Scene at the ravine: Candlelight tours at Pickett's Mill to highlight night attack

(Georgia State Parks)

**Editor's note: Due a burn ban in Paulding County and the drought, this event has been postponed.**

Spots are filling for five candlelight tours next month at the well-preserved Pickett’s Mill Battlefield Historic Site in Paulding County, Ga.

Participants in the Nov. 11-12 event will have a chance to see “how an Atlanta Campaign skirmish might look light at night,” said park interpretive ranger Dillan Lee.

The tours, at a cost of $10 per person (no cost to children 2 and under) can be booked online here. There’s also a $5 parking fee. Participants are encouraged to dress warmly and wear comfortable shoes.

The event, being put on by the Friends of Pickett’s Mill and the park, will focus on a Confederate counterattack and significant victory at the May 27, 1864, battle.

Capt. Thomas Key and his Arkansas four-gun battery played a large part in the outcome. Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne ordered Key to place two guns to the right oblique to enfilade a ravine.

Federal troops under Brig. Gen. William Hazen charged uphill that afternoon in an attempt to take the top of a ridge. Key’s howitzers were ready for them. A second attack also failed.

The Federal soldiers were mired in the ravine that evening “rooting like hogs” to get cover, said Lee.

About 10 p.m., Brig. Gen. Hiram B. Granbury’s Texas swooped down and pushed the Yanks out.

Lee said a reproduction howitzer at the park will be used to demonstrate the action that night. He and the friends group are looking for more volunteers and re-enactors to take part. At least 20 soldiers are needed.

Participants in the hourlong tour will walk part of the Blue Trail, witness a cannon firing, walk Granbury’s lines and see re-enactors clash in the ravine. Their first stop will be a civilian site. Women in a cabin will talk about fears of where Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces may appear as they moved on Atlanta to the southeast.