Little evidence of the Battle of Atlanta remains. The Cyclorama painting, markers and a vivid imagination are a good start. Our experts weigh in on their must-sees

Sign off Memorial Drive, scene from the Cyclorama, McPherson monument and 1964 state map

People often lament Atlanta paved over its Civil War battlefields. But there are some vestiges of the fighting, and you can go to a couple museums and gaze at dozens of roadside markers to get a sense of what happened there.

Tuesday is the anniversary of the July 22, 1864, Battle of Atlanta, which led to the fall of the Southern city weeks later and likely assured the re-election of President Abraham Lincoln. 

I asked area historians, tour guides and preservationists to suggest places the interested can go to learn more about the battle and its importance. Among the suggested stops are markers where Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson and Confederate Gen. William H.T. Walker, a grizzled Confederate veteran nicknamed “Shot Pouch," were killed in action that day.

The following responses have been edited for context and brevity. A few sections have material from previous Civil War Picket posts. 

CHARLIE CRAWFORD, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association

Obviously, start at the Cyclorama at the Atlanta History Center. Spend at least half a day studying the painting and all the associated displays, including maps at the “War in Our Backyards” kiosk on the main floor, not far from the locomotive Texas display. It would help if you have already read related books by Albert Castel, Steve Davis, Earl Hess and Bill Scaife.

Go thereafter to the Carter Center bus parking lot and note three historical markers there, including the one for the Augustus Hurt House, which was Sherman’s HQ during the battle. 

View toward Stone Mountain in Cyclorama, which shows July 22, 1864; Decatur Road on right (Atlanta History Center)

Next, drive to Inman Park MARTA Station parking lot, start eastward on foot along DeKalb Avenue and note the Georgia historical markers, starting with the Pope House. Continue eastward on foot along DeKalb Avenue and turn north onto DeGress Avenue, which has three more markers, including a marker for the Troup Hurt House that you saw in the Cyclorama painting and a marker for the DeGress battery. 

The Old Decatur Road was more serpentine than DeKalb Avenue is now. It curved south of the railroad, then back north in the vicinity of the Confederate breakthrough. You can see this in the diorama at the base of the painting at AHC.

Return to you vehicle and drive eastward on Glenwood Ave SE and turn left (north) immediately past the I-20 interchange onto Wilkinson Drive. In 150 yards, turn left into the parking area for DeKalb Memorial Park. Walk back south to Glenwood Avenue. Note the Walker monument (upright cannon), its associated marker, and the marker across Glenwood Avenue for Terry’s Mill Pond. (Picket photo of Walker stone)

When done, walk back to your car and turn left (north) out of the parking lot until you hit Memorial Drive. Turn left (west) on Memorial Drive then take the first right onto Clay Street. Stop the car almost immediately and note the “Battle of Atlanta Began Here” marker on the west side of the street.

Safely find a way to turn around and head south, then make a right (west) on Memorial Drive. Take the second left (south) onto Maynard Terrace, and immediately after passing the I-20 interchange, turn right (west) onto McPherson Avenue. Park when you see the McPherson monument (upright cannon) on your left. Read the associated markers there. 

Not a comprehensive tour, but should be enough to prompt further research among the uninitiated.

Go to Georgia Historical Society’s marker page and read the texts ahead of time by searching DeKalb County and Fulton County markers.

JIM OGDEN, historian at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

Charlie is certainly the expert here, so I would second his recommendations and add only a couple of others.  

While not 100% historically accurate, the visual of the Cyclorama is so valuable that going there or starting there is really important. It would also be really valuable to have a printed copy of it with you while you do the walk along DeKalb Avenue, particularly for when you're along DeGress or if you maybe even walk just a bit farther east on DeKalb and then turn around and look back west, holding that portion of the Cyclorama up in front of you. 

It's a window back in time through all the 21st and 20^th century around you.  I can't remember if AHC is selling any sort of printed reproduction of it but there is the old Kurtz 30 p. booklet of it that probably can be found on the used market.

Marker at Springvale Park mentions remnant of ravine (David Seibert/HMbd.org)

This might be too obvious, but the only other thing I might note is that the many railroad tracks today on the south side of DeKalb are the modern version of the one track that is another one of the important landmarks in the Cyclorama.

For someone who might be up for a bit more of a walk, particularly if they want to do it a bit more from the perspective of the Confederate attack in the painting, would be to walk farther west on DeKalb, at least to Waverly Way, and then north to Springvale Park to see the remains of the low ground the Confederates crossed north of the railroad as they attacked east and the markers there. (Springvale Park has one of the few monuments to the battle. It has a marker as well, indicating that Manigault’s Confederate brigade reformed in the low ground there before making their final dash).

One could even go to Oakland Cemetery to the rise from which Hood watched the battle.  

Atlanta may have seemingly swallowed the July 22 battlefield, but there are still faint traces of that history to be found on the ground.

Artillery Capt. Francis DeGress trails Maj. Gen. Logan in Cyclorama scene (AHC)

PERRY BENNETT, local historian and tour guide

Perry Bennett, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, will be giving a free tour at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The historian said the tour will start at a historical marker on the grounds of Alonzo A. Crim Open Campus High School, 256 Clifton Road SE. It is being given to the Longstreet Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans but anyone can attend. 

“I cover both sides but am focused upon when the battle began on this particular tour and what went well and what did not,” he said.

Bennett mentions markers where Bate’s Confederate division deployed, where two of his brigades were blocked during their attack and another sign indicating where Walker’s division attacked the same hill from Terry’s Mill pond. 

The tour will also make stops at the sites of McPherson’s and Walker’s killings.

Those interested can contact Bennett at lperrybennettjr@gmail.com

CHAD CARLSON, East Atlanta historian and Civil War photo collector

Chad Carlson, a historian with the Georgia Department of Transportation, suggests a stop in East Atlanta Village, at the intersection of Glenwood and Flat Shoals roads. The agency put up a Battle of Atlanta replica marker and interpretive panel in 2013 to replace a 1930s version that was removed in the 1970s. (Read about that here).

Carlson said he appreciates the simplicity of the marker, which describes military units and troops movements. It describes Confederate troops pushing Federal units back to Leggett’s Hill on July 22.

Marker about troop movements in East Atlanta (Georgia DOT)

GDOT made an exact replica but used a cheaper metal material, I think aluminum, instead of bronze, so (there is) less likelihood of it getting stolen.”

For years, local historians, Civil War buffs and the Battle of Atlanta Commemoration Organization (B*ATL) have worked to educate residents and visitors to the rich Civil War history of East Atlanta, Kirkwood and other Atlanta neighborhoods.

Huzzah! A busy and scary Atlanta road is finally being repaved. It played a prominent part in 1864 Battle of Atlanta, is depicted in Cyclorama

A stretch of potholes, a view of Decatur Road in Cyclorama (Picket, AHC photos)

For many in the Atlanta area, the only thing as exciting as the first-place Braves ballclub is the current resurfacing of a vital road connecting the city and nearby Decatur, Ga.

Commuters and residents in the Inman Park and Candler Park and other neighborhoods have long bemoaned the potholes, reversible lanes and too-scary-for-bicyclists conditions. Maintenance was never a word associated with DeKalb Avenue.

“A drag strip in a warzone,” the website Urbanize Atlanta observed, perhaps ironically, in a reference to car crashes and mishaps.

War zone indeed. Motorists who zip along the road might notice a half dozen or more historic markers describing what happened during the Battle of Atlanta in 1864.

Project overlaid on 1964 DOT map showing Battle of Atlanta (rendering W.D. Gast)

The avenue back then was called Decatur Road, and it’s depicted in the Atlanta Cyclorama painting and has a reference in “Gone with the Wind.”

The Atlanta project -- which includes bike and turn lanes and intersection improvements -- stretches from Jackson Street near downtown Atlanta to Ridgecrest Road, several miles to the east. The road was in the thick of things before, during and after the battle.

The avenue is bordered by the CSX (formerly Georgia Railroad) and MARTA lines on one side, and residential neighborhoods and scattered businesses on the other.

Site of artist tower at left looking at center of paintingk Atlanta skyline behind (Courtesy AHC)

(Full disclosure: I have traveled DeKalb Avenue for years to work in downtown Atlanta and am very aware of the potholes).

Decatur Road featured prominently in the July 22, 1864, battle, says Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association. Of course, it was a dirt road during the Civil War, and had it owns share of potholes and ruts. Commanders used the road to carry men, materiel and artillery.

The view toward Stone Mountain in Cyclorama; Decatur Road to right (Courtesy AHC)

The circular Cyclorama shows the road stretching to Atlanta and Decatur. It was a mere block from the Troup Hurt House, the focal point of the painting depicting a brief Confederate breakthrough.

“It was also a main approach route for the Army of the Tennessee prior to the battle,” says Crawford, referring to a large Federal unit under the command of Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, who moved his troops from Decatur toward advancing Confederates.

Charlie Crawford drew red lines showing road in Cyclorama

“As the Cyclorama illustrates, it wasn’t nearly as straight as it is now, curving to the south of the railroad and then curving back north at certain spots, including just east of the Confederate breakthrough,” he says.

Mary-Elizabeth Ellard, GBA secretary and trustee, operates a veterinary practice along DeKalb Avenue. “Many people forget that they live/work/play on a battlefield,” she says.

German artists who created the Cyclorama in 1886 erected a tower on DeKalb Avenue near the current Inman Park MARTA station.

To obtain perspective, they were able to see the road, the railroad and the site of a former Confederate iron rolling mill.

The Troup Hurt House was burned a day or two after the battle and the artists did not know its precise location 22 years later, said Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator for the Atlanta History Center, which houses the giant painting. The home was located on what is now Degress Avenue.

(The sketch at left, courtesy of the AHC, shows a similar tower in Chattanooga, Tenn.)

I turned this week to the Atlanta Campaign History and Discussion Group Facebook page for feedback on the road’s Civil War history.

Admin Brad Butkovich mentioned fighting in what is now called the nearby Little Five Points neighborhood and the various markers that indicated troop positions and action.

“Many markers have been moved as roads and intersections have expanded and changed over the years,” one Facebook reader says.

Much of the Battle of Atlanta occurred along and near the north-south Moreland Avenue, which cuts under DeKalb Avenue and through Little Five Points. (Moreland Avenue is depicted in a 1964 map above that has an overlay of the repaving project.)

MARTA rail line (left) along DeKalb Avenue (Picket photo)

Georgia State University details the histories of streets during the Battle of Atlanta. Of Moreland Avenue, its website says:

“While this route may be a high-traffic residential road today, in 1864 it was little more than undeveloped farmland -- unremarkable in every way except its role as the dividing line between Fulton and DeKalb counties. However, as Sherman’s Federal armies made their way towards Atlanta, this undistinguished strip of land would become the site of some of the fiercest fighting experienced by participants of the Atlanta Campaign in the American Civil War.” 

A military map in the Library of Congress collection (above, click to enlarge) clearly shows Decatur Road and the Georgia Railroad, troop positions and a spot labeled “Rebel Barracks.”

The road was mentioned during the 1939 film “Gone with the Wind.” The fictional Frank Kennedy, a business owner and Klansman, took part in a raid on a shantytown, ostensibly as revenge for an attack on Scarlett O’Hara.

O’Hara asks Rhett Butler about the whereabouts of her second husband.

“He’s lying out on the Decatur Road,” Butler replies. “Shot through the head. He’s dead.” 

The $5.4 million project aims to make everyone safer, especially with the formal end of reversible lanes. I drove the stretch this week and was heartened to see much of it already paved. Work is expected to be completed in August.

Road work near old textile mill in Cabbagetown area (Picket photo)

Troup Hurt House is focal point of the Cyclorama (Picket photo)