Little evidence of the Battle of Atlanta remains. The Cyclorama painting, markers and a vivid imagination are a good start. Our experts weigh in on their must-sees

Sign off Memorial Drive, scene from the Cyclorama, McPherson monument and 1964 state map

People often lament Atlanta paved over its Civil War battlefields. But there are some vestiges of the fighting, and you can go to a couple museums and gaze at dozens of roadside markers to get a sense of what happened there.

Tuesday is the anniversary of the July 22, 1864, Battle of Atlanta, which led to the fall of the Southern city weeks later and likely assured the re-election of President Abraham Lincoln. 

I asked area historians, tour guides and preservationists to suggest places the interested can go to learn more about the battle and its importance. Among the suggested stops are markers where Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson and Confederate Gen. William H.T. Walker, a grizzled Confederate veteran nicknamed “Shot Pouch," were killed in action that day.

The following responses have been edited for context and brevity. A few sections have material from previous Civil War Picket posts. 

CHARLIE CRAWFORD, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association

Obviously, start at the Cyclorama at the Atlanta History Center. Spend at least half a day studying the painting and all the associated displays, including maps at the “War in Our Backyards” kiosk on the main floor, not far from the locomotive Texas display. It would help if you have already read related books by Albert Castel, Steve Davis, Earl Hess and Bill Scaife.

Go thereafter to the Carter Center bus parking lot and note three historical markers there, including the one for the Augustus Hurt House, which was Sherman’s HQ during the battle. 

View toward Stone Mountain in Cyclorama, which shows July 22, 1864; Decatur Road on right (Atlanta History Center)

Next, drive to Inman Park MARTA Station parking lot, start eastward on foot along DeKalb Avenue and note the Georgia historical markers, starting with the Pope House. Continue eastward on foot along DeKalb Avenue and turn north onto DeGress Avenue, which has three more markers, including a marker for the Troup Hurt House that you saw in the Cyclorama painting and a marker for the DeGress battery. 

The Old Decatur Road was more serpentine than DeKalb Avenue is now. It curved south of the railroad, then back north in the vicinity of the Confederate breakthrough. You can see this in the diorama at the base of the painting at AHC.

Return to you vehicle and drive eastward on Glenwood Ave SE and turn left (north) immediately past the I-20 interchange onto Wilkinson Drive. In 150 yards, turn left into the parking area for DeKalb Memorial Park. Walk back south to Glenwood Avenue. Note the Walker monument (upright cannon), its associated marker, and the marker across Glenwood Avenue for Terry’s Mill Pond. (Picket photo of Walker stone)

When done, walk back to your car and turn left (north) out of the parking lot until you hit Memorial Drive. Turn left (west) on Memorial Drive then take the first right onto Clay Street. Stop the car almost immediately and note the “Battle of Atlanta Began Here” marker on the west side of the street.

Safely find a way to turn around and head south, then make a right (west) on Memorial Drive. Take the second left (south) onto Maynard Terrace, and immediately after passing the I-20 interchange, turn right (west) onto McPherson Avenue. Park when you see the McPherson monument (upright cannon) on your left. Read the associated markers there. 

Not a comprehensive tour, but should be enough to prompt further research among the uninitiated.

Go to Georgia Historical Society’s marker page and read the texts ahead of time by searching DeKalb County and Fulton County markers.

JIM OGDEN, historian at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

Charlie is certainly the expert here, so I would second his recommendations and add only a couple of others.  

While not 100% historically accurate, the visual of the Cyclorama is so valuable that going there or starting there is really important. It would also be really valuable to have a printed copy of it with you while you do the walk along DeKalb Avenue, particularly for when you're along DeGress or if you maybe even walk just a bit farther east on DeKalb and then turn around and look back west, holding that portion of the Cyclorama up in front of you. 

It's a window back in time through all the 21st and 20^th century around you.  I can't remember if AHC is selling any sort of printed reproduction of it but there is the old Kurtz 30 p. booklet of it that probably can be found on the used market.

Marker at Springvale Park mentions remnant of ravine (David Seibert/HMbd.org)

This might be too obvious, but the only other thing I might note is that the many railroad tracks today on the south side of DeKalb are the modern version of the one track that is another one of the important landmarks in the Cyclorama.

For someone who might be up for a bit more of a walk, particularly if they want to do it a bit more from the perspective of the Confederate attack in the painting, would be to walk farther west on DeKalb, at least to Waverly Way, and then north to Springvale Park to see the remains of the low ground the Confederates crossed north of the railroad as they attacked east and the markers there. (Springvale Park has one of the few monuments to the battle. It has a marker as well, indicating that Manigault’s Confederate brigade reformed in the low ground there before making their final dash).

One could even go to Oakland Cemetery to the rise from which Hood watched the battle.  

Atlanta may have seemingly swallowed the July 22 battlefield, but there are still faint traces of that history to be found on the ground.

Artillery Capt. Francis DeGress trails Maj. Gen. Logan in Cyclorama scene (AHC)

PERRY BENNETT, local historian and tour guide

Perry Bennett, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, will be giving a free tour at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The historian said the tour will start at a historical marker on the grounds of Alonzo A. Crim Open Campus High School, 256 Clifton Road SE. It is being given to the Longstreet Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans but anyone can attend. 

“I cover both sides but am focused upon when the battle began on this particular tour and what went well and what did not,” he said.

Bennett mentions markers where Bate’s Confederate division deployed, where two of his brigades were blocked during their attack and another sign indicating where Walker’s division attacked the same hill from Terry’s Mill pond. 

The tour will also make stops at the sites of McPherson’s and Walker’s killings.

Those interested can contact Bennett at lperrybennettjr@gmail.com

CHAD CARLSON, East Atlanta historian and Civil War photo collector

Chad Carlson, a historian with the Georgia Department of Transportation, suggests a stop in East Atlanta Village, at the intersection of Glenwood and Flat Shoals roads. The agency put up a Battle of Atlanta replica marker and interpretive panel in 2013 to replace a 1930s version that was removed in the 1970s. (Read about that here).

Carlson said he appreciates the simplicity of the marker, which describes military units and troops movements. It describes Confederate troops pushing Federal units back to Leggett’s Hill on July 22.

Marker about troop movements in East Atlanta (Georgia DOT)

GDOT made an exact replica but used a cheaper metal material, I think aluminum, instead of bronze, so (there is) less likelihood of it getting stolen.”

For years, local historians, Civil War buffs and the Battle of Atlanta Commemoration Organization (B*ATL) have worked to educate residents and visitors to the rich Civil War history of East Atlanta, Kirkwood and other Atlanta neighborhoods.

B*ATL still raising money to restore monuments to US, Confederate generals; city advisory panel suggests keeping both

Monument to Confederate general is only a battered remnant (Picket photo)

Vintage post card shows it had more features (Courtesy of B*ATL)

A neighborhood group that wants to restore two Battle of Atlanta monuments – one to a Federal general, the other to a Confederate – is carefully navigating the national conversation about what to do with monuments that honored Southern generals and leaders.

“The Battle of Atlanta can be the beginning of a conversation about race,” leader Henry Bryant wrote last year in a Zocalo Public Square article.

“Our group’s mission has always been to explore American history -- not just the Confederacy and not just the Union,” Bryant wrote. The nonprofit Battle of Atlanta (B*ATL) Commemoration Organization includes multiple aspects of the city’s history, including civil rights, in its neighborhood tours and activities, he said.

A monument fund-raising hike about the battle is planned for this Sunday afternoon (April 29).

Months after Bryant’s article, B*ATL spoke before a study committee appointed by then-Mayor Kasim Reed. That panel was tasked with making recommendations on what to do with city-owned monuments and street names paying tribute to the Confederacy.

15 -- McPherson marker, 16 -- Walker (Picket map)

B*ATL for several years has been raising money to cover a $192,000 restoration of old monuments to Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson and Confederate Maj Gen. William H.T. Walker. McPherson was killed when he rode into Confederate lines early during the July 22, 1864, Battle of Atlanta. Less than a mile away, Walker was knocked out of his saddle by a sniper.

Battle marker, or one with a message?

It’s the Walker monument, of course, that came under scrutiny.

“It was pointed out that both monuments, by marking the sites of the deaths, had as much to do with the shooters” as with the killed officers, Bryant recently told the Picket.

The advisory committee, while recommending changes for other monuments, recommended that what’s left of the weathered Walker monument – dedicated in 1902 and located on a small city patch of land – be kept.

The McPherson monument on McPherson Avenue (Picket photo)

How it looked in its early years (Courtesy of B*ATL)

In its report submitted in November, the committee said it considered a monument’s purpose and whether it omitted key information or glorified the Confederacy. The Lost Cause view of the war, promulgated by white Southerners in the decades following the conflict, contends the conflict was justified and about defending states’ rights. Such a view, the advisory committee found, “ignores the moral atrocities of slavery.”

While considering emotional attachments to monuments, the committee made distinctions about their purpose, and that thinking was evident in the Walker monument recommendation.

Gen. Walker

“This monument represents an important companion to the McPherson monument when telling the story of the Battle of Atlanta. The committee recommends that B*ATL be responsible for appropriate contextualization of this monument. It is the opinion of the committee that this monument is a battlefield marker and does not serve a purpose of glorification, but rather is a reminder of an important historical event. Public comments indicate that the neighborhood has embraced the two monuments and its site on the location of the battlefield as an important part of its identity. The committee supports retention of the monument and its continued support by B*ATL and the adjoining neighborhoods.”

Walker monument in limbo

The Walker monument’s fate is not certain. Reed left office without taking action in December, as had been expected. The matter is now under the administration of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

The issue of Confederate monuments, more than five months since the recommendations were filed, does not appear to be a priority. City Hall is under criticism or investigation for a number of reasons, including a bribery probe that predates when Bottoms took office.

The Picket asked Atlanta officials for a status update.

“As of now, there aren’t any scheduled meetings of the committee, or possible updates or announcements confirmed,” said Melissa J. Martin, public information officer for the Department of City Planning.

Walker monument is off-center and near a busy road (Picket photo)

Bryant acknowledged that the issue remains sensitive, given the McPherson and Walker memorial are in small city parks. But he contends B*ATL provides an inclusive story about Atlanta and its residents.

“It’s not a story of black and white, but a story that is shaded with a wide range of tones,” he wrote last year. “We want to tell the whole story, not just one side. Our events have long featured programming about East Atlanta’s civil rights history as well as its Civil War history.”

George Barnard photo of McPherson death site (Library of Congress)

Aging memorials need a facelift

The East Atlanta monuments each feature a cannon.

Time and, in one case, traffic have taken a toll on the memorials. They sit on dislodged or structurally weak foundations. The cannons have water damage and are rusting in places. In recent years, the McPherson cannon has taken on a green color from what appears to be lichen or moss and a surrounding fence and posts are aged and cracked in places.

Gen. McPherson

After McPherson's death, Union Brig. Gen. Andrew Hickenlooper rode to the mangled woods where McPherson died. There were no homes in the area at the time. Hickenlooper nailed a sign to the tree at the death site, which was photographed by Atlanta Campaign photographer George Barnard.

An early fence surrounding the 1877 monument featured gun barrels at the corners, said Bryant, but they disappeared. “From the very beginning there was problem with vandalism,” he told the Picket in 2012.

The McPherson monument, now surrounded by homes, was moved in 1906. Eventually, it was raised to make it more visible.

The Walker monument to the east is more easily seen, but doesn’t get the protection the McPherson monument receives. It sits on a busy road (Glenwood Avenue at Wilkinson Drive) near Interstate 20. Walker was shot will leading his troops across the backwaters of Terry's Millpond in Kirkwood and East Atlanta.

Motorists have hit the marker several times, knocking it off-kilter on its pedestal. The red granite monument’s steps and plaque are gone. At least two feet of water and gunk are in the cannon barrel.

The memorial used to rest on a nearby hill, to make it convenient for visitors, but was moved to its current, more accurate location, in the late 1930s. B*ATL would like to move the monument to the center of a triangle and build steps to raise it, so it will match the appearance of the McPherson monument.

Proposed upgrade for memorial near Interstate 20, courtesy of B*ATL)

Bryant said the tiered steps were buried when the surrounding land was raised during road construction. “Only the top of the top tier is visible. The fencing and cannon balls were not moved from the original site.”

“Hopefully, we can clean whatever is below ground and reuse it. If it matches the above ground base it will be orange (rust and red clay), both above and below ground stone to be returned to their gray granite color.”

Walk this weekend benefits effort

The campaign to restore the monuments has been a long march; the Picket first wrote about it in 2011.

B*ATL has about $150,000 to $155,000 in pledges and in the bank, Bryant said. Grants from the Frances and Beverly DuBose Foundation and matches account for $40,000 of that. The city’s parks department has pledged $32,000. but has not issued formal funding, he said.

McPherson monument has cracks at base, on features

(Picket photos)

“I do not have all of the money needed, but feel that we could come up with the remainder by going only to the neighborhood to pass the hat. There are other deadlines that might require that we begin before we have all of the money. We are trying not to lose any of the money that we have been given,” Bryant said.

B*ATL might consider reducing some landscaping and other features, or use concrete instead of granite curbing if it doesn’t reach the $192,000 target.

This Sunday is an opportunity for those who want to learn about the Battle of the Atlanta and support the monument restoration effort. B*ATL is doing a 5-mile “Battle in Reverse” hike at 3 p.m. “We start at the end of the battle traversing the Union front lines, seeing historic sites as we go towards the beginning where the Confederates entered the scene to challenge and then returning to the end,” Bryant said.

The tour will take up to three hours and costs $15. You can register here.

Current plans for restoration on McPherson Avenue (B*ATL)

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.

Hip Atlanta neighborhood gets its history back with arrival of Civil War marker replica

Replica marker is installed on Dec. 11 (Georgia DOT)

It was a grand affair.

Georgia Gov. E.D. Rivers was on hand, as were Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield, historian Wilbur G. Kurtz and J.S. McWilliams, son of John W. McWilliams, a soldier in 1864’s Battle of Atlanta.

In between the playing of “America,” “Dixie,” “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Taps,” a crowd bundled for the chill on Dec. 15, 1937, witnessed the unveiling of a marker that described Civil War combat in the East Atlanta community.

On July 22, 1864, hordes of Confederates under Gen. William J. Hardee managed to push a force of Federals northward toward Leggett’s Hill, which became the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in a battle that ended in a crushing defeat for the South.

1937 dedication (Courtesy of Tommy Barber)

The view in East Atlanta today (GDOT)

A cannon held the Union left flank at the present-day intersection of Glenwood and Flat Shoals roads, the epicenter of today’s East Atlanta Village, a hip commercial and residential area calling itself “an urban oasis of community and culture.”

E.A. Minor, associated with the neighborhood’s Marbut & Minor Mercantile Store, on behalf of his F&AM Masonic Lodge formally presented the marker to Atlanta and DeKalb County on that day in 1937. 

No one present at the dedication could have foreseen what would happen down the road.

By the late 1980s, the marker and a larger boulder to which it was affixed had disappeared.

No one knows what became of the boulder, but a historian with the Georgia Department of Transportation several years ago was able to locate the plaque at the Masonic lodge, which had moved about 20 miles east of the neighborhood.

Wednesday morning, to no fanfare, the intersection of Flat Shoals and Glenwood got its history back, with the installation of a replica marker affixed to new chunk of granite.

The original marker is at a Masonic lodge

And here is the replica (GDOT)

“It would have been nice to have some kind of commemoration,” said Chad Carlson, historian with the Office of Environmental Services at the Georgia DOT.

A piece of heavy equipment placed the granite on a semicircular brick structure at the corner. Where a Texas service station once served customers are other businesses, including an ice cream parlor.

The project is part of a streetscape improvement done in conjunction with the city of Atlanta. Carlson said the new marker makes it clear it is a replica.

“It felt great,” Carlson told the Picket. “I was pleased at the quality of it. It felt good to know we are reinstating what was placed there and honoring the soldiers that had died there.”

Carlson tracked the original marker to the E.A. Minor Lodge #603 in Lithonia.

Click to read program for 1937 unveiling (Courtesy of Mary Banks)

In 2007, he met with some of its aging members, who said they had no idea how the marker came to be in their building. “It was right there at their entrance.”

They told him the lodge had 1,700 members during its peak in the late 1940s. Members used to walk to meetings in East Atlanta, which grew into a suburb of Atlanta after the Civil War.

Despite the enormous loss of men and infrastructure, Atlanta began rebuilding within months of its September 1864 surrender to Union troops.

East Atlanta was an unincorporated suburb of Atlanta, and it drew a post office, carriage dealership, a movie theater and the familiar Flat Iron Building, where the Masonic lodge chapter met. The building now houses a bar and a tattoo business.

Marbut & Minor wagon in 1911 (Georgia Archives)

But the once-prosperous community had challenges during the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.

“Because the Grand Dragon of the KKK lived in an adjacent neighborhood, East Atlanta was targeted by civil rights groups to be an example of racial integration of housing,” according to the East Atlanta Community Association, founded in 1981. “Under the protection of the Fair Housing Act, middle class black families were assisted in efforts to purchase houses in the area. Some real estate agents seized the opportunity to fan the flames of fear and racial prejudice. At their urging, many white families fled the area selling their homes at a loss.”

“During this time many hardworking black families achieved the dream of home ownership in a nice neighborhood with yards for the children and good schools nearby. Many white families remained refusing to give in to social pressures and determined to live in harmony with their new neighbors.”

Property values became depressed and many houses became dilapidated. "Even so, the neighborhood remained stable," the community group says.

The neighborhood in recent years has witnessed the arrival of new businesses and the rehabilitation of  homes. It touts itself as fun, family-friendly, convenient and a place with many activities.

For years, local historians, Civil War buffs and the Battle of Atlanta Commemoration Organization (B*ATL) have worked to educate residents and visitors to the rich Civil War history of East Atlanta, Kirkwood and other Atlanta neighborhoods. B*ATL sponsors an annual Civil War event that includes tours, talks, a living history encampment and memorial services.

(GDOT)

Henry Bryant of B*ATL said the neighborhood would like to have some kind of city ceremony in early 2014 -- the year of the sesquicentennial -- for the marker. "I am very happy to have it returned. It is as permanent a reminder as we can have in Atlanta of what happened here," Bryant told the Picket.

Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, a favorite of Union Gen. William T. Sherman, was killed less than a mile from the marker when he rode into Confederate lines.

Gen. William H.T. Walker, a grizzled Confederate veteran nicknamed “Shot Pouch” for the numerous wounds he received during the Mexican-American War, also died in the area. He was knocked out of his saddle by a sniper as his men advanced on a Yankee position.

Carlson said he appreciates the simplicity of the marker’s words, which describe military units and troops movements.

“Today, we are so in to fanfare, embellishment and making things and fast and exciting. Back then, they were very sober about these things.”

Historical interpretation has changed in the decades since the 1937 unveiling. Newer signs tell a wider story of the Civil War, including its impact on the home front and various types of people.

A new interpretive panel (above, near vehicle) also has gone up at the intersection. And while it sticks to military themes, it provides a wider context of the battle and include photos and a map. 

Confederate troops made their attack up Flat Shoals Road after a daring night march to what is now East Atlanta Village.

Carlson said he hopes visitors or those who live in or near the village appreciate its Civil War history.

“I think it was important to show that a number of people died there,” said the historian, citing the importance of the fall of Atlanta to President Abraham Lincoln’s re-election later that year. “It really was a pivotal moment in the war.”

Group sounds bugle call to raise cash to restore Atlanta monuments by 150th

(Renderings courtesy of B*ATL)

A group wanting to make repairs to monuments to two Civil War generals killed in Atlanta now has plans to do the work and is making a fund-raising push in order to have the work done by the 150^th anniversary next summer of the battle.

“The monument study includes recommendations for several levels of restoration, but at this point we are committed to the whole deal,” said Henry Bryant, chairman of the Battle of Atlanta Commemoration Organization (B*ATL).

Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, a favorite of Union Gen. William T. Sherman, was killed when he rode into Confederate lines during the July 1864 Battle of Atlanta. Less than a mile away, Confederate Maj. Gen. William H.T. Walker was knocked out of his saddle by a sniper.

Monuments, each featuring a centerpiece cannon, went up years after the war.

Time and, in one case, traffic have taken a toll on the memorials. They sit on dislodged or structurally weak foundations. The cannons have water damage and are rusting in places.

The full cost of restoration, with new features, is about $190,000.

So far, B*ATL has received or has pledges for $50,000. The group also is applying for grants and contacting organizations for help. “Our own schedule calls for us to have a substantial amount raised by Thanksgiving of this year. At that point we must make the decision as to which (restoration) level because of landscaping planting considerations,” Bryant said.

“We hope that we do not have to scale back our plans, but if necessary we can do this,” Bryant told the Civil War Picket this week.

Stabilization of the monuments, which would cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, would not address underlying foundation problems at both sites. To really get to the base of the problem, the monuments must be disassembled.

“Proper coating of the metal and cleaning and sealing of the stones really also requires removal and drying,” said Bryant. “A more extreme level would be to execute the plans for the monuments but scale back the other features of the restoration from granite to concrete. As you can imagine, the granite is a major part of the estimated cost.”

A close look at the McPherson monument (above) in East Atlanta -- fittingly located on McPherson Avenue at Monument Avenue -- shows the foundation is in rough shape and mortar has disintegrated. It’s as if the pedestal and cannon are floating by their own determination, Bryant said.

The Walker monument to the east (right) is more easily seen, but doesn’t get the protection the McPherson monument receives.

It sits on a busy road (Glenwood Avenue at Wilkinson Drive) near Interstate 20.  Motorists have hit the marker several times, knocking it off-kilter on its pedestal. The red granite monument’s steps and plaque are gone. At least two feet of water and gunk are in the rusted cannon barrel.

B*ATL would like to move the monument to the center of a triangle and build steps to raise it, so it will match the appearance of the McPherson monument.

The Georgia Battlefields Association is donating $4,000 toward the restoration.

Donations for the restoration can be made out to BATL-Battle of Atlanta Comm. Org., Inc., with Monument Restoration in the memo box, and sent to BATL at 1340 Metropolitan Ave., Atlanta, Ga. 30316.