Wreath is placed in Pickett's Mill ravine where a US flag finial was found. Hundreds of Union soldiers died nearby in artillery slaughter

An honor guard Saturday above a ravine where flag finial was found (Picket photo)

On a gorgeous late spring day, about 40 people and I walked single file down a trail in Paulding County, Ga. Sun pored through the trees as we made a gentle descent, a deep and breathtaking ravine to our right.

This might have been on any other morning a carefree trek away from worry and traffic congestion in metro Atlanta. But Saturday was no normal day – it was the 159^th anniversary of the Civil War’s Battle of Pickett’s Mill. And hundreds of Union soldiers died in that ravine on May 27, 1864.

A few minutes earlier, at the Pickett's Mill park museum, visitors got an overview of the slaughter. We then set out for a wreath-laying ceremony at the spot where a finial, the top of a U.S. flag carried in the battle, was found in 1963 at the bottom of the ravine. The flag topper, which sits in a case in the visitor center, was the star of the program Saturday. It's the first new exhibit at the park in years, staffers said.

**Photo gallery of Saturday's events at Pickett's Mill**

John Hoomes, curator preservationist and interpretive ranger at Pickett’s Mill Battlefield, said the scene must have been horrific as canister from two Confederate artillery pieces tore into the Federal soldiers who climbed the ravine in the second futile attack. Several color bearers, who were defenseless, were shot down.

Each regiment in the Union army had two sets of colors, one the U.S. flag and the other a regimental flag. These banners were sacred -- a point of pride and a means of leading and rallying men amid the chaos of combat.

The enemy always shot at color bearers and tried to seize flags. The Pickett's Mill finial is believed to have been put on an American flag.

The finial at Pickett's Mill likely belonged to an Ohio or Indiana regiment.

“As you walk down entering the ravine, you are entering the deadliest part of the battlefield,” Hoomes said.

My photos can’t begin to show just how deep the ravine is and the height those unfortunate men in Col. William H. Gibson’s brigade had to scale. The wreath was placed near the bottom of the ravine and a creek. I felt it was too steep for my knees and ankles, so I did not venture that far down. (At right, local historian Michael Hitt points to the Federals' objective.)

After the ceremony, we walked back up to the approximate location of where two Confederate cannons rained hell down the ravine in 1864. One of them, a bronze 12-pounder howitzer that was part of Confederate Capt. Thomas Key’s battery, is on display in the visitor center (see above). The original 780-pound barrel sits on a reproduction carriage.

The howitzer was cast in Boston by Cyrus Alger & Co. in 1851 for the Arkansas Military Institute. The number 9 is stamped on its muzzle face and the cannon is marked with an eagle and globe.

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

Federal troops under Maj. Gen. William Hazen and Gibson charged uphill in their futile attempt to take the top of a ridge. Key’s howitzers were ready for them.

“They shot solid shot and canister. And that was 48 balls per (canister) round,” Stephen Briggs, then interim director at Pickett’s Mill, told me in 2016. The battery fired 182 rounds of spherical case and canister in two hours, he said.

Crew prepares to fire reproduction howitzer on Saturday (Picket photo)

The Federal army suffered 1,600 casualties at the battle, compared to 500 for the South. The advance on Atlanta was delayed about a week. 

On Saturday, a reenactor artillery crew was firing blanks. Key’s Battery, associated with the Friends of Pickett’s Mill Battlefield, drilled and fired a reproduction cannon as park visitors held fingers to their ears. Activities elsewhere in the park included musket firing and a demonstration of camp life.

Tommy Carter with the finial he pulled from the ground (Picket photo)

The finial is in the visitor center museum. An interpretive panel had not arrived by Saturday but should be put up soon. For years, the finial was on a trophy stand and used as a book weight in the park library. Until last year, it was thought to possibly be a reproduction, but experts are now saying it is genuine.

Tommy Carter (above) of New Hope, Ga., was reunited with the finial for the first time since he and a cousin dug it up in the ravine in 1963. (It’s important to note that this was private property at the time, about 10 years before the state began acquiring land for the park and later prohibited such activity.)

The original Key's Battery cannon is only a few feet away from the finial exhibit. “That could be the cannon that hit that finial three times,” said Hoomes.