He teaches people about battlefield sites that are not recognizable. Georgia Historical Society honors Charlie Crawford for marker efforts

Crawford leads a 2014 tour of downtown Atlanta Civil War site (Picket photo)

Charlie Crawford believes that making people aware of historic sites – through roadside markers, site tours and presentations -- increases the likelihood that they will support preservation.

Crawford, president emeritus of the nonprofit Georgia Battlefields Association, is the recipient of the Georgia Historical Society’s 2021 John Macpherson Berrien Award for a lifetime of achievement in and service to the state’s history – particularly in support of the society’s Civil War markers.

“All of us at GBA are so pleased on his behalf,” organization secretary Mary-Elizabeth Ellard told the Picket in an email.”

Crawford, 72, served 24 years in the Air Force, including service in Vietnam, and worked nearly the same amount of time at an information technology and consultant company in Atlanta. History has been his lifelong and passionate avocation.

Charlie Crawford at Gettysburg in 1956 and in later years (Courtesy of GBA)

The bug bit him early while he grew up outside Philadelphia, visiting the Liberty Bell, Valley Forge and Gettysburg. And he got deeper into it during his service at the Pentagon, where he lived near Civil War sites in Virginia.

“Historical markers are important because so many battlefields and historic sites are no longer recognizable as such,” said the retired colonel. “Peachtree Creek [Atlanta] is a prime example. Tens of thousands of people traverse (on foot but mostly in vehicles) that battlefield every day, but they would never know they were on a battlefield except for the historical markers.”

“Further, historical markers will sometimes prompt anyone who notices them to find out more about the site,” he said, mentioning the society’s online database of thousands of markers.

The state of Georgia ran the Georgia historical marker program from the 1950s until the mid-1990s. The historical society began to erect new markers in 1998 and Crawford has been involved in researching several of them.

“A key player in the Civil War 150 Initiative, Charlie and the association helped fund 10 historical markers and advised on the overall project,” GHS market manager Elyse Butler wrote in an article about the award.

Crawford at a 2011 marker dedication  in Savannah.

“Since the end of the Civil War sesquicentennial, the friendship between GHS and Charlie has grown. Charlie's interest in preserving Georgia's Civil War battlefields to educate the public naturally lends itself to the Georgia Historical Marker Program,” Butler wrote. “The marker program provides an opportunity for place-based learning, and often, as Charlie says, ‘tells the stories to the uninitiated.’”

The GBA and volunteers have assisted the historical society by reporting missing or damaged markers and assisting in repairs. 

Crawford, a graduate of Georgia Tech, has given over 100 presentations and led over 50 tours relating to battlefield preservation and has been a member of the American Battlefield Trust and its predecessor organizations since 1991. The trust honored him in 2011 for preservation efforts. "Charlie Crawford is an indispensable source of information on all aspects of the preservation movement in the state," the trust said.

Since 2000, Crawford has been a member of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table and is the group’s trivia master. He served as GBA president for nearly two decades and still produces its monthly newsletter and is a trustee.

Crawford uses period photos to help in interpretation (Picket photo)

Regarding the status of battlefield preservation in Georgia, Crawford said Covid-19 has restricted GBA trustees from freely traveling to sites “and the dearth of in-person county commission meetings has dampened our ability to interact with local decision makers.  We have five projects in the hopper, so to speak, but our preservation efforts depend primarily on willing sellers. We don’t have eminent domain power and don’t advocate for the state government to use it.”

High selling prices can make efforts difficult.

“If I had to characterize the current state of preservation, generally, I’d have to say it was frustratingly stalled. On the other hand, a frustrating stall is a recurrent theme in preservation efforts. As long as a battlefield is not permanently lost to development, we remain hopeful and persistent.”  

Crawford leads downtown Atlanta tours for the Atlanta Preservation Center and he shows period photos to participants so that they can envision the sites. “On many tours, especially around Atlanta, people will tell me they had no idea they lived on a battlefield.”

Most of the GBA tours are attended by participants who have much more Civil War knowledge than the average citizen,” he told the Picket.

“We also have many repeat participants, who unsurprisingly are some of our most steadfast supporters, not only with memberships and donations but also with (communication) to state representatives and county commissioners and media reporters. We’re not making these folks aware of historical sites as much as providing depth and context to their existing knowledge, which they also spread by word of mouth.”

The Atlanta Campaign threw thousands of men at each other in combat. Guest columnist Charlie Crawford tells us about 8 of them

One of the Rebel forts seized in Atlanta (George Barnard/Library of Congress)

This week marks the 157^th anniversary of the beginning of the Atlanta Campaign, a prolonged Federal offensive that would have a profound impact on the outcome of the Civil War.

The Picket asked Charlie Crawford (left), president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, to write about individuals involved in the fighting. Crawford, who has led or taken part in countless tours of battlefields in the region, focuses, with one exception, on soldiers who were non-military before the war and – if they survived -- returned to civilian life. The following biographies have been edited.

You can make a good argument that the Atlanta Campaign, as it later came to be known, began when Generals Grant and Sherman discussed strategy during a train trip from Nashville to Cincinnati on 18 and 19 March 1864. Grant indicated he would take command of U.S. forces in Virginia with the objective of destroying Confederate forces in that state, principally the army commanded by General R.E. Lee, while Sherman should advance with his forces south from the Chattanooga area with the objective of destroying Confederate forces in Georgia, principally the army commanded by General J.E. Johnston.

For the remaining days of March and the month of April, Sherman would order a concentration around Chattanooga of U.S. forces from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia. Gathering supplies and planning for their subsequent movement was also critical. 

Around Dalton, Ga., Gen. Johnston had done much to restore the capabilities and morale of Confederate forces over the first four months of 1864. He, too, had to concentrate his forces and plan a strategy for the U.S. advance he knew would be coming once the spring rains abated and the roads dried enough to allow for movement of the combined 180,000 men and up to 100,000 horses and mules that the opposing forces would concentrate in northwest Georgia. 

On 7 May 1864, Sherman and a group of his subordinate generals stood on the slightly elevated ground in front of a doctor’s house and watched as the U.S. 4^th Army Corps turned southward toward Tunnel Hill and the U.S. 23^rd Army Corps marched east before turning south toward Dalton.

The movement of these troops is often cited as the beginning of the campaign, and a historical marker at the intersection of GA 2 and GA 209 is titled “Campaign for Atlanta Began Here.”

Many men would find their fates conjoined over the next four months.

Leonidas Polk and Peter Simonson, Pine Mountain

Leonidas Polk (left) was from North Carolina and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1827, but within six months, he resigned from the Army to study for the ministry. When the Civil War began, he was Episcopal bishop of Louisiana but approached his West Point friend Jefferson Davis and offered to serve the Confederate States army.

Davis made Polk a brigadier general. Polk proved to have an inclination to misunderstand orders or refuse to follow them and he had an uneven record on the battlefield.

By early May 1864, he was a lieutenant general leading Confederate forces in Mississippi and was ordered to bring three divisions to Georgia to reinforce Gen. Johnston. By 14 June 1864, he was commanding a corps in Johnston’s army, and his headquarters was at the Hardage house on the north side of Burnt Hickory Road a few miles from Kennesaw Mountain. A Georgia Historical Commission marker marks the site.

Gen. Johnston passed the house along with Lt. Gen. William Hardee on the way to inspect the position of one of Hardee’s divisions on Pine Mountain. Johnston invited Polk to come along. Once atop the mountain, the generals and some of their staffs stood near the position of a four-gun artillery battery and observed the U.S. Army lines to the north and west. 

Position of 5th Indiana where it fired at Confederates (Courtesy of GBA)

Riding along the U.S. Army position were Gen. Sherman and some of his subordinate generals.  Through field glasses, Sherman noticed the conspicuous group atop Pine Mountain and surmised that it included general officers trying to get a better perspective on the situation.

Sherman directed Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, commanding the 4^th Corps, to have cannon fire directed at the group. Howard turned to the commander of the artillery of his first division, Capt. Peter Simonson, to execute Sherman’s order. Nearby, Simonson found a familiar artillery unit, the 5^th Indiana Artillery Battery, which Simonson had formerly commanded. The firing commenced, and the third shell passed through Polk’s chest, killing him instantly. His successor, Alexander P. Stewart, proved to be a more successful corps commander.

Simonson himself would be killed two days later by a rifle shot while he was directing the placement of an artillery battery.

It was unusual for a captain to be acting chief of division artillery, and the comments made when he was killed reflected not only sorrow that his personality would be missed but also concern about replacing his military skills.  

A monument marking Polk’s death site (left) is on Pine Mountain, and a Cobb County historical marker relating to Simonson’s death is on the east side of Frank Kirk Road.  Despite the extensive development of Cobb County, which now has nearly 800,000 residents, three of the gun positions at the Polk death site are still discernible, as is the position of the 5^th Indiana Battery that fired the shots. 

Both sites are on private land, so they are in danger of being bulldozed away.

Edward Walthall and John Geary, Peachtree Creek

The 20 July 1864 Battle of Peachtree Creek in Atlanta brought Walthall and Geary together to oppose each other.

Edward Walthall (left) was a lawyer, not a professional soldier. When the Civil War began, he left his position as a district attorney and joined a Mississippi regiment as a first lieutenant. By July 1864, he was a major general commanding a Confederate division. He led that division at Peachtree Creek. His attack had initial success, collapsing the right flank of the U.S. division led by Maj. Gen. John Geary. 

He is most positively remembered for being better than his predecessor as division commander and for his later rearguard action, along with Forrest, that prevented the destruction of the Army of Tennessee during Hood's retreat from Nashville in December 1864.

Geary was also not a professional soldier but a surveyor and railroad builder. He was wounded five times while serving as a volunteer officer in the Mexican War but returned to civilian life until he was appointed postmaster of San Francisco in 1849. He was elected mayor of San Francisco in 1850 and then appointed territorial governor of Kansas in 1856. He returned to his home state of Pennsylvania and remarried after his first wife died.

He joined the volunteer army when the Civil War began and fought in several battles in the Eastern Theater, including Gettysburg, before his division was transferred west in September 1863.

Peachtree Creek map locates Walthall and Geary on the left (Courtesy of GBA)

On 20 July 1864, Geary rallied his men and ultimately repulsed Walthall’s attack at Peachtree Creek. When U.S. forces captured Atlanta on 2 September 1864, Sherman logically appointed the former mayor and territorial governor as military administrator of the city. He would serve the same role in Savannah when that city was occupied by U.S. forces in December 1864. 

His height (6 feet, 6 inches) and his proficiency at administration -- rather than his tactical or leadership skills -- were the features most used to describe his Civil War performance.

After the war, Walthall returned to the practice of law in Mississippi until appointed in 1885 to the U.S. Senate, where he served until his death in 1898. Most people living in the Collier Hills section of Atlanta would not be able to explain why a road in their neighborhood is named Walthall Drive. 

Geary returned to Pennsylvania and served as governor from 1867 to 1873. In February 1873, less than a month after leaving office, he died of a heart attack while preparing breakfast for his infant son. 

Sul Ross and John Croxton, Brown’s Mill 

Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross (left) was born in 1838 in Iowa but raised in Texas, a territory when his family moved there in 1839, and a state by 1845. He attended Baylor University and then Wesleyan University in Alabama but fought Comanches during the summer breaks, being badly wounded in 1858. In the summer of 1860, he again fought Comanches while serving with the Texas Rangers.

When the Civil War came, Ross enlisted in the Confederate army as a private but was soon made an officer. He distinguished himself as a cavalry officer in several battles in the Western Theater. By July 1863, a brigade was created specifically for Ross to lead as a brigadier general, though he suffered recurring attacks of fever and chills every three days from September 1863 to March 1864 due to malaria.

He was a combative sort, which is a desirable trait for a cavalry commander, but sometimes it got in the way of mission success.

He was still leading the brigade when it was transferred along with Polk’s infantry to northwest Georgia in May 1864, and it endured 86 engagements with U.S. forces over the next four months. At the cavalry Battle of Brown’s Mill on 30 July 1864, Ross was briefly captured but was recovered by Confederate forces within minutes. His brigade led Hood’s forces into Tennessee in November 1864. By the time Ross was granted a furlough in March 1865, he had participated in 135 combat actions. 

After the war, Ross prospered as a farmer and rancher and fathered eight children over the next 17 years. In 1873, Ross became a county sheriff.  In 1875, he served for over two months at a state constitutional convention and then served as a state senator 1880-1882. He was governor of Texas 1887-1891, declining to run for a third two-year term. He was a very successful president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University) from 1891 until his death in 1898. Sul Ross State University is named in his honor.

Bench at Brown's Mill battlefield park (Picket photo)

John Croxton was born in 1837 and raised in Kentucky by a slave-holding family, from which he became estranged because of his ardent abolitionism. He graduated from Yale University and practiced law until being commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the 4^th Kentucky U.S. Infantry in October 1861. He commanded infantry units at the battles of Perryville and Chickamauga. 

His regiment was reorganized in February 1864 as mounted infantry, and it served in a cavalry brigade during the Atlanta Campaign, skirmishing frequently from May through July when the Battle of Brown’s Mill in Coweta County brought it face to face with Sul Ross’s Confederate brigade.

Croxton’s regiment lost heavily at Brown’s Mill (a Confederate victory). Croxton, along with every other officer serving under McCook at Brown's Mill, lost a large part of his command.  He had already performed well enough before then to be promoted to brigadier general once he finished his two-week trek on foot back to Federal lines. 

(Civil War Picket photo)

He led a brigade opposing Hood’s invasion of Tennessee in late 1864, where he again faced Ross’s cavalry at the 15 December 1864 Battle of Nashville and clashed with Confederate cavalry almost daily during Hood’s retreat.

In late March 1865, Croxton led a brigade during Wilson’s raid across Alabama into Georgia.  Maj. Gen. James Wilson detached Croxton’s brigade to operate independently against the Confederate supply depot and military academy at Tuscaloosa, and Croxton burned not only military stores but also several buildings of the University of Alabama before defeating a Confederate cavalry force near Talladega on 23 April 1865. He finally rejoined Wilson in Macon, Ga., after operating independently for almost a month.

After the Confederate surrenders, Croxton served as military governor of southwest Georgia until December 1865, when he returned to Kentucky to practice law. In 1872, President Grant appointed Croxton as U.S. minister to Bolivia. Croxton died there from tuberculosis in 1874.

The Atlanta Campaign brought together Ross and Croxton, two men who had rich lives outside their time as soldiers.

Walter Gresham and Randall Gibson
Bald (Leggett’s) Hill, Battle of Atlanta 

Walter Q. Gresham (left) was from Indiana and a conservative Democrat who opposed slavery. He practiced law starting in 1854. When the war came, he sought a commission in the volunteer army but was rebuffed by the governor because of a political disagreement. Instead, he enlisted in the army and by March 1862 was a colonel commanding an infantry regiment that he then led at Corinth and through the Vicksburg Campaign.

By the time the 17^th Corps in which he served arrived in Georgia in June 1864, he was leading a division as a 32-year-old brigadier general. He didn't have that long to demonstrate his capabilities and his command didn’t see heavy action until July. On 20 July 1864, as his division approached Atlanta after passing through Decatur, he was shot in the knee near the Bald Hill, now the site of the Moreland Avenue interchange with I-20, a disabling wound that left him with a permanent limp.

Like Gibson, Ross, Walthall and Croxton, his performance during the Atlanta Campaign was competent.

Gresham returned to the practice of law until 1869, when President Grant appointed him to the U.S. District Court, where he served until April 1883, when President Arthur appointed him postmaster general.  He next served as secretary of the treasury for two months until President Arthur appointed him to the U.S. Circuit Court in October 1884. President Cleveland selected Gresham to be Secretary of State in March 1893, and he died in that office in 1895.

Randall L. Gibson was raised in Louisiana. His great-great-grandfather was a free man of color who married a white woman, though this fact was hidden from public view. Gibson went north for education and graduated from Yale University in 1853. He became a lawyer, served as U.S. attaché in Madrid, and raised sugar cane in Louisiana. When the war began, he became captain of a Louisiana artillery battery until being appointed colonel of an infantry regiment. He led the regiment at Shiloh, Perryville and Stones River, serving several times as acting brigade commander, as he did again at Chickamauga and Chattanooga.

Gibson's brigade was not sent forward to exploit the 22 July 1864
Confederate assault, a central focus of the Atlanta Cyclorama. (Library of Congress)

When the Atlanta Campaign began, he had his own brigade as a 31-year-old brigadier general. On 22 July 1864, despite being in support of the Confederate attack a mile north of the Bald Hill, an action that is the central focus of the Atlanta Cyclorama, Gibson’s brigade was not ordered to exploit the breach.

Gibson and his brigade participated in Hood’s invasion of Tennessee in late 1864, and Gibson ended the war defending Mobile, Alabama.  He returned to Louisiana, practicing law and trying to raise sugar cane in the absence of slave labor. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives 1875-1883 and the U.S. Senate 1883-1892, also serving as a regent of the Smithsonian Institution and president of the board of administrators of Tulane University. Like Gresham, he died in office.

Though their units never fought each other directly, Gresham and Gibson exemplify the many men in their early 30s who became generals by the third year of the war, then went back to their civilian occupations and lives of public service.           

Epilogue

Except for Capt. Simonson, the above biographies focus on generals; but what of the 180,000 or so other soldiers who participated in the Atlanta Campaign? In round numbers, about 8,000 were killed in action, 42,000 were wounded, and 18,000 were captured or reported missing. 

Many of the wounded survived, though some with permanent disabilities, and others survived prison camps. Many of those not killed in action would die of disease, the war’s greatest killer, and others would live with the after effects of malaria, typhoid, dysentery, measles, and other diseases they caught while serving.

Most would go home and try to reconstruct their lives, but they would all be able to say that they had been in the great Civil War that tested whether this nation would long endure. They could also say that they participated in the campaign that likely determined the outcome of that war, because the fall of Atlanta in September 1864 significantly bolstered Lincoln’s chances for reelection, and it was clear that a Lincoln administration would accept nothing less than victory in the fight for a reunited nation that was free of slavery.

Peachtree Creek 2: Charlie Crawford's expert overview and tour of battle sites

C. Crawford

Earlier this week, we had a post about my visit to the site of the Battle of Peachtree Creek in north Atlanta. It gave very general information and had some photos. I asked Charlie Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association, for his thoughts on the battle’s significance and places to see. By permission, the Picket offers here his wonderful and detail-rich tour overview, along with maps showing the battle movements and wartime and current roads in Buckhead. The post starts with his thoughts on the battle and how a sound plan ultimately went wrong for Gen. John Bell Hood, his subordinates and Confederate troops on July 20, 1864.

CRAWFORD’S OVERVIEW OF BATTLE:

Overview of troops, roads and other Atlanta fixtures. Click to enlarge (GBA)

The plan was to have seven Confederate divisions (French, Walthall, Loring, Maney, Walker, Cleburne, Bate) attack four Union divisions (Williams, Geary, Ward, Newton), but the plaque wording (at Tanyard Creek Park) makes it appear that this was another charge by Confederates who knew they would be outnumbered from the get-go.

It was the Confederates’ fault that they didn’t get the three missing brigades from Stewart’s Corps (one each from French’s, Walthall’s, and Loring’s divisions) into position in time.  Likewise, Maney’s division didn’t fight well, Cleburne’s division was held back to exploit the hoped-for breakthrough, and Bate’s division got lost in the swampy ground around Clear Creek.

John Bell Hood

Consequently, the participating brigades form Walthall’s and Loring’s divisions and the entirety of Walker’s division did almost all the fighting.  In that sense, the Confederates were outnumbered, but it wasn’t by design.

Hood was trying to bring superior numbers to bear (i.e., his plan was sound), but coordination and execution of the plan were poor. Certainly, Hood is ultimately responsible, but he wasn’t well-served by his subordinate commanders (particularly Bate and Maney, and partly Hardee).  So this wasn’t the oft-portrayed circumstance of the outnumbered, ill-clad, starving, brave Southern boys charging the immigrant, well-supplied, overwhelming Yankee hosts.

The Confederates came close to breaking the Federal line and achieving at least part of their objective, though not at all in the manner in which they hoped.

CRAWFORD’S TOUR

Confederate assault. Click to enlarge (GBA)

Normally, I start at the north end of West Peachtree St.  The Land Lot 104 marker at the crest of the hill (on WSB property) refers to the Confederate outer line that ran through the site, and I stop at the small parking lot (just above where the MARTA tracks go underground) and explain the Confederate position on the morning of 20 July 1864 and the intended advance northward.

I then drive north on Peachtree Street and turn east on Palisades (another marker is there) to talk about Bate's inability to advance up the Clear Creek Valley.  I follow Palisades to Huntington and Wakefield, showing how low the ground is there and explaining how swampy it was at the time.  I turn left on Brighton to show the high ground occupied by Bradley's brigade as they repulsed the Confederates.

I emerge from Brighton at Peachtree Road (two more markers) and show the 1944 monument on the grounds of Piedmont Hospital, turn south on Peachtree to show the misplaced stone dedicated to Howell's battery, and continue to a right (west) on 28th Street, the old Montgomery Ferry Road, pausing at the marker that refers to Stevens' mortal wounding.  Continuing west on 28th, I turn north on Ardmore Road, passing Ardmore park on the left, with its one correct marker (Featherston's brigade) and two relocated (and now misleading) markers to Wood's and Coburn's brigades

George Barnard image of grave headboards (LOC)

I go north on Ardmore to a left on Collier (Mississippi brigade marker at corner), point to the location of Barnard's photo of the grave headboards, then turn into the parking lot at Tanyard Creek Park. The plaques have a wealth of information but a decidedly Confederate viewpoint (especially regarding the size of opposing forces).  If I have enough time, I walk the group south through the park, talking about the capture of the 33rd New Jersey flag (marker on east side of Walthall Drive) and the advance of Scott's brigade across this ground.  We walk under the railroad trestle, through Ardmore park (past the three markers again), north on Ardmore Road, cross Collier to pause at the site of the Barnard photo, then north on Dellwood to a left on Redland, where the clash was intense as Ward's division advanced to fill the gap in the Federal line (marker on Collier Road).  At the bottom of the hill is about where Collier's Mill stood, and we turn south along the creek to Harrison's brigade marker at the intersection with Collier. Scott's brigade marker is across Collier Road.

Next, it's west along Collier, then north on Overbrook to Northside to explain how Geary's line was bent back by Walthall. Rather than a dangerous (heavy traffic) walk along Northside, I normally head back to the bus or car to leave the Tanyard Creek parking lot and go west on Collier (past a marker for Geary's division) to north on Northside and turn right into the Bitsy Grant tennis center. The marker to Williams' division has always been at the corner (on the back slope of a green on Bobby Jones golf course), but three other markers have recently been relocated there (and are consequently misleading): one (O'Neal's brigade at the ravine) was at the point where the ravine crossed Northside; two (Geary's refused line and O'Neal's brigade) were at the intersection of Northside Drive and Collier Road. The markers were relocated because they were difficult to reach on foot.  At least now, there's a better chance that they'll be read as a group.

Turn around at the tennis center and go back south on Northside Drive a short distance to a right on Norfleet Road to point out the still existing ravine on the south side and the high ground (Williams' position) on the north side. Following Norfleet to Howell Mill, I may mention the marker farther north on Howell Mill that indicates the right of the 20^th corps. Then I turn left on Howell Mill and stop at the shopping center on the right to dismount and talk about the Preston marker that faces on Howell Mill. I usually end the tour there.

There are a few other markers that could be seen, but the Preston story is evocative for many and is a neat way to summarize what Hood was trying to accomplish and all the ways in which he failed, mostly through bad luck, bad coordination among his subordinates and a competent opponent rather than bad planning.

'To hell with Sherman': Lecture links Georgia Tech campus and a row of Civil War fortifications

Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson works by day in a building above where Confederate trenches once ran on the northern outskirts of Atlanta.

Georgia Tech photo

At night, he sleeps in the President’s House, not two miles due north, scene of the Federal siege line.

The distance between, in the summer of 1864, was a no man’s land – home to rifle pits and picket posts – that now is the heart of the Georgia Tech campus.

“There were people killed” between the main lines, said Charlie Crawford, a 1971 Tech mathematics alum and president of the Georgia Battlefields Association, a preservation group. Usually, one or two were killed at a time by potshots or stray rounds

“A record might read, ‘on the 21^st we lost Private Jones to picket duty,’” said Crawford.

George Barnard photo of Ponder House (Library of Congress)

Modern view, looking east (Charlie Crawford)

For six weeks, Rebels held their line within sight of the Federals’ 20^th Corps while elsewhere generals Joseph E. Johnston and John Bell Hood attempted to parry flanking movements initiated by their Union counterpart, William Tecumseh Sherman.

Crawford, who went on to an Air Force career and retired as a colonel, will detail what happened on Georgia Tech’s land at a Jan. 24 lecture on campus. He also will cover the importance of the Atlanta Campaign to the re-election campaign of President Abraham Lincoln.

His talk is being held in conjunction with “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War,” a traveling exhibit on display at the campus through Feb. 6.

Georgia Tech photo

The Georgia Institute of Technology was founded in 1885, and it opened its doors to students in 1888. The research university, built to support the industrialization of the South during Reconstruction, has since garnered an international reputation.

Crawford’s reference points will include modern-day views of Confederate fortification scenes taken by Federal official photographer George Barnard shortly after the fall of Atlanta. Those photographs are part of the Library of Congress’ collection.

“It wasn’t anything but a smattering of houses,” Crawford said of it the land. It wasn’t even a suburb.” North Avenue, the main east-west thoroughfare on the south end of campus, did not exist.

While there are almost no traces left of what was hurriedly erected by soldiers, the Georgia Battlefields Association wants to impart history and encourage listeners to be preservation-minded. “We all come from somewhere,” said Crawford. “If you can tell the story in relatable terms…”

Case in point: Fans of the Yellow Jackets football team might be interested in knowing that the east-west Confederate line ran through what is now the south end of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field, right next to the Downtown Connector.

The original defensive line, built July-October 1863, was closer to the city and downtown, with its apex near the current Fox Theatre. Atlanta was vulnerable.

Ponder House (Library of Congress)

“They (defenders) began to realize artillery fire was getting longer and had higher range,” said Crawford.

Slaves and other workers, in July 1864, furiously threw up more defenses, to the north and west of the old line, as Sherman’s troops closed in. “When the Confederates built the line they cut down almost all of the woods” that covered the current campus, according to Crawford. Lt. Gen. Alexander Stewart took command of the forces.

The Confederates used letters, X, Y and Z, to name their forts in the area. Fort Z was near the current administration building, known for the familiar Tech Tower. Fort Y rests below the campus student center or a nearby parking deck.

The Southern line also ran near what is now the landmark restaurant The Varsity, just east of campus.

The Federal lines generally ran across what is now the north end of the campus and private property. They held troops from the Northeast, including New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Barnard’s most-famous photo is of the shell-pocked Ponder House, which he referred to as the Potter House. It was owned by a wealthy land and slave owner and reportedly was used by Confederate infantry.

The residence, east of Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts (Fort X), was an inviting target for Union artillerymen.

Archaeological map includes Confederate, Union lines (click to enlarge)

“The Ponder House got hit by shells a lot,” said Crawford. “Part of it was because it was a big white building. It was the most significant landmark for miles around.” The heavily damaged home was razed after the battle.

Although Confederates had attacked three times during the campaign, the Federal siege lines on the Tech property weren’t built with such an assault in mind.

“The assumption was they weren’t going to have to defend their trenches. They made them better each night,” Crawford said.

Sherman determined he would not attack the city’s prodigious fortifications head-on, realizing it would be a waste of manpower. He had already bloodied Hood at Peachtree Creek, the Battle of Atlanta and at Ezra Church.

Rather, Sherman concentrated on extending lines, cavalry raids and seizing railroads in his eventually successful effort to cut off Atlanta. Hood was forced to leave after Jonesboro, south of Atlanta, fell.

The weary Rebels left their defensive posts on the Tech campus when the army evacuated Atlanta on Sept. 1 and Sept. 2, 1864.

Eventually, the city grew north, enveloping the Tech campus. The world headquarters of Coca-Cola is a stone’s throw from where Confederate trenches, chevaux de fries and forts once stood.

Students and visitors alike must employ a vivid imagination when conjuring images of the campus during its Civil War days.

“Parking lots, decks and buildings tend to smooth stuff out,” said Crawford.  

The preservationist remembers his student days at Georgia Tech.

“It’s fascinating to think of walking to class every day and sitting (in class) on top of a trench.” 

• More details on lecture, including time and location

• “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War"

• Georgia Battlefields Association