This Irish-born soldier signed his name at the Warren House, caught up in the decisive Battle of Jonesboro. What became of John W. Dunlava of the 34th Illinois?

Sgt. John Dunlava (regimental history, his signature inside and the exterior of Jonesboro's Warren House (Picket photos)

John William Dunlava was here (Ireland), here (Lynville, Ill.) here (Calcasieu Parish, La.) and, later in life, here (Arthur, N.D.).

For purposes of this blog post, Union Sgt. John Dunlava most importantly was here – the Warren House in Jonesboro, Ga. And he wanted those who came later to know it. Employing large, loopy letters, Dunlava signed his name on an interior wall.

The Warren House, built in 1840, has since then been a wedding and events venue and, currently, an office for psychological therapy. On Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 1864 -- 162 years ago this week -- the residence was at the center of the Battle of Jonesboro, a stunning Confederate loss that resulted in the capitulation of Atlanta.

The Warren House was used as a field hospital and headquarters by Rebel troops until taken by the Union on Sept. 2, 1864, for the same use.

“Captured by the 52nd Illinois Infantry, signatures of convalescing Union soldiers still appear on the walls of the downstairs parlor,” the facility website says. (Picket photo, above). It's possible some of the names are not of soldiers. Some other signatures, including that of Dunlava, are in an upstairs room.

Dunlava (likely pronounced Dunlavey) served in Company E, of the 34^th Illinois, which was in the thick of things at the decisive battle at Jonesboro.

“It looks like they were in the 4 p.m. attack that overran (Daniel) Govan’s brigade and two artillery batteries. Govan was captured and later exchanged for (George) Stoneman,” said Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association.

The exchange in October would include most of Govan's captured men.

I could not tell from a search of online records whether Dunlava was wounded at Jonesboro. And it’s hard to tell whether he left his signature in 1864 or came back to visit the site. Some of the writing on the wall dates to the 1870s, suggesting veterans traveled back to visit battlefields.

Why point out Dunlava?

Good question, and here is my answer. It’s the one name that was legible and I could connect with a service record and biographical details.

So I went down a rabbit hole, scouring the internet for anything I could find about the man, who emigrated to the United States after the Irish potato famine and farmed in the Midwest and the Northern Plains.

A regimental history published in 1902, three years before Dunlava died at age 64, provides some details on his Civil War service. (Photo, findagrave.com)

While a member of a Grand Army of the Republic post in North Dakeota, he is not listed in a list of 34^th Illinois veterans attending an 1897 reunion.

“He says he has not met a 34^th man for thirty years, except Capt. J.M. Myers, of Company H, whom he met on a train, between Chicago and Polo, Ill.,” the regimental history says.

As for the house where he left his name? It's currently for sale with a $1.2 million asking price. 

"The Warren House is more than real estate-it's an opportunity to steward a living piece of history while unlocking its commercial potential," says an eXp Realty listing on Georgia MLS.

He sailed from Ireland to start a new life

John Dunlava was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in June 1840. He came to the United States in 1857 and, like more than 170,000 fellow Irishmen, joined the Federal army.

Signatures of several individuals are encased behind a covering on the back wall (Georgia MLS)

At the time Fort Sumpter was fired on in April 1861, he was attending school in St. Louis, Mo., and "saw the ‘Elephant’ before he appeared to the general public,” said the regimental history.

“Seeing the elephant” was a 19^th-century metaphor for obtaining hard-earned experience, such as in combat.

Known as the “Rock River Rifles,” the 34^th Illinois was organized at Camp Butler in September 1861. Dunlava was right there from the start; he reenlisted at some point.

The regiment fought throughout the Western Theater, from Stones River to Chattanooga, the Atlanta Campaign, including Kennesaw Mountain, the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign.

By late August 1864, Atlanta was not yet subdued and a few supply lines were still available to Confederate troops.

Map of battlefield that appeared in 1902 volume about the 34th Illinois

“Sherman determined that if he could destroy the Macon & Western and Atlanta & West Point Railroads to the south the Rebel army would be forced to evacuate the city,” says the American BattlefieldTrust. To counter Sherman, Hood sent Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee with two corps to halt the Union movement.

“On August 31, Hardee attacked west of Jonesborough but was easily repulsed. Fearing a direct attack on Atlanta, Hood withdrew one corps from Hardee’s force that night. The next day, a Union attack broke through Hardee’ s troops, which retreated south.

The 34th was among those to break Rebel line

The author of the regimental history details the Federal assault by the 14th Corps against worn-down Rebels at Jonesboro. The attackers achieved a rare success for those going against heavily fortified defenses..

"By several accounts, the attacking Confederates on 31 August lost any enthusiasm for the attack before getting close to the U.S. Army lines. Both C.S. and U.S. generals remarked that the usual Southern élan for the offensive was lacking, and the soldiers seemed to forego further advances well before being ordered to retreat," said Crawford.

Confederate POWs under guard after capture (Harpers Pictorial History of the Civil War)

The 34th Illinois and other regiments in the Sept. 1 attack knew they were in for a fight.

“Kenesaw (sic) was now two months old, and quite forgotten," says its history. "There was a saucy foe in front and a sure chance for a fight, with a fairly good chance of giving him a threshing (sic).”

The attack netted about 600 prisoners and eight artillery pieces. Total Confederate casualties for Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 numbered between 1,400 and 2,200. Those captured were close to 900.

The 34th Illinois, which assisted the 78^th Illinois, had five killed and 14 wounded at Jonesboro. From May to Sept. 20, 1864, it suffered about 125 casualties.

The writer of the history, Sgt, Edwin Payne of Company A, described rudimentary field hospitals. Regarding one, “There were forty-nine cases of amputation at the hospital, this writer contributing a right arm to the general assortment of such discovered appendages.”

The loss of the Macon & Western Railroad near Jonesoboro left Atlanta isolated and largely unsupplied. On the evening of Sept. 1, Hood finally evacuated Atlanta, which surrendered to Federal troops on Sept. 2.  

The Warren House (above, Picket photo) was just one of many hospital sites trying to save lives on both sides.

“For many years, a bullet lodged in the wall and cannonballs in the yard were evidence of the proximity of heavy fighting,” says an historical marker outside the home, which is located at 102 W. Mimosa Drive, off busy Jonesboro Road.

I visited the house several years ago and took photographs of the signatures, which are preserved under a clear covering. I couldn’t make out enough words to connect them with a specific soldier, as I did with Dunlava.

“Willi Wood” may be a reference to 34^th officer William S. Wood. The “am” in William likely faded away with time.

Two more names at the end of the long panel in house; click to enlarge (Picket photo)

Veteran, wife endured ups and downs of life on the Plains

Dunlava stayed with the army until October 1864, when he received a 20-day furlough and went home.

“Upon his return, the Army had started on the ‘March to the Sea,’ and he remained in Chattanooga, with Lieutenant Hall, of his Company, until March 1865, and then went, by way of New York, to Morehead City and Goldsboro, and joined his Regiment, 17 miles beyond Raleigh, N.C., and was mustered out as a Sergeant, at Louisville, Ky.,” says the regimental history. His service ended July 12, 1865.

Dunlava is listed in most census forms as a farmer. By 1870, he was living, apparently unmarried, near Lake Charles, La.

The lure of the Great Plains, specifically North Dakota, drew Dunlava and other settlers bent on obtaining land and making their mark on the agricultural expanse.

He met a divorced Clara Seager, seven years his junior, on the Amenia Sharon Land Company's farm at Amenia in spring 1880 (photo, above). The company built a depot and, later, a grain elevator at the nearby Northern Pacific tracks.

“John was one of the farm hands on this farm of 30,000 acres. Clara cooked for the crew of 30 men,” says a page on Digital Horizons, a consortium of institutions celebrating life on the Northern Plains. The account comes from a 1962 history of Arthur, N.D.

“They were married in 1880 and went to live on John's homestead; the NW1 h of Section 30 of Arthur Township. Here they lived through many vicissitudes the next twenty-five years; drought, grasshoppers, hail, chinch bugs, rust and blizzards.”

The couple had four children, according to the Red River Valley Genealogical Society; Clara had two children from her first marriage. A newspaper article referred to him as "one of the old pioneer farmers" in Arthur.

John died May 3, 1905, and is buried in Erie, N.D. His obituary said he had suffered from bronchitis for years, having acquired that in the army. (The notice said Dunlava was wounded at the 1862 Seven Days Battles near Richmond, Va., and was in Libby Prison for six months. The 34th Illinois was not at that action, instead it was in Tennessee at the time.)

Clara moved with family the next year and died in 1920 in Roscoe, S.D. She was 72.

These names speak of lives long gone

Soldiers have long left their mark at places associated with battles and campaigns. There are several other sites in the South bearing scrawled names and graffiti.

This appears to be by a soldier with the 69th Ohio, which was at Jonesboro. This is downstairs (Picket photo)

The Warren House features several names, dates and poems. A history on its website said they were discovered during repairs made in the mid-1930s. The names include Robert Sullivan, James B. Washington and George W. Harding.

“During the Battle of Jonesboro bodies of the dead and wounded were reputedly piled three deep in the grounds behind the Warren House,” according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Crawford, of the GBA, said when he leads tours of Jonesboro or speaks about the Atlanta Campaign, he mentions that of all the engagements during the campaign, there was only one in which the attacking force was largely successful, and that would be Jonesboro

"When the 1993 Civil War Sites Advisory Commission report evaluated the 384 battles it considered, only two battles in Georgia were ranked as Class A -- i.e., having a decisive influence on a campaign and a direct impact on the course of the war," he added. "Those two battles were Chickamauga and Jonesboro. How great it is that Chickamauga was the first battlefield created as a national military park, and how sad it is that Jonesboro is totally unprotected."

Dr. Jack Farrar, who operates Mind Synch, a neuroscience center, bought the house in 1994. He provided mental health services there before revamping it as an event venue in 2012. Those services were largely curtailed after Covid-19 and the house is home to the therapy practice, says Farrar's daughter Sarah (Photo of exterior, Civil War Picket)

Rear of the Warren House can be seen just off Jonesboro Road (Georgia MLS)

Sarah Farrar told the Picket the house, zoned commercial, could be used for a business, residence or bed and breakfast. The family prefers that it be preserved and keep most of its character.

A 2014 article in the Clayton News Daily quoted Jack Farrar as saying soldiers were moved to a dying room when nothing else could be done for them after the battle.

"The surrounding land was once marked by visible breastworks, and relics such as Minie balls were commonly found on the grounds," says the real estate listing.

Was Dunlava wounded at Jonesboro? Visiting a comrade who was? Or just stopped by the Warren House out of curiosity?

If only his signature could tell.

Gen. Jacob Cox slept here: Citizen-soldier's division camped on land that became Emory University. His competence and memoirs are lauded, his racial views are not

Jacob Cox (Library of Congress), marker on Clifton Road and walkway nearby on Emory University (Picket photos)

In 1944, Wilbur G. Kurtz – restorer of the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama, rescuer of the locomotive Texas and technical adviser to the film “Gone With the Wind” – wrote a letter to the father of an Atlanta teenager whose hobby was relic collecting.

Kurtz provided some suggestions on places to dig, but ended the correspondence with books the boy should read to really understand what happened in the city in summer 1864.

At the top of the list, in the letter kept by the Atlanta History Center, was “Atlanta,” one of several notable Civil War books authored by Maj. Gen Jacob D. Cox.

The man who went on to become Ohio governor, U.S. interior secretary, congressman and president of the University of Cincinnati was among the most successful citizen-soldiers of the conflict. He served in both theaters of the Civil War, including the Atlanta Campaign.

“I think Cox did fine during the Atlanta Campaign, and his advance southward on 27 June (Battle of Kennesaw Mountain) provided ‘the only advantage of the day,' according to Sherman,” says Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association.

Crawford said he believes Cox’s 1882 account (Ebay photo) of the Atlanta Campaign is largely accurate and “provides some insights that other memoirs lack, whereas his account of the Second Manassas Campaign is tainted by his animus toward Fitz John Porter.”

Civil War historian Robert D. Jenkins, executive director of the Blue and Gray Education Society, said Cox’s book about Atlanta “is fair and good, and for a long, long time was really one of the only reliable histories of the Atlanta Campaign until the middle and end of the 20th century."

I reached out to Crawford and Jenkins on Saturday after stopping to photograph a sign on the Emory University campus near Decatur. Cox’s Third Division of Schofield’s XXXIII Corps camped there on the evening of July 19, 1864, a few days before the Battle of Atlanta and fighting in Decatur.

While I had heard of Cox, particularly his strong performance as a brigadier general at Utoy Creek in August 1864, I didn’t know much about his career.

Cox was a trial lawyer before the Civil War and had to scramble to learn military skills West Pointers already possessed. He fought at Antietam and South Mountain and later moved to the Western Theater.

“In early 1864, Cox marched with Sherman to Atlanta as second in command of the Army of the Ohio. He performed yeoman service during this period. In July, he led a flank attack which caused the Confederate Army of Tennessee to retreat from its strong position on Kennesaw Mountain,” according to an article by Gene Schmiel in “On Point,” a publication of the Army Historical Foundation.

“Cox’s forces were the first to cross the Chattahoochee River, forcing the Confederates into the defenses of Atlanta. Later that month, Cox’s division cut the final supply line into Atlanta, forcing General Hood to abandon Atlanta and opening the way for Union control.”

Cox later played a crucial role in crushing Hood’s Confederate forces at Franklin, Tenn. Crawford points out some critics claim the general took too much credit for some victories.

Nothing in his background indicated Cox (left, after the war) would be a successful military man.

“I have become used to being surprised as to my own fate, and take it rather quietly, feeling a kind of third person’s curiosity at looking on to see what is to become of me,” Cox wrote in 1866.

One aspect of Cox’s service to the country has not aged well.

While his family had abolitionist ties and he was anti-slavery, Cox opposed moves toward racial equality after the war.

“Some of his post-war comments about what to do with 3.5 million former slaves put him on the wrong side of current thinking,” says Crawford. The politician had advocated for a separate colony or territory for blacks.

Cox died in 1900 at age 71.

As for that historical marker, I asked Crawford what happened in the area during fighting for Atlanta. (Emory University as we know it did not exist in 1864; its forerunner, Emory College, was established in Oxford, Ga.)

On July 21, 1864, Cox's division transited west from north of Decatur along what is now N. Decatur Road (known as Paces Ferry Road at the time) to a position north of the Augustus Hurt house. (Above, Crawford map of Cox division leaving the Emory area)

Stanley's division was almost simultaneously marching southward along what is now Briarcliff Road and passing just west of what is now the campus (right, Picket photo).

During the July 22 fighting in Decatur, a 17th Corps wagon train escorted by 43rd Ohio Infantry and part of the 9th Illinois Mounted Infantry was heading south toward Decatur along what is now Clairmont Road, says Crawford.

“Hearing the sound of the fighting and also being warned by couriers and 15th Corps wagon drivers who (Brig. Gen. John) Sprague had instructed to flee northward, the lead 17th Corps wagons turned west on North Decatur Road and passed along the south edge of the campus,” says Crawford.

“Wagons that were farther behind (17th Corps train being about four miles long) turned west on other roads.” 

As I prepared this blog post, I reviewed my 2011 article on the little-known Aug. 5-7, 1864, engagement at Utoy Creek. (Below, Picket photo of Federal trenches)

Coincidentally, I had mentioned both Kurtz and Cox in that post.

In 1932, Kurtz wrote about an Atlanta family that hid in a bombproof, or "dugout," during the fighting there. Up to 26 people huddled inside at the height of the fighting in western Atlanta.

Gen. Cox on Aug. 11, 1864, wrote this compelling passage.

“In this bomb-proof four families are now living, and I never felt more pity than when, day before yesterday, I looked down into the pit, and saw there, in the gloom made visible by a candle burning while it was broad day above, women sitting on the floor of loose boards, resting against each other, haggard and wan, trying to sleep away the days of terror, while innocent-looking children, four or five years old, clustered around the air-hole, looking up with pale faces and great staring eyes as they heard the singing of the bullets that were flying thick above their sheltering place.”

Yankee cavalry torched Sope Creek paper mill above Atlanta. Now a nonprofit aims to preserve the stone wall of ruins in federal park along the Chattahoochee River

Ruins: Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy, map from NPS, marker by David Seibert, HMdb.org

In the days before Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s army made a pivotal crossing of the Chattahoochee River -- inching ever closer to Atlanta – mounted soldiers fanned out, intent on destroying anything of value to the Confederate cause.

Of particular interest were water-powered mills that mostly produced textiles. But one mill east of Marietta, Ga., along Sope (sometimes spelled Soap) Creek, was a bit unusual. It made newsprint for newspapers, writing sheets and cartridge paper used for Rebel weapons, among other goods. It apparently was known as a “rag mill," due to the paper being made from linen rags and old cotton. 

On July 5, 1864, elements of the famous Wilder’s (Lightning Brigade) put the torch to the Marietta Paper Mill, which got its start in the late 1850s. While the mill was rebuilt after the Civil War, it became defunct in 1902. (Photo below: Nearby pulp mill in 1907)

In recent years, the paper mill site has been a favorite trail stop for millions who flock to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.

Time and nature, of course, have taken a toll on the ruins. Unchecked and invasive vegetation have spread throughout the stones, placing pressure on its delicate walls. That’s about to change, according to an announcement this week. The nonprofit Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy and the National Park Service are partnering on an ambitious restoration project.

“For more than 170 years, these iconic stone ruins have stood as a reminder of Georgia's industrial past and the pivotal role the Chattahoochee River played in shaping our region,” the conservancy said. “After decades of exposure to the elements and encroaching invasive vegetation, the site is ready for critical preservation work.”

The first phase will remove invasive species, improve access for preservation specialists and document existing conditions.

In 2027, phase two will bring in experienced historic preservation specialists to stabilize and restore the remaining stone masonry. “Rather than reconstructing the ruins, the work will focus on protecting and preserving the existing structure while maintaining its historic integrity,” the conservancy said.

Did Phillips Legion founder tweak his nose at Yankees?

Col. John T. Wilder’s brigade gained fame in 1863 for its performance at Chickamauga, protecting the army’s flank and then launching a counterattack. For the Atlanta Campaign, regiments were transferred to the cavalry corps.

On July 5, 1864, the 17^th Indiana Mounted Infantry and 72^nd Indiana Mounted Infantry heading for the mills in Roswell found the Sope Creek paper mill, which was partially owned by William R. Phillips (left).

David Evans, in his book “Sherman’s Horsemen,” wrote about the raid, and quoted from an earlier book on Georgia places and personalities.

“An ardent secessionist, at the outbreak of the war Phillips had raised a regiment of infantry, cavalry and artillery known as Phillips’ Legion,” Evans wrote. “The loss of an eye had forced him to retired from active duty in 1862 but had done nothing to lessen his hatred of Yankees. Watching from the south side of the Chattahoochee when Maj. (Jacob) Vail and his men arrived on July 5, he sent them a message which declared, ‘The mill belonged to a man who had fought them from the beginning of the war, and who could continue to fight them to the bitter end; that he had been taught to hate them as enemies to him and his, and that he would die hating them; that he did not ask any favor from them; and they might burn to their heart’s content.’”

“It is uncertain whether Vail received the message, but his Hoosiers put the paper mill and neighboring flour mills and machine shops to the torch,” Evans added.

Wartime and postwar images of 17th Indiana drummer boy Johnny Butler ("Souvenir," a regimental history)

The National Park Service said at the time the site was rumored to have been printing Confederate currency and bonds, but the claim has never been substantiated.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, cautions the Phillips quotation may be apocryphal.

Crawford in a “Georgia Outdoors” segment produced several years ago for Georgia Public Broadcasting, talked about Sherman’s strategy.

“One of his objectives was to destroy any industry that might be of use to the Confederate government. Now in many cases, he would leave a flour mill, because he was uncertain how long his own troops would be here, and if they were here for a prolonged period of time, they might need flour,” Crawford said on the episode about mills. “And so he didn’t destroy every flour mill. But a paper mill or anything that was essentially superfluous to his efforts, but yet might aid the Confederacy, was fair game.”

Howls of protest: Women mill workers were taken north

The destruction of property, whether business or personal, was burned into the memories of Georgians. Of particular outrage was the fate of hundreds who worked at mills around Atlanta.

After a large Douglas County mill was torched by Union cavalry in July 1864, nearly 100 residents, mostly female workers and their children, were sent north by train -- under protest -- to spend the rest of the war. Many took an oath of allegiance to the United States. 

Don Scarbrough at New Manchester mill site in 2017 (Picket photo)

They shared the same fate as a much larger group of 500 people connected to destroyed mills in Roswell, just north of Atlanta.

From the Northern perspective, the workers were American citizens in open rebellion – a policy that outraged Southerners.

Crawford said the Sope Creek paper mill suspended operations before the cavalry arrived, so no workers were present to be taken into custody.

Researcher and historian Brad Quinlin said he recalled a 2014 event to commemorate the 600 mill workers being marched in Marietta before they were put on trains.

“We had a gentleman join us and said his gr-grandmother was one of those mill workers from Sope Creek Mill. It was fun to have him with us for the day and march with us to the square. He did not have much information on his gr-grandmother and her journey after she was shipped out of Marietta,” Quinlin wrote in an email.

Very few of those shipped north ever made it back to Georgia.

Battle of Peachtree Creek: Featherston's Mississippi brigade led the charge, suffered massive casualties as other units got lost or were delayed in the confusion

Gen. Featherston, park at center of fighting (Picket), brigade is fourth arrow from left (Georgia Battlefields Association)

Whether he was called “Old Sweat” because he was a seasoned veteran or for his tendency to perspire, Confederate Brig. Gen. Winfield S. Featherston was cool under fire.

From commanding the 17^th Mississippi Infantry to a brigade, Featherston performed ably at First and Second Manassas, Ball’s Bluff, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg and during the Atlanta Campaign.

“I know of no negative comments or vices or disputes concerning Featherston throughout his Confederate military service,” says Civil War historian Robert D. Jenkins, executive director of the Blue and Gray Education Society. He authored a book about the Battle of Peachtree Creek, where Featherston figured prominently.

Before Saturday, I had never heard of the general. I came across his name while reading markers at Tanyard Creek Park in Atlanta, the center of the failed Confederate attack at Peachtree Creek, which occurred on July 20, 1864. The Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile loop of trails, goes through the leafy park, which is situated in an upscale neighborhood in the Buckhead community.

The venue is popular with dog walkers, bicyclists and joggers. A creek, Tanyard Branch, runs north-south in what was the center of the Confederate assault on Union divisions waiting for them just below the east-west Peachtree Creek.

The Battle of Peachtree Creek saw Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood’s ill-fated debut as the head of the South’s Army of Tennessee. Hood had hoped to isolate and destroy Maj. Gen. George Thomas’ command before two other Federal armies could come to his help.

The men in gray began the assault mid-afternoon on July 20, 1864, and things got tough quickly. The hilly terrain and ravines made communication and coordination difficult. Confusion and late troop arrivals reigned.

Featherston’s Mississippi brigade, part of Loring’s division, led the charge over what is now called Collier Road and toward Peachtree Creek.

His troops broke through the Federal line near Collier Mill (Picket photo, above) and they fought against three times their number in hand-to-hand combat for some 20 minutes before having to retire, but continued to fight to contest possession of the ridge top until dark, Jenkins says.

His men stubbornly pressed assault at Peachtree Creek

“Featherston carried 1,230 men into Battle at Peach Tree Creek, and fought toe-to-toe with approximately 5,500 Federal soldiers of Ward’s division,” Jenkins wrote on The Atlanta Campaign History Discussion Group on Facebook after I submitted a query..

Marker at Tanyard Creek Park prominently mentions Featherston's role (Picket photo)

“(Featherston) would remark bitterly about the failure of the Tennessee division to his right and of Hardee’s corps for not supporting his breakthrough during that battle,” Jenkins, who lives in northwest Georgia, added.

The 43-year-old general’s regiments suffered the highest casualties at the battle of Peachtree Creek, and were among the highest casualties at Franklin, Tenn., later in 1864.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, is an expert on the fighting at Peachtree Creek and other Atlanta Campaign sites. (The battle used to be called Peach Tree, not Peachtree.)

The lack of coordination and prompt movement doomed the assault, the historian says.

One of many battle markers in the Collier Road area (Picket photo)

Hood and others 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.” Crawford says.

“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.”

Three large markers (in background) detail the fighting (PIcket photo)

The end of the day saw a Union victory, just two days before the Battle of Atlanta. Confederates suffered about 2,500 casualties in just a few hours.

Of Featherson, Crawford says: “At least his brigade followed through on the attack when several others never got there.”

Why he was transferred to fight in Western Theater

Featherston, a native of Tennessee, saw military service early in life, fighting against Creek Indians. He moved to Mississippi, becoming a lawyer and served two terms in Congress before the Civil War.

After fighting well in Virginia and being wounded in combat, Featherston wrote a letter to Gen. Robert E. Lee in fall 1862 requesting that he and his brigade be reassigned to Mississippi for the defense of the Magnolia State, which was under pressure by Grant, says Jenkins.

1964 state of Georgia map put out to mark Civil War centennial (Picket photo)

“Lee responded by telling Featherston that he could transfer, but Lee could not afford the loss of his troops from his army,” he says.

“Some have mistakenly assumed that Lee was getting rid of Featherston, but in fact, Featherston simply wanted to go where he thought he could do the most good in the defense of his home state.

His brigade went onto additional fame in Virginia with another commander, but it was Featherston who started that brigade on its course of reliability and combat effectiveness, Jenkins argues.

George Barnard's photo of temporary graves at Peachtree Creek (Library of Congress)

Jenkins says Featherston was dubbed “Old Sweat“ because of his exposed forehead.

“He had an early receding hairline/baldness. His forehead would wrinkle, and he would sweat easily when under stress or in hot weather.”

(Some Featherston histories spell the moniker “Old Swet.”)

Featherston’s brigade was one of only seven that was in good enough fighting condition to be used as part of a rear-guard defense during their retreat following the Confederate disaster at Nashville, Jenkins says.

After the war, Featherston returned to Holly Springs, Ms., and resumed his law practice. He died in 1891 at age 70.

READ MORE ABOUT PEACHTREE CREEK:

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2021/07/three-men-clashed-at-peachtree-creek-on.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-atlanta-campaign-threw-thousands-of.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2014/05/peachtree-creek-2-charlie-crawfords.html

Compelling Civil War artifacts are among 100 objects the Atlanta History Center is highlighting to mark its centennial. Among them: USCT flag, ammo crate, a girl's diary, Sherman calling card, Cleburne sword, a Union map and a revolver

Solomon Luckie, Union map of Atlanta, detail of 127th USCT flag, sketch for Cyclorama (Courtesy AHC)

Through items big (the locomotive Texas weighing in at 53,000 pound) and small (less than an ounce for Gen. William T. Sherman’s calling card), nearly 20 Civil War-related artifacts are featured in “Atlanta in 100 Objects,” a book and accompanying exhibition that opens Saturday at the Atlanta History Center.

The AHC, celebrating its 100 anniversary this year, is inviting visitors to examine artifacts in galleries, rooms and exhibits across its 33 acres. There is a big variety, from a disco ball and Peachtree Street sign (below right, AHC) to a letter from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and an Atlanta Crackers baseball jersey.

While many of the Civil War items, including the calling card and a map used by Sherman’s troops, are now on display, others (a diary by a 10-year old Atlanta girl and the fascinating flag of an African-American regiment) won’t debut or return until the July opening of “More Perfect Union: The American Civil War Era.”

Officials say visitors will see photographs of the Civil War objects being unveiled during the summer. That exhibition 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.

If you can’t travel to the history center by the end of the year to see the 100 objects, the $24.95 coffee table book (left) features photographs and descriptions “that offer a vibrant portrait of Atlanta through the objects that define it.”

The finely produced volume offers just a snippet of what's at the history center. There are thousands of items in the history center's collection, including those pertaining to Reconstruction and civil rights.

Here’s a closer look at the “Atlanta in 100 Objects” artifacts that are directly related to the Civil War.

Much of the information is from the AHC book, while other portions are from previous Picket reporting on these artifacts, many of which have been at the museum for some time.

Adapting the first map of Atlanta for military use

You know how annoying it can be: Unfolding and folding a road map often leads to rips in the paper. Commanders in the Army of the Cumberland besieging Atlanta were issued a linen version -- preventing that problem.

British-born engineer and cartographer Edward A. Vincent made a map for the young city of Atlanta in 1853. Of course, Atlanta was a much smaller town (about 2,600 residents) and Vincent created a circle with a one-mile radius.

“Vincent beautifully illustrated the curved lines that gave Atlanta streets their unusual layout,” a caption in the book states. The Western & Atlantic’s Zero Milepost was in the center (more on that below).

Sherman’s army adapted Vincent’s creation (he also designed Union Station). The one held by the AHC was made July 25, 1864. It was drawn and printed in the field by the topographical engineer office for the Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas.

The map is currently on exhibit in McElreath Hall on the AHC campus.

The other two large Federal armies in Georgia were the Army of the Ohio and the Army of the Tennessee. (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center; click to enlarge)

Solomon and Nancy Luckie

Amid the bustle of Civil War Atlanta, 40 residents were an anomaly. Neither white nor enslaved, they were free blacks -- but they were not free in the fullest sense of the word. The residents toiled under restrictions and were always under a cloud of uncertainty.

Among them were successful barber and bathhouse owner Solomon Luckie, his wife Nancy (left, courtesy AHC) and their three children. The AHC has portraits of the couple; in his, Solomon wears a waistcoat, jacket and gold pinkie ring.

Luckie’s success story ended on Aug. 9, 1864, when one of thousands of Union artillery shells raining on besieged Atlanta hit a lamppost. Shrapnel struck the businessman, who was conversing with white businessmen at the intersection of Whitehall (Peachtree) and Alabama streets. He died hours later.

The lamppost for years was at the Underground Atlanta venue. It was moved to the AHC nearly a decade ago. It can be seen in an upstairs gallery associated with the Cyclorama.

Nancy and their children survived the war. “His descendants would live to see decades of success and struggles for Black Atlantans,” the book says of Solomon.

The two original portraits are not on display but copies are displayed with the lamppost.

Zero Milepost

The granite post that marked the birth of Atlanta and survived the Civil War today sits next to the locomotive Texas at the AHC.

Zero Milepost (Picket photo, right) was placed in the 1850s at the southeastern terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad in what is now downtown Atlanta, near Georgia State University. “It was this railroad that provided the impetus for the beginning and subsequent growth of the city of Atlanta and marks the center of the city from which the Atlanta city limits were measured,” says the National Park Service.

The Western & Atlantic was vital for the Confederacy, sending both supplies and troops to the front.

For 70 years, the marker sat in the open, but the growth of the city’s viaduct system led to the Central Avenue Bridge above it and the feature was enclosed in a building in the 1980s. With the exception of a few groups, the marker had not been visible to the public since 1994.

In 2018, the milepost was moved to the history center, sparking criticism by preservation and civic groups. A replica was left in the remote site. The museum and state officials said the original needed protection from planned construction work

At the time, an official with the Atlanta Preservation Center said news of the move was a dark day for preservation. “It is always better to leave things in their original location,” said David Mitchell.

The replica milestone as of this writing is inaccessible because of some kind of project being done ahead of the World Cup.

Battle of Atlanta revolver

In 2006, descendants of Union artillery Capt. Francis DeGress discovered a small pocket revolver (Picket photo, below) that their great-grandfather carried into the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864.

In the Cyclorama painting, galloping furiously to the rescue of Union troops who were briefly overrun at the Troup Hurt house is Maj. Gen. John A. “Black Jack” Logan, head of the Army of the Tennessee. Behind him is a revolver-toting DeGress.

DeGress, already a respected veteran, is about to become a folk hero to the Northern cause. He retakes the four 20-pounder Parrott guns that briefly fell into Confederate hands.

“He is an example of the sort of mid-level officer who was a natural leader, on whom the troops really came to depend. On whom the battle depended,” said AHC senior military historian and curator Gordon Jones.

The 1863 weapon was made by L.W. Pond Machine & Foundry Company in Worcester, Mass. It has been on display with other artifacts in the Cyclorama galleries.

According to “100 Objects,” descendants found a letter by artist Theodore Davis, a witness to the battle, friend of DeGress and a historical adviser to the Cyclorama painters. “The letter revealed that it was Davis who recommended DeGress’s dramatic pose with this revolver.”

Capt. Francis DeGress gallops behind Maj. Gen. Logan (Picket photo)

Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama painting and sketch

There’s a lot that can be said of the immense painting, which was made in the 1880s by mostly German artists with the American Panorama Company. Photos are helpful, but you really have to see this depiction in person to appreciate the artistry and chaos of battle.

Visitors at the AHC today stand or sit on a viewing platform and enjoy a powerful presentation projected onto the painting (Picket photo, right).

The book includes a foldout, 360-degree view of the painting and a preliminary sketch of the focal point – the furious fighting at the Troup Hurt house.

The Cyclorama, which was painted in Milwaukee to show a Union victory, was later modified and misinterpreted in Atlanta as showing a Southern triumph – however brief.

“Through the Cyclorama (visitors) can explore the larger question of how our memory and knowledge about the past can be shaped or mis-shaped, in the convergence of history, art, entertainment and myth,” says the book.

Patrick Cleburne’s presentation sword

One of the most compelling items in the former “Turning Point” exhibit was a sword presented by Rebel troops to Irish-born Confederate Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne. It is expected to come back on view.

An unknown maker produced the sword in Solingen, Prussia, circa 1864. Hammond Marshall of Atlanta, a dentist and jewelry maker, engraved the weapon.

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

Soldiers of the 15^th Arkansas Infantry – Cleburne’s adopted state -- presented him the sword on April 18, 1864. The scabbard features an Irish harp and the state seal of Arkansas is on the blade.

Cleburne was among six Confederate generals killed later that year at Franklin, Tenn. Before he set out, the officer uttered, “Well if we are to die, let us die like men.”

The “100 Objects” book features this postscript:

“Cleburne staff sent the sword to his fiancée, Susan Tarleton, in Alabama. It remained in the Tarleton family until 1944. It was discovered in an umbrellas stand in a New England antique store in the 1950s, after which it was purchased and donated to Atlanta History Center.”

The sword will be back in the public eye in July when "More Perfect Union" debuts.

Sherman’s photographer George N. Barnard

The AHC in 2024 purchased a rare copy of George N. Barnard’s “Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign,” thought to belong to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and signed in 1886 by his son Philemon.

Barnard traveled twice in 1864 to Atlanta following the Confederate surrender. The volume -- featuring 10 x 13 inches images -- includes scenes of the occupation of Nashville, the 1864 battles around Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, the Atlanta Campaign, Savannah, Ga., and South Carolina. In May 1866, Barnard traced the route of Sherman's North Georgia campaign, taking pictures at Resaca and elsewhere.

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

Keith F. Davis, the leading authority on Barnard, said the photographer ranks among the top echelon of Civil War photographers – Gardner, O’Sullivan, Cook, Rees, Reekie, Gibson and Brady. “None of them surpassed Barnard in terms of technical or creative skill,” says Davis, a photography curator, author and collector. “It’s hard to say that any one of them was 'the best' but Barnard was second to none.” 

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said Barnard's contract with the Army called for him to principally take photos of fortifications, and he took many.

“We're lucky that he had time to take photos of the Ponder house, car shed, etc.” says Crawford, who has led many tours of  key sites in Civil War Atlanta.

The “100 Objects” book includes this summary of the difficult work:

“Working with glass negatives, Barnard required a portable field darkroom and time to set up, chemically prepare the plates, expose the image, and develop the negative – all performed on site. Transported in wagons over dirt roads, the glass negatives were always at risk for breakage. His photographs are not enlargements, they are the same size as the glass negative, some as large as 12-by-15 images.”

The volume will be displayed in July. Visitors will be able to use a digital display to flip through its pages.

Civil War diary – Carrie Berry

“We were fritened almost to death last night. Some mean soldiers set several houses on fire in different parts of the town. I could not go to sleep for fear that they would set our house on fire. We all dred the next few days to come for they said that they would set the last house on fire if they had to leave this place.”

Thus read the Nov. 12, 1864, journal entry of Carrie Berry, a 10-year-old girl living in Atlanta during the fall and occupation of the city. Hers is a very personal account of the shelling of her neighborhood, hiding in the family cellar and taking care of younger siblings.

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

In between were the seemingly mundane tasks of sewing and ironing. Carrie kept this diary from  August 1864 to January 1865.

The Berry family lived on Harris Street about a mile from the heart of downtown.

“Berry records her desires, reminding us that she is still a child,” according to the book.

In August 1864, she writes, ‘How I wish the federals would quit shelling us so that we could get out and get some fresh air. “Days earlier, she shared that it was her birthday, “But I did not have a cake – times were too hard so I celebrated with ironing.’”

Berry, who later married and had three children, died in 1921. She is buried at Oakland Cemetery, the resting place for Civil War soldiers and civilians alike.

The diary will go on display in July when “More Perfect Union” opens.

Confederate ammunition crate

(Photo courtesey Atlanta History Center)

On Aug. 20, 1960, construction workers digging the roadbed for interstate highways I-75 and I-85 near downtown Atlanta uncovered one of the largest assortments of Confederate artifacts in Atlanta’s history.

According to the history center, the find is known in local tradition as the “Expressway Cache.” (I was unfamiliar with the term). It was at a site that was near four railroad lines during the Civil War. Buried in the mud of a collapsed underground timber and earth supply depot were hundreds of muskets, projectile, railroad tools and other supplies.

The Atlanta Journal said “a mad scramble” of workers, highway department employees and onlookers looted the site.

This well-preserved crate, likely made in 1864, has a shipping address on one side: “To Gen’l Johnston / Atalanta (sic) / GA.”.

Look for it in July when the new Civil War exhibit opens.

Locomotive Texas

A line of text in “100 Objects” makes a pretty grand assertion:

“Given Atlanta’s establishment as a railroad hub, the 1856 locomotive Texas is perhaps the most significant object in the city.”

The Texas is lit up at night and is visible from the road (Civil War Picket photo)

The Texas, saved from destruction years after its prominent role in “The Great Locomotive Chase,” can be seen through an AHC window along West Paces Ferry Road.

While it is most famous for the Andrews Raid in 1862, the steam locomotive – which was at Grant Park before it was restored in 2017 and relocated to the AHC – symbolizes something else about the city.

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.

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 Railroad, which played a large part in Atlanta’s early development.

Silk regimental flag of the 127^th USCT

A prize artifact acquired in 2019 by the Atlanta History Center captures the essence of why about 180,000 African Americans volunteered in the Union army during the Civil War. It will go on display in July, officials said.

“We Will Prove Ourselves Men” reads the motto on the striking flag that belonged to the 127^th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, which was formed in Pennsylvania of free men and some who had escaped bondage. The reverse side features a bald eagle and the national motto, “E Pluribus Unum” –out of many, one.

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

This is one of three surviving examples of at least 12 USCT flags painted by David Bustill Bowser.

The 127^th trained at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia in 1864. It took part in combat during the siege of Petersburg and the surrender at Appomattox. USCT units -- which helped turn the tide in several campaigns and battles -- were led by white officers and it took time for soldiers to receive pay equal to their white counterparts.

They had limited opportunities and faced racism within the Union army. Some freed men captured by Confederate units were sold into slavery and in some instances, such as at Fort Pillow, black troops were victims of racially motivated atrocities.

Carpetbag

In the South, two terms of derision came to the fore in the years following the Civil War.

A scalawag was a white Southerner who did not conform to postwar expectations. They backed Reconstruction policies and, usually, the Republican Party.

Carpetbaggers were outsiders and, as the AHC says, “travelers from the North who came to the South to profit off the war; ravage local populations; and take advantage of efforts to rebuild the region’s economy, politics and social order.”

The AHC has a small carpetbag in its collection and describes such items this way:

“As the network of railways spread in the US during the prewar period, trains were connecting peoples and places quickly and efficiently. As a result, small industry developed to supply cheap travel bags. The bags were made from secondhand carpet scraps and sold for one or two dollars.”

The carpetbag currently is displayed in the "Gatheround" gallery.

Grand Army of the Republic reunion pot

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a large fraternal organization made up of Civil War Union veterans.

This commemorative Boston bean pot was presented to GAR members in Savannah, Ga., by veterans from Beverly, Mass. Three sides are adorned with the coats of arms of the states of Georgia and Massachusetts, as well as that of the Grand Army of the Republic. (Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

According to the AHC, the pot was given in gratitude for the care of a grave of a Beverly veteran, Erastus B. Davis, who died in Georgia in 1887. Savannah veterans decorated his unmarked grave, pledging to “keep it in proper order and mount it with the flag for which he offered up his life.”

A chaplain at one graveside service for a veteran said, “The blue and the gray … now lie side by side. All strife has been ended and only the olive branch prevails.”

The GAR pot will go in display in July.

Gen. William T. Sherman’s calling card

In the 19^th century, these small items were the equivalent of today’s business cards, though most did not include contact information.

That’s because they were often mailed or given out at battlefields, veteran reunions and public events. Former generals dispensed them as a sign of goodwill, rather than the pursuit of business.

Such was the case in January 1879, when William T. Sherman returned to Atlanta for the first since he vanquished his foes there. Over three days, Sherman met with local and state officials and gave out cards. 

“Sherman received a warm welcome. Atlantans gathered at the train station to welcome the Commanding General of the United States Army, with only the occasional sly comment about fire,” says “Atlanta in 100 Objects.”

The card is currently on display at McElreath Hall on the AHC campus.

Other items with ties to the Civil War

-- Death mask of railroad engineer Lemuel P. Grant, who designed Confederate fortifications protecting Atlanta. It is on display in the AHC lobby atrium. 

-- Wallet, library card and driver’s license for Margaret Mitchell Marsh, author of “Gone With the Wind”

-- Wilbur Kurtz’s easel. The artist and historian (right) in the 1930s oversaw the restoration of The Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama and the addition of diorama figures. The easel currently is positioned near the locomotive Texas.                                         

The AHC says patrons can enhance their experience through the Bloomberg Connects app, which offers additional audio and visual storytelling to enhance the “100 Objects” show.