An 1840s Georgia house with Civil War ties was moved in May. RaceTrac wants to build a controversial gas station on the site where cavalry clashed. The company says it is agreeable to doing an archaeological survey and saving artifacts it finds

Robert McAfee, the current empty lot at Bells Ferry Road (Picket photo); the house in the 1940s (Digital Library of Georgia) and a map showing troop positions in June-July 1864; note McAfee House (Library of Congress)

Opponents of a proposed 24/7 service station in a suburban Atlanta county have raised a list of concerns, from traffic congestion and storm water runoff to the possible impact of alcohol sales and gas vapors on a nearby elementary school and day care center.

But they also lament the loss of what stood for generations at the corner of Bells Ferry Road and Ernest Barrett Parkway in Cobb County, a few miles north of Marietta. The Robert and Eliza McAfee House dated to the 1840s, and their sprawling farm was a fixture in the Noonday Creek area. The property owner wants to sell the remaining two acres to RaceTrac.

The home -- which briefly served as the headquarters for a Union general and was in the middle of cavalry movements and clashes in summer 1864 – this spring was moved to adjoining Cherokee County after a long effort to save it from destruction. 

Now the Cobb County government must decide whether to allow a rezoning to make way for the RaceTrac location, which would feature a convenience store.

The planning staff has recommended approval and the matter came before the planning commission on Sept. 2. After hearing arguments for and against approval, the board tabled a vote until October in order to learn more about potential traffic and development impact on the neighborhood. If the planning commission backs the project, it will still need an OK from the county board of commissioners.

McAfee House in Ball Ground a couple months after its move (Civil War Picket photo)

The nonprofit Cobb Landmarks, the Bells Ferry Civic Association and the county’s historic preservation staff all recommend an archaeological survey of the site if the rezoning is approved. That and a report should occur before construction begins, the staff urges.

Any artifacts discovered during the survey should be donated to an appropriate museum, the preservation staff recommends.

“Prior to any development on this property, it is essential that a thorough search be conducted for Indian and Civil War artifacts, trenches, gravesites, and other items of historical significance,” the Bells Ferry Civic Association said in a letter to the planning commission.

Mandy Elliott, a Cobb County historic preservation planner, told the Picket such a recommendation is common for sites like the McAfee House.

“I’m not sure what might be found,” she said.

That’s more than a fair point. Most of Atlanta’s Civil War landscape was paved over long ago and there are only a few sites where remnants of earthworks and other battle features remain. Among them is Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, just a few miles from the neighborhood. (Picket photo of cut house section before move north)

Interestingly, the bomb squad in Cobb County is called in two to four times a year following the discovery of metal objects that look like Civil War ordnance. In some cases, the items are authentic.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said of the McAfee site: “I'm tempted to guess at the usual archaeological suspects: brass buttons, horseshoe nails, fountain pen nibs, household trash (broken pottery, spoons), etc.”

For its part, RaceTrac has said the location is appropriate for the neighborhood and vowed to comply with any county requirements about safeguarding artifacts.

“RaceTrac is agreeable to the comments from Historical Preservation and is very willing to conduct the additional studies, documentation, etc. as recommended,” attorney Kevin Moore, who represents the company and property owner, told the Picket in an email.  

“To date, as part of due diligence, there has been preliminary study of the first 3 feet, which has not revealed anything of note. However, such study is not considered the historic type study to be conducted,” he said.

Of course, it's possible much of the property has been picked over many years ago..

Fate of the house was up in the air for years

The McAfee House had no designated historic protection because the owners did not seek it, according to Cobb County officials, and is not on the National Register of Historic Places.

Trevor Beemon, executive director of Cobb Landmarks, said the county’s park system years ago did visit the site and prepare a restoration estimate for the house, should it buy the property. “However, at the time, the costs were deemed too high. The property also would have sat for several years waiting for SPLOST funds to become available.”

Cobb Landmarks tried for several years to find someone to move the home, including when a car wash was proposed. That idea was eventually withdrawn. 

The house was empty for several years, and preservationists worried it would fall to the wrecking ball. Eventually, the owner donated the house to Cobb Landmarks so it could find someone to move it before a development could be built at the busy intersection.

Cobb Landmarks earlier this year sold the house for $1 to entrepreneurs Lee and Brittani Lusk, with the main requirement it be moved and restored. The couple moved the sturdy residence to near their home in Ball Ground, where it awaits foundation work. The Lusks are still deciding on its future use.

I asked Brittani Lusk whether they found any Civil War-related artifacts on the property when they were slicing the home into six pieces for the move. “Sadly, we didn’t,” she replied.

They did find some fascinating (and more contemporary) items inside the house, including a small can for baby powder, a newspaper clipping on World War II food rations and a peso note issued by the Japanese during their World War II occupation of the Philippines (photos above and below, courtesy Brittani Lusk).

Cavalry troops roamed and clashed here

The McAfee House served a few weeks in June and early July 1864 as the headquarters for Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard (below) and his three brigades during the Atlanta Campaign. After the seizure of Big Shanty (Kennesaw) by Federal forces on June 9, Garrard’s cavalry division was posted on the left flank during operations on the Kennesaw Mountain front. While there were some small towns, including Marietta and Big Shanty, most citizens lived on farms.

The Federal troopers clashed almost daily near Noonday Creek with Confederates led by Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler.

Cobb County was the scene of significant combat action and troop movement as Confederates tried to stall Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s relentless campaign on Atlanta, which began in May 1864 in North Georgia.

The McAfee farm was believed to have been occupied by Confederates, too, during the action around Kennesaw Mountain. The house is said to have been used as a field hospital.

Brenda Burns, a McAfee descendant, came by the property and spoke to Lee Lusk when he and a crew were preparing to move the house to Ball Ground.

During the Civil War, she said, the family left for a few months when the Union army took over the home; they expected it to be burned to the ground.

They fled to Smithville in southern Georgia, about 10 miles from Americus. Burns, 74, said Robert's brother William operated a hotel there famous for its chicken pie.

Burn's grandmother, Imogene McAfee Buder, was the last member of the family born (1912) in the Cobb County house. She related to Burns what family lore says Robert and Eliza saw when they got back to their house.

Imogene M. Buder, who died in 1999, at the old homestead (Courtesy Brenda Burns)

“She said they were all surprised. It was barren but the house itself was in good shape. There were a few bullet holes maybe in the walls.” 

Imogene M. Buder lived her first few years at the McAfee House. "She would just remember -- she was young -- playing around the barn and playing in the yard," Burns told the Picket. "Going down to the creek and jumping out of the hay loft.”

The McAfee family moved to Atlanta around 1920 and sold the house shortly after.

Click to enlarge map showing Civil War clashes in Cobb County (ABPP)

RaceTrac says it agreed to site changes

Moore and a RaceTrac representative earlier this month met with neighbors who raised concerns about the gas station. The company said it has agreed to stipulations and its updated plans show the convenience store would be a little farther from the elementary school than first proposed. It argues the property is a proper location for a gas station.

Further, RaceTrac argues, the location would largely draw its customers from those already on the road.

Opponents say it would generate more than 5,500 in-and-out vehicle trips per day. A traffic study is being conducted.

“How will the applicant mitigate the negative environmental impact of cramming a too intense, ill-suited, polluting, 24-hour-a-day traffic mill onto what was once a historic site?” the Bells Ferry Civic Association said in its letter.

The Picket reached out to Cobb County Commissioner Erick Allen, who was at the meeting, and to the real estate agent representing the property owner where the gas station would sit. Thus far, they have not replied. (Above, the house before its move. Photo: Cobb Landmarks)

How much old stuff is left to be found?

It’s possible that this many years later no Civil War artifacts will be found during a survey. But other items would still help tell the story of old Cobb County.

“As a historic homestead site, and a Civil War site, it is very likely that variety of artifacts will be recovered,” said Beemon.

The property is just a tiny portion of the farm, which included more than a dozen enslaved persons before the Civil War.

A 1947 photograph (above) of the McAfee House was taken by Beverly M. DuBose Jr., a renowned Atlanta relic collector whose gifts to the Atlanta History Center are the backbone of its impressive wartime artifacts collection.

All that remains at the site are the foundations of the barn and house, bright yellow zoning notices and a 1954 marker erected by the state along Bells Ferry Road.

While the house has moved, the marker is staying on site, though it is unclear where it would placed after construction, should the rezoning be approved. RaceTrac said it will safeguard the sign.

The Georgia Historical Society operates the state's marker program. Elyse Butler, manager of programs and special projects, said the society is working with a couple volunteers to keep it updated on the project.

"As with any construction project, we ask to be notified if the marker is temporarily removed or relocated," Butler said.

Burns, who lives in Canton, Ga., told the Picket she is relieved her great-great-grandparents' home was saved. (At right, her great-grandparents Robert Wiley McAfee and Jessie Laura Spillman McAfee. Wiley's parents were Robert and Eliza).

“It was sad to see it being cut into pieces but at the same time (I am) grateful they were able to save it. I am a positive-thinking person. I am trying to look at the good side of it. It could have been demolished.”

READ MORE: Details of the rezoning request are here

Rolling the dice: Discovery of piece of gaming object at Georgia's Camp Lawton an example of the 'shadow economy' at POW sites

Views of the remains of the die, which may have had numerous sides (Camp Lawton Project)

Somewhere at an archaeological site in Georgia are the remains of a sutler’s cabin, where captured Federal soldiers could buy a whole range of goods, temporarily lifting them from misery that took the lives of 800 comrades.

The Camp Lawton sutler’s cabin and the grounds around it offered more than food and clothing. It was part of the prison’s shadow economy for six weeks in autumn 1864. Soldiers -- either with U.S. greenbacks they still held, or equipment and personal items – could obtain alcohol from guards, tobacco and play games of chance.

Ryan McNutt, who leads the Camp Lawton project at Georgia Southern University, and a couple dozen students have spent the spring looking for evidence of the cabin. Thus far, there have been no definitive finds. Maps produced in the 19th century gave different positions for the structure.

Patrick Sword and Audrey McGill at dig site (Picket photos)

On one bright note, part of a carved die was found a few weeks ago during digging, evidence of apparent gambling in the trade-and-sell part of the stockade.

Patrick Sword, a graduate student from the Atlanta area, is studying the shadow economy at Lawton. I met him and other students in late March during a brief visit to the site on the fenced grounds of an old federal fishery adjoining Magnolia Springs State Park.

The stockade was laid out in a grid fashion (left, click to enlarge) and much of the commercial activity took part on Market Street, Sword said. He is hoping to find more evidence of the shadow economy, but the team in recent weeks has found mostly modern stuff, including trash dumped by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who helped construct the state park in the late 1930s.

McNutt says the die is made of lead, probably fashioned from a small caliber round, likely a pistol or a .54-caliber ball. He says the artifact is probably one-half or one-fourth of the original die.

“Six-sided die are the most common, but there are also 10-sided, 32-sided, and 20-sided. If it's from a six-sided die, it is a half, split down the center to leave a quasi-pyramid shape,” McNutt wrote in an email after my visit.

In its six weeks' existence, the 42-acre Confederate stockade held about 10,000 men before it was closed when Union forces approached. Over the past dozen years, teams from Georgia Southern have found evidence of the stockade wall, Rebel officers’ quarters, brick ovens and sleeping areas for the POWs. Thus far, they have been unable to find the hospital or burial area.

Camp Lawton was one of several prisons in south Georgia that briefly held Federal prisoners sent from the larger Andersonville camp. They were moved back and forth because Confederate officials feared they would be freed by Sherman’s March to the Sea.

McNutt and his students in their spring dig have found a lot of postwar material, but also have come across cut nails, buckles, a bullet and files from the Civil War period. On the day of my visit they were working near a stream that divided the camp, and served as a drinking source and latrine a bit downstream.

“We get good historic Civil War stuff and then a modern fishing weight,” the associate professor tells me.

McNutt (right, on site) believes much of the area they were working on is where Union prisoners who served as an internal police force operated.

Not many prisoner items have been found here, unlike in the hill above. “No one is allowed to camp right near the stream.”

The professor is interested in the relationship between guards and prisoners. They were known to have traded at here and other sites, and morale among the former was low at Camp Lawton, not surprising given the Confederacy’s decline. Guards sometimes foraged away from the property.

Prisoner of war camps are “excellent places to hide contraband, personal items you are not supposed to have," McNutt told me several years ago when he became project director. 

The National Park Service, which maintains the much larger site at Andersonville, has an online page detailing life and diversions for Federal prisoners held there. It, too, had a sutler’s cabin, but it had other shops selling items to the captives as well.

Food, of course, was always on their minds.

Sutler's cabin in rear at Andersonville in 1864 (Library of Congress)

Here is an NPS description of Andersonville:

“Many of the Andersonville prisoners who arrived in the stockade in April and May were well supplied with money. The Federal armies were reclothed and paid off in the spring of 1864 for the spring campaigns. Many of the new recruits and reenlisted veterans had bounty money with them when captured. Greenbacks could be pressed into the sole of a shoe, or placed inside a brass button. Money was concealed about the person in various ways. Some swallowed their rings and others put their money into bowls of large Dutch pipes with a little tobacco sprinkled on top. When searched, they would pretend to be busy lighting their pipes and thus escape suspicion.

“Gambling was carried on quite extensively; faro, dice, and $10.00 stakes were commonly played for. Trade was carried on with the guards on the outside of the wall by talking through the cracks and throwing articles over the fence. Another trade was carried on as well, as noted by prisoner John Northrup, Co. D, 7th Connecticut Infantry: "There is one commodity never had in any market. It is ahead of any Dutch brewery extract; it is meal beer made by letting corn meal sour in water. The vendor cries, 'here is your nice meal beer, right sour, well-seasoned with sassafras.'"

POWS trade new rations for something more palatable (NPS)

McNutt believes there may be beer and rum bottle remains at the Camp Lawton site.

Trade, bartering and gambling were common at virtually all Civil War prisoners, both North and South, though there appeared to be some restrictions later in the war.

At Point Lookout in Maryland, where Confederates were held, a prisoner made compelling illustrations of camp scenes. All depicted guards were African-American soldiers.

“The drawings highlight the concerns and experiences of prisoners of war; most scenes show prisoners playing cards, buying food, or engaging in barter with food vendors,” the historical society says in a description of its collection.

Exchanging buttons for pepper at Andersonville (Library of Congress)

Confederate officer Henry Clay Dickinson wrote about gambling he witnesses while a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware, Delaware, in 1864, according to a Civil War Monitor article on gambling.

“The gambling saloons were a curious feature in prison, and were not only numerous but well patronized. Captain Coffee, of Mississippi, was the prince of faro dealers, being always gentlemanly in his manners and always attracting the greatest crowd. He never played cards until he was captured, except for amusement, and I am told that a Yankee guard was his first victim. The bettor wagered either in Confederate or Yankee money. He always had a large and anxious looking crowd around his booth. Some quartermasters having been captured, the amount of Confederate money in prison was very large, and changed hands frequently.

“I heard that Coffee once sent to Dixie from Point Lookout ten thousand dollars. How much United States money he (Coffee) made I cannot say, though at one time, when the Yanks were about searching quarters and persons, he hid in the grass one hundred and eleven dollars in gold, a gold watch, and several hundred dollars in notes, which, of course, some Yank, who knew he was flush, had seen him hide and took care to not let him find it again.”

Rusted metal likely from the 20th century (Picket photo)