CivilWarTalk Throwback Thursday, 7-20-17

James N.

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Asst. Regtl. Quartermaster Antietam 2021
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Please share your old CW photos too!

Two photos this time to tell the story... As stated before, I was married atop Kennesaw Mountain in August, 1968, when these photos were also taken. Since today is the anniversary of the Battle of Peachtree Creek, first of the battles for Atlanta in 1864, I thought I'd post a couple of photos of related sites we visited the next day after our wedding. The one above is now amost meaningless, even to me because I stupidly failed to note on the back exactly where it was taken, but I'll describe it in relation to the one below. The historical marker is titled DEATH OF McPHERSON and along with the upright cannon marks the spot where Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson was killed on July 22 during the Battle of Atlanta; as can be seen, during the early twentieth century what had been a wooded hilltop outside the city was engulfed by housing additions, leaving the monument isolated in somebody's front yard and surrounded by housing.

Before our trip I had made an overlay of the battlesites and siege lines on a modern highway map of Atlanta and so was able to find this and at least see where the battles of Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, and Ezra Church had been fought. As close as I can remember now over the passage of 49 years, the site above was taken in the vicinity of a wartime obstacle called Terry's Mill Pond, around which the Confederate divisions of Pat Cleburne and William H. T. Walker were forced to maneuver, thereby slowing their attack. Near here there is another monument similar to the one below showing where Walker was killed leading his men. Little did I suspect then that my great-great grandfather Jasper Blair may well have been through these very same woods, which no doubt have since disappeared beneath I-20 which has been cut through the heart of the battlefield!

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Great pictures James. I have been by the McPherson monument quite a few times. My aunt use to live right across the street from the Atlanta Zoo, which is very close to that place. I remember going across the streets and playing on the trenches of Fort Walker (after WHT Walker) next to the Cyclorama use to sit. There used to be a tower that you could climb up and look over the zoo and up toward Atlanta itself.
Not to throw salt in the wound here, but the year you were married I was only 9 years old. 
 
Great pictures James. I have been by the McPherson monument quite a few times. My aunt use to live right across the street from the Atlanta Zoo, which is very close to that place. I remember going across the streets and playing on the trenches of Fort Walker (after WHT Walker) next to the Cyclorama use to sit. There used to be a tower that you could climb up and look over the zoo and up toward Atlanta itself.
Not to throw salt in the wound here, but the year you were married I was only 9 years old. 

Look for more photos from this Atlanta trip in Throwback Thursday in the coming weeks! I don't suppose you can confirm my belief that this shows the area of Terry's Mill Pond can you?
 
I can't confirm that the area is Terry Pond. But you're right, it’s now covered by I-20 and a bunch of concrete if it is.
I’ll be looking forward to the series of pictures of your honeymoon/battlefield tour.
What happened to Mrs. N.?

Unfortunately (?) the union proved to be a relatively short one after so promising a start! According to my map I-20 was already there, but I'm sure the whole area is now much more heavily developed than it was then.
 
It is always bad driving thru Atlanta and the surrounding area. Some times worse than others. We take I 75 straight to Florida. Go from Northern Ky. to Ocala, Florida. We try to stop at a different historical spot, park, museum. battlefield on way there. If have no time because of traffic, then have to go on and not stop. Last time, July 4th week we stopped at Tunnel Hill. We enjoyed that very much.
 
I like the photos, but am not a fan of driving around Atlanta. Does the traffic ever get any better around the area. It never seems to get better. The McPherson death site, is where Elisha Stockwell Jr. of the 17th Wis. saw take a regiment armed with Henry's into the area to clear it of Confederate troops. Stockwell said after a few minutes of intense firing, he saw Logan coming out of the woods with McPherson's body.
 
In the last 2 days I've gotten to the halfway point of Sherman's memoirs. He writes that there were hundreds of miles of intrenched Confederate trenches, rifle trenches, parapets all in the area. Sadly, it sounds like very little was preserved from the notes about Atlanta urban sprawl. Is that true?
 
In the last 2 days I've gotten to the halfway point of Sherman's memoirs. He writes that there were hundreds of miles of intrenched Confederate trenches, rifle trenches, parapets all in the area. Sadly, it sounds like very little was preserved from the notes about Atlanta urban sprawl. Is that true?

Yes; next week I intend to feature here what may be the only part that has been deliberately preserved. On a side note, however, the justice of the peace who married us lived near the Ezra Church battlefield (now as then covered over by housing) and had a Union trench running through part of his back yard and gave me a minnie ball he had found there as a souvenir!
 
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James. That first photo is great. Very few pre Interstate-20 photos of the BAtl site exist. Wish we could rattle your brain and make it spit out the exact location :smile:
... The McPherson death site, is where Elisha Stockwell Jr. of the 17th Wis. saw take a regiment armed with Henry's into the area to clear it of Confederate troops. Stockwell said after a few minutes of intense firing, he saw Logan coming out of the woods with McPherson's body.
... Sadly, it sounds like very little was preserved from the notes about Atlanta urban sprawl. Is that true?

Unfortunately there's been NO luck on identification, but I've always thought it resembled generally the wartime photos of McPherson's death site. (Which it can't be because that was already engulfed by housing as my second photo shows.)

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during the early twentieth century what had been a wooded hilltop outside the city was engulfed by housing additions, leaving the monument isolated in somebody's front yard and surrounded by housing.
That's always hard for me to see. I understand it, as people gotta live somewhere. I'm sure our neighborhood pushed out some rather pretty farm land. But still. It's a little sad to see the modern crowd out the past.
 
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