Cornerstones of Georgia History

8. The Federal Occupation of Georgia, 1864: Perspectives of North Georgia Women

8 The Federal Occupationof Georgia, 1864: Perspectives of North Georgia Women A Deep South state, Georgia wasfortunate to avoid invasion during the early years of the war. Except for action along the coastline, the Union army and navy devoted its attention to theaters further north or west. By 1863, however, Chattanooga and the Tennessee River were in Federal hands, and nothing stood between Georgia and a large Northern army. In the spring of 1864, General William T. Sherman led a force of over one hundred thousand men down the lines of the state-owned Western and Atlantic Railroad. The destination was Atlanta, a small town of strategic significanceas the railroad center of the Southeast. Sherman wasopposed by General Joseph E. Johnston, a capable officer, who commanded roughly half as many troops. Johnston attempted a defensive strategy, entrenching his forces on the numerous mountain locations of North Georgia. Battles were quite bloody, with the in92 vaders suffering numerous casualties at places such as Pickett's Mill and Kennesaw Mountain. Nonetheless, the Union time and again outflankedthe defenders, forcing them to fall back from their positions. By September 2, Sherman was in Atlanta. Leaving the city in flames, the Northern commander in mid-November began a month long "scorched-earth" invasion of central Georgia, destroying what little morale the native population had left. He reached Savannah just before Christmas 1864,completing his conquest of Georgia. In a few more months the fighting was overeverywhere. Military history is generally not told from the perspective of women, yet numerous Georgia females stayed home while battles raged around their dwellings and the invaders occupied their neighborhoods and towns. Many of these women kept journalsof their experiences, as the four accounts below indicate. At least since Anne Firor Scott wrote The Southern Lady in 1970, scholars of the war have known that plantation mistresseswere far more involved in running family enterprises than the stereotype of the fragile Southern belle would imply. Idealized in the literature of the day for their softness and purity, they reared numerous children, ran households, supervised all aspects of food production from cooking to hog butchering, served as the plantation doctor and midwife, taught the children, and sometimes kept the account books. With the men at war, they assumed the management of plantations, frequently with great skill.1 The stories that follow relate the experiences of four independent women during the critical period when Northern troops occupied northwest Georgia. All but one of the four were living on farms with no adult men around. These three were devoted to the Southern cause, and sometimes put themselves at great risk because of their loyalties. The fourth, Louisa Fletcher, experienced another type of danger. Born in Massachusetts, she supported the Union, despite being ostracized by some of her neighbors. Invasion of North Georgia The first document is from a book by Frances Thomas Howard, entitled In and Out of the Lines. It was written in 1870 but not published until 1905. She was the daughter of Charles WallaceHoward,editor of several progressive agricultural publications and a planter in Bartow County. The Howards were neighbors of THE F E D E R A L O C C U P A T I O N OF G E O R G I A & 93 Godfrey Barnsley, an Englishmanwho built a magnificent manor house and gardens in the northern part of the county. Included are excerpts from two parts of the book, first a description of Northern occupation of the countrysidearound the Howard house, then adescription of the hardshipof life in north Georgia in the aftermath of the Northern invasion. There was such a continual knocking at the door that my mother said some one must remain downstairs, so Janet went to the dining-room and I to the parlor . This room had two large glass doors opposite each other and opening on the two verandas. The heavy winter curtains still overhung them, and I dropped them so as to conceal myself from the many soldiers who filled the piazzas. Picking up a book, I sat for a few moments trying to fix my mind on the words before me. Some disturbance attracted the attention of the men and they left the house, and in the silence that followed I read understandingly. The only light in the room came through one pane of glass which I had left bare, but suddenly this was darkened, and, glancing...