The Civil War in Talking Rock
- Webmaster
- Apr 3
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
On the afternoon of April 2nd, 2025, Pickens County resident Jessica McCabe found a cannonball near the bridge off Swan Bridge road in Talking Rock. Consequently, the Pickens County Sheriff's office issued an alert about a cannonball found and the GBI was called in with a bomb squad to assess the situation. Several Pickens County residents asked me if I knew anything about the Civil War in Pickens County and if anything had happened near Talking Rock. It's important to realize that Blaine and Talking Rock are virtually the same place on the old maps. The modern Talking Rock is farther to the east than it first was.
In assessing the area, not only do we have the old Federal Road, Swann's Bridge - original spelling (Land Lot 47) and Talking Rock Mills (LL 49), this map section also housed Fort Newnan (the Indian Removal Fort from 1838 (LL 60) and Taloney/Carmel Mission from 1819-1838 (LL 83)
During the Civil War, soldiers from both sides of the conflict assembled groups of men known as home guards, often comprised of deserters, to protect local areas against other gangs of men calling themselves home guards. The men on both sides were similar to criminal gangs that arose to take advantage of the lawlessness and chaos of the war. With most of the men gone fighting out of state or in battles away from home, the gangs were free to steal from widowers, the weak, or anyone else left unprotected.
Union forces marched into Pickens County to go after A.J. Glenn, a member of the Confederate 'Pickens Raid Repellers' group. Ironically, Glenn's private property was also raided by a group of Union women in a separate incident. They were jealous of his prosperity, land, and tannery.
Near the end of the Civil War, in the summer of 1864, General Sherman sent Captain John Cummings with a group of soldiers to quell the Confederate home guard. The Jordan Gang had been attacking the Union railroad lines and the army rolled in to stop the Jordan Gang. Ben Jordan was injured, but escaped. Eight of his men were killed and several of their homes were burned to the ground. Before leaving, Cummings empowered Sheriff McCravey to assemble a group of 125 men to protect the remaining Union locals.
The Union, as they did throughout the entire south, destroyed factories that supplied clothes or armaments to the Confederacy. The Talking Rock Mills, built by the famous English born textile family, the Atherton Brothers, was destroyed by the Union. The mills were located on a tributary of Talking Rock Creek in Land Lot 49, just west of the Blaine Masonic Lodge along highway 136. (Note - the Blaine Masonic Lodge property and land beside it is the location of Fort Newnan, the Indian removal fort from 1838.)
Not too far north of the Talking Rock Mills, Lou Swann had built a bridge over the creek near his home. Today, that bridge and road is known as Swan Bridge.
Two of the most infamous home guard units were McCollum's Scouts, (confederate) run by Cherokee County resident and former Army of Northern Virginia member, Benjamin McCollum, and the Jordan Gang, led by Pickens County man Benjamin Jordan.
McCollum's men frequently raided Pickens County and even murdered union sympathizers. On one particular occasion, McCollum himself dressed in a pro-union outfit to trick resident Milton Edwards into giving up information on the Union soldiers of Pickens. McCollum killed him and a number of other men. Their murders were known as the Covington Hang, the men related to Judge William Covington who described the murders. The men were hung somewhere along Four Mile Road in Pickens County. The exact location along the road isn't known, but local folklore describes the site as being on restricted hunting land near Fortner Road. Interestingly, Fortner Road was a part of the Federal Road at the time.
McCollum's men also stole a cow from a woman in the Hinton area, not far from Talking Rock, and two of the Nally brothers, got revenge by killing two of McCollum’s men. These murders took place at the Hinton Methodist church near Scarecorn Creek and prompted a series of retaliatory murders.
In 1865, with the war over, a union sympathizer, Henry Ledford was shot dead in downtown Jasper by and several Pickens Countians who were Confederate sympathizers. Conversely, some Pickens Countians who fought with the Union found themselves in trouble for burning down half of Canton back in 1864. As bad as that sounds, Canton had very few homes and buildings at the time. It was much closer in size to Jasper.
In essence, the Civil War not only divided the country, but even our county. When you fight against your country and kin, everyone loses.
Thank you!
I learn so much from your posts. Thank you!
Chris is a tremendous source of knowledge on North Georgia history.