BGuthrie Photos: GA -- Kennesaw Mountain Natl Battlefield Park

GA -- Kennesaw Mountain Natl Battlefield Park:

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[1]

KENNMT_030829_001_STITCH.JPG

[2]

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[3] KENNMT_030829_004.JPG	[4] KENNMT_030829_014.JPG	[5] KENNMT_030829_039.JPG
[6] KENNMT_030829_041.JPG	[7] KENNMT_030829_075.JPG	[8] KENNMT_030829_088.JPG
[9] KENNMT_030829_104.JPG	[10] KENNMT_030829_121.JPG	[11] KENNMT_030829_130.JPG
[12] KENNMT_030829_145.JPG	[13] KENNMT_030829_146.JPG	[14] KENNMT_030829_158.JPG
[15] KENNMT_030829_164.JPG	[16] KENNMT_030829_165.JPG	[17] KENNMT_030829_168.JPG
[18] KENNMT_030829_172.JPG	[19] KENNMT_030829_183.JPG	[20] KENNMT_030829_185.JPG
[21] KENNMT_030829_187.JPG	[22] KENNMT_030829_188.JPG	[23] KENNMT_030829_193.JPG
[24] KENNMT_030829_196.JPG	[25] KENNMT_030829_207.JPG	[26] KENNMT_030829_218.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. KENNMT_030829_001_STITCH.JPG: This is the Kennesaw side of the mountain. You can see it's not ripped up as much as the Atlanta side is but it will be shortly. Atlanta's growing way too quickly and, due to minimum lot sizes, it's spreading faster than it should.
2. KENNMT_030829_002_STITCH.JPG: Okay, so it was crappy weather and this didn't come out well but if you look hard, you can see skyscrapers on the horizon. That's Atlanta in the far distance.
3. KENNMT_030829_004.JPG: Look on the horizon and you'll see Atlanta
4. KENNMT_030829_014.JPG: This is on the side of the mountain opposite of Atlanta, pointing toward Kennesaw. If you put them together, you'll get a little panorama.
5. KENNMT_030829_039.JPG: In the distance is Pine Mountain where Confederate Lt Gen Leonidas Polk was killed by Union cannonballs on June 14, 1864.
6. KENNMT_030829_104.JPG: The sign in the foreground says: Embattled Earthworks These shallow ditches were once formidable earthen and log defenses. Confederate soldiers also felled trees and installed other barriers in front of the trenches to slow Union attackers. The 3rd & 5th Consolidated Missouri Regiment, CSA, built and defended the earthworks here on Pigeon Hill. On June 27, the 6th Missouri Regiment, USA, took part in the Union assault on Pigeon Hill. Ironically, Confederate Missourians battled Union Missourians as Federal forces fought uphill to within 25 yards of these earthworks and took cover behind the boulders just ahead. By the time they retreated from this hill, 154 Federals of Brig Gen Giles Smith's brigade lay dead, 10 of those from Missouri; the Confederate Missourians suffered 9 killed and 27 wounded. Another sign in the area says: Assault on Pigeon Hill Union attackers failed to split the Confederate army here. On the morning of June 27, 1864, three brigades totalling 5,500 soldiers from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois charged toward Pigeon Hill. Advancing in battle lines astride Burnt Hickory Road, one Union brigade overran the Georgian-held rifle pits near this location with two other brigades crossed Old Mountain Road. Once beyond the road, the attack ran into felled trees and other Confederate-built obstacles on Pigeon Hill. As the Federals struggled over the obstructions and rough terrain, the well-entrenched Southerners opened fire with musketry and cannon, some Confederates on Little Kennesaw even heaved boulders. The Union troops sought cover as the assault crumbled. ... By noon the Union forces had withdrawn to Old Mountain Road and after dark they returned to their lines. The assault cost the Federals more than 850 killed, wounded, or missing soldiers; the Confederate casualties numbered about 250.
7. KENNMT_030829_121.JPG: The sign for these cannons says: Camouflaged Cannons Tennessee cannoneers positioned two 12-pounder howitzers within this redoubt. Maj Gen Benjamin F Cheatham ordered these artillery crews to camouflage the earthen mounds with cut underbrush and to hold their fire unless attacked. For the next week, they kept under cover as Union bombardments tried to weaken the Confederate lines. On the morning of June 27, a Union barrage preceded close-packed Federal attackers. The gunners here waited silently as blue-clad columns pushed through the dense forest despite Confederate small arms fire. Finally, at point-blank range, the cannon crews opened fire. Flying canister stunned the Federal lines and, according to one Confederate officer, "did great execution." Confederate artillery crews normally consisted of a gunner, in charge of seven cannoneers. Well-trained crews could reload and shoot four times a minute.
8. KENNMT_030829_130.JPG: Two signs here: Field Fortifications Confederate engineers and work crews started digging earthworks around Kennesaw Mountain a few days before their army fell back to this position on June 19. For the next week, Southern soldiers improved their earthwork defenses despite constant rain. The Southerners dug deep, throwing the dirt toward the Union side of the trenches. The earthen wall -- called a parapet -- was topped with a braced log, leaving an open space beneath it for soldiers to shoot through. Fighting from behind these defenses, the Confederates held a great advantage over the attacking Federals during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864. Today within Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, 11 miles of shallow ditches remain from these formidable earthworks. Help preserve these fragile resources by staying on the park's trails. Climax at Cheatham Hill Confederate defenders here defeated the main Union assault. On June 27, 1864, more than 8,000 Union infantrymen attacked an equal number of well-entrenched Confederates along this low-lying hill. One Tennessee veteran compared the assault to "ocean waves driven by a hurricane... sweeping on as if by irresistible impulse." The Confederates repulsed the first Federal charges. While attempting to rally his eight Union regiments, 27-year-old Brig Gen Charles G Harker was shot off his white horse. Although one Federal brigade reached the Confederate lines 1/4 mile to your right, Union troops soon retreated in disarray. About 1/4 mile to the left, two other Union brigades charged toward an angle in the Confederate defenses. This trail follows the Confederate earthworks to the area that both sides later named "The Dead Angle."
9. KENNMT_030829_183.JPG: This Illinois state monument stands in "The Dead Angle". From two signs: The Dead Angle This bend in the Confederate line became the battle's focal point. At 9:00am on June 27, 1864, thousands of yelling, blue-clad soldiers charged across the distance field toward the Tennessee soldiers in these earthworks. As the Federals came forward at double time in successive lines, the Confederates raked the enemy with rifle-musket fire. Despite hundreds of casualties, the Federals surged toward the protruding angle in the Confederate defense line. Union Col Daniel McCook, a brigade commander, fell mortally wounded on the brink of these earthworks while leading his troops. As Federals reached the Southern lines, savage hand to hand combat broke out. Confederate Maj Gen Frank Cheatham's Tennesseans stubbornly held their line, and those Federals not shot, clubbed down, bayonetted, or captured sought shelter. The Union charge was broken. ... Survivors from both sides named this area "The Dead Angle." Confederate Pvt Sam Watkins later wrote, "The ground was piled up with one solid mass of dead and wounded Yankees." The Assault Falters Beaten Federals entrenched within 30 yards of the Confederate earthworks. As the Union attack stalled, two surviving Federal colonels hastily discussed retreat. Realizing that withdrawing under heavy fire would invite more bloodshed, they decided to dig in along this brow of the hill not covered by fire from the Confederate earthworks only 30 yards away. While half of the Federals fired toward the earthworks, the rest furiously scooped shallow trenches with their bayonets and tin cups. After nightfall, the Federals brought up tools from the rear and built two lines of entrenchments. For the next six days, both sides exchanged sniper fire, expecting an attack at any moment. Only a seven-hour truce to bury the dead on June 29 interrupted the tense stalemate. As the standoff continued, the Federals started a tunnel here, intending to blow up the Southern earthworks on July 4. But during the night of July 2, the Confederates quietly slipped away, forced to retreat at Sherman's Union army outflanked them again. A small stone arch, erected in 1914, marks the tunnel entrance.
10. KENNMT_030829_187.JPG: This is the field the federals came charging across
11. KENNMT_030829_188.JPG: This marker is on a Union tunnel at "The Dead Angle." The sign on it says "This tunnel was planned with a view of blowing up the Confederate works which their evacuation made unnecessary."
12. KENNMT_030829_218.JPG: From the sign: Battle of Kolb's Farm -- June 22, 1864 A costly Confederate attack here stopped the Union army's attempt to bypass Kennesaw Mountain. On June 22, 1864, Confederate Gen Joseph E Johnston sent Lt Gen John Bell Hood's 13,000 troops down Powder Springs Road to stop the Federal army's threat to his flank. When Confederate skirmishers encountered Maj Gen Joseph Hooker's 11,000-man Union corps here at Kolb's farm, Hood ordered his troops to attack. Hooker, having learned of Hood's plans from some captured Confederates, ordered his troops to dig in. At 4:00pm, Hood sent two of his three divisions toward the waiting Federals. After several unsuccessful charges through the woods, fields, and swamps across the road, the battered Confederates withdrew.
Wikipedia Description: Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought on June 27, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. Despite its name, much of the battle was fought to the southwest of Kennesaw Mountain, near Marietta, Georgia. The main participants in the battle were the Union armies under the command of Gen. William T. Sherman and the Army of Tennessee under the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.

Prelude:

All throughout north Georgia, Sherman had advanced his army southeast along the railroad from Chattanooga, Tennessee, towards Atlanta, Georgia. Johnston would take up defensive positions, only to retreat whenever Sherman marched his troops around the Confederate army to flank them. At Kennesaw Mountain, Johnston had a massive network of trenches and earthworks prepared to halt the Union advance. This time, when Sherman tried to march his army southwards around Kennesaw, he was met by an attack at Kolb's farm from Confederate troops under the command of John B. Hood. Although the Union soldiers turned back Hood's hastily prepared attack, Sherman's army could not flank the Rebel army any further. Muddy roads had become nearly impassable because of a series of June rainstorms. Sherman knew that in these conditions, a march further away from his supply line at the railroad would be too slow. Instead, Sherman believed that Hood's expansion of the southern end of the Confederate line had stretched Johnston's army too thin. The Union general drew up plans for an attack on the middle of the Confederate defenses.

The battle:

The Union army began the attack early in the morning with a thunderous artillery barrage on the entrenched Rebels. This was followed up by an infantry attack in three parts: the Army of the Cumberland under the command of George Henry Thomas would lead the main attack on William J. Hardee's soldiers in the center; to Thomas' left, the Army of the Tennessee under the command of James B. McPherson would lead a secondary attack aimed at the slopes of Little Kennesaw Mountain; and to Thomas's right, the Army of the Ohio under the command of John Schofield would hold down Hood's corps at the southern end of the line. The fiercest fighting came at a bend near the center of the Confederate line, a place later known as the Dead Angle. Despite repeated attempts to overrun the Confederate defenses, the Union army could not dislodge Johnston's well "dug-in" army. Estimated casualties were 3,000 for the Union side, and 1,000 for the Confederates.

Aftermath:

Following the battle, both sides sat at a stalemate. By July 1, the roads had dried out enough for Sherman to continue his flanking movements. Johnston, with the advantage of lookouts on top of Kennesaw Mountain, observed Sherman's movements and again retreated before the Union army could go around him. The next major battle would be the Battle of Peachtree Creek.

Military historians have claimed that Sherman's attack was a needless waste of lives against a firmly entrenched opponent. Sherman, however, believed that his actions were justifiable, since they showed Johnston that he was not afraid to fight. Whatever the case, Kennesaw Mountain was one of the few victories for the Confederates during the Atlanta Campaign.

The site of the battleground is now part of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, where both Confederate deliberate trenches on top of the mountain and Union hasty rifle-pits are still easily identified by the casual inspection of any visitor.

Trivia:

The first commissioner of Major League Baseball, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, was named for Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia, but using a variant spelling. His father, a physician, fought on the Union side and reportedly nearly lost his leg in the battle. Author Ambrose Bierce also fought at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, where he was wounded in the head.

--

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, at 905 Kennesaw Mountain Drive between Marietta and Kennesaw, Georgia, preserves a Civil War battleground of the Atlanta Campaign, and also contains Kennesaw Mountain. The name Kennesaw is derived from the Cherokee Indian "Gah-nee-sah" meaning cemetery, or burial ground.

History:

The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, fought here between General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union army and Joseph E. Johnston of the Confederate army, took place between June 18, 1864 and July 2, 1864. Sherman's army consisted of 100,000 men, 254 cannon and 35,000 horses, while Johnston's army had only 50,000 men and 187 cannons. Much of the battle took place not on Kennesaw Mountain itself, but on Little Kennesaw and the area to its south. 5,350 soldiers were killed during the battle.

Park:

Established as Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Site on February 8, 1917, it was transferred from the War Department on August 10, 1933, and redesignated a national battlefield park on June 26, 1935. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

The park is the site of some of the heaviest fighting of the Atlanta Campaign during the Civil War. There are three accessible battlefield areas at the park, characterized by earthworks, cannon emplacements and monuments to the groups that fought.

With the expansion of urban sprawl from nearby Atlanta, Georgia, concerns have been raised that the preserved areas of the park may be in danger from overuse and misuse.
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