By Jack Krost

Hard Times and Hard Feelings

Third and Final in a Series

Historic Pictures from National Archives and Library of Congress. Position mouse of picture for caption.

While there are many tales of death and devastation from the fighting that took place near present-day Oakhurst, to one Union soldier, it was an embarrassing experience. He found himself taken prisoner by a widow and ten little girls. In “The History of DeKalb County, Georgia 1822-1900,” Vivian Price writes that the woman, a Mrs. Johnson, was leasing the house from Benjamin Swanton. The Swantons had left town to avoid the battle. Mrs. Johnson was staying there with her own girls and the daughters of her deceased brother. After Federal troops entered town, she found a soldier snooping in the closet of the upstairs bedroom and managed to lock the surprised man inside. She kept him there until Confederate soldiers camped nearby, when she forced him to undress and led him at gunpoint to the Confederates. Today, that house, known as the Swanton House, has been restored and moved to the historic complex at Adair Park on West Trinity Place.

At one point during the battle, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman stayed at a house on Clairmont Road, across from the Veterans Hospital. Later he passed through Decatur and watered his horse at a house at North Candler Street and Sycamore streets that served as a stagecoach stop. It’s now one of the stops on a walking tour of Decatur offered by the DeKalb History Center.

CIVILIANS PAY A HEAVY TOLL

Many civilians paid a heavy price during the battle, as soldiers helped themselves to food, farm animals and whatever else suited them. Mary Gay, a Decatur resident who lived on Marshall Street near the courthouse, provided a particularly vivid description of this in her fiery pro-Confederacy memoirs, “Life in Dixie During the War.”

“Garrad’s cavalry selected our lot, consisting of several acres for headquarters,” she wrote, “and soon what appeared to us to be an immense army train of wagons commenced rolling into it. In less than two hours our barn was demolished and converted into tents, and to the balusters of our portico and other portions of the house were tied a number of large ropes, to these were attached horses and mules which were eating our oats out of troughs improvised for the occasion out of bureaus, washboards and wardrobe bureaus.”  That quote is part of an exhibit at the DeKalb History Center.

Gay also wrote that based on the destruction, she was certain that “every species of criminals ever incarcerated in the prisons of the Northern States of America had swooped down upon us, and every species of deviltry followed in their footsteps.”

A major on General John Schofield’s staff later visited Mary Gay and her family and apologized for the destruction. But with all the devastation, Gay was reduced to collecting baskets of bullets and minie balls on DeKalb County battlefields and exchanging them at military provisions stores for food.

Gay and her flowery memoirs provided a major source of inspiration to Margaret Mitchell when she wrote “Gone With the Wind,” according to Clarke. Gay died in 1918 at age 90. Her house also has been moved and now sits next to the Swanton House.

ATLANTA BOMBARDED

In early August, Sherman began shelling the city. The bombardment lasted for most of the month. Finally, on September 1, Hood burned his ammunition supplies and abandoned Atlanta, and Sherman entered the city the next day. The siege of Atlanta had taken the lives of more than 30,000 troops on each side.

Sherman sent word of the Atlanta victory to Washington. “So, Atlanta is ours, and fairly won,” he said.

In a discussion at the Decatur library, James M. McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, noted, “It’s impossible to exaggerate the importance of that event in both the North and South. It turned minds around by 180 degrees in both directions.” He said that while Atlanta’s importance as a railroad center had already been compromised, and the capture of the city had limited military significance, it had a profound impact on how both sides viewed the progress of the war. And it boosted the political fortunes of Abraham Lincoln, who was facing possible defeat for reelection.

Sherman remained in Atlanta until mid-November, destroying any buildings that could be used for hostile purposes, and preparing his wagon trains for his drive to the sea. Then on November 15, the Federals marched out, leaving behind a ruined city. At one point, according to author Caroline McKinney Clarke, as Union troops marched along McDonough Street, they broke into what, to them, was a victory song, and to any bystanders, was a symbol of their defeat: "John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave."

The Union and Confederate armies left behind a population of mostly old men, women and children, with little opportunity to fend for themselves on destroyed farms. Hunger and deprivation followed, and the destitution continued for years after the war. But of course, for some people, life improved immeasurably. For the few slaves in DeKalb County, it was a new world.