The Central of Georgia Railway supported the South's war effort. Helen Dortch Longstreet defended the South's scapegoat. Now papers by and about them will be more accessible to researchers

Helen Dortch Longstreet, Central of Georgia records (Atlanta History Center) and a Nancy Hanks ad (Wikipedia)

The archives of Georgia’s first railroad -- which during the Civil War moved troops and supplies, lost locomotives, boxcars and miles of track to the enemy, even suffering the indignity of its rails being fashioned into “Sherman’s neckties” – have been moved from Savannah to Atlanta, where they will be made more accessible to researchers.

The Atlanta History Center acquired the equivalent of three football fields of Central of Georgia Railway records from the Savannah-based Georgia Historical Society, which in turn received collections from the AHC. Among the latter are papers relating to Helen Dortch Longstreet, stout defender of her husband, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet.

The swap was made possible through a $500,000 gift from Norfolk Southern. The idea is to allow researchers to pore through consolidated collections in Atlanta or Savannah – and not have to travel to both cities.

The collection includes records of affiliated and acquired rail lines (Atlanta History Center)

In 2021, Norfolk Southern donated the Southern Railway archives, dating to 1828, to the AHC.

“With the addition of the Central of Georgia Railway records, that story is now more complete, offering a deeper look at how rail transformed the Southeast,” Norfolk Southern said. Both railways were predecessors of Norfolk Southern.

While researchers had been able to go through some Central of Georgia records, many documents have never been processed and were kept at a storage site in Savannah, officials said.

Jackson McQuigg, vice president of properties for the AHC, told the Picket “the expectation is that processing and indexing these records will make the materials of interest and available to scholars and others beyond narrow niche groups.” In other words: a broader audience.

A portion of William K. Hubbell's railroad map showing lines in 1861 indicates the Central Rail Road as No. 41. From "The Railroads of the Confederacy" by Robert C. Black III. Copyright © 1952 by the University of North Carolina Press, renewed 1980 by Robert C. Black III. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.org

Central of Georgia, founded in Savannah in 1833 as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company, was a key transportation concern in the Southeast. It merged with Southern Railway in 1963. Many Georgians remember the Nancy Hanks train that ran from Atlanta to Savannah for decades.

Railroads were crucial to both sides during the Civil War. Several companies operated in Georgia, and the Confederacy fashioned a network through towns and larger cities where the lines connected.

Known as Central Rail Road & Banking Co. of Georgia in the 1860s, the company was profitable for the first few years of the war, according to a 1976 book by Richard E. Prince.

Its main line was from Savannah to Macon, with an extension to Milledgeville – Georgia’s capital at the time – and Eatonton. It had affiliates elsewhere.

It will take months to go through the trove of documents (Atlanta History Center)

The Central of Georgia “ran through an area plentiful with large plantations, and is known … as the ‘bread basket of the South,’ the source of much of the food consumed by the Confederate Army,” Prince wrote in "Central of Georgia Railway and Connecting Lines.”

The Coastal Plain region also produced valuable cotton for the Southern war effort

In September 1863, the Central of Georgia and other companies moved Longstreet’s corps from Orange Courthouse, Va., to North Georgia, where they arrived in time to help deliver a blow against the Union army at Chickamauga.

But the relative good times for the resilient company came to an end in 1864 as Federal troops descended on Atlanta and the heart of Georgia.

The Central of Georgia records will complement the Southern Railway collection (Atlanta History Center)

“Particularly for the first few months of the 1864 campaign, both Sherman and Grant feared that the Confederates would send forces from Virginia and the Atlantic Coast to Atlanta by rail, with the final link being the Georgia Railroad,” said Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association.

“All the rail lines were important to supplying (Atlanta), though most of the foodstuffs and animal feed came from the Macon & Western and the Atlanta & West Point,” said Crawford.

While the railway was still operational, trains were used to disperse the Confederate wounded to hospitals east of Atlanta, including in Madison, Washington and Augusta, he added.

Union Maj. Gen. George Stoneman’s botched cavalry July 1864 foray toward Macon dealt a punch to Central of Georgia, though it was able to rebuild some infrastructure. More than 100 miles of track, along with station houses, depots and other structures, were damaged or destroyed.

Sherman’s March to the Sea (illustration, Library of Congress, above) was even more crippling as the wings of his army advancing on Savannah tore up track and burned locomotives, bridges and boxcars.

Old articles in the Central of Georgia “The Right Way” magazine detail some of the company’s losses. One calculated $1.6 million (in 1860s dollars) for reconstruction and losses, including $220,100 as the value of enslaved people who got their freedom.

“These figures do not include the value of 34 cars burned by Sherman’s troops, nor the value of 95 cars lost on foreign roads, where some were sent to evade capture, and some commandeered by the Confederate Government for its use. Neither do they include the funds advanced to the Confederate Government, the depreciation in Confederate currency held by the Railway, or the deferred repairs made to engines, cars and roadway. In addition, many of the structures erected after this raid and charged to cost of reconstruction of the road, were not as substantial as the original ones, and were replaced by the Railway over a period of many years.”

In 1862, the Central of Georgia had 58 locomotives and 729 cars. It maintained 49 locomotives and 537 cars in 1866, when service was restored from Savannah to Macon. The Central of Georgia rebounded fairly quickly after the war ended, providing passenger and freight service for generations.

The Atlanta History Center said by spring 2026 it will have completed the “discovery phase” of what all is in the Central of Georgia papers, including records from the Civil War era. (Replica of a Sherman Necktie at Fort McAllister, Ga., right)

McQuigg provided some context, starting with the 1833 formation of the Monroe Railroad and Banking Company, known later as the Macon & Western.

“The Macon & Western was, of course, the third railroad to reach Atlanta (after the Western & Atlantic Railroad and the Georgia Railroad), in 1846. Although the Macon & Western was not acquired by the Central of Georgia until after the Civil War, we’ve seen some interesting Macon & Western materials in the collection, including maps showing the railroad’s approach into Atlanta which identify the adjacent property owners,” McQuigg said. “And we know that there are engineering drawings of many of the Central of Georgia and Macon & Western’s pre-Civil War structures, such as bridges. There is bound to be much more.”

Highlights from the collection include extensive photographs of farms and communities along the routes of the Central of Georgia. They were produced in the late 19^th century, the AHC said.

“Some of the railroad’s passenger and freight trains are also depicted in the collection, including the well-known ’pocket streamliners,’ which ran passenger service on the railroad following World War II -- the Atlanta-Columbus Man O’ War and the Atlanta-Savannah Nancy Hanks -- as well as some of the through passenger trains operated by the CofG,” said McQuigg.

In its early days, the Savannah-based railway printed its own currency

Allen Tuten, president of the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society, said his organization has done substantial research in the files when they were kept at the Georgia Historical Society.

“The society also inventoried/indexed all of the unprocessed files that had been in storage. We will be working with the AHC (as we did with the GHS) to ensure that all of the files, documents and drawings are made available for researchers. The materials now at AHC comprise the largest single collection of CofGa files,” Tuten said.

For its part of the archives swap, the Georgia Historical Society received several major manuscript and photographic collections from the AHC that add to its existing collections.

“Many document pivotal moments in modern Georgia, including portions of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games photo archive and files from the Georgia Film Commission,” an October news release said.

The GHS had two-thirds of the papers relating to Helen Dortch Longstreet. The AHC had one-third, and sent them to Savannah. (At left, James and Helen in 1900, courtesy Dan Paterson)

Keith Strigaro, director of communications for the society, said the Longstreet collection consists primarily of correspondence, with the majority consisting of carbon copies of letters written by Helen Dortch Longstreet.

The society provided this information:

“The correspondence covers her numerous interests, both personal and political. Personal topics include family information, her health, her financial situation and her passion to clear the name of her husband, General James Longstreet. Contained in the political correspondence are letters to many politicians covering topics such as elections, the New Deal, political corruption in the Virgin Islands (also newspapers), and other political issues she viewed as important.”

“A large portion of the collection describes her efforts to clear General Longstreet's name. She attempted this through speeches, publications, the Longstreet memorial Association, and the Longstreet Memorial Exhibit, both at the New York World's Fair of 1938 and the Golden Gate Exposition of 1940. There are also photographs of the exhibit, the Longstreet Memorial and the 75th Gettysburg Reunion.”

Helen led a fascinating life and is remembered as a progressive reformer, librarian, postmistress and riveter at  a Georgia aircraft manufacturing plant during World War II.

She died in 1962, 58 years after her husband’s passing.

The T.R.R. Cobb House in Athens, Ga., is reprising debate over who killed general at Fredericksburg. Clues and claims are featured each Wednesday on social media

Cobb's and Kershaw's troops in Fredericksburg at the stone wall (Library of Congress)

Tune in this week tor another episode of “Who Killed Tom Cobb?”!!!

Tom Cobb, for the unfamiliar, was Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, an ardent Georgia secessionist and Confederate brigadier general killed at Fredericksburg.

On Dec. 13, 1862, Cobb bled out after he was wounded while leading his men along Sunken Road. Of some debate in subsequent years was the manner of death.

Most historians – including staffers at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia -- attribute the ghastly leg wound to shrapnel from a Federal artillery shell. Brig. Gen. Joseph Kershaw and Col. E.P. Alexander, however, reported that Cobb (right) was felled by a sharpshooter. There’s at least one other story, though it was largely debunked by veterans and historians

Six years after the T.R.R. Cobb House in Athens, Ga., asked middle schoolers to weigh in, the topic is being reprised through a weekly video series (on Wednesdays) featuring former Cobb House interns laying out evidence and accounts.

Curator Ashleigh Oatts said the series has been in the works for more than a year. The impetus is to boost the house's social media presence, and videos are the best way to do that.

“We were hearing from some visitors that they had heard that Tom Cobb died in X way (usually not the correct answer) and realized that the general public might appreciate hearing from the primary sources and becoming detectives through this video series,” she said.

The general -- a lawyer and architect of the Confederate constitution before he joined the cause's army -- was mortally wounded within sight of where his mother was born in Fredericksburg.

The death theories first were the subject of a summer 2017 article in the magazine of the Watson-Brown Foundation, which operates the T.R.R. Cobb House in Athens, Ga.

Sam Thomas, who was the curator then, decided to throw the whodunit to a group that would have no bias or prejudice – a class of eighth-graders. About half of them believed Cobb was killed by a sharpshooter, while others thought his death was result of friendly (or unfriendly) fire. You can read details of that claim here.

Cobb’s brigade was at the center of the maelstrom at Fredericksburg – the Sunken Road, which was bordered by a stone wall and just below Marye’s Heights.

“His men successfully repulsed repeated Union assaults on their position throughout the day on December 13, the park says on its website. “Between the first and second major wave of attacks against the Confederate position, Cobb was hit with shrapnel and mortally wounded. He had been standing behind the Stephens House when an artillery shell exploded through the house.” The officer was 39.

The video series is running every Wednesday through Dec. 17, though there may not be one shown Thanksgiving week, said Oatts. Three have been rolled out as of this writing.

Peter Maugle, park historian and ranger at Fredericksburg, will present a “solution” talk on Dec. 10, and the museum will wrap up the series the following Wednesday.

“The solution isn't a specific person, rather narrowing it down to the battery that was responsible (but also correcting misinformation stating that he was killed by friendly fire.),” said Oatts.

Cobb Legion's flag at the Athens house is on loan from the Atlanta History Center (Picket photo)

Among the weekly subjects:

-- H.M. Reed, son of a 13^th Mississippi Infantry veteran, told author Margaret Mitchell in 1937 about his father: “He dropped down beside the general and shoved his thumb into the wound and pressed the ends of the artery together and stopped the bleeding…When they arrived at the hospital they had to lift the general and my father out together as he could not release the pressure on the artery for a second. They laid both of them down on a bed together and the general expired before he could remove his thumb from the wound. My dad said his thumb was numb for a week afterwards."’

-- A Confederate’s interview with the Marietta (Ga.) Journal in which he claims Cobb was killed by a Rebel soldier in retribution for an incident that occurred weeks before the battle.

-- The account of Edward Porter Alexander, who apparently heard second-hand an account claiming it was a sharpshooter. "The fatal shot came from a house some hundred and fifty yards in front and to the left, which was occupied by the Federal skirmishes.”

-- The Rev. Rufus Kilpatrick Porter, chaplain for Cobb’s Legion;

-- Capt. W.R. Montgomery (left) of Cobb's Legion: “The whole time of the engagement our brave and gallant General Cobb was encouraging his men until a shot from the enemy’s cannon gave him his mortal wound. He was on the right of our Co, only a few feet from me when wounded.”

-- A letter from Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Cobb’s father-in-law, to Lumpkin’s daughter “Callie” Lumpkin King. While he was not present at Fredericksburg, he writes with some knowledge of the condition of the body. Lumpkin described the shell exploding outside the Stephens House, the fragment hitting his son-in-law above the knee, the removal of the general from the field, the cause of death and the funeral in Athens, Ga.

A postscript from my 2019 article on the topic: The T.R.R. Cobb House displays the Cobb’s Legion flag used at the battle in Virginia. The flag reportedly covered his legs after his body was sent to Athens days later and he lie in repose in his library. Cobb, his brother Howell and their families are buried a few miles away in Oconee Hill Cemetery.

There's a whole lot of fungus among the USS Cairo's wooden timbers. Scientists conduct study to help find ways to slow decay of historic ironclad at Vicksburg

The USS Cairo and an image of one of the fungus types found in the wood (Reprinted from Journal of Fungi); Claudia Chemello and Bob Blanchette examining Cairo timbers in 2024. (Paul Mardikian photo)

Confederate ships Little Rebel, Colonel Lovell and General Beauregard proved harmless, but Alternaria, Cladosporium and Curvularia are doing a real number on famed Civil War ironclad USS Cairo.

That’s because the latter are among a host of fungi eating away at the star attraction of Vicksburg National Military Park. The Cairo was the first armored vessel sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo and has been on display for decades.

A recent study found the wooden wreck is suffering continued fungal degradation, despite the application of chemical treatments over the years. Scientists who cleaned and examined the ironclad at Vicksburg National Military Park last year were alarmed by what they witnessed and have since analyzed.

“Finding so many fungi that cause wood decay alive in the ship timbers was a surprise,” said lead author Robert "Bob" Blanchette, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Minnesota.

Larger timber pieces inside the Cairo wreckage (Reprinted from Journal of Fungi)

“The wood surfaces are decayed and many of the timbers have had their strength properties compromised -- but many of the timbers are large and thick and still have moderately good integrity,” Blanchette wrote in an email to the Civil War Picket. “However, the presence of active decay fungi indicates they are progressively causing additional decay.”

The study, published in the Journal of Fungi, urges the Cairo -- which sits beneath a fabric canopy, but has open sides -- be moved indoors to a climate-controlled space to combat the toll from high humidity and heat.

Blanchette and his co-authors said keeping relative humidity below 55 percent would help arrest fungal action.

“An enclosed structure would also prevent dust, insects and animals from interacting with the ship. Undoubtedly, the condition of the wood will continue to deteriorate if the existing biodeterioration and biodegradation processes underway in the ship are left unaddressed,” they wrote.

The team was brought in by the National Park Service to evaluate the fungi and provide guidance on long-term preservation. The agency knows moving the ironclad indoors is necessary, but funding has not been secured.

Visitors can see gunboat during govt. shutdown

The Cairo and accompanying museum officially opened in 1980 (NPS photo)

The Picket reached out to the NPS and the park for comment on the study. An email said officials would respond to non-government shutdown queries once “appropriations have been enacted.”

Visitors to the park along the Mississippi River can still see the gunboat seven days a week. The Cairo museum has been open a few days but after Tuesday will be closed until the shutdown ends and money flows again to national historic sites.

Blanchette and Benjamin Held, also with the University of Minnesota, and Paul Mardikian and Claudia Chemello of Terra Mare Conservation say more study of the fungi is needed.

“Decades after various preservative treatments were applied, we now find soft rot and white rot fungi are in the wood,” Blanchette told the Picket. “Many of these fungi have not been studied and we do not know much about their biology and ecology. Others have received some investigation and some of these are known to tolerate various wood preservation treatments.”

The end comes in the Yazoo River above Vicksburg

The USS Cairo at anchor in 1862 (Library of Congress)

The USS Cairo’s fame has far exceeded its brief history. Built in a hurry in Mound City, Ill., and commissioned in January 1862, the ironclad sank only 11 months later. In between, it helped lead to the fall of Fort Pillow and Memphis, Tenn.

At 175 feet long and with a top speed of six knots, the vessel carried 13 guns and 251 officers and men. Seven shallow-draft City Class river ironclads prowled the Mississippi River and connecting shallow waterways, menacing Confederate supply lines and shore batteries, the National Park said.

Before the Federal attack on Haynes Bluff, Cairo skipper Lt. Cmdr. Thomas O. Selfridge Jr. led a small flotilla of gunboats into the hazardous confines of the Yazoo River on Dec. 12, 1862.

“Tasked with destroying Confederate batteries and clearing the river of torpedoes (underwater mines) the flotilla inched its way up the murky waters. As the Cairo reached a point seven miles north of Vicksburg the flotilla came under fire and the aggressive Selfridge ordered his guns to the ready and called for full steam, bringing the ironclad into action,” the NPS says.

“Seconds later, disaster struck. Cairo was rocked by two explosions in quick succession. The first tore and gaping hole into the port (left) bow of the wooden hulled ironclad. The second detonated a moment later near the armored belt amidships on the starboard side. The hole on the bow proved to be catastrophic.”

Selfridge ordered the Cairo to be beached and the crew to abandon ship. The Cairo slid from the river bank into 36 feet of water with no loss of life. About a half dozen sailors were injured.

Mud protected the ironclad for almost 100 years

The ill-fated ironclad disappeared into history for nearly a century.

Using maps and an old military compass, the legendary Ed Bearss, a historian at Vicksburg National Military Park at the time, and two comrades found the mud-encased ironclad in 1956.

A portion of the casemate rests on a barge in the 1960s (NPS photo)

Despite financial shortfalls, barge problems and a zero-visibility river that deposited silt at an alarming rate, the vessel was eventually raised in 1960 and 1964-65.

Hopes of lifting the ironclad and her cargo of artifacts intact were crushed in October 1964 when the three-inch cables being used to lift the Cairo cut deeply into its wooden hull. It then became a question of saving as much of the vessel as possible. The decision was made to recover the USS Cairo in three sections.

Barges carried the remnants to Pascagoula, Ms. The wreck was moved in 1977 to the Vicksburg park, where it was partially reconstructed and placed on a concrete foundation. The Cairo has been treated with a variety of chemical sprays and coatings since the 1970s. 

Frame that holds the Cairo's timbers in good shape

Diagram showing where samples were taken (Adapted from Library of Congress for Journal of Fungi article)

While submerged and under river sediments, bacterial degradation and soft rot took place, said Blanchette. After recovery, lots of different types of decay took place, including aggressive brown rot and white rot.

He and the other researchers gazed at the microstructure of the wood to see the effects of fungi. “Micromorphological characteristics observed using scanning electron microscopy showed that many of the timbers were in advanced stages of degradation,” they wrote.

They took 66 samples of wood – oak, pine and poplar -- from the wreck. “The large number of diverse fungal taxa that are present in the ship’s wood raises concerns about the future preservation of the ship,” the journal article said.

Blanchette (left) said fungi tolerant of preservation treatments applied to the Cairo found their way into the wood over time, causing decay.

 “The fungal isolation results and presence of so many fungi with the capacity to degrade wood also suggest that there is a need for additional studies to better understand how soft rot and white rot fungi tolerate and interact with aging wood that has been previously treated with wood preservation compounds,” the study said.

The park also asked the U.S. Forest Service to study the 1980s Glulam structure that holds the boat in place. It appears the frame is in pretty good condition, except for a few areas. (That team did not examine any of the ship’s timbers.)

Blanchette said his team did not find evidence of termites, though it did not include insects in the study. “As indicated in the Forest Products Lab paper, this must be monitored in the future since they can be a serious threat.”

The Forest Service also recommends moving the Cairo inside.

“The canopy currently is shedding precipitation from the actual frame, but the entire assembly is subject to substantial swings in relative humidity and temperature that could exacerbate issues with mold and decay fungi. The structure is also currently exposed to the risk of swarming insects such as termites, powder post beetles and carpenter bees.”

'Recognized as soldiers': A Black regiment fought on this NW Georgia tract that has been recently saved. The site includes Confederate earthworks and redoubts

Sgt. Charles Tyree of the 14th USCI was born into slavery  (Indiana Historical Society, M0470), Garrity Battery's site (at right) and Washington Artillery position on the top of 61 acres (Courtesy Bob Jenkins)

Sixty-one acres that feature impressive Confederate artillery and infantry earthworks and were the site of the first Civil War combat in Georgia involving Black troops have been saved following a 20-year effort.

Save the Dalton Battlefields recently trumpeted the preservation of 61.43 acres just north of Interstate 75. The American Battlefield Trust, among its partners in the effort, closed on the property last month after it and numerous groups and individuals raised $677,000.

SDB president Bob Jenkins said the site would likely have been converted to residential use if the sale had not occurred.

“The property immediately below (to the south of) this property was developed into four apartment buildings in the past couple of years and we lost earthworks on that property,” Jenkins told the Picket in an email. “Also, there are other condo units and apartments adjacent to this property to the east, as well.”

Parcel marked in green is near Rocky Face Ridge Park (American Battlefield Trust map)

Unlike Atlanta, Northwest Georgia has numerous remaining Civil War fortifications, including at Rocky Face Ridge Park, which is near the 61-acre site. About 300 acres in the Resaca battlefield have recently been saved, officials said.

For those who closely study troop movement and action during the Atlanta Campaign, the names of Confederate units defending the land the first months of 1864 are familiar: Stanford’s Mississippi Battery, Washington Artillery from Louisiana, Garrity’s Alabama Battery, Baker’s and Clayton’s Alabama infantry brigades and Stovall’s Georgia brigade.

Between them, they erected numerous lunettes, redoubts and earthworks -- much of which survive..

Save the Dalton Battlefields' sign about Black Civil War regiments in the area

But it was the infantrymen belonging to the 14^th U.S. Colored Infantry who made history months after those Rebel units left.

They became the first Blacks troops to see combat in the Peach State during the war.

Black regiment was drawn from formerly enslaved

The clash involving the 14^th USCI came months after important battles in Whitfield County, including Rocky Face Ridge. By August 1864, most of the fighting was happening well south, in and around Atlanta.

The regiment – organized in Gallatin, Tenn., mainly of former slaves -- was part of a Federal force that came in two trains from Chattanooga, Tenn., before dawn on Aug. 15, 1864, after Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler and his force threatened Dalton with the intent of destroying railroad tracks and supplies.

Black troops are shown in this camp scene near Citico Mound in Chattanooga ( photo CL 491 (44), Isaac Bonsall Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.)

“The three Union regiments disembarked from the trains on the west side of Mill Creek Gap where they deployed, with the 14th USCI placed in the front left of the formation and given the honor of leading the predawn attack,” said Jenkins. They were part of the skirmish line.

“This regiment swept across the southern end of the newly acquired property on their way to Wheeler’s cavalrymen, who were encamped along the banks of Mill Creek to the east.”

Eventually, Wheeler withdrew.

In his memoirs, Col. Thomas Jefferson Morgan (left), wrote the fight was short, with few casualties.

“To us it was a great battle, and a glorious victory. The regiment had been recognized as soldiers. It had taken its place side by side with a white regiment. The men had behaved gallantly. A colored soldier had died for liberty. Others had shed their blood in the great cause.”

The regiment marched into Dalton in a rain. A White regiment, standing at rest, “swung their hats and gave three rousing cheers for the Fourteenth Colored," wrote Morgan.

The 14^th later took part in the siege of Decatur, Ala., and the Battle of Nashville. The Slaves to Soldiers website features remarkable information about the regiment and other Black units.

Hikers will be able to see site near Rocky Face Ridge

Jenkins said numerous groups were involved in the preservation project, including the Georgia Battlefields Association, Open Space Institute, Georgia Piedmont Land Trust, various Civil War roundtables and Whitfield County officials.

“While it is not contiguous with Rocky Face Ridge Park, it is to be added to the profile of that park and managed accordingly, but without any bike trails or other high-density use,” he said. “This property is to be used for only hiking, historic and environmental preservation, i.e. low density use.

Lunettes were shaped as a half moon to protect men. (Courtesy Bob Jenkins)

While the terrain is not as rugged as Rocky Face Ridge, the parcel does not have easy car access.

Jared Herr, communications associate with the American Battlefield Trust, said the nonprofit negotiated the purchase agreement. He said the trust has championed several Civil War properties in the region, including Rocky Face Ridge, Ringgold Gap, Kennesaw Mountain and Resaca.

Once the Trust places a conservation easement on the 61 acres, it intends to transfer the property to Whitfield County. “Trails and interpretive signage will be installed on the property. Save the Dalton Battlefields will work on the signage under the guidance of the county. The Trust will lend its expertise, including sign text review, to the process.”

Brian Chastain, chief of Whitfield County parks, said he recently toured the site and said the earthworks are particularly notable. “It is a great asset.”

“While the property is not yet open to the public, I can provide private tours of the property on a limited basis and for now would like to limit that to our donors or potential future donors,” said Jenkins. “There’s no timetable yet for the public, but we will be working to get the property and hiking trails safe and ready to be dedicated and opened to the public as soon as possible.”

Bragg, Johnston deployed guns to slow Yankees

Another lunette at the 61-acre site (Courtesy Robert Jenkins)

It’s important to note Dalton and Whitfield County were occupied by Confederate and Union troops at different times during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign. The Rebel artillery was in place around the time or during the Battle of Rocky Face Ridge.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association laid out this timeline:

The four-gun batteries were part of the defensive line Braxton Bragg (for the initial weeks) and Joseph E. Johnston (subsequently) built from December 1863 through April 1864. The artillery was positioned more to defend Mill Creek Gap than the ridge, said Crawford.

When Maj. Gen. George Thomas was ordered to attack Rocky Face Ridge in late February 1864, he determined quickly that a direct assault with the forces then at hand (only the Army of the Cumberland at that point, whereas Gen. William T. Sherman would have three armies when he approached the site in early May) would just result in casualties. But Thomas’s assault did have the effect of Johnston being allowed to recall two divisions he had been ordered to send to assist Polk in Mississippi. Thomas withdrew.

“There were certainly artillery exchanges in this area in February and May, but the principal infantry assaults were elsewhere. In one sense, the defenses here accomplished their purpose of defending the gap,” said Crawford.

Atlanta Campaign got bloody start at Rocky Face Ridge

The well-known Battle of Rocky Face Ridge came on May 7-8, 1864. It was the first significant clash of what became known as the Atlanta Campaign.

In 2022, Bob Jenkins (left) with reproduction 3-inch ordnance rifle at Rocky Face Ridge Park. (Picket photo)

Sherman sent troops from the Chattanooga area as a feint while Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson rushed to Snake Creek Gap in a bid to cut Rebel forces off from a vital railroad.

But the feint did not come without cost: About 1,400 men from both sides became casualties in the fighting over several days at Rocky Face Ridge, known for its steep terrain.

Johnston, surprised by McPherson’s move and seeing that Sherman was moving south, evacuated troops off the ridge and rushed them to Resaca.

The Federal strategy had failed, given McPherson moved back to Snake Creek Gap when he thought his army might be in a precarious position. Sherman was angry about McPherson’s failure to attack and perhaps cut Johnston off from the railroad. The Battle of Resaca ensued, with Johnston having consolidated his troops.

Here's when the Rebel batteries were in place at site

Jenkins provided these details on what occurred on the 61 acres.

There were two artillery battery sites on this property used by three different Confederate units: the one near the top of the ridge used by Garrity’s Alabama battery, and the one on the lower part of the ridge used at various times by the Washington Artillery and Stanford’s Mississippi Battery.

-- Garrity’s Alabama Battery served in the redoubt near the top of the property in action in May (May 6-13) 1864.

Georgia Division reenactors take part in 2022 ribbon cutting at Rocky Face Ridge Park (Picket photo)

-- The Washington Artillery served in the redoubt near the bottom of the property in action in February (24-26, 1864), May and October (13, 1864).

-- Stanford’s Mississippi Battery also served in the lower redoubt in May 1864. (Different batteries were pulled up into line and after 24 hours, pulled back and replaced to rest) But not Garrity’s Battery, because they were up on top and harder to get up and down.

-- The August 1864 action saw no artillery on this property, but instead was a running fight as the Federals lined up west of Mill Creek Gap, swept through the gap, including the 14^th USCI across the lower half of this property, as they surprised and swept Wheeler’s sleeping Confederate cavalrymen in the predawn hours of August 15, 1864, along the banks of Mill Creek between just west of the gap and down toward Dalton.

These unusual Rebel forts outside Atlanta were never tested by Sherman. A few Shoupades survive; volunteers toil to reveal a trench between two of them

Ron Wendt steps near exposed trench leading up to First Shoupade; Matt Larson wields a mattock; work Sunday was near Shoupade, 2, and redan, 3; the other Shoupade is marked 4; diagram shows defense design (Picket photos)

Where cannons and rifles once bristled, mattocks, saws and loppers were the weapons of the day Sunday afternoon for a small, but hardy crew working to clear vegetation and expose a trench that connected unique Confederate fortifications outside Atlanta.

The nonprofit River Line Historic Area (RLHA) sponsored the “Trimming the Trenches” workday at Shoupade Park in Smyrna, Ga. The goal is to “enrich the visitor's visual educational experience.”

Timber and earthen redoubts – known as Shoupades -- were built by enslaved laborers near the Chattahoochee River and were briefly manned in July 1864. The arrowhead shape allowed defenders to shoot in several directions. Artillery placed in nearby redans added to “the killing zone.” (Bill Scaife model of a Shoupade, left)

RLHA  and individuals have been working to expose the outline of an infantry trench between one Shoupade and a redan. The park is in the middle of a residential development.

While the work is still to be completed, progress was made Sunday. I could see the faint line indicating the trench where troops could move from one fortification to the next.

Born in Indiana, Confederate Brig. Gen. Francis A. Shoup (right) lent his name to a fort system that Union Maj. Gen William T. Sherman, intent on taking Atlanta, called “one of the strongest pieces of field fortifications I ever saw.”

The Chattahoochee River was the last natural obstacle for Union troops moving on Atlanta.

Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston ordered a series of defenses and the Rebels built 36 Shoupade forts, said Roberta Cook, executive director of RLHA. Ten remain in various levels of condition. Some are on public land and some on private property.

For all their ingenuity, the Shoupades never saw action. Sherman, using his familiar flanking strategy, crossed the river elsewhere, forcing Confederates to retreat to Atlanta. There is a belief that Johnston and some of his soldiers did not fully appreciate Shoupade's work.

Author Brad Butkovich says the forts were meant to be an impregnable barrier to the river with a small force, freeing up troops to guard the army flanks. He argues Johnston failed to use the forts to his advantage.

Cobb County owns the two-acre Shoupade Park and cuts the grass in the common area between its two Shoupades.

The shoupades are in vegetation in the center and a cleared area to the right (Cobb County Parks)

The earthworks are fenced but visitors get a good view and four signs explain how they worked. Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, wrote the text. That organization has lamented development around several River Line sites.

“The River Line Historic Area adopted the park eight years ago to improve its level of care with volunteer labor, but it has been a challenge,” said Cook.

Volunteers have concentrated on clearing excess vegetation from the redan and the “First Shoupade.” English ivy is being kept in place to ward off erosion on the latter, Cook said. Recent work days have concentrated on the connecting trench so people can a better idea of how the defensive system was designed. 

Roberta Cook, Matt Larson, Gould Hagler, Julie Schrodt, Ron Wendt (Picket photo)

Shoupade Park is bordered by the Park Avenue subdivision. Pulte Homes donated the fortifications to the county when it built the large neighborhood on Oakdale Road, and it paid for the interpretive signage.

Cook led Sunday’s effort. Joining her were Matt Larson and Julie Schrodt, Park Avenue residents, and Gould Hagler and Ron Wendt, members of area Civil War roundtables. Schrodt  is a RLHA board member.

The nonprofit is involved in several endeavors, including maintaining historic cemeteries.

The Chattahoochee River Line stretched for nearly six miles and was meant to slow Federals. But Johnston was largely buying time before he was outflanked.

Cobb County maintains Discovery Park at the River Line, which features a Shoupade, anchor fort and an impressive stretch of Confederate earthworks. It is a few miles south of Shoupade Park.

I visited the park after the work day and enjoyed the walk on the top of a ridge and down below where a trail parallels the Chattahoochee River. 

Cobb County Parks maintains a helpful web page about Discovery Park, including a guide to Civil War markers. New trails and signs have been introduced in the past five years.

“Designed by a Confederate officer and built by army engineers, heavy units of the Georgia militia, slightly wounded soldiers and about a thousand enslaved Africans, these fortifications are some of the few still remaining,” the page says.

Julie Schrodt removes branches; interior of First Shoupade at Shoupade Park (Picket photos)

“The defensive line became known as Johnston’s River Line after Confederate General Joseph E. Johnson and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These fortifications are important as a reminder of the way war was fought in the 19^th century. Their historical importance and undisturbed state have led to their preservation.”

Another view of the trench line, with Ron Wendt inside (Picket photo)

Crawford, with the GBA, said a Federal artillery battery site at Discovery Park is currently off-limits. Battery D, 1^st Illinois Light Artillery Regiment, served west of Nickajack Creek.

The city of Smyrna's River Line Park includes another Shoupade. The park includes playing fields, concessions, trail and a playground.

The Second Shoupade at the park off Oakdale Road (Picket photo)