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| 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) |
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.”
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| Visitors can flip through digital version of Sherman's Barnard volume at top of case (Picket photo) |
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 6th and 9th
Tennessee Infantry.
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.”
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
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.
“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.
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| 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.
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| Cased Colt revolver presented by Col. Anson McCook to a fellow officer in the 2nd Ohio; canteen used by Pvt. John Kemp, 11th Tennessee at the Dead Angle; cartridge box and cap pouch made by Wellborn, Nichols & Oliver of Dalton, Ga. |
-- 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 78th Illinois;
-- Sword of Col. John G. Mitchell with the 113th Ohio;
-- Cartridge box and cap pouch made by Wellborn, Nichols
& Oliver in Dalton, Ga.
-- Smith & Wesson revolver used by a soldier with the 125th Ohio, known as “Opdycke’s Tigers”;
-- An Austrian Lorenz rifle-musket carried by William Blair
Mosby of the 5th 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.”
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| The enthusiast looks for Civil War artifacts in 2012 (Courtesy AHC) |
“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.
