At 99, Charles J. Turner Jr. has dug up Georgia battle relics nearly his whole life. That collection and an impressive array of purchases are finding new life at the Atlanta History Center's Civil War exhibits

Charles Turner in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1938 and in 2023 with part of his enormous collection (AHC); canister and shrapnel Turner found at Pickett's Mill decades ago and artifacts he bought on display in "More Perfect Union (Picket photos)

Charles J. Turner Jr. was just a boy when the relic hunting bug hit, and he’s been at it ever since. At age 99, Turner’s still curious about what Civil War treasure rests in the soil of North Georgia.

Turner recalls a seminal moment in 1933 or 1934, during the Great Depression, while he was growing up on Lucile Avenue in Atlanta.

“One of the kids I went to school with lived in the area and he picked up a Minie ball in the woods one day and brought it to school and he showed it to me,” the retired electrical engineer recently told the Picket.

The young hobbyist subsequently got some suggestions for places to look from noted historian and artist Wilbur G. Kurtz, who refurbished the Cyclorama painting and was a technical adviser for the film “Gone with the Wind.”

Visitors can flip through digital version of Sherman's Barnard volume at top of case (Picket photo)

Turner’s passion for digging Civil War artifacts and buying militaria is an incredible boon for the Atlanta History Center. The collector is in the process of donating hundreds of collected items to the institution. Some items he purchased in recent years went directly to the AHC.

Patrons are beginning to see the fruits of Turner’s efforts. A display in the AHC’s new “More Perfect Union” exhibit includes a trove of artifacts he bought, including a flag of the consolidated 6^th and 9^th Tennessee Infantry.

There’s a lot more.

Nearby is a rare cartridge box and rusted canister from the pitched fighting at Pickett’s Mill northwest of Atlanta. Farther down is a copy of photographer George Barnard’s album recording Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s campaign in the South and Sherman’s rank insignia (Picket photo, left). Both items belonged to the Sherman family.

Turner bought the two items from an auction house a couple years back and donated them to the AHC; he dug up the Pickett’s Mill canister in the 1950s/1960s, before the site became a state park.

His generosity will result in educational opportunities for future generations, museum officials contend. Turner's items in "More Perfect Union" are the tip of the iceberg. A gallery opening in several months figures scores of items he personally obtained while relic hunting.

His dug relics will be unveiled in coming months

Much of the relic hunter’s finds and purchases filled a large room and now the AHC is using those items to buttress its already immense collection and tell more stories about the fighting in Georgia. (Photos below, courtesy Atlanta History Center)

The gallery in “More Perfect Union” dedicated to the Atlanta Campaign has been named the Charles J. Turner Family Gallery in his honor.

His dug collection of weaponry will be the backbone of “The Hard Hand of War: Soldiers, Weapons, and Mass Production,” the museum’s second new exhibit about the Civil War. It will open in several months.

“Together, his collection represents one of the most comprehensive covering the Atlanta Campaign,” the history center says.

It’s remarkable that a man who started collecting during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first term in office is still in the game. Now, Turner says, it is time for others to appreciate his collection. Most have gone to the Atlanta History Center.

“That’s where they really ought to be, where people can see them,” Turner said.

Wilbur Kurtz gave the Atlanta boy lasting advice

Turner grew up at a time when stories about the Civil War weren’t far removed from those who experienced its triumphs and tragedies. He recalls the former Confederate soldiers’ home near Grant Park.

The war was very much part of the fabric that made up Atlanta during his youth. “There were sons and daughters of veterans who had stories to tell,” Turner related to the Civil War Picket in a recent phone call.

By the time he was a teen, Turner was on the prowl for finds across the battlefields of metro Atlanta. Relic hunting in Atlanta used to be quite common, since just about the whole city was a battlefield.

Around the time he turned 18 in February 1944, Kurtz wrote a letter to his father, Charles J. Turner, with relic location suggestions and the recommendation to learn the history of the battles. (Above, courtesy Atlanta History Center)

The correspondence, which is kept at the Atlanta History Center, starts with this detailed passage:

“Your son’s hobby is an excellent one – I’d say – but perhaps I’m prejudiced, since ‘tis the same one I’ve ridden for more than years than I’d like to say. As for Civil War relics – bullets, etc., the Atlanta area affords but poor pickings at this late date. The primary shortage was brought about by the impoverished citizenry during the trying period immediately following the close of the war – they found out that bullets could be sold as junk lead to hardware stores, etc, and the money could be spent for bacon and cornmeal, next door – so bullet hunting was perhaps more profitable than blackberry gathering – being an all-year-round opportunity and not seasonable. Miss Sarah Huff (died last spring) told me that she had picked them up by the gallon, as a child – and that she knew that many, many others were doing the same things – to the same end as cited above.”

Huff as a young girl experienced the impact of the war in Atlanta and later wrote a book about her experiences.

Kurtz went on to write that Ezra Church, Cascade Road, Beecher Park, Utoy Creek area (right), Venetian Hills, New Hope Church and Kennesaw Mountain still had the potential for discoveries.

(Now, as then, diggers should seek permission from owners of private property. Most governments ban relic collecting on battlefields, parks and other historic sites. Those government sites largely were not in existence during Turner’s youth.)

Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator at the AHC, said the Turners saw Kurtz at the July 1944 dedication of the Peachtree Creek monument at Piedmont Hospital in the Buckhead area of the city.

“Great story, great connection,” he said of their friendship.

Enthusiast struck paydirt years ago at Pickett's Mill

About that time, Charles J. Turner Jr. was drafted into the U.S. Amy and spent the closing months of World War II in Germany, where his unit oversaw labor by Axis prisoners of war.

He later attended Georgia Tech, where he received two engineering degrees. He had a long career with Lockheed before retiring in the mid-1980s.

The lifelong Atlantan nurtured his hobby all this time, amassing a large collection. He stayed mostly within 100 miles of Atlanta, including sites in Resaca and Jonesboro.

Notable relic collectors in the area included Beverly M. DuBose Jr. and his son Beverly M. Dubose III. Their collection was the basis of the old AHC “Turning Point: The American Civil War” exhibit, which closed to make way for “More Perfect Union.”

Jones said the Turner and DuBose relics will comprise "A War in Our Backyards," the largest section within "The Hard Hand of War." The collections will be separate, featuring biographies of the collectors, stories of their discoveries and maps of where they collected. The DuBoses dug relics in several Southern states.

"Both collections highlight the enormous quantity of war materiel manufactured during the war," added Jones.

Turner spent a lot of time at Pickett’s Mill in the 1950s and 1960s “Most of the stuff I found at Pickett’s started out with an old Army mine detector. I graduated up to commercial.”

He found belt buckles, bayonets, rifle barrels, rifle parts, uniform buttons and more. (Turner in the 1990s, right)

“One of the things I enjoyed finding was the shot from the cannon down that gully.”

In late May 1864, cannons mowed down Federal attackers who futilely charged through a ravine toward Confederates waiting for them in strength. At "More Perfect Union," the case of canister is next to an artillery piece that may have fired some of those rounds. (Picket photo, right; click to enlarge)

Turner says he has found thousands of items in the field. He recalls spotting a locket in a creek bed near Dallas, Ga. The item contained a lock of a woman's hair.

The majority of the guns in his collection came from dealers and antique stores.

While in his 80s, Turner began to collect more items pertaining to the Atlanta Campaign, including the 6th/9th Tennessee flag. In the mid-2010s, he began working with the AHC to preserve his collection, officials said.

Charles J. Turner Jr. with the 6th/9th Tennessee flag before it went on display (AHC)

Gallery features a trove of Turner's collection

“More Perfect Union” tells a much wider story than “Turning Point” about the causes and repercussions of the conflict. Topics include slavery, secession, economic forces, Reconstruction and how all of this translates today.

But, of course, there are the items related to soldiers, uniforms and weaponry.

Cased Colt revolver presented by Col. Anson McCook to a fellow officer in the 2nd Ohio;  canteen used by Pvt. John Kemp, 11^th Tennessee at the Dead Angle; cartridge box and cap pouch made by Wellborn, Nichols & Oliver of Dalton, Ga. 

Additional Turner items currently on display include:

-- Two canteens, including a Confederate one picked up by a Yankee soldier after the Battle of Resaca in May 1864;

--- Drum carried throughout the Atlanta Campaign by William A. McKinzie with the 78^th Illinois;

-- Sword of Col. John G. Mitchell with the 113^th Ohio;

-- Kepi of Confederate Brig. Gen Francis Cockrell with the Missouri Brigade. He commissioned the item for $35 from a hat maker in Mobile, Ala.; (right, Picket photo)

-- Cartridge box and cap pouch made by Wellborn, Nichols & Oliver in Dalton, Ga.

-- Smith & Wesson revolver used by a soldier with the 125^th Ohio, known as “Opdycke’s Tigers”;

-- An Austrian Lorenz rifle-musket carried by William Blair Mosby of the 5^th Mississippi;

-- Whitworth sharpshooter rifle used by J.E. Gilbert of the Rebel Army of Tennessee. Turner says he used to have four or five Whitworth rifles. “They are hard to find.”

Time has not diminished his passion for hobby

Charles Turner’s passion for collecting hasn’t much faded over the years. He was out in the field about a year ago, a close friend providing the transportation.

 “A lot of my friends are relic hunters just like me.”

The enthusiast looks for Civil War artifacts in 2012 (Courtesy AHC)

One pal drives him out to the field.

“He started hunting with me 20 years ago. I am still collecting whenever I have a chance. I am not able to get out in the field with a metal detector.”

Turner attended a AHC gala held the week “More Perfect Union” opened. He was among the special guests of honor

Wilbur Kurtz’s 1944 letter to Turner’s father was prophetic, calling the boy’s hobby “an excellent one.” (Click letter below to enlarge; courtesy Atlanta History Center)

The historian and artist finished the correspondence with encouragement for the teen to learn about the battles that shaped the destiny of the country and the South. He listed nearly a dozen books, including one by Union Maj. Gen. Jacob Cox and others by or about Joseph E. Johnston, John Bell Hood, Leonidas Polk and Patrick Cleburne.

“If that boy of yours is really serious about these things, encourage him to keep at it as a hobby to the end that he may become fully informed as to what happened – and where – during that storied summer of 1864.”

“Someone should carry the torch for this sort of thing – so why not Junior?”

Junior, who turns 100 in February, still tends to that flame.

10-MUST SEES: Atlanta History Center senior military historian and curator Gordon Jones says these artifacts in new 'More Perfect Union' exhibit will speak to you

John Brown pike and captured rifle, Frederick Douglass and AHC brochure (Civil War Picket)

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when experiencing “More Perfect Union” -- the Atlanta History Center’s new Civil War exhibit -- for the first time. And I do mean experience: Video panels, sound effects, a massive film, recorded voices and, of course, hundreds and hundreds of artifacts.

I might recommend a repeat visit, as I did this week just ahead of Friday’s formal opening.

If you are pressed for time, or want to get the AHC’s take on stars of the show, I suggest seeing the following "Top 10." Five of these are mentioned in a printed brochure, “Curator Highlights,” while the other five artifacts were gleaned from an interview with Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator, and a tour he gave to the media on Wednesday

It is remarkable Jones, now in his mid-60s, was leading the effort at the AHC when it opened its signature Civil War exhibit, “Turning Point,” in 1996. Over the past couple years, Jones has shepherded a new exhibition for the DuBose Gallery space. It is much larger in the topics it tackles.

“The new exhibition moves beyond traditional military history to explore the full scope of the era. It challenges us to ask,” the AHC says. “Who was included in the promise of American democracy? Who was excluded? And what does the legacy of that struggle mean today?”

Curator Gordon Jones during a media preview of the exhibit on July 8 (Civil War Picket)

Of course, the fulcrum of this is slavery and what it meant then and its legacy today. Many of the items in this Top 10 are related to that topic. All the items were procured since “Turning Point” opened and they largely show an evolution in interpretation of the Civil War.

While "More Perfection Union" is primarily focused on context about the war, the AHC in about six months will open a companion gallery, "The Hard Hand of War," focused primarily on weapons, gear and uniforms.

Without further ado, 10 must-sees at “More Perfect Union: The American Civil War Era.” These are in sequence as you walk through the space. (All photos by the Civil War Picket except as noted)

Dutch map of African coast, navigational chart for the Transatlantic slave trade, circa 1680

(Courtesy Atlanta History Center)

Frederik de Wit’s map/chart was a vital tool for European merchants in the slave trade, according to the AHC. The map identifies coastal landmarks, rivers, settlements and more.

Millions of enslaved people were transported from the Western and Central African coasts to the Western Hemisphere; many died during the horrific journeys.

“This is one of several items in the exhibition that demonstrates the deep roots of chattel slavery in the New World, and how the long tail of slavery led directly to the American Civil War,” the AHC brochure says.

British blunderbuss musket often used in slave trade

This circa 1750s short-barreled firearm, or blunderbuss, was made by the John Whately family in England. The European slave cartel traded guns for enslaved persons along the West African coast. It was typical for the buyers to supply weapons, iron bars, printed cloth and other metals as part of the barter.

"This one is extremely lightweight, cheaply made, and incredibly rare to find in this condition," said Jones, who believes this one may have been a sample weapon or used for another purpose.

'What to the American Slave is Your Fourth of July?'

First printing of abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ speech, “What to the American Slave is your Fourth of July?” The abolitionist gave his 1852 talk in Rochester, N.Y.

The address “confronted  the contradictions in the American promise of freedom and equality with its central question” about the holiday’s meaning to those in bondage, according to the AHC. It is considered to be a defining moment in U.S. history.

"There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the every day practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival," Douglass told the audience.

The presentation at the AHC includes audio of an actor reading Douglass' remarks.

John Brown letter, pikes, rifle and figurine

The story goes that a young John Brown witnessed an enslaved boy being beaten with a shovel. From then on, Brown was determined to put an end to the system of bondage.

Years later and while in his 50s, Brown and his family moved to “Bleeding Kansas," where they became engaged in the struggle over slavery. After an attack on abolitionists in Lawrence, Brown led an 1856 raid that left five men and boys believed to be slavery proponents dead.

Brown traveled to his native New England in 1857 to raise money for the cause. He carried a captured Bowie knife and contracted with Connecticut blacksmith Charles Blair to make 950 pikes for $1 each. At some point, Brown decided to use them in the South, rather than Kansas. He hatched a scheme for the weapons to be given to freed and escaped blacks, who would use them on anyone who dared to stop their rebellion. That effort ended in failure at Harpers Ferry, West Va., in 1859. Brown's radical actions hastened the Civil War, historians say.

The AHC display includes Brown’s letter to the pike manufacturer, a figurine, token, a pike and detached pike head, along with a U.S. Model 1855 rifle-musket captured by Brown during the doomed raid on Harpers Ferry.

Film 'Battle Ground / Freedom Ground: What Happened in the Civil War?'

The centerpiece of the new Civil War exhibit is an 18-minute visual timeline presentation. It is quite compelling and is in a semicircular shape, with several viewing benches.

“The film surrounds the audience in the costs and consequences of the Civil War – real quotes help tell the story of the era in the words of those who lived through it, and the audience is flanked on their left by the military costs – changes in territory, successful battles waged – and on their rights by the human costs – the increasing casualties as the war enters history as the bloodiest in American history,” says the brochure.

Flag from freedmen’s refugee camp at Craney Island, Va.

Most of the American flag is long gone, save for the 34 stars and upper-left canton. It flew over a camp on Craney Island near Hampton Roads, Va., that protected about 1,800 escaped slaves, whom Jones said were active in their liberation.

The camp operated for just over a year before closing in September 1863; it was one of dozens of such camps in southeast Virginia.

“Here on small island near Fortress Monroe, formerly enslaved people married, found work, attended school, and built new lives. But freedom was not always what they had imagined. Federal authorities were unprepared for the massive influx of refugees," the museum says.

Jones marvels at the work of conservators. “I almost didn’t recognize it as an artifact (when donated), he said. “It came in a bag.” The DuBose family – central to Atlanta’s memory of the Civil War -- donated the precious artifact.

Flag of the 127^th U.S. Colored Troops

The impetus for the AHC’s investment in artifacts related to African-American soldiers came in 2019, when it bought a hand-painted flag made for the 127^th USCT infantry. The flag depicts a soldier waving farewell to Columbia, a symbol of the United States, with the words “We Will Prove Ourselves Men" at the top

“It’s an iconic knock-your-socks-off artifact,” Jones said at the time. Even an enlisted man’s USCT uniform wouldn’t be as historically significant as this flag.”

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.

The flag captures the essence of why 180,000 African Americans volunteered in the Union army during the Civil War. These soldiers and refugees showed the world Blacks were ready and able to liberate themselves.

List of enslaved Africans landed in Cuba, 1863

Documents written on parchment in 1868 detail 120 enslaved persons – some only 10 or 11 years old -- brought to Cuba five years before despite a ban on such trade.

They were found abandoned after their illegal landing near San Juan de las Playas.

The galling ledger includes their age, physical condition and, most chillingly, the branding mark burned in their bodies. The latter were recorded under the heading “distinguishing marks.”

Many of the enslaved are described by their African and Christian names.

“Placed in the colonial emancipado indentured labor system, they were ‘free’ in name but bound to years of forced labor, often on sugar plantations, the exhibit says.

Check for New York Draft Riot damages

Many opposed to Northern military conscription in 1863 rioted in New York City, overwhelming police and leading to scores of deaths and widespread destruction.

Black residents were targeted out of fears of labor competition following emancipation. The home of Hiram Dalton, 61, was ransacked and most of the household possessions were lost. A city relief fund awarded $115 to Dalton for “Damage by rioters.”

The exhibit features a Broadway Bank check written out to Dalton.

“It brought tears to my eyes,” its very human connection shining brighter than the check’s bureaucratic ink, Jones told me.

Confederate battle flag of the 6^th/9^th Tennessee combined

Charles Turner Jr. of Atlanta in recent years donated this Georgia-made flag that flew at the “Dead Angle” at Kennesaw Mountain during the epic June 27, 1864, battle.

The 6^th and 9^th Tennessee regiments consolidated during the war and its soldiers took part in the Atlanta Campaign under the Army of Tennessee as its commanders defended against the approach of Union forces.

The 6^th-9^th were stationed at Cheatham Hill, the bloodiest part of the Kennesaw Mountain battlefield, also known as the Dead Angle.

As the AHC brochure points out, the subsequent capture of Atlanta secured President Abraham Lincoln’s re-election, “and with it, the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery.”

MORE COVERAGE:

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/06/atlanta-history-center-hopes-to-make.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/04/compelling-civil-war-artifacts-are.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2025/05/first-on-picket-compelling-artifacts.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/07/old-number-9-confederate-capt-keys.html

Old number 9: Confederate Capt. Key's howitzer, which for years was on loan to the Pickett's Mill battlefield, debuts in Atlanta History Center's 'More Perfect Union'

Capt. Key howitzer this week at the Atlanta History Center (Civil War Picket photos; click to enlarge)

A 12-pounder howitzer that survived numerous battles, years of vandalism and theft from a city park is now on display at the Atlanta History Center as part of its ambitious  “More Perfect Union” Civil War exhibit

The so-called Capt. Key “No. 9”  howitzer is in the corner of a new gallery featuring fascinating artifacts from the Atlanta Campaign and the July 1864 battles in Atlanta.

It joins many military items in the new exhibit. But more than half of the artifacts in "More Perfect Union" -- especially those linked to the slave trade, African-American troops and repercussions of the conflict -- have been acquired in recent years.

The gun, manufactured in Boston in 1851 for the Arkansas Military Institute, had 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 there 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, told the Picket earlier this year about plans for the museum to bring the cannon back to Atlanta. “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.

The AHC in 2016 lent the gun to the state park as it prepared to move the “Battle of Atlanta” cyclorama painting from Grant Park to the center’s facilities in the Buckhead neighborhood

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 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 eventually 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.

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.

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

The Federal army suffered about 1,600 casualties at the battle, compared to 500 for the South.

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.”

Atlanta History Center hopes to make an emotional connection with patrons through immersive 'More Perfect Union' Civil War exhibit, opening in mid-July

Frock coat of  Benjamin Schumpert, a 17-year-old Georgia fatally shot in the head at Chickamauga in 1863; commemorative locket with a photograph of U.S.C.T. soldier; field hospital flag manufactured in Maine (AHC)

Prize artifacts and integrated technology will deeply engage those visiting “More Perfect Union: The American Civil War Era,” the Atlanta History Center says of its gallery opening on July 10.

The AHC this week provided more information and photos from “More Perfect Union,” the first of two Civil War exhibits debuting in coming months.

“Opening during the institution’s centennial year, the expansive new exhibition reimagines how this defining and contested period of American history is presented and understood,” a news release said.

“More Perfect Union” opens in the overhauled DuBose Gallery, which for years was home to “Turning Point: The American Civil War.” The second phase, “Hard Hand of War: Soldiers, Weapons, and Mass Production,” will open in the downstairs Goldstein Gallery some time this winter.

The AHC summarized “More Perfect Union” this way:

“Upon entering, visitors immediately step into an immersive media experience. This plunges them directly into the political storm that engulfed the nation just before the Civil War in 1861. Photographs, headlines, political cartoons, and other imagery flash across multiple screens, while period voices collide in a cacophony of political debate. These are the words of real Americans, revealing the deep divisions, conflicting opinions and uncertainty that defined the era.”

(Above, hand-painted drum carried by New York native William A. McKinzie of the 78th Illinois Infantry during the Atlanta Campaign.)

Digital maps and animated timelines will provide historical context and allow visitors to explore stories and connections at their own pace, “while keeping original artifacts and primary-source interpretation at the center of the experience.”

The remarkable array of artifacts -- many from the museum’s collection, while others were bought in recent years – include an original copy of Frederick Douglass’ speech (left, courtesy AHC), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, the Confederate flag that flew over Atlanta at the time of the city’s surrender in 1864, Major Gen. William T. Sherman’s personal copy of “Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign,” a field hospital flag and the battle flag of the 127th U.S. Colored Troops bearing the words “We Will Prove Ourselves Men.”

Also featured will be uniforms for Union and Confederate soldiers who fought at Chickamauga in 1863 and at Peachtree Creek a year later.

The Atlanta History Center last year closed “Turning Point” to make way for the new galleries that will feature 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.

Atlanta, museum officials say, is ideal to tell a bigger national story about the Civil War in a striking way. Beyond being the capital of the South and a melting pot, it’s recognized by historians as a crucial battleground for saving the presidency of Abraham Lincoln and the United States itself.

For 30 years, relics collected by an Atlanta father and son formed the core of “Turning Point: The American Civil War.”

The exhibit focused on the soldiers in blue and gray and how they did their deadly work, and visitors were awed by the incredible collection of uniforms, weapons, personal items -- and just about every conceivable type of artillery shell. I enjoyed my visits over the years, but toward the end the presentation seemed outdated and in need of new energy.

Shelter half carried by Cpl. Charles E. Smith of the 32nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (AHC)

While “Turning Point” did address some big questions about the Civil War, there was limited discussion on technology, slavery and the home front. New, more diverse generations – distanced even more from the Civil War era – are asking deeper questions, the museum says, about why the war happened, how 4 million enslaved Americans gained their freedom, Reconstruction and what the conflict, which took at least 720,000 lives, means today.

The history center is investing $16 million and more than 15,000 square feet for the new exhibits.

Make no mistake, Confederate and Union bayonets, swords, flags, rifles and revolvers will still be a big part of the presentation. To that end, senior military historic and curator Gordon Jones and AHC CEO and president Sheffield Hale told the Picket they are excited about plans to include two large collection of dug relics.

But they are particularly excited about the artifacts related to U.S. Colored Troops. The impetus for that came about in 2019, when the history center bought a hand-painted flag made for the 127^th USCT infantry. It depicts a soldier waving farewell to Columbia, a symbol of the United States, with the words “We Will Prove Ourselves Men.” (AHC photo, click to enlarge)

“More Perfect Union” also incorporates personal stories drawn from the journals, letters, photographs, and everyday objects of the people who lived through the war, the center says.

In a new video from the AHC, Jones detailed the “reimagined” signature Civil War exhibit.

“Atlanta is the home of so many pivotal events that have determined the outcome of American history, starting with the American Civil War. Everywhere you walk in Atlanta, you are on a battlefield. And on those battlefields, that was where the fate of the country was determined. It’s a story of a struggle and had it not been for what happened here, the outcome of the war for Union and emancipation may very well have turned out differently.”

USCT ladder badge worn by veteran; uniform of 1st Lt. George Young of the 143rd New York (AHC)

There will be stories of Confederate and Union soldiers. "This is about people -- men, women, free, enslaved," Jones says in the video.

The renovated Goldstein Gallery – which opens in the winter -- will focus on technology and the Civil War. In part, it will feature the singular collection of the late George W. Wray Jr., showcasing some of the rarest Confederate firearms, swords, uniforms, flags and other items. Some were one of a kind.

When it went on temporary display in 2015, the theme was the weapons were an attempt by a slave-based society to fight an industrial war. The South was hampered by limited manufacturing and the Union blockade of foreign goods.

At the AHC, Civil War aficionados can also see the giant Cyclorama painting of the Battle of Atlanta, related exhibits and the locomotive Texas, one half of the famous “Great Locomotive Chase” in 1862.

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.”