Huzzah! A busy and scary Atlanta road is finally being repaved. It played a prominent part in 1864 Battle of Atlanta, is depicted in Cyclorama

A stretch of potholes, a view of Decatur Road in Cyclorama (Picket, AHC photos)

For many in the Atlanta area, the only thing as exciting as the first-place Braves ballclub is the current resurfacing of a vital road connecting the city and nearby Decatur, Ga.

Commuters and residents in the Inman Park and Candler Park and other neighborhoods have long bemoaned the potholes, reversible lanes and too-scary-for-bicyclists conditions. Maintenance was never a word associated with DeKalb Avenue.

“A drag strip in a warzone,” the website Urbanize Atlanta observed, perhaps ironically, in a reference to car crashes and mishaps.

War zone indeed. Motorists who zip along the road might notice a half dozen or more historic markers describing what happened during the Battle of Atlanta in 1864.

Project overlaid on 1964 DOT map showing Battle of Atlanta (rendering W.D. Gast)

The avenue back then was called Decatur Road, and it’s depicted in the Atlanta Cyclorama painting and has a reference in “Gone with the Wind.”

The Atlanta project -- which includes bike and turn lanes and intersection improvements -- stretches from Jackson Street near downtown Atlanta to Ridgecrest Road, several miles to the east. The road was in the thick of things before, during and after the battle.

The avenue is bordered by the CSX (formerly Georgia Railroad) and MARTA lines on one side, and residential neighborhoods and scattered businesses on the other.

Site of artist tower at left looking at center of paintingk Atlanta skyline behind (Courtesy AHC)

(Full disclosure: I have traveled DeKalb Avenue for years to work in downtown Atlanta and am very aware of the potholes).

Decatur Road featured prominently in the July 22, 1864, battle, says Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association. Of course, it was a dirt road during the Civil War, and had it owns share of potholes and ruts. Commanders used the road to carry men, materiel and artillery.

The view toward Stone Mountain in Cyclorama; Decatur Road to right (Courtesy AHC)

The circular Cyclorama shows the road stretching to Atlanta and Decatur. It was a mere block from the Troup Hurt House, the focal point of the painting depicting a brief Confederate breakthrough.

“It was also a main approach route for the Army of the Tennessee prior to the battle,” says Crawford, referring to a large Federal unit under the command of Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, who moved his troops from Decatur toward advancing Confederates.

Charlie Crawford drew red lines showing road in Cyclorama

“As the Cyclorama illustrates, it wasn’t nearly as straight as it is now, curving to the south of the railroad and then curving back north at certain spots, including just east of the Confederate breakthrough,” he says.

Mary-Elizabeth Ellard, GBA secretary and trustee, operates a veterinary practice along DeKalb Avenue. “Many people forget that they live/work/play on a battlefield,” she says.

German artists who created the Cyclorama in 1886 erected a tower on DeKalb Avenue near the current Inman Park MARTA station.

To obtain perspective, they were able to see the road, the railroad and the site of a former Confederate iron rolling mill.

The Troup Hurt House was burned a day or two after the battle and the artists did not know its precise location 22 years later, said Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator for the Atlanta History Center, which houses the giant painting. The home was located on what is now Degress Avenue.

(The sketch at left, courtesy of the AHC, shows a similar tower in Chattanooga, Tenn.)

I turned this week to the Atlanta Campaign History and Discussion Group Facebook page for feedback on the road’s Civil War history.

Admin Brad Butkovich mentioned fighting in what is now called the nearby Little Five Points neighborhood and the various markers that indicated troop positions and action.

“Many markers have been moved as roads and intersections have expanded and changed over the years,” one Facebook reader says.

Much of the Battle of Atlanta occurred along and near the north-south Moreland Avenue, which cuts under DeKalb Avenue and through Little Five Points. (Moreland Avenue is depicted in a 1964 map above that has an overlay of the repaving project.)

MARTA rail line (left) along DeKalb Avenue (Picket photo)

Georgia State University details the histories of streets during the Battle of Atlanta. Of Moreland Avenue, its website says:

“While this route may be a high-traffic residential road today, in 1864 it was little more than undeveloped farmland -- unremarkable in every way except its role as the dividing line between Fulton and DeKalb counties. However, as Sherman’s Federal armies made their way towards Atlanta, this undistinguished strip of land would become the site of some of the fiercest fighting experienced by participants of the Atlanta Campaign in the American Civil War.” 

A military map in the Library of Congress collection (above, click to enlarge) clearly shows Decatur Road and the Georgia Railroad, troop positions and a spot labeled “Rebel Barracks.”

The road was mentioned during the 1939 film “Gone with the Wind.” The fictional Frank Kennedy, a business owner and Klansman, took part in a raid on a shantytown, ostensibly as revenge for an attack on Scarlett O’Hara.

O’Hara asks Rhett Butler about the whereabouts of her second husband.

“He’s lying out on the Decatur Road,” Butler replies. “Shot through the head. He’s dead.” 

The $5.4 million project aims to make everyone safer, especially with the formal end of reversible lanes. I drove the stretch this week and was heartened to see much of it already paved. Work is expected to be completed in August.

Road work near old textile mill in Cabbagetown area (Picket photo)

Troup Hurt House is focal point of the Cyclorama (Picket photo)