, George S. Barnsley Papers, #1521, Subseries 3.1, SHC, UNC-CH; Dennis Johnson Farm Journal, MS# 2500, UGA, Athens. 15 Martin E. Marty, Pilgrims in their Own Land: 500 Years of Religion in America (New York: Penguin Press, 1984), 238; Mathews, Religion in the Old South, Preface. 16 Euharlee Presbyterian Church, Minutes, 1853-1900, Macedonia Baptist Church, Minutes, [microfilm], NGDPP, Shorter College Museum and Archives, Rome. For a detailed description of slave religion see: Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The ?Invisible Institution? in the American South 2d ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980). Mathews, Religion in the Old South, 136-84. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid.; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 81-82. 19 Nance Creek Baptist Church Minutes, [microfilm], NGDPP, Shorter College Museum and Archives, Rome. Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877 2d. ed. (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003), 145-56; John B. Boles, ed. Masters & Slaves in the House of the Lord: Race and Religion in the American South, 1740-1870 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1988), 2, 10. 20 Ibid. 76 21 Evidence of slaves preaching in white churches exists throughout the antebellum South. Perhaps, slave preachers did the same in Cass County, but the surviving records fail to mention it. 22 Cassville Masonic Lodge, MS # 1714, UGA, Athens; Barbara Bell Canaday, Georgia Freemasons, 1861-1865 (Atlanta: Georgia Lodge of Research, 2001), 88, 110, 134. 23 ?Agricultural Society Meeting,? Cassville Standard, March 3, 1857; February 5 1858; September 15, 1858, [microfilm], BCPL, Cartersville. In 1860, the Cassville Standard had 562 subscribers and the Cartersville Express had 600. 25 Milton S. Heath, Constructive Liberalism: The Role of the State in Economic Development in Georgia to 1860 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954), 143-48; New Georgia Encyclopedia, ?Bartow County,? (By Chantal Parker), http//:www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org, (Accessed on November 5, 2005); Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, A History of Transportation of the Eastern Cotton Belt (New York: Octagon, 1968), 304-06; James H. Johnston, Western and Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia (Atlanta: Stein Printing Company, 1932), 27; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 167; Southern Railway Museum: Georgia?s Official Transportation History Museum, ?Western & Atlantic: ?Crookedest Road Under the Sun,? (By Joseph Bogle), http//:www.srmduluth.org/, (Accessed on November 5, 2005); James A. Ward, J. Edgar Thomson: Master of Pennsylvania (Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980), 40-42; Thornton, Politics and Power, 268-80; Hahn, The Roots of Southern Populism, 34-38; 77 Wallenstein, Slave South to New South, 38-39. Hahn overstates the level of economic and ideological opposition that upcountry farmers expressed against the railroad. 26 Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 19-21; The Standard (Cassville), April 8, 1852, [microfilm], Special Collections Library, BCPL, Cartersville. 27 Calculated from the Seventh Census of the United States, 1850 (Washington: Robert Armstrong, 1853), 225; and the Eighth Census of the United States, Agriculture, 1860 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 864), 365. 28 Manuscript Census, Cass County, Georgia, 1850, 1860, Schedules I, II, and IV. The total percentage of the population that was enslaved in Cass County exceeded the southern Appalachian regional average. According to Wilma Dunaway, in 1860, 15.2 percent of the total population in the southern Appalachian region were enslaved. In Cass County, slaves accounted for 27.2 percent of the total population. Cass County also exceeds the average of Appalachian counties in Georgia. Wilma Dunaway, ?Slavery and Emancipation in the Mountain South: Sources, Evidence and Methods,? Virginia Tech, Online Archives, Table 1.3. 29 Manuscript Census, Cass County, Georgia, 1850, 1860, Schedules I, II, and IV. 30 Cassville Standard, March 11, 1855, [microfilm], BCPL, Cartersville. 30 Plantation Journal, George S. Barnsley Papers, SHC, UNC-CH. 32 Hahn, Roots of Southern Populism, 64; Also see Rebecca Latimer Felton, Country Life in Georgia in the Days of My Youth (Atlanta, 1919), 52-53. 33 Wilma A. Dunaway, ?Slavery and Emancipation in the Mountain South: Sources, Evidence and Methods,? Virginia Tech, Online Archives, Table 1.3, Table 5.15. 78 34 Ibid; Lewis Cecil Gray, History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860 (Gloucester, MA: 1958), 876, 884. 35 Manuscript Census, Cass County, Georgia, 1850, 1860, Schedules I, II, and IV. 36 Harold Woodman, King Cotton and His Retainers: Financing and Marketing the Cotton Crop of the South, 1800-1925 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1990), 28. 37 Plantation Journal, George S. Barnsley Papers, SHC, UNC-CH. Woodman, King Cotton, 48. 38 Principle Articles of Transportation from Stations Ending in September 1860, Western and Atlantic Freight and Income Expenses, 1848-1868, RG# 18-5-28, Vol. 3- 8952, F3, R11, U11, S-1, 3329-01, Box 1, GDAH, Morrow. 39 Dennis Johnson Farm Journal, MS# 2500, UGA, Athens. 40 For similar examples of a decline in self-sufficiency accompanied by a rise in cash crop production consult: Lacy K. Ford, ?Yeoman Farmers in the South Carolina Upcountry: Changing Production Patterns in the Late Antebellum Period,? Agricultural History 60 (1986): 17-37; Noe, Southwest Virginia?s Railroad, 31-32; Williams, Appalachia, 91-92; Paul Salstrom, Appalachia?s Path to Dependency: Rethinking a Region?s Economic History, 1730-1940 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994), xii-xxiii, 11-19, 41-59; Robert D. Mitchell ed., Appalachian Frontiers: Settlement, Society, and Development in the Pre-industrial Era (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990). 79 40 Historian Richard K. MacMaster argued that western Virginia herdsmen were complete capitalists. Richard K. MacMaster, ?The Cattle Trade in Western Virginia, 1760-1830,? in Robert D. Mitchell, ed. Appalachian Frontiers: Settlement, Society & Development in the Preindustrial Era (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1991). 42 James W. Watts, Diary and Account Book, 1853-58, [microfilm], Drawer 28:74, GDAH, Morrow. 43 James C. Bonner, A History of Georgia Agriculture, 1732-1860 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1964), 187. 44 Hahn, Roots of Southern Populism, 55. 45 Plantation Journal, George S. Barnsley Papers, SHC, UNC-CH; James Washington Watts Farm Diary, Cass County, 1854-1855, James Washington Watts Papers, GDAH, Morrow. 46 Macedonia Baptist Church, Minutes, [microfilm], NGDPP, Shorter College Museum and Archives, Rome. 47 James Sproull v. State of Georgia, 1854, Georgia Supreme Court, 1854, GDAH, Morrow. 80 CHAPTER THREE THE ROAD TO SECESSION The politics of a white men?s democracy dominated antebellum Cass County. In 1861, county voters narrowly sent a three-man delegation of Cooperationists to the upcoming Georgia Secession Convention. At the convention, the county?s delegates unanimously rejected immediate secession in three separate votes, while a majority of upcountry delegates supported immediate secession. This chapter explores the nearly three decades of political discussions and campaigns that proceeded the secession winter of 1861. Antebellum Cass Countians usually voted Democratic, but at times provided majorities for Whig and Know Nothing candidates. Local leaders routinely shifted party loyalties, citing a variety of local, state, and national concerns, but all defended the institution of slavery and the prevailing white men?s democracy. Changes in the county?s economy and racial composition during the late 1840s and 1850s did not significantly alter the county?s voting patterns. Ultimately, the political realm did not create any overriding animosities among Cass Countians. Instead, politics reflected a white men?s democratic order whose political parties agreed that tyrannical northern abolitionists and Republicans were far more threatening adversaries than Georgia Whigs, Democrats, or Know Nothings. While the county?s secession convention delegates strongly believed that immediate secession was the wrong course of action, their opposition did not 81 represent a lackluster commitment to preserving slavery, nor did they oppose the doctrine of secession. Their Cooperationist stance mirrored nearly three decades worth of precedents the provided county and state voters, politicians, and parties some maneuverability The Democratic Party, in its multiple variations, served as the core of Cass County?s antebellum political continuity. The county?s allegiance to the Democracy originated with the immense popularity of Andrew Jackson, whom northwest Georgians credited for Indian removal. County organizers displayed their appreciation for Jackson?s leadership by naming their county after his secretary of war, Lewis Cass. As shown in Table 3.1, in the nine gubernatorial elections Cass Countians participated in between 1833 and 1849, the Union-Democratic/Democratic Party received a majority of the votes cast in all except on two occasions. The average percentage of votes received among these candidates was 57 percent. Likewise, in five presidential elections, locals provided the Democracy with a majority on each occasion with a similar margin of victory. 1 Table 3.1: Gubernatorial Election Returns, Cass County, 1833-1849 Year Candidate Party Percentage of Total Votes Received 1833 Joel Crawford Troup 54 percent 1835 William Schley Union-Democrat 56 percent 1837 William Schley Union-Democrat 61 percen 1839 Charles McDonald Union-Democrat 60 percent 1841 Charles McDonald Union-Democrat 42 percent 1843 Mark A. Cooper Union-Democrat 56 percent 1845 George Crawford Whig 54 percent 1847 George Towns Democrat 65 percent 1849 George Towns Democrat 62 percent Source: Milledgeville, Federal Union. 82 The Democratic Party typically won more than half of the county?s vote, but the Whig Party usually made a strong showing?44 percent on average?in defeat. They even managed to carry Cass in favor of George Crawford during the 1845 election. Although the Democratic Party dominated state and national elections, victory was less assured during local political contests. Between 1833 and 1849, roughly 15 percent of the county?s state representatives belonged to the Whig Party. Meanwhile, Whigs routinely held judicial, bureaucratic, and law enforcement posts within the county government. Voters, for example, rejected Whig Turner H. Trippe?s congressional and state house campaigns but supported his Cherokee circuit court candidacy. 2 County Democratic and Whig politicians shared much in common. Both owned a considerable amount of real and personal property. They worshiped in the same churches, worked in the same law firms, belonged to the same social organizations, and supported many of the same moral crusades such as temperance. The sons of prominent Democrats married the daughters of well-known Whigs and vice-versa. When politically expedient, county Democrats attached themselves to ostensibly Whiggish programs such as state-funded transportation projects despite protests from within their state organization. The principal differences between these two parties on the local level revolved around their relationship with state and national bodies rather than any serious distinctions brought forth during face to face interactions. While distinguishing a Whig from a Democrat might have been difficult prior to 1849, a series of national events beginning with the Wilmot Proviso realigned the Jacksonian-era parties further blurring party lines. On August 8, 1846, Pennsylvanian Congressman David Wilmot proposed an amendment to an otherwise anonymous 83 appropriations bill that would prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. His amendment lacked enough support to become law, but the threat it posed to southern members of congress permanently strained their relationship with their respective national parties. After the proviso, in Georgia, distinctions between Whigs and Democrats soon became secondary in importance compared to the growing rift between northerners and southerners. Following the 1849 gubernatorial election, Cass County Democrats followed Governor George Towns?s lead as the party searched to draw a line in the sand between themselves and northern agitators. Towns?s campaign adopted the old States? Rights Party platform that endorsed secession as a last ditch form of resistance against federal tyranny. Cass voters responded positively to this message as he received more votes in that county than in any other county in the state. While the percentage of total votes cast for Towns decreased between 1847 and 1849, the emotion-filled campaign increased the local turnout by 47 percent. 3 On the surface, the incumbent?s strong showing might provide evidence that 62 percent of local voters endorsed the incumbent?s Calhounite rhetoric; however, a clear difference of opinion can be seen between local voters and Towns?s. His campaign benefited from Lewis Tumlin?s unsuccessful bid to fill the state?s fifth congressional district seat. The presence of a well-respected local candidate on the ballot directly impacted the county?s increased turnout. Throughout its history, Cass County voters participated in greater numbers in elections that included local candidates running for state and national offices. As expected, a higher percentage of county voters cast their ballots in favor of Tumlin than the incumbent governor. His popularity, however, went 84 beyond his local appeal as voters gravitated to his conservative stances. While Towns drifted toward John C. Calhoun?s beliefs, Tumlin?s campaign reaffirmed his Union Democratic roots. He admitted that the Wilmot Proviso threatened southern rights, but he also sharply criticized members of his party who espoused the doctrine of secession. He worried that northern Democrats would view secession as a hollow threat thereby calling the South?s bluff forcing it to either secede or to accept a humiliating submission. Whereas secession, warned Tumlin, offered the South a limited number of alternatives, their interests would be more credible if they remained in the Union and used the constitution as their sword and shield. Ultimately, his Whig opponent prevailed in a district Democrats dominated. Cass County?s two state legislators, William T. Wofford and Achelles Shackleford, exerted their influence as the assembly responded to the governor?s request to draft a preemptive response to Congress?s expected passage of the Wilmot Proviso. 4 The General Assembly?s rejoinder included eight resolutions that, in concert, condemned the proviso, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the abuses of the fugitive slave law, and the admission of California. As moderate Democrats and Whigs struck an alliance during the debate over the language used in the eighth resolution, their actions displayed a potential realignment in the state?s parties. The original resolution stated that if the Wilmot Proviso received congressional approval that the people of Georgia would respond by calling a convention to voice their opposition. 5 William T. Wofford protested the resolution?s language and offered the assembly an alternate version that reaffirmed the party?s 1847 and 1848 platform. He suggested that the first line of the resolution should read ?the passage of the Wilmot Proviso over 85 territory south of . . . the Missouri Compromise Line.? Wofford?s proposal expressed a belief held among many Union Democrats that slavery could be protected within the Union as long as the North reaffirmed the boundaries established by the Missouri Compromise. Following several days of heated debate, a coalition of Whigs, southern- rights Democrats, and a handful of Union Democrats rejected Wofford?s proposal. 6 While Wofford?s efforts fell short, national events swirling around the state soon led many into his camp. The question of whether or not to accept the terms provided by the proposed Compromise of 1850 recast the state?s political parties, splintering the local Democratic majority into two principal factions. Democrats who supported the compromise and believed the region?s interests would be served better under the umbrella of the existing Constitution and Union formed the Constitutional Union Party. This party also attracted support from former Whigs such as Alexander Stephens, Robert Toombs, and Allen F. Owen, who had split with their national party as well as Democrats such as Howell Cobb, William B. Wofford, John B. Lamar, and James A. Nesbit, who resisted the ?fire-eater? rhetoric espoused by some of their former Democratic colleagues. The Constitutional Unionists formed an unlikely alliance among Black Belt Whigs and North Georgia Mountain Democrats that could not have existed prior to the destruction of the Jacksonian party system. 7 Meanwhile, those who initially protested the compromise established the Southern Rights Party. James Gardner, Charles McDonald, Hugh Haralson, and Herschel Johnson, among others, led this party. Southern Rights candidates received strong support from traditionally Democratic regions such as the Wiregrass, Piedmont, and Upcountry. 8 86 In November 1850, Southern Rights and Constitutional Unionist partisans clashed in their first statewide contest as voters selected delegates for a December convention to debate the Compromise of 1850. Led by charismatic leaders such as Cobb, Toombs, and Stephens, a conservative electorate provided the Constitutional Unionists with a landslide victory. They captured 92 percent of the 264 convention seats while outdistancing their opponents in the popular vote by more than twenty thousand votes. Cass County voters cast more than 60 percent of their ballots for the local Constitutional Unionist slate of candidates that included popular community leaders William T. Wofford and Lewis Tumlin. When the convention convened on December 10, Wofford and Tumlin vocally endorsed the Georgia Platform that had been drafted almost entirely by Charles Jenkins at an earlier date. The platform stated that in a ?spirit of mutual concession? the state of Georgia and its northern agitators had reached an acceptable compromise that resolved many of the issues involving the acquisition of Mexican territory. The first three resolutions merely reaffirmed the state?s support for the compromise. The fourth, however, drew a line in the sand as Constitutional Unionists forbade the federal government from enacting any future legislation that infringed upon the rights of southern slaveholders and the institution?s lawful expansion into the American southwest. Any hostile action, the convention declared, would be met with resistance and, if necessary, secession. 9 In 1850, a majority of Cass County voters saw the Georgia Platform as an acceptable middle ground between outright submission and radical resistance to the issues decided within the compromise. The victory for the Constitutional Unionists, 87 however, did not guarantee any future party loyalties among hundreds of local voters. The following year, Constitutional Unionist gubernatorial candidate Howell Cobb received more than 60 percent of the county?s votes in route to a landslide victory over Southern Rights candidate Charles McDonald. Cobb?s victory, combined with the recent convention vote, provided his makeshift party with a resounding mandate of authority. Their gains, however, would soon be tested throughout the upcoming presidential election. During the emotion-filled presidential campaign of 1852, the divisions between Cass County Southern Rights and Constitutional Unionists sharply divided the county. Cassville Standard proprietor and editor John W. Burke supported the Constitutional Unionist Party. In a series of scathing editorials, he labeled Southern Rights partisans as radicals who best served their own interests. Burke accused them of destroying the state?s old party alliances with their overreactions and talk of secession. ?If [Southern Rights men] are true Democracy,? Burke sarcastically remarked, ?we have long labored under a gross delusion as to the meaning of the term.? Burke?s rhetoric alienated some of his subscribers and cost him numerous friendships. After reading one of his editorials, local jurist and ex-Whig Turner H. Trippe stormed into the Standard?s printing office and demanded that Burke discontinue references to his fellow Southern Rights men as radicals. After knocking over a pile of papers in disgust, Trippe canceled his subscription and ended his friendship with the editor. 10 During the 1850 convention and 1851 gubernatorial election, the Constitutional Union Party?s strength eroded as quickly as Burke and Trippe?s friendship. The state?s Whig leaders had reluctantly joined a party whose identity partially revolved around 88 protecting the ideals of the old Democracy. Cobb and Stephens worried that the state?s Whig Party might disappear, trapped within the constraints of a new party dominated by Democratic intentions. By late April, the ties that bound this unlikely alliance had broken. During an April 22 party convention, ex-Whigs voted against sending Unionist delegates to the Democratic national convention to be held in Baltimore in June. Undeterred, Union Democrats and a handful of Whigs adjourned into a supplemental meeting. Cass County delegates Lewis Tumlin and John S. Rowland attended the ?supplemental? meeting. Despite earlier Whig protests, this ancillary group selected twenty national convention delegates who would support the nomination of Lewis Cass and refrain from endorsing any candidate who did not support the Compromise of 1850. 11 During the weeks prior to the Baltimore convention, the Cassville Standard published a series of articles, editorials, and biographical sketches that endorsed Lewis Cass?s nomination. Burke tried to convince local voters and statewide convention delegates that Cass best exemplified the principles of the old Jacksonian democracy. Like ?Old Hickory,? Cass risked his national political reputation in support of Indian removal. He also supported the Compromise of 1850 when other northern Democratic leaders rejected the proposal. County delegates to the convention, Lewis Tumlin and John S. Rowland, cast their votes for Cass, but, after forty-nine deadlocked ballots, the party nominated Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire for president. Pierce?s nomination further divided the Whig and Democratic factions within the Constitutional Union Party as both sides failed to agree upon a common candidate to endorse for president. Throughout the summer of 1852, the Unionist party splintered as many Whig members pursued establishing an independent party. Disenchanted by the 89 prospect of advocating a Union ticket that did not attract the attention of the national Democratic Party, Howell Cobb and others decided to disband the party in favor of seeking a place on the Southern Rights slate of candidates. John W. Burke and many other Cass County Unionists felt betrayed by Cobb?s perceived treachery. They maintained their support for the Pierce campaign but could not bring themselves to join the Southern Rights Party. Following the lead of his uncle, William B. Wofford, William T. Wofford convinced Burke and others to support the Tugalo Pierce ticket. The Tugalo ticket struggled to distinguish itself as an independent and viable alternative to the Southern Rights Party. Nevertheless, the rhetoric of Tugalo editors such as John W. Burke and Hopkins Holsey castigated their opposition. ?Will you return as slaves to your southern rights masters,? Holsey wrote. ?Submission now will key the yoke upon your necks.? Burke criticized Cobb and others for ?stifling the public voice? by disbanding the party without first advising its members. 12 While the Tugalo ticket searched for an identity, William H. Stiles struggled to find a conservative position within the Southern Rights Party. Born in 1810, in Savannah, Stiles attended Yale University prior to returning home to start a legal practice. In 1832, he married Savannah socialite Eliza Mackey. When Mackey?s brother attended West Point, she had developed a congenial relationship with her brother?s roommate, Robert E. Lee. During the Jackson administration, the president appointed Stiles attorney general for the state of Georgia. After a term in the United States Congress, Stiles served as charge d?affaires to Austria. He published a history of Austria shortly after returning to the United States that was widely read during his lifetime. Politically ambitious and socially astute, Stiles, a wealthy planter with homes in several 90 counties and along Savannah?s prestigious riverfront district, dreamed of becoming governor or a United States senator. 13 Stiles held the precarious stance of rejecting both secession and the Compromise of 1850. Henry Clay?s plan, according to Stiles, violated the constitutional guarantees afforded to slaveholders. If secession meant war, he argued, than the South should reject secession. Rather than secede, he tried to convince audiences throughout Georgia and South Carolina to remain in the Union and to use the powers given to the states by the founding fathers to protect their sectional interests. ?Perish Democracy, perish Whigery, perish all party, perish everything political except the constitution of our country,? he said. Stiles suggested that extending the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific Ocean would prevent future sectional squabbles. During a Kingston speech, Stiles made a concerted effort to identify a middle- ground between ?disunion? and ?submission,? but his remarks only produced confusion. Following his address, an Augusta and Milledgeville newspaper printed separate editorials commenting upon the speech. One described it as a submission address, while the other applauded his secessionist rhetoric. At a later date, the Milledgeville Federal Union described his position as an ?awkward and unenviable predicament.? 14 While Stiles?s opinions confused many audiences and editors, he expressed a philosophy espoused by many Cass Countians. Hawkins F. Price, for example, joined the Southern Rights Party sometime in 1850 after losing confidence in the national Whig Party. A few months later, he reconsidered his decision and rejoined the Whig Party, determined to remain independent if that national party afforded no protection to southern slaveholders. One year later, he campaigned for a seat in the state legislature on the 91 Winfield Scott ticket. Likewise, Reverend Charles W. Howard, a lifelong friend of Stiles and local planter, rejected both secession and the compromise of 1850 and therefore felt uncomfortable in either party. They, like many, stayed away from the polls. Voter turnout on election-day in 1852 was abysmal. Only 1,342 Cass Countians voted. Three years earlier, 2,366 voters participated in the state governor?s race. Despite an increase in population between 1849 and 1852, 1,042 fewer residents went to the polls. The Southern Rights Party received 49 percent of the vote, while the Tugalo ticket ran a surprisingly competitive second, with 41 percent. Exactly one in ten county voters supported Winfield Scott. The Southern Rights Party carried the state for Pierce earning 56.1 percent of the vote. Scott?s 27 percent showing placed him in second. The Tugalo ticket and Daniel Webster both carried about 8.5 percent of the vote. 15 Following the 1852 presidential election, the Southern Rights faction of the state Democratic Party dominated the Democracy, absorbing into their body many of the Constitutional Unionists? former leaders, such as Howell Cobb, Hopkins Holsey, and John Lamar. The 1853 gubernatorial campaign pitted the reunified Democratic Party against another hastily constructed anti-Democratic Party filled with ex-Whigs and a scattering of old Union Democrats and dominated by Robert Toombs and Alexander Stephens. The anti-Democrats nominated longtime state legislator Charles J. Jenkins to run against Democrat Herschel V. Johnson. During the campaign, the men commonly shared the same hotel rooms and freely engaged in hours of amicable debate. Statewide, Johnson won in one of the closest contests in state history, 47,638 to 47,145. The final gubernatorial tally in Cass closely resembled the statewide results. Johnson won by a narrow 66 vote margin. Voter turnout, however, declined by 44 percent compared to the 92 1849 election. Meanwhile, in the Fifth Congressional District race, local voters overwhelmingly supported local candidate Lewis Tumlin?s candidacy providing him with a 64 percent majority over Union County Democrat Elijah W. Chastain. Chastain, the incumbent, won his seat two years earlier when he ran as a Union Democrat. By 1853, he had reconciled with the Southern Rights factions within the state party and chose to run as a Democrat. Tumlin, however, maintained his Union Democrat loyalties during the 1851 and 1853 elections. The overwhelming majority he received among Cass voters, compared to the small majority they provided Johnson, suggested that many local voters crossed party lines during that election. The differences between Democratic and anti-Democratic candidates did not convince local voters of the necessity of casting a straight party ballot. Despite their support, Tumlin?s campaign suffered defeat as Chastain edged him by 257 votes. 16 During the 1855 gubernatorial election, Cass Countians responded to a series of local events by casting a majority of their votes in favor of American Party candidate Garnett Andrews. Many ex-Union Democrats, including Andrews himself, and Whigs formed the base of the American Party?s support within the state. Locally, the American Party attracted support from the lasting remnants of those Jacksonian-era parties. Reverend Charles W. Howard, for example, had previously belonged to the Whig, Union Democrats, and Constitutional Unionist Party but, in 1855, cast his influence behind the American Party. The party?s nativist rhetoric?combined with their opposition to the southern rights dominated state Democratic Party?convinced him to switch parties. Likewise, Lindsey Johnson, a life-long Democrat and one of the county?s pioneer settlers, cast aside his old allegiances and became an American Party member. The American 93 Party?s platform differed from northern Know Nothings? in its unwavering support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Members declared that anyone who opposed the act held incendiary values that violated southern rights. The American Party platform attracted the attention of many Cass County voters. A series of events related to Governor Herschel V. Johnson?s management of the Western & Atlantic Railroad pushed a large number of Democrats into their camp. Fire had destroyed the State Road?s Etowah River Bridge, temporarily severing the county?s connection to southern commercial centers. Many residents blamed the governor and Superintendent of the State Road James F. Cooper for the accident. The Cassville Standard, a pro-Johnson newspaper, attempted to heal any existing wounds prior to the 1855 election, but, as usual, its ringing endorsement of the governor?s record proved unconvincing to many of its readers. Cooper?s bungled efforts to repair the bridge fostered additional resentment. In February 1855, he negotiated a contract to build a new bridge across the river, but, according to locals, he underestimated the span by 600 feet causing an inestimable delay in the project?s completion. For months, locals endured transportation delays as goods shipped south by rail had to be unloaded on the north side of the river, reloaded onto horse-drawn wagons, carried across a temporary wooden bridge, reloaded onto a southbound engine, and placed on a turning table before finally steaming toward Atlanta. 17 As election day neared, American and Whig Party newspapers throughout the state printed a series of scathing editorials accusing Cass County iron producer Mark A. Cooper, a Democrat and father of the current Superintendent of the State Road, of paying Governor Johnson a handsome bribe in return for reducing freight rates on the W&A. To 94 make matters worse, Cooper?s brother-in-law, Joel Branham of Eatonton, Georgia, published a letter-to-the-editor confirming the bribery charges. 18 In his rebuttal, Cooper denied the charges, but his efforts only fueled additional criticism that discredited Johnson?s leadership. ?If this road,? attacked Cooper, ?belonged to any good man, a wise economist, he might double the value of it in ten years . . . . The excessive charges on the road have been the greatest drawback to the influx of both capital and population in this country.? 19 On election day, Cass voters voiced their reaction to the alleged mismanagement of the W&A by casting a majority of their votes in favor of a slate of American Party candidates. Garnett Andrews won a tightly contested gubernatorial race receiving 106 more votes than Johnson. Whig candidate Basil H. Overby finished third receiving a total of 70 votes. Table 3.2: 1855 Georgia Gubernatorial Campaign, Cass County Candidate Total Votes Received Percentage of Electorate Garnett Andrews 1035 49 Herschel V. Johnson 929 44 Basil H. Overby 70 3 Source: Cassville Standard, October 4, 1855. The total number of votes cast declined by 13 percent compared to the 1853 election and by 5 percent 1849 returns despite the county?s experiencing substantial increases in its population during that same period. The continued decline in voter turnout, perhaps, illustrated the voting populace?s dissatisfaction with the dissolution of the Jacksonian-era Democrat and Whig parties. 95 Lewis Tumlin?s 1855 congressional campaign further illustrates the continuous shifting of party loyalties among Cass Countians during the 1850s. Two years earlier, Tumlin lost his bid to win the state?s Fifth Congressional District seat running as a Union Democrat and as part of an anti-Democratic party movement. In 1855, the Cassville Standard and the Calhoun Southern Statesman reported that he had joined the American Party. 20 The Cassville newspaper vilified American Party candidates refusing to use their local party name and, instead, drawing to their reader?s attention the party?s affiliation with northern Know Nothings who advocated abolition. On election day, 58 percent of Fifth District voters cast their ballots for Tumlin. Of the sixteen counties who cast votes for the Fifth District congressional seat, only three?including Cass?provided a majority for the American Party. Tumlin again lost his congressional bid to his Democratic challenger, John H. Lumpkin. 21 While the Democratic and American Party in Georgia blamed one another for the situation in Kansas, state party allegiances continued to shape Cass County politics throughout the late 1850s. In 1857, only 1,750 county voters cast ballots in the gubernatorial election that pitted Democrat Joseph E. Brown against the American Party candidate Benjamin H. Hill. The low turnout represented a 17 percent decline in voter participation since the last governor?s election and a 26 percent decline compared to the last Jacksonian-era party statewide race in 1849. Brown?s yeoman background and Cherokee, Georgia origins supposedly made him a favorite among North Georgia voters. While he won local majorities in almost every North Georgia county, his appeal failed to attract additional voters to the polls. In 1849, fire-eater George Washington Bonaparte Towns of Wilkes County, an eastern Black Belt county, received 1,461?or 42 percent 96 more?votes in Cass than Brown earned eight years later. Two years later, local voter turnout increased from 1,750 to 1,918, or 9 percent, but that race included Cassville attorney Warren Akin as a Whig gubernatorial candidate. His presence on the ballot accounted for the bulk of that increase as many die hard Whigs and anti-Democrats supported his campaign. 22 The Fifth Congressional District returns from 1857 and 1859 further evidence the county?s affection for local candidates regardless of their party. In 1857, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate earned 57 percent of the total local vote, while the same party?s congressional nominee, Augustus Wright of Rome, lost in a bitterly fought contest to American party candidate John Hooper. The son of a prominent Cherokee circuit judge and a member of one of the county?s earliest pioneer families, Hooper received more votes than his party?s candidate for governor. Out of the seventeen counties who cast Fifth Congressional District ballots, only Cass supported Hooper, who lost the election by almost 4,000 votes. In 1859, the congressional election lacked a local candidate. Consequently, the Democratic nominee John Underwood defeated his Whig opponent in one of the largest landslides in county history. Underwood received more votes from Cass Countians, 1,236, than Brown, 1,051, but still one hundred votes fewer than Towns won in 1849. 23 Nearly two months elapsed from the time of John Brown?s capture at Harper?s Ferry, Virginia, and the 1859 governor?s election. Cass resident A. J. Cone recorded in his personal memoirs a brief account of Brown?s raid upon local political beliefs. History, according to Cone, would always falsely claim that the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter by the Confederate military. Such claims, as he described, 97 were completely false. The Confederates fired on Fort Sumter because ?the first shot of the War was fired by Old John Brown, Kansas? Jayhawker, nearly two years before, at Harper?s Ferry.? According to Cone, northern abolitionists had funded Brown?s planned slave rebellion. These abolitionists pretended to be agents of God Almighty, but, in reality, ?truly [were] the vicegerents of His Satanic Majesty.? 24 Whereas events such as the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe?s Uncle Tom?s Cabin and the controversy over the Kansas constitution concerned many Cass Countians, John Brown?s raid pushed several of the county?s prominent former Union Democrats, Americans, and Whigs into the southern rights fold. American Party member Charles W. Howard, for example, abandoned his party and began delivering a series of speeches defending southern society and by extension slavery. Howard had always supported southern rights but disdained secession. His views on slavery cost him a place within the national Presbyterian Church, but that separation had not created any lasting animosities. He labored as a prolific antebellum writer who published and edited many journal articles. As an accomplished orator, he delivered numerous political speeches and sermons, including a memorable evening long public debate against the formidable Governor Herschel V. Johnson. Yet, nothing within that large body of work, prior to 1860, gave but scant mention to the defense of slavery. Howard also never directly mentioned Brown?s raid nor spoke publicly on that subject, but the change in his rhetoric that suddenly desired to defend slavery and glorified the endowments of the southern gentleman began in the months following Harper?s Ferry. An address delivered before the Alpha Phi Delta and H. H. H. societies at the Cherokee Baptist College in Cassville characterized Howard?s rhetoric. The speech 98 analyzed the education and characteristics of the southern gentleman. That body of characters, he commented, faced challenges that no one in the world had to endure. Their dual role as both a southern gentleman and an American citizen complicated matters. All Americans, he argued, believed in liberty, but southerners must be aware that such virtues were subject to the abuses of the national majority. The relationship, therefore, should be approached with great apprehension. In order to protect the nation?s liberties, southerners must remain firmly attached to their espoused conservative values. Northern society, he claimed, rushed to judgments and entertained extremists who threatened the nation. The South, however, acts in a state of constant deliberation that serves to uphold the true democracy established by the founding fathers. Minutes into the speech, Howard focused his attention on the future preservation of slavery. The slave, according to him, represented a vital part of southern society, one necessary to foster the ideals espoused by southern gentlemen. ?We all deeply deplore the moral evils which are connected with our slave system,? he stated: But are these evils less in any other country. . . . Compare the North and the South as to purity of public sentiment, soundness of public morals and sacred observances of public faith. . . . The negro is one whom, while we would not be so cruel as to make him free, because God and nature have not designed him for freedom, we feed, clothe, protect, and defend him as we defend our hearth-stones, our wives and children. Nor is it a confession of unworthy weakness to acknowledge that our social organization is dependent upon the inferior African. . . . Our conservative strength . . . is based upon the connection of our slave system with our whole internal political economy. Howard?s words earned him the unceasing praise of all those who listened or read his speech. The Alpha Phi Delta society sent him a letter expressing their sincere 99 appreciation to a speaker whose message exalted ?the youth of the country.? His speech equated the preservation of liberty with the continuation of slavery. Few orators expressed the desires of the white men?s democracy better. 25 * * * * * * * * * * * * Following the aftermath of Brown?s Raid, the triumph of the Republican Party during the 1860 presidential election propelled Georgia toward secession. During that election, the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln of Illinois managed to win despite not receiving a single electoral vote from the nation?s slaveholding states. The 1860 election?s turning point came two years earlier during the Illinois Senate campaign. When asked by Lincoln, ?can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits to the formation of a State Constitution?? Senator Stephen A. Douglas begrudgingly replied that ?slavery cannot exist a day in the midst of an unfriendly people with unfriendly laws.? Only Douglas could have successfully unified the national Democratic Party?s northern and southern factions, but the Freeport Doctrine ruined Douglas?s presidential aspirations and permanently placed the nation on the road toward the secession crisis. On April 23, 1860, during the 1860 Democratic Convention held in Charleston, South Carolina, the southern delegation, minus Georgia, stormed out of the convention in opposition to Douglas?s nomination. Most of the Georgia delegation left the convention the following day. The southern Democrats later regrouped at Baltimore and nominated their own presidential candidate, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. To compound 100 matters further a fourth party emerged, a new Constitutional Union Party, comprised largely of ex-American and Know Nothing Party members who nominated John Bell as their presidential candidate. Cass County voters, during the 1860 presidential election, split their votes among three candidates: Breckinridge, Bell, and Douglas. Douglas attracted strong support among Cass voters despite lackluster appeal throughout most of the state. The county?s largest newspaper, the Cassville Standard (joined by the Augusta Constitutionalist as the only pro-Douglas newspapers in the state) strongly endorsed Douglas and the National Democratic platform. Douglas?s support in Cass County derived from the inclusions of Herschel Johnson as vice-president on his ticket and the sizeable number of old Union Democrats, especially in the town of Cassville, who distrusted the Democratic Party?s southern rights wing. Union Democrats and Southern Rights Democrats shared much in common. Both sought to defend slavery and saw secession as a viable response, but disagreed over how to best defend slavery: in the Union or out of it. The newspaper printed weekly propaganda pieces lauding the Illinois senator?s virtues. An article entitled ?Douglas at Twenty-An Example for Young Men? appeared on August 30, 1860. The article mirrored Benjamin Franklin?s Autobiography in that Douglas received constant praise for his hard working pragmatic approach to life and politics. 26 The Cassville Standard also ran a series of unflattering biographical sketches of Breckinridge. The newspaper repeatedly declared that there was ?no Chance for Breckinridge? to win the election; therefore, a vote for him would be a wasted vote that would only guarantee a victory for the ?Black Republicans.? On September 6, 1860, an article filled with false statements of fact appeared chiding Cass County voters for 101 supporting Breckinridge because he was not a slaveholder. Only a slaveholder, declared the newspaper?s editor James R. Wykle, could understand the South?s need for moderation not radicalism. True slaveholders, according to Wykle, understood that the region?s best interests would be served by Douglas and a unified National Democratic Party. 27 In the same issue that Wykle incorrectly questioned Breckinridge?s support of slavery, the editor blasted the secession faction?s motivations for running a sectional candidate. Wykle reasoned that had the southern delegation remained at the Charleston Convention and participated in the nomination and balloting process that a unified South, along with a handful of sympathetic outsiders, could have successfully ended Douglas?s bid in favor of Georgian Alexander H. Stephens. Wykle greatly exaggerated Stephens?s chances. The editorial continued by stating that even if the South had been unable to prevent Douglas?s nomination, the National Democratic Party did not plan to adopt a platform that would have been adversarial to southern interests. Cass County?s other newspaper, the Cartersville Express, like most Georgia newspapers, supported Breckinridge?s campaign. They portrayed Douglas as the wedge that divided the national party. His stance on popular sovereignty led editors to question his southern loyalties. The paper called for Cass Countians to dispose their old party allegiances and cast their ballots for Breckinridge because only his campaign promised to defend southern liberty. The differing opinions expressed in the county?s newspapers were predictable. In 1860, Cassville and Cartersville contained a shared desire to defend slavery and southern rights, but factors such as party loyalties and demographic differences created friction. Cassville contained a larger number of former Whigs, 102 American Party, Union Democratic Party, and anti-Democratic Party loyalists. Whigs and American Party supporters likely cast their support behind Bell, while Union Democratic and anti-Democratic Party advocates chose Douglas. Statewide most Democrats loathed Douglas, but in Cass County, strong Union Democrat leaders such as William T. Wofford, James R. Wykle, Joseph Bogle and Hawkins Price persuaded many to support Douglas. In Cartersville, and to a lesser degree Kingston and Etowah, Southern Rights supporters such as Abda Johnson, Mark Hardin, and Mark A. Cooper, as well as the influential Goldsmith and Young families, saw Breckinridge as the only option for southerners interested in preserving their liberty. Age and the railroad played a role in the divisions that existed between these towns. In Cassville, their leaders were wealthier, but considerably older than those in Cartersville. In 1860, Cartersville?s population included a significant number of small slaveholders whose wealth had grown during the 1850s and perceived the current election as a threat to their continued prosperity. The best way to preserve liberty, according to the Express, was to exercise personal freedom. Cassville?s leaders differed only in degree. They too wanted to preserve liberty, but as the Standard proclaimed, the Constitution must remain intact and secession should be considered as a final solution only once all other options had been exhausted. During the campaign, Douglas, his wife, and his brother-in-law stayed overnight in Kingston because the town was situated along the W&A. Trains stopped in Kingston to take on water and to allow passengers a chance to eat or book an overnight room in one of the town?s four hotels. At the time, Douglas was traveling throughout the South, making his way toward Montgomery, Alabama. While at Kingston, Douglas actively 103 campaigned. At a large outdoor gathering, Douglas addressed a crowd that included local residents and individuals from neighboring counties. By the time Douglas spoke, people from as far away as Atlanta had arrived to hear the ?Little Giant.? 28 While most voters disliked Douglas?s stance on issues such as popular sovereignty, many saw the inclusion of former Georgia governor Herschel Johnson on the party ticket as a sign that, if elected, Douglas would not threaten southern interests. Local lawyer, newspaper editor, and Mexican War veteran William T. Wofford actively campaigned on Johnson?s behalf. The two men maintained a strong friendship that had developed during their law school days. Alexander Stephens?s brother, Linton, also campaigned on Douglas?s behalf in Cassville, attracting large crowds during his extended evening address. The county?s Breckinridge partisans responded with a flurry of their own campaign stump speeches and scathing newspaper editorials. In an effort to ensure a county-wide victory, Goldsmith and Smith arranged for a campaign stop in Cartersville by popular Georgia senator and Breckinridge supporter Robert Toombs. 29 Neither of Cass County?s newspapers endorsed Tennessee John Bell?s campaign. Former Whigs, American Party members, and anti-Democrats such as Charles W. Howard, Turner H. Trippe, James Parrot, and Warren Akin supported him nonetheless. They agreed with the Milledgeville Southern Recorder?s assessment that a vote for Breckinridge was a vote for disunion, anarchy, and bloodshed. While Bell supporters hoped for an improbable victory, they cautioned the electorate that if Republicans won and disunion was inevitable than the future of this government should be placed in the ?hands of moderate men.? 30 104 Statewide, Douglas faired poorly, receiving 11,581 votes out of 106,717 cast. Breckinridge won the largest percentage of votes garnering 48.89 percent compared to Bell?s 40.26 percent. 31 Breckinridge attracted support from Georgians who saw the States Rights wing of the Democratic Party as the true national party. Speeches by some of his more radical supporters such as Robert Toombs and Howell Cobb perhaps weakened his position during the final weeks of the campaign. After Republicans won majorities in many state elections, Toombs and Cobb told audiences that when the Republicans won the presidential election the South would leave the Union. Their assertion that a Republican victory and by extension a vote for Breckinridge would lead to secession perhaps pushed some of his supporters into the Bell and Douglas camp. In Cass County, Douglas finished a strong third, receiving 332 votes. Breckenridge received 1,055 votes and Bell earned 613. The charged election significantly increased, for the first time since 1859, the number of ballots cast. 32 Table 3.3: 1860 Presidential Election, Cass County County John C. Breckinridge John Bell Stephen Douglas Cass 1,055 (48.9 percent) 613 (40.3 percent) 332 (11 percent) Source: Milledgeville Federal Union. When Cass Countians learned of Lincoln?s victory, they began debating Georgia?s options. County resident Tom Dowtin informed his mother that in Cassville ?there is a great deal of excitement here on account of Lincoln?s election. Some are for doing one thing, some another, I hardly know what will be done.? According to the local town residents with whom Dowtin had spoken with following the election, Georgia 105 would choose to remain in the Union as long as possible. ?The people here,? Dowtin commented, ?have no notion of fighting as long as they can keep from it.? 33 In addition to creating an air of excitement, Lincoln?s election closed the local slave market. ?Negoes,? reported Dowtin, ?have fallen very much. They can not be sold at any price as nobody wants to buy.? 34 Potential buyers feared that once in office the abolitionist-friendly Lincoln might free the slaves. Those who had wanted to purchase slaves thus waited to see what Georgia and the rest of the slaveholdings states would do before making any new transactions. South Carolina?s secession in December 1860 created another stir among county residents. Local leaders called for a meeting to be held to discuss secession. It eventually took place at the Presbyterian Church in Kingston. There several members of the crowd openly expressed their concern that if the Federal government attacked South Carolina than they would be forced to respond whether or not Georgia chose to do so. Native South Carolinians comprised a majority of the people who attended the meeting. Those individuals anxiously waited to see if Georgia too would secede. 35 In Georgia, political leaders led by Howell Cobb and Robert Toombs also called for immediate secession. While Mississippi and Florida followed South Carolina, the Georgia General Assembly refrained from declaring secession. Instead, the assembly determined that, January 2, 1861, the people of Georgia would elect delegates to serve at a state convention that would commence a fortnight later. Voters chose between delegates advocating immediate secession and those supporting a cooperationist platform. Cooperationist candidates hoped to resolve the nation?s sectional divisions while remaining in the Union and establishing a convention of southern state. Cooperationists 106 believed that in order for the slave states to wield political power over the newly elected administration, they must form a united coalition that could serve as a sounding board for their protests. The secession of individual states, according to the Cooperationists, only weakened the region?s chances of influencing the new administration. Cass County voters remained evenly divided on the issue of immediate secession throughout December and January. During the convention election, the Cooperationist slate of candidates escaped with a narrow victory of 100 votes over their immediate secessionist opponents, hardly an authoritative mandate. Cass County joined seventeen other North Georgia counties that had voted for Breckinridge and now rejected immediate secession. In Cass, Douglas and Bell supporters united in their disdain for immediate secession which they viewed as a tool of the Southern Rights Party and state Democrats. 36 The state?s Cooperationist faction lacked any firm ideals that might have resolved the crisis without resorting to secession. Their platform proved contradictory. On one hand, Cooperationists rejected immediate secession in favor of seeking further political compromise. On the other hand, Cooperationists agreed with their Immediate Secessionist opponents that the chances of meaningful compromise were slim. Therefore, while Cass County voters narrowly favored the Cooperationist platform, it would be incorrect to suggest that county residents rejected secession altogether or that residents carried any overarching Unionist sympathies. Cass County voters, like other Georgia voters, firmly believed that secession remained a viable option due to the continued threat posed by Republican and northern hostility toward slavery. If those 107 parties would not refrain from undermining slavery, Georgia would be forced to dissolve all political ties to the existing Union. Cass County narrowly elected three Cooperationist candidates to serve at the upcoming statewide convention. 37 The county?s senior delegate was Turner H. Trippe, who turned sixty-years-old shortly after the secession convention. He was the prototypical Cass County professional. In addition to earning a living as a jurist, Trippe owned and managed one of the county?s largest farmsteads. In 1860, his farm, Linden, was worth $9,750, placing Trippe among the county?s wealthiest landholders. Trippe, like many Cass County residents, aligned himself with the Whig Party. Despite that party?s collapse, he still considered himself a Whig or at the very least an anti-Democrat. During the election of 1860, Trippe had supported the Bell campaign. 38 Cass County?s second delegate was Hawkins F. Price. He was twenty-one years younger than Trippe. Originally from North Carolina, Price moved to Cassville sometime during the late 1830s. He soon accumulated a substantial amount of real estate. He owned one of the largest plantations in northwest Georgia. By 1860, Price had accumulated $15,000 in real estate and $22,800 in personal property. Only a handful of individuals in the county could match or exceed his personal wealth. Unlike the county?s other two delegates, Price did not practice law. He operated a mercantile business in Cassville. 39 Cassville lawyer William Tatum Wofford served as Cass County?s third delegate. He belonged to a family whose lineage included several prominent revolutionary war veterans and were among the first inhabitants of western South Carolina, northeast and northwest Georgia. 40 Wofford graduated from the University of Georgia law school. A 108 highly successful lawyer, he also had co-owned and co-edited the Cassville Standard. The paper?s motto ?the Constitution must be maintained Inviolate in all its parts? encapsulated Wofford?s opposition to secession. 41 A lifelong friend of Herschel V. Johnson, Wofford had vocally supported candidate Douglas for president. Tables 3.4 and 3.5 compare some of the vital statistics of the county?s secession convention delegates. All three men claimed professional class membership. When asked by the census enumerator about their profession, all three responded with occupations that revolved around village life. In 1850, Trippe and Price owned a significant amount of property and slaves, and held title to two of the county?s largest and most valuable farms. Yet, neither man listed farmer or planter as their primary occupation, despite the fact that a vast quantity of their personal wealth and income derived from agriculture rather than their professional trades. Between 1850 and 1860 the future delegates, along with a majority of the county, saw their personal wealth increase. The number of slaves owned by this group increased at least by twenty or more. Price?s personal wealth in particular experienced a tremendous amount of growth. In 1860, he owned almost twice as many slaves as he did ten years earlier. During that decade he went from slaveholder to planter while watching his real estate nearly double. When county voters selected Price, his combined real and personal estate totaled almost $50,000. Only a handful of Cass County residents owned as much property and controlled as much wealth as did Price. Likewise, Trippe too saw his fortune expand. While the 1860 slave census failed to list Trippe as a slaveholder- probably due to error-, his real estate increased by $2,700 and his reported personal estate exceeded $24,500. 42 109 Table 3.4: Cass County Secession Convention Delegates 1850 Name Age Occupation Origin # Slaves Value of Real Estate Turner H. Trippe 49 Lawyer GA 31 7,000 Hawkins F. Price 43 Merchant NC 14 8,000 William T. Wofford 21 Lawyer GA 3 0 Source: Seventh Census. Table 3.5: Cass County Secession Convention Delegates 1860 Name # Slaves Value of Real Estate Turner H. Trippe < 31 43 9,750 Hawkins F. Price 26 15,000 William T. Wofford 10 7,500 Source: Eighth Census. As did Trippe and Price, Wofford?s personal wealth increased during the 1850s. Despite his relative youth, Wofford had earned a reputation for being one the region?s most successful attorneys. While Wofford was the only one of the three delegates who was not an official member of the planter class, judging his socio-economic status based solely on slave ownership proves misleading. Although Wofford owned only ten slaves, members of his immediate family, including his aging mother, owned a substantial number. 44 Overall, Cass County?s Cooperationist delegates shared much in common, not only with one another, but with their Immediate Secession opponents. Collectively, their social, economic, and political lives revolved around the defense of a white men?s republic that was inextricable from a need to protect the institution of black slavery. Economically and socially, the divide between the average county voter and their elected delegates was as large as the division splitting apart the nation?s sections. The sole unifying factor, the glue that held together multi-class allegiances, was a determination to 110 protect the white man?s democracy. That desire ultimately trumped any ideological divisions separating Cooperationist and Immediatist factions. The convention election determined which slate of candidates voters trusted to guide the state through the secession crisis and defend black slavery. Ultimately, in Cass County, more local voters trusted Trippe, Price, and Wofford than their fire-breathing opponents, Lewis Tumlin, Turner Goldsmith, and Mark A. Hardin. In 1861, most county voters believed as did Rebecca L. Felton that secession was inevitable, but voters remained cautious and leery of any politician or faction who might seek to champion that cause for the sake of political gain. Trippe, Price, and Wofford represented the majority of Cass County voters who had enjoyed some degree of economic and social prosperity during the previous decade and now wanted to take extra precaution before allowing their state to voluntarily secede from a Union that had been so profitable. Only a handful of voters believed that secession was unnecessary. The majority saw secession as being not only necessary but unfortunate. 45 In the seven counties that border Cass County, voters responded at the polls in mixed fashion. Pickens and Polk County voters elected delegates who unanimously rejected the immediate secession platform. The fact that both counties rejected secession was quite paradoxical because the two counties? demographic composition greatly differed. Pickens County was a mountainous area with only a handful of valleys suitable for large scale agricultural production. Out of the eight counties listed in Tables 4.6 and 4.7, Pickens contained the fewest number of slaves, slaveholders, and planters. Their decision to reject immediate secession appears logical if slavery had been the single most divisive issue separating the two sides. But Polk County voters also rejected immediate 111 secession despite maintaining an expanding slave population. Almost ten times more slaves lived in Polk County than did Pickens. Over two hundred slaveholders and thirty- six planters comprised a sizeable minority within the county?s overall white population. Despite being more characteristic of a prototypical antebellum southern slave society, Polk County rejected immediate secession for many of the same reasons as did Pickens, a county where slavery was almost nonexistent. 46 Table 3.6: Cass and Surrounding Counties Final Vote on Secession Table 3.7: Cass and Surrounding Counties Slave, Slaveowner, and Planter Population, 1860 County Total Delegates Cooperationist Immediate Secession Cass 3 3 0 Cherokee 3 0 3 Cobb 3 Floyd 3 0 3 Gordon 3 1 2 Paulding 2 0 2 Pickens 2 2 0 Polk 2 Total 21 8 13 County # Slaves # Slaveowners # Planters Cass 4,282 425 62 Cherokee 1,199 207 6 Cobb 3,819 529 33 Floyd 5,913 529 79 Gordon 2,106 297 18 Paulding 572 136 2 Pickens 246 37 Polk 2,440 226 36 Total 20,577 2,386 238 112 Five of the counties listed in Tables 3.6 and 3.7 supported immediate secession: Cherokee, Cobb, Floyd, Gordon, and Paulding. 47 Only Gordon County?s delegates split their votes. 48 Sixty-six percent of the total slave population in the counties neighboring Cass lived in those five counties. Almost seventeen hundred slaveholders and 138 planters resided in those counties. As a voting block these counties advocated immediate secession but differed demographically. For example, Paulding County voted in favor of immediate secession yet their white population owned significantly fewer slaves than the other four counties. In 1860, only two slaveholders in the county owned more than twenty slaves. Four of the counties that supported immediate secession?Cherokee, Cobb, Gordon, and Paulding?had fewer slaves and planters than Cass County, yet Cass waffled during the convention vote. The statistical data gathered from these eight northwest Georgia counties suggests that there was no direct correlation between the number of slaves a county owned and their support for immediate secession. 49 During the secession convention numerous counties presented the convention with resolutions passed in support of immediate secession. While Cass County never adopted such a resolution, a faction existed within the county that advocated immediate secession and actively sought a platform from which they could express their opinions. They worried that the state as a whole would doubt whether anyone in the county supported immediate secession. In an effort to rectify this situation, a delegation of immediate secession advocates met in Cassville shortly before the state convention convened. At this meeting, Mark A. Hardin, a prominent slaveholder and local businessman, read a resolution passed by immediate secession advocates in neighboring Floyd County. That resolution blamed the ongoing national crisis on the rising ?abolition 113 sentiment of the Northern States.? Abolitionists, the resolution declared, ?prompted the armed invasion of Southern soil? by John Brown ?for the diabolical purpose of inaugurating a ruthless war of the blacks against the whites throughout the South.? The Floyd County residents who adopted this resolution firmly believed that the Republican Party was dominated by abolitionists who had secretly plotted to mongrelize southern society. Hardin and his Cass County delegation agreed. 50 Cass County?s three Cooperationist delegates also believed that the threat of abolitionism had created the current crisis, but unlike Hardin, they saw the threat of secession as a powerful bargaining tool that could be use to permanently subdue abolitionism and protect slavery?s future. When the convention convened in Milledgeville, Cass County?s delegates unanimously supported a resolution presented by Johnson of Jefferson County that called for a meeting of slave state delegates in a Congress at Atlanta, Georgia, on February 16, 1861. 51 The gathering of a slave state congress was the cornerstone belief of the Cooperationist faction. During this convention, delegates would determine a course of action. The Cooperationists also proposed a series of demands that if met by the North, they would remain in the current Union. Each revolved around the future preservation of slavery. Cooperationist delegates wanted to permanently restrict Congress?s power to abolish or prohibit slavery. They also wanted the Federal government to tighten its current enforcement of the fugitive slave law. Anyone who was found guilty of aiding and abetting runaway slaves would be subject to prosecution under Federal law. The resolution?s third declaration reinforced the Cooperationists? States-Rights advocacy. They demanded that Congress allow newly formed states to decide through popular sovereignty slavery?s legality and 114 that no state or Federal agency could rightfully interfere with the interstate slave trade. Individual states, asserted Cooperationists, could not prohibit slaveholders from carrying their slaves into free territory. They also wanted to prevent Africans from voting to holding a Federal office regardless of whether or not they resided in a free state. The resolution warned the North that rejection of their platform would force them to seceded from the Union. Once Johnson finished reading the Cooperationist resolution, debate began. During that debate none of the Cass County delegates rose to voice their Cooperationist sympathies. 52 Once the debate ended, the convention chair moved that the body vote on a previous resolution presented by James A. Nisbet, which called for the state?s immediate secession. The immediate secession resolution passed 166 to 130 despite not receiving a single vote from among Cass delegates. After the resolution passed, Benjamin H. Hill of Troup County demanded that the convention vote on Johnson?s Cooperationist resolution before moving forward. The convention rejected the Cooperationist resolution on a 133 to 164 vote. Cass delegates unanimously supported the Cooperationist resolution. After Johnson?s resolution failed, Nesbit called for a final vote on immediate secession. The measure carried on a 208 to 89 vote. Again, all three Cass delegates voted against immediate secession. Once the secession ordinance passed, Cass County delegates had to decide how far they were willing to carry out their opposition. Wofford, Trippe, and Price did not walk out of the convention in protest. Nor did Cass County?s delegates make a last ditch plea urging caution and condemning immediate secession. Instead, they engaged in the business of removing the state from the Union. Their peers selected all three men to 115 serve on various committees. Wofford served on the Committee on the Relations with Slaveholding States of North America. Trippe received an appointment to the Committee on the Constitution of the State and Constitution and laws of the United States. Price worked on the Committee on Printing. If any of these Cass Countians held any long- lasting discontent regarding what had occurred during the secession convention, they failed to express it, at least in the surviving documents. 53 Once the secession ordinance passed, the county?s secessionist faction became more vocal and enlarged. Tom Dowtin wrote to his cousin, Nanie L. Dowtin, who lived in Rocky Hill, about his overall displeasure with local voters. Following the convention vote Dowtin was not ?in a very good humor with cass . . . because the yunion ticket beat? the immediate secessionists. His anger however was soon to be replaced with joy and an overall haughty attitude once the state convention elected to secede. ?Thank goodness,? wrote Dowtin, ?it did not do them [Cooperationists] any good Georgia is gon (sic.) out of the yunion (sic.) & glad am I if it had not of went out I would of went out my self.? Dowtin?s letter further commented how he had longed to return to his home state of South Carolina: ?I am not a Georgian and I am glad of it.? 54 * * * * * * * * * * * * In later years, Rebecca Latimer Felton remembered the evening hours of January 21, 1861 as the calm before the storm. That night, the then twenty-five-year-old Felton sat resting on her front porch outside of Cartersville, Georgia. The crisp night air relaxed her into a state of semi-consciousness until cannon fire resonating from Rome disturbed 116 her peaceful state. As alarming as the unfamiliar noise was, Felton became even more disturbed upon realizing the sound?s meaning. At the state capital in Milledgeville, the state secession convention had ratified an ordinance of secession. When the news reached Rome, many of the townspeople celebrated this joyous and historic occasion by pouring into the streets. Many men carried pistols that were discharged into the night sky. In front of the courthouse, the local militia had begun firing blank rounds from their cannon intent on announcing the ordinance to the surrounding community. 55 Felton did not need to travel into town to learn that her state had seceded. As she stared into the sky toward Rome, a feeling of utter sadness descended upon her. She had hoped that the crisis might be resolved through a last minute political compromise. The cannon fire she heard meant that for the moment any hope of compromise was lost. Felton did not have to travel far to hear the fiery rhetoric of secessionists. Her beloved husband, Dr. William H. Felton, strongly advocated secession. They maintained a close partnership in all matters throughout their marriage. On most issues, the couple agreed, but on whether or not the state should secede from the Union, the two diametrically disagreed. Felton nonetheless uncharacteristically refrained from openly expressing her views. While throughout her lifetime she frequently spoke out as a woman on numerous occasions for a myriad of causes, in 1861, Felton remained quietly opposed to her husband?s politics. 56 Unlike Rebecca Felton, United States Military Academy Cadet and Cass County resident Pierce Manning Butler Young experienced a rush of excitement upon learning of Georgia?s secession. The twenty-four year old cadet had previously graduated from the Georgia Military Institute. Young decided to resign the second he received the news. He 117 could no longer remain at West Point ?with honor & duty.? In a letter to Governor Joseph E. Brown, Young expounded upon his voluminous military resume. ?My class,? wrote Young, ?has finished infantry & cavalry tactics, a system of strategy & outposts & I am also prepared upon heavy & light artillery.? 57 Young wanted a war, an opportunity to command soldiers to a valiant victory in defense of southern rights. In route to his Cass County home, Young stopped in Washington D. C. to solicit an appointment from a group of Georgia congressmen. When his lobbying seemed to have little effect, Young went home, stayed a few days, and then boarded a train to Montgomery, Alabama, where he personally requested and received a military commission from Jefferson Davis. 58 Harold Barnsley learned of Georgia?s secession while completing some family business in Hong Kong. Barnsley?s father Godfrey owned one of the nation?s most prosperous cotton brokerages. Upon learning that his brothers intended to enlist for military service, Harold worked feverishly to complete his remaining business while making plans for a return voyage home. Harold spent weeks visiting clients and accumulated an enormous amount of cash. He believed that he would be unable to return to Hong Kong for quite some time and therefore needed to settle as many accounts as possible before departing. When his business affairs were complete, Harold loaded the cash into a large sea trunk in anticipation of his voyage. A few hours after his ship left Hong Kong, Chinese pirates attacked the vessel. During the ensuing struggle, Harold was shot several times. When the pirates occupied the ship, they promptly began dumping the bodies of the dead and wounded overboard. Harold struggled to swim back to shore but succumbed to fatigue and drowned. Before the first shots were fired at Manassas, the Barnsley family received word of Harold?s murder, a tragedy that occurred 118 because he desperately wanted to serve in the Confederate army, alongside his brothers, and return home before the war was over. 59 Secession indefinitely postponed one of Reverend Charles Wallace Howard?s lifelong ambitions. Howard was a well educated ex-Presbyterian minister with a keen interest in Georgia?s colonial history and agricultural science. As a scientific writer, Howard published A Manual of Grass and Forage Plants for the South that was widely read among the region?s livestock producers. In 1838, the state had sent him to London, England to comb the archives for materials relating to Georgia?s colonial past. An avid writer, Howard intended to produce a history on this subject. 60 During the late 1850s, Howard wrote Governor Joseph E. Brown requesting access to some of the state?s vital documents. Brown complied with his demands and allowed for several boxes of original colonial era documents to be transported to the aspiring historian?s home. While it is unknown how far Howard had progressed in his writings, it is certain that he had begun the task prior to 1861. Secession and the ensuing war forced Howard to postpone his plans. He opposed secession. During a December 4, 1860 meeting held in Cassville, Howard distributed anti-secession pamphlets. He believed that secession would never resolve the state?s quarrels with the national government. 61 In 1863, Howard?s wife Susan voluntarily returned the state?s colonial records to the governor because she ?did not think prudent or safe to keep them . . . . When this section of the country is in a measure opposed to Yankee invasion.? He never wrote his history, an undertaking that might have been completed had it not been for secession. 62 For some Cass County residents, secession meant reassessing existing friendships. Elizabeth Mackay Stiles had developed close bonds with many of the east coast?s elite 119 families. As Georgia?s secession loomed, some of their friends living on Staten Island grew concerned over the Stiles?s possible political views. While these elite New Yorkers vehemently disagreed with secession, they did not want to see politics stand in the way of continuing decades of friendship. As a Christmas gift, Elizabeth sent a package of fruit preserves made from fresh fruit grown on her plantation to the Mayer family in New York. Given the tense political situation that had grasped the nation following the presidential election, the Mayer?s were almost shocked to discover that their southern friends had sent them such a ?kind and thoughtful? gift. In a thank you letter Agatha M. Mayer reassured her friend ?Whether you are Secessionists or not, it will never change the feelings of affection and interest which I have cherished for years . . . notwithstanding our being Republicans, these feelings will never cease to be reciprocated by you.? Later in the same letter, Mayer attempted to plan a visit by one of the Stiles children ?as soon as she comes North.? 63 This letter indicated that some northerners--even staunch Republicans--hoped that some form of quick and peaceful resolution might be achieved before matters spiraled out of control. For Elizabeth, secession meant years of isolation from many of her dearest friends. While the Mayer family reaffirmed their continued desire to remain friends, other families were not as forgiving. During the ensuing war, the circle of friends Elizabeth had come to reply upon during the joyous antebellum period shrunk to a mere handful of individuals much smaller in number than her once voluminous social life had allowed. 64 In Cartersville, men who shared Dowtin?s views gathered around the Western & Atlantic Railroad depot eager to receive further news regarding secession. During a public meeting in said city an unnamed public official announced to a secessionist 120 audience that he was prepared ?to drink every drop of blood that secession will bring to this country.? After a wave of applause the official continued by declaring that ?Yankees will not fight; one Southern man could whip a dozen anywhere.? 65 Like a scene stolen from the pages of Margaret Mitchell?s Gone With the Wind, many exuberant Cass County males truly believed that the North would simply allow secession to occur without repercussions, if there was a war it would be short, and the Yankees lacked the masculine qualities necessary to engage in warfare. Rebecca Felton witnessed this public meeting. Afterwards she was in a state of shock that such ?bravado? dominated the discussion. Worst of all, her husband shared those beliefs. 66 * * * * * * * * * * * Antebellum Cass County politics, and Georgia politics in general, revolved around party loyalties, intra-class relations, and an overarching defense of slavery. While strongly Democratic, the county?s anti-Democratic forces maintained a constant presence in numerous elections and managed to band together during the secession convention vote to defeat immediate secession. While county voters disagreed over the means of removing the state from the Union, they did not disagree over the right of secession nor the need to defend slavery. Cooperationists and Immediatists alike feared that northern tyranny threatened to enslave the South. The preservation of a white liberty and their slave society, the central tenets of a white men?s democracy, formed the core of their political beliefs. 121 Notes 1 The Federal Union (Milledgeville), October 13, 1840; October 17, 1843; November 10, 1844; October 23, 1844; October 16, 1845; October 17, 1847; November 12, 1848; October 16, 1849. 2 Turner Hunt Trippe was born on February 28, 1801, near Sparta, Georgia. In 1822, he graduated from Franklin College and passed the bar exam the following year. In 1824, he married Mary Ann Gatewood. In 1839, he was elected to the post of Cherokee Superior Court judge and moved to Cassville. A devoted Whig, who at times supported Union Democrats and Know Nothings, served as one of three state secession convention delegates in 1861. During the Civil War, Trippe served in a local militia unit. In 1867, he passed away and was buried in the Cassville City cemetery. 3 The Federal Union (Milledgeville), October 9, 1853. The increase in voter participation in the 1849 gubernatorial race was the largest in the county?s history between successive elections. 4 William T. Wofford was a member of one of the pioneering families that settled Cass County during the 1830s. Born in 1823 in Habersham County, Georgia, Wofford?s father died when he 3 years old. Members of his family moved to Cass County during the late 1820s prior to the 1832 land lottery. In 1839, Wofford attended Franklin College in Athens. There he developed a life-long friendship with Herschel Johnson. He studied law, opening a private practice in Cassville in 1845. Wofford supported the construction of the Western and Atlantic Railroad during the 1840s. During the Mexican War, Wofford served in the Georgia Mounted Volunteers. He also served two terms in the 122 state legislature 1849-1850 and 1851-1852. Locals remembered his generosity and communal spirit. As a leader, he attracted the respect of party loyalists and opponents. 5 Richard Harrison Shyrock, Georgia and the Union in 1850 Reprint ed. (New York: AMS Press, 1968): 225. 6 Ibid., 225-27. 7 William B. Wofford was William T. Wofford?s uncle. William B. had many relatives living in Cass County. 8 Ibid., 215-263. 9 Carey, Parties in Antebellum Georgia, 168. 10 The Standard (Cassville), March 4, 1852. The Cassville Standard defined democracy in the terms of independence from external forces and entities that threatened the overall preservation of the white men?s democracy. Most of the time the paper?s editors portrayed large segments of the northern population and politicians as anti- democratic. John W. Burke saw Southern Rights Party members as extremists whose actions threatened the South?s existing status within the Union and most notably as being responsible for splintering a the Democratic Party both statewide and nationally. 11 Carey, Parties in Antebellum Georgia, 174-75. 12 The Standard (Cassville), September 23, 1852; The Southern Banner (Athens) September 23, 1852; Carey, Parties in Antebellum Georgia, 177; John E. Talmadge, ?The Origin of the Tugalo Party?s Name,? GHQ 36 (1952): 328-35; ?Howell Cobb Papers,? GHQ 6 (1909): 39. 123 13 Biographical Sketch of William H. Stiles, MacKay-Stiles Papers, [microfilm], Drawer 70:67, GDAH, Morrow. 14 Ibid. 15 The Standard (Cassville), November 11, 1852; Carey, Parties in Antebellum Georgia, 178. 16 The Federal Union (Milledgeville), September 6, 1853, September 20, 1853; Carey, Parties in Antebellum Georgia, 180-83. 17 The Standard (Cassville), April 26, 1855, May 31, 1855. 18 The Standard (Cassville), February 22, 1855. 19 The Standard (Cassville), August 23, 1855. 20 The Standard (Cassville), September 19, 1855; The Southern Statesman (Calhoun), September 19, 1855. 21 Ibid. 22 The Federal Union (Milledgeville), October 11, 1859 23 Ibid. 24 A. J. Cone, The Rock: A Story of the War (Atlanta: Private, 1913), 1-3. 25 Charles W. Howard, ?Cherokee Baptist College Address,? July 11, 1860, [microfilm], Drawer 310:11, GDAH, Morrow. 26 ?Douglas at Twenty-An Example for Young Men,? The Standard (Cassville), August 30, 1860. 27 The Standard (Cassville), September 6, 1860. 124 28 United Daughters of the Confederacy, Confederate Reminiscences and Letters, Volume 21, GDAH, Morrow, 102. 29 Mahan, Cassville, 125; Cunyus, 126; Gerald J. Smith, ?One of the Most Daring of Men?: The Life of Confederate General William Tatum Wofford, Journal of Confederate History Series (Murfreesboro, TN: Southern Heritage Press, 1997), 18-19. Wykle and William T. Goldsmith and Samuel H. Smith?s business relationship severed due to the strains of late antebellum politics. These men, however, remained members of the Cartersville Freemason Lodge No. 101. The lodge contained numerous members who openly supported secession such as Peter H. Larey, J.C. Tumlin, Robert M. Young, James Washington Watts, and James Milner as well as individuals such as Wykle and J. R. Parrott who opposed secession. Barbara Bell Canaday, compiler, Georgia Freemasons: 1861-1865 (Georgia Lodge of Research, 2001), 88-89. Mahan, Cassville, 101; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 124. 30 Carey, Parties in Antebellum Georgia, 226-27. 31 Ibid. 32 Daily Telegraph (Macon), November 8, 1860. Stephen A. Douglas failed to win in Cass County despite the popularity of William T. Wofford. Douglas did win majorities in three Georgia counties: Richmond (Augusta), Elbert, and Warren County. John C. Breckinridge won a more lopsided victory in Cobb and Gordon County in comparison to Cass County. In both of those counties Breckinridge received more than double the amount of votes than either John Bell or Douglas. In fact, in Gordon County, Douglas managed only 97 votes despite brief stops at the county seat Calhoun. In Cobb County, Douglas received 54 votes. The Standard (Cassville), November 15, 1860. 125 During the 1859 gubernatorial election, Cass County lawyer Warren Akin lost in a landslide to Joseph E. Brown both statewide and locally. During the 1856 presidential election, a majority of Cass County voters voted for Democrat James Buchanan. 33 Tom Dowtin, Cassville, to, Mother, Unidentified, November, 12, 1860, Confederate Miscellany Files, 1B, #20, Item #2, Dowtin, EU, Decatur. 34 Ibid. 35 United Daughters of the Confederacy, Confederate Reminiscences and Letters, Volume 21, GDAH, Morrow, 102. 36 Carey, Parties in Antebellum Georgia, 230. The total number of votes cast in Cass County during the secession convention vote is unknown. 37 Exact returns from Cass County could not be located, however, the Rome Tri- Weekly Courier reported on 5 January 1861 that the election in Cass County had been decided by about 100 votes, see: ?Result of Election for Delegates,? Tri-Weekly Courier (Rome), January 5, 1861. 38 Allen Candler, The Confederate Records of Georgia, Volume 1, 218; Cunyus, The History of Bartow County, 95-6, 209. Manuscript Census, 1860, Cass County, Georgia. 39 Manuscript Census, 1860, Cass County, Georgia, 828 th District, 15, Schedules I, II, and III; Cunyus, The History of Bartow County, p. 126. 40 Bobby Gilmer Moss, The Patriots at Cowpens (Greenville, S.C.: A Press, 1979): 241; Bobby Gilmer Ross, Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing: 1978): 1009; History of Spartanburg 126 County, 220-39; Lyman C. Draper, King?s Mountain and Its Heroes: History of the Battle of King?s Mountain, October 7 th , 1780, and the Events Which Led To It (Marietta, Ga.: Continental Book: 1954), 181-83; Carl Flowers, Jr. ?The Wofford Settlement on the Georgia Frontier,? GHQ 61 (1977): 258-67. 41 The Standard (Cassville), June 5, 1858. 42 Manuscript Census, Cass County, Georgia, 1850, 1860, Schedules I, II, III. 43 Trippe does not appear in the 1860 Slave Census, however, his surrounding family members have seemingly assumed his slave property due, perhaps, to his advanced age. Nevertheless, Trippe did not sell-off his slaves between 1850 and 1860. He owned slaves but they were now working and residing at the residences? of various family members. 44 Manuscript Census, Cass County, Georgia, 1850, 1860, Schedules I, II, III. 45 Carey, Parties in Antebellum Georgia, 242. 46 Allen D. Candler, The Confederate Records of the State of Georgia, Vol. 1 (Atlanta: C. P. Byrd, 1909-11): 256-60; The Heritage of Polk County, Georgia, 1851- 2000 (Marceline, M.O.: Walsworth, 2000); Pickens County, Georgia Heritage, 1853- 1998 (Waynesville, N.C.: Don Mills, 1998); Frances Terry Ingmire, Citizens of Pickens County, Georgia, 1860 Census Index (St. Louis: F. T. Ingmire, 1986). 47 The Heritage of Cherokee County, Georgia, 1831-1998 (Cherokee County, Ga.: Cherokee County Heritage Book Committee, 1998); Sarah Blackwell Gober, The First Hundred Years: A Short History of Cobb County, in Georgia (Atlanta: Walter W. Brown, 1935); George Magruder Battey, A History of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia, 127 United States of America; including numerous incidents of more than local interest, 1540-1922 (Atlanta: Webb and Vary, 1922); The Heritage of Paulding County, Georgia, 1832-1999 (Dallas, Ga.: Paulding County Historical Society, 1999). 48 Candler, Confederate Records, Vol. 1, 256-60; Lulie Pitts, History of Gordon County, Georgia (Calhoun, Ga.: Press of the Calhoun Times, 1933); Burton J. Bell and Lulie Pitts, 1976 Bicentennial History of Gordon County, Georgia (Calhoun, Ga.: Gordon County Historical Society, 1976); Jewell B. Reeve, Stories of Gordon County and Calhoun, Georgia, 2 nd Ed., (Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1979). 49 James L. Huston?s Calculating the Value of the Union: Slavery, Property, Rights, and the Economic Origins of the Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2003). 50 Candler, Confederate Records, Vol. 1, 115-17. 51 Ibid., 231. 52 Ibid., 232. 53 Ibid., 272, 274, 281. 54 Tom Dowtin, Cass County, to, Miss Nanie L. Dowtin, Rocky Hill, January 24, 1861, Confederate Miscellany Files, 1B, #20, Item #2, Dowtin, EU, Decatur. 55 For an account of Rome?s celebration see: ?Secession Jubilee,? Tri-Weekly Courier (Rome), January 24, 1861. 56 Rebecca Latimer Felton, My Memoirs of Georgia Politics (Atlanta: Index Printing, 1911), 25-26. 128 57 Pierce Manning Butler Young to Joseph E. Brown, February 6, 1861, Pierce Manning Butler Young Papers, Miscellaneous Papers, GDAH, Morrow. At West Point, Young developed a close friendship with his roommate George Armstrong Custer. Custer and Young would meet in battle during the Gettysburg Campaign. 58 Lynwood Mathis Holland, Pierce M. B. Young: The Warwick of the South (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1964), 24. 59 Reply to a Circular Letter Sent to Former Confederate Soldiers Residing in Brazil, George S. Barnsley Papers, #1521, Series 3.1, Box 2: 26, SHC, UNC-CH. 60 J.S. De Roulhac Hamilton, ?Three Centuries of Southern Records, 1607-1907,? JSH 1 (1944), 12-13; Theodore H, Jack, ?The Preservation of Georgia History,? North Carolina Historical Review 4 (1927), 240. 61 May Spencer Ringold, ?Robert Newman Gourdin and the ?1860 Association?,? GHQ 4 (1971), 504. 62 Candler, Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. 1, pp. 296-97; Susan J. Howard, Kingston, to, Joseph E. Brown, Milledgeville, 1863, Executive Department, Governor?s Incoming Correspondence, MS 104, GDAH, Morrow. 63 Agatha M. Mayer to Elizabeth M. Stiles, January 20, 1861. MacKay-Stiles Papers, [Microfilm], Drawer 231:45, GDAH, Morrow. 64 William Henry Stiles held a lifelong friendship with ardent secessionist Francis S. Bartow of Savannah. Bartow?s views concerning secession closely mirrored those held by Stiles. When Stiles purchased real estate in Cass County several decades earlier, he tried to convince Bartow to build a summer home there, but Bartow turned down his 129 friend?s invitation. The Stiles?s Cass County home was known as Etowah Bluffs and overlooked the county?s principle waterway the Etowah River. Eliza Mackay had once been courted by Robert E. Lee. The two maintained a lifelong friendship and correspondence. 65 Felton, Georgia Politics, 35. 66 Ibid, 35. 130 CHAPTER FOUR 1861 Most white Cass County residents responded to secession with great enthusiasm. War fever spread throughout Cass County. In 1861, despite favoring a slate of Cooperationist candidates during the secession convention vote, most military service aged Cass Countians volunteered for duty. Soldiers enlisted for many reasons stemming from their sense of honor, duty, and political beliefs. By the end of 1861, however, the glory of war had been blunted by its reality. Men seeking an adventure of a lifetime and an opportunity to display their manhood had volunteered only to discover that fighting was not as glamorous as they had once believed. At home, their families endured the physical and emotional hardships that accompanied war. The longer their soldiers served, the more distant their lives became as the Civil War opened a new front, the home front. Even as early as 1861, the divide between front line and home front created two communities. Soldiers serving in the field could barely understand the hardships of their loves ones; likewise, women and men at home misunderstood the tribulations of prolonged military service. Yet, despite these mounting tensions, most Cass Countians remained devoted to the Confederacy. At 4:30 A.M., April 12, 1861, Confederate forces located in Charleston, South Carolina opened fire on the Federal installation Fort Sumter situated in that city?s harbor. 131 ?The shedding of blood,? predicted fire-eater Edmund Ruffin, ?will serve to change many voters in the hesitating states, from the submission or procrastinating ranks, to the zealous for immediate secession.? In Georgia, the inauguration of military action cast aside lingering disagreements between Cooperationists and Immediatists. Six days later Governor Joseph E. Brown called for military volunteers to defend their homes and country. By the fall of 1861, the state had raised almost 25,000 troops for service in the Confederate army. Twelve months later, the total number of Georgians serving in the army had tripled. By 1865, roughly 120,000 Georgians had completed some form of military service. 1 In 1861, Cass County organized ten infantry and cavalry companies and accounted for numerous enlistments in companies raised in neighboring Floyd, Gordon, and Cobb counties. Approximately 940 Cass County males volunteered for military service. About one third of the county?s households had at least one soldier serving in the military. Their companies left Cass County with colorful nicknames such as the Bartow Yankee Killers and the Fireside Volunteers. Most companies identified themselves with a local leader or their community: the Rowland Highlanders (named after John S. Rowland) and the Kingston Volunteers. The average 1861 volunteer was a 5 foot 7 inches tall twenty-two years old male. Most volunteers, 376 or 40 percent, still lived in their parents? household or were not listed as the head of household at their residence. Of the 546 volunteers who were listed as heads of households in the 1860 census, 137 or 25 percent owned slaves, 328 or 60 percent owned land, 33 or 6 percent were planters, and 9 percent were non-yeomen. The number of non-yeomen included in these figures is misleading since many of those volunteers who were not listed as heads 132 of households in the 1860 census lived in non-yeomen households. The county?s enlistment patterns roughly reflect the county?s overall demographics. Cass County provided an estimated 4 percent of the state?s 1861 volunteers. Table 4.1: Companies Raised in Cass County, 1861 2 Company Regiment Army Number of Volunteers 1 st Co. E 1 st CSA Army of Tennessee 88 Co. K 14 th Georgia Infantry Regiment Army of Northern Virginia 87 Co. F 18 th Georgia Infantry Regiment Army of Northern Virginia 92 Co. G 18 th Georgia Infantry Regiment Army of Northern Virginia 101 Co. H 18 th Georgia Infantry Regiment Army of Northern Virginia 117 Co. K 18 th Georgia Infantry Regiment Army of Northern Virginia 123 Co. K 19 th Georgia Infantry Regiment Army of Tennessee 104 Co. G 22 nd Georgia Infantry Regiment Army of Northern Virginia 104 Co. A 23 rd Georgia Infantry Regiment Army of Tennessee 90 Co. B Phillip?s Legion Army of Northern Virginia 39 Source: Henderson, Confederate Muster Rolls. The Confederate army and Governor Brown depended upon local leaders to recruit, organize, and, at times, equip military companies that were later formed into regiments and assigned to duty. Elite men such as Mark A. Cooper, John Rowland, and Mark A. Hardin helped organize several companies. Most Cass County soldiers enlisted in the town nearest to their home. During the spring of 1861, volunteers filled the streets of Kingston, Cartersville, and Cassville eager to enlist, but frustrated by unforeseen 133 delays. A lack of adequate numbers of weapons and equipment hampered mass enlistments. Many volunteers wanted to join cavalry units but neither they nor the government had enough horses available to meet this demand. Some men returned home if they could not serve in the type of unit of their choosing. A myriad of reasons motivated Cass County males to volunteer for military service. 3 Most desired to protect their homes and families from a perceived enemy that threatened their personal liberty and independence. Soldiers identified the Republican Party and abolitionists as a principal cause of the conflict and therefore the defense of slavery while not explicit certainly played an implicit role in motivating these volunteers. Large percentages of the Confederacy?s 1861 volunteers owned slaves. Ideology aside, many soldiers also undoubtedly enlisted because of their friends and family members joining up. In the fall of 1861, Cassville slaveholder William Augustus Chunn, a native of North Carolina, volunteered to defend his masculine notions of honor and duty. Victorians conceived notions of honor that revolved around masculinity. Sometimes a soldier?s honor conflicted with his family duties. Initially Chunn?s wife could not understand why he wanted to fight when she needed him at home. In a letter to his wife, he lectured her about his decision. ?I am . . . a man,? he wrote, ?determined to forgo the pleasures of home & friends for a while to benefit the interest of my country.? William?s letters displayed his heartfelt love for his wife and family. Before the war, the thought of leaving his home for any extended period seemed unbearable if not impossible. But as with many things, war changed his perspective. In 1861, the best way for a military-aged Cass County man to protect home and family seemed to be through military service. 134 Victory would bring independence that in turn produced tranquility and prosperity. These were all aspirations that Cass County residents had sought to fulfill within their antebellum communities. Many soldiers such as Chunn saw honor as a means of expressing their family duties. 4 Other factors encouraged enlistment. Wherever Confederate soldiers prepared for duty, flocks of young adoring women appeared. Many Cass County men soon discovered that southern women adored a man in uniform. At every train station located along the Western & Atlantic Railroad, young females waited with anticipation for the arrival of another car load of traveling soldiers. While the train stopped for water, women showered volunteers with flowers, cool drinks, and sandwiches to ease their journey. A soldier traveling from Cassville to Savannah might make a handful of similar stops. Upon recounting his initial journey to camp, William Chunn told his wife about the throngs of beautiful women who showered the men with flowers, lemonade, and food. He wrote: ?I never saw a group of boy enjoy themselves better in my life, they were hollering & waving hankerchiefs the whole time.? While stationed in Virginia, George S. Barnsley of the 8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment likewise wrote that ?it was a pleasure to strut about when one could get a leave.? Young women in town, he wrote, followed him around as if he were a celebrity. 5 Kinship helped determine George Barnsley?s fate. His father Godfrey clearly expected his sons to fight in the Confederate army. George, however, was unsure about which form of military service might suit him best. He considered seeking an appointment in the navy, gaining a position within the army?s quartermaster department, or serving as an aide in the Confederate State Department. The actions of his brother 135 Lucien, however, ultimately decided his form of military service. While George remained in New Orleans with his father, Lucien hurriedly traveled to Woodlands, intent on volunteering for military service. Without asking his brother or informing his father of his decision, Lucien traveled to Rome, Georgia, and enlisted in the Rome Light Guards. George and his father returned to Woodlands unaware of Lucien?s decision. George was still contemplating his situation and had thought to ask his father to petition the Confederate government for a special appointment. ?When I returned to Woodlands,? recalled George, ?I had not made up my mind exactly what position I should try and get in the Confederate Army . . . Lucien decided that by his premature action. There was nothing else for me to do, for Lucien and I were twin brothers.? 6 George could not tell his father that he did not want to serve alongside his brother. To do so would have risked compromising the level of respect he felt that his father held for him. Without delay, George too traveled into Rome and begrudgingly volunteered with the Rome Light Guards. In later years, George regretted Lucien?s hasty decision. He always believed that if the two of them had not enlisted in the spring, perhaps sometime during the summer they could have organized their own infantry company. As it was, George dreamed of working as a quartermaster or surgeon behind the lines as his brother led the men into battle. ?To tell the honest truth,? remembered George, ?I had a disdain, even a disgust of men shooting each other about questions that could be decided by argument and mutual justice.? When asked if he ever considered petitioning to become an infantry staff officer George replied, ?I was adverse to taking an officer?s position. I thought it would be a 136 disgrace or crime for me to direct others how to fight.? When asked what he enjoyed the most about his military service, George answered ?the attention of all of the pretty girls.? 7 Cass County recruits less cosmopolitan than George Barnsley saw enlistment as an opportunity to see the world. Many had never traveled much farther from home than the nearest market town, which for many Cass farmers would have been Cassville or perhaps Rome. The prospect of seeing new places added to the excitement. While traveling by train to his post located along the Georgia coast, William Chunn took full advantage of every potential sightseeing opportunity. When he stepped off the train in Macon, that city was probably the largest he had ever seen. While the train?s engineer stopped to make a few minor repairs and acquire some water, Chunn casually strolled Macon?s ?beautifully laed off? streets, gazing upon the city?s numerous large dwellings. Having never been to Savannah, he eagerly anticipated traveling through Georgia?s oldest city. It, however, proved disappointing. ?There is no wonder that there is so much sickness,? Chunn wrote, ?for all the filth of the houses is thrown into the streets.? 8 Private John F. Milhollin eagerly anticipated seeing Richmond for the first time. He pictured a pristine town sitting atop some lofty hill overlooking the tranquil Virginia countryside. When his unit, Co. B, Phillips Legion Georgia Volunteer Cavalry, received orders to report to Richmond, he wrote his wife about his exciting upcoming trip. The soldier?s next letter home, however, told a much different story. Richmond apparently disappointed Milhollin. ?This city stinks worse than a dead horse,? wrote Milhollin, ?I never visited such a filthy place before.? 9 For Chunn, Milhollin, and others seeing the world turned out to be a disappointment. 137 Parents viewed their childrens? enlistment differently. Rebecca Hood of Cartersville remembered experiencing mixed feelings upon learning that her oldest son had enlisted in the military. She prided herself for rearing a child so willing to sacrifice his own life for a greater cause. She equally fretted about his personal safety. Each passing day seemed to shrink in size as the moment of his departure neared. When the morning came, she awoke with a ?troubled heart.? She ?prepared him some lunch? and despite her sorrow ?tried to appear to him composed.? Silently weeping, Hood packed the last of her son?s belongings and ?placed a small Bible in his pocket,? giving him all that he would need on his upcoming journey. ?With a ?God bless and protect you, my son? [Hood] kissed him goodbye, not knowing that [she] would ever? see him again. The time between a soldier?s departure and the arrival of their first letter seemed like ages. A degree of Hood?s anxiety vanished upon receiving her first letter. In the letter, her son told her that he was doing well and not to worry for they had plenty of good food and water. Comforted, Hood reread each letter a thousand times helping pass the time between the next letter?s arrival. Fortunately, for Hood, her son returned home unscathed from the war four years later. 10 Fathers too worried about their children?s impending mortality. Mark A. Cooper served in the Seminole War. When his three sons, Thomas, John, and Mark, volunteered for military service, he applauded their decision. Cooper?s political sympathies closely aligned with the region?s most ardent pro-secessionist sympathizers. He felt that it would be necessary for everyone to contribute to the war effort if the South were to emerge victorious. As his sons prepared to leave for northern Virginia, Cooper secretly wrote President Jefferson Davis a letter with the intent of aiding his son?s transition into 138 military service. He mentioned that all of them lacked any combat experience, but the emotions associated with defending their homes would carry them into battle. Cooper requested that Davis assign a West Point officer to his son?s regiment because ?These are all the sons I have.? 11 Only Cooper?s youngest son, Mark, had received a military education while attending the Military College of Nashville. Cooper believed that his youngest son had the knowledge of how to be an effective military officer but lacked the experience that came with extensive service. 12 Religious faith undergirded both recruits and their families. They believed that God held sovereign power over all of humanity. God created the world. Once He accomplished this unimaginable feat, God did not merely set the world into motion without supervision as suggested by Deist philosophers who argued, according to John F. Mihollin, ?that God made all things and made laws by which they are ruled and then left them.? Instead, God?s hand touched the daily lives of all of His creatures. At times, this influence could produce positive effects, while during more trying moments, His intervention allowed evil to triumph over mankind?s best laid plans. Both the good and the bad were all part of God?s larger plan. Again, the period?s zeitgeist not only influenced how soldiers saw themselves but also how they explained their relationship with their creator. In the eyes of most volunteers, God ordained secession. This degree of personal faith was woven into a much larger social fabric that in the spring of 1861 bolstered Confederate nationalism and ultimately justified the impending war. Mihollin instructed his wife to make sure that his children attend Sabbath school, church, and routinely read the ?word of God.? If he were to perish in battle, then at least his soul could rest at ease knowing that his mortal family 139 would carry on the individual and communal values that had convinced him to enlist. God, family, and country motivated Cass County soldiers to fight. Soldiers equated family and country in terms that paralleled their deeply held religious convictions, therefore, no one believed that any part of this triumvirate conflicted with the rest. 13 Others acted for the chance to meet the enemy. Soldiers such as John Mihollin romanticized death in battle as a sign of unending personal glory. If fate determined that a soldier must die, most prayed they would fall in battle leading their company with their face toward the enemy. In a literary period dominated by romanticism, soldiers aspired to assume the hero?s role in their chosen adventure. ?Should I fall on the field,? Mihollin cautioned, ?tell my dear children to be kind to their mother . . . . Remember too that I go with a bold heart strong in opinion of the success of our cause, believing that we will with our cause succeed it being a holy one.? Soldiers such as Mihollin wanted to become heroes which demanded the respect and admiration of their local communities. Their death in battle secured their eternal place within local history. 14 Making the transition from civilian to military life proved difficult for many Cass County soldiers. Life in the 8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment transformed George and Lucien Barnsley. Before the war, the brothers lived a life of luxury thanks to their father?s vast shipping fortune. They received the finest education money could afford, expensive private tutors, many of whom had previously held teaching positions in some of Europe?s most prestigious universities. The boys? lifestyle included a summer home, Woodlands, in northwest Georgia, built far from the coastal heat and disease, and principal residences in Savannah and New Orleans. 15 140 Many 1861 volunteers tried to maintain a sense of home and family while serving in the military. These efforts lessened the stresses associated with war and kept family members well informed of their soldier?s routine. While in training camp at Rome, Georgia, the Barnsley?s brought with them dinnerware and food supplies and purchased any other items such as alcohol that they needed from town. After drilling for hours, the brothers returned to their four walled tent, rested comfortably on cushioned chairs, sipped brandy, and smoked cigars and pipe tobacco. A slave washed their clothes routinely, and both men enjoyed the comfort of new soft leather boots. 16 During the summer of 1861, however, the Barnsley brothers experienced a much different side of military service. Gone were the fine wines, slave servants, and hearty meals. Dust filled roads, long marches, wet bedding, brackish water, and insect polluted meals replaced those luxuries. 17 Some soldiers, such as Tom Dowtin of the Rowland Infantry, better adjusted to military life. While at Camp McDonald, located at Big Shanty in Cobb County, Dowtin informed his mother that he ?was perfectly delighted with camp-life.? The soldiers at Camp McDonald were suffering from a ?considerable rage of dysentery? at the time of Dowtin?s letter, but despite the arduous circumstances, he reaffirmed his military commitment. ?We are under the strictest discipline here being compelled to undergo the hardest duties of the camp life,? reported Dowtin, ?we have to rise quite early and have to go through a perfect series of drilling.? Things were good except that Dowtin would have liked ?it better if [he] were nearer the enemy.? In the letter, Dowtin informed his mother that he intended to stay with the army ?for the whole length of time.? In closing, 141 Dowtin reiterated his desire to finally confront the Yankees because the extended wait had made him ?thirsty for their blood.? 18 Notions of masculinity influenced Civil War service. In Victorian America, two competing versions of masculinity existed: the hard-drinking, fighting, and swearing man among men, and the sober, dutiful son or husband. The Cherokee Baptist Association worried that military service might turn ordinarily sober men into immoral sinners. In response to these fears, the Cherokee Baptist Association and Mark A. Cooper organized a campaign to promote the moral condition of their beloved soldiers. Cooper owned the Etowah Mining and Manufacturing Company and was one of the wealthiest men in northwest Georgia. Through private donations, he acquired hundreds of copies of the New Testament. When Cass County soldiers boarded trains, Cooper and other volunteers handed each man a copy of the New Testament. They encouraged the men to read the New Testament daily and observe the Sabbath as often as possible. Local clergymen also always led departing soldiers in communal prayer prior to boarding their train. These prayers asked God to return these soldiers safely to their homes and to guard their religious sanctity from the immoral temptations that accompanied military life. 19 The Etowah Infantry was among the first companies organized from Cass County. Peter H. Larey served as the company commander and principal recruiter. 20 The company?s original muster roll contains the names of sixty men, the majority of whom lived in Cass County and previously served in a militia unit organized by Larey during the civil war in Kansas. Volunteers from neighboring Gordon, Cherokee, Floyd, and Cobb counties were also on the roll. As evidenced by their previous attempts to thwart federal jurisdiction during the civil war in Kansas, the men who comprised the Etowah 142 Infantry were among the county?s most avid states rights supporters and secessionists. The average age of the Etowah infantry was twenty-four. A majority of the soldiers were not the head of their household. As expected, the largest occupation among these soldiers was farming, although a significant number of professional class members served as regimental officers. Most of these volunteers had migrated from western South Carolina and North Carolina to Cass County sometime during the previous two decades. Overall, these initial volunteers represented a wide array of the county?s population. Rich planters and day laborers volunteered for duty with little concern for their obvious economic differences. If the war was truly a rich man?s war and a poor man?s fight, Cass County?s 1861 enlistment patterns did not resemble such a state of affairs. In March of 1861, Captain Larey informed Governor Brown that his unit was ?ready and anxious to be ordered to whatever point you may see proper.? 21 The Etowah Infantry eventually became part of the 1 st Confederate Infantry Regiment and was assigned to the Army of Tennessee. Material shortages hampered the mobilization of Cass County?s volunteers. Like all Georgia infantry companies, those raised in Cass County struggled to locate enough small arms to effectively equip an effective fighting unit. Governor Brown had confiscated a large store of weapons from various federal arsenals located throughout the state, but the amount collected could not properly arm the massive number of volunteers. The state executive office received a flood of letters from local recruitment organizers demanding that the governor supply their units. Brown simply lacked enough muskets and rifles to fulfill those demands. Consequently, many volunteers who wanted to enlist 143 and go off to war in the spring of 1861 were forced to wait until an unspecified future date to serve because their unit needed armaments. The experience of John Frederick Cooper, Mark Cooper?s son, illustrates the difficulties of recruiting, equipping, and brigading a local military unit. Weeks before secession, Cooper initiated plans for organizing a volunteer unit known as the Etowah Rangers. Like most unit organizers, he could afford to privately fund a significant portion of his unit?s outfitting, but despite his best efforts, he had difficulty acquiring all of the necessary items. On January 3, 1861, Cooper wrote Governor Brown requesting a shipment of arms. Among the items Cooper requested were weapons suitable for equipping a cavalry unit. ?We now ask that no time shall be lost in supplying us,? wrote Cooper. ?The Crisis of the Country demands instant preparation and as far as we are concerned it seemed to us hard to be kept back by the mere want of arms and thus deprived of an opportunity of taking the post of danger which we so ardently desire.? 22 One month later, he grew frustrated as the items he requested never arrived. Brown wrote Cooper informing him that he would help equip the unit. Again, the materials never arrived. Impatient with Brown?s delays, he wrote the governor repeatedly soliciting supplies. When a shipment finally arrived, Cooper erupted in anger upon discovering the crate contained sabers unfit for cavalry service. In the midst of these difficulties, Cooper petitioned Governor Brown in regard to another more personal matter. Prior to secession, he worked in an unidentified federal position. Now that Georgia had seceded, Cooper worried that he would be unemployed. Cooper suggested to Brown that perhaps the governor could appoint him District Attorney for northwest Georgia. The timing of this request seemed odd, because if 144 Brown had granted his request, such a position would have exempted him from military service. Cooper had spent two months arguing with the executive department regarding supplying his cavalry unit, but now seemed perfectly willing to set aside his military service in favor of securing a bureaucratic appointment. Either he wanted to avoid military service, or he had grown increasingly tired of the governor?s lackluster response to his repeated requests. Brown in the end did not appoint Cooper to any state level position. 23 Immediately after Fort Sumter, Mark E. Cooper, John?s brother, informed Brown that ?your old and true friends the Etowah Rangers . . . [seek] an opportunity they have so long desired to serve their country at any point whatever.? 24 By April, John Cooper had fully equipped his unit with private funds. Discouraged by Brown?s slow response, he decided to play upon the governor?s sense of loyalty by stressing the executive?s friendship with his father. Brown remained steadfast. A week later, on April 27, 1861, Cooper openly criticized him in a letter stating that ?it is in your Excellency?s character to abandon old friends for the sake of those who have never ceased to slander you at a distance.? 25 Cooper?s unit eventually mustered into service in time for the war?s first major battle, but by that time, a degree of animosity and frustration had arisen between unit organizers and Brown, whom they believed to be utterly incompetent and unresponsive to their requests. While units in similar circumstances waited impatiently to be mustered into service, the flurry of war fever that had led many to enlist declined. Unwilling to sit around in camp waiting to fight, many volunteers either returned home to tend their fields 145 or joined units organized in other counties that had already been mustered into Confederate service. In addition to frustrating small arms shortages, Cass County volunteers struggled to acquire proper outfitting. Besides guns, soldiers required uniforms, blankets, shoes, socks, tents, and numerous other material items. The state and Confederate government held individual companies responsible for obtaining these items. Routinely, volunteer companies left for camp or the front lines before the necessary equipments could be produced. Wealthier volunteers quickly placed orders with the county?s few professional tailors. These tailors, however, became inundated with requests that their small cottage industry operations could not efficiently fulfill. Cass County women responded to this need by organizing the county?s first Soldier?s Aid Society. Ladies formed this society during a meeting held at the Presbyterian Church in Kingston. The society worked under the loose supervision of a Reverend J. Telford, who ensured that the women?s conduct remained appropriate. Society members elected officers. The aid society located in Kingston appointed Mrs. Ann Wooley as president, and Mrs. Josephine Beck, Mrs. Telford, and Mrs. Erastus V. Johnson as vice-presidents. With the exception of Mrs. Telford, whose husband served as the local Presbyterian minister, all of the women?s husbands had volunteered for military duty during the spring of 1861. They, like their spouses, volunteered for duty eager to serve the new government?s cause while simultaneously protecting and caring for their loved ones. An overwhelming majority of Soldier?s Aid Society members in Kingston and Cass County came from the planter class or from substantial slaveholding households. These women altered the resources of their household to better serve the needs of the 146 military. Whereas many of these women owned female slaves who typically worked a variety of domestic chores, in the spring of 1861, most of that slave labor became focused on knitting socks, stitching blankets, and repairing damaged clothing. The aid society president, Mrs. Andrew Woolley, routinely used her large slave workforce to produce Confederate uniforms. When her husband marched onto the field of battle, the clothes on his back more than likely were the fruits of slave labor and not necessarily the product of his wife?s loving hands. * * * * * * * * * * * * Perhaps as important as the large number of volunteers the county sent off to war was the thriving local economy that now became a vital part of the new government?s military-industrial complex. The Civil War propelled an economic growth that had already begun in antebellum Cass County. While the county did not experience any sharp declines in agricultural production during the 1850s, the number of non-agricultural industries and the amount of capital invested in them steadily increased. In 1860, the county lacked any city or town that could be considered urban, but during the 1850s, towns such as Cassville and Cartersville had experienced significant growth. The Civil War and Confederate policies enhanced these trends. 26 The Confederate Ordinance Department depended upon materials produced in Cass County mines and iron works. Cass County contained the Confederacy?s largest saltpeter cave. Located outside of Kingston, the cave had once been used by Cherokee Indians who skillfully converted the raw potassium nitrate into gunpowder. During the 147 antebellum period, local resident Mark A. Hardin purchased the property and minimally developed the cave?s production capacity. The production of gunpowder depended upon obtaining vast quantities of potassium nitrate. Throughout the war, Confederate blockade runners managed to import potassium nitrate, but shipments were expensive and sometimes unreliable. Ordinance department officials realized during the first months of the war that the Confederacy needed to develop reliable domestic sources. In the spring of 1861, speculators and entrepreneurs invested large amounts of capital to aid in further tapping the cave?s vast resources. In May, several interested parties led by Colonel John D. Gray formed a gunpowder manufacturing company at Kingston. Designers constructed the production facility within close proximity of the cave, thereby reducing transportation expenses. By the summer of 1861, the saltpeter cave produced over 1,000 lbs. of potassium nitrate daily. Once this material was transported to manufacturing facilities, 1,000 lbs. of potassium nitrate could be used to produce between 1,300 and 1,400 lbs. of gunpowder. The increased demand for gunpowder fostered a significant amount of capital investment in the facility by many prominent local citizens. These investments placed the county firmly within the ever expanding Confederate military industrial complex. 27 In the spring of 1861, Mark Cooper, owner of the Etowah Iron Works, promptly offered the services of his industrial village to the Confederate government. While at Montgomery, he successfully arranged for a private meeting with President Jefferson Davis and several cabinet members. Cooper proposed that the government construct a national arsenal located at Etowah. The ?Iron Man of Georgia? offered the Confederate government complete control over his two iron blasting furnaces in exchange for 148 $300,000. 28 Confederate officials politely declined Cooper?s offer. Undeterred, Cooper immediately wrote Governor Brown seeking a similar arrangement with the state of Georgia. Brown also rejected Cooper?s proposal. Intent on profiting from the war, Cooper increased his labor force and began accumulating massive quantities of raw materials needed to produce pig iron. By the time the first Georgia troops arrived in Virginia, he had negotiated several lucrative iron contracts with the state and national government. The Etowah Iron Works played an instrumental role in supplying the Confederate war effort. Cooper?s manufacturing center spanned some twelve thousands acres in four counties and by some accounts was the second largest iron production facility in southern Appalachia. The center housed a furnace, forge, foundry, rolling mill, flour mill, grist mill, and sawmill. Prior to the war, Cooper employed as many as 600 laborers, 200 of them slaves. The town of Etowah, which Cooper owned, functioned much like a northern antebellum factory town complete with a post office, churches, worker housing, and merchant stores. The town also included a brewery and bordello that housed a dozen enslaved prostitutes. While the employment of 200 slaves might seem extraordinary, similar facilities in Botecourt County, Virginia, employed nearly 3,000 slaves during peak production periods. In 1861, production at Cooper?s works suffered due to the loss of dozens of workers who enlisted in the army. After that Cooper?s wartime workforce included larger numbers of slaves and fewer white laborers. The facility contained ?two pig iron furnaces, one rolling mill, and a nail factory; they not only could provide railroad bar iron, but represented the only facility south of Richmond capable of turning out car axles.? 29 149 Like Mark Cooper, Godfrey Barnsley recognized that he too might profit from the war. Barnsley owned several oceanic ships and had numerous European contacts at banks and brokerage houses. With the blockade of southern ports and the disappearance of northern manufactured goods, individuals such as Barnsley who understood the intricacies of international trade proved to be a valuable asset to the Confederate government. Prior to enlisting in the Confederate army, Godfrey?s son George debated how he might best serve the Confederate war effort. Perhaps he could equip some of his father?s ships to be used as blockade runners or privateering vessels? Godfrey frowned upon the thought of one of his son?s becoming a pirate raiding upon unsuspecting vessels. Such action, believed Godfrey, lacked honor and was beneath the family?s elite social standing. 30 Godfrey Barnsley nonetheless saw blockade running as a potentially profitable enterprise. Samuel Smith, one of Barnsley?s cotton brokers in Liverpool, England, contacted Barnsley in March informing him that ?textile mills in his area are still obtaining large amounts of cotton. . . . Some Manchester spinners and manufacturers worry about ?short time? but little has been impacted as of yet.? The mobilization of two large American armies benefited the British economy. Investors poured money into British textile firms and banks hopeful of cashing in on this boom period. Union and Confederate forces required a substantial amount of textile goods, some which would be imported from England. Smith told Barnsley that British banks were paying out 6 percent returns on all foreign investments. Barnsley ordered his British agents to invest with the hope of making a quick profit once ?Lincoln . . . freely recognized Southern independence.? 150 In addition to investing in British textile manufacturers, Godfrey Barnsley saw Confederate and state bonds as an equally appealing investment opportunity. Confederate bonds promised a relatively high return on every investment paid out once the bond matured. Confident that the Confederate States of America would defend its independence and subsequently develop beneficial trading partnerships with other major world nations, he sunk tens of thousands of dollars into Confederate bonds. Within a year after Fort Sumter, Barnsley?s investment portfolio included over $40,000 worth of Confederate bonds. Initially, he profited from reselling these bonds on the open market. For example, Barnsley would purchase a $100 bond and two months later sell that same bond for a 100 percent profit. As long as investors believed in Confederate victory, his investments seemed safe, secure, and highly profitable. 31 Barnsley?s shipping business, in contrast, suffered dramatic losses during the Civil War. As early as the summer of 1861, Barnsley?s coastal agents informed him that due to the presence of the Union blockade fleet, none of his ships could leave their harbor. Most of Barnsley?s ships were harbored in the ports of Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans. When New Orleans fell, Barnsley lost several ships. Without a reliable source of income, Barnsley watched as the war slowly drained his massive personal fortune. Upon rushing off to war, George Barnsley left his personal finances in a state of disarray. Before the war, Godfrey rarely visited Woodlands more than once or twice a year and usually only during the summer. The rest of the year, George managed Woodlands. Willing to take risks, George had borrowed heavily from local merchants and banks in order to support his various ventures. Shortly before the war, he borrowed 151 several hundred dollars from Kingston millwright E.V. Johnson. George enlisted in the Eighth Georgia Infantry and went to Virginia without repaying his debt. Johnson expected to receive payment during the spring of 1861, but upon learning that George had left Woodlands, he became concerned. If George died in Virginia, how would he get paid? Meanwhile, during the winter of 1861, Johnson opened a mill in the town of Kingston. The mill?s initial start-up costs were high, forcing Johnson to borrow $657.00 from a Rome bank. The bank demanded that the note be paid in full within six months. In June, Johnson wrote Godfrey informing him of his son?s substantial debts. Godfrey did not know about the debt but was not surprised to discover that his son owed yet another local businessman money. In order to avoid the humiliation of having a delinquent debtor as a son and avoid a possible lawsuit, Godfrey responded positively to Johnson?s request. One day after receiving Johnson?s letter, Godfrey and his agent traveled the fifty-four mile round trip into Rome where he personally paid off Johnson?s bank note. That night, Godfrey wrote George and informed him about how disappointed he was that his son had allowed his personal finances to become questionable. He cautioned his son that once the war was over, the two would have to sit down and map out the young man?s economic future. The war, Godfrey advised his son, could not serve as a hiding place from a man?s domestic concerns. 32 George Barnsley meanwhile already had grown tired of military duty. 33 In a letter written in July while stationed at Camp Washington near Winchester, Virginia, he told of the uncertainty that existed within military life. ?Our force here,? wrote George, ?is estimated about 18,000 men-6,000 militia included, who can not be expected to do much fighting.? He also complained about his declining diet: ?we don?t see any vegetables . . . 152 . I often long for some of those at home. I have not eaten any fruit this season . . . . sometimes we feel unwell from eating irregularly too much dough and fat meat.? Months earlier, he had dined on imported caviar and mutton while in camp at Rome. Now the harsh realities of military service had begun to set in. 34 To make matters worse, George now believed that the army was in a state of perpetual retreat. The commanding officer, General Joseph E. Johnston, chose to abandon the army?s position at Harper?s Ferry without a fight. Afterwards, Johnston moved his forces south around the city of Winchester to avoid engaging the enemy. George, a private with no prior military training or experience, disagreed with Johnston?s decisions. To retreat in the face of the enemy, in his mind, equaled cowardice. He feared that the enemy thought they were fighting against a bunch of cowards. ?We are greatly chagrined,? he wrote, ?that we had to retreat by orders the other day and I am sure if any retreat from this place was made without a fight it would have a very demoralizing effect upon the army.? Despite George?s mounting concerns, his letters reiterated his belief that ?this is a glorious cause of ours. Its sacredness seems to pervade every breast. We?re ready to a man to lay down our lives if necessary to the promotion of the cause.? 35 Godfrey Barnsley and some other Cass Countians had arrived at the conclusion that the Confederacy was losing the war and had proved unwilling to fight. Godfrey worried that his sons might not have the opportunity to prove their honor on the battlefield. In contrast, Charles Howard saw Johnston?s retreats as a positive delaying action. Howard feared ?that the two armies will meet before Congress goes into session.? Once Congress meets, Howard assured Barnsley, they would most likely ?let the South go without a fight.? 36 Of course, Congress intended no such action. Johnston?s retreat 153 proved to be little more than a maneuver designed to draw his forces closer to Confederates stationed outside of Richmond in anticipation of a large-scale battle. In July of 1861, Cass Countians serving in the Army of the Shenandoah stationed in northern Virginia became the first soldiers from the county to engage in battle. George and Lucien Barnsley, Mark, John, and Thomas Cooper, Jett Howard, Benjamin Stiles, and others were among Cass County residents who fought at First Manassas. Most of these Cass Countians served in Colonel Francis S. Bartow?s 8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment. The 8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment fought in the First Battle of Manassas, July, 21, 1861, as part of General Joseph E. Johnston?s 12,000 men Army of the Shenandoah. Days before the battle, Johnston managed to board his force onto the Manassas Gap Railroad and transport them to Manassas Junction (a distance of 50 miles) where they would support General P. G. T. Beauregard?s 20,000 men confronting Union General Irwin McDowell?s 35,000 soldiers. During the Civil War?s first major battle confusion reigned supreme as two amateur armies, led by inexperienced commanders, endured scorching temperatures and a hilly terrain that hampered communications. During the battle, Colonel Bartow died and his second in command received a debilitating wound. Command passed to Major Thomas Cooper, who lacked any previous military experience. He eagerly embraced the task before him. Modeling himself after Bartow, Cooper reorganized his men and gave them a speech to fortify their resolve. A shell exploded beneath his horse?s head before he could finish his speech. The shell ?exploded? wrote Mark Cooper, ?totally hiding him [Major Cooper] and the horse in a cloud of dust and earth.? John and Mark Cooper stood alongside their infantry 154 companies only a few feet away. Had their brother died? As the dust cleared, Thomas Cooper spurred the nervous horse forward and raised his sword as if to challenge the Federal battery who had fired the shell. Under Cooper?s leadership, the 8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment reformed their lines on Henry Hill, helping halt the Federal advance in the area of the battlefield. During the fighting, John Cooper received two musket ball wounds in his knee and thigh. The severely wounded Cooper nevertheless urged his men forward until a commanding officer ordered him to retire from the field. His bravery under fire did not escape the attention of his men, who after the battle and for subsequent decades recalled their commander?s epic courage. As Cooper lay on an improvised stretcher awaiting transport, he told passing men to fight ?for your country, my boys. For your country. For your country.? The diary of George Barnsley provides an excellent account of the experiences of a Cass County private caught up in the whirlwind of events that surrounded the First Battle of Manassas. ?All I recollect? wrote Barnsley, ?is that we came after a long march into a large old field, and we rushed up a small hill.? As Barnsley moved up the hill, the unit was greeted by the sound of Federal artillery shells bursting high above their heads. The sound of the cannon ?aroused? George?s ?enthusiasm and energy.? Barnsley recalled how Bartow rode on a white horse in front of the ranks in defiance of the Federal cannons. He was inspired to move forward because Bartow ?was not afraid.? As he steadily moved forward, Barnsley remembered how his father had told him that when in battle ?to keep your powder dry and trust in the Lord.? Shells landed around the unit, creating small holes that they had to climb in and out of. For the first time, fear crept into 155 Barnsley?s mind: ?I confess that I did wish that I was a ground-squirrel, or a possum so I could get into that hole.? Those fears, however, proved short-lived as he became ?baptized? under fire. In later years, he proclaimed that after those initial moments of doubt that he ?never had any more fear, keeping cool and in some [illegible] way enjoying the sport or excitement? of engaging in battle. 37 After falling back due to the constant barrage of ?six guns in the front,? George came upon a thicket of young pines and blackberry bushes. Still hungry, Barnsley and others grabbed handfuls of blackberries as their lines moved directly through the bushes. The unit then proceeded to move up a steep incline. ?I remember being much amused at Schofield, who was in the rank ahead of me,? he recalled. While hurrying up the slope, he stepped several times on the back of Schofield?s heels. Annoyed by Barnsley?s repeated missteps, Schofield ?became angry and still advancing turned his head and shouted to me that if I trod on his heels again he would knock me down with the butt of his gun.? 38 Soon thereafter Barnsley and his unit encountered an ?old sedge field? that had a split rail fence running across its length. Having moved up into the front ranks of his advancing unit, Barnsley was among the first soldiers to run into this fence. Barnsley dropped his gun and began to disassemble the fence. Before he could remove a single rail, the ranks of men immediately behind him pushed forward causing Barnsley to tumble head first over the fence into a thick patch of thorny briars. He struggled to emerge from the briars. After rejoining his ranks, he still had to climb over the same fence that he had minutes ago tried to tear down. After getting one leg over the thigh high fence, a ?short, chunky, red-faced . . . good [natured man] we all called ?Coon 156 Mitchell?? climbed onto the same rail Barnsley was attempting to cross. Mitchell?s weight caused the split rail to break, which in turn made Barnsley fall backward yet again into a patch of briars. Mitchell also fell into the patch. During the fall, he scraped his head, causing it bleed profusely. Dazed and unaware of what had occurred, Mitchell stood up and began shouting that he had been hit. As Barnsley lay in the patch for the second time in less than ten minutes, he laughed aloud as Mitchell scurried about thinking that he had been wounded by a Yankee rifle. 39 Once Barnsley caught up with his unit, he promptly went to the company commander to request to be placed in the unit?s front ranks. The officer complied with Barnsley?s request. Perhaps, he made this request because he was caught up in the excitement of battle, but it was equally possible that he sought to restore some sense of honor following the public humiliation of falling twice into the same briar patch. When he reached the front, he finally saw the enemy standing in line some fifty yards away. For the first time in the war, Barnsley fired his weapon toward the enemy. Remembering his drill instruction, he fired his weapon while in a kneeling position. After firing, he laid flat on his back along the ground while he reloaded before again returning to a kneeling position. At a range of fifty yards, even Barnsley?s old smoothbore musket proved capable of damaging the enemy line. His gun?s barrel became increasingly hot as Barnsley fired numerous rounds. 40 Barnsley remembered the first Federal soldier that he knowingly killed. The enemy began to advance upon his position. A split rail fence stood between the Federal and Confederate position. Barnsley watched as a big Union soldier grabbed hold of the rail fence and pushed it into the ground. As that soldier crossed over the rails, now lying 157 on the ground Barnsley aimed ?at a bright brass button on his bluecoat? and fired. ?There were others shooting,? he recalled, ?but I think I killed him.? As he reloaded his musket, he shouted to the men in his unit ?boys I got one anyway.? Suddenly, he realized that he was alone. The unit had fallen back while he had been preoccupied with shooting the large enemy soldier. Barnsley quickly jumped to his feet and began sprinting toward the retreating unit?s lines that were now several hundred yards away. Along the way, he ran into an old friend who had frequently dined with he and his family at Woodlands, Jett Howard, the son of Reverend Charles W. Howard, one of Godfrey Barnsley?s closest friends. Howard needed Barnsley?s assistance carrying their ?badly wounded? colonel back to their lines. The men used Barnsley?s gun to carry the wounded colonel to safety. They loaded the colonel on top of the gun and picked him up and carried him by each man lifting one end of the weapon. Barnsley carried the musket from its stock while Howard carried the barrel end. When the two soldiers dropped the colonel within their lines, they learned that Barnsley had left the weapon loaded and cocked to fire. The soldiers had carried the colonel through a dense thicket. Barnsley realized that he ?might have shot Jett if a twig or briar had caught and pulled the trigger.? 41 Jett escaped unharmed but would not escape the battle unscathed. Minutes after the two friends rejoined their unit, ?Jett got a ball and fell backwards.? Barnsley wanted to stay with his friend, but Jett told him to continue moving forward. As he moved onward, he encountered a deadly cross fire directed from two Yankee lines. ?It was not from any bravery or foolhardiness,? remembered Barnsley, ?on my part that I walked through this cross-fire of musket balls and cannon balls. The fact was I had lost all consciousness of danger. I suppose the from physical fatigue.? His officers informed 158 him that he ?had to win the fight or die.? During the battle, Barnsley lost all sense of self. His dire hunger and fatigue that he had bitterly complained about hours prior to the fight had vanished. As he followed orders on that day, he felt as if he ?were treading on air.? Barnsley day-dreamed about dying in battle in service to his country. Those moments propelled him forward for he knew how proud his family, community, and nation would be if he should per chance fall in battle. Barnsley always remembered Manassas as the single greatest adventure of his life. 42 The Confederate victory at the First Battle of Manassas had a profound impact on the country. During the battle, the Federal army suffered 2,393 dead, wounded, and missing compared to Confederate losses of 1,969. To the Confederates, their display of military might proved their assumptions that northerners were inferior fighters. The defeat spread a lingering sense of inferiority among the Federal army. Cass Countians cheered news of the victory. The same church bells that had rang months before announcing secession sounded again in celebration of the battle. 43 The following day, the army transported Cooper to a temporary hospital set-up in the Culpeper, Virginia county courthouse. While recovering, he received the rank of major for his courage in battle. Initially, physicians informed his family that his condition would gradually improve even to the point that he might return to active military duty. Upon receiving word of John?s wound, Mark and Sophronia Cooper, his parents, and Hattie Cooper, his wife, left their Holly Springs home bound for Virginia. There, the concerned parents stayed at John?s bedside. During those moments, his father prayed for his son?s recovery. His prayers went unanswered as John?s condition 159 worsened due to mounting internal infections. John died on September 6, 1861, with his parents, wife, and brothers at his bedside. Hattie returned home a twenty-four year-old widow with two small children and pregnant with her third. The exuberance of John?s departure only a few months prior had disappeared. She remained haunted by his sudden death. She had been assured that he would not die. After all, he was an upstanding Christian man, and those kind of men did not die young. While recuperating in the Confederate hospital, John had experienced a religious re-awakening. During his prayers and conversations with Hattie, he expressed a sincere interest in becoming a preacher if only God allowed for him to recover from his wounds. The two made plans to return home to Cass County and build a church. His death ended those dreams. On October 31, 1861, Hattie gave birth to her third and last of John Frederick?s children. She named the boy Frederick after his fallen father. 44 Anxiety followed the First Battle of Manassas as Cass County families awaited word regarding their loved ones. On July 22, Charles W. Howard rushed to the Kingston post office hoping to find his copy of the Charleston Mercury waiting. Upon receiving the paper, Howard promptly poured through the newspaper searching for any mention regarding Bartow?s regiment. Howard cried upon reading a report that the regiment had been nearly annihilated. The hundreds of miles that separated Howard from his son Jett never seemed as great as on that day. As Howard returned to his home at Spring Bank, he desperately wanted to go to Virginia and find his son. Seeking a companion for the voyage, Howard sent Godfrey Barnsley a hastily written note via a slave courier. From Howard?s message, Barnsley first learned of the regiment?s destruction. Howard offered to take Barnsley along with him. While they were gone, Howard?s wife would remain at 160 Spring Place in order to tend to Barnsley?s daughter Julia and her young nephew Forrest. Barnsley too grew concerned about the fate of his two sons, but unlike the always emotional Howard, he tended to make decisions based purely upon logic. Barnsley declined Howard?s kind offer in favor of waiting a few more days and seeing what news might arrive from either of his sons. 45 Two days later, Barnsley received a letter from his son George, informing him that both he and Lucien had survived the battle. George?s letter painted a triumphant picture of the recent Confederate victory. During the battle, George and a group of others had helped a wounded colonel receive medical attention that saved his life. George saw Bartow fall while in front of his regiment leading them forward. The death and carnage of battle surprised George, but overall, his letter glorified the war and his actions. He proudly told his father that he believed that he had killed a Yankee while in battle. The letter also contained mention of the wound received by Jett Howard. Barnsley, unsure of whether or not Charles W. Howard had learned of his son?s wound, quickly boarded a horse drawn carriage headed for the neighboring Spring Bank. Whether or not Howard had previously learned of Jett?s wound prior to Barnsley?s arrival remains unknown, but soon after hearing of his son?s injury, Howard made arrangements to travel to Virginia to be by his son?s bedside. * * * * * * * * * * * * The Confederate victory at Manassas should have significantly bolstered local morale. While the battle did instill a degree of confidence and bravado among county 161 residents, the events that transpired shortly following the battle quieted much of the celebration. Critics such as Godfrey Barnsley and Mark Cooper believed that the inept Confederate government and military had bungled a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture the Federal capital, Washington, D. C. In July, the Barnsley household began to show the initial signs of war weariness. With George and Lucien Barnsley serving in the 8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment, their sister Julia was left at Woodlands along with her father Godfrey, her adopted son Forrest, and the plantation?s slave population. Godfrey proved to be an astute businessman but a poor plantation manager. He grew tired of the daily details of managing such a large estate. Godfrey would rather work in the garden pruning his beloved roses than supervising his slaves constructing fences or gathering the harvest. To make matters worse, Godfrey spent most of the summer in bed due to a debilitating cough, which had prevented him from doing various plantation tasks. In July, shortly before the First Battle of Manassas, Julia Barnsley wrote to her brother George explaining her poor circumstances. ?I am sorry to say Papa is quite sick,? wrote Julia, ?and I am alone . . . . The Howards have turned the cold shoulder to my repeated invitations but they ignore me. They are so gay.? 46 The Howard family had maintained a long relationship with the Barnsleys. They lived in nearby Spring Bank only a few miles from Woodlands. Julia had once been a student at Charles W. Howard?s school. During the antebellum period, the Howard and Barnsley families regularly dined with one another whenever Godfrey and Charles were in residence. Alone and weary from her extra duties, Julia needed the familiar interaction with the Howard family in order to release some of her pent-up anxieties. The Howard 162 family, however, had their own struggles to bear and could not spare much time with Julia. They spent hours instead working their own plantation now that their son Jett was in the army. Charles had his own slaves to manage and his own crops to harvest. Also, Howard lived in constant fear that something might happen to his son. He spent hours traveling to and from the Kingston Post Office hoping to receive a letter or news about their son?s condition. The war, even during its earliest phases, had already isolated many individuals from one another who had in previous years enjoyed the constant presence of friends and family members. Extended absences of friends and family created a sense of isolation from their local communities and the war in general. Julia certainly confronted bouts of depression during this period as she watched her life suddenly transform from that of a local socialite to that of an aging spinster. She needed help. Her letters repeatedly asked for assistance from her neighbors and brothers serving in the military. Unfortunately for Julia, they, like her, were preoccupied with adjusting to their new lives, lives that had been created since the beginning of the war. When the fall of 1861 came, it would be one of the first times since Barnsley had constructed Woodlands that he remained in Bartow County during the winter. Due to her father?s ambivalence toward managing the plantation, Julia assumed the daily duties of plantation management. Those duties included ordering supplies for the slave and white population such as food, tools, and clothing. Without the assistance of an overseer, Julia coordinated the work schedules of the plantation?s slave population. She decided when the slaves would spend the day mending fences or working in the fields, and if the slaves needed to split up into small groups so that each task could be completed simultaneously. More importantly, Julia inspected their work to ensure that the slaves were indeed 163 completing their assigned tasks and not just gold-bricking now that the plantation lacked any strong white male presence. While Godfrey signed the checks, balanced the plantation ledger, and negotiated prices with both slaveholders and markets, she worked to prevent Woodlands? decline. In addition to her increased plantation duties, Julia faced mounting domestic responsibilities. With her brothers serving in the military, it became her assumed duty to fabricate their Confederate uniforms. During the antebellum period, Julia might have hired a local tailor to complete this task or perhaps used one of the plantation?s domestic slaves. During the war, the local tailors had more orders than they could handle. At night, when most of the other plantation and domestic tasks had been completed, Julia sat down and worked on her beloved brothers? uniforms. The work was slow. The materials required were difficult to purchase since the demand for wool cloth had increased sharply during the summer months. With all of her other duties, Julia simply could not find the time and energy needed to complete their uniforms. In northern Virginia, Lucien and George anxiously awaited their uniforms. Many of their fellow comrades of the 8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment had already received theirs. As their anxiety increased, so did their letters home to Julia. Neither of the brothers seemed to realize or perhaps did not care about their sister?s increased workload. They assumed that their father was taking care of Woodlands and that, as in olden times, Julia spent her days working in the garden. From Julia?s perspective, their repeated questions concerning the completion date of their beloved uniforms wreaked of ingratitude. Their letters informed her of how grand it was to be defending their home and family and how fortunate she was to have 164 such honorable men fighting for such a noble cause. Sometime in late October, George?s repeated requests provoked Julia?s wrath. George had wondered why his uniform had not arrived when he had asked his dear sister to complete the work several months before hand. In her response, Julia made it clear just how displeased she was with her brothers and attempted to inform them exactly what her current situation resembled. ?I will try to send for your clothes,? wrote Julia. ?Don?t blame me for not having sent them, as I have done all I can for you and am still doing everything that a person can do.? 47 After reading several of Julia?s letters written during the month of October, her brother Lucien decided that it might be time to alleviate her stressful situation. He worried that her health could not withstand the constant work load required to manage a plantation. He considered hiring an overseer or some white laborers to help manage the plantation but soon realized that finding someone would be difficult due to the war and that the addition of another stranger into the Woodlands household might only create additional problems for Julia. Lucien?s solution was to convince his brother George to resign from the military and return home. On November 4, 1861, the same day that Julia wrote to George describing her pitiful circumstances, Lucien suggested to George in a letter that ?if you can stay at home I think you ought to as Pa had no one there. I can fight.? 48 In Lucien?s mind, this seemed like an honorable solution. As long as one of the brothers remained in the military, no one in the community could dare say that Barnsley family was scared to fight. Once George returned home, he could relieve his exhausted father and sister from their tiresome daily chores. George could hire and manage additional white and enslaved laborers to work at Woodlands. Meanwhile, Lucien would continue serving in Virginia and upholding the family?s sense of duty and honor. 49 165 Lucien?s plan failed to gain George?s support. During the antebellum period, George had made it abundantly clear that he had little intention of ever assuming Woodlands? daily management. He did not want to be a farmer but instead, desired to live in a city or at least a large village where he could enjoy various cultural events and be around a wide array of people. He longed for Savannah, his birthplace and where most of the Barnsley?s elite social connections remained. Woodlands to George seemed like a million miles away from those ambitions. Moreover, he did not want to be seen as a coward for returning home while his brother remained at the front. George rejected Lucien?s offer and informed his sister that he intended to stay and fight regardless of his brother?s wishes. 50 Tragedy meanwhile struck the Cooper family again in late December of 1861. While examining a potential place for winter quarters, Colonel Thomas Cooper?s horse was startled by an unknown source and ran wild through the dense thicket with its rider in tow. Lucien Barnsley of the 8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment watched the tragedy unfold before his horrified eyes. Cooper fell from the ?very fiery? steed striking his head against a tree. ?He was never conscious,? wrote Lucien, ?after he received the blow. Although we all more or less disliked him we must say we will miss him.? 51 Another soldier, Tom Wragg, wrote that Cooper ?was an awful sight to look at. His face was so swollen that you could not recognize him at all.? 52 Cooper died shortly after being transported back to camp. His promotion to the rank of colonel was opposed by the majority of the regiment. Most believed that he was too inexperienced to command such a large body. His premature death, while sad and tragic, came as a bit of welcomed relief to many of the regiment?s soldiers. 166 At Etowah, Mark Cooper grieved the loss of a second son who died in Confederate service. Of the three sons Mark Cooper proudly sent off to serve in the Confederate military during the Spring of 1861, only one remained by the end of the year. Anxious to ensure that Mark E. Cooper, the sole surviving son, would not suffer the same fate as his brothers, Cooper petitioned Confederate President Jefferson Davis for his son?s discharge from active military duty. Even more dire portents appeared. During a meeting of a Home Guard unit being organized in the village of Fairmount in neighboring Gordon County, L. R. Ramsaur notified Governor Brown about the ?existence of some things in this District.? Part of this Home Guard District overlapped into northeastern Bartow County near the village of Pine Log. In that village, Ramsaur reported, lived a man who stood opposed to ?our southern cause.? This unidentified man had a son who had volunteered for Confederate military service. After receiving instruction, the son obtained a brief furlough that allowed him time to travel home and be with his family before finally being assigned to a post. When the son arrived home, the Unionist father supposedly told him how disappointed he was that the son had chosen to volunteer. After a brief argument, the father ordered the son to leave his home and never to return as long as he wore a Confederate uniform. The soldier went to the local justice of the peace and requested his aid in calming down his father. When the two men returned to the home, the father walked out onto the porch armed with a loaded double barrel shotgun. The father ordered his son and the justice of the peace off of his property. He chided the justice of the peace for having the nerve to interfere in a family squabble that was none of the government?s 167 business. The justice of the peace swore that he would soon return with some men and arrest the father. 53 According to Ramsaur, news of the old man?s impending arrest spread throughout the countryside. By the next morning, Unionist sympathizers in the area had banned together willing to defend the old man from any attempts made by local Confederates to seize him or his property. ?His friends,? reported Ramsaur, ?now swear if he is arrested they will fight for him.? The Home Guard commander then informed Brown that the local Unionists had held secret meetings to discuss a strategy to resist conscription. Even worse than evading the draft, the Unionists, according to him, intended to arm local slaves. If these Unionists remained, declared Ramsaur, they would either join the Federal Army or sabotage the Confederate war effort. The Home Guard Unit contemplated arresting the suspected Unionist leader, but such an action was prevented because the guard feared that the Unionist forces far outnumbered their meager unit. Ramsaur wanted Brown to dispatch a large number of state troops into the area and arrest all known and suspected traitors. Brown ignored Ramsaur?s request. 54 * * * * * * * * * * * * Cass County?s decision to rename itself in honor of Francis S. Bartow shows the county?s level of Confederate nationalism. In November, Samuel Sheats and Warren Akin introduced a bill before the state assembly to change the county?s name. ?Deeming it the duty,? they wrote, ?it is always the pleasure of a brave and free people to perpetuate the memory of those who have fallen upon the field of battle in defense of the honor, 168 rights, and liberties of our common country.? The bill also changed the name Cassville to Manassas. 55 Yet by the end of 1861, the exuberance of war had been blunted by its reality. Men seeking an adventure of a lifetime and an opportunity to display their manhood by defending their homes had marched off to war and soon discovered that war was not as glamorous as they had once believed. At home, women such as Julia Barnsley endured the daily physical and emotional hardships that accompanied war. The longer their men stayed away, the more distant their lives became as the Civil War opened a new front, the home front. Between 1862 and the spring of 1864, the divide between front line and home front created two communities where one had once existed. Soldiers serving in the field could barely understand the hardships of their loved ones; likewise, women and men at home could not comprehend the tribulations of prolonged military service. The divide between these two communities would significantly influence the war?s eventual outcome. . 169 Notes 1 James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Ballentine Books, 1998), 273-74; William K. Scarborough, ed., The Diary of Edmund Ruffin, Vol. 1: Toward Independence, October 1856-April 1861 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972), 542; Coleman, ed., History of Georgia, 188. 2 The Army of Northern Virginia did not exist in 1861. It was not named so until Robert E. Lee took command during the Peninsula Campaign. Those Army of Northern Virginia soldiers served in the Army of the Shenandoah and other armies that were later combined under Lee?s command. 3 See: James I. Robertson Jr, Soldiers Blue and Gray (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1988). 4 William A. Chunn to Delila Land Chunn, September 8, 1861, Chunn-Land Papers, Box 1:5, GDAH, Morrow; James M. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 23. 5 William A. Chunn to Delila Land Chunn, September 8, 1861, Chunn-Land Papers, Box 1:5, GDAH, Morrow; Quoted in Warren Wilkinson and Steven E. Woodworth, A Scythe of Fire: A Civil War Story of the Eight Georgia Infantry Regiment (New York: Harper Collins, 2002), 43. 6 George S. Barnsley Diary, Sao Paulo, Brazil, forwarded along with a letter to, Godfrey Emerson Barnsley, Woodlands, July 6, 1915, George Scarborough Barnsley Papers, Series 4, [microfilm], M-1521, SHC, UNC-Chapel Hill. 7 Ibid. 170 8 United Daughters of the Confederacy, Confederate Reminiscences and Letters 1861-1865, Vol. 13, 168. 9 John F. Milhollin to Wife, August 1862, John F. Milhollin Letters, [microfilm], Drawer 57:65, GDAH, Morrow. 10 Confederate Reminiscences and Letters 1861-1865,Volume 15, 143-144, GDAH, Atlanta; Rebecca Rainey Hood Papers, [microfilm], MSS325, Reel 1, EU, Decatur. 11 Mark A. Cooper to Jefferson Davis, May 13, 1861, Jefferson Davis Letters, MS #5, Series II, Box 1:1, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston. 12 Mark Cooper Pope II with J. Donald McKee, Mark Anthony Cooper: The Iron Man of Georgia (Atlanta: Graphic Publishing Company, 2000), 165. 13 Steven E. Woodworth, While God is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers Modern War Studies (Topeka: University of Kansas Press, 2001), 28. See: Jason Phillips, ?Religious Belief and Troop Motivation: ?For Smiles of My Blessed Savious?,? in Peter Wallenstein and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, eds, Virginia?s Civil War (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005), 101-13; Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds., Religion in the American Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998); Christine Leigh Heyrman, Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997); Robertson, Soldiers Blue and Gray; Richard E. Beringer, Herman Hattaway, Archer 171 Jones, and William N. Still Jr, eds., Why the South Lost the Civil War (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986). 14 John F. Milhollin to Wife, September 15, 1861, Milhollin Letters, [microfilm], Drawer 57:65, GDAH, Morrow; McPherson, For Cause and Comrades, 27; Milhollin died during a skirmish in September 1863 while serving with General J. E. B. Stuart. He left behind a wife and six children. 15 George S. Barnsley Papers, M#1521, Series 4, [microfilm], SHC, UNC- CH. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid.; Barnsley Family Papers, M# 201, [microfilm], Reel 1, TSA, Nashville. 18 Tom Dowtin to Mother, June 23, 1861, Confederate Miscellany Files, 1B, #20, Item #2, Dowtin, EU, Decatur. 19 Pope and McKee, Mark Anthony Cooper, 171-72. Minutes of the Cherokee Baptist Convention, NGDPP, BCPL, Cartersville. 20 Cunyus, 57. 21 Quoted in Cunyus, History of Bartow County, p. 212. Peter H. Larey to Joseph E. Brown, March 27, 1861, Incoming Executive Department Correspondence, GDAH, Morrow. 22 John F. Cooper to Joseph E. Brown, January 3, 1861, Incoming Executive Department Correspondence, GDAH, Morrow. 23 John F. Cooper to Joseph E. Brown, March 9, 1861, Incoming Executive Department Correspondence, GDAH, Morrow. Unlike other letters written by Cooper addressed to Brown, this correspondence was marked confidential. 172 24 Mark E. Cooper to Joseph E. Brown, April 21, 1861, Incoming Executive Department Correspondence, GDAH, Morrow. 25 John F. Cooper to Joseph E. Brown, April 27, 1861, Incoming Executive Department Correspondence, GDAH, Morrow. 26 Emory Thomas, The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience, 10. 27 Ralph W. Donnelly, ?The Bartow County Confederate Saltpetre Works,? GHQ 54 (1970), 305-19. 28 Mark A. Cooper to Joseph E. Brown, March 14, 1861, Incoming Executive Department Correspondence, GDAH, Atlanta. 29 Robert C. Black III, The Railroads of the Confederacy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952), 23. 30 George Barnsley to Lucien Barnsley, April 24, 1861, Godfrey Barnsley Family Papers, MSS13, Box 1:7, EU, Decatur. 31 CSA Bonds, Godfrey Barnsley Family Papers, MSS13, Box 3:1, EU, Decatur. 32 E.V. Johnson to Godfrey Barnsley, February 25, 1861, June 1861, Godfrey Barnsley Family Papers, MSS13, Box 1:7, EU, Decatur. 33 In late May and early June of 1861, several companies from counties around the state were organized as the 8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment. The regiment was mustered into Confederate service in June at Camp Bartow located outside of Richmond, Virginia. The regiment became part of General Joseph Johnston?s Army of the Shenandoah. 173 34 George S. Barnsley to Godfrey Barnsley, July 14, 1861, Godfrey Barnsley Family Papers, MSS13, Box 1:9, EU, Decatur. 35 Ibid. 36 C.W. Howard to Godfrey Barnsley, June 20, 1861, Godfrey Barnsley Family Papers, MSS13, Box 1:8, EU, Decatur. 37 Diary of George S. Barnsley, Sao Paulo, Brazil, forwarded along with a letter to, Godfrey Emerson Barnsley, Woodlands, July 6, 1915, George Scarborough Barnsley Papers, M# 1521, Series 4, [microfilm], SHC, UNC-CH. 38 Ibid. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 43 James M. McPherson, Ordeal By Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction, 2 nd Ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1992), 212-13. 44 Pope and McKee, Mark Anthony Cooper, 175-77; Eighth United States Census, Cass County, Georgia, M653-114, 765. 45 C.W. Howard to Godfrey Barnsley, July 23, 1861, Godfrey Barnsley Family Papers, MSS13, Box 1:9, EU, Decatur. 46 Julia Barnsley to George S. Barnsley, July 8, 1861, George Scarborough Barnsley Papers, M# 1521, Series 1.3, Folder 7, SHC, UNC-CH. 174 47 Julia Barnsley to George S. Barnsley, November 4, 1861, George Scarborough Barnsley Papers, M# 1521, Series 1.3, Folder 7, SHC, UNC-CH. 48 Lucien Barnsley to George S. Barnsley, November 4, 1861, George Scarborough Barnsley Papers, M# 1521, Series 1.3, Folder 7, SHC, UNC-CH. 49 Ibid. 50 Ibid. 51 Lucien Barnsley to George S. Barnsley, December 21, 1861, George Scarborough Barnsley Papers, M# 1521, Series 1.3, Folder 7, SHC, UNC-CH. 52 Woodworth, A Scythe of Fire, 116. 53 Ramseur to Brown, Joseph E. Brown Papers, UGA, Athens. 54 Ibid. 55 Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 33-34. 175 CHAPTER FIVE A WHITE COMMUNITY?S WAR: 1862-63 Lucien Barnsley volunteered in the spring of 1861 to defend southern rights and to experience some adventure. After nine months of war, his initial zeal had faded. In January 1862, he wrote to his brother, ?I hope that this confounded war will stop soon.? 1 In 1862 and 1863, a number of internal and external pressures created uncertainty among some Bartow Countians as expectations of a quick Confederate victory faded. Internally, war weariness spread throughout the populace as citizens and soldiers alike combated separation anxiety, material shortages, increased governmental intrusions, death and disease, and contentious slaves. Externally, repeated military setbacks? particularly in the western theater?led some to question the government?s viability. Despite bouts of war weariness, a majority of Bartow County civilians and soldiers remained committed to the Confederacy. While dozens of soldiers deserted the ranks, hundreds remained. Some chanted ?rich man?s war, poor man?s fight,? but rich and poor alike served in the army, protested various government intrusions, and suffered from the physical and psychological affects of war. Between the winter of 1862 and the end of 1863, the actions of a majority of county residents indicated that war weariness 176 perhaps damaged Confederate morale locally, but failed to create any overriding sense of defeatism or willingness to sacrifice independence for the sake of peace. Numerous factors influenced the degree to which soldiers and civilians experienced and displayed signs of war weariness. Concern for a family member?s emotional and physical condition contributed to temporary bouts of war weariness. Lila Chunn expressed similar symptoms. Her husband William?s absence altered her mood. Her mind wandered throughout the day, as she dwelled upon past events or imagined where or what he was doing at that moment, while the routine chores that accompanied domestic life went unattended. Most afternoons, Lila spent hours walking along several paths that encircled her Cassville home. Years ago, Willie had courted her there. She now recalled the way he looked at her during those youthful days, as well as how much she anticipated those planned encounters. ?I think of you and sigh for your company,? she wrote. As she allowed her mind to slip into the past, Lila grasped the thin air where her husband?s hand had once been. ?I want to take your hand as I used to do.? If only, the war was over. 2 Other family concerns further influenced a soldier?s war weariness. The 1870 Federal Census reveals that the county experienced a ?baby boom? period between 1861 and 1864. Most of these children arrived during their father?s absence. News of a newborn child stirred emotions among soldiers. For Chunn, remaining in the army while his newborn child slept several hundred miles away required all of the loyalty that he could muster. Already remorseful that he could not see his beloved wife more frequently, the thought of having a child at home that he had never seen reduced him to tears. 177 During lonely hours spent in the doldrums of camp life, he dreamed of home and imagined his daughter?s face. 4 The death of a newborn baby was a routine part of mid-nineteenth-century life. Local cemeteries such as those in Kingston and Euharlee served as constant reminders of the fragility of life. Most family cemetery plots contain a headstone bearing a lamb that represents the death of an infant child. As several letters indicate, the wives of absent soldiers frequently refrained from naming their newborn child until several months had passed or upon the arrival home of the child?s father. Until such time passed, the newborn was simple referred to as ?the baby.? 5 Kingston resident William Hardin never saw his infant daughter. His wife delivered the child after his 1863 capture aboard a blockade runner outside of Nassau. Hardin spent the remainder of the war at Fort Warren in Boston, where he corresponded with his wife and family. The news of his daughter?s birth lifted his sagging spirits. He remained hopeful that federal officials would exchange him soon allowing his return home to see his daughter. The exchange never came, however, and in the fall of 1864, Hardin?s daughter died of fever. 6 In 1862, soldiers and civilians came to the realization that the war would last far longer than they had originally anticipated. ?It seems that we constantly have something to mourn over,? wrote Lila Chunn. ?Our reverses and misfortunes are becoming frequent.? Likewise, Julia Barnsley believed that ?our darkest hours are yet to come. . . . Papa known for a certainty that we will be whipped at Richmond.? By early summer, Godfrey Barnsley had lost all hope that a decisive victory would be achieved. ?The loss 178 of New Orleans is disastrous. . . . There seems to have been a great want of energy and industry on our side. . . . I often think the War may destroy all I have accomplished.? 7 The war weariness displayed by Bartow Countians between 1862 and 1863 did not reflect a disdain for combat or for the Confederate government but rather a mounting frustration compounded by cold, hunger, disease, military discipline, and loneliness. The thrill of battle remained a popular topic for soldiers. Letters written following a battle were much longer in length and detail than ones penned during periods of prolonged encampment, resembling those written following Battle of First Manassas. Upon receiving one such letter, a father congratulated his son for ?escaping being killed or wounded,? for in the future, such tests would ?silence envious tongues.? 8 Inadequate supplies of food exacerbated a soldier?s susceptibility to war weariness. Soldiers and civilians alike carped about both the quantity and quality of food. Warren Akin, a prominent local politician, informed Governor Brown that Charles Howard?s regiment, 63 rd Georgia Infantry, lacked sufficient foodstuffs due to the inefficiency of the state government. In their tattered condition, he warned, the soldiers could not withstand a fight against the Union army. 9 Hungry, a soldier serving in Phillip?s Legion told his family that he could not afford additional supplies of rations that were available in Richmond due to extreme inflation. He ?[hoped] the government [would] act at an early day and impress all surplus corn in GA.? This action, he believed, would curtail inflation and greedy speculators seeking to profit from hording agricultural products. 10 A local officer serving in the Army of Tennessee likewise grew increasingly frustrated that many of his requisitions for additional food went largely ignored due to ?bureaucratic red tape.? 11 Most soldiers looked toward home for relief. They asked 179 family members to forward crates of biscuits and preserves that would supplement their meager diet of coarsely ground corn meal and fat portions of salt pork. Few camp events made a soldier lonelier than when his comrades received a box from home, while he obtained nothing. 12 While many blamed the government, the blockade, or the quartermaster department, the conduct of soldiers also created problems with obtaining enough food. Shortly before the start of the Peninsula Campaign, the 18 th Georgia Infantry Regiment became the target of a series of pranks orchestrated by the 4 th Texas Infantry Regiment. While stationed at Camp Wigfall, located outside of Fredericksburg, the Texans raided the Georgians? camp while the men were away on picket duty. They stripped the camp bare, stealing anything that was not nailed down. Colonel William T. Wofford, commander of the 18 th Georgia, reported the incident to Major General John B. Hood, who soon thereafter ordered the Texans to return the stolen items. Several weeks later, as the 18 th Georgia endured brutal conditions during a forced march, the men grew increasingly angry that the Texans still neglected to return the regiment?s cooking utensils. As the regiment huddled around their camp fires trying to protect themselves from a cold rain and to secure the first hot meal they had in days, frustrated and hungry, the Georgians according to Gerald Smith ?improvised by mixing dough in bark trays and cooking it on boards leaned against the fire.? 13 Colonel Wofford exerted great energy to prevent his men from stealing. His policies fostered resentment among some 18 th Georgia soldiers who passively watched as soldiers from the 4 th and 5 th Texas Infantry regiments freely stole from local farms and subsequently taunted the Georgians with their captured harvest. Finally, even the stern 180 condemnation of a highly respected commanding officer could not curtail foraging. At the conclusion of the Peninsula Campaign, it became apparent that many of the 18 th Georgia had indeed helped themselves to an assortment of stolen goods. Fearful that such behavior might infect the home front, the commander purchased large quantities of interest bearing bonds, the proceeds of which were used to support indigent soldier families who he considered susceptible to theft. Foraging created a strong sense of guilt and remorse among some Bartow County soldiers. Most soldiers decided to steal only after serious deliberation. During the Battle of First Manassas, Private George Barnsley of the 8 th Georgia worried that he might be executed by his commanding officer after commandeering some honey from a local farmer?s property. As a practical joke, members of his company had prodded the young private into believing that stealing a small portion of honey would not seriously damage neither the property owner nor the soldier?s soul. Plagued by guilt and the stinging of hundreds of angry bees, the reward for his dubious efforts proved bittersweet. 14 Likewise, Noble Brooks confessed his wrong doings while attempting to offer some degree of justification: ?No telling what a hungry man will do, Esau like, he will sell his very birthright for a mess of pottage. I thought I never would take anything, but I pressed a pint of good milk, yesterday for dinner from an old cow that came up into camp.? 15 The lack of respect that many soldiers held for private property deeply disturbed many morally conscious soldiers. While serving in East Tennessee, William Chunn witnessed the devastation that both Union and Confederate soldiers inflicted upon vast amounts of personal property. ?Never did I see such recklessness in people and government,? wrote Chunn, ?while on our tour in East TN I was compelled to witness a 181 destruction of private property that made my heart turn sick and involuntarily loathe such an age and such a government.? The government he was referring to was his own. In an effort to punish Unionists in the area, Confederate soldiers committed numerous criminal acts against ?unarmed civilians.? They destroyed farms, stole cattle, and assaulted women. Chunn pitied these people who seemed trapped between two armies, unsure of whom to turn to for aid. In subsequent letters home, he increasingly became concerned that the Confederacy would indeed lose the war because so many of its combatants had ignored God?s supreme authority. He also grew in his conviction that one day soon a similar fate might befall his own family. If it could happen in East Tennessee, he wrote, there was little to prevent such atrocities from being committed at home. 16 While the utter disregard for personal property troubled some soldiers, the absence of proper clothing also affected morale. Local women exerted a great deal of energy providing clothing for their soldiers. Their best efforts failed to overcome state- wide cloth shortages. Desperate for help, local women petitioned the governor for aid, but their requests went unanswered. In October of 1862, the ?ladies of Bartow County? tried to provoke a response from Brown. The intelligence which we receive of the destitution of our soldiers in Virginia appals us. They are our husbands, sons, brothers and friends. We suffer when we know they suffer [unable to help since] stony hearted owners of factories placed materials of clothing beyond our reach. [We call upon the governor to protect us from] unnatural extortion by seizing the cotton and wool factories of the state, and working them for the public benefit. The petition contained the signatures of 157 ladies and ?would have been signed by all the women of Bartow Co. had it been possible to reach them all.? 17 182 While the varying physical and emotional hardships experienced by Bartow Countians fostered war weariness, other contributing factors such as the proximity of the war in relation to the home front created similar trials. The large numbers of convalescing soldiers sent home for medical care enabled family members to see the horrors of war first-hand. During the Battle of Fredericksburg, William H. Stiles, Jr. received a life threatening wound to his right arm. The bullet smashed into his side with such force that it drove a toothbrush located in his breast pocket through his arm. For weeks, physicians could not predict whether he would survive. Finally, officers granted Stiles permission to return home to the care of his mother. The long train ride from northern Virginia to Bartow County nearly killed the wounded soldier. Loaded into a drafty freight car that lacked any heating source, Stiles endured intense discomfort as his blood soaked dressings froze to his skin. By the time the train pulled into Cartersville, the young lieutenant had developed a severe cough that doctors worried might develop into pneumonia. Once home, Stiles recuperated under the constant care of his mother and the family physician. When naked, Stiles?s right side seemed grossly out of proportion with his left side. His mother wrote that it was as if it had caved in. The family doctor told the patient that his ?wound . . . is so wonderful not to have produced death, that he intends writing and publishing an account of it.? 18 Wounded soldiers affected more than kin as their numbers expanded. In January 1863, Confederate officials established hospitals in Cassville and Kingston. At Cassville, the army occupied the closed male and female colleges. Local hospital directors constantly searched for additional space due to the ever increasing number of sick and wounded. They easily found homes to use as temporary medical facilities since many 183 residents had already left the county seeking refuge further south. As the county developed into a major medical center for the Army of Tennessee, locals grew concerned that the wounded would introduce epidemic diseases into their community. Several thousand soldiers received treatment in Kingston hospitals. Cassville?s hospitals also treated large numbers of Confederates. 19 During the winter of 1863, a smallpox epidemic broke out in Bartow County. The situation became so bad that Cassville resident Nathan Land commented that the presence of convalescing soldiers annoyed locals and caused depredations which encouraged many elite families to ?refugee.? By the late fall of 1863 he wrote, ?many of our best citizens are selling out and leaving.? 20 * * * * * * * * * Military conscription and increased governmental intrusions throughout portions of the county directly contributed to bouts of war weariness. Less than a year after the firing on Fort Sumter, some Bartow Countians began to reconsider whether or not Confederate military service served their best interests. Unionists and other disaffected people advised their friends and relatives to resist the temptation to enlist. John Addington ?advised [his] son to go north to the Union army.? The son took heed and fled to east Tennessee where he promptly enlisted. Nathaniel Guyton likewise told his two sons not to enlist in the fall of 1861. Aware of rumors that the Confederate government would soon enact conscription, his sons decided to wait until agents forcibly enlisted them. Joel Maxwell?s two sons enlisted despite his protests, and as early as the winter of 184 1861-62, he began harboring draft evaders and deserters while vocally criticizing the state and national government. When conscription agents attempted to enlist David Mostetter, he informed them that he refused to ?fight for a rich man?s slaves.? He managed to escape the draft by keeping a shotgun close by throughout the war. 21 Local organizers of military companies now struggled to fill their ranks. Some local leaders demanded that the state do more to enforce the Confederate conscription acts. Reverend Charles W. Howard recognized during the winter of 1862 that local support for the Confederate government had lost much of the momentum it had gained during the previous year. It seemed to him that all of those residents who supported the new government and the war had left the county to serve in the military. Those who remained at home, according to Howard, lacked the same zeal for war. In a letter written to Governor Joseph E. Brown, Howard expressed a sense of urgency due to local fears that an invasion by northern forces seemed imminent. Yet while invasion concerned him, he found the attitude of local residents more troubling. He complained to Brown that ?a sad apathy? had spread among hundreds of local men who were of sound physical health and the appropriate age for military service but seemed intent on shirking military service. 22 The Rome Tri-Weekly Courier echoed his sentiments when its editors declared that ?in every town and village in the Confederacy, there are ?gentlemen of leisure? who sit on the corners and stroll on the streets talking but doing nothing.? 23 As one of the county?s most well-respected citizens, Howard hoped to use his popularity to raise an infantry company in response to Brown?s call for thirty new units. He scoured the county searching for volunteers, only to discover to his chagrin that most men he encountered already belonged to one of several local militia units and therefore 185 did not feel the need to volunteer for military service outside of their county. The local militia system, according to Howard, was ?worse than a farce.? County militia units met monthly for a few hours of drill instruction. Members frequently skipped meetings, and officials rarely punished these absentees. ?If the enemy should reach Chattanooga & make a demonstration on this part of Georgia,? worried Howard, ?we are in the worst possible condition to meet them.? Even if the Federals invaded, he believed most of the militia would remain at home content with ?making money? and acting ?as if no war existed.? 24 While recruiting volunteers, Howard grew especially disappointed with the large number of ?young & middle aged men, who have land & negroes & who can leave their families in comfort,? yet remained at home. ?Few of this class have gone, unless they held an office,? complained Howard. The state militia also contained a disproportionate number of officers. Howard advised Brown that if a draft was instituted that ?[he] for one would be glad to see it confined to men, who return more than $500 worth of property.? Few military aged poor men remained at home, and the minister empathized with the circumstances of their families. ?The poor have already done their share. They refuse to do more until their richer neighbors do theirs.? Howard thus advised Brown to resolve these problems and annihilate the hypocrisies of privilege by instituting a universal conscription law as soon as possible. Failure to do so would be a crippling blow to the state?s future. 25 Godfrey Barnsley supported conscription as well but increasingly believed that the Confederacy was doomed anyway due to a combination of internal and external 186 factors. Internally, the planter grew impatient with local whites who had protested the draft chanting ?rich man?s war, poor man?s fight?: There is a large party in this State, with the government at the head who are placing all the obstacles in their power in the way of Confederate conscription. . . . We are . . . under the rule . . . of unprincipled demagogues and are not likely to gain much by secession. . . . The troops have been poisoned by the insidious rumor that the poor are fighting the battles of the rich. 26 Mention of a ?rich man?s war, poor man?s fight? angered Barnsley, whose two sons served in the 8 th Georgia. 27 In Bartow County, the Civil War was both a rich and poor man?s fight. Bartow County?s white community maintained a relatively peaceful relationship throughout the war. While Reverend Charles Howard accused local elite of neglecting their duty to serve in the military, an abundance of available records indicate that by-and-large the local elite had made enormous sacrifices while supporting the Confederacy. In 1862 and 1863, approximately 85 percent of all white households who owned slaves had at least one member of their family serving in the Confederate army or state militia. Some of those households paid dearly for their support. Mark A. Cooper, for example, lost two of his three sons in 1861. Likewise, John Addington?s youngest son, William, died at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Joseph P. Burge of the 14 th Georgia Infantry Regiment and son of prominent planter Nathaniel Burge died from exposure in the army in 1861. Thomas B. Connor of the 61 st Georgia Infantry Regiment died at the Second Battle of Manassas. In sum, approximately 25-30 percent of all Bartow Countians who died while serving in the Confederate army belonged to a family who 187 owned slaves. Large percentages of local elites served in the military thus ensuring that the war would not be a poor man?s burden to bear alone, but rather a white men?s fight. In Bartow County, men of wealth and property also fought alongside rather than against their poorer neighbors. Local soldiers from elite backgrounds rarely deserted. Most who joined remained in the army either in the field or serving in some administrative capacity for the duration of the war. Conversely, dozens of elite soldiers resigned from the army; some hired substitutes; and even fewer signed the Union Oath of Allegiance. Most elite soldiers remained in the army until their unit officially surrendered, until they were furloughed due to disability or illness, or until their death. Soldiers from elite households comprised approximately 46 percent of Bartow County soldiers who surrendered as part of the Army of Northern Virginia or Army of Tennessee in 1865. In 1862 and 1863, approximately 998 Bartow Countians joined the Confederate army?either by choice or by force. By the end of 1862, nearly 2,000 local white males had served in the Confederate army and state militia units. An overwhelming majority of the county?s households (approximately 83 percent) had at least one family member serving in the army. In May of 1862, 126 soldiers enlisted in what became 2 nd Co. E, 1 st Confederate States of America Regiment. The unit included 82 non-slaveholding and 15 slaveholding yeomen, 4 planters, 15 non-yeomen, and 10 unskilled laborers. The average age of soldiers who joined in 1862 was older than their 1861 counterparts, twenty-six compared to twenty-four. Like their 1861 counterparts, 2 nd Co. E, 1 st CSA Infantry?s muster rolls contained the names of white men (rich and poor, slaveholder and non- slaveholder, yeoman and non-yeoman) who risked their lives to fight a white men?s war. 188 * * * * * * * * * * * External pressure created by military setbacks beginning in the spring of 1862 and extending through the winter of 1863 further heightened signs of war weariness among Bartow Countians. No actual military action took place in the county during this period, but the threat of a Union invasion deeply concerned Bartow Countians. The ease with which Federal forces captured the city of New Orleans, as well as Fort Pulaski near Savannah, and occupied northern Alabama troubled men such as Godfrey Barnsley who believed that the government had not exerted enough energy in the defense of its territory. Informed residents knew that the loss of Forts Henry and Donelson, Island Number 10, Nashville, and reverses at Shiloh exposed northwest Georgia to a potential offensive against the valuable W&A. The same rails that had previously ushered in an era of prosperity now appeared to be an avenue that would soon destroy all that was gained. Locals heard accounts from refugees who flooded the county during much of 1862 and 1863 about how occupying forces mistreated civilian property in western Tennessee, northern Alabama, and Georgia?s coastal islands. By the spring of 1862, most had accepted the realization that the longer the war continued, the more likely that Union soldiers might one day be at their doorstep. 28 A few soon arrived. In April of 1862, a small band of Union soldiers and spies infiltrated northwest Georgia in an effort to sabotage the W&A. James Andrews, a spy hired by General Ormsby Mitchell, and twenty-one co-conspirators slipped into Confederate lines with the intention of capturing a locomotive somewhere between 189 Atlanta and Chattanooga and using the engine to destroy track, equipment, and communication lines, in anticipation of a simultaneously planned offensive launched by General Don Carlos Buell?s forces in occupied northern Alabama. The raid?s overall plan disintegrated as costly delays and second thoughts combined to persuade Buell and others to abandon their large-scale invasion. The raiders went about completing their mission. On the night of April 11, Andrews and his party reached Marietta, a bustling town located south of Bartow County in neighboring Cobb County. Early the next morning, the raiders boarded a northbound engine named the General. That morning, as was customary, the train?s engineer stopped the General at Big Shanty station where he and passengers ate breakfast at the local hotel. Using this distraction to their advantage, the raiders occupied the locomotive and successfully pulled away from the station before their activities attracted attention. Steaming northward, the raiders paused at various points long enough to cut telegraph wires and sabotage small sections of track. Captain William Fuller, the General?s engineer, along with the aid of a handful of men, aggressively pursued the captured train. Their efforts comprised some of the most dramatic moments in the state?s history. Initially, the men chased the train on foot for several miles until they commandeered a small push cart. Dodging missing rails and debris, the party crossed into Bartow County where it encountered a small engine, the Yonah, at Etowah. At this point, the pursuers acquired a flat car loaded with tools and rails before heading northward toward Kingston. The raiders had briefly stopped at the Kingston Depot. Andrews explained to the depot engineers and agents that the Confederate army had placed him in charge of transporting a vital load of ordinance to troops located in Corinth, 190 Mississippi. After some brief delays involving placing southbound trains on alternate sidings, the General left the small town shortly before Fuller?s men arrived. The pursuers abandoned the Yonah in favor of the more powerful William R. Smith. Locals who had heard that Union spies had captured an engineer joined the pursuers as they headed toward Adairsville. Between the two towns, the raiders had removed several portions of track and piled small loads of railroad ties in an effort to derail their adversaries. Andrews?s Raid had little chance of success. The raiders did not anticipate delays caused by southbound traffic and wood shortages that slowed their movements. They also did not expect to be actively pursued by the captured engine?s crew. After leaving Bartow County, the party ran out of fuel near Ringgold. ?They jumped off the car and took to the woods,? reported W&A superintendent John Rowland. Confederates managed to capture the raiders. ?One of them took 150 lashes . . . before he would acknowledge? his orders and the number of his men. 29 The raid had little impact upon the overall course of the Civil War. In an effort to protect the railroad from future attacks, the State Guard and many local home guard units were ordered to maintain regular patrols and encampments near the State Road?s vulnerable bridges. This action evoked the ire of some locals who resented spending much needed time away from their family and farms to patrol the railroad. Farmers bitterly complained to Governor Brown that protecting the railroad would cause their crops to fail. If northwest Georgians failed to produce a surplus of wheat and corn, what use would the railroad be? These fears, combined with drought-like conditions that in the summer of 1862 threatened to destroy much of the annual wheat crop, caused great 191 anxiety as locals shuddered to think that they would be able to feed neither themselves nor their troops. Bartow Countians increasingly feared the arrival of Federal soldiers. The enemy by late 1863 had developed a reputation among some residents as a highly courageous fighting force dedicated to restoring the Union. Julia Barnsley admired the fact that ?every time we whip the Yankees they appear only more determined to whip, subjugate, and exterminate us.? 30 When Confederate forces achieved a great victory at Fredericksburg, Godfrey Barnsley admired the tremendous amount of ?discipline? and ?courage? that the Federals displayed as they repeatedly advanced upon ground where so many before them had faltered. Such an adversary, he warned his overconfident son, should not be easily discounted when even in the throes of hopeless defeat they remained dedicated to their central purpose. 31 While serving in the 40 th Georgia Infantry Regiment, William Chunn also developed a healthy respect for the enemy. In 1861, he had bragged to his wife about the assurance of victory. Two years later, he no longer predicted such a positive outcome because, in his opinion, the enemy would never leave the Confederacy alone. At battles such as Baker?s Creek and Vicksburg, Chunn and the soldiers of the 40 th Georgia had yet to taste the fruits of victory. The regiment spent the end May, all of June, and the beginning of July 1863 trapped within the lines at Vicksburg, enduring the hardships that accompanied a prolonged siege. ?The soldier,? wrote Chunn, ?is now truly drinking the bitter dregs of war. But notwithstanding the hardships you would be surprised what degree of endurance they display and the cheerfulness they exhibit.? 32 On July 3, 1863, 192 he and 30,000 other Confederates?among them nearly one hundred Bartow Countians? surrendered to Union forces. The 40 th Georgia?s surrender and parole at Vicksburg was a critical moment in the history of the regiment?s three Bartow County companies. After receiving their parole, the regiment returned to their homes in piecemeal fashion with orders to reorganize their companies in the coming weeks. This provided soldiers with an opportunity to visit their families and a chance to avoid further military service. Despite this opening, approximately 78 percent of those parolees returned to duty reforming their companies in time to participate in the Confederate defense of Chattanooga, and another 10 percent joined other Confederate, state, and local units. The return of these men to their ranks evidenced the devotion that most still felt for the Confederacy. 33 Other Bartow County companies displayed a similar fighting resolve. Of the nearly 2,000 locals who served in the Confederate army between 1861 and 1863, only 50 deserted. Approximately 675 soldiers died in battle or from disease during that same period. Soldiers perished on battlefields scattered throughout the country from Malvern Hill to Baker?s Creek, Gettysburg to Chickamauga, and Antietam to Shiloh. An additional 150 soldiers returned home permanently disabled and physically incapable of serving in the army. Nonetheless, a sizeable number of these disabled soldiers joined local militia units, volunteered as railroad guards, or found some other means of contributing to the war effort. These numbers suggest that between 1861 and 1863 thousands of Bartow Countians remained devoted to the Confederate war effort. 34 The sole victory that the Confederacy could tout in the Western Theater prior to the start of 1864 was the Battle of Chickamauga. In the fall of 1863, the Federal Army of 193 the Cumberland penetrated northwest Georgia in pursuit of the retreating Army of Tennessee. For two days, September 19 and 20, 1863, the armies collided producing some of the bloodiest fighting seen during the war. After the timely arrival of portions of General James Longstreet?s corps from Virginia, the Confederacy held the field while the Federals hastily fled to Chattanooga. What followed sorely disappointed and unnerved Bartow Countians. With Federal troops bottled up in Chattanooga and surrounded by Confederate defenses located along Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, the Army of Tennessee appeared to be on the verge of producing a major victory that might reverse the course of the war. The Federal position, however, benefited upon the arrival of their new commander General Ulysses S. Grant and his subordinate General William T. Sherman. Under their leadership, along with the aid of 37,000 reinforcements dispatched from the Army of the Potomac and Army of the Tennessee, the situation at Chattanooga steadily improved during the fall of 1863. 35 Meanwhile, the Army of Tennessee wasted a golden opportunity to follow up their major victory largely due to infighting among the army?s high command. In an effort to resolve conflicts between Bragg and his division commanders, President Davis personally visited the army?s headquarters. The disgruntled division commanders informed Davis that they would no longer be willing to serve with Bragg and strongly urged the president to immediately replace him. After offering the command to Lt. General James Longstreet, who supposedly rejected the proposal in favor of returning to the Army of Northern Virginia, Davis was left with few viable alternatives. Longstreet recommended that Joseph Johnston be given the command, but Davis still blamed him 194 for the loss of Vicksburg. The only other option was P.G.T. Beauregard, whom Davis also disliked and who had proven to be an unreliable theater commander. Davis instead extended Bragg?s tenure as commander and reassigned many of his dissident divisional commanders. When Davis left for Richmond, the Army of Tennessee was in no better position than it had been prior to his arrival. 36 While the Army of Tennessee remained at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, Chunn eagerly anticipated an opportunity to gain a forty-day furlough. ?Just think of it,? he wrote, ?I am only about sixty miles from home.? Bragg had issued an order granting a forty day furlough to every non-commissioned officer and private who could muster in a new recruit. Chunn instructed his wife that ?if you hear of anyone willing to join the army tell them to come to the 40 th Georgia and I will liberally reward them.? 37 When three divisions of General Joseph Hooker?s corps drove three Confederate brigades from Lookout Mountain?s northern slope, Chunn?s chances for obtaining a furlough vanished. In two days, the seemingly impregnable Confederate defenses crumbled on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The routed defenders retreated southward for thirty miles toward Dalton. The situation seemed dire. General Braxton Bragg correctly assessed that the loss of Chattanooga was in part due to the demoralized state of his army. 38 Chunn?s letters to his wife reflected the low morale that plagued some soldiers serving in the Army of Tennessee. ?When I contemplate the deplorable state of our country,? he wrote a week after the fall of Chattanooga, ?the bright hopes of the future are dispelled and my mind settling down in gloom.? 39 The demoralized soldier blamed 195 the nation?s troubles on his poor relationship with God. He lamented the fact that his experience in the army had been one of repeated defeats and embarrassing setbacks. 40 William Chunn believed that the Army of Tennessee would not make a concerted stand at Dalton. On December 12, 1863, he advised his wife and family to make preparations to move to South Georgia. The soldier heard rumors swirling through the ranks that the army commanders intended to retreat to the Etowah River shortly after the New Year. Such a movement would place his home and family within enemy lines. Fearful that a retreat might permanently damage his real and personal property, he reminded his family to take their slaves with them when they fled south. Once they located a place to live, his family could then rent out as many of the slaves as possible in order to obtain cash and other supplies. 41 * * * * * * * * * * * As 1863 came to a close, the Army of Tennessee had abandoned Tennessee and portions of northwest Georgia. Their winter quarters at Dalton were located a mere forty miles from Bartow County. General Joseph E. Johnston replaced General Braxton Bragg as commander, but his appointment did nothing to relieve local anxieties. Many families were familiar with Johnston?s reputation; after the Battle of First Manassas, Godfrey Barnsley labeled Johnston as the true ?king of spades? because the commander lacked the fortitude to engage the enemy in combat. 42 Those who served with the general during the Battle of First Manassas and the Peninsula Campaign?such as the 8 th Georgia and 18 th Georgia?had experienced firsthand the commander?s willingness to surrender large 196 portions of territory without a fight. Most Bartow Countians predicted that 1864 would be their darkest hour. Between 1862 and 1863, many Bartow Countians combated symptoms associated with war weariness. Civilians worried about the physical condition of their family members in the army, while soldiers grew concerned about the impact that their prolonged absence had upon their households. Despite these concerns, war weariness never reached epidemic proportions because the ties between the home front and front lines had remained intact. Neither side completely understood what the other was going through, yet this miscommunication did not seriously undermine the Confederate war effort. Instead, a vast majority of the county?s white residents, rich and poor, remained committed to the war effort and hopeful of victory. The county?s relative internal peace evaporated during the remainder of the war as the Atlanta Campaign and the following enemy occupation tested the national loyalty of Bartow County?s white community. 197 Notes 1 Lucien Barnsley to George Barnsley, January 3, 1862, January 9, 1862, George S. Barnsley Papers, MS# 1521, Series 1, Subseries 1.3, Folder 10, SHC, UNC-CH. 2 Lila Chunn to William Chunn, January 4, 1862, Chunn-Land Family Papers, AC# 44-101, GDAH, Morrow. 4 William A. Chunn to Lila L. Chunn, March 1862, Chunn Family Papers, AC# 44-101, GDAH, Morrow. 5 This was a common antebellum practice. 6 Emma Hardin to William Hardin, September 14, 1864, William Castleberry Hardin Collection, GDAH, Morrow. 7 Delilah Land Chunn to William Augustus Chunn, March 14, 1862, Chunn Family Papers, AC# 44-101, GDAH, Morrow; Julia Barnsley to George Barnsley, June 14, 1862, George S. Barnsley Papers, Series 1.3, Folder 8, SHC, UNC-CH; Noble John Brooks to Father and Family, May 24, 1862, Confederate Reminiscences, Vol. 10, GDAH, Morrow. 8 Godfrey Barnsley to Lucien Barnsley, July 7, 1862, MS# 1521, Series 1, Subseries 1.3, Folder 10, SHC, UNC-CH. 9 Warren Akin to Joseph E. Brown, December 2, 1862, Executive Office Incoming Correspondence, Joseph E. Brown, GDAH, Morrow. 10 John F. Mihollin to Wife, January 1862, John F. Milhollin Letters [microfilm], Drawer 57:65, GDAH, Morrow. 11 Charles W. Howard to Joseph E. Brown, November 29, 1862, Executive Office Incoming Correspondence, Joseph E. Brown, GDAH, Morrow. 198 12 William Chunn to Lila Chunn, February 18, 1863, William Augustus Chunn Letters, EU, Decatur. Many of William Chunn?s letters to his wife include a description of how nice it was to see ?soldier X? receive a package from home. He frequently described the items included in that shipment, regularly ending the letter with a fleeting suggestion that his family should engage in such activities more often. Chunn seemed to feel that people on the home front were hoarding food and supplies from him and his fellow soldiers. In reality, his family had little to spare. 13 Smith, The Life of General William Tatum Wofford, 35. 14 George S. Barnsley Memoirs, MS# 1521, Series 1, Subseries 1.3, Folder 10, SHC, UNC-CH. 15 Noble John Brooks to Father and Family, May 24, 1862, Confederate Reminiscences, Vol. 20, 231, GDAH, Morrow. 16 William Chunn to Mother, November 14, 1863, Chunn Family Papers, AC# 44- 101, GDAH, Morrow. 17 Petition from Ladies of Bartow County, October 10, 1862, Cuyler Collection, Georgia Governor Papers, Joseph E. Brown, MS 1170, Box # 58, UGA. 18 Eliza Stiles to William Stiles, February 3, 1863, [microfilm], GDAH, Morrow. 19 Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 216-17. 20 Ibid.; Joseph B. Mahan Jr. ?A History of Old Cassville 1833-1864,? (MA Thesis, University of Georgia, 1950), 82; Nathan Land to William Chunn, November 17, 1863, Chunn Family Papers, AC# 44-101, Box 2:01, GDAH, Morrow. 199 21 Testimony of Sarah F. Scott, Barton County, SCC [Allowed], Claim Number 2295, 1877, NARA-ATL. 22 Charles Howard to Joseph Brown, January 1862, Executive Office Incoming Correspondence, Joseph E. Brown, GDAH, Morrow. 23 Rome Tri-Weekly Courier 5 April 1862, Special Collections, Rome Public Library. 24 Ibid. Charles Howard?s decision to recruit an infantry company attracted the private condemnation of Barnsley family members. Godfrey Barnsley, in particular, questioned Howard?s military credentials as well as his age. He also felt that Howard was too much of a dreamer to ever effectively lead a unit into battle nor demand the respect of his subordinates. Lucien and George Barnsley likewise were envious of Howard?s efforts. George had once hoped to raise a company equipped by his father?s fortune with him at command. Now he realized that his friend Jett Howard, Charles Howard?s son, might receive such an opportunity. But like his father, he falsely believed that the Howard family lacked the resourcefulness and energy necessary to raise a company. 25 Ibid. Howard was not the only local leader to encounter great difficulty in recruiting an infantry company. J. W. Goldsmith informed Governor Brown in February 1862 that he ?[found] it impossible to get men at this time to volunteer.? Some men Goldsmith encountered wanted to delay their enlistment until after the government made its final decision regarding conscription. Once men were confronted with the option of either volunteering or submitting to a policy of conscription, he speculated, would they 200 voluntarily enlist rather than face the disreputable distinction of being drafted? J. W. Goldsmith to Joseph Brown, February 10, 1862, Executive Office Incoming Correspondence, Joseph E. Brown, GDAH, Morrow. 26 Godfrey Barnsley to Lucien Barnsley, January 1863, MS# 1521, Series 1, Subseries 1.3, Folder 10, SHC, UNC-CH. 27 David Williams argues that a planter oligarchy exploited enslaved blacks and poor whites in the Chattahoochee Valley of Georgia and Alabama thereby creating a hostile class conflict that significantly contributed to Confederate defeat. His argument has been challenged by Gary Gallagher, who argues that class conflict or internal pressures did not determine the Confederacy?s fate. Mark Wetherington also argues that in the Piney Woods of Georgia, plain folk actively supported the interests of the planter class and Confederate government. David Williams, Rich Man?s War: Class, Caste, and Confederate Defeat in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998). Gary Gallagher, The Confederate War (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997). Mark Wetherington, Plain Folk?s Fight. 28 Godfrey Barnsley to Lucien Barnsley, November 2, 1862, MS# 1521, Series 1, Subseries 1.3, Folder 10, SHC, UNC-CH. 29 John S. Rowland to Joseph E. Brown, April 13, 1862, Executive Office Incoming Correspondence, Joseph E. Brown, GDAH, Morrow. 30 Julia Barnsley to Lucien Barnsley, August 3, 1862, MS# 1521, Series 1, Subseries 1.3, Folder 10, SHC, UNC-CH. 201 31 Godfrey Barnsley to Lucien Barnsley, December 27, 1862, MS# 1521, Series 1, Subseries 1.3, Folder 10, SHC, UNC-CH. 32 William A. Chunn to Lila Chunn, February 18, 1863, AC# 44-101, Box 3:1, Chunn Family Papers, GDAH, Morrow. 33 Henderson, Roster, 351-417; Database of Cass/Bartow County Soldiers Who Served in the Confederate Army or State Militia, 1861-1865. 34 Database of Cass/Bartow County Soldiers Who Served in the Confederate Army or State Militia, 1861-1865. 35 James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Ballantine Books, 1988), 675-678. 36 Ibid. 37 William A. Chunn to Lila Chunn, December 6, 1863, William Augustus Chunn Letters, 1837-1879, MSS018, Box 2:7, EU, Decatur. 38 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 681. 39 William A. Chunn to Lila Chunn, December 6, 1863, William Augustus Chunn Letters, 1837-1879, MSS018, Box 2:7, EU, Decatur. 40 Historians offer contrasting depictions of the Army of Tennessee?s morale following the loss of Chattanooga. Keith S. Bohannon argues that ?the reenlistments that took place in the Army of Tennessee in the months of January through March 1864 suggest that the majority of men retained a high level of morale and confidence in their leadership.? Mark A. Weitz, in contrast, claims that the Army of Tennessee?s morale had plunged into its deepest recesses following the debacle at Missionary Ridge. Sources are critical to understanding these varying interpretations. Whereas Bohannon uses 202 reenlistment pronouncements in conjunction with a number of soldier correspondences to construct his argument, Weitz?s use of estimated desertion figures and soldier correspondences portrays a different story. Thomas L. Connelly argued that following Missionary Ridge Confederate commanders ?exaggerated assertions of high morale in the army.? In February, the army recovered when Johnston gained the army?s ?confidence.? When placed into synthesis, their works ultimately suggest that soldiers in the Army of Tennessee held an assorted array of mixed opinions regarding the future success of their nation and army. See Keith S. Bohannon, ??Witness the Redemption of the Army?: Reenlistments in the Confederate Army of Tennessee, January-March 1864,? in Lesley J. Gordon and John C. Inscoe, eds. Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005), 111-27, quotation located on 122; Weitz, A Higher Duty. Connelly, Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862-1865, quotation located on 291. 41 William A. Chunn to Lila Chunn, December 12, 1863, Chunn Family Papers, AC# 44-101, GDAH, Morrow. 42 Critics of General Robert E. Lee, following his loss of West Virginia, referred to him as the king of spades because of his reluctance to engage the enemy in combat. Godfrey Barnsley believed that General Joseph E. Johnston lacked the fortitude to fight and preferred to retreat when confronted by the enemy. 203 CHAPTER SIX THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN The Atlanta Campaign placed an enormous amount of external pressure upon the residents of Bartow County. The line that had separated the home front from the front lines disappeared in May of 1864 as General William Tecumseh Sherman?s Federal Army and General Joseph Johnston?s Confederate Army maneuvered through the county. The Atlanta Campaign tested the loyalties of Bartow County soldiers serving in the Army of Tennessee and elsewhere. As the home front collapsed they had to decide if they should remain in the army and fight or return home to protect their families and property. Many went home, but more remained determined to continue fighting and optimistic that the course of the war might turnaround. With the Army of Tennessee in winter quarters at Dalton, the somber shadows of war began to descend upon Bartow County. ?Our poor country,? wrote Eliza Stiles, ?seems in such a deplorable condition, and men so wicked that we dare not expect the Almighty to help us.? Notably, the Confederate Army?s presence in towns such as Cartersville, Kingston, and Adairsville increased throughout the winter of 1864. Army quartermaster agents also scoured the countryside commandeering food and supplies. Confrontations between local residents and hungry Confederates created much animosity. When soldiers visited Robert Montgomery?s farm outside of Adairsville, they took 204 several bushels of corn and questioned the farmer why he had not joined the military. He claimed that he received an exemption because he worked for the railroad. The next day, the soldiers returned, intent on arresting Montgomery and forcing him into the army. As they approached his small, double-pen home, Montgomery ?narrowly escaped through a back door.? Convinced that he could no longer remain in the county, he fled to the northeast Georgia mountains in search of Unionist sympathizers. Within a few days, Montgomery found employment gathering firewood for the Federal army. 1 The close proximity of the Army of Tennessee created other problems for both Bartow County residents and the Confederate military. Foremost, the army struggled to prevent soldiers from leaving their camp at Dalton to visit their families without a furlough. Between September and December of 1863, seven members of Co. I, 40 th Georgia Infantry Regiment, deserted their ranks. Private John R. Tucks, a yeoman farmer, left the army in September, perhaps traveling home, and returned sometime prior to the Battle of Missionary Ridge. In Co. B of the 40 th Georgia, 1 st Lieutenant Edward B. Ford deserted, but then enlisted in Co. C. Baker?s Regiment Georgia Militia Cavalry. Private Charles Culver did not immediately report to his regiment following his parole at Vicksburg. Local militia captured and arrested him as a deserter sometime in the early fall. Upon his return to the army, Culver deserted and traveled to Chattanooga, Tennessee to the Federal Army where he promptly took the Oath of Allegiance. While nearly 100 soldiers deserted the ranks permanently, about 10 percent of those deserters went home for a few weeks and then unceremoniously returned to their unit or subsequently volunteered for service in a local militia company. Throughout 1864 and 1865, numerous soldiers, civilians, journalists, and casual observers commented upon the 205 large number of deserters who seemed to be roaming unconstrained in the county. Kingston Provost Marshall Captain James Baltzelle informed his superiors that there were so many deserters in the area that it would require an entire brigade to capture them. In March, pickets stationed at Hardin Bridge arrested two cavalrymen who had been reported as absent without leave from the 4 th Georgia Cavalry. The two men were attempting to cross the Etowah River in route to their home located near the small town of Euharlee. Per orders, Baltzelle dismounted the deserters, stripping them of their guns and equipment before sending them, as well as a group of about one dozen other deserters, back to the front under an armed guard. 2 Prior to the Atlanta Campaign desertion was not a major problem among Bartow County soldiers. Of the approximately 2,000 soldiers who served in the army prior to 1864, only 5 percent deserted before the Atlanta Campaign and most of those desertions occurred while the Army of Tennessee was in winter quarters in Dalton. Of the roughly 100 soldiers who deserted, 67 percent of them had joined after 1861, and 90 percent of them served in the Army of Tennessee. 3 As Provost Marshall, Baltzelle not only dealt with deserters, but also had to prevent unauthorized civilians from traveling to the front. By March of 1864, Confederate officials no longer allowed civilians to travel on the W&A to any station north of the town of Kingston. Nevertheless, many women attempted to circumvent local authorities in order to visit loved ones at Dalton. On April 15, for example, Baltzelle arrested Miss Lou Magnis and Emma Miller who had donned Confederate uniforms in an attempt to go to the front. 4 206 Deserters and Unionists only accounted for a small number of military aged white men who could be found in Bartow County in the winter of 1864. The 1864 Georgia Militia Census (also known as the Joe Brown Census) documents the number of military aged men in the county. The census enumerators identified approximately 840 white men whose ages ranged from 16 to 59 years old and lived in one of eight county militia districts. Roughly 10 percent of these men had once served in the Confederate Army, but at some point either resigned, received an exemption due to their occupation or disability, or furnished a substitute. The roll does not identify any known deserters who might have been lurking about the county or hiding out on the farms since many of them would have avoided detection. A majority of the men had received an exemption from either the Confederate or state government. James M. Broughton, age 34, received an exemption to continue his work as a millwright. Likewise, a William Wooten, age 44, remained at home working as a miller rather than fighting in the army. Three industries--the W&A Railroad, the iron works, and the saltpeter mine--accounted for approximately 67 percent of all exemptions. Occupations such as minister, wagon maker, brick mason, schoolmaster, cabinet maker, mechanic, blacksmith, and farmer also received exemptions based upon their work. Ailments such as dropsy, heart disease, myopia, tuberculosis, and arthritis earned medical exemptions and accounted for about 15 percent of the total number. The 1864 Georgia Militia Census reveals that while a large body of military age men had remained at home for significant portions of the war, most worked in occupations that contributed to the war effort or suffered from a disability that prevented them from military service. 5 207 Bartow Countians fully expected the Army of Tennessee to retreat southward during the upcoming campaign season. In late January 1864, A. J. Neal traveled through the northern portion of the county en route to Kingston. His commanding officer ordered him to locate forage for his unit?s horses. On horseback the soldier passed through what he considered to be ?the best part of Georgia.? Rich farms surrounded the road between Adairsville and Kingston. The locals seemed to be doing well. Their barns contained an ?abundance of provisions.? As Neal moved from farm to farm, he quickly learned that a majority of the population had abandoned their land seeking refuge south of Atlanta. He recorded that every resident he encountered believed that Johnston would retreat to the Etowah River by early spring. With all of the farmers gone, Neal predicted that few provisions would be ?raised about here this year.? Apparently, General William J. Hardee advised Kingston residents to remove all property south of the Etowah River. 6 William Chunn, encamped outside of Dalton along with other members of the 40 th Georgia, likewise warned his father-in-law that once the weather improved and campaign season began that General Joseph E. Johnston would execute a planned retreat to the Allatoona Mountain range. Citizens reacted to such news by leaving Bartow for points south. In January, Cassville attorney and Confederate congressman Warren Akin relocated his family to Oxford, Georgia. Unable to find a suitable residence in Oxford, the Akins moved again, this time to live with family members in Elberton, Georgia. Godfrey Barnsley wrote that ?most of the wealthier families have either left or are about leaving, under the belief that the army will fall back here long.? In March, Rebecca Felton finally convinced her husband to abandon their Cartersville home in favor of Macon. 7 208 While many Bartow Countians sought refuge, others remained at home. Godfrey Barnsley notably refused to abandon Woodlands because he feared that Confederate and Union soldiers, as well as the irregular bands of deserters who roamed the area, might ransack his beloved estate. He and an Irish housemaid Mary Quinn remained at Woodlands even after his recently married daughter Julia and grandson Forrest Reid traveled to Savannah. The Howard family also refused to abandon Spring Bank. During the winter, Captain Charles W. Howard of the 63 rd Georgia Infantry Regiment tried to convince his family and the Barnsleys to move southward. During the previous year, Susan Howard had seen the poor living conditions that confronted most refugees. The captain returned to Dalton fearful of what might happen to his family. 8 Many Unionists stayed, assured that the arrival of Federal soldiers would afford them some protection from their pro-Confederate neighbors. Unionists had lived in the county since the beginning of the war, but the proximity of blue clad soldiers made some more willing to openly express their views. Prior to 1864, they had good reason to stay quite. James McGee, for example, had moved to Bartow County in 1860 after purchasing a hotel and boarding house located in Kingston. When the outsider allowed a Massachusetts-born physician to rent a room after every other establishment in the county had refused to accept the doctor?s money, McGee?s neighbors accused him of being a Yankee. For almost four years, locals harassed McGee breaking windows, stealing items from his storehouse, and chasing away potential customers. As Kingston residents fled southward to escape the Federal Army, the entrepreneur felt a sense of temporary relief. 209 He hoped that any invading army would offer him some degree of protection from hostile rebel sympathizers. 9 William Collins meanwhile remained in Bartow County in anticipation of receiving a visit from his brother, Dossius M. Collins, who had joined a Union regiment organized in east Tennessee that now served in General William T. Sherman?s command. The Adairsville area farmer had passed through both the Confederate and Union lines at Dalton visiting his brother on several occasions. As spring approached, Collins continued his normal farm work and never seriously considered abandoning his home. When several local slaveowners sought refuge elsewhere and needed a place to keep their domestic slaves, the farmer volunteered to supervise them during their master?s absence. Collins opposed slavery and knew that once the Federals arrived, the slaves would be freed. 10 Slaveholders like the ones who left their slaves with Collins encountered the additional burden of caring for slaves in an unfamiliar setting. The Rome Tri-Weekly Courier published numerous advertisements during the winter of 1864 placed by local slaveholders attempting to hire out their slaves or sell them. With the enemy so close, the local slave market virtually collapsed as prices and demand declined sharply. Likewise, Warren Akin?s efforts to hire out his slaves prior to leaving Bartow County failed. Rather than abandon his property, he, like many slaveholders, took them with him. Feeding, clothing, and finding shelter for as many as fourteen slaves proved to be too much of a burden for the Akin family. Unable to endure these hardships, the Confederate congressmen agreed to hire out several slaves to local farmers and businessmen at rates that were far below their antebellum market value. 11 210 Despite the fact that many white residents believed that Johnston would retreat to the defenses around Atlanta without fighting, most, and especially women, remained active supporters of the Confederate war effort. For those who remained, there were few idle moments. Many women spent nearly every second of daylight dutifully working on endeavors that directly benefited the Confederate war effort. Those who lived within walking distance of one of the county?s hospitals frequently spent their early morning hours milking cows and gathering eggs. In the afternoon, they walked miles in order to personally deliver the much needed provisions. As Anne Elizabeth Johnson recalled, ?there were no idle hands. . . . [Women gave what] their limited storehouse could furnish, as the times were growing harder and harder.? Once a woman delivered the provisions, she typically remained at the hospital for hours nursing wounded soldiers. Many had fathers, husbands, and sons fighting in the Confederate army. They developed caring relationships with many of the soldiers. Physically exhausted from continued labor, the woes of these women were frequently compounded by news about their loved ones who had perished in battle or upon discovering that one of their convalescing soldiers had perished. As Johnson remembered, these were sad times when women needed to stay occupied with other matters in order to avoid being overcome by fear and sadness. 12 ?Some of the most tragic episodes of my life,? recalled Rebecca L. Felton, ?happened in trying to relieve the distress of the time.? 13 Day and night, citizens of Kingston worked feverishly to sustain the war effort. The Confederacy impressed the local grist mill from its private owner, Erastus V. Johnson. Livestock herds brought southward from Kentucky and Tennessee filled the town?s streets. Cattle grazed on local farms and forests until fattened enough for 211 slaughter. At night, women carded wool and cotton to prepare clothing for their loved ones, refugees, and convalescing soldiers. 14 Some Bartow Countians also attempted to carry on with business as usual. On March 21, Nathan Land confessed to his son-in-law that his spirits had reached an all- time low. The events that troubled Chunn had nothing to do with the proximity of the Union Army. Chunn believed that he deserved ?capital punishment? for passing on a lucrative land deal a few weeks earlier. A ?Mr. Dukes? offered to sell his 480 acre farm land for $15,000. Another party offered him $900 in gold and $2,000 in Confederate money for his residence. Land reasoned that he ?could have sold the gold for 26 to 1 which would have been $23,400 and the $2,000 McMurray would have given would have given me $25,400 for my place.? Had Land agreed to sell, in other words, he might have profited over $10,000 during the transaction. Why did he hesitate? He believed that the enemy would easily pass through the area and eventually capture Atlanta. Such a defeat would spell disaster for the Confederate nation, thereby reducing the value of its currency if not completely ceasing its exchange. ?I am more anxious now,? wrote Land to his dear friend, ?for the war to end than ever, I want to go to Texas or some other country where I can have new views and different feelings from what I can ever have here.? Land hoped for a Confederate defeat as the Union army began pushing southward. 15 When he received his father-in-law?s letter, William Chunn replied with an extended response that attempted simultaneously to encapsulate the condition and morale of the Army of Tennessee and dismiss some of Nathan Land?s dire predictions: Everything now is remarkably quiet along the lines but this is ominous. It is but the lull of a gathering storm that pauses before it snaps the earth with all its fury. It is but 212 the premonition of the viper, before it gives the fatal stroke. This part of the country will not long be blessed with quiet but in less than one month it will be theatre upon which will be acted the strategic scenes of a young nation struggling for independence. He further informed his father-in-law that the Confederate cause was not a ?desperate? one. The soldiers in his company understood ?the importance of stubborn resistance and realized the meaning of subjugation.? The soldier admitted that the Army of Tennessee had recently experienced a number of ?disgraceful? reverses but reported that the ?spirit of our soldiers was never so buoyant as it is now.? 16 William Chunn?s letter correctly assessed the ramifications of the impending campaign. He understood that, in November, northern voters would go to the polls to elect a president. If the Army of Tennessee could reverse the Federals and push them out of Georgia and back into Tennessee, Chunn predicted that northerners would become tired of the war and elect a ?conservative? candidate in lieu of Abraham Lincoln. ?The manner [in which] the campaign is conducted,? he wrote, ?will determine the election of the next president of the United States.? Realizing that his father-in-law had expressed doubts as to whether or not it would matter who served as president, he emphasized that ?we have nothing to fear as there is no party that can put forward a worse man in every sense of the word than Abraham Lincoln.? But if Atlanta fell before the enemy, so too would the hopes of the Confederacy. Chunn expected the Union Army to launch a series of frontal assaults upon the Army of Tennessee?s prepared defenses. He did not worry about Sherman flanking those lines, for he incorrectly assumed that the Federal Army would suffer from a dire lack of provisions once they separated themselves from the W&A. A student of world history, 213 Chunn finally compared the upcoming campaign to Napoleon Bonaparte?s 1812 invasion of Russia, with Atlanta becoming the Confederate Moscow. He neglected to add that prior to their defeat the French had occupied and destroyed much of that city. Braxton Bragg?s removal from command and Joseph E. Johnston?s arrival brightened Chunn?s hopes that the Army of Tennessee might be victorious on the field of battle. For as much as the men of the 40 th Georgia despised Bragg, they adored Johnston. A skilled quartermaster, the new commander fed, clothed, and housed his army better than any of his predecessors. ?I have of late,? wrote Chunn, ?had an instinctive impression that the time for the beginning of our success is at hand. God grant that it may be.? Johnston, according to the soldier, would be the difference. He would not yield valuable territory to the enemy without a fight. Johnston would never allow Sherman to outflank him without going on the offensive. The Virginian would always keep his army better supplied than his opponent. When Nathan Land told his son-in-law that he was considering seeking a refuge south of Atlanta, his son-in-law chided him declaring that the Confederate army would not ?yield another inch of territory.? Chunn?s confidence in Johnston did not reassure either his father-in-law or many other Bartow Countians familiar with the commander?s lackluster military record. Certain that his son-in-law was wrong, Nathan Land fled to Brooks County prior to the beginning of the Atlanta Campaign and promptly sold all of his slaves. 17 * * * * * * * * * * * * 214 On May 5, 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant received a telegraph from General William T. Sherman informing him that the latter would, as ordered, take to the offensive tomorrow. ?Everything is quiet with the enemy,? wrote Sherman, ?Johnston evidently awaits my initiative. I will first secure the Tunnel Hill, then throw Major General James B. McPherson?s Army of the Tennessee rapidly on his communications, attacking at the same time in front cautiously and in force.? 18 Thus began the Atlanta Campaign. Unwilling to attack the Confederates? fortified position at Rocky Face Ridge, Sherman ordered the Army of the Tennessee to swing around Johnston?s left through undefended Snake Creek Gap. This action forced the Army of Tennessee to abandon their fortifications and retreat ten miles south to the small town of Resaca. There Sherman spent three days probing Johnston?s lines, searching for a nonexistent weakness. On May 14 and 15, he launched several frontal attacks against the Confederate lines while the Army of the Tennessee again outflanked Johnston?s defensive position. When McPherson?s army crossed the Oostanaula River, the Army of Tennessee retreated along the W&A, moving through Calhoun and entering Bartow County. 19 While moving southward toward Adairsville, Joseph E. Johnston debated his options. He could have launched an attack on the divided Union army, but as indicated by Major William H. Stiles, ?both man & beast? were ?broken down? from the previous week?s movements. The Army of Tennessee could have moved into Alabama, forcing Sherman to choose whether to pursue the army or to advance on Atlanta. This plan lacked the support of the Confederate government, however, which wanted its principal manufacturing and rail center to be defended at all costs. Johnston instead planned to retreat slowly waiting for an opportunity to strike a divided portion of Sherman?s army. 215 The Confederates then retreated seven miles farther to Adairsville, hopeful that reports of a narrow valley with high flanking ridges located outside that town held true. The Army of Tennessee won a foot race to Adairsville, which enabled them to improve their defensive position. Johnston discovered upon his arrival that his maps had been incorrect. The valley proved too wide for the front of his army. Reinforcements significantly increased his strength, that ordinarily might have enabled the commander to hold it, but scouts informed him the Federal units had flanked the town to the east and the west thereby threatening his rear. Again, Johnston decided to retreat. The heading of a letter written by an Alabama soldier, ?on the skeddadle,? thus summarized the Army of Tennessee?s actions during the first weeks of the campaign. The constant flanking maneuvers of the enemy frustrated Confederate soldiers. One wrote, ?it is generally believed that we got the best of the fight ?that is? we killed more of the enemy than we lost.? To have faced the enemy and hold the field only to subsequently retreat disheartened soldiers who had placed such confidence in Johnston?s command. 20 At 6:00 P. M. on May 17, Johnston and his corps commanders?John B. Hood, William J. Hardee, and Leonidas Polk?met to debate the Army of Tennessee?s next move. Initially, Johnston proposed moving the entire army southeast eleven miles to Cassville. The road proved to be too narrow to efficiently transport an entire army. At this point in the discussion, Hardee recommended that the army not retreat and instead make a stand at Adairsville. Johnston rejected his proposal in lieu of diverting his retreating army along two separate roads, one leading to Kingston?a distance of seven miles?and the other heading toward Cassville. 216 Using two roads resolved two of Johnston?s problems. An army moving along two roads could retreat at a much faster pace and without the risk of being overtaken by their Federal pursuers. Moreover, the multiple roads provided Johnston with an opportunity to set a trap for the enemy, much like Robert E. Lee had done during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Facing a numerically superior foe, ?Old Joe? boldly divided his army and dispatched the two disproportionate halves in separate directions. He hoped that by sending Hardee and his cavalry down the Kingston road and the rest of his army toward Cassville, Sherman too would split his forces in order to maintain the pursuit. Hardee?s orders were to march to Kingston and then to head immediately east to rendezvous with the main army at Cassville. Once the Army of Tennessee reformed at Cassville, Johnston proposed to pounce upon the portion of the divided Union Army moving along the Cassville road before those at Kingston could arrive in time to support the fight. In order for Johnston?s plan to work, the enemy would have to divide its forces while his divided force moved swiftly toward their prescribed destinations. Any delay might jeopardize the plan, leaving a part of the Confederate Army vulnerable to attack. After the conference concluded, Polk baptized Johnston upon the commander?s request. 21 Meanwhile, Sam Watkins and other soldiers of Company H, 1 st Tennessee Infantry Regiment helped slow the Federal advance with a well-fought rear guard action. On the evening of May 17, Watkins had begun collecting firewood to cook their supper when quite unexpectedly, a large mass of cavalry hurried past him. A cavalryman informed Watkins that the ?Yankees? were coming. Soon thereafter, the company received orders to occupy a nearby octagon-shaped house that could be used as a temporary fort to impede Federal progress. By the time the Confederates reached the 217 cement-walled dwelling portions of Brigadier General John Newton?s 2 nd Division, 4 th Corps, Army of the Cumberland were in plain view, only a few hundred yards distant. Once inside, men stationed themselves at every available window firing their rifles as fast as possible toward the oncoming skirmishers. The Rebels, convinced that they would not survive this fight, began to sing in unison. As their ammunition ran low, three soldiers raced outside of the Octagon house to retrieve some ammunition. Around midnight, reinforcements arrived as the fighting lessened. During the early morning hours of May 18, the Confederates abandoned the Octagon House and hurriedly rejoined their retreating comrades along the Kingston road. Colonel Francis Sherman?s 88 th Illinois Infantry Regiment suffered 167 casualties. All in all, the Federals suffered about 400 casualties in skirmishes fought around Adairsville. 22 Marcus Woodcock, a ?Southern Boy in Blue? serving in the 9 th Kentucky Infantry Regiment, entered Adairsville on the morning of May 18. Union soldiers had been told by their commanders and newspapers that northwest Georgia contained vast farms and bustling towns that helped sustain the Confederate war effort. While marching from Dalton to Resaca and then toward Adairsville, Woodcock had seen little that matched such descriptions. Had it not been for a number of soldiers in his regiment who had visited Savannah and other locales throughout the state, he wrote, he would have held the opinion that ?Georgia ain?t much.? 23 There, Woodcock met a ten-year-old boy who appeared to be unafraid of the invading Federals. He asked the boy if any Unionists lived in the area. The boy responded that there were ?union men? in the town, but few of them dared express their political beliefs. Upon further questioning, the child revealed that 218 local Confederates threatened Unionists with physical violence. In fact, just days prior to the Federal occupation, local secessionists had publicly hanged two Unionists. 24 Sherman meanwhile believed that the entire Army of Tennessee had retreated southward along the Kingston road, which ran parallel to the W&A. During the early morning hours of May 18, a domestic slave burst into the bedchamber of Susan Howard as the Confederate Army passed through Spring Bank in route to Kingston. Alarmed by the news, Howard awoke her slumbering daughters. Once dressed, the women ran to the estate?s upper gate, which opened onto the Kingston road. Initially, fog prevented the women from seeing the flow of butternut clad soldiers. When the morning sun rose through the early haze, it unveiled an astounding procession. 25 A sense of joy overcame Susan Howard when she realized that the soldiers belonged to Lieutenant General William Hardee?s Corps. Her husband Charles and son Jett served in the corps along with several dozen Bartow Countians who comprised Co. I, 63 rd Georgia Infantry Regiment. This regiment only recently had joined the Army of Tennessee after being reassigned from their post in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, where it had defended the coastline in the vicinity of Savannah. As the Howard women began questioning passing soldiers about the whereabouts of the 63 rd Georgia, Lieutenant Jett Howard appeared and told them that his father would meet them at Spring Bank?s lower gate. When Susan arrived at the gate, a barely recognizable figure stood waiting. Charles warned his family that within a few hours the enemy would arrive. If they acted fast, they might be able to save the family?s large livestock holdings from being stolen. Time was short. After a brief conversation and a hug and kiss 219 goodbye, the elder captain rejoined his company, knowing that soon his family and home would be overtaken by the Federals. 26 That morning, a well-executed rear guard action slowed the Federal advance from along the Kingston road, as Major General Joseph Wheeler?s cavalry ensured that Brigadier General John Newton?s division did not overtake Hardee?s withdrawal. The Alabama cavalryman obstructed the Federal?s path by felling trees along the Kingston road. As enemy skirmishers approached the logs, small detachments of dismounted cavalrymen, infantry, and an artillery battery opened fire behind the safety of their temporary stronghold. Skirmishers lacked the firepower to dislodge the well-protected Confederates. The Federals then lost valuable time sending artillery to the front to oust the defenders. Once it arrived, the Confederate rear guard retreated several hundred yards to their next prepared breastwork. Wheeler?s efforts thus prevented the IV and XIV Corps from reaching Kingston until 5:00 A.M. May 19, well after Hardee?s Corps had safely passed through the town. 27 Sometime before noon on May 18, 1864, skirmishers detached from four companies of the 17 th Indiana Cavalry reached Spring Bank. Major Jacob Vail had orders to cut the telegraph wire near Kingston. While most of Hardee?s Corps had already moved through Kingston, Samuel Ferguson?s cavalry remained at Spring Bank, determined to hamper the enemy?s progress. Confederates installed a battery atop a small hill located directly across from the W&A and Spring Bank?s upper gate while dismounted cavalrymen formed on the lawn. As soon as Vail?s advance units appeared along the crest of the road, the battery opened fire, scattering the enemy into a roadside thicket. The 17 th Indiana Cavalry reached the railroad?located directly in front of the 220 enemy battery?where they successfully cut the telegraph wire. Having achieved their mission, the unit slowly retreated toward Woodlands where they rendezvoused with Brigadier General Kenner Garrard?s 2 nd Cavalry Division. 28 While the 17 th Indiana Cavalry fell back, seven companies from the 4 th Michigan Cavalry, Colonel Robert H. G. Minty?s brigade, received orders from Garrard ?to proceed? toward Kingston ?as far as he could, and drive everything before him.? 29 Sherman?s horsemen managed to get within a mile of the town before encountering the Confederate rear guard. Ferguson had anticipated that Federal commanders would send reconnaissance units toward Kingston. He accordingly stationed his soldiers along both sides of the Kingston road, using the forest for cover, and behind an improvised breastwork that blocked the enemy?s path. When the men of the 4 th Michigan Cavalry encountered the well-protected Confederates, they quickly realized that they were outgunned and outnumbered. Sergeant Albert Potter, Co. B, described the scene: ?I had my men deployed as skirmishers on the left on a hill our attention all directed to the front when a regiment of rebels came charging around to my left and rear. Yelling like incarnate fiends.? 30 The Confederates had outflanked and ?nearly surrounded? the 4th Michigan. Lieutenant Colonel J. B. Park ordered companies F and L, under the command of Major Richard Robbins, to charge in order to break through the rebel lines. Robbins?s men crashed into the Confederate cavalry pushing them back 200 yards. This enabled the remainder of the 4 th Michigan to fall back and reform their lines. After an exhausting push, Robbins?s men slowly fell back; however, as the enemy cavalry reformed and again advanced, companies F and L, without orders, again charged into the rebel lines, again 221 forcing them to retreat. For five miles, the 4 th Michigan rapidly formed their lines, fired a single volley, and then retired several hundred yards, only to repeat the entire process. When the retreating Federals reached Woodlands, their numerical deficiencies disappeared as they rejoined their division. During the five mile retreat, their regiment suffered 25 casualties. 31 At Woodlands, Godfrey Barnsley had spent the morning listening to Federal artillery dislodging Wheeler?s rear guard along the Kingston road. Hoping to convince the enemy that he was a neutral British citizen innocently caught in the midst of a foreign rebellion, he raised a prodigious British flag over his mansion. Barnsley?s efforts to proclaim his neutrality, however, were quickly spoiled when Colonel John T. Wilder?s scouts spotted the Englishman talking to a group of Confederate cavalry officers and offering them spring water. 32 By mid-afternoon, Confederate and Federal armies surrounded the entire estate. As Confederate cavalry pursued the 4 th Michigan, they slammed into Garrard?s 2 nd Division, Cavalry Corps, which had arrived at Woodlands around noon. Along the lower valley situated west of the main house, remnants of two Confederate cavalry brigades fought a prolonged action against a vastly numerically superior foe. The Confederates managed to capture 135 prisoners and kill approximately twenty-eight enemy soldiers. Outnumbered and without artillery support or possible reinforcements, the Confederates withdrew from Woodlands southward toward Kingston. 33 During the fight, Colonel Richard Earle of the 2 nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment attempted to warn the Barnsley family to seek shelter in the wine cellar. While returning to his unit from the mansion, the colonel encountered Federal soldiers who were pushing 222 toward the Confederate lines. Unable to flee the pursing enemy, Earle stood his ground. After an intense period of hand-to-hand combat, during which time the officer was apparently shot several times, the Alabamian died at the hands of his enemy. The following day, Barnsley received permission from Union commanders to bury the fallen colonel. 34 Army of the Tennessee commander Major General James B. McPherson arrived at Woodlands shortly after the skirmish ended. He promptly met with Barnsley and guaranteed him that his home would not be disturbed. That night, according to Coker, ?McPherson rested quietly in the cottage on Godfrey Barnsley?s prominent hill.? While the general slept, Federal soldiers broke into the Englishman?s wine cellar and stole more than 2,000 bottles of wine, brandy, and whiskey. Others stripped the upper kitchen bare, stealing food, utensils, and imported china. Soldiers indeed took everything from Woodlands? nine cellars except several barrels of rice. ?If you ever have any friends about to fall into [enemy] hands,? advised Jane Howard, ?advise them to lay in a stock of rice, for a Yankee cannot be induced to touch it.? While Barnsley suffered a tremendous loss of property, by remaining at his home, his estate escaped catastrophic damage. 35 While events at Woodlands unfolded, the Confederates evacuated Rome. On May 17, 1864, Brevet Major General Jefferson C. Davis?s 2 nd Division, XIV Corps, exceeded a series of orders issued by Major General George H. Thomas, commander of the Army of the Cumberland, when the division attacked Rome. Ordinarily, a division might have easily overtaken the city?s small garrison, but on that day, three brigades? two infantry, one cavalry?sent to reinforce Johnston from Polk?s command in Mississippi were filing through the city when Davis attacked. Brigadier General Sul 223 Ross?s brigade of Texas cavalry staved off Davis?s attack, while the remaining Confederates prepared the city?s evacuation. The last train left the depot destined for Kingston loaded with munitions, soldiers, and civilians an hour before fleeing rebels burnt the bridges over the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers. Rome?s loss hindered the Confederate war effort because it housed the Noble & Co. Ironworks and Machine Shop. Federal soldiers entering the city discovered that the facility had been left behind entirely intact and operational. 36 On the night of May 18, 1864, the women of Spring Bank hurriedly prepared for another visit from Union soldiers. After the skirmish at Woodlands, several Confederate cavalrymen fell back to the Howard residence, a distance of approximately four miles. The Howard women welcomed the soldiers, who helped them carry most of their home?s furniture and valuables upstairs in exchange for some food. Early the next morning, most of the Confederates left the area, but three pickets remained behind stationed on a hill overlooking Spring Bank. Another dense morning fog created limited visibility as the pickets and women could not see the approaching Federal lines a mere fifty yards away. Aware of the pickets? presence, Sarah and Francis Howard brought them breakfast. The group sat atop the hill listening to the echoing conversation of some nearby Federals. When Sarah Howard overheard an enemy soldier?s plans to kill one of the family?s roosters, she exclaimed, ?no they won?t? before rushing down the hill toward a fence upon which a white rooster had perched itself. As she snatched the rooster, one of the pickets yelled ?Run, run! The Yanks have heard you.? Hurrying toward the house, Howard watched as the pickets mounted their horses and fled while dodging a hailstorm of bullets unleashed by the nearby enemy. 37 224 Within a few minutes, Major General Oliver Howard, along with his staff and escort, rode up to Spring Bank, eager to question the women about the Confederacy?s movements. He asked them to estimate how many Confederate soldiers had passed their home yesterday. The women evaded his questions, acting as if they knew nothing. Their efforts annoyed the general. Frustrated, he stormed out of the home?s veranda while exclaiming ?Madam, when you meet a gentleman, treat him as such!? 38 Following Howard?s hasty departure, Union soldiers invested Spring Bank. The women remained indoors, Francis and Jane Howard staying downstairs hopeful of preventing the soldiers from entering the house, while their mother and sisters hid in an adjoining bedroom. Encountering a soldier allegedly making inappropriate facial gestures through a parlor window pane, Francis fled into the bedroom seeking comfort from her mother. At that moment the women heard the loud ?crash of a falling door.? A mob of soldiers had entered the kitchen. As the women sat silently listening for any sign of their movement, they heard the ?tramp of many feet running across the laundry floor? as yet another door came crashing down as the men moved through the home. The frightened women fled to an upstairs bedroom locking the door behind them as ?each was nerving herself for the coming storm.? ?Yankees? filled all of the upstairs rooms breaking glass lamps, windows, and carrying off any item of value. ?At last there was a pause, followed by a tremendous blow upon our door, which instantly flew open.? A group of soldiers entered the room eyeing the women. Fortunately, a lieutenant arrived soon thereafter who ordered the soldiers to exit the home. When one soldier refused, the officer lifted him by his collar and kicked him down a flight of stairs. Slowly, the 225 soldiers abandoned the home, leaving behind the Howard women and a path of destruction. Federal soldiers ransacked Spring Bank, stripping the home of almost every item light enough to carry. A trail of ?valuable old books in all stages of mutilation? stretched from the family?s library out into the front yard. The mob placed six bonnets?heirlooms from the family?s ancestors?into a batch of lard. Men smeared lampblack on the doors, windows, and walls. One soldier fled from the house carrying a beaver hat and its decorative case. In his effort to elude both the women and his commanding officers, the thief stumbled over a stone wall face first onto the ground causing his nose to bleed profusely. While the Howard women lamented the loss of their treasured valuables and the damage done to their beloved home, they were thankful to have escaped their ordeal physically unscathed. 39 The Howard women were not the only women to be accosted by Federal soldiers. At Woodlands, Godfrey Barnsley?s Irish housemaid Mary Quinn endured a trying encounter with the enemy. A soldier approached Barnsley on the evening that McPherson?s Corps arrived at his estate and asked the Englishman for the time. When he pulled a gold pocket watch from his coat, the soldier snatched the watch from his hand and fled toward the basement. Quinn pursued the soldier. When the maid demanded the soldier return the watch, he threatened to burn down the home. The soldier proceeded to pick up a shovel full of smoldering coals from the basement furnace with the intent of scattering them across the upstairs carpets. When the Irish woman blocked his path, the soldier, according to Quinn, ?jist slung me back agin the wall so hard it knocked ivery bit o?breath out o? me body.? Heading upstairs, the soldier began spreading the coals as 226 Quinn regained her strength to stand up to the enemy. As she grabbed his coat, the soldier spun around grasping his revolver and struck the maid in the chest with the gun?s stock. In retaliation, the dazed maid clawed the soldier?s face with her long nails. ?He sqaled like a pig,? she reported, ?an? called me a shedivil, an? ran clane out o? the house.? 40 While scores of Federals stole private property and made threats toward civilians, a number of officers made a concerted effort to prevent and recoup these losses. Soon after the initial group of Union soldiers left Spring Bank, a ?Lieutenant Randolph? promised Susan Howard that he would help recover their stolen valuables once she provided him with a list of the missing items. True to his word, the officer returned the following day with a wagon filled with the family?s articles. Mary Quinn had a similar experience when dealing with Federal officers. After Barnsley?s watch was stolen, she traveled to McPherson?s headquarters, intent on locating the thief and recovering the item. During the melee between her and the soldier, the attacker had dropped a letter revealing to Quinn the name of his infantry unit. McPherson apologized for his soldier?s poor behavior and immediately sent for the company so that she could identify her assailant. The soldier?s scarred faced singled him out. Once the thief returned the watch, McPherson asked Quinn if he should execute the soldier. The woman declined because she did not want his blood to stain her hands. As a punishment, the general ordered the soldier to be removed from the unit and sent to Chattanooga in ball and chains where he would serve a period of hard labor digging trenches around that city. 41 As the Army of Tennessee meanwhile converged upon Cassville, the overwhelmingly majority of the town?s remaining population evacuated. Some residents 227 lacked a place to go. Many hid in the woods for several days while the armies passed. Lila Chunn and her family barely escaped. On the morning of May 18, she along with her mother-in-law and two small children boarded an Atlanta bound train. When the family arrived in Atlanta, they encountered numerous other Cassville and Bartow County families huddled at the train depot awaiting transport further South: ?Atlanta was perfectly thronged with people and they all panic stricken, everything was fuss and confusion.? 42 She, like most refugees, moved several times before returning to Bartow County. The Chunn family eventually moved in with family in Coweta County. 43 While Bartow County civilians endured the hardships of being left in the wake of their retreating army, the Army of Tennessee committed a series of blunders that further compromised the county?s security. Internal squabbles among their general commanders created missed opportunities for the army to take the offensive and repel the invaders. By the morning of May 19, 1864, the Army of Tennessee had abandoned the towns of Adairsville and Kingston, as well as the city of Rome, to the enemy. The weather proved ?painful[ly] hot through the day? exhausting soldiers who marched as much as eight miles. 44 With most of the army now amassed slightly west of the county seat, Cassville, in a defensive line stretching from the southwest of Cass Station to a position northeast of the town cemetery, Johnston grew determined to fight. At dawn, the commander issued a general order proclaiming his resolve. Soldiers of the Army of Tennessee you have displayed the highest quality of the soldier-firmness in combat, patience under toil. By your courage and skill you have repulsed every assault of the enemy. By marches by day and marches by night you have defeated every attempt upon your communications. Your communications are secured. 228 You will now turn and march to meet his advancing columns. Fully confiding in the conduct of the officers, the courage of the soldiers, I lead you to battle. We may confidently trust that the Almighty Father will still reward the patriots? toils and bless the patriots? banners. Cheered by the success of our brothers in Virginia and beyond the Mississippi, our efforts will equal theirs. Strengthened by His support, those efforts will be crowned with the like glories. Johnston?s general order temporarily bolstered his army?s morale as the men anticipated a fight. ?I never saw our troops happier or more certain of success,? recalled Sam Watkins, ?a sort of grand halo illuminated every soldier?s face.? 45 The Battle of Cassville never happened. What could have been one of the largest collisions in the western theater turned into yet another retreat. On May 19, after receiving permission from Johnston to probe for Union forces along Marsteller?s Mill road, Major General John B. Hood, at the head of his corps, encountered Brigadier General Edward McCook and Major General George Stoneman?s Federal cavalry moving westward along the Canton road. Hood could no longer advance toward Sallacoa with the enemy operating in his rear. After briefly skirmishing the enemy, Hood fell back to Cassville. McCook and Stoneman unknowingly saved the Federal lines from a potentially devastating attack. 46 When Hood returned to Cassville, the Army of Tennessee lost its best opportunity to strike Sherman?s divided army. With each passing hour during the morning of May 19, the severed armies congregated around the county seat. Sherman assumed that Johnston had already retreated from this position. The commander ordered Major General David Stanley?s 1 st Division, IV Corps, to move toward the town expecting to find it abandoned. Instead, after ?severe skirmishing? along the Cassville road, Colonel 229 William Grose?s 3 rd Brigade encountered Hardee?s Corps drawn into three battle lines west of the town. 47 The Confederates attacked, then withdrew. Constant withdrawals frustrated soldiers such as Watkins who wanted to engage the enemy in battle and to stop retreating. Hardee?s slow withdrawal, however, played a critical role in Johnston?s new plan. Unable to pounce upon an isolated segment of the Federal army, Johnston retreated to a position east of his original lines, intent upon drawing Sherman into battle against a prepared position along a ridge overlooking Cassville. Had the Federals launched a series of frontal assaults on those lines, the results might have resembled those of Fredericksburg. The attack never occurred because, by the next morning, May 20, the Army of Tennessee had retreated. Johnston?s three mile defensive line proved vulnerable to Federal artillery fire. By the late afternoon of May 19, the Federal lines?XIV, IV, and XX Corps from right to left?had deployed in a position near the Army of Tennessee?s original breastworks. The town of Cassville literally rested between the XX Corps and Hood?s Corps. In an effort to provide cover for his advancing infantry, Sherman ordered an artillery barrage upon the Confederate center and right flank. The first proved devastating to Hood?s Corps. Fire directly landed upon his lines scattering the men and preventing any Confederate battery from silencing the enemy?s guns. The 1 st Ohio Light Artillery took a position atop a small hill located next to the Cassville Female Seminary. From this vantage point, they enfiladed Hood?s exposed position. 48 As night descended upon the two armies, the situation from both Polk and Hood?s vantage point seemed dire. If their corps remained in this defensive position, then at morning?s first light the Union artillery?that would have been significantly strengthened 230 during the night?would resume their fire and decimate their ranks. Around 9:00 P. M., Johnston, Hood, Polk, French, and Captain Walter Morris?Polk?s Chief Engineer?met at the bishop?s headquarters located at the McKelvey house. Polk and Hood, along with Morris, urged Johnston to reconsider the army?s current position. The commander initially resisted any recommendation to retreat or to reform his lines. Just that morning, Johnston had told his soldiers that they would stand and fight the enemy at Cassville. Approximately seventeen hours later, he stood at the McKelvey House and listened as two of his corps commanders advocated abandoning their current lines. Hood offered Johnston an opportunity to stay and fight but rather than be on the defensive, he recommended that, at daybreak, the army conduct a flanking maneuver along the enemy?s left that would disable their artillery. Polk hesitantly agreed with Hood?s recommendation. After listening to Hood and Polk for several hours, Johnston decided to retreat southward toward Allatoona Pass?s impregnable defenses. His decision has been the subject of an intense amount of scrutiny from ex-Confederate commanders, politicians, and historians. Who was to blame for the Confederate retreat at Cassville? During the postwar period, Johnston and Hood waged a bitterly contested battle concerning their meeting at the McKelvey house. Each blamed the other for the retreat. Polk?s death shortly after the meeting robbed historians of his account of what occurred. French?s account of what transpired exists, but its credibility was compromised both by his postwar disdain for Hood as well as the fact that he left the meeting prior to its final conclusion. 231 Rather than cast blame upon Johnston and Hood for the debacle at Cassville, it would be more useful to recognize the achievements of Sherman and his commanders. Johnston?s original plan to strike an isolated portion of the Federal Army went asunder once segments of cavalry threatened Hood?s rear. The movement of these units was timely and their encounter with the enemy accidental. Nevertheless, their presence possibly saved the Union left while staving off the impending Battle of Cassville. Later that same day, Hood and Polk advised Johnston to either engage the enemy or retreat. Johnston chose to retreat because, prior to arriving at the McKelvey House, he had received a report from his cavalry that portions of Sherman?s army had crossed the Etowah at Wooley?s Bridge and were in position to potentially cut-off his supply line. Had Johnston insisted on following through with his initial intention of fighting at Cassville, his action would have jeopardized his vital connection with the W&A and would have placed an enemy force between himself and the city of Atlanta. Nothing guaranteed that an offensive assault upon a unified and significantly larger Federal Army would have wielded any positive results. Had Hood?s flanking movement failed, Sherman could have moved virtually uncontested toward Atlanta preventing the Confederates from arriving first and defending its prepared fortifications. The situation at Cassville proved to be a dual-edged sword. Johnston simply decided to accept the duller of the two blades. By maintaining his Fabian tactics, Johnston sustained his army and lived to fight another day. 49 When Sergeant Rice Bull, 123 rd New York Infantry Regiment, awoke on the morning of May 20, 1864, a dense fog surrounded the Federal position. Initially, the mist hid the fact that the Army of Tennessee had vacated their prepared lines. As the morning 232 sun pierced through the murk, Bull smiled as he realized the enemy had retreated without a fight. He described Cassville as a ?fine little town with four churches, a female seminary, courthouse, many stores and at least 100 residences, some of which were quite pretentious.? Few residents remained in the town. After breakfast, the men from his company strolled the local streets. On a normal Friday morning, the stores in Cassville would have been bustling with customers. On that day, the only people seen in town wore Federal uniforms. Prior to their arrival, Confederates had ?ransacked and wrecked? all of the local businesses while leaving many of the private dwellings undisturbed. ?The village,? wrote Bull, ?did present a deserted, deplorable sight.? 50 Locally, much debate surrounds the amount of property damage inflicted upon Cassville during Sherman?s initial occupation. While it is difficult to pinpoint precisely which structures were damaged or destroyed by the Federals, letters from Union soldiers indicate that the army did not inflict ?total war? upon the town. Colonel Warren Parker, 5 th Connecticut, marched his regiment into Cassville on the morning of May 20, 1864. He acknowledged that passing soldiers, both Confederate and Federal, had looted many of the homes and stores. At 9:00 A.M., Parker and his men responded to a call for help from a New York regiment who were fighting a ?heavy fire [that] broke out in some large wooden buildings.? After several tiring hours spent battling the blaze, soldiers spared most of the town. Had the Union Army intended to destroy the town in May of 1864, they would not have exerted so much energy fighting a fire set by one of their own looters. Without the efforts of Parker?s unit, as well as a New York company that contained a large number of firefighters, Cassville probably would have been consumed by fire in May, several months prior to the town?s ultimate destruction. 51 233 While the Federals attempted to save portions of Cassville, observers could retrace the army?s path by following a number of trampled crops, blackened fields, dead livestock, and burned homes and barns. A German-born soldier fighting in Sherman?s army wrote that ?burning and burned houses marked our path? as we moved from along the Kingston road. The soldier admitted to stealing food from civilians and witnessing fellow soldiers slaughter chickens, pigs, and cattle without a thought given to their rightful owners. Hiram Smith regretted the fact that when his regiment reached Cassville, the thousands of soldiers who had passed through the town and countryside prior to his arrival had stripped all the peach trees bare. 52 Food was not the only item sought after by soldiers. When a German-born soldier arrived at Kingston, and his regiment was ordered to rest, he hoped to catch a glimpse of some of the local women. While his intent might not have been to sexually assault a local woman, he was greatly disappointed when after scouring the town he found ?it [was] deserted, except for a fat dirty woman. She knew quite will that the filth on her would be her security.? 53 Slaves recalled that the Federal soldiers they encountered treated them in a variety of ways. In route to Kingston, a member of Wilder?s cavalry confiscated a mule from a slave working on William Collins?s farm. The slave pleaded with the soldier to allow her to keep the animal since it was the only thing that she owned. Her tears did not persuade the soldier to change his mind. As he carried off the mule, the slave cursed the Union Army whose arrival brought both emancipation and deprivation. Sarah Jane Patterson also watched as Federals stripped her master?s plantation of food and valuables, but, according to her, they treated her and other slaves ?nicely.? Her master had told her wild 234 stories about Federal soldiers who murdered slaves. Initially afraid to even look in the eyes of a Union soldier, Patterson soon realized that her master?s stories had been just that, stories. Callie Elder?s master sent one his slaves into the woods with his prized stallion in the hopes of keeping the animal out of Federal hands. Her grandmother had earned a $10.00 gold piece. She decided to hide the coin in the bottom of a butter churn. Her plan failed however as soldiers hoping to find some freshly churned butter were surprised to discover a $10.00 gold piece. Most slaves, like Easter Brown, never saw a Federal soldier during the entire war. 54 A few days later, several Union soldiers and commanders inspected the Confederate lines. The soldiers had never seen such well-prepared defenses: ?they were the finest we had seen up to that time and it must have taken much labor to build them.? They questioned how the enemy could have constructed such elaborate ?fortifications? that contained ?redoubts? and ?abates in front? in such a brief period. And why they would ?abandon such a line without making a defense.? While these soldiers might have been completely unaware of the exact reasons why the Confederates had retreated, the presence of such well-prepared defenses led some to believe that the enemy was unwilling to fight. 55 * * * * * * * * * * * * Twenty-four hours after retreating from Cassville, the Army of Tennessee crossed the Etowah River. Hoping to lure Sherman into a frontal assault, Johnston positioned his army along the Allatoona mountain range. The Union commander, however, would not 235 assault such an impregnable position. Before the war, Sherman had traveled through Bartow County and had noticed the deep railroad cut known as Allatoona Pass. Rather than attack the Army of Tennessee, the Federal army again swung around the Confederate left threatening their supply line and forcing Johnston to abandon his prepared defenses. In less than one week, the Confederate Army had passed through Bartow County and abandoned it to the enemy without a major fight. In May 1864, the arrival of thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers in Bartow County erased the dividing line that had separated the home front and the front line. As Bartow Countians serving in the Army of Tennessee passed through their home county during the retreat many deserted. Approximately 30 percent of all Bartow County soldiers serving in the Army of Tennessee deserted during the Atlanta Campaign, most in May of 1864. Union soldiers arrested dozens of deserters hiding in the woods or roaming about the county. About 60 percent of those deserters signed the Oath of Allegiance thereby symbolizing their loss of will to continue the fight. Regiments such as the 40 th Georgia that contained large numbers of Bartow Countians fought poorly throughout the campaign due to their dwindling numbers and plummeting morale. While Chunn maintained his steadfast patriotism until after the fall of Atlanta, he witnessed first hand during the battles around Atlanta scores of men in his regiment surrendering to Federal soldiers without giving much of a fight. The external pressure applied by Sherman?s invasion crushed the morale of many Bartow County soldier. Nonetheless, while scores deserted and fled the county certain of a Confederate defeat, a larger percentage remained in their posts clinging to their fledgling nation and willing to continue the fight. 236 Notes 1 Testimony of Robert S. Montgomery, SCC, [Allowed], Claim # 2895, Barton County, [microfilm], NARA-ATL. The Southern Claims Commission Allowed records incorrectly list Bartow County as Barton County. 2 J. P. Baltzelle to Col. E. J. Harris, March 27, 1864, Barnsley Papers, [microfilm], #204, TSA, Nashville. 3 Database of Cass/Bartow County Soldiers Serving in the Confederate Army, 1861-1865. 4 J. P. Baltzelle to Col. E. J. Harris, April 15, 1864, Barnsley Papers, [microfilm], #204, TSA, Nashville. 5 Nancy J. Cornell, Compiler, 1864 Census for Re-Organizing the Georgia Militia (Atlanta: Genealogical Publishing, 1990), 18-34; William R. Scaife and William Harris Bragg, Joe Brown?s Pets: The Georgia Militia, 1861-1865 (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2004), 4-5. 6 A. J. Neal to Ma, February 3, 1864, Bartow County Vertical File, GDAH, Atlanta. 7 Talmadge, Rebecca Latimer Felton, 21; Karen Hamilton, ?The Union Occupation of Bartow County, Georgia: 1864-1865? (Master?s Thesis: State University of West Georgia, 1998), 14; Sally May Akin, ?Refugees of 1863,? GHQ 31 (1947): 113; Godfrey Barnsley to Captain R. S. Page, January 6, 1864, Godfrey Barnsley Papers, Box 14:3, UGA, Athens; William A. Chunn to Nathan Land, March 1864, Chunn-Land Papers, AC# 1401, Box 1:4, GDAH, Morrow. 237 8 Frances Thomas Howard, In and Out of the Lines (Cartersville, GA: Etowah Valley Historical Society, 1998), 5. 9 Testimony of James McGee, SCC, [Allowed], Claim # 1155, [microfilm]. NARA-ATL. 10 Testimony of William Collins, SCC, [Allowed], [microfilm], NARA-ATL. 11 Rome Tri-Weekly Courier, January, February, 1864; Warren Akin to Mary Akin, December 18, 1864; January 10, 1865; January 11, 1865; January 13, 1865; January 23, 1865; January 26, 1865; Mary Akin to Warren Akin, January 15, 1865; Bell Irvin Wiley, ed. Letters of Warren Aiken Confederate Congressman, 42, 73, 76, 78, 93, 99, 121; Mrs. William A. Chunn to Mrs. E. W. Chunn, November 14, 1864, Chunn-Land Papers, AC# 1401, Box 4:02, GDAH, Morrow. 12 Confederate Reminiscences and Letters 1861-1865, Vol. 21, 103-104, GDAH, Morrow; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 71. Anne Elizabeth Johnson was the wife of Kingston businessman Erastus V. Johnson. 13 Felton, Country Life in Georgia In the Days of My Youth, 89. 14 Confederate Reminiscences and Letters 1861-1865, Vol. 21, 103-104; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 71. 15 Nathan Land to William Chunn, March 21, 1864, Chunn-Land Papers, GDAH, Morrow; Hamilton, ?The Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 14. 16 William Chunn to Judge Nathan Land, March 1864, Chunn-Land Papers, GDAH, Morrow. 238 17 Ibid.; William Chunn?s confidence in the leadership of General Joseph E. Johnston was not shared by many of his comrades serving in the Army of Tennessee. See Larry Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1991). 18 Albert Castel, Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992), 125. 19 Robert A. Doughty, American Military History and the Evolution of Warfare in the Western World (Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, 1996), 208; McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 744-45; Castel, Decision in the West, 121-186. 20 H. E. Sterkx, ed., ?The Autobiography and Civil War Letters of Joel Murphree of Troy, Alabama: 1864-1865,? AHQ 19 (1957): 176-77. 21 Castel, Decision in the West, 195-96. 22 Sam R. Watkins, ?Co. Aytch? A Side Show of the Big Show (New York: Touchstone, 1997), 149-50; War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891), Ser. 1, 38: 65, 91, 191; O. P. Hargis, Thrilling Experiences of a First Georgia Cavalryman in the Civil War (n.p.: n.d.), 19. Colonel Francis T. Sherman?s brigade bore the brunt of the fight at the Octagon House. During the early morning hours of May 18, 1864, the 73 rd Illinois Infantry Regiment destroyed the Octagon House by setting it on fire. The Army of the Cumberland sustained approximately 200 casualties during engagements fought while moving through Adairsville. ?Octagon House,? Wilbur Kurtz Collection, MS 130, 37:1. Kenan Research Center and Archives, AHC, Atlanta. 239 23 Kenneth W. Noe, ed., A Southern Boy in Blue: The Memoir of Marcus Woodcock 9 th Kentucky Infantry (U.S.A.) (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1996), 285; Castel, Decision in the West, 197. 24 Ibid. 25 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 5; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 223; Testimony of Sarah Jane Patterson, Slave 10, (a): 286-91. Cunyus and Howard both note that Hardee?s Corps passed Spring Bank at 4:00 A.M. 26 Ibid, 6. 27 Ibid, 7; War of the Rebellion, Ser. 1, 38: 102-103, 191, 465-71. 28 A discrepancy exists regarding the specific time that Union soldiers first appeared at Spring Bank. Francis Howard recalled that Union soldiers entered her family?s property around 5:00 AM or one hour after William Hardee?s Corps passed their plantation. Historian Wilbur Kurtz argued that Howard?s memory of when the first Union soldiers arrived was full of discrepancies. He argued that remnants of Union cavalry and infantry skirmishers probably did not arrive at Spring Bank until that afternoon. A discrepancy also exists pertaining to the number of cavalry companies dispatched by Colonel John T. Wilder to cut the telegraph lines north of Kingston. Brigadier General Kenner Garrard?s report, located in the Official Records, states that ?four companies of the Seventeenth Indiana? was dispatched toward Kingston. Wilbur Kurtz?s research notes state that Garrard?s reports were inaccurate and that six companies were sent to cut the wire. Research Notes, Wilbur Kurtz Collection, MS-130, 25:7, Kenan Research Library and Archives, AHC, Atlanta. 240 29 O. R., Series 1, 38: 806. 30 ?Henry Albert Potter to Morris H. Palmer, May 22, 1864,? http://freepages.genealogy.rootweb.com/~mruddy/letters5.htm (accessed July 15, 2005). 31 O. R., Series I, 38: 828; 811; ?Springbank,? Wilbur Kurtz Collection, MS-130, 33:10, Kenan Research Library and Archives, AHC, Atlanta. 32 Jane Howard to George Barnsley, September 17, 1864, George Scarborough Barnsley Papers, M# 1521, SHC, UNC-CH; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 223; Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 7; Coker, The Illustrious Dream, 118-28; Charles W. Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier Including Day-by Day Records of Sherman?s March to the Sea (Evansville: Southern Illinois Press, 1996), 243. 33 Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 395. The 2001 edition of Cunyus?s History of Bartow County contains some correspondence between the author and historian Wilbur Kurtz. According to Kurtz, ?Garrard reached Barnsley?s some hours ahead of Logan and McPherson and the Garrard troopers were the ones who got the worst of the running fight on that old back-bone road that runs directly from Barnsley?s to Kingston.? O.R., Ser. 1, 38: 191, 188. 34 Willis, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, 243. The death of Colonel Richard Earle has been a constant source of fascination for local historians and residents. The valiant depictions of precisely how the colonel fell widely vary. Clent Coker, who has spent most of his life studying the Barnsley family, wrote that ?Colonel Earle was shot and killed by a federal sharpshooter listed as: T. H. Bonner of Company ?A? 98 th Illinois Infantry Volunteers.? Unfortunately, Coker?s book does not contain endnotes 241 documenting his primary sources; however, the Wilbur Kurtz Collection, housed at the Atlanta History Center, contains several articles written by Kurtz that also list ?Boner? as the soldier who shot down Earle. Lucy Cunyus commented that Earle was ?shot near the house by the mounted infantry of Wilder?s brigade.? She did not provide any detailed account of the circumstances that surrounded his death. Frances Thomas Howard provided one of the most dramatic accounts of Earle?s death. ?[Earle] had sworn never to be captured, and when surrounded and ordered to surrender, he shot the man issuing the order. Of course he was instantly killed.? Howard?s sister, Jane Howard wrote a lengthy ten page letter to George Barnsley in September of 1864 that detailed the events that occurred at Woodlands on May 18. Her account fails to mention any dramatic struggle between Earle and the Federals. She simply mentions in passing that he had died. Recently, while talking to historian Keith Bohannon, I learned, second hand, that a military antiques collector owned a rifle that had belonged to a Federal cavalryman. The butt of this rifle contained a large gash made perhaps by Earle?s sword during a moment of hand-to-hand combat between the colonel and the enemy. Earle?s relationship with the Barnsley family also remains cloudy. Coker asserted that Earle chose to warn the family because of a prior relationship/friendship that he had with Godfrey Barnsley. While such a relationship was entirely possible given Barnsley?s wide circle of friends and Earle?s Jacksonville, Alabama, origins, the accounts provided by Jane and Frances Howard, as well as George Barnsley, fail to mention any longstanding relationship between Barnsley and Earle. Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 7. 242 35 Jane Howard to George Barnsley, September 17, 1864, George S. Barnsley Papers, M# 1521, SHC, UNC-CH. Howard commented that Godfrey Barnsley escaped much of the devastation that other local families endured. Barnsley?s letters celebrate the fact that the Federals did not damage his beloved garden. 36 Castel, Decision in the West, 198; O.R., Ser. 1, 38: 65, 628-630. 37 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 8-10. 38 Ibid. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid, 18-19; Coker, Barnsley Gardens at Woodlands, 125-27. 41 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 17-21; Coker, Barnsley Gardens at Woodlands, 125-27. 42 Lila Chunn and William A. Chunn, 23 May 1864, William A. Chunn Papers, Box 1:7, EU, Decatur. 43 Hamilton, ?The Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 19. 44 William K. Watson, 150 th New York Volunteer Infantry Diary, [microfilm], 199:75, GDAH, Morrow. 45 Watkins, Co. Aytch, 169. ?It was like going to a frolic or wedding. Joy was welling up in every heart. We were going to whip and rout the Yankees.? 46 Castel, Decision in the West, 200-02. 47 O. R., Ser. 1, 38: 222. 48 Castel, Decision in the West, 204. Anyone interested in observing Hood?s position can do so by climbing the steep grade at the Cassville Cemetery. Atop that hill, 243 the position of the Federal artillery can be plainly seen. The Cassville Female Seminary no longer exists. It was burned by Federal troops in the fall of 1864. While many of Hood?s depictions of the Atlanta Campaign have undergone intense scrutiny, anyone can see that his position at Cassville could have been compromised by Federal artillery. Johnston chose a poor site to make a defensive stand. 49 Ibid., 204-06; O. R., Ser. 3, 38: 616; 4:723-26; John B. Hood, Advance and Retreat, 105-16; French, Two Wars, 196-98. 50 Sydney C. Kerksis, The Atlanta Papers (Dayton, OH: Morningside, 1980), 101- 03. 51 O.R., Ser. 1, 38: 92. 52 Lewis N. Wynne and Robert A. Taylor, eds., The War So Horrible: The Civil War Diary of Hiram Smith Williams (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1993), 73-4. 53 Two Germans in the Civil War, 119-20 54 Ibid.; Testimony of Harriet Collins, SCC, [Allowed], [microfilm], NARA-ATL. In 1871, Collins received $175.00 from the SCC for the loss of her mule. Testimony of Sarah Jane Patterson, Slave 10, (a): 188-93; Testimony of Callie Elder, Slave 12, (a): 306- 15; Testimony of Easter Brown, Slave 12, (a): 136-40. Callie Elder and Easter Brown lived in neighboring Floyd County. Their experiences, however, were representative of slaves living in Bartow County. 55 K. Jack Bauer, Soldiering: Diary Rice C. Bull: The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull (New York: Presidio, 1995), 101-03; Sherman, Atlanta Campaign, 39-40. 244 CHAPTER SEVEN FEDERAL OCCUPATION The Federal occupation of Bartow County occurred in three distinct phases. This chapter discusses the first of those stages, when civilian resistance to the occupying force was non-existent. Residents caught in the path of an invading army, as Stephen Ash maintains, did not impede the enemy?s movements for three reasons: a lack of local leadership, disillusionment with the retreating Confederate Army, and the psychologically crippling shock that a large mass of blue clad soldiers moving through the local countryside created among the general populace. 1 Women dominated the opposition as men either fled in fear of being captured or maintained a low-key presence to avoid arrest for being a Confederate supporter. Bartow County?s minority Unionist population meanwhile voiced their opinions in a far more aggressive manner during this phase because of the occupying army?s presence and the utter disorganization of local Confederates. Slaves embraced the occupation but soon discovered that they were caught in the middle of a conflict that delayed many of the tangible benefits of emancipation. This phase lasted from the beginning of the occupation until early summer, 1864. 245 When General William T. Sherman?s army resumed its march south of the Etowah on May 23, it left behind Colonel William Lowe?s 3 rd Division, Cavalry Corps, to protect his extended supply lines. ?Uncle Billy? created the District of the Etowah to administer the territory from Bridgeport, Alabama, to Allatoona, Georgia, ?including Cleveland, Rome, and the country east as far as controlled by the Federal troops.? General James B. Steedman established district headquarters in Chattanooga. He created three garrisons in Bartow County at Cartersville, Cass Station, and Kingston. 2 On June 28, Brigadier General John E. Smith, commander of the 3 rd Division, XIV Army Corps, received a transfer from his post in Huntsville, Alabama, to Kingston, Georgia. Smith placed his headquarters at Cartersville and ordered Colonel Jabez Banbury of the 5 th Iowa Infantry to man the Kingston post. In Bartow County, the Union garrison?s principal responsibilities would be to guard the W&A from an array of potential saboteurs ranging from Confederate cavalry to hostile civilians. 3 Union occupation disrupted the daily lives of Bartow County civilians in a number of different ways. Church stood at the heart of the local antebellum community. The ?Yankees? hoped to use the persuasive influence of clerics to convince the remaining populace to take the oath of allegiance. This tactic was not successful since most ministers were either serving in the military or had fled prior to the occupation. Indeed, by March of 1864, every congregation in the county had ceased worship services in anticipation of a Federal invasion. The absence of proper church services troubled residents who already felt a loss of community when many of their neighbors sought refuge elsewhere. Lizzie Gaines organized a weekly Sabbath school that met in her home for several weeks. When Union soldiers discovered her flock, they disbanded the 246 meeting, informing the women that no such congregations were permitted until they had taken the oath of allegiance. Due to the Union presence, most of the county?s churches did not hold regular Sunday services until the summer of 1865. 4 Bartow County residents further lived in constant fear that foraging soldiers might rob their homes, stealing their ability to survive. Southerners in Federal occupied territory lived in three distinct worlds: garrisoned towns, Confederate frontier, and no- man?s land. Those caught in a garrisoned town came into constant contact with Federal soldiers. Those who lived on the Confederate frontier did not come into contact with Federal soldiers on a regular basis. Those who lived in no-man?s land were ?beyond the pale of Confederate authority and endured frequent Yankee visitations, but did not experience the constant presence of a Federal force.? In Bartow County, any family who lived along the W&A lived in no-man?s land since the army maintained regular patrols along this valuable supply line. 5 In August, Federal soldiers stripped Rebecca Hood?s fields of several bushels of corn and stole three sheep and eight hogs. On October 23, several local women confronted a band of Union soldiers collecting corn in a field located in ?no-man?s land.? The women swore at the men, telling them that their actions were starving their families. The soldiers quietly continued gathering the crop. 6 In contrast, Cassville residents experienced constant contact with Union foragers. Lizzie Gaines had remained during the occupation in order to care for her invalid mother. When the Union army arrived, she watched with abject horror as the invading horde ?set Mr. J. Terrill?s house on fire? followed by ?Col. Warren Akin?s house.? Despite these shocking sights, she ?felt comparatively secure while they remained.? Her sense of 247 security diminished a few days later, however, when a second foraging party visited her home. The soldiers demanded that Gaines give them her cow. After destroying the lot fence, the soldiers began herding the cow away from the home. Gaines rushed into the yard, blocking the cow?s path and urging it to return. When the commander demanded the cow, Gaines placed herself between the cow and the officer uttering something to the effect of ?over my dead body.? The officer ordered his men to drive the cow over the woman if necessary. As they prodded the cow with their bayonets, Gaines stepped aside, unable to prevent the theft from occurring. With the cow, the soldiers paraded the animal in front of the family home as the invalid mother cried from her doorstep ?gentlemen, please don?t take our cow.? The soldiers laughed at the woman and continued toward Cartersville. 7 Undeterred, Gaines hitched ?an old poor horse? named Bragg given to her by some Confederate soldiers and headed toward Cartersville in pursuit of the foraging party. Due to the poor condition of her mount, the ten-mile trip took two days to complete. In town, Gaines promptly petitioned the Provost Marshall for the return of her cow. He told her that he would gladly return her cow provided that she take the amnesty oath. Gaines refused and stormed out of his office, convinced that she would never see her cow again. When she noticed that several Cassville women were also in town attempting to recover cattle, she offered to help drive them home. When she reached the slaughter pen where she expected to gain her friends? cattle, much to her surprise, the soldier on duty returned her cow along with a calf that had been stolen during a prior raid. The sharp contrast between the generosity and cruelty of Federal soldiers puzzled Gaines, who never knew what to expect when the ?Yankees? came. 8 248 The level of distrust conditioned by such inconsistent behaviors led to numerous incidents as each side probed the other for information. Civilians routinely visited Federal garrisons and professed their loyalties to the Union while clandestinely collecting information for Confederate soldiers and guerrillas. The Federals knew that such activities occurred and made limited efforts to discourage such espionage. After receiving a visit from an ?old rebel gent,? for example, several soldiers from the Kingston garrison donned Confederate uniforms and paid the man a visit. They questioned him about ?how the ?Yanks? were fixed, and he replied that they had ?stacks of rations at Kingston.?? He divulged the number of Union soldiers at Kingston, at the Etowah river and in the different block houses.? The following morning, the garrison commander escorted the man outside of his lines, warning him that he would be executed if caught within the lines again. 9 Federal soldiers correctly believed that the Howard women at Spring Bank also provided information to Confederate scouts. They made several attempts to trick the women into revealing their sympathies. A Union train of sutler?s wagons had camped one evening along nearby Connesenna Creek. A man wearing a Confederate uniform then arrived. He told the women that Confederates were going to attack the wagon train that night and needed to learn how many soldiers were guarding the wagons. Suspicious, the women said they knew nothing. Francis Howard remembered, ?his accent was unmistakably Southern, but his perfect unconcern [for the Federals nearby] made us doubtful. If he were a Confederate, this was as foolish as it was dangerous; still it was hard to distrust one who wore that uniform.? The following day, they discovered that the 249 soldier was actually a Georgia-born Confederate deserter who had enlisted in the Federal army prior to the start of the Atlanta Campaign. 10 Lizzie Gaines experienced a similar act of deception. Three armed Illinois cavalrymen threatened to burn down her home after they failed to locate any tobacco or whiskey. She and her invalid mother faced countless sleepless nights thereafter. They worried constantly that a drunken mob of soldiers might destroy their property or assault them. Late one evening, five men wearing Confederate uniforms and claiming to belong to a local militia unit knocked on their door. The men wanted to know the location of a known Unionist sympathizer. Gaines quickly gave the men the information they requested, bidding them farewell as they vanished into some neighboring woods. Minutes later, the same men returned to her home. Instead of knocking, the men kicked open the door shouting, ?we are Yankees and you have told us enough to hang you. What will you give us not to tell on you?? Frightened and confused, the woman handed the men a handful of Confederate currency, as well as a few greenbacks. She watched as the men fled her yard and traveled a half mile distance to her neighbor where they repeated their charade. When their next victims refused to surrender any cash or valuables to the raiders, the men placed a rope around an old man?s neck, nearly killing him, and knocking his wife to the ground when she tried to rescue him. In this case, the presence of Federal soldiers nearby both created and resolved the problem. Fearful that the man would return, Lizzie Gaines informed the Provost Marshall that a series of night raids had occurred upon defenseless civilians. She reported that the men wore Confederate uniforms but clearly exhibited an allegiance to the Union cause. After a brief investigation, the provost arrested and punished the leader 250 of the gang. Gaines later came to believe that the leader belonged to a home guard unit comprised of local Unionists. 11 On June 28, 1864, after pro-Confederate guerrilla units orchestrated several attacks upon the W&A, Gen. Steedman issued General Order No. 2 which stated: The frequent depredations committed upon the communications between Bridgeport and the army in front as well as the barbarities practiced by placing torpedoes under the track to blow up trains containing sick and wounded soldiers and citizens demand the most stringent measures to suppress these crimes and atrocities. To this end all citizens except Government employees found within three miles of the railroad from Bridgeport to the Federal Army in Georgia, outside of the picket lines of any post or station of troops after the first day of July, 1864, will be arrested and forwarded to these headquarters to be tried before a military commission as spies ?found lurking? within the lines of the armies of the United States. 12 According to Lizzie Gaines, General Order No. 2 affected forty families in Cassville. Residents protested; on July 23, a group of women traveled to Kingston to petition the Colonel Banbury to rescind the order. The Federal officer told the women that he would not enforce the order as long as he was in command, but he warned them that he would soon be replaced. A week later, two Union lieutenants arrived in Cassville with orders to remove the remaining civilians. Many balked, while others passively gathered their remaining belongings into the wagons furnished by the army for the removal. Much to the civilians? dismay, soldiers plundered the wagons robbing them of many of their valuables. The following morning, three elderly men traveled to Cartersville to see General Smith. Upon hearing their complaints, he reprimanded the soldiers and rescinded the removal order. 13 251 General Order No. 2 also affected the Howard family, since the W&A?s track was located a hundred yards from their Spring Bank home. Initially, the women ignored the order, despite the constant harassment of patrolling Federals who repeatedly reminded them that they would have to relocate soon. Fortunately for the Howard family, Colonel Benjamin Dean, the new post commander at Kingston, befriended them and decided to overlook their continued presence. Had it not been for an unexpected inspection by General Steedman?who discovered much to his surprise a pro-Confederate family living within a hundred yards of the army?s principal supply line?the Howard family might have remained in their home throughout the occupation. His discovery, combined with a threat to remove the Kingston post commander, forced their removal. Previously, the family had refused to refugee because they feared the uncertainties that accompanied life away from home. Hard-pressed by Federal officers to relocate, the Howards turned to Godfrey Barnsley for help. On August 5, the family moved to Woodlands, thankful that their longtime friend had remained during the occupation. 14 While General Order No. 2 could have potentially affected hundreds of Bartow County households, in reality, the order impacted only a handful. The Macon Daily Chronicle and Sentinel reported that: Sherman?s order requiring all disaffected persons living within three miles of the railroad to remove, had been applied only to those whose education, station, and known sentiments, rendered them, in the enemy?s opinion, dangerous. Where they have been quiet they have not been disturbed. Between Kingston and Adairsville but a single family of females has been compelled to remove up to the middle of August. 15 252 The Federals? reasons for removing the Howard women were sound. Their father and brother served in the 63 rd Georgia. Several Confederate scouts had been seen leaving Spring Bank. Sallie Howard provided information to scouts on two occasions. The women possessed a high level of education and sophistication that would have allowed them to organize, plot, and direct attacks against the railroad or conduct various espionage missions. Yet, despite the family?s obvious pro-Confederate sympathies and actions, the Federal commander of the Kingston garrison allowed the household to entertain guests and receive passes to visit their friends in and out of the lines. Until receiving a direct order from the district?s commanding officer, the colonel had contently allowed the women to remain within his lines despite knowing about their activities. 16 In her memoir, Frances Howard fondly remembered Colonel Dean. His generosity helped ease the stress that accompanied occupation. Ordered to relocate the women, he graciously outfitted them with six wagons and a guard for transporting their effects. After their removal, the Howard family still received preferential treatment. On August 10, Frances and Jane asked the colonel for permission to travel southward to care for their wounded father. Not only did Dean grant their request, he refrained from examining their baggage, provided them with an escort, and transported them via an ambulance to the front lines. In the span of a few months, the Howard family had experienced the best and worst that the Federal army had to offer in their conduct toward noncombatants. Similar relationships between Union soldiers and local citizens sometimes proved beneficial for both parties. A black market developed in Union-occupied territories. Goods such as coffee, soap, and candles that could not be purchased prior to the 253 occupation suddenly appeared on the market, as Union soldiers traded them for fresh foodstuffs and home cooked meals. Cooking meals for enemy soldiers provided civilians with another opportunity to communicate with their conquerors in an intimate setting that consequently made the affair more human. After giving one hungry Federal a glass of buttermilk, Rebecca Hood noticed that the boy was not much older than her son. The enemy suddenly seemed less foreign and more familiar. Following the war, occupying soldiers such as Jenkins Lloyd Jones fondly recalled friendly ?rebel? women such as ?Grandma William?s?, who lived in Allatoona, earned a small income by selling hot meals to passing soldiers for fifty cents. 17 Soldiers in contrast described the ?ladies of Cassville? as ?the strongest secesh ladies they had met.? Women shouted insults toward passing soldiers that questioned their masculinity and courage while promising that the Confederate army would soon return to punish them. When physically assaulted, women slapped, bit, kicked, and clawed their assailants with a ferocity that repelled most attackers. Yet in a world where masculine identity revolved around the protection of white women, the absence of large numbers of males fostered a new environment where women invented new survival methods that asserted their own sense of femininity. While women assumed new roles within the household, often becoming its principal provider and protector, their lives remained constrained by their gender and a debilitating sense of defenselessness. During the occupation, women thus treated enemy soldiers as both friend and foe, depending upon the circumstance. As long as soldiers conducted themselves in a manner that allowed women to feel a sense of safety, their relationships could be quite beneficial. When soldiers acted inappropriately, however, women reverted to their antebellum 254 gender expectations. They frequently resolved their problems by soliciting aid from a male authority figure who could either offer protection or provide justice. Trusted Federal officers such as Colonel Benjamin Dean and privates such as Jenkins Jones provided local women with a masculine safety net that, when needed, could be brought to bear in an effort to address concerns that their husbands and fathers had once assumed. The ?softening? of hostilities noted by a northern journalist reflects the void that some occupying soldiers filled within the lives of many female civilians struggling to strike a balance between their current and former gender roles. 18 Keeping respectable company with Union soldiers also provided isolated women with added protection from raiding parties, as well as access to valuable goods. In the weeks after a Federal soldier became infatuated with Godfrey Barnsley?s maid Mary Quinn, the number of stragglers who violated his property declined, in large part, due to his increased presence at the estate. Sensing the value of this relationship, Barnsley welcomed the soldier into his household, offering him peach brandy and access to his expansive library. The Englishman extended similar luxuries to a number of other Federal officers in return for additional protection from stragglers. * * * * * * * * * * * * Most Bartow County slaves welcomed Union occupation. By the spring of 1864, the master/slave relationship no longer resembled its antebellum form, which depended upon physical proximity, as well as an owner?s ability to maintain a paternal influence over their property. Material shortages prevented masters from providing for their 255 slaves? physical well-being. Many local planters had hired out large numbers of their slaves to the Confederate government or had them impressed to work on defenses around Atlanta. While many owners took their slaves with them when they fled southward, a significant number still remained during the Union occupation. As slavery weakened, the appearance of Union soldiers offered local slaves their best chance at obtaining freedom. 19 The proximity of the Federal Army emboldened slaves to runaway. Easter Brown lived on a plantation with 110 other slaves. As the Federal army approached, most of them ran away never to be seen again. Her master, ?Marse Frank,? had brutally punished runaway slaves before the war, but now made no effort to recover them since he believed that the war would soon end. All of Charles W. Howard?s slaves, except enfeebled Mary, fled. Older slaves were more likely to remain with their masters only because their physical condition inhibited their flight. The large number of runaway slaves surprised many slaveholders, who had convinced themselves that their property would remain loyal during the occupation. General William T. Wofford?s mother, for example, lamented the fact that her entire slave population ran away in June. Only two slaves, Dick and Charlotte, remained at Woodlands. Godfrey Barnsley?s slave Houston revealed to Union soldiers the location of hidden valuables scattered throughout the plantation. A soldier from Colonel John T. Wilder?s brigade tried to encourage Dick to runaway, but he remained because he feared receiving ill-treatment from Federal soldiers. During the occupation, Dick purposely dressed in rags in order to convince those he encountered that he did not have anything worth stealing. 20 256 Scant evidence exists documenting the fate of Bartow County?s runaway slaves. Many headed to the Federal garrison in Rome. In June 1864, that garrison sent approximately three hundred black refugees to Pulaski, Tennessee. One hundred and sixty freedmen enlisted in the 44 th U.S. Colored Infantry, stationed at Dalton. Surviving regimental records do not indicate the place of origin of these volunteers, but it would be reasonable to assume that some of the men came from neighboring Bartow County. 21 Federal soldiers treated slaves in mixed fashion. While ransacking Spring Bank, soldiers stole the only possessions that slave Mary had managed to accumulate during her lifetime. After complaining to her master, the owner sarcastically replied, ?why we thought the Yankees loved you, and would rather give you things than take away the little you had.? Slaves who accompanied Union columns soon discovered that the soldiers sometimes treated them with as much contempt and disrespect as their prior owners. After the war, a Federal soldier wished that the ?war [had] continued for seven years longer, if only to kill the negroes off.? When Sherman began his March to the Sea, he took along only those slaves who were physically fit and willing to work. Many older slaves and slave women with children had no other place to go except to return to their former masters. 22 The presence of Union soldiers combined with the potential threat of their running away without notice or recourse, nonetheless, destroyed the last vestiges of the master/slave relationship. Masters frequently commented that their slaves were acting ?high and mighty? since the Yankees came. At Spring Bank, the Howard family had grown dependent upon the labor of their slaves. In 1864, for the first time in her life, Susan Howard had to cook her own meals. At Woodlands, two ?loyal? blacks remained, 257 but it was clear to both them and Godfrey Barnsley that they were slaves no more. Nancy Wofford awoke one morning to discover that her domestic slaves had run away. On the way out, the slaves cut the rope to the well bucket, forcing the elderly woman to carry water from a branch. 23 * * * * * * * * * * * In May 1864, Unionists, who had remained fairly quiet throughout the war, became more vocal and active in their resistance to the Confederacy due to the protection afforded by Federal troops. Unionists who testified before the Southern Claims Commission overwhelmingly claimed to have voted for Stephen Douglas during the 1860 election while a few stated that they would have voted for Abraham Lincoln had he been on the ballot. Unionists defy easy characterizations. Some Bartow Countians who remained during the occupation held Unionist and anti-Confederate sympathies. Most of the county?s ardent secessionists were either in the army or lived as refugees scattered throughout the region. In their prolonged absence, Unionists began to openly support the Federal government. They served as an invaluable ally. Unionists worked as guides, laborers, spies, cooks, and nurses. Their knowledge of the local terrain aided Federal cavalry in apprehending Confederate guerrillas, scouts, and deserters. They also gathered intelligence by spying on their neighbors. Unionists frustrated Confederate recruiters and scouts by hiding deserters and leading draft evaders northward. 258 Identifying Unionists proves problematic. Their membership represented a wide array of socio-economic classes. While most owned land, some were tenants. By-and- large, known Unionists owned roughly the same amount of land?50 to 100 acres?as did most local farmers. A majority of Unionists were farmers, but, then again, so were most Bartow Countians. In addition to farmers, Unionists worked as ministers, lawyers, day laborers, railroad workers, woodchoppers, teamsters, blacksmiths, and in numerous other skilled and unskilled occupations. Most did not own slaves, but some did. The minority of Unionist slaveholders espoused a belief that the Union needed preservation but frequently resisted emancipation. Slaveholder John McDow was a known Unionist in Bartow County. In May, McDow took his slaves southward to prevent their capture. Willis McDow, John McDow?s slave, testified that he ?was off from home with my young master to keep me from the Federal army.? Like McDow, Nancy Russell sent her slaves southward with an overseer to avoid capture. After the war, some Unionists slaveholders petitioned the Southern Claims Commission to compensate them for the loss of their slave property. 24 Just as socio-economic status did not determine who were Unionists, geographic location too proved to be an unreliable factor. While the majority of identified Unionists lived in three areas, around Adairsville, Pine Log, and along the Kingston road, these geographic similarities had more to do with the path of Sherman?s army than anything else. Wherever Sherman?s army traveled, significant numbers of Unionists appeared seeking protection, retribution, and aid. It is not surprising that numerous Unionists can be identified along that route. 259 While socio-economic status and geography did not determine a resident?s allegiance, bonds of kinship, in contrast, tied together many Unionist households. When Southern Claims Commissioners questioned William Collins about his wartime experiences, the yeoman slaveholder who lived near Adairsville revealed that he had a brother who served in the Union army. Eight self-identified Unionists testified on Collins?s behalf. Of those eight individuals, six were related to Collins ranging from a couple of brother-in-laws, to a sister, and sister-in-law. Thanks to the support of his family, commissioner A. A. Beck referred to Collins as ?one of those unflinching, uncompromising, Union men such as are few and fare between in this country and yet is respected as a man by his worst enemies.? 25 While the Southern Claims Commission records reveal that kin linked Unionist sympathizers, even those associations had its limits. Sarah Crow and her husband vehemently opposed secession, yet her brother and two nephews expressed an interest in enlisting the Confederate army in the spring of 1861. She pleaded with them to reconsider, but her protests fell upon deaf ears. 26 Edmund Cook owned a small farm located four miles east of Adairsville. He hoped to avoid serving in the military because he did not support secession. Cook?s overbearing ?secesh? brother-in-law reported him to conscription agents who forced the Unionist into the Confederate army. 27 Generational tensions played an additional but limited role in determining Unionist sympathies. Parents might have disapproved of their children?s decision but could do little to prevent them from enlisting. Mary McDonald warned her two sons that their deceased father would not have approved of their enlistment and neither did she; nevertheless, they enlisted. A few months later, some ?secesh? women from Kingston 260 invited her to join their soldier?s aid sewing society. She firmly told them that her sons had made their own decisions and that she would not be party to treason. 28 Samuel McDow of Adairsville refused to join the Confederate army and advised his two son-in- laws to do the same. Despite his advice, the men enlisted. 29 William Corbin of Cartersville feared that if his son enlisted that he would die. His consternation came to fruition when he received word that his son had fallen during the Battle of Missionary Ridge. Thereafter, Corbin ?damned? the Confederacy and began openly displaying his Unionist sympathies. 30 Likewise, children harbored Unionists beliefs that were ignored by their parents. In 1862, William Law?s father and two brothers joined the Confederate army?it is unclear whether they volunteered or were conscripted. In 1864, when Federal troops occupied Cartersville, he enlisted in the Union army, despite knowing that his family was serving in the Army of Tennessee. 31 Prior to the occupation, some Unionists had developed a reputation among their friends and neighbors for their pronounced criticism of the Confederate government. Loud speeches, however, attracted unwanted attention. Gradison Vaughn liked an audience. Numerous individuals testified before the Southern Claims Commission that he had said that he ?wished the Confederacy was in the bottomless pit of hell.? 32 His emotion matched that of a handful of local Unionists such as Miles and Sarah Crow who also earned a reputation for criticizing the national government. Most maintained a low profile whenever possible in order to avoid possible retribution by pro-Confederate zealots. Nancy Russell, for example, rarely proclaimed her sympathies in public while 261 privately she helped organize an ?underground railroad? that transported Unionists to east Tennessee. 33 During the initial occupation of Cassville, someone burned the home of three prominent secessionists. While many accounts blame the Federal Army for these fires, circumstantial evidence suggests that Unionists played a major role in determining which homes were destroyed. In a letter to her husband, Lila Chunn complained of ?Tories? living in Cassville. She mentioned a Mr. Bohannon who ?had taken the oath and was fixed up in a Yankee wagon ready to move farther north.? While raiding a Federal supply train, Confederate cavalry captured Bohannon and sent him to Atlanta with sixty- three other prisoners. In prison, he was visited by Will Patton who later informed Chunn that Bohannon and several Unionists had claimed responsibility for setting fire to three homes. Concerned that Confederates might exact retribution, Unionist Oliver Vaughan organized a company of Union men to serve as a home guard during the occupation. The home guard unit preyed upon Confederate stragglers and deserters. After capturing two soldiers who were absent without leave and who attempted to cross the Etowah River to visit their families, Vaughan led the men to the Cartersville garrison where they were placed in shackles and transported northward to a military prison. Scouts scoured the Confederate frontier searching for Vaughan. The home guard commander eluded capture by rarely traveling beyond no-man?s land. 34 Some civilians embraced the Union for the sake of self-preservation. Berry Houk, who had never expressed any Unionist sympathies prior to 1864, led a party of sixty people who traveled to Calhoun to take the amnesty oath. In Cassville, two old men who 262 remained during the occupation but had previously maintained their neutrality suddenly proclaimed their allegiance to the United States in an effort to avoid any possible conflict with nearby Union soldiers. Some former secessionists hoped to receive special privileges from the occupying army in return for taking the oath. Women whose property had been stolen by soldiers frequently took the oath in order to curry favor with the local provost marshall. Lizzie Gaines discovered upon arriving in Cartersville that she was not the only woman with such a request. Dozens of other women under similar circumstances had already entered the garrison but had already taken the oath. The provost marshall demanded that women who were seeking their property present documentation proving they had taken the oath. Gaines observed the ?air of exultation? as women waved the required document excited that they would retrieve their stole property. As Gaines moved to the head of the line, the officer requested her papers. She replied ?I am a Southerner by birth and principle and would not take the oath for all the cows in the United States.? Much to her dismay, another woman scolded her, saying that her defiance was putting everyone at risk of not having their cattle returned. 35 * * * * * * * * * * * Federal soldiers particularly warned civilians such as Gaines not to harbor or aid Confederate scouts. Citizens regularly violated these orders. Scouts received food and shelter from many Bartow Countians who still supported the Confederacy. Sometimes, civilians engaged in acts of sabotage that frequently targeted the W&A. Locals joined guerrilla bands comprised of many regular army deserters and state militia members but, 263 in general, lacked any formal military authority. Guerrillas and scouts differed according to their relationship with the national military. Scouts, such as the 1 st Georgia Cavalry, received orders directly from Confederate authorities. Guerrillas, such as John Gatewood?s band, did not. Scouts and Federals fought a protracted struggle that revolved around the W&A. A Federal officer once told Frances Howard that ?he would rather be the leader of the forlorn hope, in storming the strongest fort in the Confederacy, than to make the trip from Chattanooga to Atlanta.? 36 District of the Etowah commander Steedman issued General Order No. 2, in large part, in an effort to curtail sabotage efforts. Guerrilla activity frustrated Federal troops. Following an attack, Union soldiers interrogated suspected saboteurs, typically threatening to burn their homes or towns if they did not reveal the culprit?s identity. The Cartersville garrison temporarily jailed dozens of citizens accused of aiding and abetting guerrillas. Most returned home after a brief period of confinement, but military officials banished several hundred civilians to north of the Ohio River for the duration of the war. Women engaged in a wide array of illicit activities that attracted attention from Federal authorities. In July, soldiers garrisoned at Kingston arrested Julia and Jane Murchison. They had enjoyed a great deal of freedom during the early months of the occupation. They regularly received passes from the Kingston provost marshall allowing them to visit the Howard and Barnsley families. On the morning of July 19, the sisters walked into the Kingston train depot to request a pass to visit Spring Bank. Lieutenant Colonel Ezekial Sampson, 5 th Iowa Infantry, rejected the women?s request, in part, because of Julia?s chosen attire, a gray Confederate jacket adorned with a captain?s 264 insignia. The sight of the uniform annoyed Sampson, who ordered the young woman to remove the coat. He believed it was part of the uniform that belonged to a suspected guerrilla. A few days earlier, while in pursuit of this renegade, Union cavalry found a pair of gloves that had been dropped by the fleeing guerrilla. Grabbing the woman?s jacket, Sampson placed it on his desk and promptly removed the gloves from a nearby drawer presenting it to the women as evidence of their deceptions. Intent on further aggravating the situation, Julia picked up the gloves and kissed them. After leaving Sampson?s office, the sisters traveled to Spring Bank without a pass. Upon their return, Federal pickets arrested the women and charged them with aiding and abetting guerillas and violating General Order No. 2. The District of the Etowah?s commanding officer sentenced the women to serve time in a military prison located in Louisville, Kentucky. On July 22, the Murchison sisters along with fifty other Georgia women arrived in Louisville. While imprisoned, the Murchison sisters endured harsh conditions that weakened their physical health. During their first six weeks, the women stayed at Barracks One which lacked any proper sanitary facilities as well as adequate bedding. By the time the sisters were transferred to the Female Military Prison, Julia had developed pneumonia. Jane begged her to take the amnesty oath rather than risk death by remaining in prison. As her condition worsened, Julia consented, took the oath, and was released to remain north of the Ohio River for the remainder of the war. After living in Ohio for several weeks, she decided to return to Bartow County anyway. The journey required slipping through numerous Federal checkpoints while avoiding detection since her parole banned her return. While moving through a picket line in Tennessee, soldiers mortally wounded 265 Julia. As she lay dying, she wrote her sister a tearful farewell letter. Jane remained in prison for the remainder of the war, unwilling to take the oath. She did not return to Bartow County until May of 1865. In August 1864, General Joseph Wheeler dispatched Co. I of the 1 st Georgia Cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant James Gilreath, to strike the W&A for three months. The general handpicked the company, meaning that a majority of soldiers hailed from Bartow County and therefore knew the terrain well. His unit grew in size while operating in the county since many deserters were willing to ride with a cavalry detachment to avoid persecution. O. P. Hargis?s brothers, Henry and Dick, left the Army of Northern Virginia to join the 1 st Georgia Cavalry. Their orders included tearing up the railroad, cutting telegraph wires, derailing trains, and disrupting supplies traveling between Calhoun and Cartersville. Wheeler instructed the soldiers to refrain from firing upon the enemy ?unless [they] were compelled to to keep from being captured.? 37 The Federal army immediately felt their presence. In August, Sherman ordered the revival of the old visual signal system since enemy scouts continued to severe their telegraph wires. Many civilians provided the cavalry and guerrillas with intelligence and supplies that benefited their operations. O. P. Hargis recalled that ?the people would find out where we were camped and cook a basket full of rations and bring them to us, and we would get feed for our horses from them. . . . We had a good time out there.? 38 Warren Akin believed that most locals would have gladly surrendered their ?last mouthful of bread? to feed a ?rebel? scout. The county contained loyal Confederates who were ?as full of rebel blood as a tick.? A network of support developed designed to foil Federal attempts to track the movements of suspected supporters. Federals were especially 266 suspicious of women whose husbands and sons served in the Confederate army. They knew that numerous deserters had returned to the county and had joined guerrilla bands or else were hiding out in the countryside near their homes. Any woman who traveled into the woods to visit their family members risked compromising both herself and their loved ones because Union soldiers and Unionists commonly watched their every move. Women therefore gave food and supplies to other local women who were not under enemy surveillance who in turn carried the items to the men. Federal scouts routinely searched Spring Bank and Woodlands in search of Confederate soldiers. A Union officer once questioned Jane Howard if she had harbored Confederates. She responded that ?we, like all true Southern women, will aid our soldiers whenever and wherever we can.? Cassville sheltered Confederate scouts, guerrillas, and deserters that attracted the nearby garrison?s attention. After soldiers ransacked Lizzie Gaines?s home looking for a suspected guerrilla, she told the intruders that ?if they did not want the Rebels to visit the place, they must be more vigilant themselves, that we would not make it our business to keep them away.? If captured, guerrillas expected to receive no quarter from Federal soldiers. While on a mission to destroy a bridge over the Etowah, a partisan known only as Hutchison detoured from his objective to make an unannounced visit with his mother. Federal scouts tracked his movements. While recrossing the Etowah River, the Federals attacked Hutchison, who fled on foot into some nearby woods with the enemy in close pursuit. One week later, Federal soldiers knocked on Hutchison?s mother?s door. They told her that her son had drowned in the river while attempting to reach Confederate lines. Upon recovering his body, the mother was shocked to discover that his head was covered in 267 blood and his skull badly fractured. Moreover, his hands were tied with his halter. He still had his hat, which would have been unlikely had he drowned. The mother claimed that Union soldiers caught and interrogated him hoping to learn the identity and location of his companions. The soldiers beat Hutchison to death after he refused to cooperate with their demands. 39 The proximity of large numbers of scouts and guerrillas instilled a sense of paranoia among Federal soldiers. They feared that attackers lurked around every corner. During the summer, for example, a small band of foragers impressed several cows from the residents of Cassville. While herding the cattle toward Kingston, the soldiers noticed that they were being followed by two girls. Initially, the soldiers ignored the girls, but upon reaching an isolated stretch of road, their insecurities overwhelmed their emotions. The girls had stopped fewer than a hundred yards from the soldiers when they began clapping their hands while shouting ?here they are, catch them, catch them.? Surrounded by a dense thicket, the soldiers panicked and ?skedaddled,? believing that the girls were signaling nearby guerrillas. Later that evening, the stolen cows wandered back into Cassville. 40 Federals lived in constant fear of such ambushes. On July 8, Jenkins Jones?s commanding officer ordered him to graze their artillery unit?s horses. Ordinarily, this duty would have been considered light, but Jones knew that grazing the horses would isolate him from the rest of his unit. After traveling as short of a distance as possible, he located an area suitable for grazing. A few minutes later, he was startled by a passing Unionist who warned him that a band of guerrillas were lurking in some nearby woods waiting to capture his horses. Jones appreciated the warning and returned to his post as 268 soon as possible. Two weeks later, he recorded in his diary that a squad of about one hundred fifty guerrillas overran a picket post and then vanished into thin air. A month later, he reported ?troublesome? rebels between Allatoona and Acworth. At this time, he suspected two missing comrades had been murdered, but he learned a few days later that these men had been taken prisoner and were in ?humane hands.? On September 1, bushwhackers killed a Union soldier, whom they ?stripped of all valuables, boots, and hat, leaving his corpse in the road, taking two others prisoners.? 41 Unionists and Confederates used the occupying army and roaming guerrillas to exact revenge upon one another. Martin Chumler was a Unionist who lived in Wolf Pen, a small community near Pine Log. He was known to have led Union soldiers on foraging expeditions. Upon discovering that a local secessionist was harboring an ill Texas soldier, Chumler arrested the soldier and attempted to transport him to the Cartersville garrison. Guerrillas found this out and intercepted him before he reached Cartersville. Chumler ran but was later captured and hanged. 42 269 Notes 1 Stephen V, Ash, When the Yankees Came: Conflict & Chaos in the Occupied South, 1861-1865 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 21-22. 2 O. P. Hargis, Thrilling Experiences of a First Georgia Cavalryman in the Civil War: Three Months Inside the Federal Lines in rear of Sherman (Atlanta: n.p., 1910), 26. 3 O.R. vol. 38, pt. 4, 492; vol. 38, pt. 5, 245; vol. 38, pt 2, 494-97. 4 T. Conn Bryan, Confederate Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1953), 242; Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone:? The Wartime Journal of Cassville?s Lizzie Gaines,? edited by Frances Josephine Black, Northwest Georgia Historical and Genealogical Quarterly 20 (1988), 6; Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 17; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 125. 5 Ash, When the Yankees Came, 77. 6 Petition of Rebecca R. Hood, SCC, (Disallowed), Claim # 2845, NARA-ATL; Jones, 264; Jones, 264. 7 Thomas A. Scott, ed., Cornerstones of Georgia History: Documents that Formed the State (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995), 97-98. 8 Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 3-4. 9 Benjamin Devor Dean, Recollections of the 26 th Missouri Infantry in the War for the Union (Lamar, Missouri: Southwest Missourian Office, 1892), 33. 10 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 58-59, 62. 11 Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 5. The men asked for the location of Oliver Vaughn?s home. Warren Akin identified Vaughn as a member of the home guard, 270 that was formed during the occupation. Vaughn probably left the county when the Union army ended its occupation, and the region returned to Confederate control. 12 O.R., vol. 38, pt 4, 634. 13 Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 6. 14 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 82-83. 15 Daily Chronicle and Sentinel, (Macon), September 13, 1864. 16 Howard, In and Out of the Lines. Howard refers to the Murchison sisters as the McDonald sisters. 17 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 50; Jones, 262. 18 Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 5. 19 Ralph W. Donnelly, ?The Bartow County Saltpetre Works,? GHQ 54 (1974), 305-19; Clarence L. Mohr, On the Threshold of Freedom: Masters and Slaves in Civil War Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986): 88, 151-55. 20 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 34, 37; Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 6; G. Barnsley to Alfred A. Marsh, March 3, 1865, Godfrey Barnsley Papers, MS# 1737, Box 14: 3, UGA, Athens. 21 Mohr, On the Threshold of Freedom, 60, 90-91, 321. 22 Ibid., 92-93. 23 Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 14. 24 Testimony of Willis McDow, SCC, (Allowed), Claim # 14920, NARA-ATL; Testimony of Nancy Russell, SCC, (Allowed), Claim # 6058, NARA-ATL. 25 Testimony of William Collins, SCC, (Allowed), NARA-ATL. 271 26 Testimony of Sarah Crow, SCC, (Allowed), Claim # 71941, NARA-ATL. Crow?s brother and two nephews eventually deserted the Confederate Army and enlisted with the Union Army in East Tennessee. 27 Testimony of Edmund S. Cook, SCC, (Allowed), NARA-ATL. Cook deserted from the Army of Tennessee following the debacle at Missionary Ridge. 28 Testimony of Mary McDonald, SCC, (Allowed), Claim # 1232, NARA-ATL. 29 Testimony of Samuel McDow, SCC, (Disallowed), Claim # 14919, NARA-ATL. 30 Testimony of William F. Corbin, SCC, (Disallowed), Claim # 3996, NARA-ATL; W. Todd Groce, Mountain Rebels. 31 Testimony of William D. Law, SCC, (Disallowed), Claim # 17825, NARA-ATL. 32 Testimony of Grandison Vaughan, SCC, (Allowed), Claim # 520, NARA-ATL. 33 Testimony of Nancy Russell, SCC, (Allowed), Claim # 6058, NARA-ATL. 34 Ash, When the Yankees Came, 76-107. 35 Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 4. 36 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 57-58. 37 Hargis, Thrilling Experiences, 24. 38 Ibid., 25. 39 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 158-64. 40 Bell Wiley, ed., Letters of Warren Akin, 28. 41 Jones, 228, 234, 243-44, 253. 272 42 Lloyd G. Marlin, The History of Cherokee County (Atlanta: Walter W. Brown, 1932), 75. 273 CHAPTER EIGHT THE WAR AT HOME: FALL 1864-SPRING 1865 This chapter examines phases two and three of the Federal occupation of Bartow County. Phase two, lasting from the summer into early November, witnessed a significant rise in local resistance as partisans poured into the county. The ranks of these groups increased as local militia members, Confederate deserters, and men who had previously never belonged to any organized military unit swelled their ranks. Ambushes, executions, and arson frequently occurred during this phase as Federal troops and a small number of Unionist home guards waged a guerrilla was with an array of Confederate scouts, militiamen, and partisans. Women continued to play a major role during this period, serving as couriers, scouts, spies, and nurses. The second phase engendered a level of hatred expressed by the occupying army toward Bartow civilians that ultimately led to the complete destruction of the county seat, Cassville. The third and final phase began when the Union occupation ended and the March to the Sea commenced. The Federal pullout created a power vacuum within Bartow County that fostered a ?War of Another Kind.? It became difficult to distinguish combatants from civilians. The Confederacy attempted to reassert its authority throughout the region, but the scars of occupation combined with a serve bout of war weariness and disillusionment led the county down a treacherous path toward anarchy. 274 The efforts of General William T. Wofford perhaps saved the county from imploding into a civil war within the Civil War. The fall of Atlanta signaled the beginning of the end for the Confederacy, yet the fledgling nation managed to sustain itself for another eight months. Some Bartow Countians such as Rebecca Felton and William Chunn believed that the Army of Tennessee would never surrender Atlanta. While serving in that city?s trenches, Chunn told his wife that the army?s morale had never been better and that he expected them to regain all of the valuable farm land they had abandoned during the spring. Several poorly executed Confederate assaults combined with the enemy?s superior numbers, firepower, and well-timed flanking maneuvers dashed his hopes. Writing from Palmetto a month after abandoning the city, Chunn, for the first time, stated that defeat was imminent and unavoidable. 1 The strategy employed by General John B. Hood after the fall of Atlanta directly impacted Bartow County. His plan involved marching the Army of Tennessee into northwest Georgia to strike Sherman?s supply lines. If successful, Hood would force the Federals to abandon Atlanta and pursue him into northern Alabama. If Sherman did not take the bait, the Army of Tennessee could then attack his rear. Sherman fell back to secure his lines. Hood?s movements pulled additional Federal troops into Bartow County. Sherman moved his entire army, minus the XX Army Corps, into northwest Georgia, reinforcing garrisons scattered along the W&A. On October 4, Confederates captured the Big Shanty garrison. Moving northward, they captured Acworth, destroying several miles of track between the two garrisons. General Samuel G. French received orders from Hood to take his division and capture the Federal fortifications located along Allatoona Pass, fill the railroad pass with debris, and then 275 march northward to burn the Etowah River bridge. The Federal position at Allatoona Pass was strong. During the occupation, Sherman had ordered the construction of two forts situated on the east and west ridges that overlooked the steep railroad pass. The western Star fort sat along the Alabama Road. The eastern fort blocked the Tennessee Road. A wooden planked footbridge extending across the pass connected the two positions. Observing Confederate movements from atop Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman believed that Hood would strike Allatoona and then move toward Rome. If he could stop the Confederate advance at Allatoona, he believed that he could avoid any subsequent confrontations in front of Rome. Therefore, he ordered Brigadier General John Corse?s 4 th Division, XIV Corps, garrisoned in Rome, to reinforce the 976 soldiers who currently held the pass. Through the use of two railroad lines, Corse arrived with a single brigade at Allatoona one hour before French launched his assault. 2 At 1:30 A.M., Confederates advanced upon the Federal picket lines consisting of men from the 93 rd Illinois Infantry Regiment. French?s assault pushed the pickets back into the main body of their regiment and successfully drove it into the fort. Corse ordered the 18 th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment to reinforce that line. The 18 th Wisconsin, minus two companies who were stationed at the Etowah Bridge block house, took heavy fire from the enemy but delayed the enemy advance until dawn. As the day?s first light appeared above the horizon, the Confederates outflanked the 18 th Wisconsin?s position, forcing the regiment to retreat into well-prepared earthen fortifications. At 6:30 A.M., Confederate artillery bombarded the fortifications with little effect. Confident that his forces would prevail, French sent a message to Corse under a flag of truce demanding the 276 fort?s surrender. After briefly reviewing French?s demands, Corse ?respectfully? refused to surrender. Anticipating the coming assault, Corse hurriedly redistributed his command throughout the two forts. 3 Two hours later, the Confederates resumed their advance from the north and the west. Young?s brigade of Texans?approximately 1,900 strong?charged the 39 th Ninth Iowa and 17 th Illinois Infantry, stationed along the Alabama Road. The Texans pushed the Federals several hundred yards into a prepared redoubt defended by Colonel Richard Rowett, 7 th Illinois Infantry Regiment. Protected by the redoubt, the reformed Federals fired a series of volley?s into the hastily advancing Texans causing numerous casualties and temporarily checked their movements. While Rowett?s men checked the Confederate?s advance along the Alabama Road, a new threat soon revealed itself as another brigade of Confederates attacked the western portion of the pass from the north. Two infantry companies and an assortment of pickets fell back as the Confederates pressed the Federals. The situation looked dire as the advancing brigade threatened to overtake the Federals before they could retreat into the star fort. Flanking fire from the 4 th Minnesota Infantry Regiment, however, briefly stalled the advancing rebels who had never realized that their rapid advance had exposed their left flank. While the rebels regrouped, Corse sent a staff officer across the foot bridge with orders to receive reinforcements from the eastern fort. Meanwhile, along the Alabama Road, Confederate units reformed and slammed into Rowett?s redoubt, engulfing its defenders before the much needed reinforcements arrived. Fierce hand-to-hand combat broke out in this section, as the 39 th Iowa Infantry sacrificed numerous casualties in a last ditch effort to buy the western fort time. Due to 277 their efforts, the 7 th and 93 rd Illinois Infantry and what was left of the 39 th Iowa were able to retreat into the relative safety of the star fort. Under intense fire, these outnumbered units successfully staved off a series of rebel advances for nearly three hours. In his report, Corse commented that ?the extraordinary valor of the men and officers of this regiment and of the Seventh Illinois saved to us Allatoona.? 4 Disorganized due their repeated unsuccessful frontal assaults, the Confederates failed to take the fort. Unable to fully retreat, many remained in small groups or individually hiding behind tree stumps and in hollows firing upon the fort with great effect while taking advantage of their improvised cover. Fire from the north, south, and west completely enfiladed the fort making it nearly impossible for the Federals to seek cover behind their parapets. With their men pinned down, ?officers,? wrote Corse, ?labored constantly to stimulate the men to exertion, and most all that were killed or wounded in the fort met this fate while trying to get all the men to expose themselves above the parapet.? 5 At 1:00 P.M., a rifle ball struck him, knocking him senseless for nearly an hour. The bodies of the ?dead and dying? soon filled the fort as the situation seemed hopeless. Only the overwhelming fire of the 12 th Wisconsin Artillery prevented the charging rebels from overtaking the position. While regaining consciousness, Corse heard his men shouting ?cease fire! cease fire!? It appeared to him that some of his men intended to surrender. As he looked around him, most of his soldiers were hiding behind the parapets refusing to expose themselves to the enemy fire. The artillery had been silenced due to a lack of ammunition. Corse ordered his few remaining staff officers and a handful of privates scattered around him to renew the fight. To their peril, the staff officers raised their guns 278 above the parapets exposing themselves to the enemy. Their example helped rally the troops as Corse encouraged the men that Sherman would soon join the fight. Meanwhile, the commander sent a brave artillerist across the foot bridge to secure ammunition. Upon his return, the battery resumed its murderous fire slowly thinning the enemy?s ranks. The Confederates attempted to reform their lines for a last ditch assault, but the artillery fire from the fort caused ?great confusion? that made ?it impossible for the enemy to rally.? After more than twelve hours of heated battle, the Confederates withdrew toward New Hope Church, fearing the imminent arrival of Federal reinforcements. 6 The Battle of Allatoona Pass was ?a useless effusion of blood.? Approximately, 30 percent of the 5,300 Union and Confederate soldiers engaged in the battle were either killed, wounded, or listed as missing. The Confederates suffered greater casualties? 900?than did the Federals 703. French?s division failed to achieve any of the battle?s original objectives. In fact, even had he managed to capture the pass, it would have unlikely that he would have had time to either fill it with debris or burn the Etowah Bridge due to the close proximity of Federal reinforcements. For Hood, the Battle of Allatoona Pass proved to be the first in a long line of poorly planned and executed strategies employed following the fall of Atlanta. * * * * * * * * * * * On October 6, Sherman established his headquarters in Kingston at the Hargis house, located near the train depot. As during the previous May, tens of thousands of Federal soldiers poured through the county, looting civilian homes wherever they passed. 279 For four days, from October 10 until the thirteenth, the bulk of the Union army marched through Cassville, stripping the already decimated town bare of all livestock, feed, and horses. On October 12, soldiers pushed aside the Federal guard that had been placed at Woodlands to protect Godfrey Barnsley?s and proceeded to ransack the estate causing more damage than the Army of the Cumberland had done six months earlier. The depressed owner lamented the fact that the wealth that he had worked a lifetime to build had vanished over the course of a single afternoon. In October, the number of guerrilla attacks upon Federal soldiers increased. Irregulars targeted Union foragers who frequently operated miles from their fortified garrison. On October 9, bushwhackers attacked a detachment of the 100 th Indiana sent into the countryside to gather firewood. The partisans surrounded the men forcing them to surrender. As the attackers began executing the soldiers, Private Charles Ellis, Co. B, dropped his rifle to the ground and pleaded with the guerrillas to spare his life. They shot him at point blank range despite his pleas. The following morning Theodore Upson of the same regiment discovered the bodies of several civilians hanged for the attacks. Their executioners pinned a placard on each corpse which read: This done in retaliation for the unwarranted attack made upon my foragers yesterday. Any repetition of this offense will be similarly punished, and in addition, all buildings upon ten square miles of the adjacent territory will be destroyed. W. T. Sherman, General Commanding. A series of events incidents in Cassville during the month of October. On October 12, a Federal ambulance passing through the town broke down. Unable to repair the wagon, the driver set up camp for the night. As the evening progressed, nine Union 280 stragglers joined the driver, drawn toward his camp by its warm fire. That night, an unidentified band of guerrillas killed the ten men while they slept. The following morning, the advanced guard of the XVII Corps found the driver with a bayonet protruding from his chest. Federal personnel stationed at the Female College awoke to find the bodies of nine soldiers that had been dumped over a fence onto the grounds. 7 The way the ten soldiers died deeply angered Federal commanders. Members of the Brigadier General Kenner Garrard?s 2 nd Division Cavalry burned the Cherokee Baptist and Female colleges and the homes of Nathan Land and Dr. Thomas Rambant, president of the college, in retaliation for these murders. 8 On October 29, Federal soldiers informed the residents of Cassville that they would have to relocate. The following morning, Colonel T. T. Heath and the 5 th Ohio Cavalry arrived with wagons to help three families move their belongings. The 5 th Ohio?s orders demanded that they ?permit the citizens to remove what they desire, and burn the town, after which you will proceed to Cassville and make the same disposition as at Canton.? 9 On the afternoon of November 5, the 5 th Ohio ordered the remaining civilians to leave town immediately and then proceeded to burn Cassville. The soldiers watched as towering flames spewed a dark black smoke into the clear blue sky. Frightened residents pleaded with soldiers to put out the blaze before it reached their home, but the cavalrymen followed their orders and refrained some aiding any civilian. Fire claimed the property of every Cassville resident, regardless of their political beliefs, except three. Indeed, one of the first homes destroyed belonged to well known Unionist William Sylar. 10 281 As flames consumed the town?s structures, soldiers plundered homes and businesses often running into smoke filled buildings searching for remaining valuables. Glass from broken lamps, dishes, and windows littered the town?s streets. Most residents who remained behind to watch the blaze, according to one account, conducted themselves ?with the greatest composure. Some made no attempt to save anything, but with the reckless calm of desperation, sat quietly and watched their homes go up in smoke.? 11 As the sun set upon a blackened sky, a chilling rain mixed with sleet descended upon the smoldering town. Lizzie Gaines watched as ?dark threatening clouds, which hung suspended for a while over the doomed spot, and then seemed to melt away in tears of grief. It appeared as if nature were weeping over the sad fate of Cassville.? 12 Most of the town?s women and children endured the rain and sleet while remaining outside of their charred homes guarding their few remaining possessions. A few stables and churches survived the fire, but few wanted to sleep in stables because they feared that the soldiers might return and set fire to them while they slept. A few other families sought refuge from the storm in the town cemetery. Six months before, the center of the Confederate line stretched across this ground, abandoned breastworks marked the site. The desperate civilians occupied the abandoned entrenchments. In the spring of 1861, Cassville resident John F. Milhollin had enlisted in the Confederate Army, confident that God had ordained secession. He died in combat while serving in the Army of Northern Virginia. On November 5, his wife and her six children watched as Union soldiers torched their home. That night, the family huddled together in the cemetery using planks from their father?s fresh gravesite and several heavy quilts to construct a makeshift shelter against a wrought iron fence. As the family endured the 282 cold and rain, they could see the glowing embers of the decimated home glittering a few hundred yards away. The soldier?s fourteen-year-old son spent the next morning searching the countryside for a suitable dwelling. Four miles outside of town, the man of the house located an abandoned slave cabin on the Saxon plantation that would function as the family?s home for months. 13 Sherman watched the smoke rise from Cassville from his Kingston headquarters. He had not personally ordered the town?s destruction; Brigadier General John E. Smith wrote the order. Indeed, four days later, Sherman demanded that guerrillas return Union prisoners, or else Kingston, Cassville, and Cartersville would be burned. Cassville already lay in ruins. The commander included the town to provide ?post facto? validity to Smith?s October 30 order. The Federal Army ultimately destroyed Cassville because the town actively aided and abetted guerrillas. A majority of people in town supported the Confederacy. Union soldiers regarded Cassville as ?a hot bed of saboteurs.? According to Warren Akin, only two Unionists lived in the town. Since the town lacked a garrison and was located along several critical roads, partisans and Confederate scouts moved in and out of the area with little resistance. A member of the 1 st Georgia Cavalry reported that locals regularly fed, hid, and provided information to both scouts and irregulars. Three days after the burning of Cassville, Captain Abraham Tate?s scouts struck a squadron of foragers belonging to the 74 th Indiana Infantry Regiment. They captured seven and wounded two Union soldiers. The ambush took place near the home of Unionist Berry Houk who afterwards carried one of the wounded men back to his command. Upon learning of the attack, Sherman, believing it was the work of guerrillas, 283 ordered the arrest of six to eight suspected partisan supporters. After their arrest, he released two of them to warn guerrillas to either release the soldiers, or Kingston, Cartersville, and Cassville would be burned, as well as the homes of those arrested. On November 9, XIV Corps dispatched a regiment into the area. Their orders included seizing some citizens, and then releasing one of them to warn to return the soldiers by noon the next day. If the soldiers were not returned by that time, the regiment was instructed to burn a dozen homes. Anxious to capture the irregulars, Sherman instructed Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Morgan of the 74 th Indiana Infantry to conduct a ?guerrilla hunt.? Unionists provided him with a list of suspected partisans as well as a hand-drawn map showing their residences and hide-outs. Within a few hours, Federals arrested six men?a Mr. Kelly, William Crow, Berry Houk, Wash Henderson, Lindsey Hendricks, and Captain James Hendricks. Soldiers interrogated Hendricks, who admitted that he belonged to the First Georgia Cavalry and that his unit had been involved in the ambush. He subsequently confessed that his men had killed two soldiers and a ?Negro? during the fight. Hendricks also revealed that the seven prisoners-of-war had been transported to Athens. In an effort to secure his release, he promised Morgan that if he was freed he would travel to Athens and secure their release. He also promised to free thirty-one prisoners scattered throughout north Georgia. Morgan rejected the offer. Morgan?s ?guerrilla hunt? continued to scour the countryside searching for a partisan named Madison Denman. Like many irregulars operating in Bartow County, he had once served in the Confederate army. When Federals failed to locate Denman, they burned his house along with those of neighbors Lindsay Hendricks and Washington 284 Henderson. In a thicket a few hundred yards from his blazing home, Denman and several of his men watched and waited for an opportunity to pounce upon Morgan?s troops. As the Federals returned to their garrison, partisans attacked their passing causing minimal damage before quickly retiring into the dense woods. For several miles, the Federals could hear Denman?s horsemen shadowing their movements, but as the troops moved closer to Kingston, the likelihood of an attack decreased. At Kingston, Morgan questioned five of the six men that had been captured earlier that day. He soon realized that his soldiers had mistakenly arrested Berry Houk, a known Union man who had previously supplied the Federals with information. Morgan tried to hide the Unionist?s loyalties from his fellow inmates, but these efforts failed. After his release, Warren Akin questioned Houk?s devotion to the Confederacy and hoped that scouts would hang him. Fearing his personal safety, Houk headed toward east Tennessee, leaving his wife and children behind. Weeks later, some of the irregulars who had been arrested with Houk accused the Unionist?s wife of leading the Federals to Denman?s house. 14 * * * * * * * * * * * On November 2, Grant approved Sherman?s March to the Sea proposal. The beginning movements of this campaign marked the end of the Federal occupation of Bartow County and opened the third phase. Ten days later, the commander abandoned his Kingston headquarters. As the last train passed through the county, Union soldiers destroyed the railroad and telegraph lines. The following morning, Federals burned 285 Kingston and several homes in Cartersville. A soldier ordered to spread the blaze commented that ?most of the families have either gone north or south, but a few, from some cause, have failed to get away and now they are weeping over their burning homes. The sight is grand but almost heartrending.? 15 The Athens Southern Banner called upon refugees from northwest Georgia who had settled in that city to return to their farms and plant a substantial wheat crop. 16 Julia Barnsley, living in Augusta, resisted the urge to return because her father?s letters had emphasized the devastation. Rebecca Felton missed her Cartersville home but did not know whether or not her house had been destroyed. Mary Akin wrote her husband about her plans to come back to Cassville despite the loss of her home. He responded to her and other refugees to refrain from returning since a majority of the homes and mills had been razed. ?I have learned,? wrote Akin, ?that many persons have returned to our section of Georgia, and I fear have gone too soon. . . . I have no idea of seeing where my house once stood until the war is over, if I do then. From all I can learn there must be great destitution in that section of Georgia. No hogs, cows, or sheep. How are the people to be fed?? 17 Colonel Hawkins Price, who had served as a county delegate to the state secession convention, regretted coming back to Cassville since he could not locate any place to purchase much needed supplies in the decimated town. 18 Starvation threatened the lives of all who remained in Bartow County. The county had raised little corn or wheat during that year?s harvest. Most of what had been planted had been impressed by Federal, Confederate, or partisan forces. A few mills escaped the torch, but most residents had nothing for the grindstone. As the spring planting season approached, farmers lacked seed and draft animals capable of breaking 286 the soil. Only a handful of cows, swine, chickens, and sheep remained in most of the towns. Shortages of salt curtailed winter slaughtering. Residents depended upon trapping rabbits and hunting opossums, deer, and squirrels for food. The end of the Federal occupation removed the sole source of local authority, creating a power vacuum as the county spiraled dangerously toward anarchy. In the wake of the occupation, a lawless consortium of thieves, ruffians, and deserters descended upon the populace like locusts upon a wheat field. They preyed upon vulnerable female-headed households and unarmed travelers. Hiding in nearby wooded areas, caves, and swamps during the day, they used the cover of darkness to conceal their actions. A scheme commonly employed involved donning Confederate uniforms and presenting themselves to women as malnourished soldiers in desperate need of a Good Samaritan. Many of the women had husbands, sons, and brothers serving in the Confederate army. From their letters, they read horrifying depictions of the poor conditions that existed within camps or defensive lines such as those surrounding Petersburg. Eager to help a soldier in need and hopeful that women elsewhere were doing the same for their loved ones, women opened their homes to these deceptive wolves in sheep?s clothing. Once inside, the outlaws held the women and children at gunpoint, demanding money, jewelry, and food in exchange for not burning the home or physically assaulting its inhabitants. Numerous partisan groups also operated in Bartow County during and after the occupation, including Jack Colquit?s scouts, Aycock?s scouts, J. Woodville Baker?s scouts, Abraham Tate?s scouts, Matt Moore?s scouts, John Gatewood?s scouts, John Prior?s scouts, Woody?s scouts, Lillard?s scouts, Benjamin McCollum?s scouts, and 287 Jordan?s Gang. Dozens of others small bands of deserters, stragglers, and vagabonds existed within the area, but their names are unknown. Additional research is necessary in order to reconstruct the rosters and scope of activities of north Georgia?s irregular units. 19 Captain Charles W. Howard returned to Spring Bank in January 1865 after recovering from a wound received during the Battle of Atlanta. Shortly after his arrival, a small group of men dressed in Confederate uniforms stormed into his home after his wife offered them some food. The men claimed to be cavalry scouts, but probably either belonged to John Gatewood or Jack Colquitt?s partisans, who had been active in the area. Unaware of Howard?s presence, the thieves began emptying drawers in the family?s parlor searching for valuables. When the veteran entered the room still wearing his captain?s uniform from the 63 rd Georgia, the robbers fled into the night. Their flight was short-lived, however, as they stumbled upon a tenant home located on Howard?s property. The miller who worked at Howard?s mill, along with his family, lived in the former tenant farm house. The irregulars broke into the home at gun point startling the residents. Panicked, the miller?s wife offered to do anything for the men in exchange for the safety of her family. The partisans calmly sat at their dinner table and ordered the woman to cook them dinner. That night, the supposed scouts slept on the family?s beds while the miller and his wife spent a restless night on the floor. 20 Jack Colquitt?s partisans preyed upon the residents of Bartow, Polk, and Floyd County. Colquitt had connections to the region. Prior to the war, he had married the daughter of a Polk County merchant, Jerry Isbell, but nothing else about Colquitt?s early life is known. His tactics frequently included mock executions designed to force their targets to reveal hidden valuables. When Rome Judge Lewis D. Burwell refused to 288 reveal the location of a stash of gold he had hidden for a local Jewish merchant, Colquitt tied a noose around the jurist?s neck and hanged the man until he finally disclosed its whereabouts. Colquitt?s reign of terror eventually cost him his life. Shortly after the incident with Judge Burwell, his company murdered H. M. Prior of Cedartown. Prior?s three sons swore revenge. After several weeks spent tracking Colquitt across portions of northwest Georgia, they ambushed the scouts, killing the leader and seven others. Had the Prior boys not caught up with the guerrilla leader, he would likely have been killed by members of J. Woodville Baker?s scouts, whose leader he killed ?over the ownership of a mule? weeks earlier. 21 Partisans regularly targeted Unionists. Cartersville resident Richard Chitwood initially supported secession. Four of his brothers enlisted in the Confederate army. Sometime during the war, he became disenchanted with the Confederacy and developed a reputation for being a Union man. During the last weeks of the Federal occupation, Benjamin McCullom?s band raided Chitwood?s farm, stealing two horses. Through the use of a courier, the guerrillas notified him that if he traveled to their camp located near Canton that he could recover his property. Desperately in need of those horses, Chitwood made the twenty-plus mile journey only to be detained by the scouts who tried to persuade him to join their ranks. He refused but negotiated his release in exchange for a suit of clothes. 22 Unionists who had served as guides, scouts, informants, and foragers for the occupation army lived in constant fear of pro-Confederate guerrillas. McCullom?s partisans routinely executed their victims. Jim Pitts served as a guide for Federal cavalry 289 during the occupation. When the irregulars captured him, they transported him several dozen miles to Pine Log where they lynched him while forcing a local minister read the 23 rd Psalms. On several occasions, McCullom?s men captured Unionists, carried them to their camp located along the Etowah River, and placed their hostages on horseback before shooting them off the horses, watching the dead body fall down the riverbank into the water. 23 In defiant gasps of devotion, hundreds of Bartow County soldiers remained with the Confederate army. In Virginia, Brigadier General William T. Wofford maintained his loyalty to the cause. Since the beginning of the war, Wofford had experienced tremendous personal tragedy. While commanding the 8 th Georgia Infantry and eventually Wofford?s Brigade, he watched as dozens of young men fall in battle or succumb to disease. Personally, he and his wife dealt with the tragedy of losing two infant children to disease. On November 6, the 5 th Ohio Cavalry burned his home leaving his wife temporarily homeless. At that time, Wofford had been granted an extended medical leave to recover from wounds while serving in the defense of the Shenandoah Valley and was staying with friends in Murray County. Wofford traveled to Cassville shortly after the end of the occupation. After a few days, he informed Akin of the situation: Bands of robbers are going through the country and taking anything they want and killing who they please. . . . There is no law of any kind in that section. . . . There is corn on the Etowah River, in Cherokee County, but there is no way of hauling it. The horses are all gone, and nearly everything else, and the people are suffering much. 24 290 Robbers with blackened faces stormed into Samuel McDow?s home. While holding him at gunpoint, they took his wife into every room in the house forcing her to empty all of her drawers removing any money or valuables. Wofford believed that the thieves who had robbed McDow and numerous other families were primarily Confederate deserters who were roaming the countryside in small independent bands. Throughout 1864, according to Mark Weitz, ?when soldiers from [Bartow County] were faced with the choice of going home to help families and communities ravaged by war or moving on to continue the Confederacy?s war, they went home.? 25 Some deserters did not go home. Some remained in northwest Georgia. For example, Jack Colquitt?s scouts consisted of stragglers from the 11 th Texas Cavalry who had served in Major General Joseph Wheeler?s Cavalry Corps during the Atlanta Campaign. Regardless of their origin, Wofford knew that roaming deserters damaged both the Confederate war effort and local morale. If given an opportunity, he believed, that ?he could likely reclaim many of these men for the military.? 26 In late December, Wofford returned to the Army of Northern Virginia, trapped in the trenches outside of Petersburg. After bidding farewell to his officers and men, he left for Richmond where he petitioned President Jefferson Davis for an independent command in North Georgia. The overcrowded capital lacked any available hotel or boarding house vacancies. Fortunately for Wofford, Warren Akin, who at the time was serving in the Confederate House of Representatives, had secured a room at George Washington Gretter?s boarding house. 27 On January 4, Wofford and Akin met with Davis in order to discuss the organization of a new department to protect the people of North Georgia against bands of 291 thieves and deserters. Davis agreed with the men that the region needed a permanent force that could discourage crime and arrest deserters but required that Wofford get permission from his commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia before creating the department. General Robert E. Lee reluctantly accepted his request, commenting that ?I do not know what duty is designed for Gen?l Wofford. He is a brave and gallant officer & I regret to part with him. If the duty in which he is to engage in is considered of more importance than with his brigade I make no objection.? 28 In late January, Wofford returned to Bartow County to assume command of the Department of North Georgia. His army consisted of numerous officers and soldiers that had previously served under him in the 18 th Georgia Infantry Regiment and Wofford?s Brigade. Soldiers who had received a furlough from the Army of Northern Virginia but found themselves cut off from their unit were allowed to instead remain in Georgia by joining Wofford?s command. The general approached his new command with the same level of discipline that he had administered while serving in the Army of Northern Virginia. As soon as his force converged upon Atlanta, he promptly organized them into more efficient units and began an intense period of drill instruction. The Department of North Georgia?s mobilization attracted criticism from Brigadier General G. T. Anderson, who feared that Wofford?s force might increase the number of desertions among Georgia regiments. Since its inception, Anderson felt that the department?s commanders had abused their authority and mandate by inducing soldiers to desert their original units in favor of serving closer to home. 29 Lieutenant General James Longstreet also worried about increased desertions among Georgia soldiers: 292 The impression prevails among the Georgia troops of this command that persons at home, having authority to raise local organizations, are writing and sending messages to the men in the ranks here, offering inducements to them to quit our ranks and go home and join the home organizations. The large and increasing number of desertions, particularly amongst the Georgia troops, induce me to believe that some such outside influence must be operating upon our men. Nearly all of the parties of deserters seem to go home, and it must be under the influence of some promise. 30 Neither Longstreet nor Anderson accused Wofford of inciting mass desertions. The new command, nevertheless, presented a significant number of Georgia soldiers serving in Virginia with an honorable alternative to their current service. After all, if a soldier rejoined a unit closer to home, was he truly a deserter? By 1865, thousands of Georgia soldiers, including over two hundred Bartow Countians serving in the Army of Northern Virginia, questioned the logic of defending Virginia while their homes and families required their attention. 31 Nationally, desertion hastened the Confederacy?s eventual defeat. Locally, the return of large numbers of military aged males to their homes and families helped rescue Bartow County from being conquered by the ?bitter dregs of war.? Ultimately, Bartow County benefited from the Confederacy?s loss. 32 The formation of the Department of North Georgia and the return of numerous deserters to their homes combined to diminish the impact of lawless bands preying upon Bartow County civilians. Wofford divided his force into small units that effectively patrolled major roads in the area. Informants provided these soldiers with the intelligence necessary to track down guerrilla outposts and hideouts. Capturing guerillas and deserters proved to be an arduous undertaking. While his command arrested several hundred of these individuals, a much larger number remained beyond their reach. The 293 force?s presence, nevertheless, helped keep most of these outlaws running than attacking civilians. While Wofford scoured the countryside searching for deserters and criminals, he maintained amicable relations with Union Major General George H. Thomas, who commanded the closest enemy forces stationed in east Tennessee. After arresting a member of John Gatewood?s partisans in northeast Georgia, Wofford learned that this band planned to strike the railroad near Knoxville. The commander became concerned that if the raid took place, Thomas might retaliate by raiding north Georgia. Rather than face that scenario, he dispatched, under a white flag, a courier to Union headquarters to inform the ?Rock of Chickamauga? of the raid. His decision proved wise, as Thomas had become concerned that Wofford might have been planning a raid into east Tennessee. If that occurred, the Union commander promised north Georgia citizens he would ?so despoil Georgia that 50 years hence it will be a wilderness.? Wofford?s forthright sharing of intelligence assured that the Union commander would not carry out those threats. 33 Wofford lacked the will to fight with the Union army when so many north Georgians were on the verge of starvation. According to official reports, during the spring of 1865, 62 percent of the inhabitants of Bartow County lacked enough food and supplies to get through the spring. The state of Georgia had purchased $800,000 worth of corn during the previous fall specifically intended to be distributed to north Georgia civilians. Much of this corn was warehoused in Marietta and various depots scattered along the W&A. Wofford appreciated the corn but worried that, during transport, it might be captured by lawless bands of thieves and deserters. The railroad between Cassville and Dalton was still inoperable, and the only way to distribute the corn was 294 through the use of horse drawn wagons. Those caravans required armed guards in order to fend off potential attackers. Wofford wanted his forces to supervise the distribution of this much needed corn, but to do so might attract the suspicions of nearby the nearby Union army. To avoid any confrontation, the general traveled to Dalton where he met with Brigadier General Benjamin M. Judah to gain the enemy?s permission to escort those wagons. At that meeting, Judah permitted Wofford to send wagons behind Federal lines to supply starving families. In exchange, the Confederate general agreed to keep his main forces south of the Etowah River. Wofford and Judah?s meeting in Dalton occurred three days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia. The Department of North Georgia remained active for a time, receiving orders from the Army of Tennessee and the fleeing Confederate government. Judah wanted Wofford to surrender as soon as possible, but the general delayed that action since so many lawless groups still roamed the region and because Johnston?s army remained in the field. On April 21, the commander received word that Johnston had surrendered in North Carolina. He promptly dispatched a courier to Judah with a message proposing to arrange a peace conference in Resaca on May 8. ?I would have proposed an earlier day,? explained Wofford, ?but I am en route to one of the upper counties, where I have an appointment to meet some men who have been bushwhacking, to the terror and injury of our unfortunate people.? 34 On May 2, Wofford surrendered the Department of North Georgia to Judah. On May 12, the opposing generals met at the McCravey-Johnson house in Kingston where the formal surrender was tendered. Wofford called upon all soldiers currently living in the region whether they were actively serving with a Confederate to travel to Kingston to 295 be paroled. By May 20, approximately 4,000 soldiers made their way to Kingston. A soldier described the scene: The day of the parole, I saw the motliest crew I have seen before or since. These so-called scouts were strutting around with broad-rimmed hats, long hair and jingling spurs. You could see the old ?moss back? who had crept out of his cave. You would find groups of sad-looking men who had followed Lee, Jackson, Johnston, and Wheeler through the war. Some of them carried mud and dust of 5 or 6 states on their old clothes. From all over north Georgia and north Alabama they gathered at Kingston. 35 Most soldiers lacked shoes, food, and money. The Union Army distributed rations to the men and provided many with temporary employment repairing the damaged W&A. 36 The Civil War had ended, much to the relief of many Bartow Countians, but the area still needed protection from lawless bands of outlaws. Wofford telegraphed Thomas requesting that Judah leave a portion of his army in the county to protect civilians from further attacks. The commander consented to the request and stationed regiments in Adairsville, Kingston, Cartersville, and Cassville. As Reconstruction began, civilians embarked upon a new era of struggle and deprivation as they rebuilt their tattered lives and communities. 296 Notes 1 William A. Chunn to Elizabeth Word Chunn, August 2, 1864, Chunn-Land Papers, MS# 44-101, Box 1:2, GDAH, Morrow. Chunn told his mother that if the army could prevent Sherman from taking Atlanta until after the presidential election that the war might end with a negotiated peace. His letters as well as those of Rebecca Felton, Godfrey Barnsley, and Charles W. Howard illustrate James M. McPherson?s conclusions that most Civil War soldiers ?were intensely aware of the issues at stake and passionately concerned about them.? McPherson, What They Fought For, 4. 2 O. R. I, vol. 39, I, 748. 3 O. R. I, vol. 39, I, 748-66. 4 O. R. I, vol. 39, I, 764. 5 O. R. I, vol. 39, I, 765. 6 Ibid. 7 Williams, Rich Man?s War, 74-75; Mahan, Cassville, 104-05; Bell Wiley, ed., The Letters of Warren Akin, 30; Wills, 112, Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 6. 8 Mrs. William A. Chunn to Mrs. E. W. Chunn, November 14, 1864, Chunn-Land Papers, M# 44-101, Box 4:2, GDAH, Morrow; Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 6. 9 O. R. I, vol. 39, pt. 3, 513. 10 The fire destroyed the Bartow County courthouse which contained the county?s antebellum court records. Fire destroyed the superior court?s records. Fortunately, the inferior court clerk removed the court?s records prior to the Atlanta Campaign. After the 297 war, the court paid B. O. Crawford $169.00 for saving these records. Bartow County, Inferior Court Minutes 1865-1868, [microfilm], Drawer 166:54, GDAH, Morrow. 11 Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 6; Wiley, ed. The Letters of Warren Akin, 54; Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 173. 12 Gaines, ?We Begged to Hearts of Stone,? 6; Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 75. 13 Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 76-77; Mahan, Cassville, 109; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 83. 14 Wiley, ed. Letters of Warren Akin, 61; Testimony of Berry Houk, SCC, (Disallowed), Claim # 802, GDAH, Morrow. 15 Styles Porter Diary, Ohio Historical Society; Kennett, March to the Sea, 228- 33; Castel, Atlanta Campaign, 554. 16 Southern Banner, (Athens), December 14, 1864. 17 Wiley, ed. The Letters of Warren Akin, 48; Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 78. 18 Wiley, ed. The Letters of Warren Akin, 65, 138. 19 Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 85; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 248; Smith, The Most Daring of Men, 140. 20 Howard, In and Out of the Lines, 153; Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 85. 21 Manuscript Census, Polk County, Georgia, 1860, H. M. Prior Household; Battey, A History of Rome and Floyd County, 206-08; Gordon D. Sargent, ?Bloody 298 Legacy in Polk: A Frontier Family and Some Prior Commitments,? North Georgia Journal (1995), 36-43; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 248-49; Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 86. J. Woodville Baker assumed command of Abraham Tate?s scouts following their leader?s resignation. 22 Testimony of Richard Chitwood, Southern Claims Commission, (Disallowed), Claim # 121, NARA-ATL. 23 Ibid.; Southern Banner, (Athens), February 15, 1865; Marlin, The History of Cherokee County, 73-77. 24 Smith, The Most Daring of Men, 132. 25 Weitz, A Higher Duty, 79. 26 Smith, The Most Daring of Men, 133. 27 Wiley, Letters of Warren Akin, 148; Smith, The Most Daring of Men, 133; Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 89. 28 Smith, The Most Daring of Men, 135. 29 O. R. I, vol. 46, pt. 3, 1356. 30 O. R. I, vol. 46, pt. 3, 1355. 31 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 820-21. On desertion in the Army of Tennessee during this time, see Pete Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee, 107, 114, 136-38; and Mark A. Weitz, A Higher Duty. 32 Ralph Mann argued ?The national and professional orientations of Confederate officers, reinforced by class and cultural biases, precluded their understanding these men, and so they lost them?just as, on a larger scale, a failure to understand the power of 299 localism was fatal to the Confederacy.? In his study of Sand Lick, Virginia, Mann discovered that localism trumped nationalism in the minds of many Confederate soldiers when their homes came under attack from real and perceived threats. Localism certainly influenced many deserters? decisions to serve in Wofford?s command rather than remain with their original companies. Ralph Mann, ??Ezekiel Counts?s Sand Lick Company: Civil War and Localism in the Mountain South,? in Kenneth W. Noe and Shannon H. Wilson, eds. The Civil War in Appalachia: Collected Essays (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997), 78-103, quote located on 98-99. 33 O. R. I, vol. 49, II, 396, 456, 469. 34 O. R. I, vol. 49, II, 488. 35 Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 90; Robert MaGill, Personal Reminiscences of a Confederate Soldier Boy (Milledgeville: Boyd, 1993), 66. 36 Hamilton, ?Union Occupation of Bartow County,? 90; Smith, The Most Daring of Men, 145-46; O. R. I, vol. 49, II, 723-24. 300 CHAPTER NINE RECONSTRUCTION: 1865-1872 After surviving a near fatal bout of dysentery while imprisoned at Camp Chase, Ohio, John King of the 40 th Georgia Infantry Regiment returned to Bartow County hoping to reunite with his family. He discovered that ?Sherman?s force of invading plunderers had swept over the beautiful valley and green hills of my native land and . . . left utter ruin and desolation.? King?s father had left home prior to the Atlanta Campaign, having located a safe haven in nearby Canton. For nearly a year, he heard nothing about his son?s condition besides learning that he had been captured by the enemy near Seviersville, Tennessee. Since two neighbors had sons who died as prisoners-of-war, he too expected the worst. So when the son appeared early one March morning, the father openly wept as he praised God. But all was not well. ?The year eighteen hundred and sixty-five,? King remembered, ?will be ever memorable among the citizens of northwest Georgia, as one of privation and suffering.? Shortly after his homecoming, he, his father, and several former slaves returned to Bartow County. Near Cassville, King saw destitute inhabitants combing ?the camp grounds of the enemy and [feeding] upon the corn and fragments of food left? behind. Despite being late in the planting season, he tried to plant a corn crop, 301 but his poor health and broken down draft horses thwarted his efforts. The future seemed bleak. King later claimed that his former slaves seemed willing to work for him in exchange for cash and a share of the crop. Following the perceived intrusion of the Freedmen?s Bureau, however, ?the negro,? he wrote, became a ?willing tool of their malice? toward former slaveholders such as himself. He complained that bureau agents convinced the freedpeople that the federal government would provide each head of household a forty acre farm, a mule, farming utensils, and one year?s supply of provisions. They also told the freedpeople that the property of their former masters would be divided into lots to be redistributed among their slaves. King never believed that the government would ?carry out the nefarious plan,? but, ?the poor deluded negro was jubilant in expectation of his fortune, and at once became utterly demoralized as a farm laborer.? King described a Reconstruction whose characters included carpetbaggers, freedpeople, scalawags, and Radical Republicans who acted in a concerted fashion to yoke white southerners to a ?tyrannical? wagon of oppression. Unable to tolerate further abuses, he introduced the final cast of characters, the Ku Klux Klan, who resisted the ?miserable ?Carpet Bagger?.? King described Klansmen as virtuous citizens determined to defend their manhood at all costs. John King published his reminiscences of the Civil War era almost four decades after the conflict. His account portrays the frustrations of an aging former slaveholder and Confederate veteran living in a progressive era filled with a ?younger generation of negroes . . . . [Whose] acts of brutality shock . . . the moral sense of civilized society, 302 [and] are constantly coming and appear to increase as the generations are farther removed from the regime that gave civilization to their ancestors.? Historians such as William Archibald Dunning, Walter Fleming, and C. Mildred Thompson took such accounts at face value in their depictions of a Reconstruction era dominated by corrupt Republicans, ignorant freedpeople, and honorable Klansmen. Indeed, King?s memories reflect how many modern-day Bartow Countians still remember Reconstruction. 1 Bartow County?s Confederate veterans, local elite, and freedpeople confronted numerous economic, psychological, and social hardships during Reconstruction. All of these characters were both agents and victims of a period filled with moments of despair, uncertainty, and violence. The color line separated the local community into white and black factions who quarreled over labor contracts and voting rights, but both were linked by their common desire to reconstruct their families and communities that had been affected by the recent war. Soldiers returned to Bartow County in a piecemeal fashion. The parades and grand speeches that had celebrated their departures were replaced by a solemn sense of loss upon their return. Kinship played a major role in helping determine when and under what conditions soldiers returned to their homes, if they came back at all. In March 1862, James and John Harrison had enlisted in the 40 th Georgia Infantry Regiment in order to escape conscription. After the surrender at Vicksburg, both brothers rejoined their unit, willing to continue their military service. In May 1864, however, as the Army of Tennessee retreated south of the Etowah River, they deserted to aid their mother and three siblings who lived in Cartersville. Upon entering Federal lines, enemy pickets captured the pair before they reached home. James spent the remainder of the war 303 confined at Rock Island, Illinois military prison. Meanwhile, six days after his capture, John took the oath of allegiance at Chattanooga and spent the rest of the war working on a farm north of the Ohio River. Why one took the oath while the other endured the hardships of a military prison remains unclear, but the two brothers returned home at the same time. In 1870, the men lived on a rented farm with their widowed mother and three siblings, earning a modest living working for the railroad and a dry goods merchant. 2 The war?s end proved especially protracted for families whose soldiers still sat in Federal prison camps. They included prisoners like Private Nathan Thompson, taken during the Battle of Cold Harbor and held with several other Bartow soldiers at Elmira, New York. They remained incarcerated until June 21, 1865. At least forty-two members of companies raised from Bartow serving in the 18 th Georgia Infantry Regiment were captured during the Army of Northern Virginia?s retreat from Petersburg. The Federals sent enlisted men Eli Jenkins and Monroe Cox to nearby camps at Point Lookout, Maryland; Newport News, Virginia; and Fort Delaware, Delaware. They remained imprisoned until June when all remaining Bartow prisoners were released after taking the oath of allegiance. 3 The cessation of hostilities did not curtail the further loss of life. Private A. H. Anthony, Co. H, 18 th Georgia Infantry Regiment, volunteered during the spring of 1861. After surviving the battles of Gaines? Mill, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, Federal soldiers captured him after the Battle of Cedar Creek (October 19, 1864). Anthony spent seven-and-one-half months at Point Lookout. Nearly a month after the Army of Northern Virginia?s surrender, he succumbed to pneumonia awaiting his release. Likewise, William Adcock survived many of the Army 304 of Tennessee?s bloodiest battles but died after the Confederate surrender. Captured in Marietta, Georgia, during the Atlanta Campaign, he spent a little more than one year incarcerated at Rock Island. One month after all of the Confederacy?s major armies had surrendered, he died from unknown causes. He was survived by a wife and two young children who never saw him again. He was buried in Illinois. 4 Bartow County?s veterans provide a glimpse into the physical and emotional tensions experienced by locals as they bore the brunt of the Confederacy?s defeat. Many of the men who escaped death carried internal and external scars that would haunt them for the remainder of their lives. Sergeant William Sharpe faithfully served in the 22 nd Georgia Infantry Regiment from the summer of 1861 through the winter of 1865. While Lee?s army remained heavily entrenched around Petersburg, Sharpe was wounded when a shell fragment struck his leg. Surgeons amputated above the knee in order to save his life. Physicians transferred the wounded soldier to Jackson Hospital in Richmond, where he fell into enemy hands following the Confederate evacuation. He remained in Richmond as a prisoner-of-war until May 28. Like Sharpe, approximately 200 Bartow soldiers who volunteered in 1861 and 1862 returned home as invalids, most of whom lived the rest of their lives without the use of one or more limbs. Emotionally, the memory of the carnage that accompanied battle and the loss of dear friends and loved ones evoked strong feelings years after the war ended. While living as an expatriate in Brazil, George Barnsley wrote an unpublished memoir documenting his memories of the Civil War. Three decades had passed, yet he recalled the sound of a volley striking his advancing line during the First Battle of Manassas and the horror as a man in front of him collapsed to the ground laying completely still as if 305 frozen. He remembered how he watched as his comrades searched the battlefield for their fallen friends and family members. 5 Those civilians whose husbands and sons died in arms also endured tremendous postwar hardships. Calculating an exact number of Bartow County?s war dead is impossible since the whereabouts of soldiers listed as missing in battle frequently cannot be verified. Approximately, 33.2 percent of the nearly two thousand Bartow men identified from the 1860 census as having served in the Confederate and Union armed forces died as a result of wounds received, diseases contracted, and, in at least one case, as a result of a train accident. One out of three Bartow County soldiers?37 percent of them married men?died during the Civil War. 6 Bartow County?s extensive kinship networks ensured that most families suffered from the impact of casualties. The Hite family sent three men off to war in June 1861. Less than one year later, two had died, one from disease and the other from an unknown cause. The remaining family member received a permanent discharge after suffering a severe wound to his chest and left hip. Bailey and Cannon Barton volunteered in March 1862. Seven months later both died from measles in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a measles epidemic that killed at least twenty-four Bartow soldiers. Two pairs of brothers, Joseph and Samuel Branton, and Abram and Robert Barron, succumbed to the disease within days of one another. The Brantons, Barrons, Abernathys, Bartons, Dysarts, Woffords, Sheats, Jolleys, Dodds, Murphys, and numerous other extended kin networks supplied the Confederacy with the manpower needed to fight the war, but, ultimately, their decisions threatened their domestic stability. Sarah Dysart watched as three of her sons? Americus, James, and Levi?volunteered in 1861. One year later, she received word that 306 Americus, age seventeen, had died from a camp disease. In January 1863, Levi, age eighteen, passed away at General Hospital Number Sixteen at Richmond. Despite the death of two brothers, James?the oldest of the three?remained with the army throughout the war and surrendered at Appomattox. The Dysarts?s sacrifice was surpassed by the Jackson family who lived near Stilesboro. None of the four men who volunteered for military service survived the war. Two died from disease, one was killed in action, and a forth passed away in a hospital one month after being wounded. 7 The Civil War took a toll on the farms of Bartow County veterans. In 1861, approximately 80 percent of the county?s military volunteers?who were listed in the census as a head of household?identified themselves as farmers. Roughly, 63 percent of those enlistees owned at least fifty acres of farm land. One decade later, the percentage of landownership among those 1861 volunteers had declined by nearly 15 percent. Soldiers serving in the Confederate army from 1861 to 1865 were more likely to lose their real property during or after the war than those who did not perform any form of military duty. The widows of soldiers who died serving in the military also lost their real property at a higher rate than female headed households did during the 1850s. They also filled the rolls of the county?s annual insolvent lists. Veterans and their dependents truly ?drank the bitter dregs? of defeat. 8 * * * * * * * * * * * In October 1865, former Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens sat quietly as his southbound train moved toward Atlanta along the Western & Atlantic 307 Railroad. The Georgian had witnessed first-hand the destruction that had occurred throughout northern Virginia, but now as he traveled through his home state, he felt a sickness in his stomach that he had not felt before. ?War has left a terrible impression on the whole country to Atlanta. The desolation is heart-sickening. Fences gone, fields all a-waste, houses burnt,? wrote Stephens. His train likely stopped for water and fuel in Kingston. During the 1860 presidential election, he had visited there where he delivered a series of popularly attended political speeches. The town that had graciously welcomed him five years ago now bore little resemblance to its former state. 9 At the end of the war in the spring of 1865, many Bartow Countians were financially insolvent, the county seat was in ruins, transportation networks were in a state of disrepair, and starvation threatened local stability. Their economy failed to quickly recover after the war due a prolonged drought that ruined several consecutive harvests. Despite dwindling land prices, tenancy rates increased from their antebellum high of 33 percent to nearly 40 percent in 1869. Farmers large and small continued to plant substantial amounts of cotton, but the drought ruined much of that crop. In 1869, the county only produced 2,833 bales of cotton?1,574 fewer than in 1859. As shown in Table 9.1, the county?s overall agricultural production, except wheat, declined sharply when compared to its antebellum numbers. 308 Table 9.1: Selected Agricultural Products of Bartow County, 1870 1870 County Wheat (bu.) % 1860 Corn (bu.) % 1860 Swine (#) % 1860 Cotton (bales) % 1860 Bartow 139,647 +2.2 239,197 -44.4 11,794 -48.0 2,833 -36.0 Source: Agriculture Census, 1860, 1870, Cass/Bartow County, Georgia. The decline in agricultural production combined with the property damage suffered during the war convinced many residents to migrate westward. Poor whites looked toward the Freedmen?s Bureau to help provide their transportation. In 1866, bureau agent W. H. Pritchett recommended that his agency pay for the relocation of one hundred and seventy two indigent families living in the county. He sent many to Arkansas, Texas, and Indiana. Attempting to aid in providing for the poor, the county inferior court promised the Freedmen?s Bureau that they would build a poor house for the remaining destitute families if they would remove those 172 families. 10 The Cartersville Express reported that many residents had left because the county had become unlivable. 11 Fewer than 65 percent of the county?s 1860 heads of households remained in the county ten years later. Economics directly influenced out-migration; at the same time a smallpox 309 outbreak in the county during the spring and summer of 1865 perhaps also affected out- migration. 12 Those who remained faced a sizeable challenge. From 1864 until 1870, severe drought ruined much of the county?s crops, preventing many farmers from being able to pay their taxes. The list of insolvent taxpayers for the county during those years grew with each passing season and quickly became filled with names of residents who had left for the west. Without adequate provisions, many residents sought charity from benevolent associations and rations from the Freedmen?s Bureau. During this period, the bureau distributed more supplies in Bartow County to destitute whites than to freedpeople?s families. Some elites scoffed at the sight of their fellow ex-Confederates reduced to begging for food. Rome resident physician Robert Battey commented during a trip through Kingston that ?large numbers of those who draw could feed themselves had they the manliness to sacrifice their property in place of their honor.? 13 Others appreciated the bureau?s generosity as those rations helped relieve part of the lingering resentment that existed within the hearts of many Confederate veterans. 14 The state of Georgia eased the situation when it allocated $200,000 to purchase and transport corn into north Georgia. In Bartow County, however, local officials distributed the corn solely to white families which upset Freedman Bureau agents and freedpeople. 15 When the Bartow County Superior Court reconvened during the closing months of the Civil War, its officials dedicated almost all of the county?s limited resources to providing for indigent families?particularly widows of fallen Confederate soldiers with children?and rebuilding the tattered local economy. During the winter of 1866, the court compiled a list of disabled soldiers, soldiers? widows, and wives who lacked 310 sufficient provisions. After an extensive search, officials concluded that 189 households of Confederate veterans, or about 761 persons, did not have adequate food and supplies. The county agreed to provide four thousand bushels of corn to support those families until the next harvest. That same year, the court petitioned Governor Charles J. Jenkins for additional support. The state responded delivering a large shipment of corn from the state?s southwestern counties. Due to the combined efforts of the state of Georgia, Bartow County, the Freedmen?s Bureau, and the Federal army, no reported cases of death by starvation occurred in the county. 16 Prior to the war, the county had experienced significant growth due to the completion of the railroad. Now, the county looked toward possible transportation improvements as a key to revitalizing the region. Repairing more than one dozen damaged bridges was one of the superior court?s biggest priorities. In addition to bridge work, the court commissioned district road superintendents to organize road crews to service existing thoroughfares. The superior court also enacted measures designed to restore law and order throughout the war torn county. Union soldiers had burned the county courthouse and jail that left them without a court to prosecute criminals and no prison cells to house convicts. Until a new prison could be built, the sheriff had to transport inmates to Floyd County for temporary holding. The court eventually passed a resolution funding the erection of a new courthouse and jail. 17 Beyond the mere physical effects of postbellum life, some residents undoubtedly experienced a period of psychological shock and emotional readjustment. Some felt a sense of debilitating helplessness that made everyday life difficult to endure. ?I feel 311 satisfied,? Willie Chunn wrote in 1867, ?that if I stay here I will make nothing or be nothing all of my life. . . . I almost wish that I were dead.? After returning to Cassville following his service with the 40 th Georgia, the sight of the charred remains of what had been his family home as well as the desecrated grave of his beloved father brought him to tears. In 1866, he had tried to make a crop, but it failed due to the drought. The following year?s crop befell a similar fate. ?If we can remove the remains of my dear lamented father,? he wrote, ?I will be satisfied that my eyes may never rest upon the spot again. I would give anything that I had never seen it since its destruction.? 18 Chunn had been proud of Cassville prior to the war, but, now, much of what he remembered was gone. If Cassville could be restored to its former state, he proclaimed, he would have no problem remaining here forever. Cassville, however, never recovered from its wartime wounds. In 1867, residents voted to relocate the county seat to the growing railroad town of Cartersville, where the new courthouse and jail would rise. Only a handful of the town?s antebellum residents rebuilt their homes and farms. Less than 50 percent of the town?s 1860 inhabitants remained in Cassville or Bartow County. What had once been referred to as the prettiest beautiful village in Georgia now became the region?s largest ghost town. The dark days of the 1860s, however, soon gave way to a more promising decade. In 1870, the drought ended, and many local farmers raised a bumper crop of wheat, corn, and cotton. Conditions improved quickly, allowing farmers such as Chunn to begin investing their annual profits back into their farms and local businesses. After 312 maintaining a temporary residence near Cartersville for nearly six years, his 1872 harvest provided him with enough capital and future credit to finance a new home in Cassville. 19 Chunn, who during his later years would support the Populist Party, actively promoted a series of local reforms that he felt would revitalize Cassville and Bartow County?s social, economic, and political landscape. Socially, he urged local businessmen to invest their profits into community projects such as churches and schools. Farmers black and white he believed, needed to reap the benefits of a government-funded education to elevate their intelligence, social refinement, and Christian grace. Economically, Chunn advised local farmers to diversify their crop selection and practice many of the latest agricultural reforms. By doing so, he argued, growers could better adjust to fluctuating market prices and transportation costs. Politically, he advocated a series of local initiatives designed to protect farmers? best interests. When some farmers complained that bands of wild dogs attacked their livestock, Chunn lobbied for the creation of ?a good wholesome dog law? which would encourage herders to raise more sheep. On several occasions, he testified before local officials requesting the construction of additional roads linking Cassville directly to area market towns such as Rome, Canton, and Marietta. Overall, he supported a platform that encouraged locals ?to adapt themselves strictly to the new order of things, and drive entirely from their minds the happy retrospections.? 20 Many reminiscences written by Bartow County veterans expound upon the common theme of triumph in the face of adversity. Some veterans greatly exaggerated their postwar plight, but men such as Chunn and William T. Wofford took great pride from their ability to adapt to New South life. After commanding the surrender of North 313 Georgia Confederate forces at Kingston, Wofford returned to civilian life hopeful of resuming his antebellum legal practice. When veterans who had once served in his command returned home from northern Virginia to discover that many of their homes and farms had been destroyed, they turned to Wofford for relief. Renowned for his charity toward widows and indigent families, the general had little money or provisions for his veterans. In need of supplies, Wofford telegraphed Union General George H. Thomas and requested 30,000 bushels of corn to be distributed throughout the county. The general granted his plea and personally guaranteed the corn?s delivery. 21 Wofford also strongly encouraged his former soldiers and local residents to submit to the Oath of Allegiance. He pleaded with individuals who maintained animosity toward the Federals and freedpeople to abandon their hatred in favor of rebuilding their communities. Freedpeople too trusted Wofford. On several occasions, they approached him during various labor contract disputes with some of his white neighbors imploring him to speak to their employers of their behalf. The testimony of several freedpeople included in the local Freedmen?s Bureau records evidence that he publicly advocated for the voting rights of freed slaves and seemed willing to intercede on their behalf during disputes with other whites. Perhaps, Wofford, a lifelong Democrat, supported black voting rights in an effort to persuade freedmen to join his party. Like many Bartow County voters, Wofford urged moderation during Reconstruction. He proudly recalled his days as a brigade commander in the ?world?s finest army,? the Army of Northern Virginia, and retold numerous stories of interactions with Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, Jefferson Davis, and numerous other Confederate leaders. His fond recollections, however, did not include positive memories of the 314 secession winter of 1861 when he rejected immediate secession on three sequential ballots. Until his death, he believed that emotionalism had trumped rationalism during that crisis and had dearly cost his beloved home of Cassville. During the congressional elections of 1865, veterans urged Wofford to enter the race as a moderating influence. The Seventh Congressional District campaign included H. G. Cole of Atlanta, who had been a leading unionist during the war, and James P. Hambleton, whose rhetoric resembled that of an unreconstructed fire-eater. Reluctant to enter the political contest, Wofford?s candidacy benefited from the strong backing of a loud coalition of moderates who in 1865 believed that moderation was the fastest route to ending Reconstruction. 22 Without the aid of a single campaign speech, his reputation provided him with a landslide victory as he carried more than 65 percent of the votes cast. A few months later, however, along with the rest of the Georgia congressional delegation, including former Confederate Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens and Senator Herschel V. Johnson, he was denied a seat in Congress. Wofford harbored no publicly visible feelings of ill will toward the northern congressional members who essentially overturned his election. Instead, he used his brief time in Washington to lobby northern Democrats for relief for his beleaguered county. Through his efforts, Bartow?s indigent received additional provisions from allocations made by the House Ways and Means Committee, the Federal army, and the state of Kentucky. Back in Cassville, Wofford donated funds to help erect the county?s first monuments dedicated to the service of Confederate dead buried at the Kingston and Cassville cemeteries. He contributed thirty dollars per year to ensure that the grass at the 315 Cassville cemetery was cut on a regular basis. Always a favorite among veterans, he fought to secure state funding to provide pensions and relief for their indigent families and widows. He protested the prison lease system as inhumane calling it ?worse than any slavery the south ever had.? Along with fellow Bartow Countian William H. Felton, Wofford strongly criticized Joseph E. Brown and John B. Gordon because their brand of politics ignored the state?s suffering families. When Wofford died on May 22, 1884, Bartow County lost a leader whose moderate stances on the period?s controversial debates closely reflected many of their opinions and politics. Elite members of society such as Chunn and Wofford adjusted to post-bellum life, but others did not. Humorist William H. Smith, more widely known as Bill Arp, commented that the war erased the line between aristocrats and plain folk. The loss of their slaves, according to Smith, ?broke most of these old families up but didn?t break down their family pride. 23 For the planter class, slavery?s destruction became the central experience of the Civil War.? 24 During the immediate years following the war, Bartow County land prices sharply declined. For example, in 1869, William Chunn?s property value fell below half of its antebellum price. Despite these setbacks, approximately 91 percent of planters listed in the 1860 census remained in the county ten years later. The high level of persistence among county planters had much to do with their average age. In 1870, the average ex- planter was sixty-one years old. According to approximate estimates, the typical individual emigrant was at least twenty years younger. Considerable numbers of planter dependents emigrated westward looking for their own land while relieving their parents of the fiscal burden of providing for their daily provisions, but, only on rare occasions, 316 did all of their children or extended family members move leaving the aged planter without any to work his existing fields. Emancipation cost planters their fortunes. Large planters such as Lewis Tumlin lost as much as $150,000 in personal property. Even small slaveholders who owned one to three slaves suffered the loss of a few thousand dollars, a tremendous setback during Reconstruction. The average planter lost approximately fifteen thousand dollars?a sum that far exceeded their 1870 average personal property holdings. On the whole, area planters forfeited an estimated $2.5 million worth of slave property. Without slaves, elite farmers sought alternative labor practices but maintained their dependence upon cash crop agriculture. In 1869, ex-planters cultivated approximately 65 percent of all the cotton grown in Bartow County. Much like the late antebellum period, almost all of these men set aside large portions of their improved lands to planting cotton and significantly fewer acres for corn. Only a handful of elite farmers achieved self-sufficiency during Reconstruction. Rising taxes and a need for cash made it necessary for farmers to engage in the market economy. * * * * * * * * * * * No elite family in Bartow County illustrates the physical, emotional, and psychological turmoil of Reconstruction better than the Barnsleys. Their voluminous correspondence reflect such postbellum themes as emasculation, deprivation, and an overall sense of hopelessness. Reconstruction further altered the family?s inner dynamics, as Julia Barnsley continued her wartime role as household matriarch and, due 317 to necessity, assumed a greater place within their estate?s public sphere. The Barnsleys? postbellum lives seemed foreign compared to their antebellum past. Between the fall of 1863 and the spring of 1864, while serving as the Confederate provost marshal at Kingston, Captain James Baltzelle married Julia Barnsley. During the final months of the war, she credited her husband with saving her life after he persuaded her to leave Woodlands prior to the start of the Atlanta Campaign, thus avoiding the potential ?ravages? of Federal soldiers. ?All we have saved is due to Capt. B?s energy,? she wrote, ?there are few people like [him]. His energy and patience were superhuman.? 25 Julia Baltzelle adored her husband, whose strong masculine presence came as a welcomed change from what she had witnessed from her father and two brothers during the war. Weakened by nagging ailments and plagued by repeated bouts of depression, her father provided her with little reassurance and companionship. Content with tending his beloved rose garden and consulting with mediums who convinced him they could contact his deceased wife during s?ances, Godfrey Barnsley?s image as family patriarch greatly diminished. Ordinarily, either George or Lucien would have assumed his mantle, but they too proved to be unreliable. Julia felt torn because, while she proudly adored her brothers for their decision to serve in the Confederate army, their prolonged absence had made her feel abandoned, vulnerable, and underappreciated. Their letters neither expressed any gratitude for her efforts to maintain their family home, to care for their ailing father, young nephew, white servants, and restless slaves nor exhibited any sympathy for her circumstances. 318 When the war ended, Julia expected that her husband would return to Woodlands and assume control over the daily affairs of the plantation and her family. None of the Barnsley men fully committed themselves to restoring Woodlands with the same degree of dedication demonstrated by Baltzelle, however. Following the war, Godfrey Barnsley returned to his antebellum practice of extensive traveling, that kept him from Woodlands for extended periods. In 1865, he traveled to London, New Orleans, Mobile, Boston, and New York, spending only a few weeks in Bartow County. While in London, he visited his daughter Anna Gilmour, whose husband Thomas Gilmour had recently died, and entertained an offer from her to take up permanent residence in that city. Meanwhile, he contacted several of his former cotton brokerage agents, suppliers, and clients intent upon restarting his antebellum business. Convinced that he could make a profit brokering cotton back in the United States, he traveled from London to New York and then to Boston where he again met with many of his former business associates. Much to his chagrin, however, he quickly learned that conducting business in the North would be difficult since many of his contacts either resented his British citizenship, his ex- Confederate loyalties, or both. 26 Rebuilding his antebellum fortune would be more difficult than he had originally thought. Like his father, George Barnsley also never wholeheartedly bound himself to restoring Woodlands. He returned home during the spring of 1865 filled with a desire to practice medicine. After a joyful celebration marked his homecoming, he surveyed the estate and discovered that it had fallen into a state of disrepair. Many of the luxuries that his father had placed in the home such as indoor plumbing?including hot water?had been either stolen or bartered by family members in exchange for provisions and labor. 319 Among other items, Federals took a ?large English drawing room, chandelier? valued at $125.00 and ?140 yards Brussels carpeting? packed in boxes awaiting installation. Soldiers stripped the farm bare of its livestock, equipment, and most importantly ?1 ? miles [of] rail fence burned for camp fires.? The situation seemed hopeless. 27 George Barnsley tried to start a medical practice at Woodlands but quickly discovered that local residents were too cash poor to afford a physician?s fees. Like many Reconstruction-era rural physicians, he allowed his patients to accumulate large debts and bartered his services for much needed food, supplies, and labor. Yet overall, his practice garnered him only nominal amounts of cash income. If he wanted to earn a living working as a physician, he would have to relocate to an economically viable city, such as Atlanta or Savannah, where cash was in greater supply. 28 Despite Baltzelle?s best efforts, conditions at Woodlands had not improved. ?There never was any one living in a populous country like this, that kept themselves as secluded as we do now,? wrote Baltzelle. Soon after George?s departure, he discovered that producing a market crop such as wheat or cotton required more labor than his household could provide. Securing labor plagued the estate?s recovery. Many freedpeople in the area either refused to work for him or demanded a higher wage than he could pay. Poor whites also wanted too much money. He used the profits earned through the sale of distilled liquor to hire day laborers. These workers, however, proved difficult to work with since they frequently refused to show deference toward their employer. Hired laborers required close supervision that distracted his attention from other household matters. Baltzelle typically hired four laborers, a number he felt could adequately work the land if every one of them put in a hard day?s labor. 320 In the fall of 1866, Woodlands had one of its poorest harvests ever recorded. The drought that plagued Willie Chunn affected Woodlands as well. ?This place did not plant much cotton,? wrote Godfrey Barnsley, ?and only makes about a bale to 7 ? acres and does as well as most others in this section. [This has been] the worst summer for agriculture ever known, arising from nearly three months of drought.? 29 Baltzelle desperately needed the cash from that crop to pay for the next planting season?s laborers. Godfrey attempted to borrow some money but could not secure a loan. Faced with no other option, Baltzelle began ?to make some arrangements with my men to crop with me, an arrangement I detest and look upon as equivalent to doing almost nothing but in such a case I would be compelled to do something of the kind.? Strapped for cash, the Barnsley?s meals had been reduced to small portions of cornbread served alongside a weakly brewed wheat coffee. Such conditions constantly reminded the family of how far they had fallen since the beginning of the Civil War. 30 The family?s social and economic decline had a profound psychological affect that utterly demoralized their daily existence. ?I don?t care a straw,? lamented Julia Baltzelle, ?for I know I am to die a beggar and think the sooner it is over the better.? High levels of stress combined with a poor diet weakened her health. Her husband watched as her condition steadily worsened but felt powerless to improve their situation. On a typical day, he worked from dawn to dusk as a farm manager, woodworker, carpenter, blacksmith, laborer, and distiller. Immediately after the war, he had remained optimistic that anyone willing to work hard would be able to turn Woodlands into a profitable farm. One year later, he doubted whether or not his endeavors had been made in vain. 31 321 James Baltzelle?s daily interaction with freedpeople further heightened his demoralized condition. Initially, despite his reservations, sharecropping worked well for him. For a brief moment, it seemed as if he had been transported back in time prior to the war when slaves were expected to show deference to their white masters. In the summer of 1867, however, Freedmen?s Bureau agents in nearby Kingston registered black voters and encouraged them to participate in a series of state and local elections. Baltzelle reacted badly. ?Every law,? he bitterly complained, ?the Radicals have made had been more binding upon the southern man. . . . free negroes are getting to feel their importance and doubtly will want a great many privileges in our social and political arena.? Confident in his belief in white supremacy, he vowed never again to employ freedpeople since they seemed intent upon asserting their equality. Unwilling to remain in a country dominated by northern politics and freedmen rule, George and Lucien Barnsley finally emigrated to Brazil in search of inexpensive land and rumored gold mines. 32 The brothers traveled to Mobile, Alabama, where they borrowed five hundred dollars from A. A. March, using their share of Woodlands as collateral. In February 1867, the men sailed from New Orleans on a ship bound for Iguape, Brazil. Severe storms capsized the vessel south of Cuba, nearly killing all of the crew and passengers. Fortunately, a passing merchant ship rescued the brothers. After a series of delays, the two brothers finally arrived in Brazil in May. Lucien never saw Woodlands again. George only reappeared in 1888, broke and in need of his sister?s money. His return angered Julia, who felt that he had abandoned his family and had only come back to exploit her estate. He left for Brazil again in 1895 and never returned. 33 322 A muffled sense of optimism infected the inhabitants of Woodlands following George and Lucien Barnsley?s departure. For the first time since 1863, the farm produced a small profit. Baltzelle managed to hire three field hands whose steady labor produced over two thousand pounds of cotton that they sold for $583.00. By the fall of 1867, their situation had improved. 34 On February 14, 1868, the momentum that Julia and James Baltzelle had gained through their labor came to an abrupt end. While completing some repair work for the railroad, a large timber fell, crushing Baltzelle and knocking him down a steep embankment. The accident claimed his life. Julia fell into a state of depression. When he died, she was alone at the family estate?her brothers gone to Brazil, her father in New Orleans, and only the comforting words of Reverend Charles W. Howard and the youthful exuberance of her daughter Addie to keep her company. As Reconstruction ended, Julia Barnsley resolved to restore Woodlands to its former condition. Her efforts, however, were plagued by labor problems, thieves, and fluctuating crop prices. No one in the family besides her cared about the estate. In July 1869, Godfrey Barnsley told his daughter Anna that ?[Woodlands] is a mess, little crops and many weeds and I am considering letting it and myself go to the dogs. I am heartily tired of it and everything else!.? 35 On June 7, 1873, Godfrey Barnsley died in New Orleans following a prolonged bout of tuberculosis. He had not seen Woodlands for almost two years. Nevertheless, he had expressed a desire to be buried there in the estate?s small plot next to the graves of Peter Baltzelle, Godfrey Barnsley, Jr., Adelaide Barnsley, and Colonel Richard Earle. After a three-day train ride, escorted by Julia and Addie who had been with him at the 323 time of his death, Barnsley?s copper coffin arrived at Woodlands where he was interred following a brief ceremony. During his life, he came to America in search of opportunity, married into an influential southern family, built a highly profitable cotton brokerage, helped advance the settlement of northwest Georgia, and constructed a lavish antebellum estate. Hardships, however, outnumbered his successes as disease prematurely took the lives of his beloved wife, infant son, daughter, and many close and personal friends. The war destroyed all that he had accumulated leaving him embittered and distant during his remaining days. Julia Barnsley remained at Woodlands following her father?s death. One year earlier she had married Charles Henry Von Schwartz, an entrepreneur whose energies and talents promised to resurrect the estate. Four years later, however, he also died in New Orleans after contracting a rare disease. Julia sent for his remains and buried him alongside her father and first husband at Woodlands. Tragedy seemed to follow Julia Barnsley for the rest of her life. 36 * * * * * * * * * * * In his groundbreaking work The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois encapsulated the experience of millions of freedpeople whose faces first felt the warming light of a new dawn of freedom only to discover that: despite compromise, war, and struggle, the Negro is not free. . . . in well-nigh the whole rural South the black farmers are peons, bound by law and custom to an economic slavery, from which the only escape is death or the penitentiary. 37 324 During his tenure at Atlanta University, Du Bois traveled by train along the old Western & Atlantic Railroad as it passed through Bartow County. The images of early twentieth- century African American life in that county that he might have seen while staring out the window of his segregated passenger car bore a strong resemblance to the depictions of Reconstruction era life that occupied much of his scholarly endeavors. In 1860, Bartow Countians owned 4,282 slaves who comprised about 27.2 percent of the county?s total population. One decade later, the county?s black population had increased by roughly 10 percent, 4,719 freedpeople, and made up 28.5 percent of the local community. By 1880, the county?s black population had outpaced the growth of the white population growing to 6,271 or about 33.6 percent of the populace. The increase in the county?s black population seems odd given the amount of racial tension that existed within the county. Moreover, many Georgia counties experienced a significant decrease in their postwar black population. This might reveal that the situation in Bartow, despite its problems, was slightly more amicable for freedpeople. Emancipation gave ex-slaves options that however limited had previously been unavailable. Freedpeople had to choose a surname. Slaves lacked surnames and were only identified by a first name that was usually given to them by their master. Some freedpeople selected last names such as Lincoln, Sherman, or a number of other names that honored individuals who enabled their emancipation. Most of all, however, took their former master?s last name. In Cass County, approximately 85 percent of freedpeople listed in the 1870 census shared a common surname with a white slaveholder listed in the 1860 census. 325 Many freedpeople exercised their newfound freedom by choosing to move. Sarah Jane Patterson witnessed the devastation that the war had upon her former master?s plantation. Some of John Patterson?s slaves voluntarily remained on the plantation working as wage laborers, but Sarah Jane left because she believed his crop would fail due to the drought. Slaves from neighboring plantations told her that they were moving to Arkansas were fresh and inexpensive land was supposedly in great abundance. A few months after first receiving word that she was free, she boarded a wagon train headed for Arkansas. 38 The bonds between a slave and the white church grew extremely tenuous. During the Civil War, church records noted that many of their congregation?s slaves had runaway and fled to Federal lines. In 1863, Nance?s Creek Church recorded only five slave members. After the war, few freedpeople attended white churches. A member of Euharlee Presbyterian Church, for example, commented in its membership rolls that since the war ?all [slaves had] departed from our communion. Scattered in various parts of the county and state and have never attended divine service since 1865.? Meanwhile, at Raccoon Creek Baptist Church, white members allowed local freedpeople to hold independent services in the church as long they kept the building in good order. Freedpeople joined Macedonia Baptist Church as late as 1869, but entirely disappeared from the rolls by 1871. Freedpeople began forming their own churches separated from their former masters and local whites. The creation of post-bellum black churches throughout the South stands as one of the hallmark achievements of Reconstruction and formed a lasting foundation for the region?s African American population. 39 326 Ex-slaveholders who faced crippling labor shortages frequently offered their former slaves employment. Slaves had to choose whether they wanted to remain with their former masters or seek better opportunities elsewhere. Callie Elder stayed despite the brutal punishments her master doled out among his slaves. After emancipation, she remained, despite his continued abuses, because he offered her a wage of ten dollars per month. In 1863, when Federal troops threatened Henry Harris?s Louisa County, Virginia farm, he sent his slave Rosanna and her family to Bartow County. After weathering the Federal occupation, Rosanna looked forward to the end of fighting when she could return home. In August of 1865, she requested the Freedmen?s Bureau?s help to pay for the cost of transporting her family to Virginia where she wanted to reunite with her former master. Many of the freedpeople that Elder knew left the plantation to search for missing family members. Likewise, during the early 1850s, Eveline Cooper worked at Mark A. Cooper?s Etowah Iron Works alongside her two sons, Henry and Isaiah. In 1852, her master sold her to a Texas planter; her two children remained at Etowah. Shortly after the Civil War, she wrote the Bartow County bureau agent requesting information concerning the whereabouts of her children. Months later, much to her surprise, she received a letter from Cooper informing her that her two sons were alive. Isaiah lived in Briarfield, Alabama, and Henry worked as a wheelwright in Atlanta. 40 The Freedmen?s Bureau?s experiences in Bartow County illustrate the frustrations that many freedpeople and bureau agents felt as they endured the ?unfinished revolution.? The county fell under the jurisdiction of the Rome sub-district. Cartersville resident and wartime Unionist W. H. Pritchett served as the county?s first bureau agent. His tenure 327 ended sometime during the spring of 1866 when he was replaced by former United States Colored Troops officer E. B. Blacker. His replacement, William Moffitt, remained at his post until the bureau?s removal from Bartow County during the winter of 1868 and 1869. The bureau placed its primary post in Cartersville, but it distributed large amounts of rations at the Kingston rail depot. Poor whites also gathered their rations at Kingston; whites actually received more rations from the bureau than did freedpeople. 41 The Union military maintained a small presence in the county. Soldiers stationed there primarily distributed bureau supplies at the Kingston depot. Bureau agent Blacker routinely asked his superiors for additional forces, but his requests were ignored. Consequently, the local bureau usually lacked the manpower to enforce its policies. 42 Local Freedmen?s Bureau agents served in a variety of roles, ranging from labor contract negotiators to legal guardians of orphaned children. Their duties placed them in conflict with local whites who predominately supported the restoration of home rule. At times, local officials such as judges, sheriffs, and residents cooperated with bureau officials, but their aid proved unreliable. Ultimately, limited funding, local resistance, and lackluster support from northern benevolent societies minimized the bureau?s presence in Bartow County. Bureau agents frequently served as arbitrators resolving freedpeople?s child custody suits. The biological and adopted parents of children routinely squabbled over whom would assume permanent guardianship. Adolescent Ann Elizabeth Freeman lived with freedman Robert Dowell for over two years following her emancipation. One afternoon, an elderly man arrived at Dowell?s doorstep claiming to be the girl?s grandfather. Reluctant to surrender custody to a complete stranger, he requested help 328 from bureau agent C. B. Blacker. After a brief investigation, the agent ordered Dowell to release the child to the care of her grandfather. Initially, he refused to do so, but once Blacker threatened to use force to take the child, Dowell relinquished his protest. 43 Sometimes, child custody battles erupted between the biological mother and father. Several years had passed since Katy Hawks saw her mother. During that period, she lived with her father, Robert Akins. When Louisa Hawks returned to Bartow County in July 1867, she visited Akins and demanded that the child be returned to her. After his refusal, she traveled into Cartersville to solicit aid from agent C. B. Blacker. The bureau had received many complaints similar to the one she presented and therefore established a uniform policy to resolve such conflicts. In a letter written to Akins, Blacker demanded that he immediately return the child since ?the law gives the mother the guardianship of her child in preference to the father.? 44 Other freedpeople took advantage of the Freedmen?s Bureau?s authority. Sometime during the winter of 1866, Rock Hamilton used the agency to gain custody of fourteen-year-old Benjamin Hamilton, whom he claimed was his biological son. The following summer, while scouring local farms searching for missing family members, William Hamilton stumbled upon his nephew living with a man who was not his father. Rather than directly confronting Rock, William requested C. B. Blacker to serve as a mediator between the two parties. In Hamilton?s case, the agent contacted the local sheriff who supervised the transfer of guardianship. 45 On rare instances, C. B. Blacker supervised the unofficial adoption of freedpeople?s children by their former white masters, despite the protests of their biological parents. An unidentified girl ran away from her mother and returned to her 329 former master requesting permanent shelter citing that ?her mother had no money or place to stay.? The child?s mother found her the following morning, but, despite her protests, the child refused to leave her former master. Frustrated by the child?s behavior, as well as the master?s demeanor, she sought protection from the Freedmen?s Bureau. At first, the agent sided with the mother and requested the child?s returned but after reading a letter from the girl urging him to allow her to remain, he reversed his initial decision. 46 In addition to reuniting freedpeople families, Freedmen?s Bureau agents aided local efforts to create, staff, and fund schools. The desire to learn to read and write motivated freedpeople to allocate portions of their precious limited resources for educational purposes. Few Bartow County African Americans attended school during Reconstruction. Funding problems, as well as lackluster support from benevolent organizations such as the American Missionary Association, severely limited the area?s educational opportunities. Securing funds and teachers were major hurdles that impeded instruction. By October 1867, the county contained only two freedpeople schools. The county operated both in Cartersville, making them virtually inaccessible to the county?s predominately rural black population. In June 1867, that city?s African Methodist Episcopal Church opened a normal and Sabbath school. The building lacked a furnace and chinking between its hewed logs, which forced the cancellation of classes during the winter. Freedman Charles Edwards served as the school?s teacher, but according to the local bureau agent, could barely read or write and possessed few qualities found among competent instructors. The seventy pupils who attended the school lacked adequate clothing, shoes, food, supplies, and textbooks. Nearly seven months after its inception, 330 the A.M.E. School suffered a devastating catastrophe when a powerful storm toppled the aging building. Edwards made a concerted effort to continue the school by finding temporary quarters in private dwellings and stables. Despite his attempts, average attendance fell below twenty students. 47 The county?s second school for freedpeople, the Union School, opened in February 1867. It also lacked sufficient financial support. Their first teacher, a freedman named Edward Milner, could only recite the alphabet. C. B. Blacker wrote several letters to American Missionary Association (AMA) organizers requesting instructors. The AMA refrained from sending teachers to the county due to financial limitations and perceived white resistance. Undeterred, Blacker searched the county for a literate freedwoman capable of handling a large number of students under adverse conditions while receiving minimal compensation. The hiring of F. J. Harris provided the school with a ?competent female teacher.? Under her guidance, several dozen children received regular tutelage sharply increasing the number of literate freedpeople residing in the county. 48 Even with dedicated supporters such as Blacker, Harris, and Edwards, the county?s freedpeople schools ultimately failed to educate large percentages of the local black population. Freedpeople formed several education associations to promote their cause, but apathy among the white population and northern charities thwarted those measures. The Union School, for example, held classes in a small log cabin owned by freedman Robert Parrish, who allowed the students to occupy his cramped home while he was working during the day. Students lacked textbooks, and, ultimately, as stated by 331 Blacker, ?all educational associations have failed because people were too poor. . . . and [they] never received aid.? 49 While Bartow County freedpeople petitioned for better educational opportunities, some local whites resorted to violence and intimidation to derail their efforts. Freedman Peter Rogers emerged from the Civil War penniless and desperate for work. Unable to migrate elsewhere or find another employer, he entered into a labor contract with his former master, Bryant Leake. Per their arrangement, Rogers earned a monthly allowance of corn in addition to his daily wage. In July of 1867, his employer demanded that he pay for the corn he had consumed. When Rogers protested, the man withheld $18.50 in back wages as payment for the corn. Rogers contacted bureau agent Blacker who provided him with a note demanding that his employer turn over the money. Rogers handed the man the note and returned to his cabin to await payment. Late that night, several masked men stormed into his home awakening Rogers from his sleep. They carried him outside and brutally beat him. Before leaving, the attackers purposely broke one of Rogers? legs, preventing him from earning any additional wages that season. Blacker wanted to prosecute Rogers? employer, but the local sheriff failed to make an arrest citing insufficient evidence. The bureau ordered Leake to pay the freedman his back wages?a request he defiantly ignored. 50 Throughout the fall of 1867, a group of white men who identified themselves as Regulators waged a wider war of intimidation upon the freedpeople of northern Bartow County, especially targeting landholders. The ?Regulators? broke into their ?homes swearing and tearing up things generally threatening to blow out their brains.? Their terror attacks continued largely unchecked because the bureau lacked the necessary 332 manpower to patrol the large region, and local officials turned a blind eye. 51 Sometimes, however, the bureau learned of planned attacks upon freedpeople and prevented their execution. According to sworn testimony, on September 11, 1866, a freedman followed a ?young white girl? home, allegedly making inappropriate sexual gestures toward her and eventually kissing her against her will. When she arrived home, her father responded to her story by forming a vigilante group to avenge his daughter?s mistreatment. The group included local leader Reverend Charles W. Howard as well as several others only identified as leading men of the Kingston. Blacker somehow learned of the plot and arrested Howard before the group could act. The reverend explained that the men only intended to whip the freedman. ?If he did it,? argued Howard, ?why not whip him?? 52 Almost all white-on-black acts of violence and intimidation, in contrast, revolved around disputes over earned wages. After demanding $120.00 in owed wages from his employer, a large party of white men attacked Lewis Covington later that evening severely wounding his chest. Likewise, when Samuel Donaldson attempted to collect his son?s wages from Charles Smith of Euharlee, the employer ?shot him in the thigh with a shotgun.? After Donaldson complained to the Freedmen?s Bureau, Smith ?was made to pay the doctor?s bill plus $25.00.? 53 Black domestic servants became frequent targets for white violence. Lucinda Hays worked for John Crawford from January 1866 until September 1867. In January 1867, she tried to quit her job citing that her employer had physically assaulted her and refused to pay any wages. When she went to Kingston to find another job, Crawford tracked her down and lured her into returning by promising higher wages. Hays, a 333 freedwoman with two children and no husband, felt she had no other option but to endure his continued abuses. By September of 1867, Hays had grown tired of Crawford?s unwillingness to pay her two dollars per month wage. Unable to compel him to distribute those wages, she reported his mistreatment to bureau agent C. B. Blacker, who supplied her with a note that threatened to seize portions of his harvest if he continued to ignore her demands. When she delivered the note to her sixty-eight-year-old employer on September 26, 1867, Crawford attacked her with a large stick, fracturing several ribs and wounding her left arm. When Blacker learned of the attack, he forced the sheriff to arrest Crawford for assault and battery. A Bartow County justice court adjourned in Kingston where John Crawford was put on trial to answer Hays? allegations. During the trial, several freedwomen who worked for Crawford testified that they too had witnessed and endured his mistreatment. An overly confident Crawford took the stand swearing under oath that his actions had been necessary due to the woman?s licentious allegations. After a few minutes of deliberation, the court?s justices T. S. Harris and T. R. Couch returned a not guilty verdict and ordered Hays to pay Crawford $8.20 to cover his court expenses. In Hays?s case, as in numerous others, the actions of the Freedmen?s Bureau did nothing to secure justice for the county?s freedpeople. 54 Negotiating labor contracts remained the Freedmen?s Bureau?s primary task in Bartow County. The report of assistant commissioner Brevet Major General Davis Tillson illustrates the problems confronting freedpeople as laborers: 334 The Freedmen were impressed with the belief that the government would give them land, animals, farming implements and food to enable them to begin planting for themselves. . . . Many whites refused to pay laborers a decent wage and allow them to migrate freely, arresting citizens from other counties who sought their labor. 55 In 1870, fewer than 5 percent of freedpeople heads of households owned any real property. Approximately, 37 percent of the county?s black population lived in white headed households working primarily as domestic servants and laborers. The overwhelming majority of freedpeople identified themselves as day laborers or farm laborers; some worked as blacksmiths, wheelwrights, and iron workers. Roughly, 78 percent of black households were identified by the Freedmen?s Bureau as ?very destitute.? Poor harvests combined with abusive labor contracts hampered freedpeople who worked as farmers. They rarely owned their land, animals, and equipment. According to bureau reports, many Reconstruction-era African American worked on shares or as tenants. Sharecropping was a dangerous gamble for freedpeople. ?There are quite a number of freedpeople,? reported C. B. Blacker, ?who has worked on shares this year with white people the people not owning the land have rented it. . . . with a promise of a certain part of the crop . . . . freedpeople will be robbed out of their years work? unless the bureau seizes the owner?s personal property. 56 White farmers commonly swindled black sharecroppers. Once the crop was gathered, whites sold the crop at market and frequently pocketed the entire profit. Sometimes, white farmers moved westward following a season?s harvest never distributing the farm?s income. 335 Working as a farm laborer proved just as risky as sharecropping. White employers routinely withheld wages or threatened such actions in order to exert additional control over their freedmen workers. Freedman Virgil Allen remained in Bartow County following the Civil War, choosing to work for his former master in exchange for housing and a small monthly wage. His employer still treated him as if he was enslaved. A relative told Allen that if he moved to Macon, he would find him a higher paying job. When Allen informed his employer that he wanted to move and needed to collect his wages, the former slaveholder told him that moving required his permission and that if he moved, he would surrender his back wages. Allen reported his employer?s threats to C. B. Blacker, who wrote the employer a letter demanding payment, but, as usual, the owner defied the bureau?s flimsy authority. 57 Labor conditions worsened in the fall of 1867 and 1868 when hundreds of freedpeople went to the polls to exercise their new civil liberties. Many whites used force and intimidation to curb the black vote. When Levi Hall learned that several of his freedmen laborers had voted the Republican ticket during a local election, he fired all of them and withheld over $200.00 in wages. The workers complained to the bureau who responded by arresting Hall for violating General Order Number Twenty which specifically forbade employers from inhibiting freedmen voting rights. 58 Frustrated by poor working and living conditions, some freedpeople violently retaliated against their white employers. Freedman James Sumter mortally wounded his former employer with a musket following a disagreement over unpaid wages. A local court arrested, tried, convicted, and hung the killer in Cartersville on November 1, 1867. In a similar incident, freedman H. H. Kinnabrue cut the throat of a white man near 336 Kingston after exchanging some harsh words. He eluded capture by hiding out in the woods around Cassville. When the white man recovered from the near fatal wound, local authorities uncharacteristically abandoned their manhunt. 59 Acts of violence toward whites were infrequent occurrences, but rumors of supposed insurrectionary plots kept them in a state of constant fear. According to a bureau report, when local freedmen learned that the government would not redistribute land in Bartow County in time for the 1867 planting season, they began to exhibit their mounting frustrations toward whites. Many whites believed that local freedpeople were plotting a ?mass uprising? to be launched on either Christmas or New Years Day. Worst of all, they thought that bureau agents were secretly providing freedpeople with arms to carry out their rebellion. The Freedmen?s Bureau never distributed weapons among the freedmen, and the 1867 holiday season passed without incident; nevertheless, myth and rumor had a strange way of becoming fact during Reconstruction. The lingering threat of further violence convinced whites that something had to be done to curtail their former slaves? activities. 60 By the end of Reconstruction, Bartow County?s freedpeople population had emerged from the darkness of chattel slavery only to be placed in the shadows of free society. Decades after the Civil War, a local Confederate veteran recalled that Reconstruction ended when his country was able ?to put a tombstone over [their] past.? The history of Reconstruction revolves around hostile southern whites struggling with Republican leaders and the Freedmen?s Bureau for sectional supremacy, although on a local level, issues such as combating the drought, foraging for provisions, constructing roads, rebuilding bridges, providing for indigent families, and reestablishing communities 337 occupied the daily lives of many Bartow County residents. The moderate political influences that had represented the county during the secession crisis carried over into the postbellum era as leaders such as William T. Wofford remained wary of the state?s Democratic Party leadership. White locals never left the past far behind them but during those immediate postwar years, few had the time, energy, or resources to do anything but move forward or leave. 338 Notes 1 John H. King, Three Hundred Days in a Yankee Prison: Reminiscences of War Life, Captivity, Imprisonment at Camp Chase, Ohio (Atlanta: Confederate Soldiers? Home: 1904), 99-114; William Archibald Dunning, Reconstruction: Political and Economic, 1865-1877 reprint edition (New York: Harper, 1962) ; Walter L. Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama reprint edition (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1949); C. Mildred Thompson, Reconstruction in Georgia: Economic, Social, and Political, 1865-1872, reprint edition (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1964); Michael Fitzgerald, Urban Emancipation: Popular Politics in Reconstruction Mobile, 1860-1890 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002); Michael Perman, Reunion without Compromise: The South and Reconstruction: 1865-1868 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973). 2 James Harrison, John Harrison, Fortieth Georgia Infantry Regiment, Confederate Service Records [microfilm], GDAH, Morrow. 3 Nathan Thompson, Eli Jenkins, Monroe Cox, Eighteenth Georgia Infantry Regiment, Confederate Service Records [microfilm], GDAH, Morrow. 4 A. H. Anthony, Eighteenth Georgia Infantry Regiment, Confederate Service Records [microfilm], GDAH, Morrow; William Adcock, Fortieth Georgia Infantry Regiment, Confederate Service Records [microfilm], GDAH, Morrow. 5 William Sharpe, Twenty-Second Georgia Infantry Regiment, Confederate Service Records [microfilm], GDAH, Morrow. 6 Compiled Database of Bartow County Confederate Veterans. This dataset only includes soldiers who fought with regular units that were commissioned into service by 339 the Confederate States of America. Many of the soldiers who served in home guard or irregular units had at one time or another served in a commissioned Confederate company. 7 Ibid; Mary Branton Pension Application, Confederate Pension Applications, Bartow County, Georgia, [microfilm], Drawer 271, Box 14. According to Mary Branton?s application her husband, Samuel, and brother-in-law, Joseph, died of measles while stationed near Knoxville, Tennessee in June of 1862. Both brothers died only three months after their initial enlistment. 8 Ibid. Compiled Database of Tenant Farmers, Bartow County, 1860, 1870. 9 Quotation in David W. Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2001), 33. 10 Report of W. H. Pritchett, September 25, 27 and October 7, 1866, Registered Letters Received, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands [microfilm], M# 798, Reel # 11, p. 401-02. NARA-ATL. 11 Cartersville Express, (Cartersville), March 17, 1870 [microfilm], Drawer 164:39, GDAH, Morrow. 12 Superior Court Records, Bartow County, Georgia, 1865 [microfilm], Drawer # 166: 54, 30-31, GDAH, Morrow. The persistence rates include head of households who died during the war. Therefore, the actual number of migrants was slightly smaller than the percentage suggests. 13 Mills Lane, ed. Georgia History Written by Those Who Lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), 195. 340 14 Smith, The Most Daring of Men, 149-69. General William T. Wofford believed that Freedmen?s Bureau supplies would help heal the wounds of war. 15 Report of Brevet Major General Davis Tillson, 1867, Reports Relating to Operations and to Murders and Outrages, 1865-1868, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 798, Reel # 32, NARA-ATL. 16 Superior Court Records, Bartow County, Georgia, 1866 [microfilm], Drawer # 166:54, GDAH, Morrow. 17 Ibid. 18 William A. Chunn to Mother, July 7, 1867, Chunn-Land Family Papers, M# 44- 101, GDAH, Morrow. 19 William A. Chunn to Ma, July 7, 1872, Chunn-Land Papers, AC# 44-101, GDAH, Morrow; Articles of Agreement between William A. Chunn and Noah Pence and H. E. Hatfield, September 6, 1872, Chunn-Land Papers, AC#44-101, GDAH, Morrow. 20 Ibid. 21 Smith, The Most Daring of Men, 149. During the war Wofford lost two children from disease. On August 19, 1865, his young daughter Laura died of diphtheria. Only one of his four daughters, Helena, would survive to adulthood. 22 Sidney Andrews, The South Since the War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971), 329-30; Smith, The Most Daring of Men, 151. 23 Bill Arp, Bill Arp from the Uncivil War to Date, 1861-1903, http://docsouth.unc.edu/arp/arp.html/ (Accessed May 12, 2006). 341 24 James L. Roark, Masters Without Slaves: Southern Planters in the Civil War and Reconstruction (New York: W. W. Norton, 1977), 111. 25 Julia Barnsley Baltzelle to George S. Barnsley, June 9, 1864, George S. Barnsley Papers, MS# 1521, Series 1, Subseries 1.3, Folder 10, SHC, UNC-CH. 26 Nelson Miles Hoffman, Jr., ?Godfrey Barnsley, 1805-1873: British Cotton Factor in the South,? (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kansas, 1964), 259-60. Hoffman argues that many of Barnsley?s former associates resented Great Britain?s relationship with the Confederate States of America. Most of his clients knew that two of his sons had served in the Confederate army. Throughout his life, he tried to convince people that he had remained neutral during the war, but most including the Federal and British governments, concluded that he had actively aided and abetted the Confederacy. When Barnsley traveled to London he borrowed the money he used to purchase his Atlantic passage. 27 Godfrey Barnsley v. The United States, March 22, 1873, Case # 162, American and British Claims Commission, Barnsley Family Papers: 1825-1904, M# 1165, Reel 2, Box 3, Folder 6, TSA, Nashville. 28 Keith S. Hebert, ?A Case Study of a Nineteenth Century Rural Physician: Robert T. Ellett, M.D.,? [M.A. Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2001]. 29 Godfrey Barnsley to John Gardner, October 26, 1866, Barnsley Family Papers, 1825-1904, M# 1165, Reel 1, Box 1, Folder 1, TSA, Nashville; Julia Barnsley to Lucien 342 Barnsley, February 23, 1866, George Scarborough Barnsley Papers, MS# 1521, Series 1, Subseries 1.1, Box 1, Folder 12, SHC, UNC-CH. 30 James P. Baltzelle to Lucien Barnsley, February 10, 1866, Barnsley Family Papers: 1825-1904, M# 1165, Reel 1, Box 1, Folder 1, TSA, Nashville. 31 Julia Barnsley to Lucien Barnsley, Date Unknown, Barnsley Family Papers: 1825-1904, M# 1165, Reel 1, Box 1, Folder 12, TSA, Nashville; James P. Baltzelle to Lucien Barnsley, February 10, 1866, Barnsley Family Papers: 1825-1904, M# 1165, Reel 1, Box 1, Folder 1, TSA, Nashville. While Julia Barnsley?s letter is missing a date, it was probably written sometime after the fall of 1865?since she refers to recent crop failures?and prior to February 1868?the time of her husband?s death. 32 George Barnsley to Godfrey Barnsley, August 1865, Godfrey Barnsley Papers, Box 2:2, EU, Decatur. This letter was sent nearly two years prior to George Barnsley?s arrival in Brazil. He debated this decision for months, but after his cotton pressing business failed and the farm at Woodlands seemed unprofitable he finally moved. 33 Coker, The Illustrious Dream, 137-39, 166-67; Roark, Masters Without Slaves, 205-06. George Barnsley died in 1918. Lucien Barnsley died in 1892. Hundreds of their descendants still live in South America. 34 Coker, The Illustrious Dream, 140. 35 Ibid., 146. 36 Ibid., 155-57. 37 W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Modern Library Edition (New York: Random House, 2003), 42. 343 38 Testimony of Sarah Jane Patterson, Slave 10: (a): 286-91. 39 Euharlee Presbyterian Church, Minutes, 1853-1900; Raccoon Creek Baptist Church, Minutes, 1837-1900 [microfilm], NGDPP, Shorter College Museum and Archives, Rome. 40 O. E. Pratt to W. H. Pritchett, September 17, 1866, Register of Letters Received, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 798, Reel # 11, 400, NARA-ATL; Mark A. Cooper to W. H. Pritchett and Eveline Cooper, October 8, 1866, Register of Letters Received, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 798, Reel # 11, 401, NARA-ATL. 41 Paul A. Cimbala, Under the Guardianship of the Nation: The Freedman?s Bureau and the Reconstruction of Georgia, 1865-1870 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997), 64; Lane, Georgia History Written by Those Who Lived It, 193-204; Freedman Bureau Station Agents: Cartersville, Georgia, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Roll # 55, NARA-ATL. W. H. Pritchett served as the Cartersville station agent from April 1865 to March 1867. C. B. Blacker served as the Cartersville agent from April 1867 to December 1868. 42 C. B. Blacker to Hiram Miller, September 3, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Roll # 55, 23, NARA-ATL. Blacker reported that ?local whites and freedmen are anxious to see some U. S. soldiers stationed in their county.? 43 C. B. Blacker to Robert Dowell, August 28, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 30, NARA-ATL. 344 44 C. B. Blacker to Robert Akins, August 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 39, NARA-ATL. 45 C. B. Blacker to Rock Hamilton, September 30, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 32, NARA- ATL. 46 C. B. Blacker to Joe Pearson, October 19, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 38, NARA-ATL. 47 C. B. Blacker Report, November 1, 1867, Registered Letters Received, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 798, Reel # 12, 32, NARA-ATL; C. B. Blacker Report, October 4, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 36, NARA-ATL. 48 C. B. Blacker School Report, October 4, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 36, NARA-ATL, Atlanta; C. B. Blacker School Report, January 1868, Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 799, Reel # 16, NARA-ATL. C. B. Blacker School Report, C. B. Blacker School Report, January 1868, Registered Letters Received, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 798, Reel # 12, 32, NARA-ATL. 49 C. B. Blacker School Report, January 1868, Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 799, Reel # 16, NARA- ATL. 50 C. B. Blacker to Bryant Leake, July 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 73, NARA-ATL. 345 51 Report Received by C. B. Blacker, September 3, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 23, NARA-ATL. 52 C. W. Howard to C. B. Blacker, September 11, 1866, Register of Letters Received, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 798, Reel # 11, 216, NARA-ATL. 53 C. B. Blacker Report, October 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 69, NARA-ATL; Samuel Donaldson, 1867, List of Freedmen Murdered or Assaulted, BRFAL [microfilm], Drawer 159:61, GDAH, Morrow. 54 C. B. Blacker Report, November 18, 1867, Register of Letters Received, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 798, Reel # 12, 36, NARA-ATL; C. B. Blacker Report, September 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 29, NARA-ATL; C. B. Blacker to John Crawford, September 26, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 30, NARA-ATL. 55 C. B. Blacker to C. Sibley, December 6, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 68, NARA-ATL. 56 Ibid. 57 C. B. Blacker to Major C. T. Watson, September 17, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 27, NARA-ATL. 346 58 C. B. Blacker to Levi Hall, October 30, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, BRFAL [microfilm], M# 1903, Reel # 55, 41, NARA-ATL. 59 List of Freedmen Murdered or Assaulted, BRFAL [microfilm], Drawer 159:61, GDAH, Morrow. 60 Carter, When the War Was Over, 201. 347 EPILOGUE THE RISE AND FALL OF A WHITE MEN?S DEMOCRACY A white men?s democracy existed in antebellum Cass County, Georgia, one that shaped its settlement, community development, economic structure, and politics. Bonds of communal loyalty minimized conflicts among white men who despite any class or personal differences predominately agreed that slaves were an inferior race. The construction of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, completed in 1850, provided Cass residents with greater access to state and regional markets. As the number of local farmers who engaged in market relations rose throughout the 1850s, residents devoted larger proportions of their land to staple crop production and bought more slaves. By 1860, Cass County had begun to resemble the social and economic characteristics of the southern Black Belt. The flush economic times of the 1850s reinforced the prevailing white men?s democracy. During the secession crisis the white men?s democracy shaped Cass County?s actions. Two party politics dominated the local landscape. The Democratic Party won most elections, but the Whig and American Party finished a strong second in most campaigns and occasionally received a majority of votes cast. In the 1860 presidential election, John C. Breckinridge won the local and statewide vote. Two months later during the secession convention election, former Stephen A. Douglas and John Bell supporters united and sent a slate of Cooperationists to the convention by a slim 100 vote 348 majority. There Cass?s three delegates opposed immediate secession on three consecutive votes. The divisions between the supporters of immediate and cooperationist secessionists revolved around the method and timing of secession and never questioned secession?s legitimacy. Within a few months after secession nearly 1,000 Cass County males volunteered to serve in the Confederate army in defense of the white men?s democracy. The Civil War transformed Bartow County. What had been a white men?s democracy crumbled during the war due to internal divisions that were aggravated by external pressures. The bonds of communalism that held together the local white community eroded between 1861 and 1863 and broke down during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign and the ensuing Federal occupation. Events pushed the county into a state of chaos as residents fought for their individual survival rather than national independence. During Reconstruction, white men attempted to reconstruct their tattered white men?s democracy. The difficulties associated with reforming a social structure that had been predicated upon slavery frustrated local whites as they sought ways to restrict freedpeople agency. From the freedpeople?s perspective, Reconstruction was a period filled with newfound freedoms and limitations. Whites saw themselves as victims and at times so did freedpeople, but each maintained their agency throughout the period. Ultimately, Reconstruction failed to maximize the potential for long-term, meaningful, radical changes following emancipation. Following Reconstruction, Bartow County, like most of Appalachia, experienced a sudden growth in the number of textile manufacturers, strip mines, and timber companies. To be sure, cotton remained a significant part of the local economy, but as 349 the county industrialized large numbers of farmers left the land and began working in various mills and mines. Outsiders owned most of these industries. The timber and mining industry extracted a heavy environmental toll upon portions of the county particularly along the Allatoona Mountain range. Today, Bartow Countians consider themselves to be residents of metropolitan Atlanta. During the 1970s, the construction of Federal Interstate 75 (whose route roughly followed the old Western & Atlantic Railroad) connected the once rural community into a larger regional and statewide network of cities and towns. In the 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed a hydro-electric dam on the Etowah River only a few hundred yards from Mark A. Cooper?s abandoned iron furnace. Much of the once booming antebellum mining and manufacturing center of Etowah now lies beneath the waters of Lake Allatoona. Just as changes in the state?s transportation networks brought dramatic changes to the local economy during the 1850s, the development of the county?s infrastructure following World War II placed it on the road to suburbanization. Currently, the county is part of the megalopolis that is the city of Atlanta. During the 1980s, local businessman Joe Frank Harris became the first Bartow Countian to serve as the state?s governor. Harris, along with other state political and business leaders, organized a successful bid for the city of Atlanta to host the 1996 Summer Olympics. Twenty-first century Bartow Countians despite dramatic changes in population and society still maintain some links to their antebellum past. Many of the county?s first churches, for instance, still hold weekly worship services and maintain their prominent role within the community. Fraternal and social organizations such as the Masons, Rotary Club, and Veterans of Foreign Wars continue to provide a setting for many local 350 men to engage in fellowship and debate. Politically, whereas the Democratic Party dominated the county from 1832 until the late-1980s, the Republican Party now controls a similar majority. Environmentally, the county adopted a progressive environmental policy in 2003 that has attracted nationwide attention and serves as a model for subsequent developments elsewhere. The county?s future appears bright. Locals say the past never dies. This is truer in some places more than others. In Bartow County, the echoes of generations of inhabitants continue to speak like the winds whipping through the Allatoona Mountain Range or the water flowing along the Etowah River?s muddy banks. Their voices cannot be silenced. Their story has now been told. 351 BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Sources Manuscripts Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery. 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