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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fate of the house was up in the air for years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cavalry troops roamed and clashed here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RaceTrac says it agreed to site changes

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

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

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

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

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

How much old stuff is left to be found?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

READ MORE: Details of the rezoning request are here

Union officer brought formerly enslaved family to Minnesota after war

Brad Edgerton takes particular pride in one simple gesture amid his great-great-grandfather's many accomplishments: After commanding a regiment of Black soldiers during the Civil War, Alonzo Edgerton invited a family born into slavery to join him when he returned home to Minnesota.  "Everyone knows the North was sympathetic to Black people, but Alonzo walked the walk and followed up the talk with philanthropy for a family he loved,” said Brad Edgerton. -- Article

Macon's Cannonball House will display military and other items from two time capsules placed with Confederate soldier monument

Officials hope to verify the identity of this man (Historic Macon Foundation)

Updated Sept. 26

Clearly, someone wanted this man to be remembered. His photograph, set in a small wooden case and protected by facing burgundy-colored cloth, was among items included in a time capsule placed at the base of a Confederate monument in Macon, Ga.

He likely was a Civil War veteran, given the monument was topped by a marble Confederate soldier holding a rifle, and he appears to wear a uniform. Are the crutches he holds the result of a battle injury or did the need to use them rise after war’s end and before the time capsule was created in 1878?

Officials with Macon’s Cannonball House recently opened two time capsules associated with the monument, one of two monuments relocated over the summer amid the national reckoning over Confederate memorials and after years of legal wrangling. 

Macon's Cannonball House interprets several topics (Wikipedia)

The house expects to exhibit some of the time capsule contents when it reopens Oct. 3 following a renovation of a few rooms, including its museum. Officials had hoped for a Sept. 26 reopening but there were unforeseen delays in one room.

Executive Director Cheryl Aultman tells the Picket that she hopes to eventually learn the man’s identity.

“I'm going to ask an expert in the field to get some pointers on where to go from here to try and identify him,” she wrote in an email. “I know a little about the (donor) family and I feel there must be some connection.”

Bibb County supplied numerous regiments to the Confederacy and, according to Aultman, it was the largest hospital center outside Richmond, Va., with 15 identified locations. There were several daguerreotype artists in Macon at that time, as well, she said

An inventory of the 1878 time capsule lists H.C. Tindall of Macon as the donor of the photograph and a miniature Confederate flag worn by a soldier. Another source gives his name as M.C. Tillman. A Cannonball House list of time capsule donors says Harry C. Tindall was a bookkeeper who died in 1929 and is buried in Atlanta. He would have been too young to fight in the Civil War.

About 50 people attended the Sept. 2 opening of the two copper boxes (left), Aultman at right and Earl Colvin holding one box. (Photo: Historic Macon Foundation)

“The contents of one box, put inside the monument’s base … were actually in better shape than a capsule placed near the monument’s cornerstone when it was relocated to Second Street and Cotton Avenue in 1956,” the Historic Macon Foundation said in a social media post. “Several of the items were damaged by moisture that had seeped in over the years.”

The laying of the cornerstone in 1878, a year before the monument was dedicated, drew thousands of spectators. A procession included several former Rebel officers who had lost an arm during the Civil War. Among the speakers was Gov. Alfred H. Colquitt, a Confederate brigadier general who advocated states’ rights. He opposed Reconstruction following the war.

The 1878 donations were largely focused on the military and most donors served with the Confederacy.

Monuments across the South following the Civil War perpetuated the Lost Cause narrative, which asserts states’ rights, rather than the preservation of slavery, was the South’s chief cause. Most historians have challenged that view.

The items included numerous regimental rolls and listings of those who died, newspapers, dozens of coins, a ballad about Gen. Robert E. Lee, a letter from Jefferson Davis (right) about the laying of the cornerstone, war bonds, Confederate money and a map taken from the body of Capt. J.G. Rogers of the 12^th Georgia after he was killed at Antietam in September 1862.

The second time capsule was placed in the monument when it was moved in 1956 from Mulberry Street to Cotton Avenue. Among its items is a copy of “Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell, yearbooks for two chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a Stone Mountain half dollar coin dated 1925 and a July 1866 letter to Lee confirming upon him the honorary degree of doctor of laws, and a copy of a letter in which he replied.

“There are a few more items that are too wet to open yet,” Aultman wrote last week. “We are attempting to dehumidify them and are hopeful we might yet save them. The large 1956 metal box had taken on moisture over the years damaging many of the items enclosed."

An early edition of the book was in the 1956 box (Historic Macon Foundation)

The Cannonball House, built in 1853 and named for damage it sustained during Federal cannon firing in July 1864, will display items with interpretive signage.

The house is “deeply honored to be chosen as the repository of these historic relics and are looking forward to sharing them with visitors,” Aultman said. 

“Our docents are knowledgeable and love sharing the history of the Cannonball House, its inhabitants, and the history of many in the central Georgia area.”

The soldiers monument in its original location

The monument of the soldier is now in a small park outside Rose Hill Cemetery, where numerous Confederates are buried. Opponents of the move cited state law restricting movement of such monuments while others said the marble represented a bygone era and needed to leave its prominent spot downtown. Current plans are for the intersection to become a community green space.

The Cannonball House, which has Civil War and other collections, is open from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Forty-five minute tours include the main residence and the original two-story brick kitchen and servants’ quarters. 856 Mulberry St., Macon, Ga.

Some of the coins found in a capsule (Historic Macon Foundation)

Now you see them ... now you don't. Civil War markers sometimes are casualties to manmade and natural forces. In Georgia, a historical society and volunteers make them whole

Marker in 2008 (Photo by Felch Dumas, HMdb.org) and remnants of post, near stop sign (Picket photo)

It’s not easy being a historical marker. The elements take the shine off you, things fall from the sky, people sometimes want you moved and – worst of all – motor vehicles can take you out at any moment.

One of those casualty situations recently occurred in an Atlanta neighborhood. The “Battle of Atlanta Began Here” sign, detailing how marching Federal troops chanced into a surprise Confederate assault on July 22, 1864, was either hit by a vehicle or a downed power pole, said Henry Bryant, a local preservationist.

Like other safekeeping custodians of damaged markers in the area, Bryant is working with the Georgia Historical Society to see that repairs are made and the sign is put back up.

But that takes time, funding and the proper materials, depending on whether the sign, its pole or both are damaged.

A couple miles from where Bryant and a tour led by the Battle of Atlanta Commemoration Organization (B*ATL) encountered the damaged sign on July 18 is a spot where a suspected drunken driver knocked down another Civil War marker.

Marker before it was hit by car (Photo by Felch Dumas, HMdb.org) and in storage (David Mitchell)

This one, with the mesmerizing title “Noon Under the Trees,” details how Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson met for lunch with other commanders before riding toward the sound of gunfire, only to be killed a short time later.

The DeKalb Avenue marker was damaged a few years ago and is currently being kept by David Mitchell, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, until it can be repaired. The base, where the post is inserted into the sign, is gone, Mitchell said.

James McPherson

“The marker is on the Georgia Historical Society’s list of projects to be addressed in the future,” said Elyse Butler, the organization’s marker manager. “Due to the damage marker collar, it will certainly need to be recast prior to reinstallation.”

The state of Georgia ran the Georgia historical marker program from the 1950s until the mid-1990s. The historical society began to erect new markers in 1998. GHS took over the coordination for maintaining the older state markers in 2015, Butler said.

“As such, we are currently working through the state’s backlog of marker projects. While it may take some time to address the damaged marker (Noon Under the Trees), please be assured a plan for replacing the marker is currently under review.”

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, has led countless tours of area Civil War sites and is very familiar with pertinent historical markers.

It was common for 50-60 historical markers to be in a state maintenance shop awaiting repairs in the mid-1990s, he said. They came from around Georgia, but the highest concentration was from metro Atlanta, scene of the worst traffic.

“I feel comfortable saying that more markers were victims of vehicle collisions in the Atlanta area than elsewhere around the state. Often, the aluminum markers would survive a vehicle collision but the posts would not, so not all markers would need repair, but they might languish in storage until resources -- i.e., workers, materials, and funds -- were available,” Crawford wrote in an email.

Another view of damaged Clay Street sign post near utility pole (Picket photo)

Sometimes, markers are moved, Crawford says. They can be precipitated by road widenings or homeowners who want them to be relocated because people walk through their lawns to view them. And motor vehicles are a constant threat.

“The Surrender of Atlanta” marker that was at the V-intersection of Northside Drive and Marietta Street was knocked over so frequently that it was moved to the west side of Marietta Street. A Georgia Tech alumni and businessman paid for the relocation, Crawford said. When it ran the marker program, the cash-strapped state increasingly turned to donations for maintenance.

A homeowner in Kennesaw, northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, does not mind having a marker in his yard but would like it relocated a few yards away so that it doesn’t block his view of traffic when trying to exit his driveway,” said Crawford.

In 2010, the Picket wrote about a Civil War marker that mysteriously ended up a few miles from its original location. The sign, which details the movements of the Federal left wing in Decatur in 1864, had been missing for some time. The state picked it up and the marker eventually was reinstalled at the proper location near Interstate 285.

Volunteers expect to have this sign back up soon (Henry Bryant)

Back in East Atlanta, Bryant is coordinating the return of the Battle of Atlanta marker to its longtime home on Clay Street near Memorial Drive. All that currently remains of the marker is half of its shattered post, rebar jutting from the exposed end.

“The sign was not significantly damaged. The post was a near total loss. The power pole is still on the ground at the site. Fortunately, I had another post for the marker,” he said in an email.

He has located a power auger and will work with volunteers to make the repairs and installation. “At this point a schedule for completion is a matter of logistics.”

Bryant described what can happen when a sign needs to be fixed or replaced. The “Bate’s Battle Line” sign a couple blocks east on Memorial Drive is listed by the GHS as missing.

McPherson monument in East Atlanta (Henry Bryant)

The post he will use for the “Battle of Atlanta Began Here” repair was initially intended for the Bate marker. “We have had the money to recast that sign, but had run into issues with obtaining property owner permission. Now a new (grocery) store is being built at that location.”

A traffic accident last year damaged the fence to an East Atlanta monument where McPherson was killed. Two volunteers reconstructed the fence's pipe rails and masonry posts, Bryant said in email.

Huge painting of Gettysburg gets new home, more visitors at Spartanburg, S.C., library

James Walker/Courtesy of Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, S.C.

A massive painting depicting Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg has made a short march in downtown Spartanburg, S.C., to the county library headquarters, where more people will be able to take in all of its exacting detail.

Over the weekend, James Walker’s “The Battle of Gettysburg: Repulse of Longstreet’s Assault, July 3, 1863” was taken out of its frame at the Advance America corporate headquarters and transported a couple blocks to Spartanburg County Public Libraries, where it will be unveiled next month as part of the library headquarters’ new programming spaces.

For 12 years, the painting – a staggering 7 1/2-feet high by 20-feet wide -- was displayed in the corporate lobby, where visitors had to be buzzed in. (Click painting to enlarge)

Philanthropists Susu and George Dean Johnson Jr., who bought the panoramic work in 2003 from a Mobile, Ala., family, were “haunted” by the fact that more Spartanburg residents could not enjoy it, said Lynne Blackman, public relations coordinator for the Johnson Collection. The collection includes more than 1,200 works of fine art relating to the American South.

“The entire purpose is for it to be stewarded and shared,” Blackman told the Picket on Monday.

Blackman said nine professionals carefully moved Walker's titanic creation, not an easy task given its weight -- with frame, an estimated 2,000 pounds. The gilded frame, which features rifles and cannons, was disassembled. An expert checked the integrity of the painting, which was conserved after its purchase.

“It is in excellent shape,” Blackman told the Picket. She likened the move to a “choreographed ballet.”

The painting showing Pickett’s Charge will be on loan to the library system, where about 500,000 annual visitors can see it. County librarian Todd Stephens, in a YouTube video about the move, said the work will be in a recessed upper-floor niche and serve as a fascinating backdrop to lectures, documentary viewings and other programming.

A public unveiling is set for 7 p.m. on May 16.

J.B. Bachelder

The English-born Walker was known for his military art, often large in scale. For Gettysburg, he worked with artist and historian John Badger Bachelder. The oil painting, after it debuted in Boston in 1870, traveled around much of the country, providing education and entertainment in the days before movies.

Johnson Collection curator Erin Corrales-Diaz said patrons would buy an admission ticket and have an opportunity to buy small-scale prints of the painting and a highly detailed key showing key battle figures and moments.

In another video, history Prof. Melissa Walker of Converse College said it is astounding how Walker’s painting captures the landscape at Gettysburg.

“It is a mile of cornfield across which these soldiers were scattered,” she said. “You can really get a sense of the immensity of the battlefield and the horror of what happened there when you stand there on what many people have called consecrated ground. And you get that sense in this painting, as well.”

In a press release about the relocation, officials said the painting will provide a wealth of information about Gettysburg. (While Gen. James Longstreet was born in South Carolina, none of the Palmetto State’s troops took part in this charge, though they were elsewhere in the battle).

"Walker’s grand canvas captures the dramatic conclusion of the three-day battle, which marked a turning point in the war’s tide. Bachelder’s meticulous research and Walker’s precise technical skill combined to produce an epic visual record of the event, including regimental positions, combat vignettes, Union and Confederate soldiers, noble steeds, victory and defeat.”

For a painting so huge, visitors will be drawn to details, including advancing and surrendering troops, the wounded and dying, plus various accoutrements, from caps to strewn knapsacks. Veterans would often talk about the painting’s accuracy, officials said.

Lewis Armistead

“The monumentality of the painting allows the viewer to become immersed in the scene, yet the detailed vignettes such as Confederate General Armistead handing an aide his pocket watch to give to Union General (Winfield Scott) Hancock, provide a spotlight focus that makes the painting more tangible and accessible,” Corrales-Diaz said in the statement. Armistead was mortally wounded in the attack.

While Walker’s work is not necessarily Southern, the Johnson Collection has other works, including Henry Mosler’s painting “The Lost Cause,” depicting a sorrowful soldier returning to a deserted log cabin.

The free May 16 program at the library's new Gettysburg Room will include period music and the portrayal of George Pickett, Hancock and two privates, one Federal, the other Rebel. The Johnson Collection website includes an audio overview of the painting.