Near covered bridge in suburban Atlanta, archaeologists to seek evidence of Battle of Ruff's Mill, tell stories of soldiers and civilians

Historic covered bridge on Concord Road (Georgia Battlefields Association)

Artifacts collected by Philip Ivester (Courtesy of Brian Hall Photography)

Philip Ivester’s interest in his neighborhood’s history and a collection of Civil War bullets and other relics he’s found on his property are the spark for an upcoming effort to research and locate evidence of the Battle of Ruff’s Mill, an overlooked clash during the Atlanta Campaign.

The National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program has awarded The Lamar Institute, a nonprofit archaeological group, a $96,000 grant to document the boundaries and features of the July 4, 1864, battle. The institute applied for the grant after Ivester contacted them and showed the artifacts.

“As one of over 30 strategic battles in reaction to Union flanking maneuvers and Confederate defensive fighting, the Battle of Ruff’s Mill represents these important linchpin battles resulting in the fall of Atlanta,” said Rita Elliott, education coordinator for the Savannah-based institute.

“Few of these battles have been studied archaeologically; however, and many have been destroyed, making the Battle of Ruff's Mill Project additionally important to interpreting the big picture of the Civil War, through a localized lens,” she said.

Recent public meeting on the Ruff's Mill project (Courtesy of Philip Ivester)

The Battle of Ruff’s Mill (Nickajack Creek) occurred in what is now the Concord Covered Bridge Historic District near Smyrna, Ga, about 15 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Elliott told the Picket the project’s aims include identifying specific areas of fighting, any remaining earthen works, and learning more about those involved with or affected by the battle, including enslaved African Americans who built defenses for the Confederate army.

Although there are many homes and roads covering the rustic area, county officials hope the effort “will empower the community in its education and preservation efforts.”

Charlie Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association, says Ruff’s Mill has gotten little attention because it was a brief incident between much more notable events -- namely the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (June 27) several miles north and the crossing of the Chattahoochee River by Federal forces (July 9) to the southeast.

Click map to see July 3-4 lines (Courtesy of GBA)

After his army had repulsed Union Gen. William T. Sherman at Kennesaw Mountain, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston once again had to resort to delaying tactics and a slow retreat toward Atlanta. “Johnston occupied the Smyrna Line principally to buy time for his wagons to retreat behind the Chattahoochee, and he did not intend to hold the line once that was accomplished,” said Crawford.

On July 4, 1864, Brig. Gen. John Fuller’s brigade with the 16^th Corps, supported by Sweeney’s division, attacked works held by Rebels in Hood’s command. “The Southerners fell back and dug in. Union casualties in this action totaled 140 killed and wounded. Confederate losses are not reported,” writes historian and author Stephen Davis.

That night, Johnston withdrew troops to their next position, even closer to the Chattahoochee.

Perhaps the best-known participant at Ruff’s Mill was Colonel Edward Noyes of the 39^th Ohio. The future governor was wounded in the left ankle and subsequently lost his lower leg to amputation.  

Because the line was built and held so briefly, Crawford doesn’t expect researchers to find as much physical evidence of the battle as they might at other Atlanta Campaign sites.

“I expect (the) team will find more artifacts and perhaps some less obvious fortification sites,” said Crawford, whose group supported the awarding of the grant. “While there are accounts of the fighting from some of the participants, the project may better define the boundaries of the engagements.”

Ruins of the Concord Woolen Mills (Georgia Battlefields Assocation)

The Concord Woolen Mill ruins are the best-known artifact in the Concord Covered Bridge Historic District, which has a robust website explaining the neighborhood’s Civil War ties.

“I hope we get a better understanding of what took place in our part of Cobb County during the war. It is fascinating to see what modern archaeology can glean about events that took place so long ago,” Ivester told the Picket.

He said much of the fighting at Ruff’s Mill was in the area of Heritage Park, a passive park with hiking trails. The popular Silver Comet Trail brings tens of thousands of walkers and bicyclists through the park each year. The project could provide an excellent opportunity to educate them about the Civil War.

The Lamar Institute is conducting battle research now and will be during its principal archaeological work in April, followed by a report for the county and a video. Elliott stresses the importance of community involvement.

She told The Atlanta-Journal Constitution that the team will work on public land and seek written permission to go on private property. Residents will be asked to allow them to photograph and catalog artifacts and to share any information about the battle they’ve collected on their own.

“As far as preservation of private property goes, I think it is enough to educate landowners on what they have, and let that influence their future decisions,” said Ivester. “It is important to have landowner participation, and some owners might be reluctant if they thought it would have a negative impact on the financial value of their property down the road. I see this information as adding to the value of the land.”

Ivester stressed individuals not from the area should not do any metal detecting; the land is either privately owned or belongs to Cobb County.

A myriad of groups and landowners will be following or involved in the work.

Edward Noyes lost his lower leg

In a Cobb County press release last week, District 4 Commissioner Lisa Cupid said: “While Cobb County residents appreciate and preserve their history, they cannot preserve something until it becomes tangible and locatable,” Cupid said. “This project fulfills the need to locate and identify the battlefield and its related resources, and share the information about its significance with the community so that residents and policymakers can address the battlefield’s preservation and interpretation for the public.”

The Picket had a number of questions for Elliott with The Lamar Institute. Her emailed responses are edited for brevity.

Q. What are you hoping results from the project? Preservation or interpretation?

A. There are multiple goals for the project:

1. Locate the battle, define its boundaries, identify specific activity areas within the battlefield, and identify associated defenses and offensive works;

2. Use extensive historical research of documents and maps to uncover significant detail about the battle and its troops and develop a context for it within the broader war;

3. Identify those involved (on an individual and group level) in not only the battle, but in activities and events before and after, including African-American and white men, women, and children;

4. Collaborate with various members of the community in many phases of the project in ways the community finds beneficial;

5. Share information uncovered and derived from the project with the local community as well as the broader public;

6. Encourage this information to be used by the community to interpret all facets of its past (in K-12 and college curricula and educational programs, interpretive signage in parks, trails and other green spaces, museum exhibits, on the internet, and in public programming); and to preserve portions of the site when possible.

Public meeting on the project (Courtesy of Dan Elliott)

Q. What evidence of the battle is known to exist?

A. Physical evidence likely associated with the battle currently consists of artifacts collected from the area by local landowners as well as non-local relic collectors. Documentary evidence of the battle exists most extensively in Union records, such as military records and order books, maps, and private letters. 

Q. You mentioned to The AJC you want to learn more about people who lived in the area at the time of the battle. Why is that important and what is known about them now?

A. The battle itself reflects military history -- military strategy, warfare techniques, the movement of armies, men, munitions and supplies, and wins and losses. We know about the major generals and other officers involved in the decision-making and the actual battles.

Traditional military history; however, has tended to exclude other aspects of war, including the human face of it. We know that the miles of river line defenses, shoupades and other defenses were constructed in large part by enslaved African Americans. Yet most histories rarely address this important role of African Americans in the Civil War, nor their social history on an individual level within this enforced enterprise. Likewise, women of both races played important roles in the war and were impacted by it in many different ways. Their roles are usually treated superficially, if at all, in military histories.

Click map of several Civil War clashes in Cobb County (ABPP)

And finally, there are the children. They are almost universally ignored, in spite of the fact that they may have been the most affected by war. Children also participated in the war, not the least as drummer boys and even soldiers. This project seeks to illuminate both the specific military history of the Battle of Ruff's Mill and the more elusive civilian, human history of the battle in what is to date, America's most horrific conflict.

Q. Any other thoughts on what the institute will bring to the work?

A. The Lamar Institute has received seven National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program grants over the years, been involved in an additional five with other organizations, and worked on numerous other conflict archaeology sites. Like these, the Ruff's Mill Battle Project is a scientific study that will incorporate historical research, ground-penetrating radar, and controlled metal detection survey to document the exact GPS location of every battle-related artifact.

(Courtesy of Georgia Battlefields Assocation)

Such methodology will allow us not only to find artifacts, but to uncover their complete story, including what their locations tell us about troop movements, skirmishes, and other important details within the battlefield. We will complete a comprehensive report of our research, discoveries, interpretations, and data and make this available to Cobb County and to the public.

Cobb County and many of its residents have already shown a great interest in the project.

Here's why some Civil War soldiers dyed hair for photographs

New research suggests soldiers off the battlefield during the Civil War still made time for a wee bit of vanity. Archaeological excavations at Camp Nelson  -- a former Union outpost in central Kentucky -- have unearthed broken bottles that once held hair dye likely used to darken light-toned locks that might otherwise wash out as gray or white in photographs, reports, the Lexington Herald-Leader. • Article

In wartime and as president, Grant turned to his wife, Julia, for strength. She wore this opera cloak during celebrated world tour

Julia Grant's opera cloak (Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library)

A couple years back, mostly while commuting to work by train, I read a fascinating book, “Lincoln’s Generals’ Wives: Four Women Who Influenced the Civil War -- for Better and for Worse.” It focused on Julia Grant, Ellen Sherman, Jessie Fremont and Nelly McClellan.

Author Candice Shy Hooper described Jessie and Nelly as feeding their husbands’ delusions, egos and arrogance; she provided much more laudable descriptions of the other spouses:

Grants during the Civil War

“While Ellen Sherman’s and Julia Grant’s belief in their husbands’ character and potential was ardent, it was not unbounded,” reads a book summary on Amazon. “Ellen and Julia did not hesitate to take issue with their spouses when they believed their actions were wrong or their judgments ill-advised. They intelligently supported their husbands’ best instincts -- including trust in and admiration for Lincoln -- and rebuffed their worst. They were the source of strength that Sherman and Grant used to win the Civil War.”

The book made quite clear Julia Grant’s impact on Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War and his presidency, and it’s known that they were ardently devoted to each other. In May 1877, shortly after their two terms in the White House ended, the couple – weary of the stress of leadership -- embarked on a nearly three-year, heralded world tour. Their itinerary took them to Paris on three occasions and they spent a month there during one stop.

Among their social events was a trip to the opening of the opera house in the French capital. Julia in November 1877 purchased a black, beaded silk evening wrap for the occasion. She bought a second version as a wedding present for a family friend, Fannie Drexel.

The 37-inch-long restored cloak, created by renowned French designer Emile Pingat, is on display through December 2020 at Mississippi State University’s Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library museum in Starkville.

Restored neck band with designer label (Grant Presidential Library)

According to the university, the opera cloak, containing six panels of bead work, was restored earlier this year by New Orleans conservator Jessica Hack.

“Hack vacuumed the 140-year-old cloak with a low-suction, HEPA-filtered cleaner and hand dry-cleaned the piece with mineral spirits. She also clipped and trimmed loose and broken threads, restrung broken bead strands, stabilized the neckband with a crepe-line silk overlay, dyed china silk to blend with the color of the shredded band, and heat fused the crepe line and neckband together.”

Hack told the Picket the cloak “was in very good condition” and sturdy. But the interior neck lining had deterioration and threads used to string the beads were in poor condition.

“I put all those beads on, the sheer act of handling the coat, broke more threads,” she said. “If you replace strands of beads and the strand next to it is also rotted, it is going to break.”

Hack estimated she replaced 10%-15% of the threads in the garment. “When you are stringing bead by bead and more are falling off it is sort of a never-ending task.” She also put in a new lining.

Loose and broken threads were clipped and trimmed

Julia Dent Grant enjoyed being part of the social scene, according to histories, and enjoyed opera. Ulysses, well, not so much.

Mrs. Grant apparently went on a shopping spree in Paris, including a visit or two to the House of Worth.

“I had a splendid time shopping. Mr. Worth personally directed the fitting of my costumes, and Madam Virot attended me in person for any millinery I wished, and there were no small attentions, I assure you,” she said.

Julia Grant was cross-eyed and preferred profile images (Library of Congress)

Throughout the world tour, Ulysses was hailed as a hero more for his military accomplishments than his presidency.

The Grants settled in New York City after the tour ended in late 1879. They lost nearly all their money in an investment scheme and the president wrote his classic memoirs shortly before he died in 1885 in order to procure his family some security.

In the late 1890s, Julia gave the cloak to a young woman who was attending Corcoran Art School in Washington, D.C. and stayed at her home. The recipient’s grandson donated the garment to the Ulysses S. Grant Association in the 1970s.

Julia, born to a slave-owning family, traveled with her husband throughout his Civil War campaigns and was an indefatigable champion of his work and legacy. She died in 1902.

The Grants with son Jesse on vacation (Library of Congress)

“Although a typical woman of her era in some respects, she was extraordinary in many other ways,” the National Park Service says. “She had great strength of character, shared in the mixed fortunes of her husband Ulysses S. Grant, and promoted his welfare, loved and cared for her family, and fulfilled her patriotic duty as First Lady. “

Her own memoirs weren’t published until 1975.

Writing of her “Ulys,” Julia concluded: “For nearly thirty-seven years, I, his wife, rested and was warmed in the sunlight of his loyal love and great fame, and now, even though his beautiful life has gone out, it is as when some far-off planet disappears from the heavens; the light of his glorious fame still reaches out to me, falls upon me, and warms me.”

Gettysburg to restore house occupied by African American family to its 1863 appearance; it was heavily damaged during battle

(Courtesy of Gettysburg National Military Park)

A farmhouse that belonged to an African American blacksmith and was heavily damaged and pillaged during the Battle of Gettysburg will be restored soon to its 1863 appearance.

Gettysburg National Military Park has long wanted to remove postwar additions to the home and funding finally has come through.

“The home that James Warfield and his family lived in at the time of the battle in 1863 is barely recognizable now due to subsequent owners making changes and additions to the original footprint,” park spokesman Jason Martz told the Picket on Thursday.

(NPS map, click to enlarge)

The first phase of work, slated to begin Dec. 2, will focus on demolition of the modern 2^nd and 3^rd floors and a breezeway between the stone house and garage.

Warfield, one of many free African Americans in Adams County, and his family fled as Confederates neared Gettysburg. They were afraid they could be sent south and enslaved.

Confederate troops occupied the Warfield property on the afternoon of July 2, 1863, and launched attacks against Union troops occupying Sherfy peach orchard.

“The Warfield farm was very close to the fighting on July 2 and 3. Kershaw’s South Carolinians formed there for the attack, and artillery was posted just to the east of the house, drawing Federal counterbattery fire,” reads an article on the website Battle of Gettysburg Stone Sentinels. “Longstreet’s staff may have used the house as his headquarters for a time. Although some wounded were treated there, the buildings were never formally designated as a hospital, possibly because they were so close to the fighting.”

The Warfield family returned to find their property heavily damaged and their belongings taken by the two armies. James Warfield calculated his losses at $516. The orchards, gardens and buildings were all badly damaged. Fourteen Confederates were buried in his garden, according to Stone Sentinels. 

Warfield received partial compensation, but moved to Cashtown when he was unable to sell the property. He died in 1875. The park acquired the property in the 1970s.

Drawings show what the house may have looked like during the battle (NPS)

During its restoration, the height of the two-room Warfield home essentially will be chopped in half to 1.5 floors, while retaining the original stone walls. “Restoration work will include re-establishing the original roof line and roof height; stabilizing and reconstructing sections of masonry walls; and recreating missing window and door components,” the park said in a press release.

Martz said the restored home will help the park better tell the story of Gettysburg’s African American community. Warfield had operated two hearths on his 13 acres and “ran one of the best blacksmith stands in the county,” according to the book “African Americans and the Gettysburg Campaign.”

D. Scott Hartwig, author and retired supervisory historian at Gettysburg, said: "I find the lives of these individuals to be particularly interesting, since they lived only about five miles from the border of a slave state. The little I have been able to glean from the records about how they got along with their neighbors is, they got on well."

Gettysburg National Military Park, Eisenhower National Historic Site name Steve Sims as new superintendent

Steve Sims will begin his new job early next year (NPS photo)

A West Point graduate and longtime National Park Service employee has been named the new superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site in Pennsylvania.

Steven Sims will begin his duties at Gettysburg in January, the park said in a recent press release.

“As a former Army Officer, I feel a deep responsibility to care for the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg, moreover, honoring the legacy of one of the most notable military generals and presidents of our nation is a privilege. I look forward to serving these parks and our neighbors in this new role,” Sims said in a statement.

Sims is currently serving as superintendent of Valley Forge National Historical Park, Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site and the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail.

He will replace Ed Clark as the new permanent superintendent, according to the Hanover Evening Sun. Clark went on special assignment in 2017 and is now the branch chief for the National Park Service Search and Rescue Program in the Washington Support Office. Since he left, the parks have filled in the position with various other hires for 120-day periods, the newspaper said. The current acting superintendent is Thomas Forsyth.

Gay Vietzke, a regional director for the NPS, said Sims “brings a broad set of skills that will be very beneficial to both park units. He is experienced at bringing partners together to work towards a common goal and values the importance of community engagement.”

Sims led Valley Forget through a $14 million visitor center renovation and the production of five new park orientation films scheduled for completion next summer, Vietzke said.

“His background as a West Point graduate and (US Army) military officer will provide the valuable leadership that is needed to define and carry out the mission of the parks. In his current assignment, Steve has made significant strides in reducing the park’s maintenance backlog and preserving park resources,” the director said.