Dix Fletcher was a cabinet maker, who was born in Phillipston in 1803; his wife, Louisa Warren Fletcher, a vocalist and the author of “Journal of a Landlady,” was born in New Salem in 1808. The two knew each other as children and married in Stow in 1831. Their family’s story of being a Unionist family in Georgia, intertwines with the story of the Civil War, giving a unique perspective to both.
While living in Stow, Louisa sang at the Unitarian Church. Visitors from Savannah heard her sing and invited her there to sing. The Fletchers accepted the invitation and once in Savannah decided to stay, according to Amy Reed, curator of the Marietta Museum of History, in Marietta, Georgia. The Fletchers lived there for 15 years, with Dix owning a lumberyard there. Louisa and Dix had three daughters over that time who survived to adulthood, after losing three daughters in infancy in Massachusetts.
In 1849, there was a fire at the lumberyard and Dix’s business was destroyed. Once again, while Louisa was singing in Savannah, the Denmeads of Marietta heard her, and invited her to sing at a church in Marietta. The Fletchers chose to stay in Marietta, the county seat of Cobb County. Dix worked as a manager of the Howard House, the hotel where the Fletchers had first stayed. He continued there until 1852, when he became a marshall of Cobb County. In 1855, Fletcher purchased John Glover’s Breakfast House, which he turned into the Fletcher House Hotel. He and Louisa ran the hotel until his retirement, Reed continued.
The Fletchers were Unionists in their beliefs. The Fletchers’ son-in-law, Henry Greene Cole, was imprisoned by the Confederates for being a Union spy during the war. There were a number of Unionists throughout North Georgia, especially in Marietta, Reed said. In Louisa’s Journal leading up to the war, she writes about worrying and praying for the people up North.
Although the Fletchers supported the Union and staying with the United States, they also owned several slaves, with one or two slaves serving in the household and several others working at the hotel. “They were more stick together as a country rather than for the abolition of slavery. They were definitely not abolitionists,” said Reed. Cole too prior to the war owned enslaved people.
The Fletcher House Hotel also had a part in the Great Locomotive Chase, which took place on April 12, 1862. The raid began when 30 men from the Union Army in Ohio led by Union Spy James Andrews slipped through Confederate enemy lines and met up at the hotel, which was located near the train depot. There they spent the night, she stated.
There are still questions as to whether Fletcher knew these Union soldiers were at his hotel. There was a large spy ring in the Atlanta area which Fletcher’s son-in-law, Cole, was involved in. Cole and Andrews knew one another.
Right before the raiders came to town, Fletcher changed his hotel name from the Fletcher House Hotel to the Kennesaw House Hotel and then changed it back right afterwards. It is theorized he might have changed the name so he would not be associated with the raid later on, Reed stated.
Then there was his daughter, Eliza, who had attended college in Antioch, Ohio. Eliza was the only family member who supported the Confederate army during the war. One of her classmates was Marion Ross, one of the Locomotive Chase raiders. During the raid, Fletcher sent Eliza to Alabama to visit friends. Did he send her out of town because he was concerned that she would recognize Ross, realize he was not supposed to be in town and wonder why he was there? she continued.
The next morning the Union soldiers boarded the train called the General. The plan was to steal the General, go north and cut the telegraph wires and tear up the railroad, thus disrupting Confederate communication and supply lines. “The railroad at this point was the life line of the Confederate Army. That was how they moved troops and supplies … It was thought if the Confederacy couldn’t get supplies, the Union would win the battles and end the war,” Reed said.
When the train’s passengers and crew disembarked for breakfast, the Union raiders stole the train. Captain Fuller, the train’s conductor and his men gave chase, first on foot, then with a pole cart (a flat train car pushed with a pole), and eventually hopping on other trains, including the Texas, which was heading south to Atlanta. The Texas had to be put in reverse in order to pursue the General, she continued.
In Ringgold, Georgia, with the Unionists running out of items to burn to create steam to power the engine, the General finally stopped. The soldiers abandoned the train and a foot chase ensued.
All but three of the soldiers were captured. Half of those captured, including Andrews, were hung. The others awaited their trial and fate in a Confederate jail. Soon though, a Confederate and Union Army prisoner exchange took place and these men as part of it were sent back to Ohio, she stated.
In 1863, President Lincoln in an effort to boost morale created the Medal of Honor. The soldiers who had survived the failed locomotive chase became the first recipients of this medal, Reed added.
During the war, the Fletcher House Hotel served as a military hospital, first for Confederate soldiers in 1863 and then for Union soldiers in 1864. Before the Union Army had come to the area, the hotel at the same time also housed guests who were refugees from other towns occupied by the Union Army, she said.
Marietta was burned during Sherman’s March to the Sea. Only three buildings remained standing. One of them was the Fletcher House Hotel. It is believed Sherman may have spared the hotel knowing he was a Mason and that he was a well-known Unionist in town. Fletcher’s cousin also served as a Union Surgeon, said Reed.
After the war, along with continuing ownership of the hotel, Dix Fletcher and Cole worked with the Freedman’s Bureau in Marietta assisting newly freed men, she added.
The land for the National Cemetery in Marietta was donated by Cole as a cemetery for both Union and Confederate soldiers, hoping it would be a way to bring the community together after the war. The community did not feel the same way and the Confederate soldiers were buried in a separate cemetery. Dix Fletcher served as the cemetery’s first superintendent. The Fletcher and Cole families are the only civilians buried at the cemetery, Reed said.
Today, the Fletcher House Hotel, now known as the Kennesaw House, serves as the home for the Marietta Museum of History. More information on the Marietta Museum of History can be found at www.Mariettahistory.org
Carla Charter is a freelance writer from Phillipston. Her writing focuses on history with a particular interest in the history of the North Quabbin area.