“The Women Will Howl:” The Union Army Capture of Roswell and New Manchester, Georgia, and the Forced Relocation of Mill Workers
By Mary Deborah Petite

Illustrated, appendix, notes, bibliography, index, 189 pp., 2008. McFarland, Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640, $45 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Paul Taylor
Paul Taylor is the author/editor of four books on the Civil War. His most recent is a 100-copy deluxe, fine press collection of unpublished Civil War letters entitled “Give My Love to All Our Folks.” Visit www.paulrtaylor.com for details.

Review:
In early July 1864, Union Gen. William T. Sherman ordered Gen. Kenner Garrard’s 4,500-man cavalry division to capture the bridge and ford at Roswell, Ga., as part of the Union attempt to cross the Chattahoochee River and continue the advance toward Atlanta.

On the morning of July 5, elements of Garrard’s command entered the town which had been abandoned just three hours earlier by its Rebel defenders.

The only inhabitants who remained were the women and children who worked at the town’s cotton mills and related storehouses, along with a handful of men who were too young, too old, or too sick to fight.

Despite the owner’s claim that his mill was French-owned and therefore subject to the laws of neutrality, Union officers quickly ascertained that the factory was indeed supplying cloth to the Confederate government. The factory’s fate was thus sealed and within hours, it was put to the torch.

Upon learning of Garrard’s action, Sherman replied that the destruction met with his full approval and further ordered the arrest of all mill employees, male or female. They were to be formally charged with treason and then made to “foot it, under armed guard, to Marietta.”

In an official follow-up letter, Sherman correctly predicted how “the poor women will make a howl.” Soon thereafter, over 400 women and children from both Roswell and New Manchester were sent via trains to the north where they were released and left to fend for themselves.

In this detailed work, author Mary Deborah Petite describes the travails and hardships these poverty-stricken women and children suffered before, but especially after, they were forcibly removed from their town, charged with treason and banished northward.

In telling of the events of July 5 and the days to follow, the author builds a meticulous timeline to tell of the Union army’s arrival and the destruction of the town’s factories. Because of the relatively narrow focus of Petite’s topic, almost half of the book is devoted to historical background matter.

In a straightforward fashion, she tells of the founding and growth of Roswell, its mills, the Confederate units that hailed from the area and how Sherman’s army came to north Georgia in the first place. Once the reader gets to the meat of the book, however, the author’s sympathy toward the mill workers becomes evident.

The plight of these civilians who were removed from their homes by military decree and dispatched to a faraway land is portrayed by Petite as “hauntingly reminiscent of another time, another people, and another trail of tears.”

Her fundamental thesis is that Sherman’s order to arrest and deport factory employees, especially females, went far beyond the accepted destruction of war resources or the established treatment of civilians.
The author also makes the case that Sherman’s actions violated the military’s 1863 Lieber Code, which laid down a formal set of guidelines for the conduct of civilized warfare.

Confederate women’s fear of being raped by Yankee soldiers, the vandalism and wanton looting of Southern homes, and the blind eye offered by Union officers are all added to the mix.

Closer to the end of the book, Petite discusses those Roswell families who were finally able to return home as well as the various mysteries and myths surrounding the lost mill workers.

As mentioned earlier, the author mined numerous primary and secondary sources to create this impressive work. Dozens of published and manuscript sources are cited in the bibliography as well as period newspaper accounts and government documents.

The National Archives’ Records of the Southern Claims Commission and the Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau are just two of the many uncommon primary sources. In addition, several maps and close to 30 images of the key civilian and military figures fill the pages.

Nevertheless, given the narrow, laser-like focus of the subject matter and the considerable quantity of extraneous background material, this Civil War tale of woe may have been better suited as a scholarly journal article rather than a 189-page, $45 hardcover.

Still, this is a minor quibble. For those who like their obscure micro-histories in large doses, this book is sure to please.