Lost Mill Workers of Roswell

The influence of town founder Roswell King's New England roots is evident throughout the town of Roswell and the c. 1846-1856 buildings. The well-manicured grass-covered square itself was the site where Federal soldiers held Roswell's 400 female mill workers and their dependents, forcing them to live in the open for several days under guard before moving them to the railroad in Marietta, where they were transported north of the Ohio River into Indiana.

On July 7, 1864, General Sherman ordered everyone connected with the Roswell Mills to be charged with treason. Mill workers were rounded up on the square where they waited a day before being sent to the Georgia Military Institute in Marietta. There, they were housed with other women and children from other mills. From there, they were put on trains, bound for the north. Many of the women were put out just north of the Ohio River and were never heard from again.

A block east of the Roswell Town Square is a small park on Sloan Street with a monument dedicated to the memory of the 400 women mill workers and children. Some of the women eventually returned to Roswell, but some of the women's fates remain an unsolved mystery.