RaceTrac rezoning request for Civil War site in Georgia is held by planning panel

RaceTrac’s latest bid to win approval of a 24/7 gas station and convenience store on a Civil War site outside Atlanta will have to wait another 30 days. The Cobb County Planning Commission voted Tuesday to seek additional information on traffic and potential environmental impacts on a nearby elementary school and day care center. It urged the company to have another meeting with neighborhoods that oppose the rezoning of the former Robert and Eliza McAfee parcel. The home -- which briefly served as the headquarters for a Union general and was in the middle of cavalry movements and clashes in summer 1864 – last spring was moved to adjoining Cherokee County after a long effort to save it from destruction. -- READ MORE

Gettysburg begins draining beaver pond near Devil's Den and below Little Round Top. Observers have chewed on the Plum Run controversy for years

Water from the dammed up Plum Run has occasionally reached the 40th New York monument (NPS)

It appears the beavers of Gettysburg National Military Park became a little too eager.

After complaints about a family of the furry critters that in recent years created dams and a pond -- thereby diminishing the historic integrity of Little Round Top and Devil’s Den -- the National Park Service has begun lowering water levels.

The work is meant to encourage the beavers to consider new housing elsewhere in the park.

Conservationists, including the South Mountain Audubon Society, are not happy with the decision, saying the pond has drawn nature lovers and new animal species.

In a statement, the park said:

“Over the next two months, the National Park Service will gradually lower water levels in the pond created by beaver activity. This action is designed to rehabilitate the 1863 cultural landscape by restoring visibility of Plum Run as a stream and maintaining the wetland around it described in first person accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg. Beaver activity occurs in several locations throughout the park, and they will continue to be present in the future. The National Park Service will carry out the work gradually to protect both the cultural and natural resources the park preserves.”

Park officials did not respond to several questions posed by the Picket, including what was the impetus for the decision. The Audubon Society chapter said in a Facebook post earlier this month the park was instructed to take action.

“If you were to add together all the roadways, buildings, monuments, and signs (that weren’t on the battlefield in 1863 either), I am certain you would come up with a much larger area than the area that has been changed by the beaver colony,” the group said. “Have we learned nothing since the eradication of the beavers in colonial days? Do we still have to engage in a ‘war’ on these grounds instead of learning to co-exist with nature?”

The Picket reached out Thursday to the group for additional comment.

Shortly after she became superintendent at Gettysburg in early 2024, Kris Heister responded to a Picket question about the status of the beavers of Plum Run, along Crawford Avenue.

“Beavers are not new to the park and have taken up residence off and on in the Plum Run area for many years -- this is a natural process. The park is managing them in accordance with NPS policy and the Cultural Landscape Report for Little Round Top, which recommends that the Plum Run riparian corridor be managed to promote species diversity while ensuring vegetation does not block key historic views from Plum Run Valley to the face of Little Round Top.”

Map shows Crawford Avenue, Plum Run and the 40th New York Infantry monument (NPS)

In 2023, park staff installed devices called "beaver deceivers" to de-water a portion of the pond that had formed due to infringement on the 40^th New York Infantry Monument and the subsequent inability of park visitors to access the monument.

Civil War historian and former park employee D. Scott Hartwig last week weighed in on the controversy, saying in a Facebook post visitors expect the park service to manage the landscape to the best of its ability to resemble that of 1863. He called the area the most "iconic part" of the battlefield.

“The reason we have arrived at this moment, where officials from the Department of Interior are ordering park management to do something about the beavers, is because this current management did not balance managing the historic landscape and native species. They instead allowed the native species to manage the landscape.”

RaceTrac bringing back its attempt to build a 24/7 gas station and convenience store at an Atlanta-area site where a Civil War house stood, cavalry clashed

The sturdy home was cut into six pieces before its move in spring 2025 (Civil War Picket photo)

RaceTrac will try again next month to win approval of a 24/7 gas station and convenience store on a Civil War site in Georgia that formerly featured the historic Robert and Eliza McAfee home.

Amid opposition from neighborhood residents, the company last November withdrew its rezoning bid. But the Cobb County Board of Commissioners voted to allow RaceTrac to reapply, which online records indicate it has.

RaceTrac has its work cut out. The Cobb County Planning Commission in October recommended rezoning the property, but added conditions that would not allow gasoline sales. 

The planning commission is scheduled to hear the case again April 7. The Board of Commissioners has the final say; it will hear zoning cases April 21.

The Civil War Picket reached out to an attorney for RaceTrac and the property owner for comment but has not yet heard back. Questions include whether the company has had new discussions with neighbors or agreed to some changes.

The home -- which briefly served as the headquarters for a Union general and was in the middle of cavalry movements and clashes in summer 1864 – last spring was moved to adjoining Cherokee County after a long effort to save it from destruction. It stood at the corner of Bells Ferry Road and Ernest Barrett Parkway.

The planning commission vote – following spirited discussion -- backed a change to the requested Neighborhood Retail Commercial (NRC) zoning. But it would prohibit fuel sales, drive-throughs and alcohol, tobacco and vape sales at the site.

The McAfee house dated to the 1840s, and the sprawling farm was a fixture in the Noonday Creek area. The property owner wants to sell the remaining two acres to RaceTrac.

RaceTrac argued a 24/7 store at the busy corner is appropriate and compatible with commercial development nearby and would have almost no impact on schools. 

Opponents raised a list of concerns, from traffic congestion and storm water runoff to the possible impact of alcohol sales and gas vapors on a nearby elementary school and day care center. 

The planning commission’s stipulations came despite an endorsement of the project by county planning staff and a traffic study that found the station acceptable if measures were taken to mitigate congestion.

John Pederson, the county’s zoning division manager, previously said if the county commission followed the planning commission’s lead, small retail, offices or a restaurant would be permitted. He said Thursday there appeared to be no changes in the RaceTrac proposal.

The McAfee House served a few weeks in June and early July 1864 as the headquarters for Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard and his three brigades during the Atlanta Campaign. After the seizure of Big Shanty (Kennesaw) by Federal forces on June 9, Garrard’s cavalry division was posted on the left flank during operations on the Kennesaw Mountain front. 

The Federal troopers clashed almost daily near Noonday Creek with Confederates led by Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler.

The Robert and Eliza McAfee House before its move to Cherokee County (Cobb Landmarks)

The McAfee farm was believed to have been occupied by Confederates, too, during the action around Kennesaw Mountain. The house is said to have been used as a field hospital.

The nonprofit Cobb Landmarks, the Bells Ferry Civic Association and the county’s historic preservation staff all recommend an archaeological survey of the site if the rezoning is ultimately approved.

Cobb Landmarks had worked to find someone to move the home, including when a car wash was proposed. The house lacked historic protection.

Although observers were pleased the McAfee House was not destroyed, many decried Cobb County's loss of history with its move to an adjoining county

Cobb Landmarks sold the house for $1 to entrepreneurs Lee and Brittani Lusk, with the main requirement it be moved and restored.

The couple moved the sturdy residence to near their home in Ball Ground and have been working since on its foundation. The couple say they expect the house to either rented as a residence or an Airbnb-style arrangement.

(At left, Picket photo of home as it appeared in February during foundation and other work in Ball Ground, Ga.)

If you're a fan of craftsmanship, the reassembly of the ironclad CSS Jackson's fantail at the National Civil War Naval Museum will give you an insight into ingenuity

Inverted fantail in place, volunteer Stephen Diamante (NCWNM photo); fantail before arson (Picket photo)

The National Civil War Naval Museum is using tools, brawn and some creative thinking to reassemble 28 heavy pieces of iron that made up the fantail of the ironclad CSS Jackson.

The precisely built curved rear deck that protected the Confederate vessel’s rudder and propellers had sat outside the Columbus, Ga., venue for decades, waiting for new life. But a 2020 arson fire that raced through a pole barn dashed hopes of conserving the fantail.

Now, director Brandon Gilland and volunteers at the museum are arranging the iron in the shape of a half moon, in preparation for flipping and placing the pieces onto a cedar base. When the project is completed, visitors will be able to get an idea of how the armor built at the stern was constructed and protected the ironclad. (Note: The armor was placed above the wood on the Jackson; photos here are of the fantail upside down)

Pallet jack and crane hoist are aiding in the remaking of the Jackson's fantail (NCWNM photos)

Thus far, the team has used a pry bar and pallet jack to move the 400-pound plus pieces from where they have been stacked near the hulking remains of the Jackson. A crane hoist will help them turn the iron over.

Gilland told the Picket this week he will likely use some computer software to help match up the pieces with the new wood backing. A forklift may be required.

He likens the effort to the exacting work done by the builders of the ship on the Chattahoochee River that divides the western Georgia city and Alabama.

“American ingenuity,” the director quipped.

The project is timed to the museum’s 25^th year in a large building situated on Victory Drive and a hundred or so yards from the river. Officials had originally hoped to build a full recreation of the fantail, showing its fascinating contours, but the idea was deemed too expensive and ambitious.

Instead, the pieces will be arrayed with some wood beneath. Gilland would like for the fantail to be slightly elevated, if possible.

The price tag will be about $2,500 for frame work, said Gilland.

The original goal was to have the modest display ready for the March 21 RiverBlast, an annual event that includes cannon firings, living historians, food, family events and more.

The work is taking more time than envisioned, and will go another month or more.

Scorched iron was cleaned up by conservators

Robert Holcombe, a naval historian and former director of the museum, previously told me besides the CSS Georgia in Savannah, the fantail may have been the only piece of wood from a Confederate ironclad with iron plating still attached.

A fire set by Union cavalrymen in 1865 and the second lit by the arsonist took away the dignity – and most of the supporting wood.

A few years ago, Terra Mare Conservation treated and numbered the armor, digitally mapped the artifact and produced a fascinating video showing how it was designed and put together. Visitors can stand near one of the Jackson’s propellers and watch the looped production (NCWNM photo, right).

Bolts and other fasteners are in crates. Charred wood lies on pallets. The museum said it is impossible to reuse that timber, fashioned from longleaf pine.

“I got all the armor sequenced to how it was taken apart,” Gilland said of the iron. “We are pushing it all together like it would have been (put) together.”

The finished product will rest near the propeller.

If at first you don't succeed ...

The Jackson (originally named the Muscogee) was designed to protect Columbus – a critically important industrial center for the Confederacy -- from Union navy marauders and blockaders. Construction on the Jackson began in early 1863.

The original paddlewheel design proved a failure and engineers decided to go with a dual-propeller system in 1864. Gilland said visitors can see where the old wheel was attached to the hull.

Builders then came up with the ingenious fantail, which featured differing lengths of iron. Gilland speculates some of that may be by design while other sections may have been pieces refitted to fit the latter plan. Some pieces have an extra hole or two for a bolt (left), lending credence to that belief.

Jeff Seymour, director of history and collections at the museum at the time of the arson blaze, wrote about the casemate ironclad’s fantail:

“As each level emerged, we were able to see elements of this vessel that no one has seen since 1864. As each level surfaced, several questions about how the Jackson was constructed were answered, but many more questions developed. Simply, this structure is much more complex than we thought heading into this project."

Crew of the CSS Jackson (Muscogee) aboard vessel on Chattahoochee River (Wikipedia)

The ironclad’s two engines and four boilers – manufactured in Columbus – were not operational when the city fell, and there’s a question about how well they would have performed, anyway. At best, the Jackson would have done about 5 knots.

Remains of the Jackson and the twin-screw wooden ship CSS Chattahoochee are the star exhibits of the museum. Both were lost in April 1865 at war’s end -- the Jackson set afire by Federal captors and the Chattahoochee scuttled by its own crew. Neither vessel saw action.

They were recovered from the Chattahoochee River in the early 1960s (fantail below) and a museum was built to house them (it no longer exists). Older photos indicate not all iron pieces of the fantail were salvaged.

(National Civil War Naval Museum photos)

Iron will resemble a giant folded fan

As of this writing, the museum had arranged 17 of the fantail pieces in a semicircle. Eleven more will be positioned before the flip (there are two surplus pieces, said Gilland).

“It is looking really good,” the director said Thursday. 

Gilland’s crew will soon turn their attention to the cedar base.

“We can do precise measurements of the underside, and then we will make the framework.”

Another cool factor: Some of the original bolts will be placed into the holes.

Built by Black laborers, Nashville's Fort Negley -- now getting improvements -- yields a trove of Civil War-era artifacts, including doll's head, percussion caps and glass

Matthew Malone digs in; doll's head and rifle percussion caps were found in that unit (Picket photos)

Above swaths of yellow flowers, known locally as Nashville Mustard, and within sight of the city’s downtown skyline, a small team conducting archaeological digs on the heights of Fort Negley was having a glorious day.

Metro Nashville Historical Commission archaeologist Adam Fracchia and three volunteers worked in two excavation units within the remains of the fort, which was largely built in 1862 by free Blacks and “contrabands” – formerly enslaved people who fled to Nashville during the Civil War.

For all its public appeal, archaeology is especially tedious work. Everything must be recorded and sifted carefully. Some days you come up empty.

But not on this recent Friday.

Liana Blackburn sifts the Tennessee clay as Patrick O'Sullivan works in Unit 6 (Picket photo)

While I soaked up the sunny weather, steady breeze and the great views from St. Cloud Hill, the group – made up of Fracchia, Liana Blackburn, Matthew Malone and Patrick O’Sullivan -- was hitting pay dirt within minutes of setting up shop.

In the few hours that I drifted between the two open pits, the team collected several rifle percussion caps, shards of glass, bricks, cow bones, charred wood from fires and the head of a tiny doll – all likely tied to the time of the fort, which troops left in 1867.

“This is a very exciting day,” said Fracchia, who has been doing archaeological work at the city’s 64-acre historic park for a couple years. “It is unusual to get that many deposits.”

Federal army used string of forts to hold Nashville

Nashville was the first Confederate state capital to fall to the Union, and it didn’t take long for the army to build defensive fortifications to protect access to railroads and the Cumberland River.

Fort Negley during the war (Library of Congress) and Matthew Malone and Adam Fracchia, background (Picket photo)

Later in the war, regiments with the U.S. Colored Troops were among those occupying Negley, which fired on Confederates during the Battle of Nashville in December 1864. It was spared a direct assault; U.S. Colored Troops did fight elsewhere in Nashville during the battle.

Fracchia on most Fridays welcomes the public to take part in the excavations at Fort Negley, which was picked over by relic hunters for a long time. Signs warn visitors it is unlawful to bring metal detectors, dig or remove artifacts.

Still, compelling artifacts such as those uncovered when I was there are still to be found by archaeologists. Fracchia spoke about them with a few visitors who meandered into the project area from time to time.

Park upgrades will honor Black laborers, USCT soldiers

Fort Negley has recently begun the first phase of a major upgrade to the park, which is largely surrounded by highways and commercial development that have largely supplanted the African-American  Bass Street neighborhood.

Many elements of the venue have deteriorated. A key aim is honoring the Black laborers who built the fort.

Site manager Tracy Harris said the work will include improved walkways, interpretive signage, a new overlook structure, a memorial lawn on the site of a former baseball field, Greer Stadium (Background in Picket photo at right) and a Freedom Plaza.

Fracchia and volunteers have been working only in areas that would be disturbed by new walkways and interpretive signs.

The first phase includes an archaeological investigation at the site of the historic Bass Street community along with a public history component, as well as a large-scale mural designed and installed by a local artist, the city says.

Many of the USCT veterans and Black civilian workers settled in the area following the war. The latter were forced to work at Fort Negley, and many died during construction.

Davidson County historian and Tennessee State University professor Learotha Williams said in a February social media post:

African-Americans pressed into building Nashville forts for Union (Annals of the Army of the Cumberland)

“This project and specifically the new memorial lawn will honor all those who came here during the Civil War and, through their service and sacrifice, compelled the city and the nation to redefine citizenship and the meaning of freedom in America.”

Many artifacts seem to be evidence of camp life

On the day I was in town, O’Sullivan and Blackburn worked in Unit 6, which is near what was once a large palisade wall. Much of Civil War-era Fort Negley is gone; young men with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) reconstructed the site during the Depression.

Large stones and walls were set in place, though they have shifted or fallen down in some areas since. (Above, Picket photos from March 2026) City funding for the enhanced park does not include repairing the walls.

Fracchia said the team gets a mix of Civil War and postwar items and it is difficult to tell whether the items we saw that day were deposited during the fort’s construction or later in its service.

Unit 6 might have been a trash pit – inside were livestock bones signifying possible rations for Federal soldiers, bricks and broken bottles, including what may be part of a pickle jar. Fracchia said a wooden post may have been placed within that unit.

Glass jar lid, volunteer Patrick O'Sullivan with cattle rib, fragment of bottle (Picket photos)

The archaeologists became excited upon seeing what appeared to be upside-down bottles.

“I’m excited to see if they are intact,” said O’Sullivan before he and Blackburn carefully dug around them.

The items were not complete – one appeared to be a lid to a jar already collected and the other was the bottom of a bottle believed to be hand-blown.

Fracchia worked with Malone a hundred yards away in Unit 10. While they did not find as many artifacts, they discovered a few percussion caps and the doll’s head, made of either china or bisque.

“We find these mass-produced dolls at domestic sites often,” Fracchia later told me. “I do not know why it was a Fort Negley.” (National Park Service photo, left, from Fort Stanwix)

He made a reference to it possibly being a “Frozen Charlotte,” small, usually unclothed dolls popular during the mid-19^th century until about 1920. If you want to know more about how they got their name, click here.

The short version, according to the National Park Service: The name “Frozen Charlotte” was associated with the dolls once they were gaining in popularity. It is inspired by a folk ballad about an underdressed “Young Charlotte” or “Frozen Charlotte” who froze to death while on a carriage ride to a winter’s ball.

The find was especially exciting, with Malone carefully walking it over for Blackburn and O'Sullivan to see.

Perhaps surprisingly, not many personal items have been found in recent years.

Hey, public: This is your chance to join a dig

The Metro Nashville Historical Commission works out of the restored Sunnyside Mansion in Sevier Park, a few miles southwest of Fort Negley.

Following a disastrous loss at the Battle of Franklin in November 1864, Confederate Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood moved upon Nashville, digging in below the city. Federal Maj. Gen. George Thomas attacked about two weeks later, sending Hood’s battered army off the field on Dec. 16.

One of the master plan renderings of the upgraded Fort Negley (Picket photo)

It has long been known that dozens of bullets, including Minie balls, were left on the porch door and columns on the big house at Sunnyside. Fracchia showed me evidence of those before I traveled to Fort Negley. The restored mansion includes display areas showing where some of the bullets or cannon rounds hit.

Fracchia said officials don’t have detailed descriptions of what happened on the property during the battle, but they believe Confederates must have been a significant target because of the number of bullets and holes. They eventually were forced to retreat.

The commission has found rifle pits and entrenchments on the land. 

Fracchia’s work extends other sites. The commission recently won a grant to fund a website where Nashvillians can upload photographs of artifacts they find on their property.

Adam Fracchia and Liana Blackburn show off Unit 6 to visitors (Picket photo)

Fracchia maintains a laboratory with items from Fort Negley and Sunnyside (I will report more on the latter in a subsequent post).

On the day I was in Nashville, a woman visiting Sunnyside Mansion asked about helping with the archaeological work.

“You have to show the public this is yours,” said Fracchia.

Site grid and Liana Blackburn and Adam Fracchia (Picket photos)

Editor's note: Please contact Nashville archaeologist Adam Fracchia at adam.fracchia@nashville.gov if you have questions about the project or want to join the work on site.