Table Of Content

CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERA CASS/BARTOW COUNTY, GEORGIA Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this dissertation is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisory committee. This dissertation does not include proprietary or classified information. _______________________________ Keith Scott Hébert Certificate of Approval: ____________________________ ____________________________ Anthony G. Carey Kenneth W. Noe, Chair Associate Professor Professor History History ____________________________ ____________________________ Kathryn H. Braund Keith S. Bohannon Professor Associate Professor History History University of West Georgia ____________________________ George T. Flowers Interim Dean Graduate School CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERA CASS/BARTOW COUNTY, GEORGIA Keith Scott Hébert A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama May 10, 2007 CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERA CASS/BARTOW COUNTY, GEORGIA Keith Scott Hébert Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this dissertation at its discretion, upon request of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. ________________________________ Signature of Author ________________________________ Date of Graduation iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERA CASS/BARTOW COUNTY, GEORGIA Keith Scott Hébert Doctor of Philosophy, May, 10, 2007 (M.A., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2001) (B.A., State University of West Georgia, 1998) 374 Typed Pages Directed by Kenneth W. Noe A “white men’s democracy” profoundly shaped aspects of pre-industrial Cass/Bartow County, Georgia’s social, economic, and political landscape. Following the removal of the Cherokee from northwest Georgia, white settlers predominately from western South Carolina and select East Georgia counties and their black slaves transferred their existing bi-racial society to one of the last frontiers remaining in southern Appalachia. During the antebellum period, locals, black and white, rich and poor, male and female, interacted to varying degrees due to their gender, race, and wealth in a variety of social, cultural, and political institutions and organizations that, at least from the perspective of the county’s white males, fostered bonds of communal loyalty and charity that reinforced the existing white men’s democracy. The Civil War challenged the existing white men’s democracy. Internally, questions concerning the timing of secession, military recruitment, and Confederate iv governmental intrusions combined with a growing divide between the home front and front line to foster intense bouts of war weariness. War weariness dampened Confederate nationalism locally but it was not until the 1864 Atlanta Campaign that local support for the war effort collapsed. Ultimately, a combination of internal and external pressures defeated local residents and the Confederacy. During Reconstruction, local residents concerned themselves with reforming their tattered communities. Freedpeople enjoyed some of the liberties that emancipation brought yet due to hostile whites, ineffective federal programs, and intra-racial dissension many fell victim to the post-bellum rebuilding process. Many whites saw themselves as victims of the war, emancipation, and divine intervention. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Scholars accumulate enormous personal and professional debts while completing their research and writing. Without the guidance, encouragement, and friendship of Kenneth W. Noe this project and perhaps even my graduate career would have never developed. In addition to molding me into the scholar that I have become, he also taught me a number of other lessons about life that I have found equally valuable. At Auburn University, Anthony Carey and Kathryn Braund too helped hone my research and writing skills. While serving as an instructor at the University of West Georgia, I met Keith Bohannon. Our long talks in the halls of the history department combined with his generosity in sharing enormous amounts of primary source materials greatly benefited this project. My family has been saddled by this project for as long as I have. Rebecca L. Hébert read every version of this manuscript, listened intently for hours to her rambling husband, and faithfully supported my graduate career. Susan Hébert taught me from an early age the value of a college education. Her constant encouragement and support has made everything in my life possible. vi Style manual or journal used: The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th Edition. Computer software used: Microsoft Word vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter One. Settlement through Cherokee Removal......................................................15 Chapter Two. A White Men’s Community: 1840-1860...................................................42 Chapter Three. The Road to Secession.............................................................................80 Chapter Four. 1861.........................................................................................................130 Chapter Five. A White Community’s War: 1862-1863..................................................175 Chapter Six. The Atlanta Campaign...............................................................................203 Chapter Seven. Federal Occupation................................................................................244 Chapter Eight. The War at Home: Fall 1864- Spring 1865............................................273 Chapter Nine. Reconstruction: 1865-1872.....................................................................300 Epilogue. The Rise and Fall of a White Men’s Democracy...........................................347 Bibliography....................................................................................................................351 viii ABBREVIATIONS ADAH Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama. AHC Atlanta Historical Society Archives, Atlanta History Center. AHQ Alabama Historical Quarterly BCPL Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, Georgia. CWH Civil War History EU Robert Woodruff Library, Special Collections, Emory University, Decatur, Georgia. GDAH Georgia Department of Archives and History, Morrow, Georgia. GHQ Georgia Historical Quarterly JAH Journal of American History JSH Journal of Southern History NARA-ATL National Archives and Records Administration, Southeast Region, Atlanta. NGDPP Northwest Georgia Document Preservation Program SCC Southern Claims Commission SHC Southern Historical Collection, Special Collections, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Slave Rawick, George P., ed. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1972, 19 vols. Slave I Rawick, George P., ed. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, Supplement I. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1977, 12 vols. TSA Tennessee State Archives, Nashville, Tennessee. UGA Hargrett Rare Book and Special Collections, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. UNC-CH Special Collections, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. W&A Western & Atlantic Railroad ix INTRODUCTION Local history matters. The history of communities, such as Cass/Bartow County, Georgia, is not entirely a function of the history of the State of Georgia or the United States. A county’s history sometimes involves different concerns and unique actors. County residents saw to be sure themselves as citizens of a state and thus identified with its concerns and shared in a common regional culture. The work which follows explores the convergence and divergence of events as seen through the experiences of an understudied northwest Georgia county. The Civil War was a watershed moment in the lives of Cass/Bartow Countians. The following work explores why the Civil War impacted the community the way it did. The Civil War both internally and externally challenged the community’s antebellum “white men’s democracy” placing into question whether or not a social order dependent upon the preservation of slavery and white supremacy could endure.1 * * * * * * * * * * * 1