Old number 9: Vandals and thieves tried to diminish this Civil War cannon. The weathered survivor, displayed for a decade at a Georgia battlefield, will be a star artifact at an upcoming Atlanta History Center exhibit

Key's battery howitzer at Pickett's Mill (Picket photo), number 9 on top of dented muzzle (Georgia State Parks), gun after it was recovered in Spalding County, Ga. in 2010, and artillery Capt. Thomas Key (Wikipedia); click to enlarge images

A dinged-up 12-pounder howitzer that survived numerous battles, years of vandalism and theft from a city park will be returned next month from a Georgia battlefield to the Atlanta History Center, where it will be featured in a new exhibition telling a bigger story about the Civil War.

The gun, manufactured in Boston in 1851 for the Arkansas Military Institute, has been on loan for nearly 10 years to Pickett’s Mill Battlefield State Historic Site northwest of Atlanta. It’s possible it was used to mow down Federal attackers who futilely charged through a ravine toward Confederates waiting for them in strength.

“Captain Key's howitzer is one of the most important artifacts /stories we have going into the new exhibit,” Gordon Jones, senior military and historian at the AHC, wrote the Picket in a recent email. “It'll be a cornerstone of the Atlanta Campaign area, right up there with the U.S. Army wagon, Confederate flag that flew over Atlanta, Cleburne sword, plus more new acquisitions.”

Jones was referring to Confederate Capt. Thomas Key, whose Arkansas artillery battery served in the division of legendary Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne during the Atlanta Campaign.

Key's Battery flag (Wikipedia

The AHC in 2016 lent the gun to the state park as it prepared to move the “Battle of Atlanta” cyclorama painting from the city’s Grant Park to the center’s facilities in the Buckhead neighborhood (The gun, below, during its move from the AHC to Pickett's Mill).

For the AHC and history aficionados, the audacious Key and his four-gun battery are remembered for being in the thick of things in numerous 1864 Atlanta Campaign battles – Dalton, Pickett’s Mill, Peachtree Creek and Jonesboro, among others..

Yet this bronze gun has a postwar history as interesting as its service during the war. It had several postwar homes and was vandalized while displayed outside in Grant Park. Indignities included a broken cascabel, hacksaw marks and scores of indentations.

The howitzer was subsequently stolen, turning up in a county south of Atlanta.

The AHC gained custody of the weapon and had it refurbished and placed on a carriage that was built in 1936.

Thomas Bailey, who makes and restores carriages and other artillery components, recalls working on the Key howitzer, which has an artillery shell jammed into its 780-pound barrel.

“It always stood out to me how beat up it was,” said the owner of Historical Ordnance Works in Woodstock, Ga. “Somebody tried breaking it up for scrap. There were saw marks on the trunnion.” He estimates the barrel had about 60 marks from a sledgehammer.

So you can say this gun is a survivor -- from the horrors of war and the ravages of vandals.

Key and his men always in the thick of things

The Key battery howitzer was one of two cast by Cyrus Alger & Co. for the Arkansas Military Institute. The number 9 is stamped on its muzzle face and the barrel is marked with an eagle atop a globe.

At Chickamauga, in September 1863, his superiors lauded Key for his gallantry and effectiveness, saying that in the fiercest part of the struggle he ran his battery by hand to within 60 yards of the enemy's lines.

Key and his cannons played a large part in the Confederate victory at Pickett’s Mill on May 27, 1864. Cleburne ordered Key to place two guns to the right oblique to enfilade the ravine. 

It’s uncertain whether number 9 was one of those two, but it certainly was among the four battery guns there.

Federal troops under Brig. Gen. William Hazen charged uphill in their attempt to take the top of a ridge. Key’s howitzers were ready for them. The battery fired about 182 rounds of spherical case and canister in two hours.

The Federal army suffered about 1,600 casualties at the battle, compared to 500 for the South. (At right, volunteer Michael Hitt at Pickett's Mill ravine in 2023, Picket photo)

On July 25, 1864, Key’s Battery was issued Napoleons captured from the Federals during the Battle of Atlanta and number 9 was sent to the Macon Arsenal. The Napoleons were considered a step up.

In his postwar book, Key wrote he regretted parting with number 9, which had been with his men at Perryville, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church,  Peachtree Creek and other battles.

“So it cannot be thought strange that I regret having separated from my command a gun that has been my companion under such trying and bloody circumstances.”

The howitzer made a lot of stops after the war

A 2016 newsletter produced by the Georgia Battlefields Association tells what happened to number 9 after the war:

At war’s end, the gun became property of the U.S. Army and was sent to the Washington Arsenal.

In 1880, upon a request on behalf of the state militia, number 9 was one of four guns (including two originally belonging to the Georgia Military Institute) sent to Rome, Ga. In 1887, Atlanta requested four obsolete guns for display in Fort Walker in Grant Park; the Rome guns were selected. (Fort Walker is not far from the old Cyclorama building).

“Over the years, the gun was vandalized: initials scratched, dented, pieces broken off, overturned, etc.,” according to the GBA newsletter, authored by Charlie Crawford, who then served as GBA president.

Michael Hitt, a volunteer historian at Pickett’s Mill and Civil War researcher, provided the Picket two vintage post cards (below) showing the gun when it was at Fort Walker.

In one photograph, the barrel lies on the ground and the left cheek of the gun carriage is heavily damaged.

“Maybe a tree or part of one fell on it,” Hitt said. “The other image shows it remounted, with a big dent on the muzzle, at an 11 o'clock position.”

Something unexpected found at residence

In the 1980s, Hitt – then a suburban Atlanta police officer -- restored three artillery pieces languishing at Fort Walker, part of the South’s defensive works in Atlanta. But vandals continued to damage the guns.

“There’s a lot of history connected with that fort,” Hitt, lamenting the lack of city protection, told The Atlanta Journal in 1984 (article below). “It’s like they abandoned it.”

Things somehow got worse.

“In 1985, all the guns were removed from Fort Walker,” according to the GBA. “Number 9 was removed from its carriage and displayed on a Grant Park monument, from which it was stolen in summer 1993.”

In February 2010, a tip about stolen goods led sheriff’s deputies to a Spalding County house, where they found stolen items, including a crate with a damaged cannon barrel inside. The whole affair was covered by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Hitt at that time identified the gun as number 9 and said it was part of the Helena Artillery, also known as Key’s Battery. It was part of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

While a small debate ensued on whether the gun belonged to Georgia, Arkansas or the U.S. Army, the gun eventually was reclaimed by Atlanta. According to the GBA newsletter, it sat in a crate in the foyer of the old Cyclorama building for a few years.

In 2014, the AHC struck a deal with the city to restore and relocate the giant painting, locomotive Texas and other artifacts in the Cyclorama building to a new wing in Buckhead. That meant the howitzer would move, too.

What a long strange trip it's been for gun

After it was cleaned up, the Key howitzer was shown off in the visitor center at Pickett’s Mill, which is in Paulding County, just northwest of Atlanta.

John Nash, head of the Friends of Pickett’s Mill Battlefield, recalls taking his cannon trailer to the AHC to take the gun and carriage to Pickett’s Mill. The carriage was among those built by Works Progress Administration (WPA) employees in the 1930s when the guns were at Fort Walker.

Now the gun is heading to Buckhead. (Editor's note: I learned about the upcoming move from a Facebook post on The Atlanta Campaign History and Discussion Group.)

The Atlanta History Center in May closed its longtime Civil War exhibit, “Turning Point,” to make way for two new galleries that will feature breathtaking artifacts and a broader discussion of issues that engage the republic to this day: our belief systems, victory, defeat, reconciliation and the evolving meaning of freedom.

Museum officials said they will announce the confirmed name of the new Civil War era exhibition and an opening date in the next week or so.

AHC CEO Sheffield Hale with Union 20th Corps wagon that traveled near what is now the AHC (Picket photo)

Some people on social media had expressed worry the gun would go back into storage at the AHC. Or they advocate it should stay at Pickett's Mill.

Josh Headlee, curator and historic preservation specialist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which oversees state parks, said the weapon’s association with the battle made it a compelling artifact there.

“Rather than it sit in storage for all that time, the AHC was generous enough to reach out to us about the loan,” said Headlee. “Since the Key’s Battery played a prominent role in that battle, it has been a wonderful temporary addition to the Pickett’s Mill exhibits. However, Key’s Battery played an important role in the battles for Atlanta as well, so it’s just at home in their collection as it is ours.”

Hitt, a board member with the Pickett’s Mill friends group, agrees.

“I was able to get the Key battery howitzer (loaned) out from the AHC several years ago with the knowledge that it would be returned when it was needed for a display. Well, it is going to be part of a display now at the AHC and I don't have an issue with it. The gun's Atlanta story is just as interesting as the Pickett's Mill story.”

So there’s the story – for now – about old number 9. Living historians occasionally fire a reproduction Key’s Battery gun at Pickett’s Mill. The next event is scheduled for Jan. 17.

Those wanting to see the original gun at Pickett’s Mill before it leaves have only a few weeks. It will be back in Atlanta some time in February

The old GBA newsletter said the artifact might win a contest for most interesting story. “Go see the gun and marvel at its long, strange trip.”

Patrons at Atlanta museum will get engineer's view of restored locomotive Texas when exhibit opens in November

A view of the locomotive during an August tour

The steam locomotive Texas, a star of the Great Locomotive Chase and an emblem of Atlanta’s meteoric rebound after the Civil War, will be back on public display Nov. 17 for the first time in more than three years.

Patrons at the engine’s new home at the Atlanta History Center will enjoy a hands-on experience: They will be invited to step up to the cab and get the engineer’s view of the 1856 locomotive.

(All photographs by the Civil War Picket)

For the past 16 months, the Texas has been preening before motorists who glide past the history center on West Paces Ferry Road. The fastidiously restored engine, built for the Western & Atlantic Railroad, is lit up at night and rests in a new glass-fronted gallery that will lead patrons to the Battle of Atlanta cyclorama painting when it opens in February 2019.

Both artifacts were housed for more than 85 years in Grant Park, just south of downtown Atlanta. That building closed in summer 2015 after the city and the AHC announced the move of the treasures to the Buckhead neighborhood. The Texas arrived in May 2017 after getting a $500,000 makeover in Spencer, N.C.

The accompanying 1886 circular painting is undergoing a significant restoration in a new AHC wing that has a gallery connecting the Texas to cyclorama exhibits.

AHC officials announced last week that the Texas will be the cornerstone of “Locomotion: Railroads and the Making of Atlanta,” a permanent exhibition opening in November. They want to tell more than the story of its role in the Civil War, a switch from interpretation at Grant Park.

(Civil War Picket photos)

“The detailed exhibition accompanying the Texas will interpret the major role railroads played in transforming Atlanta into the transportation hub and commercial center it is today,” the AHC said in a press release. “The exhibition captures Atlanta's beginning, in 1837, when a surveyor drove a stake into the ground in a North Georgia forest previously inhabited by Native Americans. The stake marked the end point for the Western & Atlantic Railroad designed to run north to the Tennessee River near present-day Chattanooga.”

Texas will lead to cyclorama gallery

The new Rollins Gallery has the look of a railroad repair shop, with exposed steel girder columns and a brick wall.

While the Texas is most famous for running down a load of Union raiders and spies in April 1862, AHC officials have long stressed the engine tells a much larger story of the postwar growth of the city, and they decided to paint it in an 1886 scheme, rather than the bright colors it wore at Grant Park -- in part because its surviving parts date closer to that year than the Civil War.

Jim Wilke, a railroad historian in California who has done extensive research on locomotive and tender paint schemes, lauded the restoration of the Texas and the decision to interpret it two decades after the Civil War. "The parts of the engine that were original and running around in Georgia in the 1860s you could put in the back of a pickup truck."

Like the locomotive General, the object of the chase, the Texas was saved (in 1907) from the scrap heap. The General presides at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Marietta, Ga. The Texas and General are the sole surviving locomotives of the Western & Atlantic, which played a large part in Atlanta’s early development.

“The Texas locomotive symbolizes Atlanta’s longtime relationship with railroads and the city’s importance as a hub for people, commerce, and ideas. No artifact can be more important for telling Atlanta’s origin story than this Western & Atlantic locomotive,” AHC CEO Sheffield Hale said in a statement.

New Jersey locomotive maker Danforth, Cooke & Co. manufactured the Texas in the 4-4-0 design (4 leading wheels, 4 driving wheels and 0 trailing wheels).

Wilke told the Picket that the engine is one of a few remaining from the 1850s and helps tell the evolution of American railroads. By the time the Texas was retired, it was dwarfed by larger and more powerful locomotives, he said. "This change was happening all over the nation."

(Civil War Picket photos)

The exhibit will include a circa 1900 waiting room bench, signage from a 1949 Pullman sleeping car, a 1940s operating signal from Atlanta’s Terminal Station, gate signs and Western Union telegraph signage and clocks.

Patrons also will learn about the experience of working on the railroad, segregation on the rails and the science and mechanics of a steam locomotive, the AHC said.

Behind-the-scenes tour of the Atlanta Cyclorama: Restoration gives painting new life; exhibits will tell a broader story than old days

Tour participants take in mural details before diorama is installed in foreground.

Escalator leads to viewing platform (Picket photos)

Gordon Jones believes the Atlanta Cyclorama – a giant, round painting created more than 130 years ago – has been kept in a box for far too long.

Once its restoration is complete, the mural of the July 1864 Battle of Atlanta, coupled with the Confederate locomotive Texas, will have something fresh and new to tell, says the senior military historian at the Atlanta History Center.

“The perception with both of these artifacts was you thought it was the greatest thing in the world … or you hated it because it was a bunch of white guys and dead horses.”

Jones, who is co-leader of the Cyclorama project team, said the opening of the 1886 painting and associated exhibits at the AHC in February 2019 is a chance for the institution to shed any vestige of being “your old grandfather’s museum.”

The exhibits, Jones says, can be a teaching tool about why the Civil War is still relevant, by telling the city’s story through a variety of wartime narratives – from Confederate and Union veterans, to white Atlanta residents and enslaved persons – and bringing that forward to civil rights and the discussion today about the conflict’s ramifications and symbolism. To that end, the AHC has consulted with more than a dozen experts.

A team of artists will finish their work on the painting soon, and the results are very impressive. The work has been cleaned, some areas repainted and colors are vibrant. The installation of the companion diorama in the foreground begins next month.

I recently took part in a behind-the-scenes tour of the cyclorama and locomotive Texas held each Saturday. (You will notice in my photographs a plastic covering over much of the mural. The sheets were temporarily placed to protect the battle scene from any blue paint dripping from the sky area). 

I spoke with Jones by phone after the tour to get his perspective on both the restoration effort and how this mammoth piece of Atlanta history will be portrayed.

1886 photographs a godsend

It’s difficult to overstate the value of photographs taken while the cyclorama – which documented a crucial moment in the Union victory -- was being completed in Milwaukee in summer 1886. They’ve been a guide for artists matching what the original artists wanted to convey to patrons.

Well-intentioned restoration efforts at the painting’s former longtime home at the city’s Grant Park sometimes came up short and altered certain scenes or figures. (The cyclorama was closed in summer 2015 and moved in early 2017 to the AHC.)

“The more you study the 1886 photographs the more you see that what was there originally was more artistically rendered than what came after,” said Jones.

The history center last year found a second set of photographs (taken in July 1886) in the collection of the Milwaukee County Historical Society. “You can see that they have made some corrections (in the painting) since the set of photographs taken 30 days earlier,” Jones said.

Photographs have aided restoration work

Detail of the Federal counterattack

The second set of photographs is the gold standard for work on the mural, said Jones. Copies of the photos, which focus on specific sections of the battle, are attached to cardboard mounts on the viewing platform at the AHC. Of course, artists can zoom in on details of images stored on computers.

The team has removed yellowing varnish, cleaned the Belgian linen (which has a backing) and repainted several areas or made repairs. They’re also adding an archival-grade varnish to the surface.

“Most of this is repair work because of the damage over the years, including water damage, some damage from being embedded in actual soil, dirt with the diorama. Some of the figures closest to the bottom of the painting … they were heavily repainted,” said Jones.

“When you go back to the 1886 photographs… you can see one arm completely (was since) put into a different position.”

That glorious pale blue sky

Two vertical sections of the canvas trimmed in 1921 so that it could fit in the Grant Park building have been repainted. And 7 feet of sky has been added to the top of the cylindrical painting, which weighs between four and five tons. The top of the sky had been lopped off little by little during its first three decades.

Why?

One has to recognize that cycloramas were a commercial venture – forerunners to movies -- and their owners moved them from town to town, as did the Atlanta Cyclorama. Sometimes, the canvas would be trimmed to fit into a particular building or there would be damage to the canvas.

At Grant Park, the Atlanta Cyclorama’s sky was much more contained than what it looks like now. “It had eliminated the sense of distance the sky was supposed to give you -- that disappearing line, the vanishing perspective,” Jones told the Picket.

In 1922, the sky was repainted to hide water damage and “new” clouds also covered stains. The sky appeared flat and was the wrong color, evident when this team of restorers worked their way down to the original paint.

“It was more of a swimming pool green,” said Jones. “What we have now is both described in contemporary accounts … and also, most importantly, the paint evidence. The paint on the canvas we were able to drill down and find, our conservators indicated is a pale blue color, almost a gray color.”

Those taking behind-the-scenes tours this year of the restoration get a real sense of the enormity of the sky, which almost dwarfs the combat scene below. But not to worry: A canopy will drop from the ceiling, providing a tent-like effect that will appear to even things out a bit. “When you go to the rail, you will not see where the sky ends,” Jones said.

By the way, the painting during restoration went from 42 to 49 feet tall and 359 to 371 feet in circumference.

Plastic covering protects mural during sky work

Let there be (proper) light!

While the AHC has high praise for its contract artists, technology also is playing a huge part in the restoration.

“The (LED) lighting makes it look like a whole new painting. It is much brighter and vibrant than it ever was,” said Jones.

He laughs about getting a text message while he was in a meeting. A contractor asking what month was the battle? (July). What time for the scene? (4:45 p.m.)

Bingo! The lighting was set to match a hot July afternoon in 1864.

Diorama: Getting a new lease on life

A cyclorama is a panorama image intended to place the viewer in the middle of a scene. Often, dioramas are built in the foreground to provide additional realism.

Atlanta’s cyclorama received its current diorama during the mid-1930s. Some 128 plaster figures of soldiers, faux artillery and other pieces and natural elements, such as dirt and shrubs, were added.

Of course, there was a bit of a negative effect on the painting over time. Soil and other items discolored or stained the Belgian linen. AHC officials vow the restored cyclorama and diorama will be true to their intent, erasing criticism of how they looked a decade ago.

Weights give canvas hyperbolic shape

Kevin Riley, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote in 2011 about his visit to Grant Park: “The Cyclorama looks tired -- from the seating, to the diorama to the painting itself,” Riley wrote. “Last weekend, I watched as a local restoration group did some annual maintenance work on the diorama, and it’s clear that the place has seen better days.”

Jones said the diorama 2.0 will be a bit larger than the Grant Park version, but people will see it from a different vantage point, a stage rather than a revolving platform. The stage is about 38 feet away from the painting and patrons will be able to use their smart phones to scan certain scenes and figures in the painting to access more information.

Patrons will enter the large room via a tunnel that is built under the diorama. They also will have a moment to look at the back of the painting to see how it is rigged and weighted to ensure its hyperbolic shape.

Installation of the diorama begins in September.

Artists have used these to attain exacting detail

So how will the painting be interpreted?

AHC officials told CNN last year that the work previously was interpreted in many ways, from extolling the emergence of the "New South" after the Civil War to the "Lost Cause" narrative, which proclaimed the conflict was more about states' rights than slavery.

The AHC entered the public debate over Confederate monuments after the church shooting in Charleston, S.C., and says interpretation of them must include why they were erected, often for white supremacy reasons.

Confederates near the Troup Hurt House

While the cyclorama shows Union troops blunting a Confederate assault at the Troup Hurt House, generations of Southerners looked at the painting as a symbol of their right to secede. For Northerners, the victory at Atlanta helped ensure the nation endured and slavery would end.

Not surprisingly, the politics and passion related to the Civil War remain.

“This is one of the best stories anyone has in the country,” Jones said of the battle. “This can be a teaching tool that helps everybody understand what was going on in the Civil War, the memory of that event, the narratives and (how that is) relevant to what is going on today.”

Locomotive Texas display will open in November

Stephen Davis, author of "What the Yankees Did to Us: Sherman's Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta," told the Picket that the painting “is important as a lesson to all visitors that Atlanta has not destroyed or dismantled this depiction of Civil War history.”

He cited the removal of statues of Confederate leaders in Memphis, New Orleans and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he attended.

“But Atlanta has essentially put this great historic painting onstage for the world to visit and has decided not to enshroud or to hide it -- at least not yet,” Davis said.

The first stop for the new wing of the AHC will be the Texas, the locomotive that successfully chased down the General during the Great Locomotive Chase in 1862. While, the Texas was painted in bright colors during its long stay at Grant Park, it was recently restored to its 1886 appearance, during the rapid postwar growth of the city.

The adjacent upper gallery will have an animated map of wartime Georgia. Visitors will use interactive kiosks to zoom in on Atlanta’s fortifications and streets. One exhibit will include a sword and revolver belonging to Union artillery Capt. Francis DeGress, whose battery held a critical part of the line on July 22, 1864, and is depicted prominently in the mural.

DeGress items currently on exhibit

Topics include the freedom for enslaved persons, the Lost Cause, the Union perspective, Reconstruction and reconciliation.

For the painting itself, a new sound-and-light production will be played once an hour. It will be an “enhancement, not an experience,” said Jones. The show will talk about how the painting and interpretation have changed over time.

People exiting the rotunda downstairs will learn more about the cyclorama’s history, advertising, its form of entertainment and other examples of linking art and the past.

Before movies and TV and color photography, the Cyclorama was the cat’s meow, said Jones.

The historian said he hopes visitors will leave the museum with new perspectives about the Civil War and its impact today.

“They can begin to think for themselves,” he said.

The last AHC painting/Texas tour is at 1 p.m. this Saturday. Cost is $50 for members, $75 for nonmembers. Details here

War and illusion: Atlanta Cyclorama's dramatic diorama figures were made in all sizes

(Picket photo of AHC exhibit)

Onward the men rush to join the battle. They dodge shattered tree limbs and fallen comrades to meet the Rebel challenge. And, if the artists’ illusion is successful, they will be pulled from the foreground and into the painting’s maelstrom of death.

Like other cycloramas, the massive work depicting the July 1864 Battle of Atlanta was an immersive experience for patrons who gazed in wonder. It was all about building the illusion of being there – capturing the very human moments of anger, terror, determination and pain. The panorama allows a 360-degree view of the subject.

Dioramas were a big part of the experience. Plants, structures and human figures close to viewing platforms and in the foreground of the painting added a realistic perspective – and the Atlanta Cyclorama has all of that.

The Cyclorama was closed last year in anticipation of its relocation from Grant Park to the Atlanta History Center in the Buckhead community.

The 120 plaster figures built in the 1930s are now in storage at the Atlanta History Center. They will be patched and touched up during construction of a new Cyclorama building at the AHC.

So important is the Civil War to Atlanta’s story is that several related items are currently on display at the AHC’s exhibit “Atlanta in 50 Objects.”

(Library of Congress)

Near the exhibition entrance is one of the plaster figures from the Cyclorama, created in a supine position. The Union soldier, blood running down his shirt, may be in his dying moments as others rush by him. Not on display with him are his cap and rifle.

(If you enlarge and look closely at the painting above, you can see the figure on the right, just above the railroad track.)

Erica Hague, collections manager at the Atlanta History Center, said some of the plaster figures “are in really good shape. Some have guns that fell off and have chips.” Others may have lost a few of their fingers over 80 years.

The figures were made in a variety of sizes, ranging from about 18 inches to 5 feet. They weigh from 10 to 100 pounds.

And because the only perspective that mattered was what was seen from the viewing platform, the backs of many figures were not painted and some of their faces and other features are not complete.

“It’s a little creepy in a good way,” said Hague, adding a few can appear zombie-like.

The figurines were fashioned between 1934 and 1936 as part of a Works Progress Administration project. “Artists Weis Snell, Joseph Llorens, and Wilbur Kurtz fashioned plaster figures for a diorama as foreground for the painting. Set on a flooring of red clay, the shrubbery, cannon, track, and 128 soldiers gave the painting more realism for visitors,” the AHC says.

Some of the figures were created from the same structural form, but with different features or expressions (others face away from the viewer). Their interior was bolstered by rebar and some have rust, Hague said.

All but six of them depict Union soldiers. (The Milwaukee company that employed German artists to produce the painting was influenced by one patron, politician John A. Logan, who commanded the XV Corps at the Battle of Atlanta.)

The most famous figure is a Union corpse with the face of Rhett Butler. Clark Gable, who played Butler in “Gone With the Wind,” has visited the Cyclorama in December 1939 while in Atlanta for the film’s premiere.

The Cyclorama was cleaned and treated during a major restoration in 1979-1981. Clay in the old diorama was replaced with a fiberglass and plastic coating and the figures were reset.

Hague said the figures have been digitally mapped in their old setting, but a new diorama floor will have to be constructed (real tree stumps will be replaced with faux versions).

The plaster soldiers won’t be in their exact original positions when the refurbished painting opens in a couple of years. That’s because the Atlanta Historic Center will restore the massive mural to its full hyperbolic, or hourglass, shape. That will re-create the intended visual perspective lost when the painting was cut to fit into the Grant Park building.

Once the painting is moved and its new building is opened, visitors will be able to witness the ongoing restoration.