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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charlie Crawford drew red lines showing road in Cyclorama

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rocky Face Ridge Park: North Georgia community celebrates 20-year effort to open scenic site featuring Civil War earthworks and recreation trails

Bob Jenkins (left) with reproduction 3-inch ordnance rifle at park. (Picket photo)

High above Crow Valley, on a ridge near Dalton, Ga., men of the 64^th and 125^th Ohio endured withering Confederate fire that cut down officers and enlisted men alike.

It was May 7-8, 1864, at Rocky Face Ridge, during the first battle in what became known as the Atlanta Campaign. Gen. William T. Sherman sent troops from the Chattanooga area as a feint while Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson rushed to Snake Creek Gap in a bid to cut Rebel forces off from a vital railroad.

But the feint did not come without cost: About 1,400 men from both sides became casualties in the fighting over several days at Rocky Face Ridge in northwest Georgia.

One of them was remembered Monday afternoon as Whitfield County and a host of Civil War, conservation, recreation and other entities formally opened Rocky Face Ridge Park just north of Dalton.

Georgia Division reenactors take part in ribbon cutting Monday (Picket photo)

Scott McIlvain was among the 100 attendees gathered under a pavilion on a sweltering day. His ancestor, Col. Alexander McIlvain of the 64^th Ohio, died from wounds he received atop the ridge, which offered its defenders commanding views and defenses.

Rocky Face Ridge Park was 20 years in the making, following purchases of 625 acres -- in the shape of a rectangle -- on top of the mountain, and then 301 grassy acres below, where the ceremony took place.

The county touts the venue as a wonderful history magnet -- with the remains of Federal and Confederate earthworks, trenches, a replica cannon and 12 interpretive signs spread out over a 3-mile trail below the ridge. The signs have QR codes that link to online stories about the battle.

The purchases were in 2002 and 2016 (Courtesy of Whitfield County)

Many visitors will likely come for the recreation offerings, including 10 miles of bicycle trails and an area used for cross country runs.

It’s a beautiful setting, topped by the spiny ridge that offers breathtaking views.

“There are mountains on which you can see the whole Atlanta Campaign, from Lookout Mountain to Kennesaw Mountain, on a good day,” Kathryn Sellers, chair of the Dalton Historic Preservation Commission, told the crowd.

Getting to the mountaintop is not easy. It’s accessible from a bike trail, but officials are hoping a better-marked, hiking-only trail will one day be constructed. Visitors are rewarded with a great view and stone breastworks built by Confederate defenders.

T-shirt worn by bicyclists group features Civil War cannon (Picket photo)

The effort to open the park got a push in 2016 when the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association (SORBA) became involved.

The association donated money and helped design the trail system. The Northwest Georgia chapter helps maintain the trails.

SORBA was able to convince officials that the trails would not damage Civil War features.

Gaye Rice, president of the local chapter of SORBA, told the audience on Monday that bicyclists using the Buzzard’s Roost trail come from all over the Southeast to ride the ridge. Riders have been using the trails for about two years.

One of a dozen markers placed on 300-acre tract below ridge (Picket photo)

Rocky Face Ridge Park was the site of two Civil War clashes.

Federal Maj. Gen. George Thomas probed the Confederate defenses in February 1864, ahead of the grinding march on Atlanta. The park is near Dug Gap, Mill Creek Gap and Tunnel Hill, other Civil War sites of interest.

And in early May, Union troops advanced toward Dalton, which was held by forces under Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. The Yankees “were the tip of the spear” that launched the Atlanta Campaign, said Jim Ogden, chief historian at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park.

Items shown Monday include detailed aerial view of ridge's top (Picket photo)

Sherman knew it would be impossible to take the mountain head on, but he wanted to divert his foe as McPherson moved to the south.

“At places, the crest of the ridge was only four-persons wide, with sheer drop-offs on either side. Confederates stacked rocks to create breast works and, where the ground allowed, dug earthen works,” says Emerging Civil War. “The line runs for miles, from the northern tip of the ridge southward to Mill Creek Gap and Dug Gap.”

Union troops were able to take part of the northern tip of the ridge in May, but attacks on the division of Maj. Gen. Carter Stevenson failed to dislodge the Rebels.

The American Battlefield Trust, which is a major player in the acquisition of Civil War battleground, has YouTube videos and articles about the fighting at Rocky Face Ridge and Resaca. It is here where Sherman and Johnston began their famous flanking game that eventually pushed the Confederates back to Atlanta.

One of the trust’s articles is a letter that was published in Confederate Veteran magazine in 1918. The author was Lt. Col. David H. Moore of the 125^th Ohio, writing to a former foe. He describes the fierce fighting on the crest of Rocky Face Ridge. He suffered a hip wound from a bullet that killed another soldier. About 55 men in the regiment were casualties.

To the Confederate veteran, Moore (right) wrote:

“That night, as I recollect, your men reconsidered your purpose to hold the ridge, only to fall back to another and stronger position, thus inaugurating that series of unparalleled struggles which has gone down in history as the ninety days' battle. Your division was almost constantly opposed to us during the Atlanta Campaign. So accustomed had we become to your style of fighting and to the vicious soprano of your Minie balls and to the indescribable fury of your battle-shouts and charging-yells that it was lonesome when by chance we struck a stranger foe.”

Johnston, surprised by McPherson’s move and seeing that Sherman was moving south, evacuated troops off the ridge and rushed them to Resaca. The Federal strategy had failed, given McPherson moved back to Snake Creek Gap when he thought his army might be in a precarious position. Sherman was angry about McPherson’s failure to attack and perhaps cut Johnston off from the railroad. The Battle of Resaca ensued, with Johnston having consolidated his troops.

Monday’s ceremony included a tribute to Mike Babb, the former Whitfield County commission chairman who was the driving force behind the park.

Three of several mounds showing position of Mississippi battery (Picket photo)

According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the $4 million effort was funded with about $3.2 million in local, state, and federal government funds, plus about $800,000 in grants. Numerous organizations supported the project, including the Georgia Battlefields Association and the Georgia Piedmont Land Trust

“The amazing thing about this park is how many people got involved in it,” said Babb.

Chris Welton, a trustee with the American Battlefield Trust, said partnerships resulted in a park that is a "poster child for what we are about." He cited funding from the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program as a seed for preservation projects.

Following the ceremony, I was able to see Confederate trenches (left) and the remains of Stanford’s Mississippi battery. The unit fought in several major battles during the war, including Shiloh, Chickamauga and the Atlanta battles.

I am grateful for Brian Chastain, the county’s recreation director, and another employee for taking me there via a rugged utility vehicle. It's always poignant to see physical reminders of what occurred as Americans fought each other.

The remains of the entrenchments offer proof for a statement from Bob Jenkins, head of Save the Dalton Battlefields:

“Dalton, Georgia, and the county she resides in, Whitfield County, have more undisturbed Civil War earthworks than any other county in the nation.”

If you go: Rocky Face Ridge Park is accessible from 2209 Crow Valley Road, Dalton, Ga.

 Jim Ogden of Chickamauga and Chattanooga was among speakers (Picket photos)