Sweetwater Creek State Park

Sweetwater Creek State Park, near Lithia Springs, Georgia, preserves the ruins of the New Manchester Manufacturing Company, a textile mill that supplied cloth to the Confederacy before Union cavalry burned it in July 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign. Most of the mill's workers, largely women and children, were deported north as prisoners in the aftermath, a documented episode affecting several Georgia mill towns during that period of the war. The mill's brick ruins still stand along the creek and are visible from the park's main trail. Sweetwater Creek itself offers additional hiking and fishing beyond the historic site.