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another important location for manufactures and munitions, had swelled with workers and refugees. Among the latter was a family from north Georgia. Rebeca Felton’s husband had moved his dependents here early in 1864 to escape the ravages of the Union army’s campaign against Atlanta, but then the capture of the Gate City had put Macon’s future in doubt. “It was very astounding to remember all these reverses and yet we were constantly told we would certainly succeed,” she recalled in later years, “and we clutched at every item of news that indicated a success.”
    North from Macon about twenty-three miles was Hillsboro, which had already felt the hard hand of war. A column of Union cavalry had paused briefly in the town on a late July raid aimed at freeing UnionPOWs caged near Macon. Mrs. Tabitha Reese endured the presence of Yankee officers in her parlor, even as their men freely pillaged outside. The whole affair left Mrs. Reese’s nerves frayed with what the doctors termed “nervous prostration.” Her daughter, Louise, dreaded the next visitation, which seemed inevitable. “We know what terrible means,” she declared. “‘Terrible as an army with banners.’”
    From Macon, the Central of Georgia Railroad looped eastward toward Savannah. A spur at Gordon connected the state’s capital, Milledgeville, with the circuit. Legislators from around Georgia began trouping toward Milledgeville in late October for the state assembly’s annual session, scheduled to convene on November 3. The elected officials faced a wide range of issues, from finance to state defense. Included on the agenda was a bill to amend the state’s ban on grain-based liquors to allow for the manufacture and consumption of lager beer. Smart money was betting that the bill would pass.
    The legislative session opened with a strident message from Governor Joseph E. Brown, who excoriated the Davis administration for failing to prevent Atlanta’s capture. “But the misfortunes following the misguided judgment of our rulers must not have the effect of relaxing our zeal or chilling our love for the cause,” Brown proclaimed. He dropped something of a bombshell by proposing a convention of states—Southern and Northern—to consider continuing the war. “States can terminate wars by negotiation,” Brown insisted. *
    Behind all the bold words of the governor and the state legislators was the knowledge that if the Yankee army should target Milledgeville, they would all flee. There were others in the town whose sense of duty chained them to this post. One was Dr. R. J. Massey, responsible for “six different wards, something like two hundred sick, wounded and convalescents.” Another was Dr. Thomas F. Green, superintendent of the Georgia Lunatic Asylum. His daughter, Anna Maria, was an honor student and a dedicated diarist. Also determined to remain was the Georgia secretary of state, Nathan C. Barnett. Among his responsibilities was the Great Seal of Georgia and all records pertaining to the current legislative session.
    Milledgeville boasted more than its share of impressive houses. Onewas the Orme house, with its distinctive Doric-columned portico. The mansion’s mistress, Mrs. Richard McAllister Orme, had strong northern roots. Her father, John Adams, was president of the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, whose graduates included at least one Union officer in Atlanta. Not far away was the Governor’s Mansion, patterned after a fourteenth-century Italian villa. Its front door opened into a great hall and a rotunda topped with a gilded dome, all illuminated by crystal chandeliers. One of the state’s first families preceding Governor Brown included a cat lover in its ranks, who had a pet entrance cut into one of the house’s fine carved doors.
    The Milledgeville spur threaded northward to terminate at Eatonton, where the war’s demands had put women into the working force at the Eatonton Manufacturing Company, which produced a