Leigh Ann's Civil War (28 page)

And, when Major J. C. McCoy of the Yankee army rides up to the Conners plantation and dismounts his horse, I did not know he was going to have such a presence, be so polite yet so in command at the same time, and, on first seeing Leigh Ann, be so taken with her. McCoy was actually a real person.

What to do with him now? He is twenty-three, she is fourteen. I did not know what to do. I left the situation unresolved at the end of the book, as I left unresolved the business of whether the family would or would not end up going west. Perhaps they will, I thought.

Perhaps they will establish a "homestead," as Teddy likes to call their plantation in Roswell. Which means, simply, "a place for a family's home."

I have not decided yet. But what is the sense in my deciding? My characters make their own minds up, don't they?

***

I have loosely based my character Louis on Captain Tom King of Roswell, who was wounded at First Manassas, came home, and was elected mayor of the town. Here is a good place to mention that the North had one name for every battle (First Manassas was Bull Run to the North). Second Manassas was fought on August 29-30, 1862, so by the time Major J. C. McCoy came to see Teddy Conners when the mill was being burned in 1864, the battle that Teddy and Louis had fought was already being called First Manassas.

I have taken a few liberties for the sake of story. Train travel was closed to civilians on April 6, 1864, as a result of General Order #6 issued by General Sherman. I have train travel being closed to civilians in May instead.

For the sake of story I have my character Leigh Ann planting the French flag on the roof of the mill. Historically, there is no mention of who did it. Marietta, the county seat, was a four-hour horseback ride to the west. I have the trip taking two days by wagon.

I calculated that it would, what with all the stops with the women aboard, for meals, for hunting, for all the other incidents that happened and for sleeping. Likewise, I figured about a day and a half for the trip home that Leigh Ann and Carol and Mulholland made.

As far as my research could tell me, the first Confederate flag was seen by a young woman in May 1861. (Cornelia Peake McDonald, in her diary,
A Woman's Civil War.)
See my bibliography.

As with the abovementioned Confederate flag, all the rest of the facts in my story are carefully researched. Special thanks should go here to
The Women Will Howl,
the wonderful book by Mary Deborah Petite about Roswell and the burning of the mill, the fate of the mill workers, and the town.

***

Historically, the Roswell mill was rebuilt and back in operation by 1867. It continued to operate until a flood put it out of business in 1881. In 1882, a new mill was constructed on a hill above the old factory complex. The old mill was struck by lightning in 1926, and the mill, picker house, and warehouse were destroyed. Instead of putting more money into that complex, the directors expanded the 1882 arrangement on the hill.

In the Great Depression, the Roswell Mill operated only occasionally. In the 1940s it made laundry netting and carpet backing, some cotton yard, and cotton cloth. In 1975, it ended its operations and sold its machinery for scrap iron.

One wonders what Teddy would think about all that.

***

Today Roswell, Georgia, is a beautiful town, retaining all the hints of pre-Civil War Georgia. The lovely old homes have been restored and most are within the Roswell Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Many of the mill workers' cottages still stand on Factory Hill. In Old Mill Park there is a monument to the Roswell mill workers.

There is a ten-foot-tall granite Corinthian column that was unveiled in July 2000 in a small park in the mill village that honors the men, women, and children who were taken from Roswell and sent on a long journey north by decree of General William T. Sherman, most of whom would never return again.

The song of the rushing water flowing into the creek below and finding its way to the Chattahoochee River is the continual hymn of mourning just for them.

Burke, Emily.
Pleasure and Pain: Reminiscences of Georgia in the 1840s.
Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Press, 1991.

Faust, Patricia L., editor.
Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War.
New York: Harper and Row, 1986.

Foner, Eric.
Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877.
New York: HarperCollins, 1988.

Golay, Michael.
A Ruined Land: The End of the Civil War.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Hennessy, John.
The First Battle of Manassas: An End to Innocence, July 18-21, 1861.
Lynchburg, Va.: H. E. Howard, 1989.

Kemble, Frances Anne.
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation.
Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Foundation, 1992.

Lane, Mills, editor.
The Rambler in Georgia..
Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Foundation, 1990.

Long, E. B., with Barbara Long.
The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-1865.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971.

Massey, Mary Elizabeth.
Ersatz in the Confederacy: Shortages and Substitutes on the Southern Homefront.
Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1952.

McDonald, Cornelia Peake.
A Woman's Civil War: A Diary, with Reminiscences of the War, fiom March 1862.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.

Petite, Mary Deborah.
"The Women Will Howl": The Union Army Capture of Roswell and New Manchester, Georgia, and the Forced Relocation of Mill Workers.
Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2008.

Varhola, Michael J.
Everyday Life During the Civil War: A Guide for Writers, Students and Historians.
Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books, 1999.

Ann Rinaldi is an award-winning author known for her engaging historical fiction. A self-made novelist, she learned her craft through reading and writing. As a columnist for twenty-one years at the
Trentonian
in New Jersey, she honed her skill at digging through past events to find good stories and then capture them in words.

Ms. Rinaldi attributes her interest in history to her son, who enlisted her to take part in historical reenactments up and down the East Coast, where she cooked the food, made the clothing, and learned the dances, songs, and lifestyle that prevailed in eighteenth-century America.

Ms. Rinaldi lives with her husband in central New Jersey.

www.annrinaldi.net

Jacket art © 2009 by Marc Yankus

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