Then and now: Railroad depot after fall of Atlanta and burned lard oil factory

(Library of Congress)

The Civil War brought a cacophony of sights and smells to Atlanta, a burgeoning railroad town that would literally soar from the ashes after all the fighting and burning were done.

Atlanta’s importance to the Confederacy could not be overestimated. It was a transportation nexus and prize manufacturing and logistics center. Key to its role were four railroad lines, including the Western & Atlantic, which ran a 137-line line from Atlanta to Chattanooga.

The W&A was approved in 1836, shortly before a settlement called Terminus was founded. The area was renamed Marthasville, with the final name change to Atlanta in 1847.

(GBA map)

George Barnard took the top photo of the Western & Atlantic depot and the massive roundhouse in November 1864, a couple months after the city fell to Union forces. With the negatives was this note: “These were all destroyed a few days afterwards.” William T. Sherman left nothing of military value behind as he marched his men to Savannah, Ga.

Many of the downtown railroad tracks remain in the same beds today. They are under and surrounded by buildings important to modern Atlanta, including CNN Center, Philips Arena and the Georgia Dome (all in the background of the modern shot). The old Atlanta Journal-Constitution building is on the right.

Charlie Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association, believes Barnard took the depot shot from Bridge Street (now called Broad Street).

(Library of Congress)

Within a mile of the depot were scores of buildings also vital to the Confederacy, such as offices and military warehouses.

This second photograph was taken after the city’s fall. How can we tell?

A close inspection of the box cars shows the words “USMRR” – the U.S. Military Railroad, which operated on captured lines.

On the left of the historic photo is Holland Warehouse, the home of the Atlanta lard oil factory.  Author Stephen Davis wrote that it burned Aug. 24, 1864, after it was struck by a Union shell during the bombardment of Atlanta.

The Atlanta Intelligencer a few days later reported that the shell set to fire 120 bales of cotton, destroying the warehouse.

Lard oil was popular in the mid-19^th century before coal and petroleum oil controlled the market. It was cheaper than whale oil, but was smelly and considered of lower quality. It had several uses, including for lanterns.

According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Atlanta Mayor James M. Calhoun asked businessman Sidney Root to form a “board of direct trade” during the Civil War. Resulting industries included the lard oil factory and paper mills.

The old photograph shows the Macon & Western line beginning a bend to the South. Crawford suspects it was taken from the depot. It’s impossible in a modern view to get the exact angle and proximity, but this version may be close.

(The Georgia Battlefields Association map shows the locations of wartime buildings)

Ball busters: Experts render safe ordnance recovered from CSS Georgia

A Dahlgren round is rendered inert (Photos by Jeremy Buddemeir, USACE)

While the Confederate ironclad CSS Georgia didn’t get to fire upon the enemy during the Civil War, her underwater graveyard was packed with potential peril for 150 years. That’s been remedied, thanks to a crew of technicians and engineers who rendered more than 100 artillery projectiles harmless after they were brought up by Navy divers.

Brooke shell will undergo conservation (USACE)

The 9-inch Dahlgren and 6.4-inch Brooke rifle rounds were recovered -- along with much of the scuttled ship’s wreckage -- from the Savannah River in Savannah, Ga.

The MuniRem Environmental crew used an array of technology and equipment to drill holes into each round and extract black powder, all the while ensuring they’d be safe during the “breaching” process. It used a chemical solution to flush black powder.

View from barrier with drill mechanism in background

The company said on its website: “Contrary to some expectations, less than 1% of the munitions had seawater seepage; the black powder main and primary charges were essentially dry and of high energetic hazard.”

By drilling a hole in the side of the munition, the crew was able to not disturb the fuze, the most hazardous part of the entire shell. “With the removal of the main charge the threat of a detonation and fragmentation of the munitions case was avoided,” the Georgia-based Muni Rem said. “The amount of explosives remaining within the projectile was contained within the fuze. Subsequently, the fuze was rendered safe by drilling directly though the fuze body to access and neutralize the explosives.”

A Dahlgren round resembles a bowling ball (USACE)

A fuze after removal from Brooke shell

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district in Savannah has overseen the CSS Georgia recovery. The shells were sent to Texas A&M University’s Conservation Research Laboratory for conservation.

• More details of the delicate operation

A Dahlgren round is readied for breaching (USACE)

Tickets on sale for Pulaski candlelight tours

Hot cider, cookies and holiday caroling await visitors to Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Ga., during the annual evening tours by candlelight and lamps. The commemoration of the Confederate nog party takes places on Friday, Dec. 18, and Saturday, Dec. 19. The original party, held during Christmas 1861, gave the Confederate garrison at Fort Pulaski a respite from the tension of impending battle. Tickets are on sale now. • Details

Live blog: Garrison Keillor gives keynote at Gettysburg Address anniversary

The Civil War Picket today watched a live stream of Dedication Day events marking the 152^nd anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Garrison Keillor (left) of “A Prairie Home Companion” gave the keynote address. The ceremony, which included the naturalization of 16 new American citizens, is usually held at Soldiers’ National Cemetery. It was moved to Gettysburg College because of weather concerns. (NOTE: The Picket was not in Gettysburg).

11 a.m.: Dedication Day event concludes. The colors are retired.

10:55 a.m.: Following the benediction, Taps is played.

10:51 a.m.: Recording of President Barack Obama welcoming new citizens is played, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and "God Bless America."

10:48 a.m.: Sixteen people from 12 countries -- including Ghana, Iraq, China, Vietnam and Russia -- take part in a naturalization ceremony making them U.S. citizens. A video image captures the array of diversity among the new citizens. The crowd gives a standing ovation after they take the oath of allegiance. 

10:41 a.m.: Soloist Wayne Hill sings the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

George Buss recites the Gettysburg Address (USCIS)

10:37 a.m.: Lincoln portrayer George Buss, who is about the same height and weight of the 16th president, recites the Gettysburg Address (full text is at the bottom of this post)

10:34 a.m.: Officials give Keillor the flag that was to have flown at the cemetery during the ceremony. 

10:32 a.m.: The radio variety show host says people are "awestruck" about what happened at Gettysburg and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. "God bless their memory."

10:27 a.m. Keillor, in a dark suit with a red tie and socks, recites a riveting "mashup" of letters that 12 soldiers, two from the South, wrote to loved ones back home about marching and camp life, including details of food, scenery and being homesick. Among the letters he quotes: "The boys are enthusiastic in their admiration of Pennsylvania and the nice girls in particular." Another young man wrote, "We marched a distance of 30 miles and I was pretty much used up ... I slept all unconscious until the first streak of daylight and reveille." One asked his mother to remember him in her prayers. "I hope and pray that I might be spared to see you." All the letter writers died at Gettysburg.

Keillor

10:20 a.m.: Steven Herr, president of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, introduces Garrison Keillor.

10:16 a.m.: Joanne M. Hanley, president of the Gettysburg Foundation, describes the group's role in supporting the park and mentions a Lincoln statue. "It is our duty ... that the powerful stories of Gettysburg .... are told and retold for generations."

10:13 a.m.: Ed Clark, superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park describes the role of volunteers in preserving the battlefield and establishing Soldiers’ National Cemetery. He said President Lincoln challenged America to remember what the soldiers did there. Americans today should be committed to service, he said.

10:10 a.m.: Gettysburg College's president talks about the battle's impact on the campus. Janet Morgan Riggs says students and faculty went to hear President Lincoln at the new cemetery for the fallen. "We are very proud to have played a part in these historic events."

10:06 a.m.: The Rev. Maria Erling of Gettysburg Seminary gives the invocation, asking people to be inspired by those who gave their lives. 

10:02 a.m.: After a welcome, the National Anthem is played as a color guard in Civil War-era uniforms stands in front of the stage.

9:58 a.m.: Program is about to begin.

9:43 a.m.: A small band of school-age musicians in Union uniforms is performing music at the Gettysburg College Union Ballroom.

The Gettysburg Address (delivered on Nov. 19, 1863)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Museum for black soldiers at Stone Mountain?

An official says a plan to build a museum focused on black Civil War soldiers at Georgia’s Stone Mountain, which honors Confederate history, has taken priority over a proposed monument to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The Stone Mountain Memorial Association voted to explore the museum proposal, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. • Article