Where Sherman's forces arrested 400 mill women as traitors in 1864—most never came home
95 Mill St, Roswell, GA 30075
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free admission; open sunrise to sunset
Access
Limited Access
Unpaved trail system with creek crossings and steep sections; some areas accessible, ruins require walking on uneven ground
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1839 · Site of Sherman's 1864 arrest and deportation of approximately 400 mill workers · Surviving 1839 machine shop (only structure to escape burning) · Part of Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area · Memorial column dedicated 2000 to deported workers
The Roswell Manufacturing Company was established in the late 1830s by a group of investors from coastal Georgia who laid out the town of Roswell as a planned industrial and residential community. Mills were constructed along Vickery Creek, which provided waterpower, and operations expanded to include both cotton and woolen production. By the Civil War, the mills had converted to manufacturing Confederate military supplies: uniform cloth, rope, canvas, and tent material.
In July 1864, during the Atlanta campaign, General Sherman's forces moved through Roswell. On July 5–6, 1864, Union troops burned the mill buildings. Sherman had already ordered the arrest of anyone connected to the Confederate manufacturing operation, writing that owners and employees should be charged with treason and sent north by railroad. The workers—records and later scholarship suggest approximately 400 people, the majority women and their children, along with some older men—were taken by wagon to Marietta, held at the Georgia Military Institute, then loaded into boxcars.
The destinations included Louisville, Kentucky, and cities in Indiana. Most had no money, no connections in the North, and no clear path back to Georgia. The New Georgia Encyclopedia, drawing on contemporary records and subsequent research, concludes that there is little evidence more than a handful of these women ever returned home. The displacement was effectively permanent for most of them.
The only structure from the original mill complex to survive the burning was the 1839 machine shop, a two-story brick building in late Georgian style that still stands along the creek. In July 2000, the City of Roswell dedicated a 10-foot Corinthian memorial column to the deported workers. The site is now Old Mill Park, connected to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area trail network.
Sources
The paranormal reputation of the Roswell Mill site is inseparable from the historical event that defines it: the mass arrest and northward deportation of the mill workers in July 1864. Most of those women never came back. That specific, documented loss—hundreds of people forcibly removed from a place they had lived their entire lives, most disappearing into an unfamiliar region—has generated a sustained haunting tradition.
The most frequently described apparition is a woman in white near the covered bridge or along the creek bank, most often reported at dusk. Investigators from multiple groups have documented unexplained sounds in the ruins: footsteps in areas where no one is present, faint voices, and what some describe as soft crying near the waterfall. The covered bridge and the creek crossing are consistently cited as the most active areas.
Paranormal investigators have characterized the site as one of residual haunting—the phenomena repeating without apparent awareness of observers, which fits the pattern of a traumatic historical event rather than an individual named haunting. The Roswell Ghost Tour includes the mill ruins as a primary stop.
The 1839 machine shop—the only structure to survive Sherman's burning of the Roswell mills in July 1864—stands along Vickery Creek as part of Old Mill Park and the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. A covered bridge crosses the creek near the ruins. A 10-foot Corinthian memorial column, dedicated in July 2000, honors the approximately 400 mill workers arrested and deported north as traitors.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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