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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

His men stubbornly pressed assault at Peachtree Creek

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hood and others didn’t get the three missing brigades from Stewart’s Corps (one each from French’s, Walthall’s, and Loring’s divisions) into position in time. 

“Likewise, Maney’s division didn’t fight well, Cleburne’s division was held back to exploit the hoped-for breakthrough, and Bate’s division got lost in the swampy ground around Clear Creek.” Crawford says.

“Consequently, the participating brigades form Walthall’s and Loring’s divisions and the entirety of Walker’s division did almost all the fighting. In that sense, the Confederates were outnumbered, but it wasn’t by design.”

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

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

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

Why he was transferred to fight in Western Theater

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

READ MORE ABOUT PEACHTREE CREEK:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Officials say visitors will see photographs of the Civil War objects being unveiled during the summer. That exhibition will feature breathtaking artifacts and a broader discussion of issues that engage the republic to this day: our belief systems, victory, defeat, reconciliation and the evolving meaning of freedom.

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

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

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

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

Adapting the first map of Atlanta for military use

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solomon and Nancy Luckie

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zero Milepost

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Battle of Atlanta revolver

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama painting and sketch

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

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

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

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

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

Patrick Cleburne’s presentation sword

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

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

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

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

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

The “100 Objects” book features this postscript:

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

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

Sherman’s photographer George N. Barnard

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

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

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Civil War diary – Carrie Berry

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

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

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Confederate ammunition crate

(Photo courtesey Atlanta History Center)

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

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

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

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

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

Locomotive Texas

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

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

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

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

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

AHC officials have long stressed the engine tells a much larger story of the postwar growth of the city, and they decided to paint it in an 1886 scheme, rather than the bright colors it wore at Grant Park -- in part because its surviving parts date closer to that year than the Civil War.

Like the locomotive General, the object of the chase, the Texas was saved (in 1907) from the scrap heap. The General presides at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Marietta, Ga. The Texas and General are the sole surviving locomotives of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, which played a large part in Atlanta’s early development.

Silk regimental flag of the 127^th USCT

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

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

(Photo courtesy Atlanta History Center)

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

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

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

Carpetbag

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grand Army of the Republic reunion pot

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

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

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

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

The GAR pot will go in display in July.

Gen. William T. Sherman’s calling card

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

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

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

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

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

Other items with ties to the Civil War

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

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

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

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

This old soldier won't fade away: Residents of Ohio village can now look eye-to-eye at Civil War statue reassembled after a big rig crushed monument into pieces

The old statue was moved into village administration building (LHS and Village of LaGrange)

“Sherman,” the Ohio Civil War statue that was shattered by a big rig and put back together again, has come in from the cold.

LaGrange village and township employees – using machine and muscle – late last week moved the granite man from the unheated old fire station to the village’s administration building.

“They rented a gun safe dolly. They used a lot of muscle, too,” said Jan King, treasurer of the LaGrange Historical Society. “He is inside where it is temperature controlled.”

The new home for the statue brings the story full circle for the Picket, which first reported on the matter in summer 2022 after a tractor trailer driver apparently fell asleep at the village’s traffic circle. The rig smashed the 1903 memorial into pieces.

The community was determined to make things whole.

Master stone carver Nicholas Fairplay glued “Sherman” back together and used him as a model for a replica. Cleveland Quarries rebuilt the monument base below the soldier.

Both were installed on the rural village’s circle in May 2025.

The old “Sherman” was moved around the same time to the fire station (photo, left), where he stood for seven months before the recent move.

The statue, which weighs about 1,500 pounds, is now in a hallway close to the historical society (he’s too big to fit inside the group’s small museum and learning center). It is being kept for now in a protective wooden frame.

“We will have to anchor him down,” said King. “There is a possibility he could be pushed over.”

That would be especially tragic for the old fellow, having already suffered the indignity of losing his head (it broke off) when the truck pulverized the original memorial. (Photos below from LaGrange Township)

Local folks call the statue “Sherman,” but King was quick to quash that moniker during our phone call.

The correct name is “the statue” or “the flag bearer,” she said.

So how did the stone soldier come to be called “Sherman”?

The monument base carried the names of LaGrange area residents who served during the war, the names of a few battles and of Union generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan and George Thomas. Sherman was an Ohioan.

Sherman’s name on the monument base was directly below the front of the statue, so that name stuck.

I asked King, whose family has lived in the community southwest of Cleveland for generations, to describe the old statue, now that he is on ground level.

The retired seamstress is impressed by the craftsmanship – the flag’s carved stars, stitch marks on his lapel and the deep-set eyes. “There is a lot of detail to it.” (Photos above, LaGrange Historical Society)

The society and village office are in a former school building on Liberty Street. “Sherman” is next to a trophy case.

The historical society is open on the third Sunday of each month and on special request. There are old records, photos and a buggy inside, all signaling LaGrange’s rural roots. “It used to be an agricultural city but it is getting more away from that,” said King.

A group of third-graders once stopped by and King was able to show some of them graduation photos of their grandparents.

New statue at studio in Vermilion and monument installation in LaGrange (Courtesy Cleveland Quarries)

Safety measures have helped reduce intrusions into the traffic circle, which is at the intersection of routes 301 and 303 (Main Street).

Villagers used to blow horns and drive around the circle when they got married; school buses still take victory laps when athletes return victorious from competitions elsewhere, King added.

Whatever he is called, the replica Union flag bearer is a fixture in LaGrange and watches over those passing through.

These unusual Rebel forts outside Atlanta were never tested by Sherman. A few Shoupades survive; volunteers toil to reveal a trench between two of them

Ron Wendt steps near exposed trench leading up to First Shoupade; Matt Larson wields a mattock; work Sunday was near Shoupade, 2, and redan, 3; the other Shoupade is marked 4; diagram shows defense design (Picket photos)

Where cannons and rifles once bristled, mattocks, saws and loppers were the weapons of the day Sunday afternoon for a small, but hardy crew working to clear vegetation and expose a trench that connected unique Confederate fortifications outside Atlanta.

The nonprofit River Line Historic Area (RLHA) sponsored the “Trimming the Trenches” workday at Shoupade Park in Smyrna, Ga. The goal is to “enrich the visitor's visual educational experience.”

Timber and earthen redoubts – known as Shoupades -- were built by enslaved laborers near the Chattahoochee River and were briefly manned in July 1864. The arrowhead shape allowed defenders to shoot in several directions. Artillery placed in nearby redans added to “the killing zone.” (Bill Scaife model of a Shoupade, left)

RLHA  and individuals have been working to expose the outline of an infantry trench between one Shoupade and a redan. The park is in the middle of a residential development.

While the work is still to be completed, progress was made Sunday. I could see the faint line indicating the trench where troops could move from one fortification to the next.

Born in Indiana, Confederate Brig. Gen. Francis A. Shoup (right) lent his name to a fort system that Union Maj. Gen William T. Sherman, intent on taking Atlanta, called “one of the strongest pieces of field fortifications I ever saw.”

The Chattahoochee River was the last natural obstacle for Union troops moving on Atlanta.

Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston ordered a series of defenses and the Rebels built 36 Shoupade forts, said Roberta Cook, executive director of RLHA. Ten remain in various levels of condition. Some are on public land and some on private property.

For all their ingenuity, the Shoupades never saw action. Sherman, using his familiar flanking strategy, crossed the river elsewhere, forcing Confederates to retreat to Atlanta. There is a belief that Johnston and some of his soldiers did not fully appreciate Shoupade's work.

Author Brad Butkovich says the forts were meant to be an impregnable barrier to the river with a small force, freeing up troops to guard the army flanks. He argues Johnston failed to use the forts to his advantage.

Cobb County owns the two-acre Shoupade Park and cuts the grass in the common area between its two Shoupades.

The shoupades are in vegetation in the center and a cleared area to the right (Cobb County Parks)

The earthworks are fenced but visitors get a good view and four signs explain how they worked. Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, wrote the text. That organization has lamented development around several River Line sites.

“The River Line Historic Area adopted the park eight years ago to improve its level of care with volunteer labor, but it has been a challenge,” said Cook.

Volunteers have concentrated on clearing excess vegetation from the redan and the “First Shoupade.” English ivy is being kept in place to ward off erosion on the latter, Cook said. Recent work days have concentrated on the connecting trench so people can a better idea of how the defensive system was designed. 

Roberta Cook, Matt Larson, Gould Hagler, Julie Schrodt, Ron Wendt (Picket photo)

Shoupade Park is bordered by the Park Avenue subdivision. Pulte Homes donated the fortifications to the county when it built the large neighborhood on Oakdale Road, and it paid for the interpretive signage.

Cook led Sunday’s effort. Joining her were Matt Larson and Julie Schrodt, Park Avenue residents, and Gould Hagler and Ron Wendt, members of area Civil War roundtables. Schrodt  is a RLHA board member.

The nonprofit is involved in several endeavors, including maintaining historic cemeteries.

The Chattahoochee River Line stretched for nearly six miles and was meant to slow Federals. But Johnston was largely buying time before he was outflanked.

Cobb County maintains Discovery Park at the River Line, which features a Shoupade, anchor fort and an impressive stretch of Confederate earthworks. It is a few miles south of Shoupade Park.

I visited the park after the work day and enjoyed the walk on the top of a ridge and down below where a trail parallels the Chattahoochee River. 

Cobb County Parks maintains a helpful web page about Discovery Park, including a guide to Civil War markers. New trails and signs have been introduced in the past five years.

“Designed by a Confederate officer and built by army engineers, heavy units of the Georgia militia, slightly wounded soldiers and about a thousand enslaved Africans, these fortifications are some of the few still remaining,” the page says.

Julie Schrodt removes branches; interior of First Shoupade at Shoupade Park (Picket photos)

“The defensive line became known as Johnston’s River Line after Confederate General Joseph E. Johnson and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These fortifications are important as a reminder of the way war was fought in the 19^th century. Their historical importance and undisturbed state have led to their preservation.”

Another view of the trench line, with Ron Wendt inside (Picket photo)

Crawford, with the GBA, said a Federal artillery battery site at Discovery Park is currently off-limits. Battery D, 1^st Illinois Light Artillery Regiment, served west of Nickajack Creek.

The city of Smyrna's River Line Park includes another Shoupade. The park includes playing fields, concessions, trail and a playground.

The Second Shoupade at the park off Oakdale Road (Picket photo)