A thriving town during the antebellum period, Cassville was founded in 1833. With a prewar population of 1500, this Etowah Valley village in the northwest Georgia mountains was the seat of Cass County. It was also an educational and cultural center, including the site of the Cassville Female College. After the First Battle of Manassas in Virginia in 1861, the state legislature voted to change the county’s name to Bartow in honor of Georgia Colonel Francis S. Bartow, killed in the battle.
During the Atlanta Campaign, while the opposing armies were marching through Bartow County, Major General William T. Sherman sought an opportunity to flank the Confederate army out of its position at Kingston. At the time, the retreating Confederate army was divided temporarily at Adairsville and regrouped in Cassville. General Joseph E. Johnston hoped Sherman would divide his army, allowing the Confederates to attack and destroy a portion of the Federal army before reinforcements could arrive. Fulfilling Johnston’s wishes, Sherman did divide his force, ordering generals John Schofield’s and Joseph Hooker’s corps to Cassville in an attempt to flank the Confederates and force their retreat farther south. The divided Federal army was vulnerable to attack from its flank and front. However, Johnston’s plan unraveled when Lt. General John B. Hood failed to move his corps on the offense, thus losing the opportunity. His hopes dashed, Johnston had his army dig in on a ridgeline with the idea of making another stand, but well-placed Federal artillery fire made the position untenable. At Hood’s urging, Johnston again moved his army south toward the Allatoona Mountain range. By dawn on May 20, 1864, Johnston again retreated to a new defensive line centered on the deep railroad cut at Allatoona Pass.
Cassville survived the first Federal occupation in May 1864 relatively unscathed. However, Cassville would not fare well in October 1864 while the Union army was following Hood on his march through northwest Georgia into Alabama. The Federal army again used Cassville as a base of operation. Upon departing, the Federals burned the town and many surrounding structures, sparing only the churches. Almost all structures within a five-mile radius of Cassville were destroyed.
The reason for this scorched-earth policy remained unknown for over a century until a Federal officer’s diary came to light with an explanation. According to the diary, Cassville and the area around it was a center of Confederate partisan activity where Federal patrols had been ambushed, and some of the soldiers killed. On the evening of November 5, 1864, the town was razed in retaliation for these deaths.
After the war, Cassville was never rebuilt, and today, much like the once thriving mill town of New Manchester in Douglas County. It is a lost community. The ruins of the Cassville Depot are still evident. A stone WPA roadside marker on the Cassville/White Road marks the location of the former town’s courthouse square.