During the Civil War, the Roswell Manufacturing Company's cotton mills produced sheeting, tenting, yarn, and rope for the Confederate war effort, and Barrington King invested heavily in Confederate bonds on the company's behalf. On July 5, 1864, Federal troops arrived in the Roswell area to use the bridge crossing the Chattahoochee River and a nearby shallow ford in their advance toward Atlanta. Union General Kenner Garrard learned that the Roswell Battalion had burned the bridge and, after entering town, found that the mills were manufacturing goods for the Confederacy. Garrard's 2nd U.S. Cavalry Division was ordered to destroy the mills, and General William T. Sherman then ordered Garrard to arrest all the mill operatives, mostly women and children, charge them with treason, and send them under guard to Marietta, from where they were transported by troop trains north to Louisville, Kentucky. The workers were eventually released after taking the oath of allegiance. At the end of the war, stockholders of the Roswell Manufacturing Company voted to rebuild the 1853 mill, which was back in operation by 1867, while the 1839 mill was not rebuilt.