The Bonfire_The Siege and Burning of Atlanta

by Marc Wortman

  141 Few thought of the possibility that blacks: Daily Intelligencer, February 3, 1863, 1. Deposition of William Markham, Webster v. U.S., CD 13502, folder 3. Deposition of E. T. Hunnicut, Webster v. U.S., CD 13502, folder 1.

  141 “about one of the biggest traders”: G. C. Rogers, quoted in Thomas G. Dyer, “Half Slave, Half Free: Unionist Robert Webster in Confederate Atlanta,” in Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas, ed. Emory M. Thomas, Lesley Jill Gordon, and John C. Inscoe (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005), 298.

  142 “He was put there to do it”: Daily Intelligencer, December 6, 1863, 3.

  142 “those capitalists who are using”: Minutes Superior Court, DeKalb County, 1861, Book D, quoted in Garrett, Atlanta and Environs, 1:513.

  142 “riding in their four-thousand-dollar carriages”: Nashville Daily Times & Press, June 28, 1864, quoted in Robert Scott Davis Jr., introduction to Sarah “Sallie” Conley Clayton, Requiem for a Lost City: A Memoir of Civil War Atlanta and the Old South (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1999), 16.

  142 “regretting that her buggy wheels had not run over his neck”: Rome Tri-Weekly Courier, December 19, 1863, quoted in Williams and Williams, “‘The Women Rising,’” 7.

  142 Citizens stopped bothering the city marshals with their troubles: Singer, “Confederate Atlanta,” 188-89.

  142 “A tall lady on whose countenance rested care and determination”: Americus Sumter Republican, March 27, 1863, quoted in Williams and Williams, “ ‘The Women Rising,’” 9.

  143 Many people in town stood up for the “mob of ladies”: “A Mob of Ladies,” New York Times, April 21, 1863, n.p.

  143 The Intelligencer’s portly, fire-eating editor: “Cousin Norma,” a reporter for the Chattanooga Rebel, which printed in Atlanta following the fall of its hometown to the Union army, described Steele thus: “The Major (an honorific title from prior militia service) is a bold champion of States rights and as good a patriot as we have in the land. He is a large, heavy built man, about six feet in height.” Daily Intelligencer, April 30, 1864, 1.

  143 “The tall female with determination in her eye”: “The Needy Women of Our City,” Southern Confederacy, March 24, 1863, 1.

  143 But with inflation jumping manyfold faster: On the budget for poor relief, see Singer “Confederate Atlanta,” 135.

  143 “In view of the almost impossibility”: City Council Minutes, October 2, 1863, Vol. 4, January 17, 1862, to June 1, 1866, 196-97.

  144 Only a few sticks ever made it to the cold hearths of the needy: Daily Intelligencer , October 22, 1863, 2.

  CHAPTER 11: STREET THEATER

  145 Convictions for bigamy and adultery rose sharply: On the Mayor’s Court case-load, see Paul D. Lack, “Law and Disorder in Confederate Atlanta,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 60 (summer 1982): 178, table I. For Superior Court of Fulton County case figures, see Ralph Benjamin Singer Jr., “Confederate Atlanta,” PhD diss., University of Georgia, 1973, 187.

  145 “I hope & believe”: Calhoun to George W. Randolph, October 3, 1862, quoted in Mark E. Neely, Southern Rights: Political Prisoners and the Myth of Confederate Constitutionalism (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1999), 34.

  146 Braxton Bragg made Atlanta a military post: Quoted in Lack, “Law and Disorder,” 182. See Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1954), 1:525-28.

  146 The War Department turned to Col. George Washington Lee: For quotes and information about Lee, see Thomas Dyer, Secret Yankees: The Union Circle in Confederate Atlanta (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 98-99, and Singer, “Confederate Atlanta,” 116-17. For Lee’s saloon ownership, see Garrett, Atlanta and Environs, 1:543n12. Robert Scott Davis, “Guarding the Gate City from Itself: George W. Lee and Conflict in Civil War Atlanta,” 33-35 (manuscript in progress), contends that Lee was never charged with stealing from his men and that General Bragg confused him with another officer with a similar name.

  146 “a great favorite” of General Bragg’s: Daily Intelligencer, July 24, 1861, 3.

  147 “untiringly . . . watch, direct and consign”: G. W. Lee to George W. Randolph, October 18, 1862, quoted in Neely, Southern Rights, 33.

  147 Lee’s provost guard began shuttering offending barrooms: Lee’s General Order No. 1, May 14, 1862, published in the Southern Confederacy, May 16, 1862, 1. Samuel P. Richards, Diary, Vol. 9, October 1860-June 1864, typescript, May 24, 1862, 100, Atlanta History Center.

  147 General Bragg in his Chattanooga headquarters: Special Order No. 14, August 11, 1862, quoted in Garrett, Atlanta and Environs, 1:527.

  148 Even in the midst of war, Atlanta remained a city of laws: Quoted in Richard Malcolm Johnston and William Hand Browne, Life of Alexander H. Stephens (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1878), 421-23. For a summary of the principal documents of the Atlanta martial law controversy, see William A. Richards, “‘ We Live under a Constitution:’ Confederate Martial Law in Atlanta,” Atlanta History 33, no. 2 (summer 1989): 26-35.

  148 “‘Governor Calhoun’ is therefore defunct ”: Southern Confederacy, September 20, 1862, 2; August 14, 1862, 2; September 18, 1862, 2. Daily Intelligencer quoted in Garrett, Atlanta and Environs, 1:528.

  148 “ We do not know where the liquor comes from”: Daily Intelligencer, October 23, 1863, 3.

  149 “a fine looking, noble young man”: “More of the Fruits of Retailing Liquor,” Southern Confederacy, October 23, 1862, 2.

  149 Calhoun placed a police officer in the hall: Daily Intelligencer, November 1, 1863, 3.

  150 “seem[ed] to be the special champion of the theatre”: Quotes from Daily Intelligencer , October 18, 1863, 3; November 4, 1863, 3.

  150 “Ladies can now attend with perfect safety”: Daily Intelligencer, November 15, 1863, 3.

  150 Its stage was converted into a slave auction house: Daily Intelligencer, March 10, 1864, 3.

  150 The crowd shaved, tarred, and feathered the woeful pair: Lack, “Law and Disorder,” 189; Daily Intelligencer, November 18, 1863, quoted in Singer, “Confederate Atlanta,” 120-21.

  151 “ We request the voters of Atlanta to make a small note”: Daily Intelligencer, November 29, 1863, 3.

  151 “go electioneering for their favorite candidate”: Daily Intelligencer, December 6, 1863, 3.

  152 Freed, Anderson became an Atlanta police officer and deputy sheriff: See Southern Confederacy, February 3, 1863, 1; “Atlanta Police,” Atlanta Constitution, July 22, 1894, 2; Garrett, Atlanta and Environs, 1:546-47.

  CHAPTER 12: THE DEAD HOUSE

  155 “ We know not what another year may bring”: Samuel Richards, Diary (typescript), December 31, 1861, 71.

  155 More than 700,000 men had already enlisted: James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 322, 328.

  156 “a general ‘fall in to ranks’”: Stonewall, “Atlanta and the War,” Southern Confederacy , February 9, 1862, 2.

  156 It was the first capital city of a Southern state: On the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson and Nashville, see McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 401-2.

  157 a group of twenty-two federal soldiers dressed as civilians: For a complete history of the famous train chase and its aftermath, inspiration for at least two movies, see Russell S. Bonds, Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2007).

  157 “the deepest laid scheme, and on the grandest scale”: “The Great Railroad Chase,” Southern Confederacy, April 15, 1862, 1.

  157 Sallie Clayton’s eight- and ten-year-old younger brothers witnessed the hangings : On the hanging, see Bonds, Stealing the General, 260-61.

  157 Atlantans’ assurance of their immunity to the war’s violence was no longer so easily sustained: Sarah “Sallie” Conley Clayton, Requiem for a Lost City: A Memoir of Civil War Atlanta and the Old South, ed. Robert S. Davis Jr. (Macon,
GA: Mercer University Press, 1999), 47-48.

  158 He felt glummer yet when walking through the car shed: Richards, Diary, February 22, 1862, 79; February 27, 1862, 80.

  158 “Rather than affiliate with the North again”: “Dear Emma,” Camp of the Marion Light Artillery, Knoxville, Tenn., August 5, 1863. Neal quotes William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, act 1, scene 1: “’Tis won as towns with fire; so won, so lost.”

  158 “Let any cruelties, any torments, any death”: “The Way They Intend to Abolish Slavery,” Southern Confederacy, March 11, 1862, 1.

  159 Named the Calhoun Guards in honor of his father: See “Calhoun Guards,” Southern Confederacy, February 27, 1862, 2.

  159 He would see plenty of action this time: William Lowndes Calhoun, History of the 42nd Regiment, Georgia Volunteers, Confederate States Army, Infantry (n.p., 1900), 29.

  159 “The idol of the household”: Noble C. Williams, Echoes from the Battlefield; or, Southern Life During the War (Atlanta: Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1902), 16.

  160 “without even receiving a scratch”: Williams, Echoes from the Battlefield, 18-19.

  161 As Clingan stood, a Yankee sharpshooter put a minié ball: Williams, Echoes from the Battlefield, 20-21, 27-28.

  161 “pure waters, salubrious air, and delightful climate”: February (unspecified date) 1862, quoted in Richard Barksdale Harwell, “Civilian Life in Atlanta in 1862,” Atlanta Historical Bulletin 7, no. 29 (October 1944): 214.

  162 “the County, State, and City is a matter of great public necessity”: Quoted in Ralph Benjamin Singer Jr., “Confederate Atlanta,” PhD diss., University of Georgia, 151.

  162 In the summer, plans were drawn up: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1954), 1:530-31; Jack D. Welsh, MD, Two Confederate Hospitals and Their Patients: Atlanta to Opelika (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2005), 12-13.

  162 Specialized hospitals were also erected: Singer, “Confederate Atlanta,” 150-51, 152-53.

  162 For Gussie, this chance to help would one day prove tragic: On the women’s relief work for the sick and wounded, see Clayton, Requiem for a Lost City, 81- 82, 82n11-12, and 86-92.

  163 “First, the ringing down the curtain”: Clayton, Requiem for a Lost City, 66.

  163 Soon, however, Confederate seizures of hundreds of bondsmen and women: Clarence H. Mohr, On the Threshold of Freedom: Masters and Slaves in Civil War Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987), 129-33.

  164 Jabez’s young wife died of consumption: Richards, Diary, January 26, 1863, 156; February 15, 1863, 160.

  CHAPTER 13: ENEMIES WITHIN

  165 They were now considered . . . “unsound”: Samuel Richards, Diary (typescript), March 15, 1862, 85.

  166 “months or years perhaps”: Richards, Diary, March 5, 1862, 82.

  166 “stuck to his room and the back streets”: Richards, Diary, November 17, 1862, 140.

  166 “Our object . . . is to have as little to do as possible”: Richards, Diary, August 31, 1863, 196; March 4, 1863, 164; July 18, 1863, 194; December 31, 1863, 217; August 3, 1863, 192.

  167 defeat would not come in the field: “Are We Whipped? Shall We Give Up?” Southern Confederacy, October 25, 1862, 2.

  167 Atlanta was estimated to contain as many as 10,000 draft dodgers: Ralph Benjamin Singer Jr., “Confederate Atlanta,” PhD diss., University of Georgia, 1973, 216-17.

  167 One dismayed observer counted around 3,000 firemen: City Council Minutes, December 25, 1863, Vol. 4, January 17, 1862, to June 1, 1866, 215-16. On exempt firemen, see Robert Scott Davis, “Guarding the Gate City from Itself: George W. Lee and Conflict in Civil War Atlanta,” 32.

  167 “no clash or difficulty has ever arisen”: Southern Confederacy, September 20, 1862, 2. On Lee’s force’s total, see Davis, “Guarding the Gate City from Itself,” 16-17.

  167 Lee was an ardent Confederate: For a description of Lee, see Louisa Maretta Whitney, Goldie’s Inheritance: A Story of the Siege of Atlanta (1903) (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2008), 165. For a description of Lee’s officers, see the deposition of Thomas S. Garner, Markham v. U. S., quoted in Thomas Dyer, Secret Yankees: The Union Circle in Confederate Atlanta (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 99. Davis, in “Guarding the Gate City from Itself,” offers much valuable detail on Lee’s life and career and spotlights Lee’s activities during the Civil War far more positively than does Dyer in Secret Yankees.

  168 “a mixture of Jews, New England Yankees, and of refugees shirking military duties”: From G. W. Lee to George W. Randolph, October 18, 1862, quoted in Mark E. Neely, Southern Rights: Political Prisoners and the Myth of Confederate Constitutionalism (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1999), 33.

  168 “confined for months, even without charges”: Braxton Bragg to Joseph E. Johnston, March 2, 1863, quoted in Dyer, Secret Yankees, 99.

  168 “We will very soon have nothing but a rabble”: Daily Intelligencer, October 25, 1863, 3.

  168 The state supreme court threw out the case: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1954), 1:564-67. Regarding the other incidents, see Davis, “Guarding the Gate City from Itself,” 17-20.

  169 Little matter that Lee himself was eventually charged with selling draft exemptions: Lee was tried on the charge of selling draft exemptions in September 1864 and acquitted (Davis, “Guarding the Gate City from Itself,” 45).

  169 “those who violate[d] the laws”: George W. Lee to Governor Brown, January 27, 1863, quoted in Jonathan D. Sarris, “‘Shot for Being Bushwhackers’: Guerilla War and Extralegal Violence in a North Georgia Community, 1862-1865,” in Guerillas, Unionists, and Violence on the Confederate Home Front, ed. Daniel E. Sutherland (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1999), 39.

  169 “fire upon them, and, at all hazard . . . capture the last man”: Col. George W. Lee, “To the People of Northern and Northeastern Georgia and Southwestern N. Carolina,” Southern Confederacy, January 30, 1863, 1.

  169 Critics charged that many of those prisoners were severely beaten: Davis, “Guarding the Gate City from Itself,” 24-26. William Harris Bragg, Joe Brown’s Army: The Georgia State Line, 1862-1865 (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987), 18-21.

  169 By 1864, they were dispatching as many as fifteen: Sarris, “‘Shot for Being Bushwhackers,’” 31-44.

  170 “perfect reign of terror”: Quoted in Dyer, Secret Yankees, 101.

  170 “in a room with all the rebel ‘rough-scuff ’”: Quoted in Dyer, Secret Yankees, 103.

  170 “a Union organization, of three hundred white men”: Whitney, Goldie’s Inheritance , 164-65. On the detention of the Union Circle members, see Dyer, Secret Yankees, 100-114. For an opposing interpretation, see Davis, “Guarding the Gate City from Itself,” 36-39.

  170 Although he was aware of how dangerous Lee’s men could be: James M. Calhoun affidavit, Timothy D. Lynes v. United States, Southern Claims Commission, CD 12658, box 1452, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  171 “a fall upon the floor of the room in which he was confined”: Daily Intelligencer, September 3, 1862, 3.

  171 “a decided victim of inebriety”: G. W. Lee to G. W. Randolph, November 11, 1862, quoted in Dyer, Secret Yankees, 105.

  171 After he protested to Richmond, Lee had him arrested too: Dyer, Secret Yankees , 103-5. Davis believes Lee’s men were not responsible for Myers’s death, though the newspaper report of the beating at the time of his arrest appears to substantiate the charges; see “Guarding the Gate City from Itself,” 37.

  171 Reports circulated widely about an insurrectionary army: Davis, “Guarding the Gate City from Itself,” 27.

  171 By November 1863, slaves resident in town had increased: See Clarence H. Mohr, On the Threshold of Freedom: Masters and Slaves in Civil War Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987), 194, and City Council M
inutes, November 6, 1863, Vol. 4, January 17, 1862, to June 1, 1866. On slave seizures, see “Markets and Other Matters,” Southern Confederacy, January 27, 1863, 2.

  171 Many bondsmen, including increasing numbers of runaways: Alton Hornsby Jr., A Short History of Black Atlanta, 1847-1990, 2nd ed. (North Richland Hills, TX: Ivy Halls Academic Press, 2006), 1.

  171 “ We had never seen so many dark skinned people”: Sarah Huff, “My Eighty Years in Atlanta” (n.p., 1937), ch. 1, n.p.

  172 Only when Confederates were nowhere in sight: Mohr, On the Threshold of Freedom, 161-62. On the breakdown of slavery in urban life, see ch. 6, especially 196ff.

  172 “Missus, they better keep them guns out of our folks hands”: Dyer, Secret Yankees , Appendix B, “Miss Abby’s Diary,” March 20, 1864, 294; January 20, 1864, 286.

  172 Word got around quickly in 1862: Mohr, On the Threshold of Freedom, 219.

  173 “terrible warning and example”: Quotes in Mohr, On the Threshold of Freedom, 220.

  173 A self-defense company of “old men”: Testimony of Ezra Andrews, Ezra Andrews v. U.S., Southern Claims Commission, CD 12663, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  173 Mayor Calhoun’s young son Patrick: “Reminiscences of Patrick H. Calhoun,” Atlanta Historical Bulletin 1, no. 6 (February 1932): 42.

  173 Joseph Quarles, a Ponder slave who possessed a rudimentary education: Quarles later became the first black lawyer to enter the Georgia judicial bar and, under President Rutherford B. Hayes, an American consul in Spain. See Henry Ossian Flipper, The Colored Cadet at West Point: Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper (1878; rpt. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004), 11.

  174 “why fourteen of the engine thieves”: G. W. Lee to Hon. G. W. Randolph, September 16, 1862, quoted in William Pittenger, Daring and Suffering: A History of the Andrews Railroad Raid into Georgia in 1862 . . . , ed. Col. James G. Bogle, 3rd ed. (1887; rpt. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House Publishing, 1999), 310.

  174 “I never talked with a negro yet ”: Pittenger, Daring and Suffering, 296-97. See also Russell S. Bonds, Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2007), 276-77.