Georgia Natural Wonder #133 - Marietta - Civil War (Part 3). 1,043

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Georgia Natural Wonder #133 - Marietta - Civil War (Part 3)

We covered the antebellum history of Marietta yesterday. We covered all the homes still standing. Most of the War, Marietta was far from the front lines of Virginia and Tennessee.



We mentioned the locomotive chase known as Andrews Raid  in our last post on Kennesaw House. Union general Ormsby Mitchel accepted the offer of a civilian spy, James J. Andrews, a contraband merchant and trader between the lines, to lead a raiding party behind Confederate lines to Atlanta, steal a locomotive, and race northward, destroying track, telegraph lines, and maybe bridges toward Chattanooga.On April 7 1862, Andrews chose twenty-two volunteers from three Ohio infantry regiments, plus one civilian. In plain clothes they slipped through the lines to Chattanooga and en-trained to Marietta. That is when they stayed at the Kennesaw House.


Civil War Era brickwork all through downtown Marietta.

On the morning of April 12, Andrews's party boarded the northbound train. They traveled eight miles to Big Shanty (present-day Kennesaw), chosen for the train jacking because it had no telegraph. While crew and passengers ate breakfast, the raiders uncoupled most of the cars. At about 6 a.m. they steamed out of Big Shanty aboard the locomotive General, a tender, and three empty boxcars. I'll save the rest of this story for when we do a tangent on the town of Kennesaw soon.


The First Medals of Honor.

Some Confederate troops were trained at a camp in Big Shanty near the beginning of the war. Casualties from the Battle of Chickamauga made their way to Marietta in September 1863. The Georgia Military Institute was going strong.  Sherman invaded Georgia in the Spring of 1864. It only took him 3 weeks to go from Chattanooga down to Allatoona Pass sticking close to the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Sherman decided that attacking Johnston there would be too costly, so he determined to move around Johnston's left flank and steal a march toward Dallas. There were Paulding County battles of New Hope Church May 25, Pickett's Mill May 27, and Dallas May 28. Shermans troops made slow progress in a series of battles through most of June until very early July all through Cobb County.



There were skirmishes at Acworth and at Lost Mountain, but I want to feature Lost Mountain as a future Georgia Natural Wonder so I will cover Civil War action there as a tangent to that future post. I want to feature Pine Mountain as a future Georgia Natural Wonder where General Leonidas Polk was killed, with a tangent on the town and history of Kennesaw. This was two weeks of fighting, half of which were rain days.

The Drive to Marietta

The Battle of Gilgal Church took place on June 15, 1864. Confederates withdrew from Pine Mountain on the evening of June_14, 1864 following the death of Polk, leading Sherman to believe that the Confederate line west of Pine Mountain was vulnerable.



Major General Daniel Butterfield, best known today as the composer of "Taps," advanced in battle line formation on a "reconnaissance in force." On June 16 Milo Haskall, in command of the 2nd Division of XXIII Corps, took high ground east of General Patrick Cleburne's position near Gilgal Church. From the high ground Haskall realized that he could enfilade Cleburne's position. 



Butterfield would suffer the same fate at the hands of Cleburne as two of his superiors had earlier in The Civil War. "Cump" Sherman ran into the British-trained Pat Cleburne's division during the Battle of Missionary Ridge where Cleburne stubbornly held high ground on Braxton Bragg's right in spite of being outnumbered 10 to 1. 



Joe Hooker ran headlong into the Irish-born Cleburne at Battle of Ringgold Gap and was repulsed in spite of holding a 4-to-1 numerical superiority. Butterfield had been involved in the fighting at Ringgold Gap and tried the same tactics that Hooker did to start the engagement, a brutal head-on attack on a fortified position. 



Opposing Butterfield's division were three Confederate brigades under the commands of Hiram Granbury, Daniel Goven, and Lucius Polk, a cousin of the recently departed Leonidas Polk.


Marker stands in front of the relocated 1880s Kennesaw Due West School, opposite the reconstructed trench works. The school house was relocated to this site in the 1980s.

The Union commander formed a battleline, then advanced towards Cleburne's men, easily driving back the Rebel skirmishers. As the Federals approached, Cleburne's men hurried to Gilgal Church, which stood at the strategic intersection. About this time Cleburne ordered his men to reinforce the main line with the wood from Gilgal Church, and they completely dismantled it in order to incorporate the wood and pews in their fortifications. Brigadier General Ward was 500 yards from the Rebel line and the Union Army watched the church being dismantled by Confederates under artillery and light arms fire. 

 

By the time the church was completely dismantled Haskell's artillery began the enfilading fire from the nearby knoll. The Union troops attacked and were quickly repulsed with the loss of about 200 men. Cleburne's casualties were negligible. While the Confederate infantry stopped Butterfield's attack before reaching the Rebel line, they were less successful with Geary's brigade on their right. Geary's men came close to the Rebel works but were repulsed before reaching them. The 70th Indiana Regiment, formed by future President of the United States Benjamin Harrison fought hard, sustaining 49 casualties. 


Due West Community

During the attack, Cleburne spun two artillery batteries to the left to return Haskell's fire. Before Butterfield and Geary withdrew after about 45 minutes of engagement, Haskell ceased fire and pulled his artillery from the knoll but continued to advance with 8 regiments from the Army of the Ohio. Ward's division entrenched north of Cleburne's line, but with Haskall approaching on his left, Cleburne's position was untenable. That evening, Hardee ordered him to withdraw and form the southern flank on a ridge just east of Mud Creek. 



The Union troops took over the trench and used it against the Southern troops the next day. The Reversed Trench Marker is on Maryhill Lane, on the left when traveling west. Marker site is in the new Woodhill Subdivision off Hamilton Road.



There are many figures for the losses during the Battle of Gilgal Church, mostly stemming from the fact that Geary's Division was involved in two battles that day, Pine Knob and Gilgal Church. Geary's reported casualties totaled some 500 men. Butterfield lost another 150 for just Gilgal Church and Cleburne suffered some 250 casualties. 


Battle Pine Knob Marker is on Hamilton Road 0 miles north of Kennesaw Due West Road, on the right when traveling south.

On the hill were the twenty cannon, which would soon belch forth destruction to  Confederate ranks. The two Union regiments silently but rapidly cross a ravine where they encounter two rebel regiments.



The Twenty-ninth Ohio regiment went into this action with two hundred members, of whom thirty-nine were killed and wounded.


Battle Pine Knob

Lucius Polk would be seriously injured during fighting a few days later on June 17. He would never be fit for battle again. Hiram Granbury and Patrick Cleburne would die during the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.

Friendly Fire at Dickson House


Site of Dickson House Marker is at the intersection of Acworth-Due West Road and Abbey Oaks Lane, on the right when traveling south on Acworth-Due West Road. 

Cobb County moved the house to a new location on county property behind 1792 County Services Parkway. Efforts to restore it have been bolstered by a memoir by Dickson's daughter Eliza Dickson Helton. She was 14 at the time of the 1864 battle and dictated her story in November 1935 the year before her death.


Dickson House

She said that as Northern troops approached the house and the nearby strategic intersection of Sandtown, Burnt Hickory and Due West roads, Union artillerists in the distance mistook several Union infantrymen in the veranda of the house for Rebels. "The Northern soldiers seeing them supposed they were Confederate soldiers and turned the cannon on them, the ball killing five and wounding one. Six graves were made in the garden. They had killed their own men. … These soldiers fell dead in the hall," she dictated. Their bodies were moved after the war to the National Cemetery in Marietta, but the stains from their blood remain on the floorboards.
 


Breastworks for a four-gun Union artillery position are still visible on a nearby hill along Acworth-Due West. Lending further credence to Helton's memories is the fact that four shell-damaged floor joists can still be seen beneath the one-story house. The house's hand-hewn log walls are believed to still bear bullet holes as well. The house was remodeled in the 1920s in the then-popular Craftsman style, which is part of the reason that county zoning officials had overlooked its historic nature. Gen. Joe Hooker, one of Sherman's corps commanders, used the Dickson House as a headquarters during the brief battle of Gilgal Church, according to the Official Records of the War of Rebellion.

6/16/1864

Today, a 20-acre wooded tract with earthworks marks Butterfield's battleground at Gilgal Church from yesterday. One mile east, a 5-acre history preserve with a historical marker locates the forward-most position gained by Geary that night at Pine Knob. Sherman's casualties in this failed effort are estimated to have been just fewer than 1,000 men. That same day a diversionary attack by McPherson at the foot of Brushy Mountain was more successful, netting the capture of some 300 Alabama infantry. Tactically, it was the one bright spot in Sherman's otherwise rather dismal day.



The Brushy Mountain Line ran from Brushy Mountain a mile or so northeast of Kennesaw Mountain due west about 11 miles to Lost Mountain and was occupied by Confederate Gen. Joe Johnston's Army of Tennessee from June 9-18, 1864. The line also was anchored on Pine Mountain, atop which Gen. Leonidas Polk was killed on June 14. Johnston ultimately decided the line was too long to be held by his army and withdrew the western half of the line to a shorter line anchored along Mud Creek.

Battles of Mud Creek Line

The tactical defeat on the 15th at Gilgal Church evolved into a strategic advantage for Sherman two days later. Learning that Confederate cavalry had abandoned their trenches toward Lost Mountain, leaving his flank exposed to enfilading artillery fire from the Army of the Ohio, Hardee withdrew several miles to the east bank of Mud Creek the night of June 16. Here he anchored his right on a steep hill (now called French's) tying to the left of French's division of Polk's corps (now commanded by Loring), forming here a pivot or salient. Hardee's left would simultaneously swing south two miles to a position along the east bank of Mud Creek to a point just beyond the Dallas/Marietta road. Thus Hardee substantially reduced the length of his front and better protected his flanks. This new alignment of fortifications became known as the "Mud Creek Line."


Hardee's Salient Marker is at the intersection of New Salem Road and Salient Road NW, on the right when traveling north on New Salem Road. Hardee's Salient is now at the entrance to a development.

The point at which the two lines came together about a mile due north of Kennesaw Mountain was exposed to enfilading Union artillery fire and later was described by Maj. Gen. Samuel French as the "hottest" point held by his unit during the entire war. It was so exposed, in fact, that Johnston pulled his army back on June 18 to another trench line anchored on Kennesaw Mountain itself. The "salient" area was occupied by French's troops from June 16-18.



The area that includes French's Salient was developed into the upscale Barrett Green subdivision off New Salem Road in the late1990s, but the developers, Jim Willoughby and Joe Sewell of nearby Acworth, were sensitive to the historic nature of the property. They designed the subdivision so that virtually no trenches were destroyed. Rather, they used them as greenbelt buffers between adjoining properties. They are protected by covenants as well. French had crowded his entire artillery battalion in the salient, some 12 pieces, according to Scaife. That encompassed Guibor's Battery, Ward's Alabama Battery and Hoskin's Mississippi Battery, Wright said. All three batteries were under the command of Maj. George S. Storr, who commanded all of French's artillery, which had a complement of 10 Napoleons and a pair of 3-inch rifled cannons, according to Wright.


Peter Simonson killed Marker is at the intersection of Frank Kirk Road and Kennesaw Due West Road, on the right when traveling north on Frank Kirk Road. 

 
Grave of Simonson in Columbia City Indiana. On June 15th, 1864 Captain Simonson ordered the artillery shot that killed Confederate General Leonidas Polk. Simonson himself was killed the next day by a rebel sharp shooter at Pine Mountain, Georgia.

The Union side of the Mud Creek Line centered around Darby Plantation.


Darby Plantation Marker is at the intersection of Marietta Highway (Georgia Route 120) and Bob Cox Road, on the right when traveling east on Marietta Highway. Marker is at entrance to shopping center opposite Bob Cox Road. The house has been extensively remodeled since the Civil War. The porch is a later addition, probably in the first third of the 20th century. The wing to the back was probably built at the same time. The window on the second floor appears to be original, while the ones on the first floor were probably added at the same time as the rear addition.



Cannon Duel



There was action at Green Plantation - Rebel Correspondence….

HDQRS. ROSS' BRIGADE, JACKSON'S CAVALRY DIVISION, 
Anderson's Steam-mill, Ga., June 17, 1864-1 p.m.
Brigadier-General JACKSON,Commanding Division:

GENERAL: I held my position on the hill by Widow Green's until the Yankee infantry charged in heavy column upon my front, with line extending clear across those two forty-acre fields. My artillery and small-arms played on them until their column came up within 200 yards. My men and cannoneers stood most gallantly and damaged the enemy seriously. My loss is very slight, I think. They intercepted the messenger from the mounted squadron on my left, and a heavy column of infantry came in behind me and shot down some of my horse holders. My command moved off without further confusion, while the Third Texas held in check the force pressing my flanks and rear. I am now at Anderson's Mill, all right. Armstrong's battery here. Please let me hear where you desire my line permanently established.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
L. S. ROSS,Brigadier-General.


Ross

Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross (September 27, 1838 – January 3, 1898) was the 19th Governor of Texas, a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, and a president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, now called Texas A&M University.



He is credited with saving the school from closure, and his tenure saw a large expansion in college facilities and the birth of many school traditions. One tradition is placing coins on his statue foot/base.


Green Plantation Marker is on Marietta Highway (Georgia Route 120) 0 miles west of Casteel Road SW, on the right when traveling west.

6/18/1864

On the 18th, French’s division was pounded by a day-long crossfire of Union artillery. On the same day, at the Dallas/Marietta road near the Darby House, Hardee’s anchor fort was destroyed in an intense three-hour duel with two Union batteries attached to the advancing Army of the Ohio. Hardee had posted batteries of artillery on a bluff overlooking Mud Creek at the point where the Dallas & Marietta Road crosses the stream; creating a military strong point at this southern end of the Mud Creek defense. Hardee’s guns at this fortress covered a mile or more of the open bottomland of the creek. 



Hardee’s cannons at the Mud Creek Line looking west toward Mud Creek (under bridge) and the Darby House.



Across from the bluff, on the west side of the creek, was a hill at the Darby Plantation almost as high in elevation as the bluff. Here, protected by the crest of the hill, Captain Giles J. Cockerill, Battery “D” of the 1st Ohio Artillery, began firing with “nothing but the muzzles of the guns…visible from the front.” 


Battery H of the 1st Ohio.

Cockerill maintained an hour - long artillery duel with Hardee’s guns at the near - point blank range of less than .9 mile. Hardee’s guns were soon silenced and the fort left in shambles. 



Site Darby Plantation Marker is at the intersection of Marietta Highway (Georgia Route 120) and Bob Cox Road, on the right when traveling east on Marietta Highway. Marker is at entrance to shopping center opposite Bob Cox Road. 


 
Colonel Lucius Polk, nephew of General Leonidas Polk, the commander of the fort, was seriously injured and permanently disabled in this action.

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Brief tangent on Polk.



Lucius Eugene Polk (July 10, 1833 - December 1, 1892) was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was the nephew of Leonidas Polk. Polk was born in Salisbury, North Carolina. When he was two years of age, the family moved near Columbia, Tennessee. Polk attended the University of Virginia in 1850-51, before settling in Helena, Arkansas, where he was a planter.

In 1861, Polk enlisted in the Yell Rifles as a private under Patrick Cleburne, who he served under during most of the War. His first military action came soon after when the Rifles joined other Arkansas troops in Little Rock (Pulaski County) to prevent the contents of the Federal Arsenal from being removed and used by the Federal army or destroyed. Thanks to the actions of the Arkansas troops, they were used instead to bolster the Confederate cause.


Yell Rifles. 

Often, the career of a junior officer in the military is tied to that of a higher-ranking officer. In the case of Polk, his success bound to that of Patrick Cleburne. It was under Cleburne’s command that Polk was elected to a first lieutenant’s position. In 1862, Cleburne’s regiment was transferred across the Mississippi River with many other Arkansas units and “Confederatized” into service with the Confederate army building up around Corinth. At the Battle of Shiloh, then Junior Second Lieutenant Polk was wounded in the face. He was promoted to colonel of the 15th Arkansas Infantry Regiment following Shiloh. Polk later commanded the troops covering the Confederate retreat from that campaign. He served in the campaign in Kentucky under General Kirby Smith and was wounded at the battles of Richmond and Perryville. 


15th Arkansas Flag replica.

Polk also fought at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where his uncle, General Leonidas Polk, was in command of a division. After the Battle of Murfreesboro, Cleburne was made major general, and Polk again followed him, becoming a general and commanding Cleburne’s old brigade. When Cleburne was promoted to divisional command, Polk was appointed brigadier general from December 13, 1862. Polk took part in fighting at Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and in the Atlanta Campaign. Polk was severely wounded in the thigh on June 17th, 1864, when the horse he was riding was stuck by a cannon ball. General Joseph Johnston remarked that “but for the valor of General Lucius Polk’s Brigade, we would not have carried the day.” He was listed thereafter as “unfit for battle.” While recuperating from his wounds, he returned to the family plantation in Tennessee, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was honorably discharged from the Army.

Polk married Sally Moore, a distant cousin, on August 19, 1863, at her family’s Forks of the Cypress plantation in Alabama. They had six children.



Forks of the Cypress 1935 and today.

During Reconstruction, Polk had an encounter with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Tennessee. One night, a group of KKK riders entered his property, saying they were there to whip an African-American man for causing “a great deal of mischief.” Polk, hobbled from wounds caused by fighting for the Confederacy, faced the Klansmen, telling them “if you do so, it will be over my dead body, for I am his natural protector.” They left without attempting their intended violence.

He was late to enter Tennessee politics. He served as a delegate to the 1884 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In 1887 he was elected to the Tennessee Senate. Polk died on December 1, 1892, at his home in Tennessee. He is buried in St. John’s Churchyard at Ashwood, near Columbia, Tennessee.


State Senator Polk.

-----------------------------------------

Meanwhile on the northern end of the Mud Creek Line……………

General Joseph Johnston´s (CSA) Army constructed a network of earthworks across Latimer´s Farm in an attempt to slow the advance of General William Sherman´s (USA) Army toward Atlanta. On the afternoon of the 17th and the morning of June 18, 1864, Federal troops attacked the earthworks occupied by the First Missouri Brigade of General F.M. Cockrell (CSA). The attack led by Colonel Frederic Bartleson (USA) 4th Army Corps during a violent thunderstorm, successfully drove the Confederates back to their main line of earthworks. Despite Confederate counterattacks and artillery barrage, the Federals were able to hold ground. The next morning (19th) General Johnston (CSA) withdrew his forces to stronger positions on Kennesaw Mountain.


Action at Latimer’s Farm Marker is on Marietta Country Club Drive NW 0.1 miles south of Lattimore Farm Drive NW, on the right when traveling south.



Bartleson charged right across this present day fairway at the Marietta Country Club. 



On the 17th at the Mud Creek Line, in a sudden dash during a thunderstorm, three regiments led by one-armed Colonel Frederick Bartelson (wounded at Chickamauga and a recently returned prisoner of war from Libby Prison) captured a position near French's Hill. He led his men on a charge through two waist deep creeks to a low ridge in a large open field where they were momentarily stopped experiencing heavy rifle fire from nearby Confederates. They then continued the charge to the next ridge where they overwhelmed the Confederate reserve skirmish line, taking several prisoner's from Walker's division near the crest of the hill at Latimer House. This position was less than 200 yards from the hill occupied by General French, the salient point in the Confederate "Mud Line". Equipped with Spencer repeating rifles, they succeeded in holding the point through the night despite several Confederate counterattacks. During the charge across the field, several short rounds of artillery from Federal guns had fallen among them. Bartelson's location posed a serious threat to the new Confederate line of defense.

Holy Cow, this Bartelson fellow worth a tangent…..

Colonel Frederick A. Bartleson of the 100th Illinois. He was born November 10, 1833 and was an Illinois state attorney. In the spring of 1858 he was the prosecutor in an odd case in Joliet. A man was accused of killing a young woman (who he might have been romantically linked to). During the trial the young woman was presented as a witness for the defense, which effectively won the case. It seems that the dead body had no clear identifying marks so the young lady's mother decided to blackmail the defendant claiming the body was her daughter. The truth was that some local doctors wanted to learn their trade on a fresh corpse. They hired someone to dig up a freshly buried woman, when they were done the man had second thoughts about reburying the woman and instead dumped her in a secluded area. I'm guessing charges were dropped since he didn't kill his girlfriend after all.

Bartleson is credited with being the first man from Joliet to volunteer for the Union. At a rally after the fall of Fort Sumter he enrolled and said, "I will ask no man to do that, which I would not be willing to do myself." He entered the service as captain of Company B in the 20th Illinois. The regiment fought at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. Bartleson lost an arm at Shiloh. When he was healed he was given command of the 100th Illinois in August 1862.


 Bartleson with one arm.

The 100th Illinois fought at Stones River and then at Chickamauga, where Bartleson was wounded while making a brilliant charge on one of the enemy's batteries. He was captured and sent to Libby Prison where he was kept in close confinement eight months, suffering severe privations. In March 1864, he was paroled, and citizens of Joliet Illinois recollect the enthusiastic reception given him on his return to our city. He remained here but a short time when his exchange was affected, and to the great joy of his regiment, he took command of it again. But he had been at the post of duty but a few weeks when his valuable and eventful life was cut short. On June 23, 1864 he was killed in the fighting at Kennesaw Mountain. He was buried in Joliet. He had no children but his spouse was Catherine Murray.

His obituary in The Joliet Signal Newspaper on Tuesday, July 12, 1864 says of his death: "An advance was ordered and the Colonel had command of the front skirmish line, and while leading his column in plain view of the enemy, was pierced through the body by a rebel bullet and fell from his horse and was taken up and carried from the field's lifeless corpse." 


Snuff box and sword.

It also said of Bartleson, "Well may the citizens of Joliet mourn the loss of one so noble and brave as Col. Bartleson proved himself to be Courteous and honorable, he won the respect and confidence of all who knew him. Gentle as a lamb and as brave as a lion, he captivated the feelings and inspired his soldiers with more than human courage. Truly, his death, at this critical juncture of affairs, is a national calamity."



Bartleson has only days left before Battle Kolb's Farm.

6/19/1864

In the predawn hours of June 19, the Mud Creek battle line would be abandoned. The Confederates withdrew to the new line of the defense at the foothills of Kennesaw Mountain, with the flanks of Brushy Mountain eastward, and trailing south across the Powder Springs Road near the Kolb House.


Kennesaw Spur Marker is on Burnt Hickory Road 0.1 miles east of Old Mountain Road. The marker is located in the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.



Private Peter Culp of Company H, 15th Ohio, was a member of a squad of Federal soldiers assigned to round up stragglers in the now abandoned Confederate trenches of the "Mud Line". Cupp was having quite a day. With two or three of these Confederate stragglers in hand, Cupp was ordered by his sergeant to escort the prisoners to the rear. Rounding a corner in the trench, Cupp nearly collided with a company of Confederate infantry. In the darkness assuming at first that these were fellow Federals, he discovered that they were instead Confederates. 

A conversation then ensued in which Cupp, with great coolness and address, explained to the captain commanding the company the condition of things. He said that the captain's friends had left and that four companies of ours had entered their works and were between him and his friends, which to say the least was a bit of an exaggeration. He said the best thing the captain could do was to surrender. Cupp's prisoners and his close proximity to the works corroborating his story, the captain conclude that "discretion was the better part of valor" and he surrendered himself, captain S. Yates Levy, his lieutenant, and 17 men, Company D, 1st Georgia Regiment of Volunteers, as prisoners of war. Cupp placed himself at the head of their march back to Federal lines.



With this and with several other similar episodes, the trenches of Mud Creek were cleared of Confederates and secured by the Federals. By the 19th of June, with the Mud Creek defensive line now abandoned, the next eleven days of June would be characterized by cavalry battles on the Bells Ferry and Canton Roads, brigade and divison size fighting along the Burnt Hickory Road, and the battles at Kolb Farm and Kennesaw Mountain.


Confederate prisoners.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH ARMY CORPS, 
Near Wallace's House, June 19, 1864-7 p. m.

Major-General THOMAS:

GENERAL: In the operations of to-day my command has taken prisoners 14 commissioned officers and 236 enlisted men. Of this number General Newton reports that Colonel Miller turned over 5 officers and 30 men to General Baird. Captain Dawson, of the Fifteenth Ohio Infantry, captured an entire company of the First Georgia, with all of its officers, very adroitly.

Very respectfully,
O. O. HOWARD,Major-General


Young Howard. Dang another Yankee who whooped us with one arm behind his back.

Brief tangent..... Oliver Otis Howard lost his right arm while leading his men against Confederate forces at Fair Oaks in June 1862, an action which later earned him the Medal of Honor. As a corps commander, he suffered two humiliating defeats at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in May and July 1863, but recovered from the setbacks as a successful corps and later army commander in the Western Theater. Howard was also a leader in promoting higher education for freedmen (former African American slaves), most notably in founding of Howard University in Washington and serving as its president 1867 - 73. Howard also commanded troops in the West, conducting famous Indian campaigns against the Nez Perce, Apaches, Bannocks, and Paiutes.


Old Howard. Surprised that one of most famous black schools named after Civil War General.


Howard University.

In 1850, Josiah Wallis came to Cobb County and purchased land lot 290 containing a comfortable frame house consisting of five rooms with a central hall and two chimneys. A log kitchen with a cooking fire place and chimney was constructed nearby. The Wallis family refuged here in June 1864.



On June 19th, Major General Oliver O. Howard, commander of the federal IV Army Corps. Notified Sherman that his headquartes was now at "Wallace's (Wallis) house on the Marietta (Burnt Hickory) Road." In the days immediately preceding June 19th, the Wallis house had been used as a Confederate field hospital for the nearby battles of Latimore's Farm and Mud Creek. Soldiers who died while at the Wallis house were buried across the road in a Peach Orchard on what is today the property of Ruby Walker. When the Confederate line moved eastward to nearby Pigeon Hill and Little Kennesaw Mountain on the 19th, the Wallis House and the hill behind it began to be used as a command center, signal station, and telegraph relay exchange. Since the house was located at the halfway point between Brushy Mountain in the east and the southernmost Federal activities near the Kolb House on the Powder Springs Road, Sherman spent a lot of time here with General Howard. The battles on nearby ridges were directed from this command center at the Wallis House.



The Wallis House is extremely difficult to see from Burnt Hickory Road. Unfortunately the property was developed and the trenches and earthworks are now lost to history. In the 1950's work was undertaken to exhume the Confederate bodies, as well as parts and pieces that were amputated from victims of the warfare and found in the crawlspace of the home. Those bodies/parts found were interred in the Confederate Cemetery in Marietta. There were many fine relics unearthed here and many of them can be found at the Big Shanty Museum in Kennesaw, GA.



6/20/1864

On the 20th, the Josiah Wallis House on Burnt Hickory Road became the headquarters of General Oliver O. Howard, commander of the Fourth Corps. Here, for the next few days, Howard directed the attacks on nearby hills - including division-size assaults on hills lying behind the knee-deep swampy flats of Noyes Creek.


Noyes Creek.

One of these hills would later be called "Nodine's Hill" following heavy combat there in mid June. Kirby's and Nodine's brigades gained and lost the hill several times on June 20. The Nodine's Hill land includes remnant Union entrenchments, rifle pits and cannon placements. Nodine's Hill was an intense battle where Union and Confederate troops dug entrenchments, for rifle pits and cannon placements. They were built with wet clay and baked in the Georgia sun. Although many of the man made trenches still stand today, without the recent purchase more mounds would be destroyed by bulldozers. An area next to Nodine's Hill, was developed into the 75-home subdivision called Hays Farm in 2005.


24th Alabama defended Nodine's Hill.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH ARMY CORPS, Kennesaw Mountain, June 20-10.15 p. m.
Major-General THOMAS,Commanding Department:

General Stanley succeeded in carrying the hill in his immediate front, driving the enemy from the skirmish rifle-pits. He advanced close up to the enemy's works and made a cover on Whitaker's front, which was scarcely completed, when the enemy charged in strong force, and was quickly repulsed. He made a second attempt in less than half an hour afterward, and was again repulsed. Colonel Kirby had not established a main line on the hill he took, and his skirmish line was driven back a short distance. This, however, can be easily retaken, as it is under the fire of Wood's batteries.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

O. O. HOWARD, Major-General.


Hay's Farm Field.

As Johnston guarded the mountain environs for battle, Sherman plotted preliminary strategy. The union commanding general wanted to keep flexible, keep his options open - to attack, to continue using leverage against enemy weaknesses, or to quickly pursue if Johnston fled. Weather, terrain, and enemy observation again negated thoughts of swift maneuvers. Above all, he wanted to maintain pressure on Johnston. He ordered McPherson to make threats against the confederate right, and Thomas to maintain close contact on their front and left, while Schofield marched south along Sandtown Road looking to cross Noyes' creek and get around the rebels' flank.



Sherman's low confidence in the commanders had kept his cavalry close to the army's flanks, but they were not allowed to relax. General McCook's troopers patrolled to Powders Springs and scouted down toward the Chattahoochee. on the opposite flank, near McPherson, Sherman ordered brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard's 2nd cavalry division to cross Noonday Creek and fight Johnston's cavalry.



On June 20 Garrard's 1st brigade, led by col. Robert H.G. Minty, crossed the creek and sloshed south along Bell's Ferry Road. This movement brought an immediate response from Gen. Joe Wheeler, who launched an attack with 1,100 in three brigades. Between the creek and the cross roads by Dr. Robert MacAfee's farmhouse erupted an old-fashioned cavalry engagement, complete with charging steeds, swinging sabers, cuts, thrusts, and parries.


McAffee's house.

After two hours of charges - two spurred by the union, three by the confederates - Minty fell back to reinforcements at the bridge. Each side claimed victory, but cavalry fights usually were not decisive. Total combined casualties numbered over a hundred.

Union Report

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO, In the Field, Ga., June 20, 1864-10 p. m.
Major General W. T. SHERMAN,Commanding Military Division of the Mississippi:

GENERAL: I pushed forward a reconnaissance on the Marietta road and also on the Sandtown road, each about two miles, meeting with no resistance except from a small force of cavalry. This took until sometime after dark, and I did not deem it prudent to go farther in the night. We did not find the cross-roads said to exist about one mile and a half from the bridge, although we went quite two miles from that point. I now occupy the intersection of the Marietta and Sandtown roads, somewhat less than half a mile from the bridge, covering the crossing completely, with room to cross and deploy my entire force. I will push forward in the morning according to your plans, as the enemy's movements, if any, during the night, shall indicate. I regard it as certain that there is now no material obstacle between me and Marietta, nor on the Sandtown road as far as the next creek. The rebel cavalry in my front appears to have retreated toward Marietta, as no resistance was met on the Sandtown road.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,J. M. SCHOFIELD,Major-General, Commanding.



Cheney House was occupied by Confederate forces June 20th. This Greek Revival plantation house was built by Andrew Jackson Cheney. The house was used by Union Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in 1864. The Schofield Barracks in Pearl Harbor are named after him. The exterior is stabilized but the interior needs rehabilitation. The house is owned by the Cobb Preservation Foundation and is for sale, and CLHS will take steps to promote its sale and preservation.



6/21/1864

Fighting continued today at Nodine's Hill. Kirby's and Nodine's brigades gained and lost the hill several times on June 20. Reinforced today, and under direct orders from an impatient Howard, the two tried again. Artillery fire was directed on the hill for half an hour. The advance was then made by the two brigades. The enemy was driven off with a loss of some prisoners. They succeeded this time in holding the ground despite counterattacks and heavy concentrated barrages of artillery. The knob was entrenched under a hot fire from the Confederate batteries in front. Wood was enabled at the same time to march two regiments against another height still farther to the right and front, which he occupied, thereby forcing the abandoning of a long entrenched skirmish line and enabling the whole of the right of Howard's Corps to move forward across an open field several hundred yards.



Hooker's Corps advanced at the same time, occupying important positions down to Kolb's Farm, and connecting with Howard on his left. The fighting here on this and nearby hills was especially close and personal, combative and aggressive - often hand-to-hand and frequently continuing into the night.


Map shows area of Nodine Hill.




Atlanta Outdoor Club hikes Nodine Hill.

Meanwhile along the present day Powder Springs Road, the whole of Cox's division under Schofield was over Noyes Creek. Hascall's division was moved up in close support. They sent pickets to the left between the forks of Noyes Creek where they connected with the right of Hooker's Corps. The Confederate Calvary under Jackson showed an aggressive disposition in the direction of Powder Springs, and on word from Colonel Adams, who commanded Stoneman's detachment on that road, that he was hard pressed, a regiment of infantry and a section of artillery was sent from Cox's division to his support. With this help Stoneman drove back his assailants, but the enemy's activity indicated a nearer support of his infantry.


Schofield .

Johnston had begun to be concerned for the Marietta and Powder Springs Road, for Hooker's right was close to it, and Schofield's movements were threatening to put him astride of it. Hardee had stretched his lines quite as far as were safe, and the Confederate commander determined to move the whole of Hood's Corps from the right ( at Brushy Mountain overlooking present day Barrett Parkway) to the left flank ( at Kolb's Farm on Powder Springs Road). Ordering Wheeler to show a bold front and make as strong a fight with his dismounted cavalry as he could, Johnston left these, with such help as could be got by stretching Loring's Corps to the right, to fill the trenches out of which Hood was drawn. The movement was made in the night of the 21st, and by next morning Hood was upon the Powder Springs Road, near Zion Church, about a mile east of Kolb's farm. The first day of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain would begin tomorrow.



Now I have already covered the Battle of Pigeon Hill and Little Kennesaw Mountain - GNW #131. We covered the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain - GNW #133 (Part1). These happened on the same day, 6/24/1864. The action on June 22nd happened at Kolb's Farm off Powder Springs Road. I will post of that battle when I post about The Dead Angle, the main skirmish involved in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. The Dead Angle involves a geographical feature and is a stretch for a separate Georgia Natural Wonder, but there is such a large tangent, it warrants a separate post.

Capture of Marietta

The Confederate forces under General Johnston withdrew from their Kennesaw Line the night of July 2-3 and took up a new position at a double line of breastwork, prepared in advance, running from the old Smyrna Camp Ground east of the R.R. From this point, the Confederate line ran east to Nickajack Creek, south of Ruff´s Mill. Maj. Gen. William W. Loring's Corp on the right, Lieutenant General William J. Hardee's Corp held the center and Lieutenant General John B. Hood's Corp held the left. This line become known as the Smyrna-Ruff Mill Line.



Early in the morning of July 3rd, Union troops on Cheatham's Hill discovered that the Confederates had abandoned their defenses. Sherman had resumed flanking maneuvers, and after successfully going around the Rebel left, Johnston withdrew from Kennesaw Mountain.


Federal Troops occupy Marietta. Marker is at the intersection of Whitlock Avenue SW (Georgia Route 120) and Burnt Hickory Road NW, on the right when traveling west on Whitlock Avenue SW.

  

Federals gained possession of the Kennesaw House hotel. We covered the Kennesaw House in our last post. It briefly became Major General William T. Sherman's headquarters on July 3rd as his armies pressed the Confederate army toward Atlanta. In November, Federal troops set fire to much of Marietta before beginning their "March to the Sea." Sherman reportedly spared the hotel because Dix Fletcher was a Mason. Kennesaw House and Markers are on Marietta Station Walk NW near Depot Street NW, on the left when traveling north.



Fletcher's son-in-law, Henry Cole, was also a Federal spy. However the hotel's fourth floor did catch fire as ashes from other burning buildings blew onto the roof. The fourth floor was never rebuilt. After Dix Fletcher completed repairs in 1867 he reopened the Kennesaw House. It remained a hotel well into the 20th century.


Kennesaw House downtown Marietta, just like 1864.

With the occupation of Marietta by Federal forces July 3, 1864, Garrard´s cav. was sent to Roswell to secure a Chattahoochee River crossing for the passage of McPherson´s Army of the Tennessee, which was later shifted from the Federal right to the extreme left. The women and children from Roswell Mill and Sweetwater Creek Mills were shipped north on trains from Marietta.



On July 3, 1864, General William T. Sherman's Union forces occupied Marietta after the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (June 27, 1864). When the troops departed in November on the March to the Sea, they set fire to all the buildings around the square except the Masonic Hall. Sparks traveled a block westward, setting the top floor of the four-story Fletcher House on fire. The soldiers also destroyed about twenty residences, Glover's tannery, and the Georgia Military Institute, on the southern edge of town.



The last mountain range north of Atlanta was tough and the Union assault failed to dislodge Confederate forces from their entrenched positions. Nonetheless, a part of the Union force outflanked the Confederates, forcing them to abandon the mountain, as they struggled to stay between Sherman and Atlanta. Union forces occupied Marietta on July 3, 1864. The Battle of Smyrna and Ruffs Mill finished out the action in Cobb County as Federal Troops crossed the Chattahoochee River to begin the Atlanta Campaign.


Area around Ruff's Mill and Old Covered Bridge, Nickajack Gorge will be future GNW. Tangent on Shoupades Park and Johnston River Line.

Atlanta fell in September and the Battle of Allatoona Pass happened in Bartow County on October 28 occurring as Sherman was starting his march through Georgia, that will be a future GNW. Union forces still occupied Marietta but they left in November and burnt most houses and confiscated or burnt crops in Cobb County before they evacuated. Today the county's role in the war is commemorated in several museums detailed in other post and at Kennesaw Mountain National Park. A future post will detail the town of Kennesaw and the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, which houses the locomotive General used during Andrews Raid.



After the war two military cemeteries were opened in Marietta. Henry Greene Cole, a prominent Marietta citizen, offered land on the east side of town as a burial ground for the honored dead of both sides. After bitter townspeople rejected that idea, the federal government turned the Cole property into a cemetery for Union casualties, named the Marietta National Cemetery.



Marietta National Cemetery was established in 1866 to provide a suitable resting place for 10,312 Officers and Soldiers who died in defense of the Union from Sherman's Atlanta Campaign.



Over the next three years Union soldiers from Dalton to Augusta were disinterred and reinterred at the Marietta National Cemetery. These men had been buried with wooden grave markers, and by 1869, when the last group was transferred, many of the markers and the names were gone.



More than 17,000 men are buried here, more than 3,000 of them unknown.



The Wisconsin (Badger) Monument, dedicated in 1925 to 405 men from Wisconsin who died during the Civil War and were interred at the cemetery.



General W. A. Cunningham (1886–1968), United States Army Colonel and University of Georgia Head Football Coach.



The people of Marietta grew plenty of trees between town and the Cemetery so they wouldn't have to look at the Yankee Soldiers every day. The Confederate Cemetery is plainly visible from downtown.



To the south, adjacent to the city cemetery, a private memorial association started a Confederate burial site, the Marietta Confederate Cemetery, on land donated by Jane Glover, the widow of Marietta's first mayor.



It is one of the largest Confederate cemeteries south of Richmond, Virginia and is located adjacent to the larger Marietta City Cemetery. It is the resting place to over 3000 soldiers from every Confederate state and Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky.



Soldiers killed in the battles of Chickamauga (in Tennessee and Georgia), Kolb's Farm and Kennesaw Mountain from the Atlanta Campaign are interred there.



A monument for Guardian Soldiers was added in 2014.



Research has added over 500 names for unknown soldiers.


    "To the 3000 soldiers in this cemetery, from every Southern State, who fell on Georgia soil, in defense of Georgia rights and Georgia homes."

    "They sleep the sleep of our noble slain; Defeated, yet without a stain; Proudly and peacefully."


We finish up our tangent on the great City of Marietta in our next post. Our GNW Gals today famous ladies (Smoking J's) of Cobb County.



Joanne Woodward - Julia Roberts - Jennifer Paige