Cassville, Georgia
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Cassville is an
unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in Bartow County in the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
. It was originally the
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
before the name was changed from Cass County. The seat was moved to Cartersville after
General Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a General officer, general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), earning recognit ...
destroyed Cassville in his Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Cassville, although no longer incorporated, is said to encompass an area beginning at the Cassville Road-Firetower Road intersection and extending a mile in all directions. Cassville lies in between Adairsville and Cartersville, off
U.S. Route 41 U.S. Route 41, also U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part in southern Florida, from Naples to Miam ...
. It is considered part of metro Atlanta but maintains its small town atmosphere. Other points of interest include the Cassville History Museum, Cassville Visitors Information, and Cassville Confederate Cemetery, located on Cass-White Road.


History

The town of Cassville was
plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...
ted in 1833, as the seat of justice for Cass County. It was soon the center of trade and travel in the region recently comprising the
Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
. Both the county and town were named in the honor of General
Lewis Cass Lewis Cass (October 9, 1782June 17, 1866) was a United States Army officer and politician. He represented Michigan in the United States Senate and served in the Cabinets of two U.S. Presidents, Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan. He was also the 1 ...
, Michigan statesman and
Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
in the Cabinet of President
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...
. It was the county seat of Cass County from 1832–1861. The name was changed to Manassas in 1861 after the success of the Confederacy in the First Battle of Bull Run. But as a direct result, the town was burned by Union General
William T. Sherman William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...
in 1864 and never fully recovered. About 300 unknown Confederate soldiers died of wounds or disease in Cassville's several Confederate hospitals. These hospitals operated from late 1861 until May 18, 1864, when ambulances moved patients south out of the path of the invading Federal forces. In May 1899, the Cassville Chapter of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, a ...
, to honor these unknown soldiers, placed headstones at each of their graves in the local cemetery. On May 19, 1864, Confederate General
Joseph E. Johnston Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 – March 21, 1891) was an American military officer who served in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Seminole Wars. After Virginia declared secession from ...
tricked Sherman into dividing his forces at Adairsville and sending the XXIII Corps under General John M. Schofield across the Gravelly Plateau to Cassville. Johnston placed Lt. General
Leonidas Polk Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk (April 10, 1806 – June 14, 1864) was a Confederate general, a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and founder of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which separat ...
's corps behind Two Run Creek northwest of Cassville to oppose Schofield in front as he began crossing the creek. Johnston then sent Lt. General John B. Hood's corps northward along the Spring Place Road, to ambush Schofield on the left. Atlanta Campaign. On May 19, 1864, Johnston, entrenched on the ridge east of the marker, planned to give battle but Sherman threatened his flank and his corps commanders objected to the position. He therefore withdrew to Allatoona Pass. Rather than attack this strong position Sherman moved past it toward New Hope Church. Confederate Army of Tennessee at Cassville. Johnston’s forces, reaching Cassville May 18, 1864 from Resaca, north, took positions on ridge west of the town and prepared to withstand the advancing Federals. On May 19: Pursuant to this intention, Hood's corps moved north of the town to oppose the Federal XX and XXIII Corps marching south from Adairsville. But Hood's corps, diverted by an attack on its right by McCook's cavalry S changed front and was ordered with the rest of the Army Sto withdraw to ridge east and south of the town. The Confederates held a council of war at the William Neal McKelvey residence May 19. They discussed the advisability of holding the position east and south of Cassville. Present were: Johnston; Polk; Hood; Maj. General S. C. French; and Captain W.J. Morris, Chief Engineer, Polk's aide-de-camp. After hearing the statements of the council, Johnston ordered the withdrawal of the army at midnight. May 19, 1864: Butterfield's (3rd) Division, XXth Corps S moving southeast from McDow's, left the road here and marched to the Hawkins Price house, en route to
Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...
The 1st and 2nd Divisions S on roads west, had the same objective - an erratic move by Sherman who assumed that Johnston's Army Shad retreated on Kingston. Butterfield's march disclosed that Johnston's Army was at Cassville, not Kingston. The XXIII Corps (Schofield) Smarched on this road from McDow's, reaching Cassville at dark. Here the night of May 19, 1864, the Confederate Generals Johnston, Polk and Hood, conferred and decided to abandon Cassville and to move south of the Etowah, although Johnston originally had intended to fight here. Cassville Female College was founded in 1853. On May 19, 1864, skirmishers of Polk's Army Corps Swithdrew from this ridge east to Cassville when pressed back by Butterfield's (3d) Div., XXth Corps S from the Hawkins Price house. Battery C, 1st Ohio Light Artillery, supported by
73rd Ohio Infantry The 73rd Ohio Infantry Regiment, sometimes 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (or 73rd OVI) was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The 73rd Ohio Infantry was organized in Chillicothe, Ohio and mustered in for ...
,
19th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment The 19th Michigan Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The 19th Michigan Infantry was mustered into Federal service at Dowagiac, Michigan, on September 5, 1862. Among t ...
and 20th Connecticut Infantry regiment Soccupied the ridge and shelled the town as Johnson's Army Swithdrew to a ridge east of it. At night Cassville was seized by the 19th Mich. & 20th Conn. the Female College and town were burned by the union. Noble Hill Rosenwald School, now known as Noble Hill-Wheeler Memorial Center, was built in 1923 as the first standard school for black children in the Bartow County School System. The school closed in 1955 when all the county's schools for black children were consolidated to form Bartow Elementary School at a central location. Today the restored building is a cultural heritage museum with emphasis on black life in Bartow from the early 1900s to the present. On Chapman Hill, a school for boys was established in January 1854. This was a large three-story brick building flanked by two-story wings. It burned in 1856, was rebuilt in 1857, and was destroyed by Federal forces on October 12, 1864. This, and the Methodist Female College 3/4 miles northeast, were the first chartered institutions of higher education in Cherokee Georgia. Their destruction, together with the burning of Cassville, marked the passing of a notable educational center in this section of the state.Georgia (Bartow County), Cassville — 008-22 — Site - Cherokee Baptist College


Notable people

*
Barry Loudermilk Barry Dean Loudermilk ( ; born December 22, 1963) is an American politician from the state of Georgia who has been the United States House representative from since 2015. Prior to this, Loudermilk served in the Georgia House of Representatives ...
, U.S. Congressman from Georgia's 11th congressional district. *Brigadier General William T. Wofford is buried here. He surrendered the last remaining Confederate troops east of the Mississippi in nearby Kingston.


See also

List of county seats in Georgia (U.S. state) The U.S. state of Georgia is divided into 159 counties, more than any other state except for Texas, which has 254 counties. Under the Georgia State Constitution, all of its counties are granted home rule to deal with problems that are purely l ...


References


External links


Cassville Historical Society
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Bartow County, Georgia Unincorporated communities in Georgia (U.S. state) 1833 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Former county seats in Georgia (U.S. state)