From the book: Sherman's Horsemen: Union Cavalry Operations in the Atlanta Campaign, by David Evans. Found on Google Books.

There is a section describing "Rousseau's Raiders" marching through Carroll County, leaving a path of destruction in his wake. This was part of Sherman's infamous march to the sea. Part of the description reads as follows:

"At 5:00 the next morning, July 21, the raiders broke camp without breakfast and headed "almost due north" toward Carrollton...the column passed through six or seven miles of wilderness before reaching the Laurel Hill community about 9 AM.

William L. Bell, his son, and two neighbors were threshing wheat when a soldier "with stripes on his sleeves" rode into the field where they were working and asked how far it was to Carrollton. About twelve miles, Bell replied. As the soldier wheeled and galloped away, Bell cast a quizzical glance at his companions. Then it dawned on him. That was a Yankee sergeant! Hurrying to his house, Bell found the yard and the road beyond crowded with bluecoated cavalrymen. The doors to his barns and corn-cribs stood ajar. The fence was down in several places, and his mouse-colored mule and bay mare were gone.  A steady stream of soldiers filed from the smokehouse, laden with bacon and flour. Inside the barn, troopers were tying fodder into bundles and carrying out sheaves of oats. Another crowd was filling sacks at his corncrib, while a Federal captain sat on the piazza, giving directions.  When Bell begged him to leave his family some provisions, the captain merely shrugged and said soldiers had to live too."

It goes on to talk about how the column of soldiers continued on rapidly so that the word of the coming would not reach the neighbors. One of Bell's neighbors, Thomason, described that it took three whole hours for the column of soldiers to march past his house. His children kept exclaiming, "They have got Mr. Bell's mules!"

At the end of the march, General Rousseau sent a telegraph to Sherman describing his destruction and tearing up of 35 miles of railroad. He also said:

"My trip was entirely successfull in all respects. I destroyed 30 miles of RR in 36 hours. My command will be here in three hours. My whole loss does not exceed 12 killed & 30 wounded. I captured 400 fine mules & 300 horses"