Kennesaw Line Troop Positions - Pigeon Hill to Dallas Hwy

Chattahooch33

Sergeant Major
Annual Winner
Joined
Oct 4, 2013
Location
Cobb's Legion Country - Bowdon, Ga.
Yesterday's trip consisted of parking at Pigeon Hill and following the Confederate line south to Dallas Hwy toward Cheatham hill and ending where I stopped on my last post.
This is by far my favorite part of the park. There is a main trail that runs straight down through the middle and smaller side trails that actually follow the trenches that no one knows about. I will take you down them today!



First up is a picture of war time Burnt Hickory Road. I just past the house Leonidas Polk used as his HQ when he was killed. The approximate spot this picture was taken coincides with a picture, I am not sure if it Barnard or not, from the same spot right after the war. I can't find it now but will try to add it later.

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The parking lot is just ahead on the right.


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Small grove of oaks at the parking lot.


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Another shot of Burnt Hickory Road. During the war there was a small community here with several houses, and church, and the Hardage Mill on the creek. The village was abandoned when the armies moved in and never reappeared. Just off to the right is the foot of Pigeon Hill. It is said to be named that due to the large flocks of Passenger Pigeons that used to roost there.


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This picture shows the foot of Pigeon Hill. It doesn't look like much but it is quite the hike once you get in the woods.

The fighting here took place at the same time as Cheatham Hill. Here as well as CH they had no success and were badly mauled. This series of pictures though will show trenches and works that were not directly assaulted but were the scenes of trench warfare for a week and a half.


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Through this field charged the Ohio and Indiana boys of Joseph Lightburn's brigade.



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This is toward the route of attack of Lightburn's brigade toward Georgians under Hugh Mercer.





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This is the positions of Mercer's Georgians. They would have been firing toward you into the field behind.








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Continuing down the trail you come upon this field. Just inside the treeline to the left was S.R. Gist's brigade of Georgians and South Carolinians.





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On Gist's right were the Georgians under John Jackson (With many of my ancestors along with Gist's brigade)





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This picture is basically turning around from the last pic and snapping a pic in the other direction. This was the start of Gist's brigade.





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After walking a bit from my last picture I remembered to provide reference. The blue dot is the area I'm in.







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All along the trail, about 30 yards behind the main line are these holes. I don't know what they are. My first thought was tree root holes but they seem to be too regular to be that. Rifle pits? Artillery emplacement? My imagination? No clue.



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Here the trail passes through the trenches on a small salient between Gist and the Orphan Brigade under Joseph Lewis. I seem to think these would still be Gist's men. I would imagine they would put their left on the creek at the bottom of the ravine and Lewis would put his right on the creek. That just my opinion though.




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Spot of the last picture.




Can't put anymore pics in this post... more to come in just a second...
 

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Here is another hole like the one a few pics ago.





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Continuing down you come to Nose's Creek. Some federal records have it as Noye's Creek. Just ahead around the bend sat Hardage Mill. Crossing the bridge and turning right takes you down the small trail you can see in the distance. That is the way we will go...




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Going up the ravine the first works you come to is an obvious artillery emplacement. This had a commanding view of the ravine and creek. This is why I assume Lewis's brigade ended here. Artillery was probably placed on both sides and this weak area could now be swept with canister from these spots.



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Here is where that emplacement is.





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At this point you start coming up to the most impressive works I have ever seen. I am a trench-junkie and have seen tons... these take the cake. These would have been manned by the Orphan Brigade.




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Another shot of the works along this trail with my boys thrown in for comparison. Still Lewis's Kentuckians.




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More of Lewis's line.




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Still walking down Lewis's line...





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This is the view from Lewis's line toward the Federals. You can see its sloping ground that would have provided excellent field of fire. This land was clear cut like Cheatham Hill with the trees cut at knee level as obstacles.




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We are now approaching the end of Lewis's brigade and coming up on Thomas B. Smith's Tennesseans and Georgians.




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Smith's lines.





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More of Smith's lines with the boys again for comparison.



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Reference for the last picture.





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We are not coming to the end of Smith's line and approaching Jesse Finley's Florida brigade. Finley was still recovering from a bad wound at Resaca so Robert Bulloch was commanding the brigade.
During the fighting at Cheatham Hill this brigade was pulled out of line to provide reinforcements to that area.




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The last picture was taken here.





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It seems like here at the top of the hill the erosion had eaten away at the Floridians works.







End of part II, there's a few more in just a second...
 
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At the end of Bulloch's (Finley's) line you come to Dallas Hwy, a war-time road. Here sits one of my favorite spots. An artillery emplacement that covers the road. This is a large work that could presumably hold an entire battery. The left side seen here could cover the approaches to Cheatham Hill which is about a half mile in the direction of the photo.



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Here is the spot for the artillery fort.




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The trail then crosses Dallas Hwy at the entrance to the Cheatham Hill section of the park. In my last thread my last pictures were the artillery battery labeled incorrectly as "McGranberry", for reference it is just ahead on the right side of the driveway.

At this point we turn around and start the long walk back on the main trail. There are tons of deer in the surrounding woods and my 5 year old has decided that he done walking. Problem is we are 2 miles from the car. I tell him I'll let him skip some rocks into Nose's Creek (reluctantly with some guilt) and he perks up a bit and we are off.


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After was seems like 20 miles we reach the creek.


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Looking east down the creek.



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Nearing the parking lot we are back to the field along Pigeon Hill.






At this point we are back to the car and collapse into it. It was about a 5 mile hike total over very rough and steep ground. As I sit in my car I watch this family playing soccer:

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Cobb County probably has the most soccer complexes per capita than any other spot on Earth. Still, these folks decide to kick a ball around on a field where hundreds of Federal soldiers were killed including those of the 15th, 16th, 18th, and 19th US Infantry.
I decide I'm too tired to make a scene and embarrass my wife and we are gone...



Tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain that can easily be broken down into three. There's the skirmish at the foot of Kennesaw, Pigeon Hill, and Cheatham Hill.



I assume many of you had ancestors there and I'd bet some of your ancestors were killed there as two of mine were. Kennesaw has always been special to me as it was the closest to where I grew up. There are tons of festivities starting tonight and running throughout the weekend. If you are in the area come to Cheatham Hill Saturday, it will be worth your time.
 

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Thanks for your post. It's been about 5-7 years since I have been to Kennesaw. I use to get over there 2-3 times per year. I need to get back.
 
Another nice set of pics, thanks for posting. Its been a long time since I was last at the Kennesaw battlefield and I never hiked across this portion. I've looked at the maps many times, but its certainly interesting to see what the ground looks like exactly where these brigades were positioned.
 
Yesterday's trip consisted of parking at Pigeon Hill and following the Confederate line south to Dallas Hwy toward Cheatham hill and ending where I stopped on my last post.
This is by far my favorite part of the park. There is a main trail that runs straight down through the middle and smaller side trails that actually follow the trenches that no one knows about. I will take you down them today!



First up is a picture of war time Burnt Hickory Road. I just past the house Leonidas Polk used as his HQ when he was killed. The approximate spot this picture was taken coincides with a picture, I am not sure if it Barnard or not, from the same spot right after the war. I can't find it now but will try to add it later.

It's funny but as a kid I would go every summer or every other summer for a week and stay with a family that lived on Burnt Hickory Road. I was too young to know or be as interested in the history that surrounded the area where I was staying. My dad says that he took my brother and me when we were kids to Kennesaw and I have a very vague memory of seeing the trenches. In the last 3 years as I've started to study the Civil War more, I thought about that family and couldn't remember how close they lived to Kennesaw because I hadn't been up there since probably 1997. I google mapped their house, saw they lived on Burnt Hickory Road and then saw that it went directly to the battlefield. Then I read Earl Hess's book on Kennesaw Mountain and he mentioned Burnt Hickory Road often.

I wanted to slap myself across the head for not taking advantage of being so close to so much Civil War history, but then again I was a kid so I'll give myself a pass I guess. I do remember that Buck had a lot of minie balls he had dug up over the years while farming the land. I believe his family had lived there a long time (sadly he passed in 2010). He let me dad take his metal detector out many times to look for artifacts. Again, as I type this I just get more angry that I didn't have more of an interest in it at the time. Ironically one of Buck's granddaughters came down to NW Florida for my grandmother's funeral last month. She actually works for the NPS making maps and works at Kennesaw some I believe. They weren't quite sure what they were going to do with the house on Burnt Hickory Road now that Buck and her grandmother have both passed.

Anyway, sorry to go on a personal tangent! But seeing Burnt Hickory Road brought back a lot of past and recent memories. I sure hope I can make it up there soon. Thanks for the great pictures.
 
It's funny but as a kid I would go every summer or every other summer for a week and stay with a family that lived on Burnt Hickory Road. I was too young to know or be as interested in the history that surrounded the area where I was staying. My dad says that he took my brother and me when we were kids to Kennesaw and I have a very vague memory of seeing the trenches. In the last 3 years as I've started to study the Civil War more, I thought about that family and couldn't remember how close they lived to Kennesaw because I hadn't been up there since probably 1997. I google mapped their house, saw they lived on Burnt Hickory Road and then saw that it went directly to the battlefield. Then I read Earl Hess's book on Kennesaw Mountain and he mentioned Burnt Hickory Road often.

I wanted to slap myself across the head for not taking advantage of being so close to so much Civil War history, but then again I was a kid so I'll give myself a pass I guess. I do remember that Buck had a lot of minie balls he had dug up over the years while farming the land. I believe his family had lived there a long time (sadly he passed in 2010). He let me dad take his metal detector out many times to look for artifacts. Again, as I type this I just get more angry that I didn't have more of an interest in it at the time. Ironically one of Buck's granddaughters came down to NW Florida for my grandmother's funeral last month. She actually works for the NPS making maps and works at Kennesaw some I believe. They weren't quite sure what they were going to do with the house on Burnt Hickory Road now that Buck and her grandmother have both passed.

Anyway, sorry to go on a personal tangent! But seeing Burnt Hickory Road brought back a lot of past and recent memories. I sure hope I can make it up there soon. Thanks for the great pictures.

Burnt Hickory is a fascinating road. It is said to be an original Indian Trail that ran to the Creek town of Etowah where the famous indian mounds are. In settler times it ran to the village of Burnt Hickory which was where Hwy 61 and Dabb's Bridge intersect.
 
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