While the Civil War marked the most divisive time in our nation’s history, divisions within the successionist Confederate states often get overlooked. Yet, thousands of United States sympathizers found themselves trapped within the boundaries of the Confederacy, including free persons of color.
As Union troops fought their way through the South, those sympathizers often aided the United States. Attempting to live normal lives in the new Confederacy, they ignored or accepted great risks.
On June 27, defeated Confederates fled from the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. The Union Army followed quickly, and by early July 1864, General Sherman set up headquarters in Marietta.
The Johnsons of Marietta
Monemia and James Johnson, both free people of color, lived in Marietta during the Civil War period. Monemia was born a free woman of color, while James may have been a former slave. She and James established themselves as successful entrepreneurs in Marietta. They were among approximately 2,100 African Americans living in Cobb County at that time, most of whom were enslaved prior to the war.
A passage in a National Parks blog shares this account: “Monemia ran a restaurant and store and her husband, James, was a barber. James’ treasonous dealings with a white Union spy, Henry Cole, led him to flee to the city of Nashville, Tennessee.”
A Yale University doctoral thesis by Bennett Parten in 2022 included more details:
“Mr. Johnson did all his espionage from behind his barber’s chair. He trimmed the beards of Confederate officers and enlisted men. Braxton Bragg, then the overall commander of Confederate forces in Georgia, was once even a customer. Little did these loose-lipped soldiers know that as Mr. Johnson cropped
and combed, he also listened and learned. He memorized place names, troop movements, and
casualty counts.
A Civil War Spy Flees
According to multiple accounts, James Johnson shared his learned secrets with Marietta resident and Union sympathizer Henry Cole. Then, Cole, a prominent white businessman, would arrange to pass information northward. He often used locals, including James Johnson, to sneak the secrets through Confederate territory and through Union lines to those commanding generals.
Cole himself corroborated James Johnson’s spy work, in testimony after the war. “Johnson was a loyal man. I have this opinion upon various act of his. He was a barber and shaved Bragg, Cheatham and other rebel generals. When he would pick up any information, he would come to me and I would send it through the lines to the Union Army. I sent Johnston through the lines with important information regarding the movements of the rebel army. I sent him once to Gens Thomas and Rosecrans with information on the approach of Longstreet just before the Battle of Chickamauga.”
“I sent Johnson through the lines with important information before Chickmauga.”
— Henry Cole, Marietta
Unfortunately for James Johnson, someone discovered his treachery. He fled with Confederates in pursuit. Crossing through battle lines, Johnson reached Chattanooga, then proceeded to Nashville. There, he settled in a military refugee camp. But his luck ran out. Before he could return home following Union victories in Georgia, he contracted small pox and died.
Life Goes On
With James gone, Monemia’s life became more difficult as a single mother raising three young children. Despite the challenges of wartime occupation and blatant discrimination by the white community, the determined mother continued to build a successful life in wartime Marietta. By day, she operated a restaurant and store. By night, the establishment became an informal saloon, frequented mostly by occupying Union soldiers. Her two oldest children, Isabella, 16, and William, 9, likely helped with the business. Lou Ella was the youngest at age three.
With her business doing well, Monemia became a frequent customer of farms and suppliers in Marietta and surrounding Cobb County. To supply her store and restaurant, she consistently purchased a wide array of goods for resale. Tobacco, clothing, bacon, syrup, sugar, and flower, accounted for most of her purchases, according to her own inventory. She also owned two buildings and an extensive set of cookware for her restaurant. And she traded in cows, chickens, ducks, turkeys and hogs, too.
Marietta Burns
On June 27, 1864, defeated Confederates fled from the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. The Union Army occupied Marietta, where General Sherman set up headquarters. The presence of the Yankees boosted the entrepreneurial fortunes of Monemia and her small family, at least temporarily.
But her life, and those of all who lived in Marietta, changed tragically in November 1864. The Union Army withdrew from Marietta, looting and burning the city in the process. Homes, businesses and lives perished in the flames.
Monemia stood helplessly and wartched the horror. She remembered and described the incidents in detail. She recounted in her own words how United States soldiers belonging to General Kilpatrick’s command stole everything she owned:
“The things were all taken on one day, in the day and night time. The soldiers began to take the things about dusk and kept on until all was taken. This was about the time the Army was leaving where the town was evacuated. There were some 20 or more soldiers present at the taking, who took the things and carried them on to the wagons. Before they leave, the men said Gen Kilpatrick had ordered them to come and take the things as the Army was short of supplies and needed the things. The men were all in the house and one would take one thing and on another. One of the soldiers had two stripes on his arm and the men called him Lieutenant. This was going on while the soldiers were setting fire to the town. . . The men took everything they could get their hands on.”
“There were some 20 or more soldiers. They took everything they could get their hands on . . . while setting fire to the town.”
— Testimony of Monemia Johnson
“I saw the bacon, lard, tallow, syrup, sugar, tea, coffee, salt, candles, tobacco, wine, preserves, flour, rice beans, turkeys, ducks, hogs, cows, beds and bedding, clothing, crockery, wood and lumber taken by United States soldiers.”
“That night and the next day, the town was burned.”
Left With Nothing
Afterwards, Monemia and her children were left with nothing, sharing a fate with others in Marietta. In the years following, her strong determination and business savvy helped her and her family recover. Eventually, she rebuilt a two-room cottage on her property. She earned small amounts of money and goods from teaching.
The Southern Claims Commission, also known as the Commissioners of Claims, formed through an act of Congress on March 3, 1871. The commission was to “receive, examine, and consider the claims of those citizens who remained loyal adherents to the (Union) cause and the government of the United States during the war, for stores or supplies taken or furnished during the rebellion.”
President Ulysses S. Grant appointed three commissioners to oversee the task. Their special agents investigated claims from citizens.
Commission records in the National Archives indicated that 54 claims originated in Cobb County. By the deadline of March 1879, the Commission received more than 20,000 claimes. The claims required evidence such as depositions, testimonials from neighbors and family, receipts, and personal interviews.
Seeking to Recover
How Monemia learned of the commission and claim process isn’t clear. But she acted quickly. In April 1871, a three-page letter was sent on her behalf to the Claims Commission. Henry Cole, who had used her husband to pass along stolen secrets to the Union Army, was listed as a witness and also signed the document. Cole would continue aiding Monemia throughout the claim process.
Following submission of the claim letter, the claim process required taking sworn statements from the claimant and witnesses. On Oct. 25, 1872, Monemia and her witnesses provided detailed accounts to investigators at sessions in Marietta and Acworth. Investigating commissioners used a standardized form with 43 questions to guide the interviews of Monemia and her witnesses. Marietta attorney William T. Wynn represented Monemia.
Those testifying for Monemia included:
- Henry Cole, the Marietta businessman who engaged James Johnson as a spy and who would donate property for the US National Cemetery.
- Dix Fletcher, a local farmer who had known the Johnsons for more than 20 years.
- Chaucy Brown, who listed his occupation as servant, and testified to living with Monemia and her family for approximately 10 years.
- Dillard Young, a Marietta retail trader, who had known the Johnsons for 25 years.
- Leander McLellan, a Marietta merchant. McLellan knew Monemia, and provided the retail values of the goods lost.
When testimony concluded, the final application totaled 21 pages of detailed handwritten information. An accompanying inventory included 24 detailed lines of destroyed and stolen items, plus the estimated value of each. The final claim amount totaled $2,592.10. (That’s equivalent to $82,343.50 in 2025 dollars, according to a CPI inflation calculator.) Investigators filed the documents with the Southern Claims Commission through the Marietta post office on Nov. 7, 1872
The Long Wait
Nothing happened fast in 1872. Mail moved by carriages and trains. All documents required reading, processing and filing by government clerks. And with more than 20,000 claims reaching Washington before the deadline period, one can only imagine the Herculean administrative challenge.
Monemia waited years for any response. During that time, she worked as a teacher. And she managed to rebuild a two-room cottage on her property in Marietta.
By Sept. 1877, her patience had worn out. She returned to attorney William T. Winn and submitted an inquiry to the commission. She wrote:
My claim was filed nearly four years ago. Please inform me why this long delay.
–Monemia Johnson
“My claim number 1832 for $2,592.10 was filed nearly four years ago. I learned it has been in the hands of Commissioner Aldis about three years. Please inform me why this long delay.”
“I invested my Confederate money in property and supplies, trusting to the protection of the United States Army.”
“They took all from me without any compensation and my two houses were burned with the balance of the town. I would be greatly obliged by your early attention to my claim.”
Finally, An Answer
Whether the claims process had run its course or Monemia’s letter stirred action, she received notice of a settlement in July 1878. Nearly five and a half years had passed since filing the original claim and nearly 14 years since the tragic loss of her property.
Claim No. 1601, noted as “Claims of Loyal Citizens for Supplies furnished during the Rebellion,” totaled $246.00. After adjustments for inflation, that equals to only $7,814.71 in 2025 dollars.
The official reply that accompanied the payment included this explanation:
“Much that was taken was mere pillage. What was really and properly taken for army use we allow. No satisfactory proof as to quantities. All merely is estimate and depending chiefly on claimant’s testimony. No such stock of goods as is claimed could have bee in her little saloon. . . We allow $246.”
The settlement had to be a disappointment to Monemia. After trusting in the protection of the Union army, then enduring the loss of all her possessions as a result of their unnecessary destructive actions, she received less than 10 cents on the dollar.
We relied primarily on three sources for information presented here. Originally, we found a mention of the Johnsons on a National Park Service blog. We followed that up with the dissertation of a Yale graduate student, Bennett Paren, written in 2022. “Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman’s March and the History of Emancipation” includes the story of the Johnsons in pages 13-53.
And most helpful, we downloaded and transcribed information from the original claim documents filed by Monemia Johnson, her attorney and her witnesses. This we found in the genealogy database, Fold3, which we accessed using our (FREE!) Cobb County Library Card access. If you log into the Fold3 database through the library or our own subscription, you should find all the files associated with Monemia Johnson’s claim at this link. There, you’ll see the full 45-page claim history, from filing to payment, including testimony in Monemia’s own words.
We sourced images from the US National Archives and other public domain sources, including historic copies of Harper’s Weekly. For one image, we used the artificial intelligence function within web service Canva.com to create an illustration of soldiers looting Monemia’s store. We labelled that in the caption.
Marietta businessman and Union sympathizer Henry Cole, who apparently helped Monemia with her claim, filed two claims of his own. Ultimately combined into one by the Commission, Cole sought $14,950 in reimbursement. He ultimately received $14,375 in compensation in 1876, two years before Monemia’s paid claim. You can read details of Cole’s claim by logging into Fold3.com (on your own, or FREE at the Cobb Library) and clicking this link.
