Portion of Confederate defensive trench will be preserved in new Atlanta-area park

A view of the trench looking southwest (Georgia Battlefields Association)

A new park northwest of Atlanta will feature the remnants of a trench briefly occupied by Confederates during the Federal army’s push on Atlanta in summer 1864.

Cobb County commissioners last year purchased 94 acres from the Kemp family – which has been in the area for seven generations – for $6.5 million. An opening date for the park, off Burnt Hickory Road west of Marietta and above Harrison High School, has not been set.

At the time of the purchase, county officials said they were grateful because the Kemp family could have made more money by selling to developers.

Charlie Crawford, head of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said experts indicate the defensive trench was occupied for a few days by Mercer’s Georgia brigade after Confederates withdrew from the New Hope Church line on June 4, 1864.

“Mercer’s brigade and Vaughan’s Tennessee brigade to its right (northeast) were in an advanced position from the Lost Mountain-Brushy Mountain Line and were withdrawn to the main line not long after Federal forces advanced,” the GBA said in a recent newsletter lauding the park acquisition. “The adjacent advanced position on Pine Mountain farther northeast was abandoned after the death of Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk there on 14 June 1864.”

Tommy Kemp provided a tour of the property (GBA)

Federal and Rebel forces clashed on June 15-16 at Gilgal Church, just east of the park.

Crawford, who attended a recent park preview, said the trench “is easily discernible but not exceptional.” He estimates it to be at least several dozen yards long. It continues north across a road to property still owned by the Kemps. There are still some cows on the land.

“A trail already crosses the trench, and I assume a better trail will be part of the county plan,” he said. An historic map in Baylor University Libraries’ digital collection shows the Kemp farm and mill.

Charlie Monroe, natural resource manager for Cobb County parks, said the master planning process will begin later this year. "Included in that process are public input meetings where residents are encouraged to provide us with feedback on what they want to see in the park," Monroe said. The master plan and design documents will guide decisions on how to interpret the trench, he said.

Monroe said there is no money currently available for development and construction.

County Commissioner Bob Weatherford told the Marietta Daily Journal last fall that the property near Allatoona Creek has two homes, a family cemetery and the Civil War site, which he said will be fenced off and protected. At that time, plans were for the tract to be a passive park, emphasizing the natural habitat.

Three-fourths of Confederate trench will be preserved in suburban Atlanta development

Confederates faced west in this trench (Courtesy of GBA)

A senior residential development near the site of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia will preserve 700 feet of a 960-foot section of trench built by Confederates along what was called the Mud Creek Line.

The Marietta Daily Journal and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the Cobb County Board of Commissioners last week approved the rezoning on Ernest Barrett Parkway near Burnt Hickory Road for 76 cottages that will sell for $329,000 and up.

The action came after the developer, Thomas Homes & Communities, conducted a cultural resource study after it was made aware of the trench by local historians and preservationists. According to the Georgia Battlefields Association, the site plan was then modified and brought before the commission.

Rob Hosack, the county’s community development director, told the Marietta newspaper that “the best parts of the trenches are going to be protected. The developer has agreed to pay mitigation money into a fund for future preservation activity.” He also said the county has a “pretty good track record” of protecting trenches.

Development in mid-point of Mud Creek Line (GBA)

But in a GBA newsletter released Tuesday, President Charlie Crawford contended that “260 feet would be lost forever and similar earthworks would be threatened as the housing market rebounded.”

Developer attorney John Moore told the MDJ the preserved section of the trench will be protected during construction and will be bordered by a split-rail fence to keep people away and show its historic significance. The feature will serve as the centerpiece of a 3-acre park within the neighborhood.

The trench was built in mid-June 1864 as a Confederate defensive work and was lined in several places with rocks.

It had to be abandoned after a barrage of Union artillery fire; troops withdrew to the foothills of Kennesaw Mountain.

Moore said history buffs will have the opportunity to view the trench as long as they contact the new homeowner’s association, the newspaper reported.

(Courtesy of GBA)

While the attorney said historians were “ecstatic” because so much of the trench will be preserved, the GBA was less sanguine, headlining its newsletter “Cobb County earthworks threatened by rebounding development.”

Crawford told the Picket that he contacted Moore after a homeowner in the area first talked with him and the group examined the property. That’s when the project was delayed for the study, which found the trench to be in “good condition.”

“While GBA had a hand in preserving part of the trench, we hate to lose even a fragment,” the group said in its newsletter.

Cobb County once contained about 30 miles of Confederate earthworks.

“Some of those are preserved in Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park and in Cobb County’s Shoupade Park, but most fragments are on private property, and some of those (e.g., Pine Mountain, Brushy Mountain) are preserved only by the civic-mindedness of the land owners,” the GBA said. “We’ll continue to work with local historians and preservationists to save what we can.”

(GBA photo)