The Bonfire_The Siege and Burning of Atlanta
Page 52
349 The legal wrangling continued for seven years: “A Queer Suit, This,” Atlanta Constitution, May 29, 1895, 8.
349 Upon the ashes of Atlanta, African Americans erected the foundations: On the transition from slavery to freedom in Atlanta, see Jerry John Thornbery, “The Development of Black Atlanta, 1865-1885” (PhD diss., University of Maryland, 1977). For a particularly valuable study of the situation of black women throughout the South and in Atlanta in particular, see Tera W. Hunter, To ’Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 1-43.
349 “We were a mere handful of devoted braves”: Sam Watkins, Company Aytch, or a Side Show of the Big Show, ed. M. Thomas Inge (1882; rpt. New York: Plume, 1999), 199.
351 Out of Watkins’s original 3,200-man regiment: Watkins, Company Aytch, 207-9.
351 He caught a ball in the shoulder that forced him off the field: After the war, Morse moved from his Massachusetts home to Kansas City, where he was a successful stockyard manager. He was portrayed in the 1989 motion picture Glory about his closest friend from the 2nd Massachusetts, Robert Gould Shaw, who became the commander of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry.
351 When James Neal led his Georgia regiment: Daily Intelligencer, April 26, 1865, 1.
351 “I committed an error in not overwhelming Johnston’s army”: William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, 2nd ed. (New York: Penguin Classics, 2001), 661.
352 “by force the horses and mules”: “Mob Violence,” Daily Intelligencer, May 5, 1865, 2.
352 “further resistance to our fate”: Daily Intelligencer, May 13, 1865, 2.
353 “ We are reminded as we gaze upon the victorious banner”: Daily Intelligencer, May 18, 1864, 2.
353 Quickly asking for and receiving a pardon: “James M. Calhoun, Atlanta, Ga., Rebellion, Filed July 19, 1865, Pardoned July 24, 1865,” Case Files of Applications from Former Confederates for Presidential Pardons (“Amnesty Papers”), 1865-67, M1003, National Archives.
354 The resolution was adopted “unanimously and warmly”: Daily Intelligencer, June 27, 1865, 1. Thomas H. Martin, Atlanta and Its Builders, A Comprehensive History of the Gate City of the South (Atlanta: Century Memorial Publishing Co., 1902), 1-5.
EPILOGUE: SHERMAN’S RETURN
356 “Ring the fire bells! The town will be gone in forty minutes!”: “Gen. Sherman in Atlanta,” New York Times, February 2, 1879, 2, reprint “From the Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution,” January 30, 1879.
356 “more like New York merchants”: Quoted in James Michael Russell, Atlanta 1847-1890: City Building in the Old South and the New (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988), 127.
357 real estate values had plummeted: Russell, Atlanta 1847-1890, 117.
357 James Calhoun had hoped his brother Ezekiel might succeed him: Daily Intelligencer , December 7, 1865, 3.
357 Though “opposed” to what eventually became the Fourteenth Amendment: On the debate over the Fourteenth Amendment and national and regional politics surrounding its passage, see Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 251-71. On the debates within Atlanta, see Thomas H. Martin, Atlanta and Its Builders: A Comprehensive History of the Gate City of the South, Vol. 2 (Atlanta: Century Memorial Publishing Co., 1902), 27-38.
357 “I find nothing . . . to regret or condemn”: “Georgia,” New York Times, November 11, 1866, 5.
358 he believed there would come a right time: On Sherman’s 1879 tour of the South, see John F. Marszalek, “Celebrity in Dixie: Sherman Tours the South, 1879,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 66, no. 3 (fall 1982): 368-83.
358 Sherman had retained his love for the South: On Sherman’s continued fidelity to the South after the war, see John F. Marszalek, Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007), 360-76.
359 “operations against the hostile Sioux”: Letter to Philip H. Sheridan, January 29, 1877, quoted in Foner, Reconstruction, 579.
359 He was devoted to the needs of Confederate veterans: “Sherman in Atlanta,” no date, no source, newspaper clipping, Calhoun Papers, Atlanta History Center.
360 “great admiration” for Atlanta’s “pluck and energy”: All quotes are from “Gen. Sherman in Atlanta,” New York Times, February 2, 1879.
360 “There are several localities which I wish to see again”: “Gen. Sherman,” New York Times, February 3, 1879, 2, reprint “From the Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution,” January 31, 1879.
360 “He was a noble-hearted, true man”: “Sherman in Atlanta,” no date, no source, newspaper clipping, Calhoun Papers, Atlanta History Center.
360 “done some good, something to make men feel more national”: Sherman to
Henry S. Turner, March 9, 1879, quoted in Marszalek, “Celebrity in Dixie,” 381. 361 “Yes, it was terrible”: “Gen. Sherman,” New York Times, February 3, 1879.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BY THEIR VERY NATURE Civil War histories are adjunctive and conversational, text to text over the years. Historians rely upon participant documents and contemporary reports. Further we depend upon—even when we disagree with—the vital present and past research and interpretation of events of such consequence that every American life, whether perceived as such or not, has since been shaped by them. I thank all the living and the dead with whom I conversed in the course of writing this book.
Many people very much still with us helped me in my research for this book. I made numerous research visits and spent many weeks in Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia. I always encountered hospitality and helpfulness everywhere I went. The collections of the beautiful Atlanta History Center’s Kenan Research Center were indispensible and the staff members were invariably welcoming and professional. In particular I thank the former research manager Beth McLean and reference manager Sue VerHoef. I also received valuable assistance from archivists at several other Atlanta-area and Georgia research centers: the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center; Emory University Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library; the Auburn Avenue Research Library; and the University of Georgia Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Other university libraries assisted me with many different phases of my work. In particular I am grateful to the magnificent Yale University Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library interlibrary loan services managed by Vermetha Polite, and the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I also drew upon manuscript resources of Harvard College Library’s Houghton Library and the University of Iowa Library. The staff at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Parks led me to a better understanding of the vast and tragic events that took place there.
Many other individuals helped me in ways that were essential to the completion of this book. Mike Fillon, fellow freelancer, was a terrific friend and companion as we drove the byways of the Atlanta Campaign and visited the Funk Heritage Center and Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. His son Evan Fillon ably helped me with research. University of Georgia professor emeritus of history Thomas Dyer was unstintingly generous in guiding me to resources on the Unionist circle in Atlanta and sharing those already in his personal archives. His colleague Lee Kennett also responded to my queries, as did James M. Russell, history professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Robert Scott Davis, Jr., professor of history at Wallace State College in Hanceville, Alabama, shared work in progress on George Washington Lee and photographs of Lee in his possession. Sam Reed, Sexton of Oakland Cemetery, and Larry Upthegrove, member of its board of trustees, provided historical insights into that magnificent burial ground. In learning about Allen T. Holliday, I was ably assisted by Stephanie Macchia and Louise Denard of the Washington ( Wilkes) Historical Museum, and owe a debt of gratitude to Mary Ann Bentley, Holliday’s great-granddaughter, and Frank B
entley, his great-great-grandson, who shared family history and welcomed me into the original Holliday plantation home and grounds. Linda Chestnut enabled that access, and she and her daughter Caroline Chestnut Leslie provided me with historic images of A.T. and Lizzie Holliday.
Jack Hadley of the Jack Hadley Black History Museum of Thomasville guided me to information about Henry Ossian Flipper. Dr. William King shared Flipper family history with me. Independent historian Thomas Phillips knows much about Henry O. Flipper’s life and shared his knowledge and insights freely with me. Thomas Hill of the Thomas County Museum of History provided very helpful information about the Ponder family. Mike Bunn of the Columbus Museum directed me to resources for the Creek War of 1835-1836. Timothy Long of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Jeffry W. Munsey of the Tennessee Valley Authority informed me about seismic activity in and around Atlanta during the period under study. Judith Johnson of the Connecticut Historical Society and Ann Arcari of the Farmington Public Library ably assisted me. Conversation, correspondence, sparkling drinks, and spirited wit—and often, at the same time, the reverse—shared with Debby Applegate, Stephen Fox, Mark Oppenheimer, Robert Farrell, Zach Morowitz, Michael Fitzsousa, Nathaniel Philbrick, Lee Branch, Walter Patten, Jr., Robert Harris, and others encouraged me and informed my work. I apologize to the many others whose assistance I failed to credit here.
My editor Clive Priddle commands my deepest respect for his ability to mold a long work into a coherent narrative whole. He was as patient and as eager as an editor should be in dealing with a tardy author. Other people at PublicAffairs have been true compatriots, including Whitney Peeling, Tessa Shanks, Laura Stine, Annie Lenth, and mapmaker Christen Erichsen. My agents, first and foremost Talia Rosenblatt Cohen and then Laura Dail of the Laura Dail Literary Agency, have shepherded this book along with warm and capable hands.
It need not be reiterated, but must: Though I benefited from the help of many, any errors of fact or interpretation are my own.
This project required the conversations, support, and laughter of friends and family members too numerous to name. You know who you are and my gratitude to you is abounding. Above all and through it all, I thank my wife, Jodi, my daughter, Rebecca, and son, Charlie, for your love and patience with a book that took far longer to complete than Sherman needed to conquer Atlanta. I dedicate this to you with love to the treetops, clouds and beyond.
—Marc Wortman
March 2009
New Haven
PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
SECTION ONE
Page 1
Top left: Long Cane Creek Massacre Stone (Photo by Bob Edmonds)
Top right: Senator John C. Calhoun (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
Bottom left: Senator Daniel Webster (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
Bottom right: James M. Calhoun (Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center)
Pages 2-3
Historical rendering by Wilbur G. Kurtz (Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center)
Page 4
Top: Crawford, Frazer & Co. slave market (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
Bottom: Looking north on Washington Street (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
Page 5
Top: Train rolling into the car shed (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
Bottom: Alabama Street (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
Page 6
Top: Samuel P. Richards (Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center)
Bottom left: Benjamin C. Yancey (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wilson Library Manuscripts Department)
Bottom center: Jared I. Whitaker (Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center)
Bottom right: George W. Adair (Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center)
Page 7
Top: Intelligencer offices (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
Bottom: Atlanta City Hall and Fulton County Courthouse (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
Page 8
Top left: Sarah “Sallie” Conley Clayton (Atlanta History Center, Courtesy Robert Scott Davis)
Top right: Clayton Family house (Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center)
Bottom left: Colonel George W. Lee (Lee/Huss Family Papers, Georgia Archives, Courtesy Robert Scott Davis)
Section 1, Page 8 (continued) Bottom right: Captain William Lowndes Calhoun and Mary Jane Oliver (Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center)
SECTION TWO
Page 1
Top: Engraving of Union forces (Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, Famous Leaders and Battle Scenes of the Civil War)
Bottom left: General Joseph E. Johnston (National Archives and Records Administration 111-B-1782 CW-144_2)
Bottom center: General John B. Hood (National Archives and Records Administration, 111-B-5274 CW-142_2)
Bottom right: General William T. Sherman (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)
Page 2
Top left: Sam Watkins (Courtesy of Ruth Hill Fulton McAllister, Sam Watkins’ great granddaughter)
Top right: Colonel Charles F. Morse (U.S. Army Military History Institute Civil War Photograph Collections, 2 SC469-RG98S- 88.46)
Bottom left: Allen T. Holliday (Courtesy of Caroline Chesnut Leslie)
Bottom right: Lizzie Holliday (Courtesy of Caroline Chesnut Leslie)
Page 3
Top: Ponder house (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)
Bottom: Ponder estate (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)
Page 4
Top and middle: Harper’s Weekly engravings (Harper’s magazine)
Bottom: Georgia Railroad Roundhouse ruins (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)
Page 5
Top: Fort Hood (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)
Bottom: Huff family house (Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center)
Page 6
Top: Ruins of the Georgia Railroad (National Archives and Records Administration, 111-B-4786 CW-083)
Bottom: Postwar Peachtree Street (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)
Page 7
Top: Car shed (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)
Bottom: Union railroad demolition crew (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)
Page 8
Top: Engraving of Battle of Bentonville (Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, Famous Leaders and Battle Scenes of the Civil War)
Bottom left: Henry O. Flipper (National Park Service: Fort Davis National Historic Site, Texas)
Bottom right: Ruins of the car shed (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division)
INDEX
Abolitionists, Southerners and
Adair, George W.
Adams, Charles Francis, Jr.
Adams, Henry
Adams, John Quincy
Advertising, newspaper
Alabama Platform
Alford, Julius Caesar
American Party
Anderson, G. Whitfield
Andersonville Prison
Andrews, James J.
Angier, Nedom
Antietam (Sharpsburg)
Anti-insurgency war
Appeal (newspaper)
Appomattox
Armory, Confederate
Arp, Bill. See also Smith, Charles H.
Athenaeum (Atlanta)
Atlanta
battle for
bondsmen in
burning of
city defenses
civilians fleeing
Confederate army in
crime in
curfews
day of prayer for
departure of city government
destruction of by Union troops
disease in
earthquake in
expulsion of civilian population
<
br /> food thefts in
growth and development of
as heart of Confederacy
interracial society in
looting of
as magnet for freemen
martial law in
military hospitals in
military manufacturing in
militias
occupation by Union forces
patriotic displays
postwar rise of
predictions for future of at beginning of Civil War
public education in
railroads and growth of
real estate speculation in
rebuilding
reconciling to Union
refugees from
refugees in
relief for poor
returnees to
return of Sherman postwar
secession and
second Union move on
shelling of
during Sherman’s approach
silencing opposition to secession
slavery in
state of, 1864
surrender to Union forces
as trading center
underground economy in
Unionists in
as Union target
Union troops in
waiting for invasion