Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails: The the Atlan
“They came with their heads Ge bowed down and their hats pulled over their eyes as if to hide fr view their inevitable death.”
Last year I devoted four columns to Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails’ interpretive markers that trace Sherman’s March to the Sea. Now we step back in time several months to learn about the earlier Atlanta Campaign. We will drive through northwest Georgia towa Atlanta, pausing at GCWHT’s various stops along the way. Wha decisions did the commanders make during this campaign? What did the privates do? How did the region’s geography affec the fighting? And what happened to civilians in this area in the spring and summer of the war’s fourth year? GCWHT will tell us. Our first stop is at Tunnel Hi a few miles north of Dalton. The GCWHT marker here states that “On May 7, 1864, as Union Major General John M. Clis Palmer’s 14th Corps advanced cam
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New Hope. Here, as at New Hope, a poorly-executed Federal assau resulted in a bloody repulse. The day after Pickett’s Mill, the armies clashed again in the Battle of Dallas. Two markers tell the story of a fai Confederate assault on the Unio right. Believing the Federals were withdrawing from this part of the line, and hoping to catch the enemy on the move, the Confederates probed with dismounted cavalry to determine the Federals’ strength. Finding that the works were still fully manned, the cavalry commander sent word to call off the attac A Florida brigade and the famed Orphan Brigade of Kentuckians did not get the message. They attacked. Moving against the well-prepared Federals, these brigades suffered severe losses The GCWHT marker quotes an Ohio soldier who wrote that “th
The GCWHT marker at the Oostana Gordon County Sheriff’s Office.
If you ever get to Gordon Count Sheriff Mitch Ralston, collecto of old wagons.
came with their heads bowed down and their hats pulled ove their eyes as if to hide from their inevitable death.” A marker in a downtown park provides only a brief descript of the May 28 engagement, stressing instead the effects the fighting had on the town and its vicinity. For two week “nearly 170,000 soldiers in th Federal and Confederate armies faced each other in Dallas and throughout Paulding County.” Many wounded Confederates were taken to Dallas, where th received inadequate care in th town’s “impromptu hospitals.” Confederate captain later wrot of wounded soldiers “lying in hospitals and uncared for, som of them with limbs amputated, and undressed for two days, until from neglect – the weath being warm – insects had found lodgment in every wound.”
Even before the action at Da on his right, Sherman had decid to move his force east, back to the railroad. Johnston hastened toward Kennesaw Mountain and the prepared works on terrain highly favorable to the defendi Confederates. The story of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain is well-known. Kennesaw is mapped by GCWHT as another point of interest. As at Pickett’s Mi GCWHT has installed no marker here, leaving the interpretatio of this battle to the Kennesaw National Battlefield Park. Most readers will be familiar with t story: Sherman attacked on June 27 and was checked with serious losses. The Federals still held advantage, however, and again moved around Johnston’s left flank, forcing another retreat. We will pause here, and resu our tour next month at the Batt of Peachtree Creek, where the Army of Tennessee, under a new commander, attacked the Federal at the very gates of Atlanta. Gould Hagler is a retired lobby living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table and the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation, published by Mercer University Press in 2014. Hagle speaks frequently on this topic and others related to different aspects of the Civil War and has been a regular contributor to CWN since 2016. He can be
com. Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails has clearly marked the route with directional signs that lead to interpretive markers. The organization’s
civilwarheritagetrails. org/) also contains each marker’s GPS coordinates. Brochures for the Atlanta Campaign Trail and other driving routes, available from GCWHT, contain much useful information, including excellent maps. I suggest that travelers make use of all three resources. If you use only the GPS coordinates to get from one stop to the next you will be led upon modern roads and miss much of the fun. If you are like me you will miss a sign now and then or take a wrong turn. When this happens the GPS coordinates will get you back on track. GCWHT’s address is P.O. Box 1864, Evans, Georgia, 30809.
