Postscript: They found this pike head while working on the railroad just north of Atlanta

(Sections of pike. Courtesy of National Park Service)

You may recall reading our posts about the pikes made for abolitionist John Brown, who wanted to arm enslaved persons, and those done in response by Southern governors, notably Joseph E. Brown of Georgia. The latter weapons were intended for home guard units and individuals. 

We asked museums across Georgia about any pikes in their collection. The timing of the partial government shutdown precluded details then from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. Park ranger Amanda Corman has since provided this interesting story about a pike in the park’s collection.

A text panel in the museum says: “The ‘Joe Brown’ pike, named for Governor Joseph E. Brown. Unable to furnish Georgia troops with enough rifles and muskets, Brown calls upon local blacksmiths to supply the soldiers with pikes. Between March 1862 and April 1863, Georgia pays five dollars apiece for over 7,000 of these clumsy weapons. They are stored in the state armory at Milledgeville and never used in combat."

The metal head of the pike was acquired in 1949. An assistant chief engineer, R.W. McCabe, of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway donated the pike to park Superintendent B.C. Yates.

“According to the letter to the former superintendent, the artifact was found by railroad workmen some years prior. While they were cleaning out an old office, they came across the pike and not needing it themselves thought that the park may like to have it,” Corman told the Picket.

As part of the donation, a card was attached, with this legend:

"This Civil War relic thought to have been either pike or an ornamental point of banner staff was dug up on August 17, 1925, by W.J. Thompson, Foreman on the south side of Pier No. 2 of Chattahoochee River Bridge of the Western and Atlantic Railroad while excavating for the enlarging and strengthening of the pier. It was lying on the hard-san strata, the same that the timber base of the old pier rests on, about 10 ft. from the pier outside the original coffer-dam, as well as outside the new one just built, covered by the chunk rock filled around the old pier for protection and by stream deposits to a depth of 16 feet."