Read
For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.
1 Chronicles 29:15
Reflect
History is filled with little-known stories that float just below the surface of what people learned in school. Many of these stories just never became as prominent as the stories we did learn, such as the “Midnight Ride of Jack Jouett,” a miraculous true story that evaded recognition, while a largely fanciful tale, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” became accepted lore.
Other stories aren’t told because they’re more or less embarrassing, either to people who are still alive or to the country as a whole. One such story is the tale of the “Roswell Women,” which took place at the tail end of the Civil War. The victims in this story are also from the losing side of the war, and history rarely has much sympathy for people who were on the wrong side of history. But in this case, I think there should definitely be an exception.
The ruins of the old mill at New Manchester near Lithia Springs, Ga.
The “hero” in this story has always been Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, the man who masterminded the famous “March to the Sea” that is largely credited with breaking the South’s will and expediting the end to the war. But as with Paul Revere’s famed ride, history often has a way of whitewashing certain facts. During his march southward, the northern army moved into Roswell, Ga., and began destroying homes and businesses. When the troops came upon the Roswell Mill, they found a French flag flying overhead, indicating it was neutral. But they also found it was supplying uniforms to the Confederate Army. Union Gen. Kenner Garrard ordered all three mills in Roswell burned, but then he received additional orders from his commanding officer, General Sherman — arrest every worker from the Roswell mills and force them to march by foot to Georgia Military Institute (about 15 miles away), where they would be imprisoned because of their efforts to “give aid and comfort to the enemy.”
General Garrard’s men did, indeed, arrest those workers — mainly children, single women and a few elderly men. They were allowed to gather a few possessions, and then they were taken to the military school, but only temporarily. (They were later joined by workers from the mill at New Manchester, about 17 miles to the south.) Once rail cars became available, the roughly 400 prisoners were herded into the cars like cattle and shipped north. With just nine days of provisions and no money, they were carted to Louisville, Ky., where many were unloaded as refugees. The remainder were taking across the river into Indiana and dropped at Evansville, New Albany and Jeffersonville.
These events are tragic enough, but the rest of the story is even more harsh. Without food and money, the Roswell refugees were left to fend for themselves, and many succumbed to disease, starvation and exposure. Some received generosity from people in those communities, and others either found employment, married local men or both. There are few records that show that any of them returned home. For the most part, these workers were just pawns in an effort to make the South suffer and to end the war. According to Union Lt. Col. Jeremiah Jenkins, “The women of the south kept the war alive and it is only by making them suffer that we can subdue the men.”
This story strikes me as somewhat of a modern rendering of the taking of the Jews into captivity by the Babylonians. Held as prisoners and slaves, far from home, without any idea of how long they would remain there. Their captivity lasted 70 years, but for many it was a lifetime because they never returned home. The Christmas song “O Come, O Come Immanuel” isn’t directly from a scripture, but it does reflect the mindset and attitude of the Israelites who were no doubt longing and waiting for their deliverance.
Today, we tend to forget that we are also a people living away from our home. We are told in 1 Chronicles that we are strangers in this world, and Peter’s first letter reminds us of this fact. This earth is only our temporary home, and we look for the day that we will be delivered into our heavenly home. Until then, we must make our way through this sinful world in hope of a better life in God’s kingdom. And along the way, He calls each of us to make this place better than it was yesterday and to shine His light into a darkened world.
Reflection copyright © 2021 Doug DeBolt.
