'Deafening noise' of war: Researchers find more evidence of Battle of Ruff's Mill near Atlanta, gather artifacts and soldiers' accounts

Crew member uses ground penetrating radar (The Lamar Institute)

With the help of letters, diaries and homeowners who allowed excavations in their back yards, archaeologists are beginning to fill in details of a July 4, 1864, battle that occurred just outside Atlanta.

Analysis of November 2020 field work, including artifacts recovered at the Ruff’s Mill site, is well underway.

Thus far, the project, led by the Lamar Institute, a nonprofit archaeological group based in Savannah, has been able to document Union and Confederate positions and areas of attack and defense, trenches, possible camp areas and some boundaries of the fighting.

The Battle of Ruff’s Mill (Nickajack Creek) occurred in what is now the Concord Covered Bridge Historic District near Smyrna, Ga. It was one of several brief clashes waged as Union forces under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman continued their relentless push on Atlanta after a setback at Kennesaw Mountain.

Recovered bullet at Ruff's Mill site (The Lamart Institute)

Rita Elliott, education coordinator for The Lamar Institute, told the Picket that research has yielded much about the plan of Federal attack. The project has located diaries and letters to and from soldiers in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana regiments and has communicated with descendants of men who took part in the battle. The team is trying to learn more about Confederate units, including those from Georgia, but they have fewer documents from which to work, she said.

“What continues to surprise me is the huge number of troops involved in the Battle of Ruff's Mill, both on the frontal assault and those large numbers backing them up,” Elliott wrote in an email.

“It is mind-boggling to imagine thousands of troops marching through the small hamlets and farms of Cobb County in 1864, attacking, defending, withdrawing and scavenging along the way. The deafening noise of the battle; the war zones of annihilated woods and trenched agricultural fields and pastures; the use of isolated farmhouses and other structures as sharpshooter outposts, headquarters, and hospitals; and the despoiling of livestock and possession would have resulted in the Ruff's Mill community becoming an unrecognizable area of unbelievable destruction.”

Much of the work is being funded by the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection, which awarded the Lamar Institute a $96,000 grant to document the boundaries and features of the battle. The work has included extensive research off-site.

The institute applied for the grant after local homeowner Philip Ivester contacted them and showed officials a collection of Civil War bullets and other relics he’s found on his property over the years.

Ivester told the Picket he assisted the Nov. 2-22 field work in neighborhoods that dot the battleground (click GBA map at left to see July 3-4, 1864 lines).

“Not having an archaeological background, I enjoyed learning the methodical process of the field work. There are a lot of details in laying out a site for GPR (ground penetrating radar) work -- slow methodical work,” Ivester wrote in an email. “It also takes a long time to record latitude, longitude, depth, etc. for metal-detected finds but it allows you to understand who was where and what they were shooting at to get a better picture of Civil War battles.”

Officials have stressed the importance of the community’s participation in the work -- by allowing access to researchers and archaeologists. And residents and private landowners came through, providing about one third of the acreage covered.

Elliott said 10 volunteers supplemented the work of three professional archaeologists. The project has been supported by the Cobb County government, historical societies, museums and volunteers.

Documenting a metal detector find

As far as procuring new information about the battle, the team located and documented numerous trenches that were not recorded on Civil War maps, or had been noted in the wrong position, Elliott said.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, says Ruff’s Mill has gotten little attention because it was a brief incident between much more notable events -- namely the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (June 27) several miles north and the crossing of the Chattahoochee River by Federal forces (July 9) to the southeast.

After his army had repulsed Sherman at Kennesaw Mountain, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston once again had to resort to delaying tactics and a slow retreat toward Atlanta. “Johnston occupied the Smyrna Line principally to buy time for his wagons to retreat behind the Chattahoochee, and he did not intend to hold the line once that was accomplished,” said Crawford.

On July 4, 1864, Brig. Gen. John Fuller’s brigade with the 16^th Corps, supported by Sweeney’s division, attacked works held by Rebels in Hood’s command at Ruff’s Mill. “The Southerners fell back and dug in. Union casualties in this action totaled 140 killed and wounded. Confederate losses are not reported,” writes historian and author Stephen Davis.

That night, Johnston withdrew troops to their next position, even closer to the river.

Elliott said the research thus far as identified dozens of regiments from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky and other states taking part in the battle.

Attack of Fuller's Ohio brigade at Ruff's Mill (Wikipedia Commons)

The team came across a letter from Confederate Cpl. Frank E. Blossman, of Company A, 6^th Texas Infantry in Cleburne’s division. Blossman provided a vivid account of a Federal assault in nearby Smyrna on the same day.

“They came with the best yell I ever heard come out of Yankee throats, and at first I really thought they meant to interest us but when they came within a hundred yards our boys answered with a shout of defiance. This angered the Yanks, and the officers commenced shouting: ‘Forward, men! Forward!’ Our men answered by shouting: ‘Come on, boys! Come on!’ Just then a Dutch officer shouted to the Yanks, ‘Trow avay de knapsacks!’ and our men shouted not to throw them off, as we wanted them.”

The attack ended in a Union retreat. (Interestingly, Blossman’s letter to back home did not reach his family until decades after the war, according to the 1899 Confederate Veteran magazine. Blossman was killed about a month after the battle.)

Elliott told the Picket the project’s aims include learning more about affected by the battle, including enslaved African Americans who built defenses for the Confederate army.

Artifacts collected by Philip Ivester (Courtesy of Brian Hall Photography)

“Our upcoming research will examine slave schedules and later census records to try to identify African Americans enslaved on area plantations before and during the war, and then freedmen and women in the area following the war,” she said. “This will contribute to our understanding of who may have been pressed into the service of the military building defenses or in support roles. Having these names may also help us research any records associated with them that may actually detail their roles in the war.”

A 1904 book indicated a man told Federal officers that he and about 1,000 other enslaved persons had worked to construct several miles of Confederate defensives lines outside Atlanta.

Elliott and others on the team did conduct four GPR surveys, but most of the field work involved metal detecting.

Historic bridge on Concord Road (Courtesy of Georgia Battlefields Assn.)

Ivester says individuals not from the area should not do any metal detecting; the land is either privately owned or belongs to Cobb County.

The battlefield was the scene of Rebel and Federal artillery firing, as well as small-arms fire.

“The ... obstacle to locating the battle has been the repeated metal detecting of the area over the past eight decades. This has removed many of the artifacts which have been redistributed across the SE and around the world, with no exact locations on where they were recovered or what they were,” Elliott said. “In spite of the lower density of artifacts on these sites, we were able to locate and document the exact positions of enough battle-related artifacts to uncover key components of the story.”

The archaeological team found artifacts ranging from 1 inch to 12 inches below the surface. They are mostly bullets and artillery shell fragments. The bullets will be studied for clues to their manufacture and which side used them.

“It is the location of these artifacts that undeniably tell the story of the military strategy. A limited amount of other arms and personal items were documented that help put a human face on the battle, such as a button, a pocket watch cover, an entrenching shovel,” Elliott said.

Analysis will enable the institute to create maps showing where every artifact was recovered, identifying Confederate and Union locations. “These maps can be compared with historic maps of the battle and used to corroborate, expand, or change the historical narrative, depending on what they tell us.”

Recording finds from metal detector survey (The Lamar Institute)

Elliott and her team are grateful for the support of private landowners.

“One thing we have yet to accomplish is to document a large number of artifact collections from the area,” she wrote. “If anyone has a collection from the area and can identify with certainty where their artifacts came from and would like us to document them, we would love to talk with them. We are currently in the process of documenting one extensive collection from the area. This collection is particularly important as the collector recorded the location of the finds.”

The Lamar Institute will continue its analysis and research for much of the year. After that, a draft report will be submitted to the National Park Service. The final report will include recommendations to the community on preserving sites and educating the public. A documentary film also will be made available.

Elliott said the project is thankful for all who have pitched in.

“It is an ongoing pleasure to work in a community that appreciates its historical sites and understands how archaeological documentation of its underground resources can help tell the story of our collective past -- no matter who we are.”