page_title: Rome, Georgia
section_title: Civil war period
hierarchical_section_title: Rome, Georgia / History / Civil war period
caption_attribution_description: English: A photograph of Rome, Georgia in 1864, during the occupation by Union forces in the U.S. Civil War, according to Dave Larson's web site. Dave Larson's description also says that the river in the foreground is the Oostanaula. It is the Etowah River flowing right to left into the Oostanaula which you see coming under the bridge on the left. These two rivers are meeting at the left of the photo and forming the Coosa. The bridge shown is for a fact the exact location for the now 2nd ave bridge. The photo was taken in the fall of 1864 by Union photographer George M. Barnard as the Sherman's Union army was leaving Rome for Atlanta. This is only a portion of what is considered to be a composition photo. This being the left portion. Since the photo is over 140 years old, it is in the public domain, since the photographer must have died at least 70 years ago.
context_page_description: Rome is the largest city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Floyd County. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,303. It is the largest city in Northwest Georgia and the 19th-largest city in the state.
  Rome was built at the confluence of the Etowah and the Oostanaula Rivers, which together form the Coosa River. Because of its strategic advantages, this area was long occupied by the Creek and later the Cherokee peoples. National leaders such as Major Ridge and John Ross resided here before Indian Removal.
  The city has developed on seven hills with the rivers running between them, a feature that inspired the early European-American settlers to name it for Rome, the longtime capital of Italy and also built on seven hills. It developed in the antebellum period as a market and trading city due to its advantageous location on the rivers, by which it sent the rich regional cotton commodity crop downriver to markets on the Gulf Coast and export overseas.
context_section_description: Rome's iron works were an important manufacturing center during the Civil War, supplying many cannons and other armaments to the Confederate effort. In April 1863, the city was defended by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest against Union Colonel Abel Streight's "lightning mule" raid from the area east of modern-day Cedar Bluff, Alabama. General Forrest tricked Colonel Streight into surrendering just a few miles shy of Rome. Realizing their vulnerability, Rome's city council had allocated $3,000 to build three fortifications. Although these became operational by October 1863, efforts to strengthen the forts continued as the war progressed. These forts were named after Romans who had been killed in action: Fort Attaway was on the western bank of the Oostanaula River, Fort Norton was on the eastern bank of the Oostanaula, and Fort Stovall was on the southern bank of the Etowah River. The Confederates later built at least one other fort on the northern side of the Coosa River.
  In May 1864, Union General Jefferson C. Davis, under the command of Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, attacked and captured Rome when the outflanked Confederate defenders retreated under command of Major General Samuel Gibbs French. Union General William Vandever was stationed in Rome and is shown with his staff in a photograph taken there. Due to Rome's forts and iron works, which included the manufacture of cannons, Rome was a significant target during Sherman's march through Georgia to take and destroy Confederate resources. Davis' forces occupied Rome for several months, making repairs to use the damaged forts and briefly quartering General Sherman. Foreshadowing Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 120, Union forces destroyed Rome's forts, iron works, the rail line to Kingston, and any other materiel that could be useful to the South's war effort as they withdrew from Rome to participate in the Atlanta Campaign.
caption: Rome in 1864, during the occupation by Union forces
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